"The aim (skopos) of the inspired Scriptures is the mystery of Christ signified to us through a myriad of different kinds of things. Someone might liken it to a glittering and magnificent city, having not one image of the king, but many, and publicly displayed in every corner of the city . . . .... Continue Reading →
He in All and All in Him
"For who is so simple-minded as not to believe, when he considers the universe, that the Divine Being is in every thing, clothing Himself with it, embracing it, and residing in it. If then all things are in Him and He in all things, why are they ashamed of the plan of our religion which... Continue Reading →
He is Outside and Yet Within All Creation
"'Heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool... All these things my hand has made' (Isaiah 66.1-2). The whole heavens are held in God's hand, the whole earth in the hollow of his hand... The heaven is also his throne and the earth his footstool. His throne and footstool are his infinite omnipotence,... Continue Reading →
Renunciation is a love of Life
"Let him who has chosen to practice the ascesis of renunciation make for himself a wall of faith, a fortification of hope, and a secure grounding in love. For faith is not the abandonment but the substance of superior goods in the hope of perseverance and the love of life (cf. Heb. 11.1)." Evagrius of... Continue Reading →
The Remembrance of God’s Goodness
"Behold what ought to be the point of departure for a profitable journey according to God. You must always go over in your memory and guard in unceasing meditation, the remembrance of the goodness of God Who has ordered your life's course according to His design, of His benefits that aim at your souls salvation.... Continue Reading →
We Become That Which We Love
In St. Gregory of Nyssa's works there is a beautiful, little known work. This is his commentary on The Inscriptions of the psalms (we probably miss these as we read but these are the texts, some small some large, written in tiny font above the Psalm in most of our Bibles). He sees these inscriptions... Continue Reading →
Participation in Beauty and Goodness
"For since the most beautiful and supreme good of all is the Divinity itself, to which incline all things that have a tendency towards what is beautiful and good, we therefore say that the mind, as being in the image of the most beautiful, itself also remains in beauty and goodness so long as it... Continue Reading →
Learning Compassion
"If we want to set our lives right and find peace, it is not the tolerant attitude of others that will do it for us. It will come about, rather, by our learning how to show compassion to them. If we try to avoid this hard struggle of compassion, by preferring a withdrawn and solitary... Continue Reading →
The Pure Heart Shall See God
There is in you, human beings, a desire to contemplate the True Good. But when you hear that the Divine Majesty is exalted above the heavens, that Its glory is inexpressible, Its beauty ineffable, and Its Nature inaccessible, do not despair of ever behold what you desire. It is indeed within your reach: you have... Continue Reading →
The Trinitarian Foundation of Creation and Salvation
For many of us, the doctrine of The Trinity is shrouded in mystery and seemingly not exactly ‘spelled out’ in the Bible. Is this perhaps because we miss what is being said in the text? Have we become so familiar with the words that we do not really grasp them or have we just stepped... Continue Reading →
You are The Dwelling of The Lord
"If you renounce the life you are leading today and if you persevere in your prayer, you will feel that your effort is securing you great restfulness. You will discover in these slight pains and fatigues a joy and a happiness that are immense. God's tender love is ineffable. He offers Himself to those who... Continue Reading →
Uniting man to God
"He that is God by nature became, and is in truth, a man from Heaven; not merely inspired [ie by the Holy Spirit], as some of those who do not rightly understand the depth of the mystery imagine, but being at the same time God and man, in order that, uniting as it were in Himself things widely opposed by nature, and averse to fusion with each other, He might enable man to share and partake of the nature of God." St. Cyril of Alexandria, On John 17.20
