What is our faculty of noetic perception?

In prayer it normally seems that God is so distant. After all, He is Spirit and we are flesh. We are created and He is the Creator. We must accept that we can never know God in His entirety. We can, however, know His energies, but never His essence. How is it we can know His energies.

It is through our faculty of noetic perception that we can know God in part and have a personal relationship with Him. This faculty is given to us by God and is one we must cultivate. It is through this faculty that we can speak with spirit to Spirit. 

Saint John Climacus says,

The intellect is clothed in the faculty of noetic perception...and we should not cease to seek for it within ourselves.

St. Diadochos of Photiki says,

By means of love the soul is joined to the virtues of God, searching out God by means of noetic perception.

Elder Aimilianos says

Faculties of noetic perception, as they are called, because it is these which can palpably lay hold of God, especially what we call the contemplative faculty (noeron). This has the ability to be drawn toward God, and, in a certain manner, speak to God, as we would say. For this to take place, the contemplative faculty must be completely united with our reasoning faculty, that is, with our mind, so that the entire content of my spiritual being can be turned toward God, addressed to God, directed to God.

It is in this way we say we are united with God and can converse with Him. Because of this faculty in the depths of our being, we are able to cry out to God, even though He is heavenly and we are earthly. Seek it always, as Saint John says, and we will discover the path to deep prayer, to know God’s energies and converse with Him.

Reference: Archimandrite Aimilianos, The Church at Prayer, p 16

How Does Orthodox Way of Life Begin?

Our deeper spiritual life begins when our soul begins to long for God and assert itself in our conscience. When  this happens it leads us to change our way life.

Elder Aimilianos says,

When it is, then, that a soul says: “l must live a Christian life, I must live differently”? When it acquires
 the sense that it is a soul in exile; when it realizes that it is something that has been cast away, and now exists outside of its proper place, outside of Paradise, in a foreign land, beyond the borders within which it was made to dwell.

To begin to think about changing our way of life, to live according to the ten points of an Orthodox Way of Life, we must begin to acquire the feeling that we are separated from God. This is a feeling where we sense there exists some invisible barrier between us and God.

Spiritual life does not begin from any kind of intellectual analysis. On the contrary such efforts may only increase the size of the barrier. 

Elder Aimilianos says,

The Spiritual life, you see, begins with a kind of vision, with the feeling of banishment, and this is not arrived at by means of any intellectual analysis or evaluation. I simply feel within myself the presence of a wall, a barrier, and I don’t know what’s beyond it.

This is a feeling that there is an insurmountable obstacle that we must overcome, that there is a “dividing wall” (Eph2.14) between us and God. We realize how distant we are from God. We begin to understand that He is Spirit but we ourselves are only flesh. We realize that we don’t really have any conversation with God, but only talk at Him, often only out of obligation.

As this feeling of separation, of being in exile, develops, we begin to seek God in earnest. First must come this feeling of being separated from God.

Elder Aimilianos says,

But if the soul doesn’t have this feeling, it can’t even begin to embark upon a spiritual life. It may live a Christian life, but only in a manner of speaking, only in appearance, only on an intellectual level, only within the limits of its own conceptions.

This feeling of separation provides the proper motivation to participate in divine services, personal prayer and ascetic practices voluntarily without the sense of obligation or “l must.” The soul will move us forward based on a divine vision, one where we begin to see our fallen nature and realize we belong in paradise.

The beginning is not a fear of condemnation to a burning fire in hell, but a desire to be united with a loving God. This feeling of separation leads us to try to understand why we are separated and the desire to seek the help of the Holy Spirit to unite us with Him.

Ten points for an Orthodox Way of Life 

Reference: The Way of the Spirit, Archimandrite Aimilianos, pp 2-6

Watchfulness - Foundations of Orthodox Spirituality 3

Watchfulness is how the Church Fathers teach us to purify our heart so we can see God as Jesus told us. This is the third video in the series on the foundations of Orthodox spirituality.


Complete series

Spiritual Nature of Man - Foundation of Orthodox Spirituality

This is a 10 minute video from a recent class at Saint George that explains the foundation for Orthodox saying they have the fullness of faith. It explains the fullness of our understanding of human nature which is basis for our Orthodox way of life as taught throughout the centuries by the Church and the Church Fathers.

https://youtu.be/08Kop8w9iIo

What is Orthodox Spirituality?

The term spirituality is used very loosely in our culture. But Orthodox spirituality has a very specific meaning. It is most clearly stated by Fr. Dumitru Staniloae a renown Romanian Theologian (1903 - 1993). He describes it as a life long process. It is a road that leads one to "perfection in Christ." This road involves the "cleansing of passions and the winning of virtues." It is a process that that takes place in a certain order. It is a process that involves the cleaning of one passion and then another. At the same time one acquires different virtues. Once a certain level of perfection is reached it "culminates in love." Finally one has closed themselves of all passions and has attained all virtues. This is perfection. He says,

"As man climbs toward this peak, he simultaneously moves toward union with Christ and the knowledge of Him by experience, which is also called deification."

Orthodox Spiritually involves a step by step transformation. as one processes he is filled with more and more presence of God.

The aim is perfection in Christ, a full union with Him. Our will become one with His and we are able to do His will instead of your self-centered will as we pray for in the Lord's Prayer, "Thy will be done." Since God's goodness is infinite there is no end to this process. We never reach the point of total perfection.
He says,

"Our perfection, our union with God, is therefore not only a goal, but also an unending progress.... The culminating state of the spiritual life isis when the believer is raised higher than the level of his own powers,not of his own accord, but by the work of the Holy Spirit.

He describes this as a mystical life. He says,

"It is only by prolonged effort, by discipline, can testate of perfection and mystical union with God be reached."

This is called Asceticism which we will discuss in the next posting.

Reference: Orthodox Spirituality by Fr. Dumitru Staniloae 

Orthodox Spirituality by Fr. Dimitru Staniloae - A Commentary

This is an index for my commentary on the presentation of Orthodox Spirituality by Fr. Dimitru Staniloae. For me this has been an incredible learning experience. I can only pray that you also gained insights about your own spiritual journey. I have also included a link to a pdf which contains all of the posts in this series.


Orthodox Spirituality - A Commentary on the work of Fr. Dimitru Staniloae (pdf)

An index to the individual blog entries:

Introduction

i.    What is Meant by Orthodox Spirituality?

ii.   The Aim

iii.  Deification - The Uncreated Light

iv.  The Essential Nature of Asceticism

v.   Basis for Union with God: Love not Intellect

vi.  Working in Community Develops our Soul

vii.  Ascent is Based on Love and is Within the Church

viii. Major Steps of the Spiritual Life

ix.  Are Passions Natural?

x.   Causes of Passions

xi.  Why Do We Speak of Liberating the Soul?

xii.  How the Passions are Aroused

xiii. Free From Fear and Anxiety - Care

xiv. Purification by the Virtues

Part One: Purification
1.   Faith: The Starting Point to Perfection

2.   Fear of God is Next Step

3.   Repentance - Main Means for Our Perfection

4.   Repentance - The Ship that brings us to the Divine Harbor

5.   Repentance - Way to Overcome Egoism

6.   Repentance as a Sacrament

7.   Self-Control lifts us to see the infinite in things of this world.

8.   Self-Control as Fasting

9.   Self-Control to Overcome our Passions

10. Guarding the Mind - Watchfulness - Getting at the Root

11. Guarding the mind- Knocking on the Door of the Heart

12. Longsuffering - Why Troubles and Suffering?

13. Role of Temptations -

14. Hope - Power of Advanced Faith

15. Patience with Hope Leads to Meekness and Humility

16. With Dispassion Love Blossoms

Part Two: Illumination

17. Entering the Next Phase of Spiritual Development

18. Gifts of the Holy Spirit

19. Contemplation of God in Creation

20. How to Discern the Truth (logo) in Things

21. Why is Prolonged Preparation Necessary

22. Steps Needed to Discern Truth

23. Spiritual Understanding of Scripture

24. Going Beyond Knowledge - Apophatic Knowledge

25. Facing the Abyss

26. Positive Theology is a Companion to Apophatic Theology

27. Pure Prayer
28. Developing Pure Prayer

29. Entering Within

30. Mind Beyond Reason

31. Knock and the Door Will Be Opened

32. Mental Rest or Stillness of the Mind

Part Three: Perfection

33. The Steps of Love - The Path to Union

34. Joined in Love 
35. Prayer Develops Love and Union with God 
36. Divine Love Brings Union of All 
37. The Mind and the Divine Light 
38. The Divine Light is Spiritual 
39. Divine Light - Knowledge Beyond Knowledge 
40. The Divine Light 
41. Deification

A Simple Guide to an Orthodox Way of Life

Perfection: Deification

Can we really be deified?  What does this mean?  This is a central doctrine in the Orthodox faith and is called Theosis.

Fr. Dimitru Staniloae defines deification as "God's perfect and full penetration of man."  It is something that never stops but continues to the infinite.  It is an experience that only mankind is capable.  It is the result of a growth of our receptive powers to receive and use the divine energies.  It is through deification that we reach towards our potential to become like God, made in His image as we learn from the book of Genesis.


Fr. Dimitru says,

Man becomes more and more like God without identifying with Him.  Man will continue to become like God forever, in an ever fuller union with Him, but never will he reach full identification with Him; he will be able to reflect God more and more, but he will not become what God is.

The Holy Fathers emphasize that deification is by grace and not by man's own effort or nature.  When deified man's nature remains the same.  He does not become a source of divine energy, like God.  He receives God's energies though grace.  Man only reflects God's energies.  He never assumes the role of the source.


We never receive the totality of God's energies.  Through our efforts in preparation we make an ascent and as we grow spiritually God's energies descend on us granting us increased powers.


Fr. Dimitru concludes his book with the following thoughts:

The divine energies are nothing but the rays of the divine essence, shining from the three divine Persons.  And from the time that the Word of Good too flesh, these rays have been shining through His human face.

It can also be said that the things of the world are images of the logoi of the divine Logos, which are at the same time energies.  By creation God put a part of His infinite possibility of thought and of energy into existence, in the form specifically at the level of the understanding of human creatures.  He did this to permit a dialog with God and towards union with Him.

The incarnation of the Word confirmed the value of man and of these images of reason and of energy measured by him.  But it also gave man the possibility to see in the face of the man of the Logos, concentrated anew, all the logoi and divine energies.  Thus final deification will consist of a contemplation and a living of all the divine values and energies conceived in and radiated from the face of Christ according to the supreme measure of man.  But by this, in the face of each man, by the logoi and the energies gathered in him, the logoi and the energies of the Logos will be reflected luminously.  Eternal bliss will be the contemplation of the face of Christ.

So all will be in God and we will see all things in Him, or God will be in all things and we will see Him in all things; and the unitary presence of God in all things will be real to the extent that all creatures gathered in Him remain real and unmingled in God

This is the eternal perspective of deification.

Reference: Orthodox Spirituality, pp 362 - 374 

Perfection: The Divine LIght

The one who has purified himself of the passions and has reached a burning love for God on the steps of the virtues can attain the vision of the divine light...

The attainment fo the divine light indicates that one's nature has been spiritualized, perfected, so that it is a clear receptacle of the warmth and a light of the love of God. There are no traces of ego-centeredness left.  The Holy Spirit shines from within, enlightening one's presence.

Father Dimitru tells us that St. Simeon the New Theologian... and Gregory Palamas have described these three elements;

a) The light is a manifestation of love

b) This love is the work of the Holy Spirit

c) He that raises himself to this state of light or of culminating love forgets bodily sensation, produced by the world through the body, and even himself.

He says,

The intesity of this love, the blinding level of light with which it overflows, makes the body of the one who expereinces it totally transparent for others...

The bodily sense are overwhelmed.  Fr. Dimitru writes,

The body and the world are not done away with but they become the medium by which the interior light is made known.  A paradoxical thing happens.  First, the exterior things are overwhelmed; secondly, a great love is poured out through them, to everybody.  Light radiates from everything.

Saint Gregory Palamas says,

This is union: that all these things be one, that the person who sees no longer be able to distinguish between himself and that through which he is seeing, but he only knows this much: That it is light and he sees a light, distinct from all creatures.

Reference: Orthodox Spirituality, pp 358 - 361

Perfection: Divine Light - Knowledge Beyond Knowledge

The Divine Light is of a spiritual nature, fills the mind, and reveals the mystical realities of God.

The Light which is seen in pure prayer is beyond all that can be known through our senses and reason.  In effect it surpasses knowledge.  It is a higher knowledge (supra-knowledge) based on a relationship with God.


Saint Gregory Palamas says,

Because union surpasses the power of the mind it is higher than all mental functions and it isn't knowledge, and because it is a relationship of the mind and God, it is something incomparably higher than the power which ties the mind with things created, that is than knowledge.  Such union with God is thus beyond all knowledge.... This union is a unique reality.  For whatever name one gives to it––union, vision, a sense perception, knowledge, intellection, illumination––would not properly speaking apply to it, or else would properly apply to it alone.

The divine light is often referred to as a vision (not based on the imagination which include apparitions and so forth) reached by a leap through the descent of Spirit.


Fr Dimitru Staniloae says,

The vision of the divine light is a vision and a knowledge [caused by] a divine energy, and received by man by means of a divine energy.  It is a vision and a knowledge according to the divine way. Man sees and knows qualitatively as God, or "spiritually and divinely"...

Saint Gregory Palamas gives us an analogy.

The light of knowledge may be compared to a lamp that shines in an obscure place, whereas the light of mystical contemplation is compared to the morning star which shines in full daylight.

Reference: Orthodox Spirituality, pp 341-343 

Perfection: The Divine Light is Spiritual

The light that is seen at the peak of pure prayer is not a physical light but a spiritual one.  It radiates from the presence of Jesus Christ and enlightens our souls with His truth.

This light is like the experience of Moses on Mount Sinai or the Apostles at the Transfiguration of Christ.


Saint Gregory Palamas writes describing the experience of Moses,

Because he was able to see, after he had surpassed himself and arrived in the darkness, he didn't see either by the senses or by the mind; so that light is self-visible and fills minds become blind in the sense of surpassing.... But when the mind is raised above all mental activity and is found without eyes in the sense of being surpassed, it is filled with a brilliance higher than all beauty; it is found in God by grace and has that self-visible light mystically and sees by the union above mind.

Saint Gregory Palamas says,

Those who see it are able to penetrate by the power of Spirit in them beyond the  pane of physical realities. They find themselves raised to an order of the Spirit.  Their eyes are open and they seek a target somewhere outside.  But this means only that the light from the order of spiritual realities has overwhelmed the surrounding realities; their senses have become full of the power of the Spirit. We might use a colorless comparison: For those who love each other, all nature is filled with the light which seems to radiate from the other.

Reference: Orthodox Spirituality, pp 337 - 340 

Perfection: The Mind and the Divine Light

What is the Divine Light?

Fr. Dimitru Staniloae says,

It is, from one point of view, simply the happy radiation of divine love, experienced in a more intensive form in moments of ecstatic focus on God.

The experience which characterizes this state could be expressed by three terms: love, a knowledge by experience, higher than conceptual; and the light which is the expression of joy.

To attain this state is a journey.  The mind finds itself through prayer.  When the passions have been overcome and the mind is still, there is a descent of divine love which is often experienced as uncreated light.  There is an ascent through purification and illumination and then the divine descent for our purification.


Saint Gregory Palamas describes it as follows:

The one who desires union with God... frees his soul as much as possible from every impure tie, and dedicates his mind to unceasing prayer to God, and by this becomes wholly himself; he finds a new and secret ascent to the heavens, an unapproachable ascent to the silence of the initiate, as someone might say. With an unspeakable pleasure, he submerges his mind in this deep night full of pure, full, and sweet quietness, of a true tranquility and silence and he is lifted up above all creatures.  In this way, he completely goes out of himself and becomes wholly of God; he sees a divine light inaccessible to the senses as such, but precious and holy to pure souls and minds; without this vision the mind couldn't see by being united with things above it, only by its mental sense, just as the body's eye can't see without perceptible light.

In the divine light the mind is enabled to see God directly and to find itself in union with Him.  This is not a light which is beyond itself or higher,


Gregory Palamas again,

But seeing itself, it sees more than itself: it does not simply contemplate some other object, or simply its own image, but rather the glory impressed on its own image by the grace of God.  This radiance reinforces the mind's power to transcend itself, and to accomplish that union with those better things which is beyond  understanding.  By this union, the mind sees God in the Spirit in a manner transcending human powers.

Reference: Orthodox Spirituality, pp 327 - 336 

Perfection: Divine Love Brings Union of All

How by our union with God or others is the union of the entire human nature and its union with God realized?


Fr Dimitru Staniloae wrties,

St. Maximus the Confessor says that first of all love unifies the individual man.  It replaces anger, falsenss, gluttony, and all the tings in which man has taken part by bodily love himself.  When these things no longer exist, no trace of wickedness can persist; in their place various kinds of virtues are introduced, which integrate the power of love.  However, by this unification of the individual man, the unification of individuals between themselvs is also realized.

 While we are here on earth we only can experience love in short ecstatic moments, in relationship with another person or with God.  Even when we are in an ecstatic relationship with God we forget all people.  So how do we experience a union with all people?


Fr. Dimitru says,

It follows that only in peaceful everyday love, manifested in fact and in thought, in Christian love in a broad sense, can we experience more or less love for all men. My interests, my passions, contradictory opinions, as voluntary manifestations, no longer break the unity of nature between me and my neighbor.  Every moment I judge things from the point of view of my neighbor with who I am connected; I replace my ego with his and give up mine.  By doing this right along with various neighbors with whom I come in contact, the sentiment of my union, actual or virtual with anyone, is strengthened.  On my part there is no longer a rift between me and them; I no longer see any such thing.  If they do, I don't.

This steady behavior strengthens the sentiment of my unity with them and with God... The energy of my love for another, also nurtured by the effort of my will, but especially by these moments of ecstatic contemplation, is easily directed later toward other people.  And everywhere I gain a steady disposition of love for anyone, a joy for all, a conviction that in each one I can discover the mystery of enchanting depths.  I feel united virtually with everyone and with every concrete opportunity...

Love for others grows from the habit of love for God and especially fro living it as ecstasy on the culminating step of prayer...

...

We have the feeling that in the love of God as ecstasy, God has opened His heart to us and received us in it, just as we have opened our heart so that He can enter it.  On the other hand, the coming back to God, to His heart, means to enter His home.  God's "home", however, wants to include all people, because in His heart there is room for everybody, and when I enter it I must feel that by being there I am united with eveyone there.  Coming back to God, we truly come back home where we belong to the supreme parental home, together with all the heavenly Father's children...

Reference: Orthodox Spirituality, pp 323 - 326

Perfection: Prayer Develops Love and Union with God

It is by prayer that we grow in love.


Fr. Dimitru Staniloae writes,

When we go forward by the Jesus Prayer, to mental prayer in the heart, we are sustained by love for Him.  It grows continually, and fashions us, in a spiritual imaging of His spiritual image, according to His image.  The we feel Him evermore united with our ego, in as "we" from which I can no longer leave without the danger of being lost.  And not only do I receive in me the ego, the "I" of Christ, which makes me according to His image, but also His "I" receives mine in Himself––He accepts even my body in Himself, so that He includes me in His pure senses, in His pure actions.  Thus all of us who believe become one "body" with Him and with each other, a fact which will become perfected in the future life.

This union is reached by pure prayer addressed to Jesus.  But until we are able to engage in this level of prayer we must strive to love our neighbors.  We work on this, recognizing that true love of neighbor, love that never fails, cannot be reached without prayer and asceticism. 


Love is an encounter with the infinite.  If we experience this ecstatic joy between two people it is usually only for a moment.  When we join in our love of God with prayer this state of joy can be prolonged.


Fr Dimitru writes,

We can spend a longer time in the intoxication of the love of God, as the height of pure prayer.... Prayer leads up to the "cessation" of the mind from every activity directed toward the limited.  But the intoxication of the love of God descends all at once from above. ...as overflowing joy, which expresses the total absorption of your person in the other and of the other's in you, there is also a peaceful love, directed by rational consideration, which grows little by little.  This is a preparatory condition for the other.

So our efforts to love one another is also an important preparation for our union with God.  As we learn humility, and learn to give ourselves selflessly for the good of others, we come closer and closer to God.  As we eliminate our passions and perfect our prayer to the state where is descends into the depths of the heart in pure prayer, we experience the unlimited love of God, our total surrender out of our love for Him and His love for us. It is through prayer that love is perfected in us.

Reference: Orthodox Spirituality, pp 318 - 322

Perfection: Joined in Love

Love involves a union.  Between lovers there is a mutual  penetration of energies. This penetration is not imposed by force.  It is mutual and received with joy. The one loved is absorbed by the one who loves yet remains independent.  Love is experienced as a unity of free individuals.


Fr Dimitru Staniloae writes,

In love I don't only live myself or by myself, but also my neighbor or by my neighbor, without his ceasing to be a subject independent from me.  This means, nevertheless that I don't have him as an object of mine, as a part of my individuality, but in a free relationship.... he becomes more intimate to me than anything which I possess; I see him penetrating more deeply in me that anything, and I penetrate him more than anything which he has.

There is a substitution of egos that takes place between two lovers.  One ego takes the place of the other.  There is no absorption of the other but a going out of oneself.  The other becomes ones center of life.


This is the nature of our union with God.  It is what is meant when Saint Paul says, "I live, and yet not I but Christ lives in me."  When we love God we no longer possess our own life but now possess His life.


Christian love is the opposite of pride.  We no longer think only of ourselves and are only satisfied when the other is also satisfied.  Love is based on humility.


Fr. Dimitru wrties,

So love is realized when two subjects meet each other in a full, mutual experience, in their qualities as subjects, that is without the reciprocal reduction of each other to the state of objects, but revealing themselves to each other to the maximum, as subjects; nevertheless with all this they give themselves to each other with complete freedom.  Love penetrates two subjects reciprocally in their intimacy... By love you penetrate into the intimacy of your neighbor... without annihilating or belittling him...  The more I love him the more he reveals himself to me.

This is the nature of our desired relationship with God, our union with Him.  A mutual penetration of our love while not being assumed into him but free to act.  We live in Him and He lives in us.  Though this coupling in love we are able to voluntarily link our will with His.  Our energies co-penetrate.  His energy flows through us.


Next: Love demands asceticism and prayer.


Reference: Orthodox Spirituality, pp 310 - 316

Perfection - The Steps of Love - The Path to Union

Fr Dimitru Stanloae begins his discussion about the final stage of Orthodox Spirituality, Perfection by Union with God or by Deification, with a discussion on Love and Dispassion. To understand union with God it is first necessary to understand love.  It is with love that we attain union with God.

What is love? What are its characteristics? Love involves an eradication of ego, the development of selflessness. Our self-centered actions come from the passions. These we first have to overcome. Love is about giving totally of oneself to another. We can't be preoccupied with our own needs and love others. Love only fully develops after we have freed ourselves of the control of passions and reached dispassion. 


Love is central to our finding union with God.

Fr. Dimitru Staniloae says,

We can't turn exclusively to God, as long as we are preoccupied in an egoistic way with ourselves.

Saint Diadochos writes,

He who loves himself, cannot love God.  But he who doesn't love himself because of he overwhelming richness of the love of God, loves God, for such a person never seeks his own glory, but that of God.  Because he who loves himself seeks his own glory, but he who loves God, loves the glory of Him who made him. since it is proper to the sensitive soul to always seek first the glory of God in all the commandments which he is carrying out, and secondly, to enjoy himself in his humility.

Saint John the Evangelist says,

"He who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?" (1 John 4:20)

Fr. Dimitru outlines three steps in love:

a) The tendency of natural sympathy from the state of nature fallen from grace. [This we all have as a seed within ourselves from our birth.]

b) Christian love, which uses this tendency and grows by divine grace and by self-efforts; this grows and becomes firm. It brings nature to a kind of fulfillment. [This we develop as we follow the Orthodox Way of Life.]

c) Finally, there is love as ecstasy or as a gift exclusively from above.  This comes after a long preparation through the second and last for moments, that from the second it might gain new force and continue its growth. [This comes with pure prayer.]

Full love means a man's complete victory over himself.  

Divine love is a total victory of egotism.  It is gained through prayer after preparation through the activities of purification to rid ourselves of the passions. It is what we begin to experience as we are able to transcend reason and all concepts.  We discover God's love within our hearts and this helps us develop our capacity for love of God and for our neighbor. 

Saint Diadochos says,

When someone begins to richly feel the love of God, then he begins to love his neighbor too, with spiritual feeling.

Saint Diadochos adds an important adjective to our love of other, "with spiritual feeling." When we love another with "spiritual feeling" there is no separation between us.  All our thoughts are about the other person. And the one loved has all their thoughts directed toward us. We are joined in selfless union.  There is no separation. This is how we attain theosis.  It is based on our love of God and His love for us.  As we give up ourselves for Him, we find ourselves embraced in His divine love. We find the union we seek.

Fr Dimitru says of divine love,

Divine love is a drink, because it floods with its enthusiasm the worldly judgment of the mind and the feeling of the body.  It moves the one who participates in it to another plane of reality.  He sees another world, whose logic darkens the logic of everyday life; he receives the sense of other states, which overwhelm the feeling of bodily pains and pleasures.  

It is through this divine love that the Apostles received on that day of Pentecost. With the descent of the Hoy spirit filling them with divine love based on their total love of Jesus Christ, they were able to spread the Word throughout the world while suffering rejection, imprisonment and torture. All the troubles they endured never weakened their effort because of the union they had with God.  It was through divine love that they were able to bear all. This is the focus of the final stage of Orthodox Spirituality: Perfection.

More on love...

Reference: Orthodox Spirituality, pp 303 - 309


See Ten Points for an Orthodox Way of Life

Summary of the the Stage of Illumination

The first phase of Orthodox Spirituality as outlined by Fr. Dimitru Staniloae was Purification.  He sees this as the necessary prelude to the second phase called Illumination.  The fist phase involves ascetical practices to cleanse us of our passions, liberating the mind for contemplation on the Divine.


Part Two: Illumination

Entering the Next Phase of Spiritual Development

Gifts of the Holy Spirit

Contemplation of God in Creation

How to Discern the Truth (logo) in Things

Why is Prolonged Preparation Necessary

Steps Needed to Discern Truth

Spiritual Understanding of Scripture

Going Beyond Knowledge - Apophatic Knowledge

Facing the Abyss

Positive Theology is a Companion to Apophatic Theology

Pure Prayer
Developing Pure Prayer

Entering Within

Mind Beyond Reason

Knock and the Door Will Be Opened

Mental Rest or Stillness of the Mind

In the phase of Illumination we learn to gain a new kind of knowledge that goes beyond mental concepts.  We first begin to see the divine intent in all things, discovering their truth and purpose, the logoi.  In this we see the handiwork of God in all things.  As we pursue this level of contemplation we begin to realize the limits of our knowledge and mentally classify our knowledge of God as not this or not that, but something beyond that is not subject to our normal powers of reason.  We discover and enter the higher reaches of the mind that is above reason.  Seeing that our conceptual knowledge is limited and inadequate we lose our ego-centered self and face an abyss of unknown.  This involves a letting go of all our concepts and discovering the pure self deep within our being, in the heart.  The way we bridge this abyss and enter into this mystical state and knowledge is thorough pure prayer.  With our focus on Jesus, we enter into the chamber of the inner heart and rest in the stillness that we find there.  We are bathed in knowledge that is higher and not subject to classification by concepts.  We lack words to describe this kind of knowledge.  We are now prepared to receive the gift of the Divine light and our union with God.


Reference: Orthodox Spirituality by Dimitru Staniloae