How Can We Identify Weaknesses that Lead us to Sin?

Understanding our weaknesses that often lead us to sin is crucial, but all too frequently, we are blind to these flaws. This recognition requires introspection and an earnest desire to identify both your strengths and weaknesses. This is a task that demands tranquility and solitude. Find a quiet place where you can reflect and pray. Begin by asking the Holy Spirit to illuminate your understanding.

Remember, everyone has weaknesses similar to yours. As you identify your weaknesses you will make significant strides in your spiritual journey. It's important not to let feelings of despair creep in. You may grapple with feelings of worthlessness in God's eyes, but as you identify and overcome these issues, you'll gain confidence experiencing God’s Love. We are never wholly worthy in God's sight. God calls us to become perfect, but is joyful knowing you are continually working toward this aim out of your love of Him. Perfecting ourselves to become more Christ-like is a lifelong endeavor called Theosis.

If you find it difficult to identify any obvious weakness, consider the traits you criticize in others. What you dislike in them is likely a reflection of what lurks within your own soul. Such insights may provide vital clues about your path.

While you sit in quiet reflection, review the guidelines for living provided by Jesus in Scripture. It's especially beneficial to study the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) where Jesus expands on the Ten Commandments' demands (Exodus 20:1-17). I have provided specific verses for your reflection from both sections below. There are other Scripture verses you can use as well.

A helpful way to engage in this self-discovery process is to make a list. Write the behaviors outlined in Scripture in one column and in the column opposite, note down how you currently live up to each of these expectations. Don't be discouraged. Be gentle with yourself. What you're undertaking is a task God will regard with joy.

Once you've completed this, look over what you've written and identify any patterns. Ideally, you will start to recognize one primary passion or tendency that's influencing your behavior. This will be the root of your sinfulness and the first thing you should begin to address. It's important to identify one key weakness to start overcoming.

Remember, as you embark on this journey, seek divine guidance. Ask the Holy Spirit to lead you. Pray for the insight you need to make necessary life changes. Go to Holy Confession and seek the advice of your spiritual father, who will welcome you with great joy knowing you're striving to make changes to please God.

This process doesn't end here. Ideally, it should become an ongoing journey of self-discovery and improvement. It's like peeling an onion; as you uncover and overcome each weakness, you'll reveal a new layer, a new set of opportunities to become more like Christ. As you continue on this path, you'll find yourself drawing closer to God. Each step will bring more grace and aid to your journey.

Here are some passages to contemplate:

A. The Ten Commandments 

These provide foundational principles for moral living. Here are the commandments with related points for self-examination:

1. You shall have no other gods before me. Reflect on whether God is truly at the center of your life, or if other "gods" (work, money, hobbies, etc.) have taken precedence.

2. You shall not make for yourself an idol. Consider if there is anything in your life that you prioritize or revere more than God.

3. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain. Reflect on your respect for God's name in your speech and actions.

4. Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Examine your observance of the Sabbath or Sunday rest and worship.

5. Honor your father and your mother. Reflect on your relationship with your parents and if you treat them with due respect.

6. You shall not murder. This can be expanded to examine whether you harbor anger or resentment towards others.

7. You shall not commit adultery. Consider your purity in thoughts, words, and deeds, whether you're single or married.

8. You shall not steal. Reflect on your respect for others' property and rights.

9. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. Examine your truthfulness and honesty.

10. You shall not covet. Reflect on contentment and gratitude in your life.

B. Sermon on the Mount

These are key points in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew Chapters 5-7), which could serve as points for self-examination:

1. The Beatitudes (Matthew 5:3-12): These blessings pronounced by Jesus describe the attitudes that characterize a Christian life – humility, meekness, righteousness, mercy, purity of heart, peacemaking, and willingness to endure persecution.

2. Salt and Light (Matthew 5:13-16): Jesus calls his followers to be the "salt of the earth" and the "light of the world," to influence the world positively by their good deeds and upright character.

3. Fulfillment of the Law (Matthew 5:17-20): Jesus explains that he has come to fulfill the law, not abolish it, and exhorts his followers to pursue a righteousness that surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees.

4. Teachings on Anger, Adultery, Divorce, Oaths (Matthew 5:21-37): Jesus goes deeper into the spirit of the law, explaining that anger is as destructive as murder, lustful thoughts as adulterous as the act itself, and emphasizes the sanctity of marriage and the importance of keeping one's word.

5. Teachings on Revenge and Love for Enemies (Matthew 5:38-48): Jesus teaches the radical love of not resisting an evil person and loving one's enemies.

6. Teachings on Giving to the Needy, Prayer, and Fasting (Matthew 6:1-18): Jesus advises that acts of righteousness should not be done for show, and provides guidance on prayer (including the Lord's Prayer) and fasting.

7. Teachings on Treasures in Heaven (Matthew 6:19-24): Jesus encourages his followers to store up treasures in heaven rather than earthly wealth, and warns against serving two masters – God and money.

8. Teachings on Worry (Matthew 6:25-34): Jesus counsels against worry, teaching reliance on God who cares for all our needs.

9. Judging Others (Matthew 7:1-6): Jesus warns against judging others while ignoring our own faults.

10. Ask, Seek, Knock (Matthew 7:7-12): Jesus encourages persistent prayer, seeking, and knocking, and reiterates the Golden Rule: "So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you..."

11. The Narrow and Wide Gates (Matthew 7:13-14): Jesus describes the narrow gate and difficult path that leads to life and the wide gate and broad road that leads to destruction.

12. True and False Prophets, and True and False Disciples (Matthew 7:15-23): Jesus warns about false prophets and the importance of discernment, and emphasizes that only those who do the will of the Father will enter the kingdom of heaven.

13. The Wise and Foolish Builders (Matthew 7:24-27): Jesus concludes his sermon with the parable of wise and foolish builders, emphasizing the importance of not just hearing his words, but acting upon them.

C. The Great Commandment

While the Great Commandment that Jesus gives in Matthew 22:36-40 is not technically part of the Sermon on the Mount, it is fundamental to Christian ethics and is certainly an excellent addition for self-examination. It can indeed be viewed as a summary of the main messages of the Sermon on the Mount and the Ten Commandments. The Great Commandment says:

1. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. Here, you can reflect on your relationship with God. Do you put God first in your life? How does your love for God manifest in your thoughts, words, and deeds? Do you dedicate time for prayer, reading Scripture, worship, and other spiritual practices?

2. Love your neighbor as yourself. The second commandment is equally important. In your reflection, consider your relationships with others. Do you treat people with kindness, respect, and generosity? Are there relationships in your life that need forgiveness or reconciliation? Do you show care for the poor, the sick, the marginalized?

Remember that love in the Christian understanding is not just about feelings, but actions. The Apostle John wrote, "Dear children, let us not love with words or speech, but with actions and in truth" (1 John 3:18). As you reflect on the Great Commandment, think about the ways your love for God and neighbor translates into concrete actions in your daily life.

D. Other important Passages

Throughout the New Testament, Jesus often expands on the key teachings presented in the Sermon on the Mount. While the Sermon provides a concise and powerful blueprint for Christian living, the Gospels as a whole offer a richer and more detailed picture of Jesus' teachings. Here are a few examples:

1. On Loving One's Enemies: In the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37), Jesus expands on the command to love one's enemies and neighbors by illustrating that everyone, even those who may be culturally, religiously, or socially different from us, is our neighbor and deserving of our love and help.

2. On Judging Others: In John 8:1-11, Jesus responds to those ready to stone a woman caught in adultery by stating, "Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her," emphasizing the message against judging others.

3. On Giving to the Needy: In Matthew 25:31-46, the Parable of the Sheep and the Goats, Jesus expands on the idea of giving to the needy by saying that whatever we do for the least of our brothers and sisters, we do for Him.

4. On Praying: Apart from the Lord's Prayer given in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus also models a life of constant prayer and teaches about persistency in prayer (Luke 18:1-8), praying in faith (Mark 11:22-25), and the importance of humility in prayer (Luke 18:9-14).

5. On Seeking God's Kingdom: Jesus frequently teaches about the kingdom of God in His parables (e.g., the Parable of the Mustard Seed, Matthew 13:31-32; the Parable of the Hidden Treasure, Matthew 13:44). These parables offer various insights into what it means to seek first the kingdom of God.

6. On Living out God's Word: In John 15:1-17, Jesus speaks about the importance of remaining in Him (like branches on a vine) to bear much fruit, underscoring the necessity of living in accordance with His teachings.

This is by no means an exhaustive list. The teachings of Jesus found throughout the New Testament all work together to provide a comprehensive guide for Christian living, and can serve as additional material for personal self-examination and spiritual growth.

Reference:

Preparing for Confession:

https://www.stgeorgegreenville.org/our-faith/catechism/mysteries/confession

Path to Perfection - Saint John Cassian

Jesus came to save us. From what? Eternal damnation, separation from God, showing us the path to victory over death, eternal life in Paradise. The ultimate aim is to love God, finding unity in His embrace.

These two element of salvation point to the starting point for our spiritual journey to theosis. Saint John Cassian points out the following:

There are three things that restrain people from vice—namely, the fear of Gehenna or of present laws; or hope and desire for the kingdom of heaven; or a disposition for the good itself and a love of virtue. (411)

Vice, or sin, not living up to the ideal way of life that Christ showed us is eventually tamed with God's help. To take heed of His advice we begin our walk with Christ having a fear of the possibility of having our life end in death, nothing beyond, or even worse in eternal punishment as is described in Scripture.

Saint John points out that there is this three step process. He says further,

For the first two belong properly to those who are tending toward perfection and have not yet acquired a love of virtue, but the third particularity belongs to God and to those who have received in themselves the image and likeness of God. (412)

The beginning, he points out, is fear. We tend to promote the idea of love, but for those who have not embraced the seriousness of the meaning of life, love of God does not have a deep meaning as this can only come from an intimate relationship. Emphasizing the fear of God is most useful for those who may have been baptized as children, who have been brought up in the church, but have a shallow faith based more on family or cultural traditions, and who participate more out of obedience. Reminding them about the reality of death and the judgement that takes place may help them awaken to the seriousness about the way they live their life and the true reason fo Jesus coming for our salvation.

Fear is only the beginning and this will not be sufficient for continued growth or for those already awake in faith. In this fist phase we are like servants following the direction of our master. The next phase is to be freed as slave and become a hired hand. At this next stage is the emphasis on the reward, our the payment we receive, a place in Heaven, eternal life with bliss. 

Here is how Saint Cassian describes it.

If a person is tending to perfection, then, he will mount from that first degree of fear—which we have properly designated as servile and about which it is said: “When you have done everything say: We are useless slaves.” —to the higher level of hope, progressing by degree. Here the comparison is not with a slave but with a hireling, because now the person looks forward to the payment of a wage and as it were untroubled by the absolution of his sins and fear of punishment and is conscious of his own good works. (412)

The next level is when we reach toward perfection, the love of virtue and a disposition toward the good. This requires the grace of God. With His grace and our ascesis we can rid ourselves, motivated by the first to levels of understanding, of all evil or sinful tendencies, our passions.

We shall, then, be unable to mount to that pure perfection unless, just as he first loved us for no other reason than our salvation, we also love him for no other reason than sheer love of him. Hence we must strive to mount, in perfect ardor of mind, from this fear to hope and from hope to the love of God and the love of virtue itself, so we may attain to a disposition for the good itself and, to the extent possible to human nature, hold firmly to what is good. (413)

We are challenged by the Lord to go from the heights to still higher places in such a way that the one who is blessed and perfect in the fear of God and who proceeds, as it is written, “from strength to strength,“ (Ps 84:7) and from one perfection to another—that is, who mounts with eager mind from fear to hope—is invited again to a more blessed state, which is love, and the one who was a “faithful and prudent servant” (Mt 45:25) passes over to the intimacy of friendship and to adopted sonship. (418-419)

Eventually we come to the realization that love in the final aim. Motivated by the fear of the judgement and the promised reward in heave, we begin to experience Gods grace in a real way. We come to know his love. Not the the intellectual understanding that God sent His only Son to us out of love but an experience of this unbounded love that comes from his grace penetrating our soul. This love grows so strong that there is nothing we would not change in our way of life to become united with our lover forever.

Saint Cassian says,

It is in this sense, then, that our words should be understood—not that we declare that an awareness of everlasting punishment or of the blessed reward which is promised to the holy ones is of no importance. These things are helpful and introduce those who reflect on them to the beginning of blessedness. But, love, in which there is a fuller confidence and already enduring joy, takes them from a servile fear and hireling’s hope, brings them to the love of God and to adopted sonship, and, from being perfect, makes then somehow more perfect. (419)

Apostle Paul call this love the best of gifts

But earnestly desire the best gifts. And yet I show you a more excellent way. Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift ofprophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing. (1Cor 12:31-13:3)

Reference: The Conferences of John Cassian, trans, Boniface Ramsey, OP, Paulist Press.

Taxing Our Faults

When Elder Paisios was questioned about whether he struggled as a novice he answered, "Every time something happened in my struggle, or if others told me something, I never allowed things to just roll off 'untaxed." This leads to the question, what is the tax? Normally a tax is an additional cost that is added on to the goods we buy or service we use.  It is an extra burden that we are obligated to pay.

If we reverse this and say what is meant by being untaxed, it implies that there is no extra cost. This is how Elder Paisios explains the idea of a tax on his faults.  He says, "'Untaxed' means that you disregard your faults, aren't touched by them, you just let them roll off."  The tax is our effort to examine our own behavior. So, if we do not place a 'tax' on the faults we discover or are pointed out to us by others, we are in a sense ignoring them.  This ignorance leads to indifference. We begin to accept them as just part of our normal behavior. Our heart is hardened. Our conscience becomes blind.

Regarding this indifference the Elder says, "Indifference hardens the field of our heart and, no matter what we are told, what ever happens, we are not touched, we can't become aware of our guilt so as to repent." Once we become indifferent to our faults there is no way for us to improve. We know that God calls us to have a pure heart.  The only way to gain this is by being able to recognize our failings.  We must learn to fight indifference so we can become repentive and continually make progress in our way of life. We must learn to apply a tax on our failings.

What are some ways we avoid applying a tax to our faults? We change the subject when they are brought up. We find some rationale to explain our behavior, often blaming our environment or some other person.  We can get pretty creative in finding ways to avoid applying this tax. It's not a heavy tax. It only requires us to take the time to examine ourselves and seek ways to become more like Christ.

The Elder give us an example:

If someone says that I am a hypocrite, I would not say, "May whoever said that be cursed with a bad year!" Instead I would seek to find out what caused him to say such a thing. I would reason and say, "Something is going on; the other person is not at fault. There must be something in myself I have not noticed; I must have given cause in some way for others to misunderstand my behavior. He wouldn't have said such a thing without some reason. If I had been attentive and behaved with prudence, I would not have been misunderstood. I have brought harm to the other person and will be judged for it by God".

Notice what he did not do. He did not explore the other person possible negative motive for such an accusation. He did not assume the other person who is trying to discredit him because of envy or other malice. He assumed that there was a fault he had that he needed to better understand. This extra effort is the tax that is needed to keep us on a path of repentance.

Elder Paisios says:

If we don't examine everything in this manner, we won't be able to benefit from anything. This is why we often say about someone, "this person has lost all control." Do you know when control is lost? When we don't observe ourselves carefully. ... As the years pass, man matures spiritually, and if he makes good of past experiences, he progresses more steadily and more humbly. Often even the ups and downs in our struggle help us achieve a positive and steady spiritual march upwards.

This is what is key, to continue to make progress in the way we live and interact with other in this world. As we learn to perfect our own actions, our heart will be opened more and more to the needs of others and to the acceptance of God's love.  We will receive the blessing of His grace more and more abundantly if we learn to tax our faults. We must take advantage of every clue you get from our daily life and continually seek ways to understand our own behavior.

Reference: Elder pAisios of Mount Athos Spiritual Counsels III: Spiritual Struggle, pp 154-156

THE DIVINE ENERGIES

One of the most important aspects of Orthodox spirituality is participation in thedivine energies. Briefly stated, this is an Orthodox doctrine of fundamental importance and very often ignored. In Orthodox theology, a distinction is made between the "essence" and "energies" of God. Those who attain perfection do so by uniting with the divine uncreated energies, and not with the divineessence. The Greek Orthodox Fathers, whenever they speak of God, emphasize the unknowability of God's essence and stress the vision of thedivine energies, especially the divine uncreated Light. Orthodox spiritual tradition emphasizes the divine Logos indwelling in the world and our ability to attain a spiritual life and mystical union with the Holy Spirit in this world.

Christian contemplation is not "ecstatic," that is, outside ourselves, but it takes place within the Christian person who is the "temple of the Holy Spirit." Thedivine energies are "within everything and outside everything." All creation is the manifestation of God's energies. Vladimir Lossky says in the Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church: "These divine rays penetrate the whole created universe and are the cause of its existence." The uncreated Light and the knowledge of God in Orthodox tradition "illuminates every man that cometh into this world." It is the same light that the apostles saw on Mount Tabor that penetrates all of creation and transforms it, creating it anew. A modern ascetic says in the Undistorted Image: "Uncreated Light is divine energy. Contemplation of Uncreated Light begets, first and foremost, an all absorbing feeling of the living God - an immaterial feeling of the immaterial, an intuitive, not a rational perception - which transports man with irrestible force into another world, but so warily that he neither realizes when it happens nor knows whether he is in or out of the body." This is not a sentimental or emotional feeling or romantic fantasy. It is experience of the divine uncreated Light described by the neptic Fathers. Again, in the words of the same ascetic: "This supramental sensation of the Living God (which is experienced in contemplation) is accompanied by a vision of light, of light essentially different from physical light. Man himself abides in light because, assimilated to the Light which he contemplates, and spiritualized by it, he then neither sees nor feels his own material being or the materiality of the world."

ILLUMINATION
God's act is pure light, and when the Lord appears to us, he always appears asLight. In Holy Scripture we read: "In Your Light we shall see light." Only in the state of illumination does divine grace makes possible the contemplation of thedivine light. The hidden truths of Holy Scripture are not revealed to everyone, since illumination comes through the special divine gift of revelation. For this reason in the early Church, the holy Bible was read only in the Church and only by a charismatic person. In the Orthodox Church, we have never experienced "bibliolatry" or "worship of the Book," as in some sects. The Church holds fast to the unadulterated spirit of the Bible as it was delivered to the Saints, and through them, to us.

taken from AN INTRODUCTION TO ORTHODOX SPIRITUALITY by
George C. Papademetriou

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