Theognosis

The two stages of theoria (vision)

2008-05-07T14:56:49Z

From the same lecture by Romanides:

This state of theoria is twofold of has two stages: a.) unceasing memory of God and b.) glorification, the latter being a gift which God gives to His friends according to their needs and the needs of others. During this latter stage of glorification, unceasing noetic prayer is interrupted since it is replaced by a vision of the glory of God in Christ. The normal functions of the body, such as sleeping, eating, drinking, and digestion are suspended. In other respects, the intellect and the body function normally. One does not lose consciousness, as happens in the ecstatic mystical experiences of non-Orthodox Christian and pagan religions. One is fully aware and conversant with his environment and those around him, except that he sees everything and everyone saturated by the uncreated glory of God, which is neither light nor darkness, and nowhere and everywhere at the same time. This state may be of short, medium, or long duration. In the case of Moses it lasted for forty days and forty nights. The faces of those in this state of glorification give off an imposing radiance, like that of the face of Moses, and after they die, their bodies become holy relics. These relics give off a strange sweet smell, which at times can become strong. In many cases, these relics remain intact in a good state of preservation, without having been embalmed. They are completely stiff from head to toes, light, dry, and with no signs of putrefaction.
There is no metaphysical criterion for distinguishing between good and bad people. It is much more correct to distinguish between ill and more healthy persons. The sick ones are those whose noetic faculty is being cleansed and illumined.

These levels are incorporated into the very structure of the four Gospels and the liturgical life of the Church. Gospels of Mark, Matthew, and Luke reflect the pre-baptismal catechism for cleansing the heart, and the Gospel of John reflects the post-baptismal catechism which leas to theoria by way of the stage of illumination. Christ himself is the spiritual Father who led the apostles, as He had done with Moses and the prophets, to glorification by means of purification and illumination.

One can summarize these three stages of perfection as a.) that of the slave who performs the commandments because of fear of seeing God as a consuming fire; b.) that of the hireling whose motive is the reward of seeing God as glory, and c.) that of the friends of God whose noetic faculty is completely free, whose love has become selfless and, because of this, are willing to be damned for the salvation of their fellow man, as in the cases of Moses and Paul.

Glorification in Sacred Tradition vs. the Augustinian/Frankish Aberration

2008-05-07T01:10:10Z

Here is a profound passage from a three-part lecture delivered by Orthodox Professor John Romanides entitled, Franks, Romans, Feudalism and Doctrine:

Glorification is the vision of God in which the equality of all men and the absolute value of each man is experienced. God loves all men equally and indiscriminately, regardless of even their moral status. God loves with the same love, both the saint and the devil. To teach otherwise, as Augustine and the Franks did, would be adequate proof that they did not have the slightest idea of what glorification was....

God himself is both heaven and hell, reward and punishment. All men have been created to see God unceasingly in His uncreated glory. Whether God will be for each man heaven or hell, reward or punishment, depends on man's response to God's love and on man's transformation from the state of selfish and self-centered love, to Godlike love which does not seek its own ends....

Since all men will see God, no religion can claim for itself the power to send people either to heaven or to hell. This means that true spiritual fathers prepare their spiritual charges so that vision of God's glory will be heaven, and not hell, reward and not punishment. The primary purpose of Orthodox Christianity then, is to prepare its members for an experience which every human being will sooner or later have.

While the brain is the center of human adaptation to the environment, the noetic faculty in the heart is the primary organ for communion with God. The fall of man or the state of inherited sin is: a.) the failure of the noetic faculty to function properly, or to function at all; b.) its confusion with the functions of the brain and the body in general; and c.) its resulting enslavement to the environment.

Each individual experiences the fall of his own noetic faculty. One can see why the Augustinian understanding of the fall of man as an inherited guilt for the sin of Adam and Eve is not, and cannot, be accepted by the Orthodox tradition.

There are two known memory systems built into living beings, 1.) cell memory which determines the function and development of the individual in relation to itself, and 2.) brain cell memory which determines the function of the individual in relation to its environment. In addition to this, the patristic tradition is aware of the existence in human beings of a now normally non-functioning or sub-functioning memory in the heart, which when put into action via noetic prayer, includes unceasing memory of God, and therefore, the normalization of all other relations.

When the noetic faculty is not functioning properly, man is enslaved to fear and anxiety and his relations to others are essentially utilitarian. Thus, the root cause of all abnormal relations between God and man and among me is that fallen man, i.e., man with a malfunctioning noetic faculty, uses God, his fellow man, and nature for his own understanding of security and happiness. Man outside of glorification imagines the existence of god or gods which are psychological projections of his need for security and happiness.

That all men have this noetic faculty in the heart also means that all are in direct relation to God at various levels, depending on how much the individual personality resists enslavement to his physical and social surroundings and allows himself to be directed by God. Every individual is sustained by the uncreated glory of God and is the dwelling place of this uncreated glory of God and is the dwelling place of this uncreated creative and sustaining light, which is called the rule, power, grace, etc. of God. Human reaction to this direct relation or communion with God can range from the hardening of the heart (i.e., the snuffing out of the spark of grace) to the experience of glorification attained to by the prophets, apostles, and saints.

This means that all men are equal in possession of the noetic faculty, but not in quality or degree of function.

It is important to note the clear distinction between spirituality, which is rooted primarily in the heart's noetic faculty, and intellectuality, which is rooted in the brain. Thus:

1.) A person with little intellectual attainments can raise to the highest level of noetic perfection.

2..) On the other hand, a man of the highest intellectual attainments can fall to the lowest level of noetic imperfection.

3.) One may also reach both the highest intellectual attainments and noetic perfection.

Or 4.) One may be of meager intellectual accomplishment with the hardening of the heart.

The role of Christianity was originally more like that of the medical profession, especially that of today's psychologists and psychiatrists.

Man has a malfunctioning or non-functioning noetic faculty in the heart, and it is the task especially of the clergy to apply the cure of unceasing memory of God, otherwise called unceasing prayer or illumination.

Proper preparation for vision of God takes place in two stages: purification, and illumination of the noetic faculty. Without this, it is impossible for man's selfish love to be transformed into selfless love. This transformation takes place during the higher level of the stage of illumination called theoria, literally meaning vision-in this case vision by means of unceasing and uninterrupted memory of God....

In the state of theoria the noetic faculty is liberated from its enslavement to the intellect, passions, and environments, and prays unceasingly. It is influenced solely by this memory of God. Thus continual noetic prayer functions simultaneously with the normal activities of everyday life. It is when the noetic faculty is in such a state that man has become a temple of God.

Essence and energies in God

2008-05-05T18:53:03Z

Thus to our human nature He has given the glory of the Godhead, but not the divine nature; for the nature of God is one thing, His glory another, even though they be inseparable one from another. However, even though this glory is different from the divine nature, , it cannot be classified amongst the things subject to time, for in its transcendence "it is not", because it belongs to the divine nature in an ineffable manner.(St. Gregory Palamas, The Triads, pg. 60)

Nonetheless, there is only one unoriginate essence, the essence of God; none of the powers that inhere in it is an essence, so that all necessarily and always are in the divine essence....Here is the manifest, sure and and recognized teaching of the Church! (pg.93)

There is, therefore, a single unoriginate providence, that of God, and it is a work of God....Nonetheless, providence is not the divine essence, and thus the essence of God is not alone unoriginate. There is in the same way only one unoriginate and uncreated prescience, that of God....There is also only one will without beginning, that of God....However, no one would dare to say that the essence of God is a will, not even those who claimed the Word of God was a son of God's will. (pg. 94)

These works of God, then, are manifestly unorginate and pretemporal: His foreknowledge, will, providence, contemplation of Himself, and whatever powers are akin to these. But if [these] are works of God that are without beginning, then virtue is also unoriginate, for each of His works is a virtue; existence is also unoriginate, since it precedes not only essence but all beings, for it is the first existence. (Idem)

...If it [the divinity] does not have them, this essence is not God, even though it alone is unoriginate. If it does possess these powers, but acquired them subsequently, then there was a time when it was imperfect, in other words, was not God. However, if it possessed these faculties from eternity, it follows that not only is the divine essence unoriginate, but that each of its powers is also. (pg.93)

Thus, neither the uncreated goodness, not the eternal glory, nor the divine life nor things akin to these are simply the superessential essence of God, for God transcends them all as Cause. But we say He is life, goodness and so forth, and give Him these names, because of the revelatory energies and powers of the Superessential. As Basil the Great says, "The guarantee of the existence of every essence is its natural energy which leads the mind to the nature." (pg. 95)

But the divine essence that transcends all names, also surpasses energy, to the extent that the subject of an action surpasses its object; and He Who is beyond every name transcends what is named according to the same measure. But this is in no way opposed to the veneration of a unique God and a unique deity, since the fact of calling the ray "sun" in no way prevents us from thinking of a unique sun and a unique light. (pg. 97)

Indeed, even this name "essence" designates one of the powers. Denys [Dionysius] the Areopagite says, "If we call the superessential Mystery 'God' or 'Life' or 'Essence' or 'Light' or 'Word', we are referring to nothing other than the deifying powers which proceed from God and come down to us, creating substance, giving life, and granting wisdom."....Either all the divine powers are unoriginate, or none! If you say that only one of them is uncreated, you expel the others from the realm of the uncreated; and if you declare all are created, you must also reject this single uncreated one. For such a falsehood is self-contradictory and inconsistent with itself! (pg.98)

But even if this man [Barlaam] considers that everything that has a beginning is created, we for our part know that while all the energies of God are uncreated, not all are without beginning. Indeed, beginning and end must be ascribed, if not to the creative power itself, then at least to its activity, that is to say, to its energy as directed towards created things. Moses showed this when he said, "God rested from all the works which he had begun to do." (pg. 96)

For if God did not possess unoriginate energies...how could He be anterior and superior to that which is unoriginate? Similarly, He would not be "more-than-God", as St. Denys puts it, if "the reality of the deifying gift " were not called "divinity"--a reality which, according to St. Maximus, "eternally exists from the eternal God." If it is not so, deified man would participate in the nature of God, and be God by nature." (pg.105)

Sophia pics...

2008-05-04T22:11:44Z

For a glimpse of our little Sophia from the day of her birth, you can check out some photos right here ... for those of you who are not on my wife's friends list (as she beat me to it).

"Wounded By Love"

2008-05-04T16:58:34Z

From the book, an excerpt from the teaching of Elder Porphyrios:

Forget about all your weaknesses so that the adverse spirit does not realize what is going on and grab you and pin you down and cause you grief. Make no effort to free yourself from these weaknesses. Make your struggle with calmness and simplicity, without contortion and anxiety. Don't say, "I'll force myself and I'll pray to acquire love and become good." It is not profitable to afflict yourself to become good. In this way your negative response will be worse. Everything should be done in a natural way, calmly and freely. Nor should you pray, "O God, free me from my anger, my sorrow, etc." It is not good to pray about or think about the specific passion; something happens in our soul (when we do) and we become even more enmeshed in the passion. Attack your passion head on, and you'll see how strongly it will entwine you and grip you and you won't be able to do anything.

Don't struggle directly with temptation, don't pray for it to go away, don't say, "Take it from me, O God!" Then you are acknowledging the strength of the temptation and it takes hold of you. Because, although you are saying "Take it from me, O God," basically you are bringing it to mind and fomenting even more. Your desire to be free of the passion will, of course, be there, but it will exist in a hidden and discreet way, without appearing outwardly. Remember what Scripture says, Don't let your left hand know what your right hand is doing. Let all your strength be turned to love for God, worship of God and adhesion to God. In this way your release from evil and from your weaknesses will happen in a mystical manner, without your being aware of it and without exertion.

This is the kind of effort I make. I have found that the bloodless mode is the best mode of sanctification. It is better, that is, to devote ourselves to love through the study of the hymns and psalms. This study and preoccupation directs the mind to Christ and refreshes my heart without my realizing it. At the same time, I pray, opening my arms in longing, love and joy, and the Lord takes me up into His love. That is our aim – to attain to that love.

Sophia has entered the world!

2008-05-04T00:45:19Z

Sophia Violet Companik was born today, May 3, 2008 at 4:41 PM central time-- 9.0 lbs, 22.5 inches!

It was a home birth, unassisted since it was very quick and came before the midwife or her assistant arrived.

Photos in the next day or so...

To God be all the glory!

Achieving deification and purification of the whole person, soul and body

2008-05-03T16:12:52Z

For just as the divinity of the Word of God incarnate is common to soul and body, since He has deified the flesh through the mediation of the soul to make it also accomplish the works of God; so similarly, in spiritual man, the grace of the Spirit, transmitted to the body through the soul, grants to the body also the experience of things divine, and allows it the same blessed experiences as the soul undergoes. (St. Gregory Palamas, The Triads, pg.51)

As to that which takes place in the body, yet derives from a soul full of spiritual joy, it is a spiritual reality, even though it does work itself out in the body. When the pleasure originating from the body enters the mind, it conveys to the latter a corporeal aspect, without the body's being itself in any way improved by this communion with a superior reality, but rather giving an inferior quality to the mind, and this is why the whole man is called "flesh"....Conversely, the spiritual joy which comes from the mind into the body is in no way corrupted by the communion with the body, but transforms the body and makes it spiritual, because it then rejects all the evil appetites of the body; it no longer drags the soul downwards, but is elevated together with it. (Idem)

When the soul pursues this blessed activity, the body also; which, being no longer driven by corporeal or material passions...returns to itself and rejects all contact with evil things. Indeed, it inspires its own sanctification and inalienable divinisation, as the miracle-working relics of the saints clearly demonstrate.(pg.52)

...we certainly stand in need of the physical suffering that comes from fasting, vigils, and similar things, if we are to apply ourselves to prayer. This suffering alone mortifies the body's inclination to sin, and moderates and weakens the thoughts that provoke violent passions. Moreover, it is this which brings about within us the start of holy compunction, through which both the stain of past faults is done away and the divine favour especially attracted, and which disposes one towards prayer....This is why the Lord taught us in the Gospels that prayer can do great things when combined with fasting. (pg. 49)

He who does not see understands that he is himself incapable of vision because not perfectly conformed to the Spirit by a total purification, and not because of any limitation in the Object of vision. But when the vision comes to him, the recipient knows well that it is that light, even though he sees but dimly; he knows this from the impassible joy akin to the vision which he experiences, from the peace which fills his mind, and the fire of love for God which burns in him. The vision is granted him in proportion to his practice of what is pleasing to God, his avoidance of all that is not, his assiduity in prayer, and the longing of his entire soul for God....He understands then that his vision is infinite because it is a vision of the Infinite, and because he does not see the limit of that brilliance.... (pg.39)

One recognizes this light when the soul ceases to give way to the evil pleasures and passions, when it acquires inner peace and the stillness of thoughts, spiritual repose and joy, contempt of human glory, humility allied with a hidden rejoicing, hatred of the world, love of heavenly things, or rather love of the sole God of Heaven (pg.90)

The supernatural vision of God: beyond negation and affirmation

2008-05-03T06:56:08Z

The human mind also, and not only the angelic, transcends itself, and by victory over the passions acquires an angelic form. It, too, will attain that light and will become worthy of a supernatural vision of God, not seeing the divine essence, but seeing God by a revelation appropriate and analogous to Him. One sees, not in a negative way--for one does see something--but in a manner superior to negation. For God is not only beyond knowledge, but also beyond unknowing; His revelation itself is also truly a mystery of a most divine and an extraordinary kind, since the divine manifestations, even if symbolic, remain unknowable by reason of their transcendence. They appear, in fact, according to a law which is not appropriate to either human or divine nature--being, as it were, for us yet beyond us--so that no name can properly describe them. (St. Gregory Palamas, The Triads, pg.32)

It [divinization] is not the product of a cause or a relationship, for these are dependent upon the activity of the intellect, but it comes to be by abstraction, without itself being that abstraction. If it were simply abstraction, it would depend on us....Contemplation, then, is not simply abstraction and negation; it is a union and a divinization which occurs mystically and ineffably by the grace of God, after the stripping away of everything from here below which imprints itself on the mind, or rather after the cessation of all intellectual activity; it is something which goes beyond abstraction (which is only the outward mark of the cessation)....(Ibid, pgs.34-35).

For if all their intellectual activity has stopped, how could the angels and angelic men see God except by the power of the Spirit? This is why their vision is not a sensation, since they do not receive it through the senses; nor is it intellection, since they do not find it through thought or the knowledge that comes thereby, but after the cessation of all mental activity....On the other hand the mind does not acquire it simply by elevating itself through negation. For, according to the teaching of the Fathers, every divine command and every sacred law has as its final limit purity of heart; every mode and aspect of prayer reaches its term in pure prayer; and every concept which strives from below to towards the One Who transcends all and is separated from all comes to a halt once detached from all created beings. (Ibid, pg. 35)

The ascent by negation is in fact only an apprehension of how all things are distinct from God; it conveys only an image of the formless contemplation and of the fulfillment of the mind in contemplation, not being itself that fulfillment....(Ibid, pg.36)

But those who, in the manner of angels, have been united to that light celebrate it by using the image of this total abstraction. The mystical union with the light teaches them that this light is superessentially transcendent to all things. Moreover, those judged worthy to receive the mystery with a faithful and prudent ear can also celebrate the divine and inconceivable light by means of an abstraction from all things. But they can only unite themselves to it and see if they have purified themselves by fulfillment of the commandments, and by consecrating their mind to pure and immaterial prayer, so as to receive the supernatural power of contemplation (Ibid, pgs.36-37)

The mind then transcends prayer, and this state should nor properly be called prayer, but a fruit of the pure prayer sent by the Holy Spirit. The mind does not pray a definite prayer, but finds itself in ecstasy in the midst of incomprehensible realities. It is indeed an ignorance superior to knowledge. (Ibid, pg. 38)

Deification a product of divine grace, not the rational nature

2008-05-02T18:42:51Z

He who says, '"the deifying gift is a state of perfection of the rational nature, which has existed since the first disposition of the world and finds its fulfillment in the most elevated of the rational beings", manifestly opposes himself to Christ's Gospel. If deification does no more than perfect the rational nature, without elevating those made in the form of God beyond that condition; if it is only a state of the rational nature, since it is only activated by a natural power, the deified saints do not transcend nature, they are not "born of God", are not "spirit because born of the Spirit", and Christ, by coming into the world, has not "given the power to become children of God" to those alone "who believe in His name." Deification would have belonged to all nations even before He came if it naturally pertains to the rational soul, just as today it would belong to everyone irrespective of faith or piety. For if deification were only the perfection of the rational nature, then the pagan Greeks were not entirely rational, neither are the fallen angels; one cannot charge them with misusing their knowledge, yet they have been deprived of the natural state appropriate to such knowledge. Of what, then, were they really guilty? Even the pagan wise men admit that an essence cannot be more or less essential. How then could an angel or soul be more or less rational? (St. Gregory Palamas, The Triads in the Classics of Western Spirituality, pg. 85.)

God Above Essence

2008-05-01T03:16:59Z

"When God was conversing with Moses, He did not say, 'I am the essence,' but 'I am the One Who is' (Ex. 3:14). Thus, it is not the One Who is Who derives from the essence, but essence that derives from Him, for it is He Who contains all being in Himself." (St. Gregory Palamas, The Triads in the Classics of Western Spirituality, pg. 98.)

"...the essence of God transcends the fact of being inaccessible to the senses, since God is not only above all created things, but is even beyond Godhead. The excellence of Him Who surpasses all things is not only beyond all affirmation, but also beyond all negation; it exceeds all excellence that is attainable by the mind. This hypostatic light, seen spiritually by the saints, they know by experience to exist, as they tell us, and to exist not symbolically only, as do manifestations produced by fortuitous events; but it is an illumination immaterial and divine, a grace invisibly seen and ignorantly known. What it is, they do not pretend to know." (Ibid, pg. 57)

A Prayer for Orthodox Unity in the United States

2008-04-29T19:43:34Z

O All-Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, we Thy faithful children beseech Thee to forgive us the sin of divisiveness, which is rooted in our hearts, our dioceses and our land. Implant in our lives the holy vine of unity which Thou only art able to bestow on those who have come together in Thy Name. Enlighten us with Thy Grace that we may come to the knowledge of Thy truth and move our hearts to respond with trust and total obedience to Thy Divine Will. Through the intercessions of the God-inspired Holy Fathers of the First Ecumenical Council at Nicaea, who in harmony decreed that there should be one hierarch in each city serving Thy faithful as a loving father serves his children — one shepherd over a united flock — we also praise Thy All-Holy Name. O Father Who is without beginning, O Son Who is eternal, and O Holy Spirit, the Giver of Life, illuminate the way and guide us all once again to unite Thy Holy Church. Amen.

(Adapted from the prayer found on the St. Andrew House website)

Christos Anesti! ("Christ is Risen!")

2008-04-27T22:03:55Z

The Paschal Homily of St. John Chrysostom
(read each year at Pascha)

Is there anyone who is a devout lover of God? Let them enjoy this beautiful bright festival! Is there anyone who is a grateful servant? Let them rejoice and enter into the joy of their Lord!

Are there any weary with fasting? Let them now receive their wages! If any have toiled from the first hour, let them receive their due reward; If any have come after the third hour, let him with gratitude join in the Feast! And he that arrived after the sixth hour, let him not doubt; for he too shall sustain no loss. And if any delayed until the ninth hour, let him not hesitate; but let him come too. And he who arrived only at the eleventh hour, let him not be afraid by reason of his delay.

For the Lord is gracious and receives the last even as the first. He gives rest to him that comes at the eleventh hour, as well as to him that toiled from the first. To this one He gives, and upon another He bestows. He accepts the works as He greets the endeavor. The deed He honors and the intention He commends.

Let us all enter into the joy of the Lord! First and last alike receive your reward; rich and poor, rejoice together! Sober and slothful, celebrate the day!

You that have kept the fast, and you that have not, rejoice today for the Table is richly laden! Feast royally on it, the calf is a fatted one. Let no one go away hungry. Partake, all, of the cup of faith. Enjoy allthe riches of His goodness!

Let no one grieve at his poverty, for the universal kingdom has been revealed. Let no one mourn that he has fallen again and again; for forgiveness has risen from the grave. Let no one fear death, for the Death of our Savior has set us free.
He has destroyed it by enduring it.

He destroyed Hades when He descended into it. He put it into an uproar even as it tasted of His flesh. Isaiah foretold this when he said, "You, O Hell, have been troubled by encountering Him below."

Hell was in an uproar because it was done away with. It was in an uproar because it is mocked. It was in an uproar, for it is destroyed. It is in an uproar, for it is annihilated. It is in an uproar, for it is now made captive. Hell took a body, and discovered God. It took earth, and encountered Heaven. It took what it saw, and was overcome by what it did not see.

O death, where is thy sting? O Hades, where is thy victory?

Christ is Risen, and you, O death, are annihilated! Christ is Risen, and the evil ones are cast down! Christ is Risen, and the angels rejoice! Christ is Risen, and life is liberated! Christ is Risen, and the tomb is emptied of its dead; for Christ having risen from the dead, is become the first-fruits of those who have fallen asleep.

To Him be Glory and Power forever and ever. Amen!

Orthodox Mysteries

2008-04-23T01:57:16Z

What the West typically calls "sacraments" the East has traditionally referred to as the "mysteries" (as they are literally called in the Greek N.T.). In the early mediaeval era, the western churches began to categorize the "sacraments" - grouping them in accordance with a specific numbering system. Debates arose between Rome and Protestant sects during the Reformation over precisely "how many" there were.

In Orthodoxy, the Mysteries take on a completely different meaning within the life of the Church. They simply constitute the sum total of the numerous and varied grace-bearing aspects and activities of the Church - which in itself, in its cosmic/organic wholeness, is a "sacrament" of transfiguring power to the whole cosmos and human race. The question of the "number" of "sacraments" is simply a non-issue without any relevance or importance in the Orthodox Tradition. The following excerpt from Fr. Thomas Hopko's book, The Orthodox Faith, bears this out (emphasis mine):

The practice of counting the sacraments was adopted in the Orthodox Church from the Roman Catholics. It is not an ancient practice of the Church and, in many ways, it tends to be misleading since it appears that there are just seven specific rites which are “sacraments” and that all other aspects of the life of the Church are essentially different from these particular actions. The more ancient and traditional practice of the Orthodox Church is to consider everything which is in and of the Church as sacramental or mystical.

The Church may be defined as the new life in Christ. It is man’s life lived by the Holy Spirit in union with God. All aspects of the new life of the Church participate in the mystery of salvation. In Christ and the Holy Spirit everything which is sinful and dead becomes holy and alive by the power of God the Father. And so in Christ and the Holy Spirit everything in the Church becomes a sacrament, an element of the mystery of the Kingdom of God as it is already being experienced in the life of this world.

St. Isaac the Syrian: Hell is Love!

2008-04-18T00:23:30Z

This is a very enlightening commentary from St. Isaac the Syrian which reflects at large the Orthodox Church's view on the true nature of hell. Hell is not metaphysically real (i.e., material); only the Good has positive being. We can only move towards the Good (God), or we move away from Him (i.e., into nothingness), and thus the wicked will experience God's Love as hell. Here is the quote in full, adapted from Hilarion Alfeyev's, The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian:

As for me I say that those who are tormented in hell are tormented by the invasion of love. What is there more bitter and violent than the pains of love? Those who feel they have sinned against love bear in themselves a damnation much heavier than the most dreaded punishments. The suffering with which sinning against love afflicts the heart is more keenly felt than any other torment. It is absurd to assume that the sinners in hell are deprived of God's love. Love is offered impartially. But by its very power it acts in two ways. It torments sinners, as happens here on earth when we are tormented by the presence of a friend to whom we have been unfaithful. And it gives joy to those who have been faithful. That is what the torment of hell is in my opinion: remorse. But love inebriates the souls of the sons and daughters of heaven by its delectability.

Christian gnosis and spiritual asceticism

2008-04-17T23:56:23Z

"The Lord does not say that it is blessed to know something about God, but rather to possess God in oneself" (St. Gregory of Nyssa, On the Beatitudes, Sermon 6).

"...being assimilated to the Lord as far as is possible for us being mortal in nature. ... for the Divinity needs nothing and suffers nothing; whence it is not, strictly speaking, capable of self-restraint, for it is never subjected to perturbation, over which to exercise control; while our nature, being capable of perturbation, needs self-constraint, by which disciplining itself to the need of little, it endeavors to approximate in character to the divine nature. For the good man, standing as the boundary between an immortal and a mortal nature, has few needs; having wants in consequence of his body, and his birth itself, but taught by rational self control to want few things" (Clement of Alexandria, Miscellanies, Book II, Chapter XVIII).

"Nor will turning away from objects of sense, as a matter of necessary consequence, produce attachment to intellectual objects. On the contrary, the attachment to intellectual objects naturally becomes to the Gnostic an influence which draws away from the objects of sense; inasmuch as he, in virtue of the selection of what is good, has chosen what is good according to knowledge...." (St. Clement of Alexandria, Miscellanies, Book IV, Chapter XXIII).