Repentance

Repentance is the renewal of baptism. Repentance is a contract
with God for a second life. A penitent is a buyer of humility.
Repentance is constant distrust of bodily comfort. Repentance is
self-condemning reflection, and carefree self-care. Repentance is
the daughter of hope and the renunciation of despair.

A penitent is an undisgraced convict. Repentance is reconciliation with the
Lord by the practice of good deeds contrary to the sins.
Repentance is purification of conscience. Repentance is the
voluntary endurance of all afflictions. A penitent is the
inflicter of his own punishments. Repentance is a mighty
persecution of the stomach, and a striking of the soul into
vigorous awareness.

St. John Climacus  (c. 7th Century CE, also known as John of the Ladder

Negative Theology

When you read of the great spiritual writers and guides, you will inevitably come across the terms 'apophatic' and 'c(k)ataphatic'.  Apophatic theology is a way of relating to God according to the belief that God cannot be conceptualized in human categories.  Cataphatic theology describes God from God's revelation that has been communicated to humanity.   It is the opposite to apophatic theology.


So apophatic or negative theology (Gr. Apophatikos, Negative) is a mystical way which transcends all concepts, images and ideas of God.   Contemplation must be abandoned in favour of the way of darkness.   The deeper the darkness, the greater the awareness of God's incomprehensibility.


The source text of negative theology or apophaticism is The Mystical Theology by a man called Dionysius the Areopagite.  (Also referred to as Pseudo-Denis/Dionysius.  For a long time  scholars thought this piece of writing to be the work of the Dionysius mentioned in Acts of Apostles (Acts 17:34) and so it was given huge attention and respect in the western medieval world.


Later scholarship in the 19th century began to question this.   There have been various theories as to who he really was and current scholarship identifies him as a 6th century Syrian monk.   Other writings by him are also in existence.  (The Celestial Hierarchy, The Ecclesiastical Hierarchy, The Divine Names)
It is possible to buy these in collected form.


The headings from the Mystical Theology are an indication of some of his theological outlook: The Divine Dark, The Negative and Affirmative Theologies, and my own favourite title - The Pre-Eminient Cause of All That is Perceived by Sense Is Not Perceived By Sense. !!


It has been observed that the paradoxes and oxymorons characteristic of his writings are not unlike the self-contradictory axioms of Zen Buddhism.   It should be remembered that some of his other writings show the cataphatic approach to theology too and the other works need to be read with this in mind.


The way of darkness and going beyond what is known and unknown has influenced many of the great theologians and spiritual writers down the centuries.   It is the way of deep passivity through loving union with the unknowable God in the unknowable way of deep darkness.


Gregory of Nyssa writes of 'sober intoxication'. 'watchful sleeo', passionless passion' and 'dazzling darkness' showing him to be an advocate of negative theology.  And the influence of Dionysius and The Mystical Theology on spiritual writers in general down the centuries is impossible to miss.

What is Christian Spirituality? - Philip Sheldrake

Christian Spirituality is "how, individually and collectively, we personally appropriate the traditional Christian beliefs about God, humanity and the world, and express them in terms of our basic attitudes, life-styles and activities."

Spiritual Enlightenment

What Is Spiritual Enlightenment or Spiritual Awakening?

A definition of spiritual enlightenment or spiritual awakening is hard to pin down. This is, in part, because "spiritual enlightenment" and "spiritual awakening" have been used in so many ways to describe so many things, similar to the way in which "love" is used to describe everything from a preference for ice cream to a merging with everything. And it is also because spiritual enlightenment and spiritual awakeningare such rich and complex experiences that they are innately hard to define.

Some definitions are very specific and narrow. One such definition for spiritual enlightenment is the complete dissolution of one's identity as a separate self with no trace of the egoic mind remaining. This sets the bar very high and means that very few people qualify as enlightened. 

The opposite approach is to say that everyone is enlightened, that there is only awake consciousness. In this view, it's only a question of whether this natural awakeness has been recognized or not. Of course, when a word describes everything or everyone, it loses some of its usefulness. If everyone is enlightened, then why even talk about it?

Combining perspectives on spiritual enlightenment

Perhaps there's a definition that includes both of these perspectives, which recognizes that consciousness is always awake and enlightened, but the amount of awakeness, or aware consciousness, that is present in any moment can vary. This definition acknowledges that there's a difference in the amount of awakeness, or enlightened consciousness, that different people experience or that one person experiences at different times but still suggests that the potential for full awareness or becoming enlightened is the same for everybody. If every apparent individual consciousness is infinite in its potential, then each can also be infinite both in its capacity to expand or awaken and in its capacity to contract or identify with a narrow or limited experience.

If all consciousness is made of the same essential awareness and light, and if everyone has an equal potential for enlightenment, then all expressions of consciousness are equally valid and valuable. Everyone truly is a Buddha or enlightened being, at least in potential. So defining enlightenment in many ways now makes sense, depending on what is being pointed to. One may use the word enlightenment to point to the state of self-realization beyond the ego or to point to the innate potential for this realization in all of us. 

As for differentiating between the words enlightenment and awakening, "enlightenment" implies a more finished and constant state of realization, while "awakening" has more of the active quality of a verb and therefore suggests a movement or shift in consciousness. An awakening may be defined as a sudden increase in the overall amount of consciousness an individual is experiencing. There can be small awakenings and bigger awakenings. Not only does consciousness have unlimited potential for the amount of awakeness, but it also has an unlimited potential to shift in any way, at any moment. Consciousness can and sometimes does shift from contracted states of fear, anger, or hurt to expanded states of peace and joy in an instant. Unfortunately, it can also shift in the other direction. Consciousness has no fixed state.

(From the free ebook: That Is That: Essays About True Nature)

Catholics during the Uprising in Libya

Members of Libya’s small Catholic community are not taking part in the uprising against the regime of Muammar al-Gaddafi, the nation’s leading prelate says.

“The Catholic community has not met with any particular difficulties,” said Bishop Giovanni Innocenzo Martinelli, apostolic vicar of Tripoli. “Many of the faithful go into our churches to pray for peace. The two churches in Tripoli and Benghazi have not suffered any damages. The different communities of religious sisters working in hospitals in Cyrenaica [the eastern coastal region] are busy treating those wounded in clashes.”

1.8% of the nation’s 6.7 million people are Catholic, according to Vatican statistics. The nation has six parishes.  The vast majority of the population are Muslim.

God is by my Side

Meditation on Rublev's Icon of the Trinity

Why is there a space, something that expresses an opening-up right in the foreground of [Roublev’s Trinity] icon?  
         The circle is closed on all sides.  In the background the group of angels is protected by their wings; it is only below that there is an empty space, repeating the shape of the chalice, and opening up towards the altar.  Is there going to be a third guest?
         Is your happiness incomplete so long as this place remains empty? 
         It has always been waiting there, and they have always been waiting.  
         They are waiting for you: as if there were only you in the world.  You are so precious in their eyes. 
         “He chose us before the foundation of the world...that we should be holy and blameless before him, and live in love in his presence.” 
         “Pay attention, remotest peoples: the Lord called me before I was born.  From my mother’s womb he pronounced my name” (Jeremiah 49).
         Can you not hear a stream within you whispering, “Come to the Father?”  Can you not hear his own voice, “You are always with me.  All I have is yours?”  “I no longer call you servants but friends, because all I have heard from the Father I have told you.”  “You will no longer be called Forsaken, but you shall be called My Delight.” 
         “For those whom God had already chosen he had also set apart to become like his Son, so that the Son should be the first among many brothers.” 
         Now contemplate the Father, with the large eyes that are already in your heart.  He, the Son, is so utterly given over to you, hidden away in your weak hands, that you can hold out your hands to the Father and offer him the Son whom he loves dearly. 
         Offer him with all the tears that marked his face, all the love that beat in his human heart, but also with all his Beauty, all his Glory, all his filial Joy. 
         There is still an apparently small detail: the small rectangle, just where you come up to the table.  It is the opening made in the altar to take the martyrs’ relics.  This means that you can only have access to the chalice by becoming a witness to your Lord, ready to shed your blood like him, as a Eucharist for his Father’s glory. 
         “You will receive power; the power of the Holy Spirit will come upon you.  You will be my witnesses to the ends of the earth.” 
         “And I saw a huge number, impossible to count, of people from every nation, race, tribe and language; they were standing in front of the throne and in front of the Lamb, dressed in white robes and holding palms in their hands” (Revelation 7:9).
         It is a foretaste of the Kingdom, bathed in light that is not of this world, and all filled with pure joy, divine joy, simply because of the fact that the Trinity exists, that we are loved, and all is grace. 
         “It is Christ who made the heart of humankind, like a vast casket, large enough to hold very God.”  (Nicholas Cabasilas) 
         Tell me, did you never feel you were inhabited?  Can you not hear life palpitating in your depths?  Yes, the Three are there, in all their mystery....Yes, you are inhabited! 
         “If only you knew what God is offering!”
         “If anyone loves me, my Father will love him, and we will come to him, and live with him.”
         Yes, you live in the Trinity, who lives in you, and he is your guest. 
         Do not grieve the Holy Spirit, because the tears of the Spirit are in us.  He will never impose himself.  He will never violate your freedom. 
         Let your three Guests love one another with you, praise one another in you, and sing to one another; let them dance for you in your tent....

         YOUR SECRET IS THE SECRET THAT GOD IS IN YOU.
         BECOME AWARE OF THAT IN THE LAND OF SILENCE.... 

PAUL EVDOKIMOV 
(1902 – 1970)