Monday, April 27, 2009

Mystic Monday: Gonna Take An Orthodox Side Trip


Today dear children we are taking a slight side trip on our mystical journey to the land of the Orthodox church in the east. We shall be visiting with Dionysius the Areopagite (aka Pseudo-Dionysius to his homies c 500).


Very little is known about his life apart from his works which are a synthesis of Christian and Greek thought that created a mystical doctrine that layed the groundwork for all succeeding Christian mystics. They shaped the theology and Spirituality of both Eastern Orthodoxy and Western Christianity (King, Christian Mystics p 54)


Denys, as he came to be called, said that one could not know God, but one could experience God. He can be reached and found if He is sought on the right path.


God must be sought with an eyeless mind. The sould yearns for the union with Him whom neither being nor understanding can contain," who is "Darkness which is beyondLight," and whose visions can only be attained through the loss of all sight and knowledge. (King, p 56)


I am leaving you today with a small section from the introduction of chapter one of Celestial Heirarchy, one of his theological tretises which is very deep, but lovingly written nonetheless.


That every divine illumination, while going forth with love in various ways to the objects of its forethought, remains one. Nor is this all: it also unifies the things illuminated.


'Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and comes down from the Father of Lights.'[James 1:17]


Moreover, every divine procession of radiance from the Father, while constantly bounteously flowing to us, fills us anew as though with a unifying power, by recalling us to things above, and leading us to the unity of the Shepherding Father and to the Divine One. For from Him and into Him are all things, as is written in the holy Word.



It isn't rocket science; everything comes from God the Father and as such leads back to God because we live and breathe and have our being in God alone.


Pax


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