St. Gregory Palamas’s Sermon on the Transfiguration

On the Transfiguration
St Gregory Palamas, (Γρηγόριος Παλαμάς) Archbishop of Thessalonica (1296 – 1359)
For an explanation of the present Feast and understanding of its truth,it is necessary for us to turn to the very start of today’s reading from the Gospel: “Now after six days Jesus took Peter, James and John his brother, and led [...]

Ruysbroeck – on Mystical Union

John of Ruysbroeck on Mystical Union
“If every earthly pleasure were melted into a single experience and bestowed upon one man it would be as nothing when measured by the joy of which I write ; for here it is God who passes into the depths of us in all His purity, and the soul is [...]

St. Augustine – Stretching the soul

From the Tractates on the first letter of John by Saint Augustine, bishop
Our heart longs for God
We have been promised that we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. By these words, the tongue has done its best; now we must apply the meditation of the heart. Although they are [...]

A Mystical Experience of St. Ambrose

From the Life of Ambrose, by Paulinus
A few days before he was confined to his couch, when he was dictating the forty-third psalm, with me carefully taking it down, a fire like a small shield suddenly covered his head, and little by little entered his mouth, just as a person enters his home. After this, [...]

Rudolph Otto on the mysterium tremendum

Ottos Mysterium Tremendum
Otto has reached the heart of the matter. He pins down this sort of experience for dissection in terms of a Latin phrase, mysterium tremendum. He presents the tremendum component of the numinous that is being experienced as comprising three elements: awfulness inspiring awe, a sort of profound unease, overpoweringness that which, among [...]

Diadochus of Photice

From 100 Chapters on Spiritual Perfection
Ch. 14
He who loves God consciously in his heart is known by God (cf. 1 Cor. 8:3), for to the degree that he receives the love of God consciously in his soul, he truly enters into God’s love. From that time on, such a man never loses an intense longing [...]

Diadochus of Photice : On Spiritual Perfection

. . . Anyone who loves God in the depths of his heart has already been loved by God. In fact, the measure of a man’s love for God depends upon how deeply aware he is of God’s love for him. When this awareness is keen it makes whoever possesses it long to be enlightened [...]

Philo – On Wisdom

Philo – De migr Abr 8.38-8.42
VIII. …
(38) …On this account I have before mentioned, that the then prophets were called seers; [1Samuel 9:9.] and Jacob, the practicer of virtue, was desirous to give his ears in exchange for his eyes, if he could only see what he had previously heard described, and accordingly he receives [...]

Mozarabic Prayer

Ancient Mozarabic prayer (before 700 AD)
Hear us, O never-failing Light,
Lord our God, our only Light, the Fountain of Light,
the Light of your angels, thrones, dominions,
principalities, powers, and of all the beings of this world;
you have created the light of your saints,
the bright cloud of witnesses around us.
May our souls be your lamps, kindled and illumined [...]

St Columbanus

Reading From the Rule of St Columbanus
Perpetual light in the temple of the eternal High Priest
How happy, how lucky are those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes! How blessed it is to be wakeful and watching for God, who created all things, who fills them with being and exceeds all of [...]