We can see the Uncreated light. St Gregory Palamas. 2nd Sun of Great Lent (Mar18/31, 2024)

AUDIO: http://www.orthodox.net/sermons/gl-su... VIDEO:    • We can see the Uncreated light. St Gregory...   On the Sunday of St. Gregory Palamas, we ask first: “Does anyone in our assembly pray? From St Gregory’s amazing letter to the nun Xenia, which is a treatise on prayer, repentance, and mourning, we learn that we have not yet prayed and learn all about how to learn to pray. We must learn repentance and mourning, and the letter shows plainly that we in the West know almost nothing about these things, but we can learn! We must learn how to mourn if we can lay any claim to being Christian, with a “godly sorrow (which) worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of”, but not “the sorrow of the world (which) worketh death.” (2 Cor 7:10, edited) And the end result of our labor is: “Prayer is purity of the intellect, and it is consummated when we are illumined in utter amazement by the light of the Holy Trinity.” We quote from many places in the letter. Below are a few of these spiritual gems. St Diadochos writes: 'Divine grace confers on us two gifts through the baptism of regeneration, one being infinitely superior to the other. The first gift is given to us at once, when grace renews us in the actual waters of baptism and cleanses all the lineaments of our soul, that is, the image of God in us, by washing away every stain of sin. The second - our likeness to God - requires our co-operation. When the intellect begins to perceive the Holy Spirit with full consciousness, we should realize that grace is beginning to paint the divine likeness over the divine image in us. ... Our power of perception shows us that we are being formed into the divine likeness; but the perfecting of this likeness we shall know only by the light of grace. But no one can acquire spiritual love unless he experiences fully and clearly the illumination of the Holy Spirit. If the intellect does not receive the perfection of the divine likeness through such illumination, although it may have almost every other virtue, it will still have no share in perfect love.' 13. As the death of the soul is authentic death, so the life of the soul is authentic life. Life of the soul is union with God, as life of the body is its union with the soul. As the soul was separated from God and died in consequence of the violation of the commandment, so by obedience to the commandment it is again united to God and is quickened. This is why the Lord says in the Gospels, 'The words I speak to you are spirit and life' (John 6:63). And having experienced the truth of this, St Peter said to Him, 'Thy words are the words of eternal life' (John 6:68). But they are words of eternal life for those who obey them; for those who disobey, this commandment of life results in death (cf. Rom. 7:10). So it was that the apostles, being Christ's fragrance, were to some the death-inducing odor of death. while to others they were the life -inducing odor of life (cf. 2 Cor. 2:16). St 'Mark also says: 'If you are beset by evil thoughts, how can you see the reality of the sin concealed behind them? This sin wraps the soul in darkness and obscurity, and increases its hold upon us through our evil thoughts and actions. ... If you fail to perceive this general process of sinning, when will you pray about it and be cleansed from it? And if you have not been cleansed, how will you find purity of nature? And if you have not found this, how will you behold the inner dwelling-place of Christ? . . . We should try to find that dwelling-place and knock with persistent prayer. . . . Not only ought we to ask and receive, but we should also keep safely what is given; for some people lose what they have received. A theoretical knowledge or chance experience of this may perhaps be gained by those who have begun to learn late in life or who are still young; but the constant and patient practice of these things is barely to be acquired even by devout and deeply experienced elders. ' St Makarios, possessor of divine knowledge, says the same, as do all the saints. .....