2nd_Sunday_Lent The Transfiguration
COMMENT:
 |
| Gregory Palamas |
Gregory Palamas – Hesychasm,
Tabor
Light,
Transfiguration,
fourteen illuminations, ‘
The Radiance of God’.
 |
| Luisa Piccarreta |
Luisa
Piccarreta. The Kingdom of Fiat.
Eucharistic
Life in the Tabernacles.
‘souls before the Sacrament’,
'in my Volition,
to give you the first place in my Sacramental Heart’.
Book of Heaven Vol 12,
July 4 1917.
SUNDAY SECOND
WEEK OF LENT - READINGS Year I
First Reading Deuteronomy 18: 1-22
Alternative Reading
From a homily by Gregory
Palamas
(Hom. 34, 6: The Greek Orthodox Theological
Review 33 [1988]162-164)
The radiance of God
Sit here while I pray. Jesus takes Peter, James, and John with himself. Therefore, taking
only these, he ascends the high mountain apart and was transfigured before them,
that is, before their eyes. What does it mean, "to be transfigured"? Chrysostom
the theologian says: he revealed, as it pleased him, a little of the divinity,
and to the mystics he showed the indwelling God. For this happened while he was
praying, as Luke says. His countenance
was altered; he shone like the sun, as Matthew writes. Like the sun,
he then said, not so that the light should be understood as something sensory.
Far off is this blind thinking of those who cannot comprehend powers more sublime
than that which is visible according to the senses! But, so we may know, the
sun is seen by those who live according to the senses and through the senses,
just as those who live according to the Spirit and in the Spirit see that Christ
is God; and, to those who are God-capable, in this vision, they have no need of
another light, for to those who are eternal, he himself is light and not something
else. For what need is there of another light for those who have the greatest.
Then, while he prayed, he thus "radiated," and inexpressibly
unveiled to the chosen disciples that inexpressible light, in the presence of
the utmost prophets, in order to show that prayer really is the cause of this
blessed vision, and, so that we may learn that the radiance is a result of, and
is revealed through virtuous intimacy with God and of the mind's union with
him, given and visible to all those who are unceasingly purposed toward God, through
genuine beneficence and through, sincere prayer. For it is said that the true
and mostdesired beauty, visible only to those who have a purified mind, is
that which is around the divine and blessed nature. He who gazes upon it is the
reflections and in grace, changes to a certain extent by it, being saturated in
his own vision as by a certain splendorous refreshment. That is how the face of
Moses was glorified while he conversed with God. And do you see that Moses was
transfigured going up the mountain, and thus he saw the glory of the Lord? But he
underwent the transfiguration, not effecting it himself, as it is said: here,
in this measure, the light of truth permits me to see and undergo the radiance
of God. Our Lord Jesus Christ, however, has that radiance as his very own. Therefore,
he himself was in no need of prayer, the body being illumined by the divine light;
rather, he showed, therefore, that the radiance of God has . come to the
saints, and manifested in what manner it became visible to them.
For the righteous shall also shine as the sun in the kingdom of their
Father; and thus, the whole having become the divine light, as children of the
divine light, they saw, in a divine way, the inexpressible super brilliant
Christ, out of whom the glory of the divinity was produced physically. For that
which appeared on the mountain was unified and of the unity of the hypostasis.
Thus, through this type of light, his face shone as the sun.
Responsory In 14:9.7; 1 Tm 2:5
Those who have seen me have seen the Father.+ No one comes to the
Father
except through me.
V.
There is one God and there is one mediator between God and
humankind, the
man Christ
Jesus, who
gave himself as a ransom for all. + No one comes ...
July 4,1917
The Pains Suffered and the Good Done are
Bonds of Union with Jesus. Who Does the Divine Will
Lives with Jesus His Eucharistic Life in the Tabernacles.
Continuing in my usual state, I felt myself suffering a little. Moreover, my adorable Jesus, in coming, has placed Himself before me; and it seemed that between Jesus and me there were so many electric lines of
communication. Then He said to me:
"My daughter, every pain that the soul
suffers is one communication more that the soul acquires. This is because all the pains that the creature can suffer were first suffered in my Humanity, and they took place in the Divine order. Further, since the creature is not able to suffer them all together, my Goodness communicates them little by
little. Moreover, as it communicates them, so grow the chains of union with Me, and not only the pains but also all that the creature can do of good. Thus do the links between Me and her develop."
Another day I was thinking of the good that other souls
have of being before the Blessed
Sacrament while I, poor little thing, was denied this good. Then Blessed Jesus
said to me:
"My daughter, whoever lives in my
Will remains together with Me in the Tabernacle and takes part in my pains, in
the coldness, and in the irreverence, and in all that souls do in my Sacramental Presence. Whoever lives in
my Will must excel in everything. Moreover, she always has the reserved place
of honour. Therefore, who receives more good: who is in front of Me, or who is
with Me? To whoever lives in my Will I do not tolerate even one step of
distance between Me and her, nor division of pains or joys. Perhaps I will have
her on the cross, but I have her always with Me.
"That is why I want you always in
my Volition, to give you the first place in my Sacramental Heart.
I want to feel your heart
beating in Mine with my same Love and sorrow. I want to feel your will in Mine, which, multiplying itself in everyone, gives Me with one single
act the reparations of all and the love of all. Further,
my Volition in yours, which makes your poor humanity Mine, would elevate it
before the Majesty of the Father as my continual victim."
JULY 7, 1917
For Who Does the Divine Will, All the
Works of His Life are Present and in Act.
I was merging myself in my sweet Jesus, but I saw myself so
miserable that I did not know what to say to Him.
18
++++++++++++++++++++
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tabor_Light
o
o
Russian Orthodox icon
of the Transfiguration (Theophanes theGreek, ca. ... Gregory
Palamas defended Hesychasm in the 1340s at three different synods in
... is not God, but is the intermediary between Him and the 'seeing
thought'" as illuminating .... Lowell Clucas, 'The Triumph of
Mysticism in Byzantium in the Fourteenth ...
Based
on Christ's injunction in the Gospel of Matthew to "when thou prayest, enter into
thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray",[2] hesychasm in tradition has been the process
of retiring inward by ceasing to register the senses, in order to achieve an
experiential knowledge of God (see theoria).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hesychasm
Kalistos
http://www.greekorthodoxchurch.org/union_with_god_kallistos_katafytiotis_angelikoudis.html
