Some Reflections on the Notion of Spiritual Advancement,

Part I

From approximately 1983 through 1986 I had spent many an hour–actually countless hours–translating the Commentary on the Song of Songs by St. Gregory of Nyssa which saw publication the following year. In addition to this, I had done a number of other translations of Gregory’s works, two of which were published as books, others in journals and still others on the Home Page dedicated to him. Most have found their way to that Home Page which recently was made into a CD-ROM for distribution to the public. There’s nothing like working with an author–word by word, line by line–over an extended period of time to become familiar with how he or she thinks. This is especially true when you’re working in another language. It’s tedious and time consuming, especially when dealing with Gregory’s difficult Greek style. In addition, I had the opportunity to attend numerous meetings of scholars and people interested in the Church Fathers. While valuable, I discovered that such meetings were no substitute for “doing Gregory” in the monastery which had always been his native soil. A monk may be relatively isolated in the enclosure, that is, not having the advantages of professional training. Nevertheless, the monastic environment is unparalleled for getting a feel for someone like Gregory. A monk may not be able to articulate himself like a professional, yet he has special insight from living a way of life quite familiar to Gregory. In more recent years the Internet has been a great boon; in my case it allows me to be in touch with people from all over the world. More specifically, I mean those who have accessed the Gregory of Nyssa and Lectio Divina Home Pages. Many such folks aren’t scholars but are interested in applying his teaching within their own lives...and they show up from all walks of life.

Originally I intended to devote this document entirely to some reflections on spiritual advancement through the perspective of Gregory of Nyssa. While this remains true, I decided to expand it into three sections, Parts I, II and III, all of which are included here. The reason? In Part I it seemed better to speak from monastic experience–collective and personal–about spiritual advancement as lived at particular monastery, St. Joseph’s Abbey in Spencer, Massachusetts. That’s one advantage of being in a community...the incredible amount of wisdom right there for the taking. Then you can take this wisdom and give a report directly from the field. After that we can move to Part II–the shortest of the three sections–which more specifically touches upon motion or advancement based upon a geometrical figure prevalent in nature yet overlooked by philosophy and theology. After that Part III looks at specific texts from Gregory of Nyssa’s Song Commentary which demonstrate this notion. Thus we are proceeding from concrete monastic practice to a model (of movement) and finally to one Church Father’s interpretation of this movement.

With this three-fold plan of attack in mind, let’s start with an idea taken from Gregory which will set the tone for the current document. This fourth century author is best noted for his sophisticated concept of advancement in the spiritual life which is inextricably bound with growth in morality. For him and most Church Fathers the two are one and the same. The Greek word which best sums up Gregory’s thought is epektasis, the continuous striving forward to deeper stages of the Christian life. It is best understood within the context of Philippians 3.13 which we find throughout Gregory’s works: “Brethren, I do not consider that I have made it (perfection) my own; but one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and straining forward (epekteinomenos, a verbal form of epektasis) to what lies ahead.” This dynamic and modern sounding view of the Christian life lies at the heart of Gregory’s theology in that it represents a movement of perpetual ascent towards God whom we can never attain. We begin it now. Once on the road, never cease moving forward. According to Gregory, we continually fall short of ultimate unity and stability in the divine good yet never weary in reaching out towards it. This is a paradox which at first glance is unsettling. However, a closer proves otherwise.

At the same time, the more I read Gregory of Nyssa, the less I understand him. This seems to be in keeping with that paradox just noted; it is a backwards way of knowing, if you will, which creates more ignorance than knowledge. After you get acclimatized to it, you discover that it isn’t ignorance in the common sense but a kind of unlearning with regard to pre-conceived ideas. I don’t fully comprehend this phenomenon–perhaps never will–yet at the same time have come to realize that it’s a good problem with which to be afflicted. The more you get into an author of some repute the less you know about him. What he has to say resounds within you in a special way, for his works have a transcendent quality which open up deeper levels...not entirely unlike the Ezekiel’s chariot which contained a wheel within a wheel [cf. Ezk 1.16].

The dialectic between knowing and not knowing an author like Gregory compelled me to jot down some thoughts garnered from over three decades of experience within monastic life, the fertile ground of these reflections and work on Gregory of Nyssa. Sometimes when using the first person singular I have in mind the experience of my fellow monks both past and present, dead and living. We monks are weak as individuals yet have a unique collective strength unlike any other I encountered in other groups, religious or otherwise.

The question of advancement in the spiritual life according Christian tradition has a number of well-laid out paths, some of which are more familiar and trodden than others. It so happened that early on in my monastic career I had hit upon a lesser known path, one central to the Church, albeit fairly unknown. By this I mean the fourth century or the Church’s Golden Age when so many things came together in the right way and under the right circumstances. It was a time when all the fundamental doctrines about Christ, the Trinity and the like had reached a definitive form which later centuries simply refined. From there the tradition was passed on through the Dark Ages when it assumed quite a different form. Next it achieved a more recognizable character (at least for Westerners) in the Medieval Period. Despite significant changes afterwards, we continue to think of the Catholic Church in medieval terms. The same applies for monks, but because they have better access to their tradition, they are more exposed to lesser known though vital trends of spirituality and theology.

After some years of initial enthusiasm over the discovery of the Church’s fourth century treasures, I unconsciously thought yes, the spirituality of that time must be typical of the Church today. Quite the contrary. There happened to be a whole slew of paths, most of which I was just cursorily familiar; in addition, many seemed oriented towards (and derived from) Carmelite spirituality. Its most popular representative is St. Therese of Lisieux or the Little Flower. She, in turn, was situated in the less familiar Carmelite heritage of St. Theresa of Avila and St. John of the Cross. Obviously they are giants and familiar among people earnest about the spiritual life. Most likely my classical training in college was instrumental in leading me down the path of the Greek tradition, instinctively having favored it over the Latin one. Running parallel to this interest, we Cistercians belong to the Benedictine family and have a venerable tradition of our own. Amazingly, it was only rediscovered in the late 1960s, and much work remains to incorporate it into our lives.

While these multiple currents were nourishing generations of Christians, spirituality over the past hundred years or so in the Catholic Church leaned more towards devotional practices, some of which have fallen from use. Then again, there has been a kind of rediscovery with regards to some of these practices, pretty much to fill the void of their abrupt departure. The monastery ran more or less parallel to this trend and on occasion, older monks speak with fondness of that period. Another feature to this devotional approach was the type of monastic formation prior to the Second Vatican Council. There were two distinct patterns, choir monks and lay brothers. The former were trained in scholastic theology and the other were more work-oriented. Despite this division, both were encouraged to read devotional literature, chiefly authors of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Spirituality was pretty much pigeon-holed into devotion along with other parts of the monastic schedule. The emphasis was upon action, either scrupulously performing the Divine Office or engaging in heavy manual labor. Upon both groups–choir monks and lay brothers–was imposed a strict regime of fasting and a multitude of observances. Senior monks recount that reading so-called mystical authors was frowned upon. At the same time the Order was expanding rapidly in the United States with the erection of numerous foundations. This environment produced holy men, many of whom are still quite active. Despite their valued presence among us, you get the impression that they have their roots in another world. In the future the same might be said of younger, post-VC II monks, although their experience is dissimilar. Despite differences between the two groups, the latter is “more modern” by contemporary standards, that is, more exposed to trends in society and culture which is marked by fluidity and constant change.

Since I had entered the abbey four years after the Second Vatican Council, monastic life–let alone the Catholic Church as a whole–was in considerable turmoil; the turmoil seemed to have gathered steam a few years afterwards as opposed to not immediately following the Council. Looking back, it is a vague period, pretty much blotted out by subsequent developments, a kind of marking of time before real changes had a chance to set in. Monasteries have always been behind the times, so it took approximately five years for this turmoil to come knocking on our doors...and this was just when I joined. If an earth-shaking event were to happen nowadays, the effect would be swifter, given the access to modern means of communication. Some modes of communications were in place then but were more restricted; in addition, the culture as a whole was less in tune to their long-term repercussions.

About five years after the Council people were still feeling their way, and plenty of mistakes were made. At this time–it could be extended to the end of the Viet Nam War in 1975 after which things tended to settle down–monks were exposed to traditions other than Christian ones. It was an exciting period when we reached out to Zen Buddhism, Transcendental Meditation and other spiritual practices which were reverberations from the 1960s. Of course, not everyone partook of them, but it served to make both participants and non-participants stop and think. On the other end of the spectrum monks were rediscovering their Cistercian heritage. Until then most monks were ignorant of William of St. Thierry, Aelred of Rivaulx. However, the larger appeal of more exotic forms of spirituality put the Cistercian one on the back burner. The reason? Despite its close connection with the patristic era, the Cistercian period was couched in traditional modes of expression...and the mood of the time wanted something that spoke more directly to personal experience. All this seems a bit immature some thirty-five years later, but you have to put yourself back in those circumstances to appreciate what was going on.

Not all monks were smitten by the novelty of these experiments but enough to make everyone take notice, including those favoring the devotional approach, the chief representative being the Little Flower and writers such as Dom Marmion. With the exception of the former, Marmion and others have fallen from grace, some of whom aren’t even known among younger monks. This devotional approach was accompanied by an unfamiliarity with the Bible; better, devotion and commentaries on it were preferred which made the sacred text another step removed from familiarity. Although the monastic liturgy was built upon Scripture, it’s difficult to gage how much or how little monks read the sacred texts, even in the spirit of lectio divina. From what older monks have said, I suspect that in practice, lectio was equated with reading devotional material. While this system was firmly in place, quite a few good books and articles on monasticism and lectio divina were being written. The time was approximately between the end of World War II and the Second Vatican Council, and the authors were both Benedictine and Cistercian monks. At the same time, this material went under the unfortunate label of “intellectual” mostly because it was new and done by scholars. Furthermore, communication was severely limited, and monks couldn’t talk easily among each other. Nevertheless, a lot of ferment must have been brewing just beneath the surface which presaged the larger effects of the Second Vatican Council.

I had entered what you might call the tail-end of that world order which now seems a curious episode in the Church’s history; curious in that the time span was relatively brief, intense and quickly (shall I say deliberately?) forgotten. With the advantage of hindsight, these short years were exciting in that our community as well as other Cistercian houses were making a transition from an older way of doing things to something new and unfamiliar. One seminal development was taking place that affected us all: dialogue which to that point had been terra incognita. Despite other areas of renewal, dialogue was the only consistent element that continues to enliven our community up to the present. At least for St. Joseph’s Abbey, it had achieved a mature form which we currently enjoy and into which newer members are inserted as full participants.

After the dust had settled around the late 1980s, our community attained fairly good stability, and we were able to assess from where we had come and to where we might be going. Then approximately some ten years later (which brings us to the new millennium) a two-fold problem emerged: a community that was aging and fewer vocations. Actually this had been simmering in the background but went unnoticed amidst all the earlier excitement. At one point the community suddenly seemed to have gotten older. Excluding monks in need of intense care, those who entered after World War II and the early 1950s started to slow down and require some physical assistance. In two other articles on this Home Page I had touched up this situation and won’t go into it here. Suffice it to say that coming to grips with an uncertain future–indeed the community’s ability to propagate itself–will be with us into the indefinite future. Apart from the more obvious problems associated with an aging community, of chief concern is how to live the monastic life in light of a longer life span and the multitude of options society offers. Until about a generation ago people (monks included) passed off the scene around forty years of age. Now at that age we are just embarking on the second half of our monastic journey and can expect to live at least another forty years...in the same place and with the same people which totals to around eighty if not a hundred years. No small wonder that monks have a special dread for genetic engineering!

Since this extended life span is a problem rarely discussed yet is in the back of most monks’ minds, it may be helpful to explore some of its aspects as related to spiritual advancement. In the past (that is, prior to the Second Vatican Council) spirituality was primarily an individual enterprise between the monk, his confessor and the Abbot. With dialogue, the whole community has come to play a role in each monk’s life. Not that it supercedes one-on-one contacts but gives greater meaning to the way each monk conducts himself. Even this phenomenon is relatively new and requires further exploration. It doesn’t mean that people are looking over your shoulder. On the contrary, monks now rely upon each other more than in the past. Some of the older community members don’t subscribe to this, but many have formed lasting friendships, a phenomenon which hitherto had been unknown. Yes, the monastery is an amazing mix of people from several different–radically different–generations, and they don’t learn to live together overnight. The advantage of the youngest group is that they can draw upon the experience of their seniors and hopefully will come up with a new form of living the Cistercian life. However, their elders will have to pass off the scene before this is effected. Attention of the younger generation will shift once the community has transited the current stage characterized by care for the aging which for the moment pre-occupies everyone and promises to do so over the next few years.

One more important point should be made with respect to that peculiar period of the post Vatican Council years. As our former Abbot Thomas Keating eloquently pointed out, the years right after the Council were marked by more immediate responses to the changes that had been wrought. You could say that little space was given for reflection upon what the Church was doing. For convenience we could posit these years as between 1965 and 1970. Then after the initial shocks died down, there was another period (again, for the sake of convenience) from 1970 through 1975, the end of the Viet Nam War . This second five year span saw greater need for reflecting upon the new changes as well as better responses to them. Those who entered religious life at the half way point of these two periods did so under unique conditions. Everything was up for grabs and was subject to all sorts of questioning. It didn’t last long–perhaps couldn’t, given the intensity of the times–and was quickly superceded by greater stability in the Church and society. Furthermore, those who were formed during this “interval period” (as a senior monk later said) were a small number to begin with. Now they are getting older and their experience stands the risk of being forgotten.

Midway through his abbatial tenure (this was around the late 1970s) Keating reflected aloud during a community meeting that the period from 1968-1975 was second only in magnitude to the French Revolution. Maybe a bit exaggerated, but it certainly deserves closer attention. That crisis which had decimated the Cistercian Order was nevertheless a threat from without, whereas the second lacked such drama. Instead, the dangers came from within. They weren’t outwardly dramatic but unprecedented in that the Order never faced such top-to-bottom internal confusion in its 900 year history. It was a unique result of experimentation with Oriental religions, loosening of strict observances (notably silence) and the sudden merger of two branches of the Order, choir monks and lay brothers. These all combined to produce an atmosphere where people had no idea where they were heading. Surely the commitment of many monks had been shaken, especially those formed before VC II when the Church seemed it would go on forever in its present form. The tensions that ensued got too much for some, and solemnly professed members were leaving at a good clip. Actually seven monks had departed within three weeks of my entrance into the monastery. Later it turned out that three got married and later divorced; I don’t know what happened to the other four.

The recent millennial year of 2000 offered a natural break in time to pause and reflect upon the last forty years or from the end of the Second Vatican Council, a time which coincides with my entrance into the monastery . Every anniversary–marriage, religious life, work–is significant and offers a similar occasion to reflect upon the past as well as the future. Rounded off numbers are more momentous: ten, twenty, twenty-five, thirty and so forth. Amongst these the number twenty-five and fifty stand out as milestones of a person’s commitment. I’ve noticed that marking an anniversary–and I have in mind monastic profession–assumes special personal significance from thirty onwards. There’s something about the number thirty which makes a break with the more “common” anniversaries preceding it. You’re in a different league and instinctively know it. Anniversaries of monastic profession differ from others in that it means you’ve been a monk for such-and-such an amount of years in one abbey as opposed to having opportunity to move around. For example, you can be married thirty years, yet this has little to do with abiding in one physical place. By no means do the years accumulated detract from the commitment involved; it’s the more stable nature of monastic profession, unique nowadays, that I wish to point out. The advantage of this magical cut-off point of thirty years is a fairly good indication that you won’t be moving on to something else. One monk who recently attained the forty year mark compared the number thirty with the so-called point-of-no-return when a jet is flying across the ocean. About two-thirds out you have to keep on going, regardless. Applied to life, you’re getting older and options reduce much more quickly from this juncture onwards.

Another factor contributing to the monastery’s timeless character is that when you step over the threshold, you enter a place which seems to have been in existence from The Beginning. St. Joseph’s Abbey was founded in 1950, having moved from Rhode Island after a disastrous fire (prior to that we were in Nova Scotia, having arrived there in 1825). Compared with many other comminutes–younger or older–we have moved three times in our history. When I entered the monastery’s presence at Spencer was less than twenty years old. The buildings still retained a newness reflected in the monks, most of whom were involved in its construction. Despite this newness, that timeless character was clearly in evidence. Then as the years passed by and as other men have entered, the place (and monks) got older. The time isn’t far off when the last monk who lived during Spencer’s construction will have died. I believe at that point St. Joseph’s Abbey will pass into a wholly different realm and view the previous era with almost mythic awe. People will ask as the ancients had asked their predecessors, “Who built this place, and what kind of men were they?” The response is logical: “The gods.” Nevertheless, the monastery has an aura of stability independent of when you had joined. It’s now your duty to pass on the same stability to the next generation.

The stable character of Cistercian monasticism–commitment to a specific community compared with other religious organizations–sets it apart from many forms of monastic life. Although Benedictines commit themselves to a given community for a lifetime, they move around quite a lot due to their teaching and pastoral work. As for Cistercians, they receive a unique form of training which cuts across all modes of life in that you don’t have to be educated nor even require graduating from high school. This allows for a wider spectrum of candidates than you’d fine in other orders. Objectively speaking, the training is minimal; we tend to equate training as the acquisition of knowledge and techniques, but this doesn’t apply with us. A fellow who has just entered starts off by doing general household chores and isn’t distinguished from a monk who has been around many years. Furthermore, the official training doesn’t begin as it does on the outside, semester-style. The novices go through a prescribed series of talks and conferences about the particulars of monasticism, yet even here a newcomer can jump in at any time of the year. This amorphous character makes the notion of education hard to pin down with respect to Cistercian monasticism. More importantly, it is more difficult to discern a person’s vocation since objective standards are fuzzier than in other circumstances. Even the normal requirements (health, mental stability, freedom from personal debt) are so all-encompassing that they are just as hard to put your fingers on. Yes, it is this very amorphous character which makes our way of life akin to the earliest expressions of monasticism. In the long run, living in such an environment presents unique problems because they don’t identify with their jobs, spouses let alone a religious ideology.

Thus qualifications for joining the monastery are both vague and demanding in that a candidate has to show signs that he can adapt to a rigorous daily schedule. They make you pause and think...What do we look for in candidates? Apart from the normal requirements you’d expect, what do we look for among ourselves as we move along through the years? The inability to present a clear-cut response is vexing yet in line with the original aspirations that got monasticism going in the first place, all the way back to the beginnings of Christianity. Those who took up the call did so under the guidance of a charismatic figure; only after several centuries did monks form communities which were more or less loosely organized. A standard answer from those working in the vocational department would be that it’s the persistent quest for God which interests us. Emphasis is upon the word “persistent” which parallels the vow of stability. Fine but still nebulous because a person can seek God in other ways. You can narrow down the focus more and more. Even here you can’t get at the essence because it has nothing to do with your qualifications in the sense of looking at your résumé.

Each and every one of us who have walked over the monastery’s threshold had an idea of staying there for good, vague as it might have been. A common experience is that our expectations get dashed–usually right off the bat–because people are people whether inside or outside a monastery. One’s intent gets sifted over time, the first three years being set apart for this specific goal. It’s extended through several years in mitigated form called simple profession until the community deems the young monk ready to make solemn vows. Even then you’re not in the clear, ready to coast for the rest of your life. As I observed in another article on this Home Page, a crisis emerges some ten years down the road. It may or may not relate to the infamous mid-life crisis. Part of the reason is that the life remains the same (externally), and it’s difficult to say how this sameness impacts individual lives which are always developing. The essence of that ten year crisis revolves around a proven reality: a young monk wakes up to the fact that his field of activity is destined to be confined to this place and these men, most of whom are aging rapidly with few or no replacements on the horizon. It’s not entirely unlike realizing that you entered a nursing home, as one monk observed with regard to our now fully occupied infirmary. Instead of ministering to their needs and then going home, in a monastery you both minister to them and live with them 7-24, as the expression puts it. This is a bit extreme because a monk has plenty of other activities to keep him occupied. I mention it here because relating with older men–let alone personalities very different from your own–brings home the fact like no other that you’re stuck in one place. The only other parallel would be prison or exile in the gulag. Better to jump ship now while you’re still young.

Another more subtle force is at work within the monastery which you usually don’t find in other modes of life. Here you have a group of people among whom the burdens of keeping the place running are shared as equally as possible. It’s done with a minimum of over-taxing each member, no small feat. One monk cooks, another works at Trappist Preserves while yet another monk tends to the guest house. With all these tasks evenly distributed, you can end up with a lot of time on your hands even though some appear more burdened than others. You have to keep in mind that a few monks aren’t bothered by this; they are simply geared more towards work. Furthermore, monks don’t worry about paying taxes nor having enough money for a comfortable retirement...and this excludes normal concerns like looking for the next meal or clean clothes. Everything is laid out there for the taking. I get the impression that monks don’t appreciate this as much during their earlier years. During the first half of one’s career attention is taken up with adjusting to the life. It’s longer than you realize because during this time the monastery is still new and you’re feeling your way in areas normally unexplored by the majority of people. Later during the second half of your career the luxury of institutional living hits home. It often comes to light when you meet your contemporaries in society struggling not only to make ends meet but their concerns about retirement. And here you are, sitting pretty in the monastery.

This second phase of monastic life is a tremendous boon, for it enables one to be freed up to pursue things people in different walks of life can only dream of. Chief among them is having time to read about a wide range of subject as well as reflecting upon them long and hard. It’s one of the things more thoughtful visitors long for when they fantasize about living in a monastery. Even former monks or those who’ve been with us as little as several months note this when they return for a visit. Such leisure is our real treasure yet requires constant diligence to appreciate. Again, keep in mind that we monks are stuck in one place, day after day, month after month, year after year. Extending it over a lifetime is a daunting task and shares one of the most ancient impulses which got monasticism off the ground, namely, perceiving it as a “white martyrdom.” Early monks considered themselves as carrying on in bloodless fashion the witness of those who were really martyred for the faith.

Where does spiritual advancement fit in here, a major theme of this document? Surely awareness of one’s inherent limitations, especially living in close quarters, makes you wonder. There’s a constant dialectic going on between the monk as an individual and the community; both overlap in many subtle ways. An observation may be pertinent at this juncture. Yes, Cistercians live in community but on the practical, day-to-day level there’s a lot of time for solitude. There is more solitude in larger communities because burdens are shared more evenly. Having time on your hands makes you think long and deep, perhaps to a greater degree when you’re confined to a specific physical place. Disrupting events loom larger, larger than they really are. Greater access to modern modes of communication is helpful here; the same applies with having friends on the “outside.” You know from their experience that despite appearances, they are too much taken up with the fast pace of life and regard staying in one place with a real sense of horror.

So here we have a group of monks well on their way into the twenty-first century who went through some earth-shattering events, most of which are just a memory among younger members. They try to make sense of them, especially in spiritual and religious terms. It’s a tendency we all have when it comes to crises opposed to when things are going well. “Am I (and my community) better off today than I was back in the ‘60s?” could be a way of trying to come to grips with this. A misleading question, yet one we entertain in the privacy of our minds. It seems that the longer you’re in the monastery the better you’re able to discern trends both within or outside. However, common to both is the notion of progress. Thus the question could be re-phrased as “Have we made progress since the 60s?” Progress is so indelibly ingrained in our Western consciousness that we barely give it a thought. It’s fine, but alternatives may exist. Does progress have to be so dominant and demand our allegiance? Is the only alternative chaos? Even contemplating the notion of progress implies its opposite: a vague, threatening disorder lurking some where out there. Instead of caving in to it, we can step back, get a handle on the situation and see if other options are available. Monks are fortunate in that they have plenty of time to mull over such matters. They may not be systematic thinkers but in the long run, rank pretty much up there with the best of them.

Now let’s apply the notion of progress to a young man who just entered the monastery. He has a legitimate aspiration of being better off at some point down the line, that is, compared with the day when he had stepped over the monastic threshold. Despite the usual ups and downs, he expects that his advancement will continue, the usual bumps-in-the-road taken into consideration. Obviously things turn out differently, but better to have an ideal than none at all. It helps you through the initial rough spots. If we recall for a moment the confused state of affairs right after VC II, it was considerably more difficult for a newcomer’s ideals to concur with the real state of affairs within the community. Apart from the conventional struggles between pre-conceptions and reality, the condition during those five short years challenged a newcomer like no other. Monks–even senior monks–were seriously and vocally questioning many aspects of the life. Perhaps it was the first time when it was done with such intensity. Since dialogue was beginning to make its presence felt in Cistercian communities, it was a shock for many to hear what was seething just below the surface after living under one roof for many years. Thus you had an extra burden imposed on newcomers. Those seasoned monks engaged in the questioning process were too caught up in the excitement to realize the impact of their words and actions upon the young.

Sometimes a view from the outside sheds clearer light on the monastery’s inner state of affairs. Let’s say a person familiar with the abbey had stopped by for a visit during that tumultuous time. He would fine the place lovely as usual and the liturgy flawlessly performed. If he had been coming for a while, perhaps he would have recalled that only several years earlier the liturgy had been sung in Latin and was considerably longer. This person would continue visiting the monastery over the ensuing years, and apart from minor variations, would perceive little difference between the immediate post-VC II years and right now...and by “right now” I mean the actual present. “Timeless” is not an infrequent term you hear from such people, and in many ways they are correct. However, on the inside a huge transformation undetected by the naked eye was under way. I have often pondered this when the community just experienced a major circumstance, an abbatial election, for example. You just participated in something that affects both your life and those of your brother monks. Then you exit the chapter room where the voting had taken place and attend Vespers in the abbey church. The Office proceeds as the day before, and anyone in the side chapel wouldn’t have the slightest clue as to what had transpired in the chapter room.

I mention this to illustrate a point. Visitors have an unconscious expectation that monks not only live in a timeless world but are immune to what plagues humanity. Problems were always with us well before the post-VC II years and are with us now. Certainly we will have new ones down the line. Such an optical illusion on the visitor’s part is normal. It can be inverted in that monks can think that the world-right-now is pretty much the same as it had been the day they entered. Even though they have made trips outside the enclosure and were in contact with people in real life situations, it does little to alter this view. After all, the monastery is a self-contained world. Thus in the monastic context the ideas of spiritual advancement and progress in the modern sense is tricky to get a handle on. On one hand you have the relative sameness of life within the enclosure and on the other, society’s constant changes.

All these details can be seen through two traditional modes of discerning reality, sacred and profane, a division which many people agree is becoming increasingly sharper. While you’re in the monastery and aren’t pressed by external needs, the sacred dominates. From time to time you get glimpses into the other half–the profane–which has virtually no idea of the sacred. A simple example: let’s say that a monk goes to town...not just on a regular day but on a holy day. I’m not talking about the major ones of Christmas and Easter but big in the sense that they are important for monks and less so for other folks. On the outside people are going about their business just like on other days which is perfectly fine. Nevertheless, being inserted within this profane (the term literally means before or outside the temple) environment is disconcerting. Although you wouldn’t admit it, you almost expect everyone else out there to be in tune with the day’s special meaning. Such a not uncommon situation hearkens back to the application of Relativity Theory to human events. A monk can’t help but reflect upon how “relative” is his life. The facts are staring him in the face.

In the midst of all the post-VC II soul-searching monks were confused even though they didn’t admit it readily. So much was hitting us from all angles that nobody could make sense of was going on. What makes this particularly difficult is that monks don’t have the usual outlets but are confined to their abbey; this, in turn, amplifies what might otherwise go unnoticed or is easily resolved. Throughout all the tumult we had one constant, the Divine Office. Even that was changing rapidly in the post-Vatican II years until thing leveled off in the late 1970s. I bring up the Office because we’re in church seven times a day, seven days a week. No small wonder that St. Benedict termed it an “opus” or work (as in Opus Dei) and rightly so: it’s one thing to attend on occasion and quite another when you go as often as we do.

A little appreciated fact about the Office consists in an underlying tone to the scriptural and patristic readings you don’t pick up right away. They are full of exhortatory words as “should,” “must” and “let us.” That is to say, every time we attend one of the Offices a reading is prodding us to improve in this way or that; in brief, to become better Christians. Perhaps this relentless exhortation wears down a monk’s attention. Somewhere lurking in his (un-?) consciousness is a contrast between one’s frailty/sinfulness and an ideal. And this ideal is more often than not identified with the person of Jesus Christ. Of course, the saints are thrown in for good measure who can seem more remote than Jesus himself. Thus we have a daily dose of being measured-up hard to find in other environments. Most of the time it passes unnoticed but then again, it becomes painfully clear when you’re having a bad day. Just like other folks, monks alternate between periods of exultation and depression which stand out more than in other ways of life.

It’s interesting to consider the ramifications of such daily exhortations over a monk’s lifetime. An excellent time is when the monk has just died. By this I mean the monk both on his deathbed and the time afterwards which consists of wake, funeral Mass and burial. Compared with a lot of people, monks live exemplary lives and have had plenty of time to prepare for death, so it comes as no surprise to him. Quite a few have died “in the odor of sanctity,” to borrow a familiar phrase. His death offers an opportunity to reflect back on his life both in its individual and collective aspects. In fact, our current Abbot instigated a custom when we assemble as a community in order to offer our observations on the recently deceased. Contrary to what you’d think, it’s a joyous occasion. Over time, the nature of monastic life somehow removes the sting or fear of death, and this is self-evident when we have these get-togethers. The reason I bring this up is that you can take a monk who just died–apart from the all too familiar accounts of his human frailty–and see the operations of divine grace. This is a paradox because monks aren’t usually favored with lightning-bolt revelations nor exalted states of contemplation. Their experience parallels that of many other people, and sometimes you have to look hard and deep to discover what had given them impetus over the years. Invariably you try to see where the monk had made progress...advancement...in the spiritual life. Again, all this is hidden so you have to be careful about your conclusions and even more careful when you apply them to your own life.

After this digression I can sum up the essence of what I wish to communicate here in Part I. Up to now concrete examples were presented to show the notion of progress in the spiritual life during a particular historical period and within the monastic way of life. During turbulent times it can be helpful to view an abstract notion as advancement in the spiritual life in terms of a concrete image. It enables us to externalize ideas and view them as forms which we can better handle. Not that the spiritual life can be reduced to mere imagery, but the process makes use of our imaginative powers and hence our creativity. Also the times don’t have to be so turbulent. As every spiritual master acknowledges, we humans must come face-to-face with our inner conflicts which are always present. Thus imagery is a sure guide and made all the more so when shared with fellow travelers on the spiritual path.

We can come up with lots of images, but all are based upon three basic to most cultures: square, triangle and circle. The first is representative of the four elements of earth, air, fire and water or the four basic elements which comprise the creative realm. In the monastic context, the square can be representative of the enclosure which separates “us” from “them” and therefore acts as a protection. Within Christian theology, the triangle is an image of the Trinity or Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Even though the Trinity transcends this image, if we’re honest with ourselves, we conceive the Three Persons as some kind of isosceles triangle in the sky. The representation is more subtle than that but the form remains. Finally we have the circle, the most basic image of them all. It is a natural representation of perfection and eternity. Each image contains a center; the triangle least of all with the square coming in second. It is the circle which has a clearly recognizable center where every point on the circumference is equidistant to this center. Also, if we stood dead center in the circle the circumference would be equidistant from our position as it moved around us. For a circle to remain a circle it’s critical for the two to be in exact harmony, other wise it would loose its shape. This is the draw-back of a circle, for it intimates a tension or maintaining constant balance between circumference and center. If somehow the center were to move from its natural position, it’d be eccentric, literally so. The same applies to the square but not as much and even less so with the triangle. Nevertheless, all three images are bounded and have a center .

Should you decide to make a survey of Christian literature going all the way back to the Church’s beginning and proceed forward to the present, stop and consider the imagery people used. More often than not, it’s circular; even the circle seems better than the (Trinitarian) triangle as an image of perfection. The square is left on the sidelines because its intimations of things earthly makes it suspect. A side bar: several images in the Roman catacombs have squares instead of halos. Apparently this meant the person was considered a saint while still alive. On a more familiar note, consider the dimensions of the heavenly Jerusalem in the Book of Revelation. The city is a perfect cube where the number twelve (divisible by two, three, four and six) plays a dominant role. As for the circle, other images may be thrown in along with it: the sun’s disk, the notion of a spiral, hierarchical ascendancy (one thinks of Dionysius and Dante, among others) and in the monastic context, the liturgical cycle. Should we take up a position on the circle’s circumference, we would continuously be aware of the center. It acts both as a force of attraction and repulsion, that is, in the gravitational sense. Such focus by the circumference upon the center is therefore at the heart our ideas concerning spiritual advancement; the same applies regarding the center.

When we monks are exposed to readings during the Divine Office as well as other spiritual literature, I believe we unconsciously conjure up the image of a circle somewhere in the back of our minds. An example. The readings’ exhortatory nature remind us of our “eccentricity” with regards to the Christian ideal. This is certainly true as borne out by daily experience, for we are get out of sync with the circle’s center. Life is a tension between our shortcomings and what we are supposed to be. Here the role of memory can border on the compulsive and trap us in a constant cycle (!) of remembrance with regard to our failings. This is fine up to a point but when you’re in the monastic life over an extended period (keeping in mind the much longer life span we have today), you can stagnate in light of the relentless readings coming at you.

Does this have to be so? I am not minimizing the struggle of following Christ, let alone other noble pursuits. I’m concerned with an apparently minor though vital point, the application of an appropriate geometrical image to our experience when it comes to things spiritual. If maintaining position on the circle’s circumference is difficult to attain, the triangle seems out of reach. As image of the Trinity, it stands above and beyond human experience and rightly so. The square may be more suitable to represent our experience, for it’s suggestive of boundedness and protection. That is to say, at the center we can gaze out and say, yes this side is so long and has such-and-such a relationship to the other three and visa versa. No small wonder that the ancients took the square as an image of the four elements making up creation .

Perhaps an alternate geometrical form to the square, triangle and circle exists. Perhaps there is one which is more apropos to real life experience which doesn’t dovetail with our pre-conceived notions of perfection. I propose an ellipse. That will be discussed in Part II, but before that, let me give a few concluded paragraphs concerning the present section.

What do these accounts related to life in a Cistercian monastery have to do with Gregory of Nyssa whom I spoke about in the opening paragraph of this essay? Throughout each of those monastic-related experiences, Gregory continued to remain a constant reference point. The first notable example occurred after having been in the monastery for six months when I came to grips with a concrete application of how to deal with change (or the lack of it). One day the daily routine suddenly became boring; it doesn’t take long to know the monastic ropes, actually only a few weeks. After all, you’re living in an enclosed environment and the place (spread-out as it may be) remains limited. Towards the end of six months I had settled into a routine and wondered how to handle it. And don’t forget, all this happened during that post-VC II period when my seniors were vocally questioning everything. During these early months I happened to speak with one of our senior monks, Br. Alfred Grimes (he died at 93 years of age in 1983), very bright and Harvard educated as well as having been an army captain during World War I. At the time Alfred worked in the library, and I shared with him my plight or coming to grips with the sameness of the monastic regime. Immediately he suggested Gregory of Nyssa and the next day handed me From Glory to Glory by Jean Danielou and Hubert Muserillo. This book–published in 1962 and since reprinted (St. Vladimir’s Press, I believe)–contained meaty excerpts from Gregory’s writings. Better than that, its lengthy Introduction offered a fine presentation to key Gregorian themes. In my opinion, it continues to remain the best introduction available in English to his theology. Br. Alfred knew what he was doing. When I look back, his handing over that book helped transform my perception of monastic life.

What was in From Glory to Glory that was so attractive? Of course, I just had the vaguest idea of Gregory of Nyssa but that was soon to change. Since I had knowledge of both classical and koine Greek, a real advantage, I began reading the early Christian writers in systematic fashion. The going got tougher when I got to the fourth century but by then, I had built up a reservoir of Greek terms and concepts. Gregory’s teaching on epektasis or continuous forward movement outlined in Glory provided the solution to my dilemma of monastic boredom. Here was a key element for future growth discovered just after a mere six months into monastic life. Of course, Br. Alfred became even closer; when you touch upon such vital matters, death isn’t a separation. Alfred is just as much alive as Gregory of Nyssa is today. In addition to epektasis, Gregory’s other ideas came along at a perfect moment because as intimated several paragraphs above, I had entered during a tumultuous period, right when everything was up in the air; on top of it, solemnly professed monks were leaving with alarming frequency. Gregory provided the right terminology backed by solid theological and philosophical reflection to better understand key elements such as prayer, detachment and perfection.

+

Part II

In Part One I had focused in some detail upon the more immediate years following the Second Vatican Council as viewed through the lens of Cistercian monastic life. While this approach may have limited appeal, it can offer some insight into how those turbulent years affected other communities, lay or religious, so the applications are fairly universal. The period from roughly 1965 through 1975 is often overlooked because some much was going on and people were too involved with immediate concerns which had engaged their attention. Little time was available to pause and notice deeper undercurrents. In addition to many monks leaving, monastic communities were suddenly and unexpectedly exposed to the turbulence that had been affecting society as a whole. Obviously a dramatic change from the self-imposed isolation of the recent past.

Such in-between periods of history are always fascinating, for they offer insights into what had gone before, where we are at the present and where we might be headed. At the same time they are crises in the literal sense of the word, crossroads. People were vaguely aware that the choices made then were bound to have long-lasting repercussions. Such times are instructive to reflect upon but quite another thing if you had to live through them. Even more challenging was if you were new to monastic life, you discovered that everything was being questioned and was up for grabs. Newcomers naturally seek stability which was difficult to come by. Only a handful of Abbots were equipped to guide their communities through these times. Fortunately for us, we had one of the best, Thomas Keating, whom I mentioned in Part I. He was one of the few to see that the models of the past–and that was just a mere few years earlier–could no longer function for behavior in the present nor in the future.

Unstable times are always more interesting than peaceful ones. Apart from the significance of these events in and by themselves, there’s a justifiable pride at having lived through them, to have survived to tell about them. When you’re in a monastic environment which focuses upon advancement in the spiritual life in an intense fashion, it’s helpful to pick out a period of time which challenged premises long taken for granted and unquestioned. After all, these premises had been in existence for many centuries. That’s why the post-VC II years are so interesting. The events of those brief years set in motion a whole train of events which are still with us, many of which have not been fully resolved. Because of this and because life is full of unresolved issues, it might be helpful to look for a geometrical model closer to experience. And that leads us to the essence of this section of the document.

Towards the conclusion of Part One I had introduced three geometrical figures central to h theological and philosophical speculation: circle, square and triangle. These figures were intended as a preliminary to presenting an alternate geometrical figure. That figure is an ellipse, so familiar yet virtually overlooked. This figure, in turn, is better suited to map out our often messy experiences such as the ones I’ve been describing in Part I. Like most established religious organizations, the Church gravitated towards the figure of a circle as a model of perfection as can be garnered from spiritual and theological texts. Not overtly, of course, but it is the prescribed figure for describing perfection and centrality. Now some forty years after the Council we have moved into a more amorphous, “relative” period which requires fresh examination. This examination doesn’t relate so much to the tenets of Christian faith but to a reappraisal of those models on which these traditions had been constructed.

For the sake of discussion, let’s say this ellipse is squished more on the top and bottom and extends out to the left and right. We can follow our instincts and automatically look for a center as we do with the square, triangle and circle. By their very natures, all three images compel us in this direction. Nothing wrong with that, but using the familiar representation of the solar system taken (I believe) from the astronomer Kepler, our center of gravity would be towards one side within the ellipse. For example, let’s situate ourselves on the left side. Each planet circles around the sun. At one time it reaches a perigee or point closest to the sun and at the opposite end, an apogee or furthest distance from the sun. If I recall correctly, larger celestial bodies such as galaxies and galaxy clusters operate on the same model. The planets (sticking with them since they’re more familiar) rotate around the sun though it might be better to say they sling-shot themselves around it. Let’s take ourselves on the planet earth. At one point we are traveling away from the sun, and this trajectory is more lengthy, even lazy, and continues for considerable time and distance. Then at some mysterious point we make a sharp bend as though going around some mysterious invisible body and repeat the same trajectory on the way back. Both the outward and homeward bound journeys are of equal length. They also tend to bulge ever so slightly. As for the earth, once it approaches the sun it goes around a tight corner compared with the fairly extended outward and homeward journeys. At this point we are closest to the sun which counters the other pole, our apogee.

Such an ex-centric model makes us ask the following question. If we acknowledge our eccentric position off in one corner of the ellipse, is there another mysterious eccentric center out there around which the departing arc bends before returning home? Perhaps this question reveals a tendency to look outside our “eccentricity” for a solution, whereas the solution lies within the place we’ve always possessed. This reminds me of an Australian boomerang. The boomerang goes out from the person who cast it and makes an arc around that “other center” before returning home. Obviously the boomerang’s shape has something to do with creating an ellipse; it may be closer to how things work in the world as opposed to a circle, square or triangle. Then again, this image may reveal how memory works instead of that cyclical motion to which we had alluded. Images we fabricate to express our experiences don’t have to tie us up in circles, squares or triangles. Rather, they can depicted as going out fairly straight, making an arc and then returning to us with a refreshed picture of the world. Thus it might be better to consider our memories as assuming the shape of a boomerang.

I stretch out to some degree this elliptical image in order to delineate its four parts of perigee, apogee, outward and homeward arcs. To make the ellipse work, by necessity our center is ex-centric, or just enough off dead-center to effect this particular shape. We could extend this image of the earth’s elliptical order to the earth’s yearly tilt on its axis which gives us the four seasons. Supposedly the earth is more pear-shaped than round. If we were situated in space above either the north or south pole and look down upon the earth, we’d see this elliptical motion tilting just enough to produce the four seasons. We move from summer to autumn to winter to spring and back to summer. In other words, the earth’s tilt gives us the impression of circular movement which has no real beginning nor end. Thus the seasonal/circular rotation is embedded within the elliptical/axial rotation and in a sense is illusory.

I bring up these astronomical images to show that elliptical motion is more natural than the other three images of square, triangle and circle. We find more familiar examples in nature which assume the general form of an ellipse: swarms of fish, flocks of birds, the shape of deciduous trees, bushes, rocks, raindrops and cumulus clouds. They all have centers of gravity but are more difficult to perceive. However, once we perceive them they jump out at us. Applying the image of an ellipse to human affairs, consider race tracks (car or otherwise). Nobody races in a circle but in an ellipse. You would soon get dizzy and confused if you ran on a circular racetrack.

Now let’s apply this most natural of all images to the realm of spiritual advancement. Experience indicates that we alternate more between presence and absence; it isn’t far off the mark to say that our lives follow this pattern. Such traditional terminology has been applied throughout the ages. The only problem is that we depict this alternation as a dichotomy along the lines of shifting from one place to another and then restoring our lost balance. At the heart of such descriptions lies our old friend, the circle. Putting it somewhat wryly, maybe here is an example where we are “going around in circles.”

Elliptical motion parallels that of a circle in that both move in fixed patterns. In the latter, movement is always perfectly equidistant from the center. In the former, the center of gravity must be eccentric (keeping in mind we situate it towards the left for our purpose here; the center of gravity can equally be towards the right, top or bottom). If we take our experience of prayer, contemplation, we find that we alternate between highs and lows, periods of exultation and depression, presence and absence. Then we use images or basic geometrical shapes to interpret these alternations. Obviously the most common at hand are circle, square and triangle. Not that we impose a mental circle on our experiences–that’s be Platonic in the its most misunderstood sense–but if you really examine yourself, some “geometrical” gesture is at work.

Getting more specific with regards to this image of an ellipse, we could say that a particularly strong presence of God may be depicted when the ellipse is making a sharp turn around our axis as this simple diagram illustrates:

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The + is our position, and the ellipse may represent those experiences–regardless of content–to which we are subject. According to this diagram, any given experience gets closer and closer to us (let’s say the rotation is counter-clockwise according to the two arrows) until it makes a sharp turn around us ( the +) located at the ex-centric axis. Sometimes we see the event–and I include both external or internal ones–coming towards us but more often than not, it jumps upon us from out of nowhere. Before we give it a second thought, our attention becomes focused upon the “bend” or contracted energy of the event which throws us into confusion. The same applies to intense experiences of joy which, if we’re objective enough, contain the same basic energy. Not long afterwards this pent-up energy departs from us, sling-shot like, and we’re left wondering what had happened. Both the arrival and departure occur so quickly we can’t get a handle on the process, and we’re left bewildered. Such is the nature of distractions in the spiritual life which often have assumed personal forms (demons, for example) and rightly so due to their intensity.

One way of dealing with these experiences is to mentally come up with some kind of image. It at lease allows us to get our bearings and distinguish our true self from things that assault us. Not untypically, our first impulse is to visualize a circle with us at the center. This is symptomatic of our attempt to establish (or to re-establish) our center. Then again, these attempts often flounder because in essence, we want to be centered. Failed efforts naturally result in our becoming ex-centric with the circle revolving around us out of wack. Not that the circle is out of wack but our location respective to it. As noted earlier, the same process can apply to a square or triangle, but the circle is usually the one to which we have recourse.

Watching these experiences come and go is a dizzying experience, but it doesn’t necessarily have to be so. We can adopt the figure of an ellipse. Here experiences arrive with the same suddenness, yet because of our ex-centric position, they bend around us with the same intensity and head off in the other direction. Consider these experiences in light of circular motion just posited. Again, the image of going around and around is so common for a confused state of mind trapped in a never-ending cycle. Not entirely unlike Ecclesiastes’ “round and round” observations applied to the human condition. The same applies to evil which seems circular as well as binding. If we substitute the image of a circle with that of an ellipse as rapidly as possible to disturbing events, it can dissipate the negativity with greater dispatch. I might add, “all the more naturally” because as noted earlier, an ellipse is the most natural figure in creation whether on the micro or macro level.

In Ephesians 3.18 St. Paul comes up with a statement that at first glance doesn’t apply to an ellipse but a square: “(that you) may have power to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth.” Its beauty lies in geometrical symmetry, easy for anyone to grasp. After all, a square is an ancient symbol of the creative realm, and the Ephesians quote can easily be transferred to a circle or perfection. Applied to an ellipse, the breadth, depth, height and length are more flexible; each dimension feeds into each other. Related to this insight is the Church’s liturgical cycle. Should we conceive the progress of liturgical events within a given year as elliptical, the image can have greater appeal, i.e., instead of the commonly known “liturgical cycle,” the “liturgical ellipse.” Then again, should we apply the added notion of a pitch as noted above with regard to the earth, the completion of one cycle is never identical with those that preceded it nor those coming after it. Each rotation therefore offers a wholly different experience even if it differs slightly.

From what I gather, the three common geometrical figures of circle, square and triangle are man-made, whereas an ellipse is natural. To recap from Part I, consider both the micro- and macroscopic worlds: raindrops, trees, swarms of fish, flocks of birds, planetary and galactic motions. They all have an elliptical shape. When you consider this basic figure you gradually realize that despite the appeal of the three traditional geometrical shapes, they are artificial and pose a dichotomy between us and the world. The same can apply to spiritual methods and ideas founded upon circular motion which is more pervasive than at first glance. Within the sphere of circular models is a certain tension between an ideal and our lives, of how we measure up to such ideals. The circle’s center is the heart of perfection, and to move off the center is, by definition, to become eccentric. Yet the very shape of an ellipse requires that we be off center. On top of that, we have another center located at the opposite end of the ellipse necessary for retaining its form. This is the perigee or furthest point from our ex-centric position and pretty much remains a mystery. That’s perhaps the secret appeal to elliptical motion. We have a known ex-centric center along with one which is unknown.

Philosophical speculation built the geometrical figure of a circle has been handed down through authors such as Plato and then passed on to the Middle Ages. One application which has its roots in a circle is that of hierarchy present from the start of the Christian church. Reality is composed of various rings or layers of being in ascending order. This notion was easily transferred into the ecclesiastical structure, and the term “hierarchy” is still with us today. Thus the circle and attendant insights were very much alive and associated with the official Church, usually perceived in term of power and control. Then along came the Second Vatican Council which saw the Church as the People of God. Here is a completely different way of viewing things...elliptical?...but fraught with its own dangers. Perhaps we’re still too close to this new image and can’t put a shape on it, a task for future generations.

Despite all the familiar talk at how modern society is corrupt and breaking down, the prospect of renewal is fertile for the Catholic Church. In fact, there seems to be a parallel between today and fourth century society when the Church enjoyed a golden age of sorts (Gregory of Nyssa flourished then). Best of all, it was closely associated with classical Hellenistic culture. People may consider the Medieval period a golden age, but by then the hierarchy attempted to dominate every aspect of life. During the fourth century the Church was left free to develop her best theology which perhaps has never been excelled. No small wonder that many thoughtful people in this post-VC II era are consulting documents from the fourth century more than ever. The Church had a hierarchical system in place then, but it hadn’t assumed all the trappings we now associate with it. Today there’s a growing awareness that yes, even if the Church has her hierarchical system, there’s a kind of church-within-a-Church existing which is a free association of people based upon friendship in the ancient, classical sense. The two can fit together without conflict. Perhaps due to the liveliness of classical Greek culture during the fourth century this free association was taken as a model among Christians. Thus that time has a strikingly modern air about it, chiefly because ideas were percolating freely.

Often when the larger society is in crisis there’s more creativity. Such is the situation in which we find ourselves some forty years after the Second Vatican Council. One advantage of our times is that we can stand back and see the Church at the Council as having just emerged from the last vestiges of the medieval world and began its passage into the modern one. “Medieval” is almost a more derogatory term instead of “ancient,” for the latter was in many ways more sophisticated than the former, very much in tune with its own time. The questioning process with regards to the Church’s mission (i.e., beneath the headlines) is taking place quietly and lovingly among persons attracted to each other by the classical notion of friendship which goes under the Christian term of koinonia. The associations formed by such people will by necessity be small, yet size is secondary. When reading some of the patristic texts, especially letters which dealt with real life situations and drawing from ancient “profane” texts, we can identify with the same questioning process so alive during the fourth century. Less emphasis is placed upon dogma, hierarchy and traditional elements as opposed to cultivating friendship which has its roots in Jesus Christ.

These free associations function within the institutional Church and pay what is rightfully her due. When you’ve discovered real friendship you are less concerned with structuring it, say, in accord with the geometrical models of a circle, square and triangle. At the same time, structure and models are necessary for the institutional Church and society. On the other hand, friendship is more flexible and isn’t focused upon a desire of being at the center, let alone concerned about moving away from it. Hence the value of an ellipse. This model offers more flexibility because it can accommodate the ebb and flow of human relationships. An ellipse offers a down-to-earth way of handling things, simply because it is the most natural shape we find in nature. As I have noted earlier, perceiving our experiences in terms of a geometrical figure is of vital importance. It’s something we do every day without adverting to it. A friend with whom I shared all this remarked, “at heart we are students of the ellipse.” I believe he means that we should study this figure carefully to see if it has application out in the field, the rich field of spirituality, and share it among friends.

When difficult situations jump upon us with such vehemence, we haven’t the slightest clue as to their source. They seem to be lurking out there somewhere. Should we subscribe to the circular model, we see that they throw us off center before we realize what had happened. Efforts to restore our balance are invariably couched in circular or perhaps square-like imagery. A closer look at the general nature of trying experiences reveals that they actually “bend” around us. Instead of constantly being equidistant to us and enslaving us, this bend is a relatively short period of time compared with the full course of an elliptical figure. Under the influence of a circular model, we perceive negative experiences with much greater force, sometimes the force of fate or necessity. When so constrained, we feel compelled to follow either the impulse, habit, addiction or allegiance without reflecting upon its source. Clearly the circle model demonstrates that we’ve been thrown off center and can’t find our way back to it. But if we view ourselves as the eccentric center of an ellipse, we get a different picture of the same negative energy. Here the energy bends more sharply around our center. Events come more quickly and depart with equal swiftness. Thus the “down time” of their actual presence with us is that much shorter.

Another way of putting this is that when we consider the ellipse as a whole and not just that “bend” closest to our eccentric center, negative energy takes up a considerably smaller part of the whole figure. On the other hand, a circle presents energy revolving around us at equal distance and equal intensity. Here’s another example where the popular expression comes into play, “going around in circles.” Take a look at the elliptical model with our center located off to the left, as it were. It allows three things: experiences “bend around” us more quickly, the ellipse’s bulge allows us more time to see them coming towards us and finally, we behold their departure fading off with the same speed and distance as their approach. Both the second and third reveal an identity of sorts, with one is coming and the other is going.

At this juncture keep in mind the bulging nature of an ellipse (we’re looking at it horizontally, maybe the easiest way of grasping this image). It bulges out both on top and down to the same degree. The high point of each bulge creates a horizon, if you will, points x2 above and x1:

                           direction of experiences leaving us (x) >

                                                  x2

                                      x

                                                  x1

                        < direction of experiences approaching us (x)

Both points x1 and x2 are horizons which divide the ellipse into two equal parts, left and right, while not splitting the figure in two. Given our position as off to the left side, only this half is visible or that which lies right to point x1 and left to point x2. The other half is the “dark side” or that which lies beyond our perception. Therefore awareness of one half gives rise to the insight that most likely another half exists out there which runs according to the same pattern. Another way of putting is that if our ex-centric position is on the left, there must be a counter ex-centric position somewhere off to the right. Thus both sides balance each other off. Not that we have two centers vying for dominance but two centers required to maintain a single elliptical shape. If we had in mind a circle, dividing it in two from top to bottom makes a cleavage and abolishes the center thereby setting ourselves up for a dualistic way of viewing reality.

Let’s consider those troublesome experiences which hit us out of the clear blue with no warning signs. We’re caught off guard and flounder helplessly. Should we familiarize ourselves with elliptical motion, points x1 and x2 above and below the ellipse allow us more time, if you will, to see these experiences both coming and departing from us. We can see–using this term figuratively–their approach and gathering of intensity until they make a sharp bend around us and loose their force as they depart. The interesting thing here is that both their arrival and departure are of the same intensity and duration. In this way we can better situate the “bend” of such sudden negative energy as around our eccentric position, knowing full well that their coming and going participate in a certain sameness. Instead of letting this remain in realm of theory, play around with it for a while and see if it works. After all, nature’s favorite shape is an ellipse.

We have gained familiarity with our ex-centric location concerning points x1 and x2. Not only that, we see it reflected in nature and can transfer it into how we comport ourselves in daily life. Based on this insight, the figure’s meaning is open for expansion. However, a note of caution: seeing ellipses around us is one thing but quite another when it comes to things we can’t visualize. After all, the events which hit us from the clear blue are hard to depict, even when crouching at the door of our awareness. It may not be far off the mark to conceive knowledge of these unknowns in terms of prophecy which has its roots in the ellipse’s “other half” or opposite to our ex-centric position. Better, prophecy consists in intuiting the similarity of advancing and departing events and energy with respect to the two horizons points, x1 and x2. These events have to “come from” somewhere, affect us and then return...at least this is one way to conceive their elliptical path. Prophecy here doesn’t mean predicting the future, soothsaying nor the like. Because it consists in intuiting the essential sameness of everything which we encounter (point x1) and later reflect upon as it departs (point x2), this type of prophecy allows us a better understanding of events.

Prophecy understood in terms of perceiving the essential sameness of events which befall us is one half the story. As we know, real life is composed of a jumble of chaotic elements. The real test of prophecy as defined within this essay is intuiting sameness in multiplicity which leads to its practical implication, not being swayed by all the chaos out there. Obviously a delicate task. What we’re trying to do here is simply see if there’s an alternative way to mirror our experiences other than the conventional geometric figures of circle, square and triangle. Should we practice with the figure of an ellipse, we can come up with a better map, as it were, of how to comport ourselves. After all, behind our attempts to make sense of both positive and negative experiences lies that tendency to impose a geometrical shape upon life’s experiences. This almost unconscious option sets the stage for the emergence of language and metaphors. From there it’s a relatively small step to the construction of a philosophy and theology to interpret our experiences.

Hitherto I have dealt with the left side of the ellipse and rightly so, for that is where we are “located.” It includes our range of perceptions, the bend that events take around our ex-centric position and the horizons of x1 and x2. By nature we desire wholeness and have an inkling that there’s more to our range of perceptions despite our inability to identify them. The desire for completeness is at the root of why we’re often so unhappy and wish fulfillment. Yet again the elliptical model is helpful in that it maps this unknown reality. Not that it reveals this reality in the sense of figuring something out but is an aide for knowing our true nature. Familiarity with one half of how reality works (referring to our ex-centric position) allows us to cast this same familiarity onto the other half of the ellipse. After all, the geometrical figure needs to be fleshed out, and we do this by extending awareness of that familiar part of the elliptical pattern. Here we have a “just as-so” situation. I.e., just as the world seems modeled after an ellipse to which we can apply our experiences of reality, so what we do not know may take the same shape. Better, just as the world/experiences form one half of an ellipse, so does the unknown take a similar form and fill out the elliptical form.

Referring back to points x1 and x2 or where our perceptions of reality come into being and then leave us, we wonder, almost childlike, that they must come from some far-off mysterious land. From time to time they visit us god-like...or no so god-like (usually the latter). The word “god” is not inappropriate due to the mysterious and sudden arrival/departure of these entities. It is akin to the Greek daimon. They are certainly real–not imaginary–as we know from the intensity of the “bend” they take around our ex-centric position. A physical analogy is the dark side of the moon which until one of NASA’s space voyages, had remained a complete mystery. We had thorough knowledge of the moon’s front side and assumed its other half was similar. At the same time we didn’t really know what was behind there until astronauts had seen it for themselves and could report back to us earthlings. Furthermore, during the time these astronauts were on the dark side they were completely cut off from communication. They had gone beyond a familiar horizon and were out of touch until coming around to the other familiar horizon, the moon’s right side, so to speak.

Familiarity with one half of the ellipse leads to a hunch that the other half exists. Such a hunch is founded upon a geometrical projection where we wish to flesh out the full form. We may call it faith in the existence of this unseen half. “Faith” may not be an exact word, yet it does say (keeping in mind two paragraphs above) that just as we have an ex-centric position with respect to the ellipse’s bend, so a counter point must exist–a counter ex-centric center–directly opposite us. This other half lies beyond our sight over the horizon of points x1 and x2 or before we see something coming towards us and departing from us. In other words, this stuff must come from somewhere before it hits us and must return somewhere. Actually much of our problems consist not so much in negative experiences per se but in wondering about their origin.

What gives us a clue that so much of life can be interpreted as elliptical in its total form (despite our partial vision) is faith in this form itself. Again, refer to the abundance of elliptical shapes in every aspect of nature. Therefore the question is: if we intuit one half of the ellipse as it applies to the way we comport ourselves, from where does our “faith” in the other half derive? Is it a figment of our imagination, a projection or wishful thinking? I don’t think so, simply on the basis of how pervasive elliptical shapes are in nature. We can use our “just as-so” formula in another way by saying–and this is more abstract–just as an ellipse is the most natural shape of them all, so does it work on levels of human experience not perceptible to the eye, namely, our intellectual and spiritual endeavors.

As for the other invisible half of the ellipse, we don’t move out physically towards it or towards the other “bend” around which that invisible half curves. Paradoxically we perceive it when making a gesture of remembrance or recollection. Since we’re born elliptically, so to speak, we can say that we have an inherent memory of this pattern. Here we’re not considering memory in the conventional sense but in the more technical definition of anamnesis. We shouldn’t think of this as remembering an ellipse which parallels the misunderstanding of Plato’s form, an ideal horse out in space to which physical horses are a mere shadow. Rather, our anamnesis may be conceived as perceiving the pattern of our soul, of how it operates. Since we’re “elliptical by nature,” making an inward gesture to see that stuff of which we are made puts a distance between us and what is external.

I have never come across the image of an ellipse to describe our spiritual ascent whether in religion or philosophy. On the other hand, it’s easy to find the image of a circle as the paramount image of perfection (the square and triangle to a lesser degree). With this in mind we can use elliptical motion as a tool to get a better handle on some ideas related to how Gregory of Nyssa conceives motion. After all, the opening paragraph of Part I claimed this was the substance of both essays. Since I have some familiarity with Gregory’s Commentary on the Song of Songs, Part III will give a fairly extensive listing of texts with transliterated Greek words. Perhaps after fleshing out some ideas lying behind these words we can see that the reality symbolized by elliptical motion, while not explicit, is not entirely absent. It hovers in the background needing to be articulated without distorting Gregory’s ideas. While Gregory doesn’t subscribe to ellipses, I think his subtle terminology–which reveals an equally subtle appreciation of philosophy and theology–may fit into the elliptical pattern as already outlined. It’s just a starter for the moment.

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Part III

This is the final and lengthiest installment, Parts I and II having served as an introduction of sorts. There I had outlined several ideas on the Christian spiritual life and how they tie in with some of the effects in the more immediate years following the Second Vatican Council. More specifically, this task was situated within the narrower confines of Cistercian monasticism. Also the geometrical figures of a circle, square and triangle were discussed as traditional models of perfection. As an alternate model, I introduced the less familiar model of an ellipse. Although that material can stand independently, I take it as a preparation for outlining certain aspects of the theology of Gregory of Nyssa as found within his Commentary on the Song of Songs. I chose this text because it is his most mature and thus sums up many tenets of his thought.

In Part II I had introduced the Greek term apatheia, usually translated as detachment. It is a difficult concept to grasp in English and has been bantered about in religious and theological circles for many centuries. Everyone with an inclination towards things spiritual is looking to be free...detached...or not overwhelmed by temporal concerns. The chief purpose of this is to be free for pursuing loftier goals. Obviously apatheia is an important characteristic of a person who has tasted divine reality, even fleetingly. Thus Parts I and II sought to bring together several disparate concepts used to describe the spiritual life and the geometrical figure of an ellipse. Hopefully all three parts of this document will show that they aren’t as disparate as first imagined. In various ways they contribute to an understanding of how we can comport ourselves in a world marked by change, evil and confusion.

Also in Part II I had expanded the figure of an ellipse as a map of our experiences which may assist us to better appreciate certain features of Gregory of Nyssa’s thought. On the other hand, we shouldn’t search his writings with the intent of discovering the word “ellipse,” let alone this concept. Wishful thinking, to be sure, but initially (and wistfully) I had entertained the thought. Nevertheless, I tried to show how an ellipse is an image useful for depicting concrete events and situations. Just like a circle, it is a form representative of motion, and for his part, Gregory’s ideas explore motion more than any Church Father. This motion apparently assumes a linear direction which can also be depicted as an ascending spiral, however, that isn’t clearly spelled out. The term Gregory uses for continual growth and ascent is epektasis , not just in this life but for all eternity.

As soon as we bring up a word like motion there comes to mind some geometrical figure. At first you’d think it would be something akin to a straight, unending line or an unending circle that spirals upward. However, Gregory doesn’t seem to situate epektasis within a particular geometric path which makes it all the more intriguing to guess at what figure (if any) he might have entertained. Epektasis is marked by continuous alterations of the divine presence and absence. Once you reach a given place of spiritual growth, you discover it doesn’t satisfy but press on to another...and so forth ad infinitum. Epektasis is therefore a paradox: the closer we get to God the farther away from him we find ourselves. Surely it’s hard to come up with a geometrical figure to describe such a paradox, yet imposing a favorite shape or form is an unconscious approach we’re prone to adopt whether we admit it or not.

The chief purpose of Part III is to pick out several notable forms of motion described in the Song Commentary. I show this by stressing the subtle uses of prepositions which are prefixed to nouns and verbs, for example, meta (after), sun (with), pros (towards) and ex (from). Virtually all terms relate to some kind of movement. We could say that they move according to one geometrical figure or another which enables us to perceive these words through forms. This approach is simply one way of getting at what Gregory of Nyssa has to say; the terms are much more subtle in the original Greek, the reason why I transliterate them.

The transliteration of Greek words may seem burdensome, but it is essential to retain as closely as possible subtle shades of meaning lost which otherwise would be lost in translation. The following diagram may help to show what I’m trying to get at here. The circle (perhaps it should be an ellipse!) represents reality as a whole, both the outer world and our inner experiences not to mention the amalgam of both. Each preposition–there are nineteen of them–shows how we approach all three. I suggest taking a mental photograph of this diagram while reading the texts discussed below, for it will go a long way to explain what Gregory of Nyssa is attempting to communicate:

A note with regard to the layout of this document. Excerpts are taken from most of the Commentary’s fifteen homilies. First I have a “Primary Text” or an excerpt freighted with concepts pertaining to movement. This is followed by an “Abstract” or more specific excerpts from the passage. Finally are the “Notes” or other passage from the Commentary which flesh out the use of the same terms. Many words contain prepositions prefixed to nouns and verbs (some have two, even three) which makes the interpretation of movement all the more interesting and subtle. Not all references touch directly upon motion, yet I have deemed them helpful to appreciate the many shades of meaning which may be attributed to this concept.

As the document proceeds, less references may be used as to the verbs of motion since they have already been noted.

This section is still in the process of refinement. Please not that towards the beginning texts in the “Abstract” section are more numerous.

Reference to the critical text commenced under the direction of Werner Jaeger is designated by the appropriate numbers in parentheses.

Excerpts from The Commentary on the Song of Songs

Prologue

Primary Text

Yet Paul somewhere calls the shift from the corporeal to the spiritual “a turning to the Lord and the removal of a veil” [2 Cor 3.16]. In all these different expressions and names of contemplation Paul is teaching us an important lesson: we must pass to a spiritual and intelligent investigation of scripture so that considerations of the merely human element might be changed into something perceived by the mind once the more fleshly sense of the words has been shaken off like dust. (6)

Abstract

-Shift (metastasis), a position of standing-after. It has two aspects as follows:

          -From (apo) anything related to the body or material reality.

          -To (pros) or towards the spiritual or ta noeta.

-Both the apo and pros similarly have two aspects: a turning to (epistrophe) to (pros) the Lord and the removal (apokalupsis) of a veil.

-With regards to contemplation or theoria the important lesson requires a passing to (me parameno, literally, ‘not to remain’) an investigation of scripture which is twofold: spiritual (aulos or ‘immaterial’) and intelligent (noeteos).

-Considerations (ennoia) of that which is human require change or metaballo (literally, a casting-after) into (pros) something the mind (nous) can grasp. This can only occur once the fleshly sense (dianoia) of scriptural words has been shaken off (extinasso) like dust.

Notes

Metastasis

Since the shelter of the rock lies close to the wall, your passage from the wall to the rock is short. 162.10

-The praise with respect to her progress in virtue is especially perfect, testifying to her great change and transformation for the better. 187.12

-The revelation of these herds from Galaad intensifies their praise because our conversion brought us from a Gentile way of life to one of philosophy with regard to God. 223.5

-By this example (Moses who saw God in the darkness, cf. Ex 24.15-18) we learn that our withdrawal from false, deceptive ideas of God is a transition from darkness into light. 322.15

-For the alternation (antimetastasis) of life and death occurs through participation and deprivation with regard to the same thing. 351.18

Epistrope

-Thus the text of the Song exhorts us, even if we now live in the flesh, not to turn to it in our thoughts. 31.2

-Now they love the bridegroom’s beauty, and through love they draw him to themselves. 39.4

-How she leaps and bounds toward what lies before her and does not turn back! 119.17

-All these examples are like voices summoning the soul to turn back order to contemplate the [heavenly] mysteries. 178.3

Parameno

-Such a disposition is servile, and the person with this disposition does not remain with the master out of love. 16.7

-When everything is enshrouded by the prevailing gloom of night, even if things happen to be light by nature, with the coming of light the comparison to darkness does not apply to things previously obscured by gloom. 48.10

-She struggles to learn and to think how her loveliness can remain forever. 63.3

-She has made of him sweet myrrh and received this perfume in the sachet of her heart, that its goodness may always remain with her and never escape. 95.16

-The bride thinks that she perceives her spouse in different ways at different times and never has the same image of what she has comprehended. 139.9

–The bridegroom is neither standing still nor remaining nearby that she can get a good look at him and see who he is. 139.11

-Being transformed from glory to glory, they do not always remain in the same character. 186.7

-They seem to have existence but are not what we think, nor do they always remain in the way we think of them. 316.9

Metaballo

-It seems that the desert caused these things and made her shoot rise up and change into such beauty. 188.1

-When the bridegroom descends into his garden, he changes the fruits into something better and more worthy. 305.23

-One rightly understands these examples of growth by shifting the narrative to a symbolic plane. 354.20

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First Homily

Primary Text (six texts)

Those of you who, according to the advice of St. Paul, have stripped off the old man with his deeds and desires as you would a filthy garment and have wrapped yourselves by the purity of your lives in the bright garments of the Lord which he displayed upon the mount of transfiguration; you who have put on the Lord Jesus Christ with his holy robe and have been transformed with him into a state which is free from passion and more divine, listen to the mysteries of the Song of Songs. Enter the inner chamber of the chaste bridegroom and clothe yourselves with the white garments of pure, chaste thoughts. Let no one bring passionate, fleshly thoughts or a garment of conscience unsuitable for the divine nuptials. Let no one be bound up in his own thoughts or drag the pure words of the bridegroom and the bride down into earthly, irrational passions. (14-15)

Abstract

-According (kata) to advice (sumboule).

-Stripped off (apoduo): desires (epithumia).

-Having wrapped yourselves (periballo): garments displayed by Christ on the mount of transfiguration (metamorphosis).

-Put on (enduo): Jesus Christ: with (meta) his holy robe.

-Transformed (summetamorphoo): into (pros) state free from passion (apathes) and more divine (theoteron).

-Garment of conscience (suneidesis).

-Drag down (kathelko): the bridegroom’s pure words.

Notes

Apoduo

-She removes the tunic of skins, washes dirt off her feet, and does not put on again that ugly, ragged garment. 332.20

Metamorphosis (includes verbs)

-By approaching my archetypal beauty, you have become beautiful. Just like a mirror you have taken on my appearance. 104.4

-When the bridegroom exhorts the bride who is already beautiful to become beautiful, he clearly recalls the words of the Apostle who bids the same image to be transformed “from glory to glory” [2 Cor 3.18]. 160.4

-Although she is a dove by what she had achieved, nevertheless, the bride is bidden to become a dove once again by being transformed into something better. 160.8

-Thus it is among persons advancing in virtue; being transformed from glory to glory [2 Cor 3.18], they do not always remain the shame character, but according to the degree of perfection established in each person, a different character will shine in their lives. 186.9

-Although man was once made in God’s image, he was transformed into an irrational animal, having become a leopard and lion through evil habits. 251.7

-When the Word bids the soul that has advanced to approach him, it is immediately strengthened at his command and becomes what he wishes, that is, changed (metapoieo) into something divine; and from the glory which the soul had, it is transformed into a loftier glory by a wonderful alteration. 253.17.

-For the person who beholds himself clothed with the radiant tunic of the Lord which he put on with purity and incorruptibility is like the tunic Christ showed in his transfiguration on the mountain. 329.12

Enduo (includes noun)

-Therefore, all who have put on the divine armor surround the king’s bed and are one Israel. 197.13

-We are clothed with these characteristics when we exchange the clothing (meenduo) of this corruptible earthly existence for the incorruptible life of heaven. 272.4

-By stripping off (apekduo) the old man and by removing the veil from her heart, the bride opened a way for the Word. 328.5

-Upon his entrance, the soul makes him her garment according to the Apostle’s bidding that he strip off (exduo) the fleshly garment of the old man and put on the tunic created by God in holiness and righteousness [cf. Eph 4.24]. 328.9

-He clothed himself with human nature as the Apostle says [cf. Rom 1.20]. 384.18

-He told of man’s descent from heaven, the ambush of robbers, the removal of the garment of incorruptibility, sin’s wound, and the progress of sin over half of man’s nature while the soul remained immortal. 427.15

Kathelko

-For the kind of fruit is not heavy, nor does its weight pull it toward the ground, but its natural inclination is upward. 125.9

-The body’s eye becomes tired, and the more perfect soul is not attracted to anything visible. 313.4

Primary Text

Not all periods of life according to the flesh are capable of every natural operation nor do our lives advance in the same way at different periods. (The infant has no share of adult activities, nor is an adult taken up in its nurse’s arms, but each time of life has its own proper activity.) So too one can see in the soul an analogy to the body’ s growth where there is a certain order and sequence leading to a life in accord with virtue. 17-18

Abstract

-According (kata) to the flesh.

-Advance (proerchomai) in the same way

-Each time (kairos) of life.

-In the soul an analogy (analogia).

-Certain order (taxis) and sequence (akolouthia).

-Life in accord (kata) virtue (arete).

Notes

Proerchomai

-Finally, what we desire becomes a reality (eis ergon). 145.13.

-The bride hears the command, is strengthened by the Word, arises, comes forward, approaches, becomes beautiful and is called a dove. 150.8

-The praise attributed to these cheeks is testified to by the bridegroom’s lips which yield spice. 404.1

Kairos

-Each time of life has its own proper activity. 18.3

-In the day of judgement he becomes a goat instead of a sheep. 66.15

-You will not be singled ut as a goat instead of a sheep in the time of judgement. 69.14

-It is time now to contemplate the words which the bridegroom’s friends say to the virgin. 82.17

-(The vine) is not yet ripe for wine, but it awaits maturity. 97.1

-You do not blossom for a season and then lose your flower. 107.2

-“The time of pruning has arrived” [Sg 2.12]. 136.9

-The sound of a voice makes the season enjoyable. 146.12

-The virtues are the flowers when our life, now blossoming and fearing fruit in their own season. 153.16

-This is the season in which to pluck these flowers. 154.4

-Nourishing its fruit at the proper time. 155.6

-Spring...a season between the gloom of winter and the joyful fruits of summer. 155.15

-To gather beautiful flowers ready to be cut at the time of full blossom. 178.13

-Night and darkness is the time when plots are hatched against our souls. 196.10

-Everything alien to our nature is apparent and transitory (proskairos). 217.19

-The lilies do not flower nor fade away at certain times. 239.5

-It would be opportune (eukairos) to add to our examination of the text. 240.8

-Whether he was in the body or in the spirit during his time in paradise. 245.13

-Here it is stored up and kept ready (eukairos). 271.2

-It is ready for each listener at the right time. 271.6

-Once the pomegranate ripens in its own good time. 282.16

-Once the time arrives to enjoy this pomegranate. 283.7

-He gives to each person his food in due season. 303.11

-Honey is changed into solid food when at the proper time. 307.2

-Such things are transitory and pass with the flow of time. 316.11

-The yearly cycle with its four seasons. 335.5

-Rather than to enjoy the transitory (prokairos) pleasure of sin. 354.16

-Then we will bring forth fruit in due season. 398.5

-By a good confession at their time of witness. 405.21

-“But the things that are seen are transient (prokairos)” [2 Cor 4.18]. 411.10

-With each activity occurring at its proper time. 454.16

Analogia

-From there comes to the breasts the wealth of divine milk by which the soul is nourished and draws grace in proportion to its faith. 33.14

-A certain analogy exists between the activities of the soul and the sense organs of the body. 34.5

-By starting from certain traces and sparks, as it were, our words aim at the unknown, and from what we can grasp we make conjectures by a kind of analogy about the ungraspable. 37.3

-From the virtues we obtain knowledge of the good which transcends all understanding just as the beauty of an archetype can be inferred (analogizomai) from its image. 91.3

-the bride at this point partakes in the good as much as she can. Then he starts again to draw her to participate in a higher beauty as if she had never tasted it. 159.7

-To each person the Spirit gives prophecy according to the proportion if his faith. 210.2

-In all the endless ages of eternity the person running to you becomes greater and more highly exalted, always growing in proportion to his ascent through the good. 246.20

-The manifold divisions of spiritual graces are in proportion to the zeal of those who strive after them. 270.6

-Let each person listening to these words form an idea of such a wonder by comparing it to what we have said. 327.4

-When the soul looks at these wonders, it considers him who is recognized (analogizomai) in his works. 335.15

-He has no color, form, quality, quantity, place, appearance, evidence, comparison nor resemblance. 357.13

-Whoever looks at the visible world and understands the wisdom that has been made manifest by the beauty of creatures, can make an analogy from the visible to the invisible beauty. 386.2

-We have a tenfold increase similar to the six commandments. 464.22

Taxis

-After these two books [Proverbs & Ecclesiastes] he speaks in the philosophy set forth in the Song of Songs and shows us the ascent to perfection in an orderly fashion. 17.11

-So too one can see in the soul an analogy to the body’s growth where there is a certain order and sequence leading to a life in accord with virtue. 18.6

-Because of this, the son in Proverbs is named a bride, and Wisdom is changed into the role of a bridegroom so that a person might be espoused to God by becoming a pure virgin instead of a bridegroom. 23.2

-Having become a “father of lies” [Jn 8.44], he arranged himself in battle order against everyone who chooses the good. 55.14

-“Set love before me” [Sg 2.4]. 99.19

-“Let all things among you be done decently and in order” [1 Cor 14.40]. 112.20

-It is necessary that everything be well ordered, especially with regard to love. 121.12

-It is important to realize the order of love for which the Law is a guide: how one should love God, neighbor, wife and enemy, lest the practice of love be disordered and perverted. 121.1

-What is the order of the words here? How does each word relate to the other? How is the sequence of thought preserved unbroken in a kind of a chain? 150.4

-We will respond to the best of our ability, treating it in an orderly fashion. 347.17

-Since these powers are established by God, the order of spirits and transcendent powers remains distinct and constant, for their order is not upset by evil. 446.2

-In imitation of this array, the soul arranges everything in order and marvels at these forces set in array. 446.6

-Beings are created and renewed not in accord with the same sequence and system. 457.20

-Human nature takes up its perfection not at once as in the beginning but progresses towards the good by an order which gradually gets rid of our inclination towards evil. 458.16

Akolouthia

-So too one can see in the soul an analogy to the body’s growth where there is a certain order and sequence leading to a life in accord with virtue. 18.6

-Thus, the next part of the virgin’s prayer in the Song’s first words says, “your breasts are better than wine, and the scent of your perfumes is beyond all ointments.” 34.18

-The consequence of what was just examined leads us to contemplate the bride’s words to her maidens: “I am black and beautiful, daughters of Jerusalem.” 45.16

-The intention of these words is clear from the sequence of words we have closely examined above. However, the text’s order is unclear. 63.16

-It is said that ignorance of oneself is the beginning and consequence of never having known anything of the things which one ought to know. 72.11

-The Song’s text draws human nature to God by a certain method and order, first illuminating it through the prophets and the precepts of the Law. 144.19

-The Song next sets before us the bride’s teeth while omitting praise of her mouth and lips, a fact worth examining. 223.10

Kata: both with respect to the human and divine.

-The one still young according to the inner man. 21.15

-According to each one’s capacity. 96.13

-We should not live according to the flesh nor be conformed to this world; rather, we ought to meditate on the life to come while we are still in this present one. 134.15

-And showed us repentance of sin and life according to virtue. 154.14

-Thus it is among persons advancing in virtue; being transformed from glory to glory [cf. 2Cor 3.18], they do not always remain in the same character but according to the degree of perfection established in each person, a different character will shine in their lives. 186.6

-One warrior taken from each of the twelve is divided into five according to the number of the senses. 197.12

-But he who is from David’s seed is the Lord according to the flesh. 204.13

-And to each person the Spirit gives prophecy according to the proportion of his faith. 210.2

-If we have died to our lower nature, life according to the flesh becomes hidden after we have transferred our hope for life from earth to heaven. 262.6

-In winter, too, the lovely characteristics which blossom according to virtue are extinguished. 301.5

-According to the Apostle’s bidding that he strip off the fleshly garment of the old man and put on the tunic created according to God in holiness and righteousness [cf. Eph 4.24]. 328.10

-We say that part of him is uncreated. It is eternal, exists before the ages and is the creator of all; on the other hand, his created part administers to us since it has been formed according to the lowliness of our body [cf. Phil 3.21]. 380.18

-A new earth is created which drinks the rain coming upon it, and another man is created who is renewed according to his creator’s image through a rebirth from above. 385.5

-The Song begins its instruction with the human body as does Matthew’s genealogy from Abraham and David when they both describe God’s mystery according to the flesh. 386.21

-He dispenses the bread of wisdom to the perfect according to the inner man. 399.18

-The head is Christ according to the flesh in whom God was present reconciling the world to himself [cf. 1Cor 5.19]. 407.1

-Therefore Nathaniel carefully considered both that God’s birth according to the flesh must be in Bethlehem of David. 433.7

-In her conformity to Christ she receives her proper beauty, that primal blessedness of our nature, according to the image and likeness of the original beauty which alone is true and worthy of adoration. 439.19

-If for some mysterious reason, the divinely inspired text says that the divine nature has wings, then the first man made according to God’s image and likeness was in every way like its archetype [cf. Gen 1.26]. 447.15

Primary Text

Along with these words Solomon added other counsels by clear and easily grasped utterances. He leads the youth to a more perfect state in the final verses of Proverbs where he calls “blessed” the union of love in that section pertaining to the praises of the brave woman. Then Solomon adds the philosophy contained in Ecclesiastes for the person who has been sufficiently introduced by proverbial training to desire virtue. After having reproached in that book men’s attitudes towards external appearances, and after having said that everything unstable is vain and passing (“everything which passes is vanity” [Eccl 11.8), Solomon elevates above everything grasped by sense the loving movement of our soul towards invisible beauty. Having thus cleansed the heart with respect to external matters, Solomon then initiates the soul into the divine sanctuary by means of the Song of Songs. What is described there is a marriage; but what is understood is the union of the human soul with God. (22)

Abstract

-Solomon added (epago) other counsels (sumboule).

-He leads (ago) the youth to (pros) a more perfect (teleutaios) state.

-Solomon adds (prostithemi) the philosophy.

-Sufficiently introduced (agoge).

-To (eis) desire (epithumia) virtue.

-Attitudes towards (peri) external appearances (ta phainomena; from phaino).

-Everything unstable is vain and passing (parechomai).

-Solomon elevates (hupertithemi) everything grasped by (dia) sense.

-The loving (epithumetike) movement (kinesis) of our soul towards (epi) invisible beauty.

-Having cleansed the heart with respect (peri) to external (ta phinomena) matters.

-Solomon then initiates (mustagogeo) the soul into (entos) the divine sanctuary.

-The union (anakrasis) of the human soul with (pros) God.

Notes

Epago (epi, upon)

-The bridegroom then arrives leading a chorus of his friends and well-wishers. 24.13

-Then the text adds further words for strengthening the minds of its pupils. 50.5

-For this reason, praise bestows loveliness upon teeth only if the praise of lips is joined to them. 224.12

-The text next adds a fitting praise to th bride’s lips by comparing their beauty to a “scarlet thread.” 228.4

-And adding to this the mystery of the Passion by the symbol of myrrh, frankincense is then mentioned. 243.15

-Rather, the bride transfers her oath to the “field.” 373.3

-(An oath) puts an end to all controversy by confirming (used with bebaiosis) what we know. 375.6

Ago (note the variations of this word)

-I hope that my commentary will be a guide (cheiragogia) for the more fleshly-minded. 4.7

-Tracing how something more sublime might be found which leads (cheiragogeo) us to that which is divine and incorporeal instead of the literal sense. 10.4

-In the soul an analogy to the body’s growth where there is a certain order and sequence leading (cheiragogeo) to a life in accord with virtue. 18.7

-(Solomon) leads the youth to a more perfect state in the final verse of Proverbs. 22.5

-For the person who has been sufficiently introduced (eisago) by proverbial training to desire virtue. 22.9

-Solomon then initiates (mustagogeo) the soul into the divine sanctuary by means of the Song of Songs. 22.17

-Through ineffable mysteries it philosophizes and offers (prosago) an image of the pleasures of life as a preparation for its instruction. 23.14

-(Moses) ordered those being initiated (mustagogeo) to cleanse themselves from marriage. 25.19

-But leads (cheiragogeo, the Song) us to the philosophy of divine things by means of chaste concepts. 30.4

-Thus the soul led (cheiragogeo) through such conceptions to comprehend what cannot be laid hold of except by faith must establish itself in a nature transcending every intelligence. 87.6

-But to lead (cheiragogeo) them through their oath to a life of virtue. 131.10

-We now see the bride being led (cheiragogeo) by the Word up a rising staircase by the steps of virtue to the heights of perfection. 158.20

-So it is with all the saints who offer themselves freely to God and who are not led by necessity. 161.5

-The bride comprehended the mystery in the rock of the Gospel to which the Word led (cheiragageo) her by many and various ways. 164.5

-The end of the bride’s advancements becomes (cheiragageo) a beginning for further advancement. 178.1

-The eye is also...a leader (cheiragogos) on our journey to God. 218.7

-In the time of his initiation (mustagogia) into paradise. 245.14

-“In whom we have freedom of speech and access (prosagoge) in confidence through faith in him” [Eph 3.10-12]. 255.3

-The bride is guided by the Word to reach higher states. 280.4

-The soul rising on high calls upon the help (cheiragogia) of the transcendent God and prays that he descend from his own greatness. 304.20

-There is no difference between this sentence and the words applied to the disciples’ mystic initiation (mustagogia). 308.10

-A more careful understanding of hidden things leads (cheiragogeo) the soul through appearances to God’s hidden nature. 322.16

-Finally the soul is led (cheiragogeo) on high. 323.1

-What, then, is this mystic initiation (mustagogia) which the soul experiences during the night? 324.13

-The bride washed from her feet the dust with which she was covered when returning to earth after her time (diagoge) in paradise. 327.17

-But she leads (cheiragogeo) the virgins to God’s manifestation in the flesh. 383.19

-This person is then led (cheiragogeo) by faith through what is finite and comprehensible to knowledge of the infinite. 386.8

-For this reason the virgins approach (prosago) the soul running on high to perfection. 386.9

-The bride initiates (mustagogeo) her maidens by similar notions because our mind does not first attain God’s incomprehensible, invisible nature unless the visible or the flesh is grasped through faith. 387.2

-We will find and receive him by the Spirit’s guidance (cheiragoge) for the salvation of our souls. 429.14

-Human nature is also created but does not, like other created beings, advance towards its perfection (ek proagoges proelthousa epi to teleion), but right from the beginning it is created perfect. 458.5

-Persons educated (paidagogeo) by fear who do not associate with evil. 464.4

Phaino (note variations of this word)

-For the apparent (apemphaino), reprehensible sense is changed into something having a divine meaning. 7.15

-Having reproached in that book men’s attitudes towards external appearances. 22.10

-Having cleansed the heart with respect to external matters 22.16

-Infinitely greater is the beauty of which we get a glimpse from the appearances. 38.8

-The visible exterior (prophaino) of the sacred tent of witness was not equal in honor to the beauty hidden within. 43.9

-Because of this, the sun’s rising appears (epiphaino) in its setting. 57.13

-For our choice made from visible things is unclear until we depart from this life. 66.9

-Here the meaning exactly agrees with the interpretation of the text previously explained. 67.16

-He did not make the heavens in his image...nor anything else you see in creation. 68.4

-Even if it (teaching) seems to reveal (emphaino) the best and highest possible understanding. 85.18

-The text contains a better teaching available (ephaino) for those who are already perfect. 93.13

-He shows himself according to each one’s capacity. 96.12

-If gold is held up to the mirror, the mirror assumes the appearance of gold. 104.5

-The image of a dove appears (emphaino) in her pupils. 105.16

-We should not neglect our exterior good appearance. 112.11

-If we look to visible reality for this power. 132.19

-Indicating (emphaino) the nature of what is sought after. 139.2

-Fig tree and vine whose present appearance foretells the delight they have in store. 146.15

-Virtue whose fruit, as the prophet says, comes forth (prophaino) in due season. 156.3

-Just as by an analogy of advancement to that which appears (prophaino) eternal, her desire grows with each step. 159.8

-What is the ascent to perfection which these words indicate (emphaino)? 160.13

-The teaching presented (anaphaino) to us says that creation is divided into two distinct classes. 173.7

-The bride begins to see her desired bridegroom, but he appears (emphaino) to her eyes in another form. 178.4

-Nor does he appear in the same place. 178.7

-They change their appearances by a variety of masks. 186.3

–She alone is seen ascending and is compared to a grove of trees. 186.21

-Revealing (anaphaino) the soul’s beauty as pure and no longer sullied by a desire for carnal pleasure. 192.6

-Everything alien to our nature is apparent and transitory. 217.19

-The function of a purified, healthy (spiritual) eye, like bodily eyes, is clearly manifested to the other members by its exalted manner of life. 218.10

-Both eyes are praised so that the entire person may share this praise, both his visible and spiritual aspects. 219.10

-The external appearances (prophaino) of a well-ordered life. 230.18

-Persons looking into th Church’s face as if it were a clean mirror see the Sun of Righteousness [Mal 4.2] who is comprehended by that which is visible. 257.4

-By adding greater wonders in the description of her beauty shining (epiphaino) in her bodily members. 260.16

-If any of the former spices were sweet smelling to the Lord, it was due (epiphaino) to their deeper meaning, not to their superficial or literal meaning. 267.12

-Once the rind is peeled off and the inside revealed (diaphaino), it is sweet and appealing to the sight. 282.17

-His soul remains sleepless and undeceived under (or manifested by, prophaino) truth’s rays. 317.14

-He continues to wonder at God’s continuous revelation (prophaino). 321.20

-A more careful understanding of hidden things leads the soul through appearances to God’s hidden nature. 322.16

-The soul forsakes everything without, that is, appearances and ideas. 323.5

-Like a horse she runs through everything she has understood and what is manifest. 324.4

-She is not embraced by a divine night where the bridegroom comes near but does not appear. 324.9

-The source of its beauty from which springs the power whose wisdom is manifested in it. 334.4

-The soul reaches from below to a knowledge of the transcendent and to a comprehension of God’s wonderful works. 335.14

-Nor will we understand the Transcendent by its manifestations. 336.6

-Our soul’s limit of ineffable knowledge consists in appearances (emphaino). 336.11

-“We saw his glory,” Christ, who indeed appeared as man. 381.8

-Whoever looks at the visible world and understands the wisdom that has been made manifest (emphaino) by the beauty of creatures, can make an analogy from the visible to invisible beauty. 386.1

-Looking to externals. 408.8

-When a person sees a picture upon a board which accurately conforms to its model, he exclaims that one form exists (is revealed, apophaino) in both. 439.13

-Anything put in it (hollow vessel of crystal) is clearly visible (diaphaino). 441.13

-So does the beauty of her outward life manifest her inner treasure. 455.16

-The bride’s praise is not made known by words. 456.3

Parerchomai

-Nothing transitory belongs to us. 64.11

-The material world continuously passes away by a kind of flux and movement. 64.13

-He who pursues transitory things and forsakes stability ends up frustrated. 64.16

-Ecclesiastes’ loud proclamation which calls every visible and passing thing “vanity” [Eccl 1.2]. 132.15

-God passed Moses by at the divine place in the rock shadowed over by his hand. 356.9

-Then the bridegroom passes by and the bride exists. 356.19

Kinesis (note variations of this word)

- Solomon does not speak of the necessity of being outside the flesh’s impulses (kinema). 27.9

-No longer will there be civil war with the movements (kinema) of the passions set against the mind’s law. 30.14

-Simon...remained unmoved (akinetos) in desire for God by reason of his disease. 33.10

-The aged person approaching death is incapable (akinetos) of desire. 38.15

-The movement of our will freely leads us to apparent realities. 55.8

-The material world continuously passes away by a kind of flux and movement. 64.14

-He leaps over mountains with speed (eukinetos) and grace. 144.6

-Human nature was frozen stiff in the cold of idolatry when man’s changeable (eukinetos) nature had been transformed into the nature of the lifeless (akinetos) objects he worshiped. 147.7 & 8

-This text signifies advance and progress towards greater perfection. 149.10

-God does not fashion the human voice for any reason except to be an instrument of his word whose movements (kinema) pass through the heart. 235.5

-Paul...has brought all the limbs fully into harmony (eukinetos). 235.13

-The impulse (kinema) of our thoughts, when moving (kineo) to what is agreeable, assists us in gaining possession of the good. 275.23

-Only the bride has running water with both a well’s depth and a continuous flow (aekinetos) of water. 293.6

-This wind makes (kineo) the garden of God produce spices. 301.13

-Reason looks above while it remains undisturbed and free from the senses’ movement. 313.16

-It (contemplation of being) puts to rest all bodily movement, and by naked, pure insight, the soul will see God in a divine watchfulness. 314.6

-Once it (water) has passed the highest manifestation of water and becomes mixed with air, the wind’s movement comes to rest on high. 334.14

-The soul sees...the swiftness of the earth turning on its axis, the good order of things. 335.6

-Every soul endowed (sunkineo) with the faculty of reason is struck by the wonderful deeds of the divine hand which transcends our human capacity. 337.6

-The Holy Spirit’s power might breathe on us and put into motion (anakineo) the waves of our thoughts. 342.4

-Because these two movements (upward and downward) are by nature contradictory, the movement of one cannot function properly unless the other is slackened. 345.18

-The soul is found as in the case of a sheep by the Good Shepherd at which all the angelic choirs are moved (sunkineo) to celebrate as the Lord tells us. 364.12

Mustagogeo

-We must put aside thoughts of marriage as Moses commanded us [cf. Ex 19.15] when he ordered that those being initiated to cleanse themselves from marriage. 25.19

-The bride initiates her maidens by similar notions because our mind does not first attain God’s incomprehensible, invisible nature unless the visible or the flesh is grasped through faith. 387.2

Primary Text

Rather, let each person go out of himself and out of the material world. Let him ascend into paradise through detachment, having become like God through purity. Then let him enter into the inner sanctuary of the mysteries revealed in this book (the Song of Songs). If the soul is unprepared to hear this, let it listen to Moses who forbids us to ascend the spiritual mountain before washing the garments of our hearts and before purifying our souls with the fitting aspersions of our thoughts. J.25

Abstract

-Go out (ekbaino) of himself and out of the material world.

-Let him ascend (epanerchomai) into paradise through attachment (apatheia).

-Having become like (homoioo) God through purity (katharotes).

-Let him enter (choreo) the inner sanctuary (aduton).

Notes

Epanerchomai (epi + ana, upon + upwards)

-The “chamber” is indeed the heart which becomes an acceptable dwelling of God when it returns to that state which it had in the beginning. 183.12

-The boon of health sweetens our body’s senses whose nature has been restored after a painful illness. 252.1

Homoioo (note variations of this word)

-The Word...passed on the divine mysteries when he assumed the likeness (homoioma) of a man. 7.17

-Christ trained his disciples’ minds through saying veiled and hidden in parables, images (homoima), obscure words and terse sayings in riddles. 8.9

-Let him ascend into paradise through detachment, having become like (homoioo) God through purity. 25.8

-Likeness (exhomoiosis) to what is truly beautiful and good. 29.1

-The image (homoioma) of darkness has been transformed into beauty. 47.11

-The dark form (homoiosis) of its life is changed to resplendent grace. 48.11

-Human nature...gleamed by imitation (homoites) of the archetype’s beauty. 51.13

-Immortality is the vineyard, a state free from passion, likeness (homoisis) to God and estrangement from evil. 60.5

-The image (homoioma) of incorruptible beauty. 68.6

-Now the voice of the bridegroom rises like (homoios) the sun. 70.15

-Many prophets forbid us to compare ourselves (homoioo) to horses. 78.7

-Our understanding of the divine nature resembles (homoima) what we seek. 86.15

-Certain images and likenesses (homoioma) of truth. 87.11

-How happy is that orchard whose fruit resembles (homoioo) the bridegroom’s beauty. 98.6

-Human nature...shone by reason of its resemblance (homoiotes) to the undefiled good. 100.18

-Whenever a person gazes upon an object he receives in himself the image (homoioma) of that object. 105.17

-The apple tree...has material similar (kath’ homoiotes) to human nature. 117.1

-After the resurrection we have been promised a life similar (homoios) to the angels. 143.10

-Stones...like (homoioo) him in virtue [cf. Mt 3.9]. 148.6

-But he appears in the likeness (homoioo) of a roe and a young hart. 178.5

-Like (kath’ homoiotes) Moses, she is in the darkness of God’s presence. 181.5

-To go out like (kath’ homoiotes) Abraham. 215.10

-The function of a purified eye, like (kath’ homoites) bodily eyes, is clearly manifested to the other members by its exalted manner of life. 218.9

-The beauty of the entire Church’s body will be glorified in each member through some kind of comparison and likeness (homoiosis). 232.12

-The person with such an eye becomes a breast for infants like (kath’ homoites) the great Paul. 241.16

-Although man was once made in God’s image, he was transformed into the likeness (homoiotes) of an irrational animal. 251.2

-A state free from passion illumines the bride like (homoios) the angels. 251.1

-The end of a virtuous life is likeness (homoiosis) to God. 271.12

-Now she is compared (homoioo) to just one of them. 272.10

-The garment of your virtues, my bride, imitates the divine blessedness and resembles (homoioo) the transcendent divine nature by your purity. 272.19

-No one can share God’s glory unless he has been first conformed to the likeness (homoiotes) of Christ’s death. 290.7

-Who can worthily comprehend the wonders of the bride’s likeness (homoiotes)? 293.8

-It seems she has no further to reach once she has been compared (homoioo) to beauty’s archetype. 293.9

-This sleep is like (homioma) death. 311.20

-The divine precepts compare (homoios) us to angels. 317.18

-In everything like (kath’ homoiotes) us except sin. 338.7

-Man w3as the image and likeness (homoioma) of eternal life, truly beautiful and exceedingly good. 348.7

And imitates (kath’ homoiotes) the rock of which the prophet speaks [Ps 77.20]. 367.18

-“He was tempted in everything according (kath’ homoites) to our nature” [Heb 4.15]. 391.10

-We learn about their (eyes) qualities by comparing (kath’ homoites) their qualities to something better. 394.21

-Every other liquid is like (kath’ homoites) a mirror. 396.13

-Like (kath’ homoites) a firm tree planted by flowing waters. 398.3

-Like (homoioo) an innocent dove. 400.14

-Their (hands) praise resembles (to homoiothenai) that of the head’s. 407.14

-So that the pure, unadulterated gold of free will might alone remain which has been compared (homoioo) to a pure head of gold. 408.14

-The faithful and prudent master...manifests his golden hand in imitation (kath’ homoites) of his wise Lord. 408.20

-It (wind) appeared to them like (homoioo) a shining fire. 410.4

-The word “belly” as a convenient term (i.e., to compare, homoioo) to praise our Lord’s body. 413.10.

-The Lord says that the first commandment resembles (homoios) the second. 418.19

-His throne... resembles (homoios) the throne of the Most High. 421.18

-She receives her proper beauty...according to the image and likeness (homoiosis) of the original beauty. 439.19

The bride compares (homoioo) her own beauty to such divine benevolence by imitating Christ. 443.13

-God’s majesty appears like (homoiotes) the beauty of the heavenly Jerusalem. 444.8

-The first man made according to God’s image and likeness (homoiosis) was in every way like its archetype. 448.2

-Human nature was created with wings so that it may be in the divine likeness (homoios). 448.5

-All these divine attributes were in man as long as he resembled (homoios) God. 448.10

-Hair...feels no pain...when compared (kath’ homoites) with other bodily parts. 451.11

-What can be more exalted than similarity (homoioseos) to God? 458.9

Choreo (note variations of this word)

-The infant has no share (choreo) of adult activities. 17.13

-Love as much as you can with your whole heart and strength; desire as much as you can (choreo). 23.8

-An infant is incapable (choreo) of desire. 38.10

-Purified eye...becomes capable (choreo) of contemplating the bridegroom’s loveliness. 106.6

-That I may hear your voice resounding (choreo) in my ears. 163.20

-The bride goes (choreo) even further. 176.11

-He becomes a child undisturbed (choreo) by passion. 198.13

-Praise of the bride’s beauty does not simply pertain (emphilochoreo) to her loveliness but to each member. 215.5

-Shadows must not remain but depart (metachoreo) and withdraw once the sun appears. 240.6

-Neither this age nor its princes could accept (choreo) it. 270.20.

-She commands the south wind to depart (apochoreo) and flee. 299.2

-Human nature is not able to contain (choreo) the infinite, unbounded divine nature. 337.1

-If he cannot (choreo) understand these things, how can he comprehend God who lies beyond them? 337.20

-Every kind of incurable and severe illness was dismissed (apochoreo) rom bodies at his command. 339.3

Primary Text

Thus the text of the Song exhorts us, even if we now live in the flesh, not to turn to it in our thoughts; rather we should only regard the soul and attribute all manifestations of affection in the text to the surpassing goodness of God as pure, undefiled offerings. For God alone is truly sweet, desirable and worthy of love. The present enjoyment of God is the starting point for a greater share of his goodness, and it increases our desire for him. J.31

Abstract

-Not to turn (epistrepho) to it in our thoughts (noema).

-All manifestations of affection (agapetikos).

-Surpassing (hupechomai) goodness of God.

-Present enjoyment of God is the starting point (aphorme).

-It increases (sunepiteino) our desire for him.

Notes

Epistrepho (epi, upon)

-Now they love the bridegroom’s beauty and through love they draw him to themselves. 39.4

-How she leaps and bound toward what lies before her and does not turn back! And still she thirsts. 119.4

-All these examples are like voices summoning the soul to contemplate the [heavenly] mysteries. 178.3

-“When a person turns to the Lord, his veil will be removed. The Lord is the Spirit” [2Cor 3.16-7].

Agapetikos (agape, the noun)

-Solomon has inflamed the desire of the one still young according to the inner man...In this way Solomon elicits the loving disposition of those listening to him. 21.18

-The bridegroom states here the cause of their noble yeaning and loving disposition. 38.4

-These words, like nuptial joy, contain the affection of two lovers who express to each other their mutual loving disposition. 264.4

-A good conscience consists of a loving disposition towards one neighbor. 419.6

Hupecrchomai (huper, over, above)

-You alone are made in the likeness of that nature which surpasses all understanding. 68.5

-The soul is led through such conceptions to comprehend what cannot be laid hold of except by faith must establish in itself a nature transcending every intelligence. 87.8

-From the virtues we obtain knowledge of the good which transcends all understanding just as the beauty of an archetype can be inferred from its image. 91.2

-The blessed, eternal nature surpassing all understanding contains all things in itself and is limited by nothing. 157.17

-The only way for comprehending that power transcending all understanding is never to remain in any notion of him but to always move forward and never stand still. 352.15

Sunepiteino (sun: with plus epi, upon)

-The souls draw (epekteino) to themselves a desire for their immortal bridegroom. 39.13

-Marvel not at the earth’s breadth nor the ocean stretching out (ekteino) to infinity. 69.4

-Throughout eternity of your life your beauty lasts (sumparateino). 107.4

-How she stretches forth (epekteino) by leaps and bounds toward what lies before her and does not turn back! 119.16

-The tower viewed from all around and to which David fixed the choicest booty, looked for the coming of the Church and prefigured those striving (anateino) in virtue. 232.3

-The heart situated between these two breasts...(are) lilies whose blooms endures (parateino) during the entire lifetime of pasturing. 239.4

-Having been mortified, the flesh cannot be in opposition (antiteino). 298.7

-The soul reaches (anateino) from below to a knowledge of the transcendent and to a comprehension of God’s wonderful works. 334.16

-The soul...runs to what lies beyond, stretch forward (epekteino) to what is before. 352.10

-Such a soul never ceases to stretch forth (epekteino) to what lies before, going out from her present stage to what lies ahead. 366.15

-Judas...was put in a tomb for evildoers which endures (sunekteino) for all time. 409.8

-By these words the Word clearly reveals the correct manner of ascent until the soul is exalted and reaches out (epekteino) for her Lord’s glorious deeds. 443.9

-Some even pass these while others press forward (sunteino) in their upward course. 459.16

-Everyone is drawn (sunteino) to attain what they praise until all become one. 469.19

Primary Text

Now, through what she has already achieved, she has passed to a more interior part of the mysteries with her mind, and she cries out that her passage has brought her only to the vestibule of goodness. By the first fruits of the Spirit of which she was made worthy by the kiss of her spouse she says that she searches the depths of God within the innermost says that she searches the depths of God within the innermost unseen and hears words not to be spoken [2Cor 12.4]. J.40

Abstract

-She has passed to (diaduno) a more interior part of the mysteries.

-Her passage (dromos).

-She searches (diereunao) the depths of God.

Notes

Diaduno (dia, through)

-Whether he is the one dwelling in us and walking about with us and penetrating our soul’s depths. 84.11

-O beautiful wound and sweet blow by which life penetrates within! 128.4

Dromos

-The more perfect soul...has already obtained the goal for which the course is undertaken. 39.21

-The cavalry which drew the soul to God through the course of virtue is compared to the one which destroyed the Egyptian power. 75.10

-This is no small praise for a soul which is attentive and hastens without falling on the divine course. 80.10

-Oh, how the soul likened to a horse runs on the divine course! 119.15

-You must advance through progress in the good to finish the course in virtue. 149.6

-He (John the Baptist) is the forerunner (prodromos) of this radiant spring. 154.9

-One who runs to the Lord will always have wide open spaces before him. 159.14

-For not by accident nor by chance did she run (anadrome) on high. 188.3

-Let anyone becoming a chariot...receive this ride (i.e., God) even while completing his course and while being directed by God to what lies ahead. 206.18

-Who is unaware of the sun’s course from its rising? 300.10

-Paul...followed his course while in chains. 347.2

-Through them the base of our faith is firm, the course of virtue is completed, and the entire body is raised on high. 417.6

-The great John calls himself a voice, a precursor (prodromos) of the Word. 425.8

-Some even pass these while others press forward in their upward course. 459.16

-For a way lies open to all souls from every rank to that blessedness. 468.16

Diereunao

-To remind us of the necessity of searching the divine words, of reading them, and of tracing in every way possible how something more sublime might be found which leads us to that which is divine. 10.1

-Anything with mass, form, appearance and shape limits our understanding so that the person who examines material creation can perceive nothing beyond these bounds through his imagination. 173.16

-While the bride went about all these places, she scrutinized the entire angelic rank. 183.11

-In seeking to understand these divine words, I do not merely see praise attributed by the Word to the bride. 263.8

-They are capable of searching the depths of the richness, wisdom and knowledge of God. 278.20

-It does not cease to search out and seek the origin of created reality. 334.2

-It is unable to proceed further in curiously scrutinizing these works. 334.15

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(No excerpts are taken from the Second Homily)

Third Homily

Primary Text

The child Jesus born within us advances by different ways in those who receive him in wisdom, in age and in grace [cf. Lk 2.52]. He is not the same in every person but is present according to the measure of the person receiving him. He shows himself according to each one’s capacity. He comes either as an infant, or a child advancing in age or as one fully grown after the example of the cluster. Christ is never seen with the same form upon the vine, but he changes his form with time-now budding, now blossoming, now mature, now ripe and finally as wine. J.96

Abstract

-The child Jesus...advances (prokopto) by different ways.

-Also: Or a child advancing in age or as one fully grown.

Notes

Prokopto

-He comes either as an infant or a child advancing in age or as one fully grown. 96.12

-What great progress (prokope) we see in the ascent of the soul! 115.3

-You must advance through progress (prokope) in the good to finish the course in virtue. 149.6

-Thus as she progresses (prokope), her desire grows with each step. 159.8

-Thus it is among persons advancing (prokope) in virtue; being transformed from glory to glory, they do not always remain in the same character. 186.7

-The text shows that the people made progress (prokope) in perfection. 194.7

-They constantly rise by progressing (prokope) and never slip back into the depths from which they came. 227.14

-The tower viewed from all around...looked for the coming of the Church and prefigured those striving (prokope) in virtue. 232.1

-Ascend with me from these peaks to others, advancing higher by effective knowledge (dia tes energous gnoseos ). 249.17

-She should not be judged as having this perfume unless she truly hastens on high by advancing in the good. 279.20

-For those who are always advancing to what is greater, the Apostle’s words hold true, “If anyone thinks he knows something, he does not yet know as he should” [1Cor 8.2]. 320.18

-The bride never ceases going in nor going out, but she rests only by advancing (prokope) towards that which lies before her and by always going out from what she has comprehended. 354.7

-Is it not clear from these words that the bride has advanced (prokope) to a higher state? 360.5

-She boasts about her further advancement (prokope) to on high. 365.10

-In running towards her spouse, the bride finds no rest in her advancement (prokope) to perfection. 367.1

-The veil of despair is removed when the bride learns that the true satisfaction of her desire consists in always progressing in her search and ascent. 369.23

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Fourth Homily

Primary Text

Therefore the soul raised up by these divine ascents sees within itself the sweet arrow of love by which she was wounded; she boasts of her wound saying, “I am wounded with love.” O beautiful wound and sweet blow by which life penetrates within! The arrow’s penetration opens up, as it receives the arrow of love, the imagery shifts from archery to nuptial delight. It is well known how a bow is handled, with each hand performing its proper function: the left hand holds the bow while the right hand draws the string back, pulling the arrow back by the notched end. Then the left hand directs the arrow to the target. J.128

Abstract

-The soul raised up by these divine ascents (anabasis).

-The arrow’s penetration (eisodos).

Notes

Anabasis

-Moses who forbids us to ascend the spiritual mountain. 25.13

-These two images teach us abut the nature of the divine ascent. 129.3

-In such ascents the purified soul is exalted through love to participate in this goodness. 137. 14

-It seems, however, that the things accomplished earlier were but an introduction to the bride’s ascents. 138.9

-We see the bride being led by the Word up a rising staircase by the steps of virtue to the height of perfection. 158.20

-He gives the power to ascend to what is better. 159.18

-“Who is this who comes up (anabaino) from the wilderness” [Sg 3.6]?

-The voice of the bridegroom’s friends marveling at his ascent from the desert. 185.7

-She alone is seen ascending (anabaino) and is compared to a grove of trees. 187.14

-The bride’s ascent (anabaino) from the desert testifies that she rose to such a height through her diligence and continence. 188.8

-The flocks had been scattered in the valleys and now come up (anabaino) from the washing. 225.9

-They constantly rise (anabaino) by progressing and never slip back into the depths from which they came. 227.15

-Paul still continued to move higher and did not cease to ascend. 245.21

-David placed in his heart those wonderful ascents. 246.13

-The person running to you becomes greater and more highly exalted, always growing in proportion to his ascent through the good. 246.19

-The limit of achievement becomes a beginning for the discovering of higher blessings for those who are ascending (anabaino). 247.12

-A person always moving (anabaino) towards God never lacks this incitement towards greater progress. 248.15

-The Word gives power...that her heart may ascend on high. 279.8

-When the Word raises his bride to such a point through her ascents (anabasis), he leads her even further. 280.8

-Again, show me the ascent lying even beyond this stage. 280.20

-The bride places these lovely ascents within her heart. 281.12

-After this, the soul once again begins its ascent on high. 332.10

-Who does not know of those ascents which Moses experienced? 354.11

-Indeed, how can anyone list all Moses’ ascents and various theophanies? 345.15

-We must examine her words which contain an ascent to something more exalted. 359.8

-Yet another remains firmly in his ascent to on high, while another person goes further. 359.13

Eisodos

-These things can be found in the literal meaning if we only prepare ourselves through diligence to enter the Holy of Holies after having been purified. 45.6

-The law of the Spirit forbids the entry of such things. 45.12

-He who freely rejects participation in the good introduces evil. 55.13

-Let us see how the bride obeys the Word and makes an entrance for her spouse. 327.7

-The bride opened a way for the Word. 327.19

-Upon his entrance, the soul makes him her garment according to the Apostle’s bidding that he strip off the fleshly garment [cf. Eph 4.24]. 328.7

-The soul then rises and opens a way to the bridegroom. 345.5

-By her death to all sin she rises to make and entrance for the Word. 352.4

-The exit from our present state becomes an entrance to the transcendent good. 354.1

-Those whom we believe are protecting our souls from evil and are watching our coming in and going out. 364.2

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Fifth Homily

Primary Text

How is the sequence of thought preserved unbroken in a kind of a chain? The bride hears the command, is strengthened by the Word, arises, comes forward, approaches, becomes beautiful and is called a dove. How can one behold a beautiful sight in a mirror unless the mirror has reflected the image of a beautiful form? Human nature is also mirror, and it was not beautiful until it drew near to Beauty and was transformed by the image of the divine loveliness. Human nature had the image of the serpent as long as it lay upon the earth and beheld its image. But now that human nature rose up, turned to face the good, and turned its hack on evil, it was conformed to what it beheld [i.e., the archetypal beauty]. By drawing near to the light, human nature becomes light. In this light it takes on the beautiful form of a dove, I mean the dove which indicates the presence of the Holy Spirit. J.150

Abstract

-The bride arises (egeiro) .

-A beautiful sight in a mirror (katoptron).

-Transformed (enemorphoo) by the image (eikon).

-By drawing near (proseggo) to the light.

Notes

Egeiro

-“Whenever you sleep, let her guard you in order that when you wake she may converse with you” [Prov 6.22]. 21.14

-“That you do not rouse or waken my love until he pleases” [Sg 2.7]. 100.4

-Thus love is aroused and wakened; that is to say, it is elevated and continually spurred on to greater growth. 135.3

-(The Baptist) said that the stones were being raised up to become children of the patriarch [Abraham] like him in virtue. 148.5

-And so we must constantly rise and never cease drawing closer. 159.15

-“That you do not rouse nor awake love until it pleases” [Sg 3.5]. 172.9

-As if the bride as already attained perfection, she tells the other companions her ardent desire and excites (epegeiro) their love by an oath. 177.17

-Because of its (tower) magnificent structure rising on high. 238.6

Katoptron

-Rather, he sees it (Word of God) within himself as in a mirror. 90.11

-By depicting the sun in the mirror of our souls. 90.15

-Just like a mirror you have taken on my appearance. 104.2

-A form impresses itself upon the eye like a mirror. 218.20

-Persons looking into the Church’s face as if it were a clean mirror see the Sun of Righteousness [cf. Mal 4.2] who is comprehended by that which is visible. 257.3

-Every other liquid is like a mirror whose smooth surface serves to reflect the image of those gazing in it. 396.13

-This resembles a mirror expertly fashioned by hand which accurately reflects the image of a face. 440.1

-The soul, a living mirror possessing free will. 440.8

Enemorphoo (includes various forms of the verb morphoo, to give form, shape)

-And have been transformed (metamorphoo) with him into a state which is free from passion and more divine. 14.19

-Although the beauty given (epimorphoo) to me by being loved by righteousness now shines forth. 47.7

-Just like a mirror you have taken on my appearance (emmorphoo). 104.2

-Until (human nature) was transformed (enemorphoo) by the image of the divine loveliness. 150.13

-To become beautiful by being transformed (morphoo) into a dove’s image in the light. 159.4

-The Apostle who bids the same image to be transformed (metamorphoo) “from glory to glory” [2 Cor 3.18]. 160.3

-The bride is bidden to become a dove once again by being transformed metamorphoo) into something better. 160.8

-Being transformed (metamorphoo) from glory to glory [cf. 2 Cor 3.18]. 186.9

-The eyes when they conform (morphoo) their way of life to the Holy Spirit’s grace. 219.7

-He is changed (morphoo) into that b4ast after having been overpowered. 251.7

-And becomes what he wishes, that is, changed (metamorphoo) into something divine. 254.17

-Formed (morphoo) with a disposition towards the good. 277.11

-(Purified soul) must be transformed (morphoo) into that which is spiritual and immaterial, a splendid image of the archetype’s beauty. 439.13

-The soul formed (morphoo) by such embellishments becomes lovely like Jerusalem. 445.1

Proseggo

-The virginal soul desires to draw near to the fountain of spiritual life. 32.11

-The infant...and aged person approaching death are incapable of desire. 38.14

-As she draws nearer to the object of her desire. 88.11

-The restoration of beauty which the bride gained by approaching the true beauty from which she has departed. 101.19

-You have become beautiful by approaching my light. 104.14

-To create a longing for the apple tree whose enjoyment is manifold for those who have approached it. 119.7

-We must constantly rise and never cease drawing closer. 159.16

-The bride becomes a companion of the Lord’s goodness since she drew near to God through love. 215.14

-You must approach the truth and be its companion. 325.8

-He receives the covenant and becomes like a sun unable to be approached. 355.13

-He escaped my mind when it drew near to him. 357.17

-After Philip approached the true light, he drew Nathaniel to partake of it. 432.10

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Sixth Homily

By a contemplation of the words before us, we are clearly taught not to limit the greatness of God’s nature. Neither can any measure of knowledge limit the comprehension of our objective and prevent us from moving further on. But the mind running on high through its understanding of transcendent reality should realize that all perfection of knowledge attainable by human nature is only the beginning of a desire for more lofty things. J.180

Having reached, as she thought, the summit of her hope, and already thinking that she is united to her beloved, the bride calls “bed” this more perfect participation in the good and calls “night” the time of darkness. By “night” the bride shows us the contemplation of what is unseen and like Moses, she is in the darkness of God’s presence [Ex 20.21]. Of him the prophet says, “He has placed darkness as a concealment round about him” [Ps 17.12]. J.181

Having attained this, the bride is taught that, far from attaining perfection, she has not even come near to it. “Now that I have become worthy of these realities, I am resting upon the bed of all I have thus understood. When I enter the invisible realm after having forsaken sensual perception, I am embraced by the divine night, and I seek him hidden in the cloud. Then did I love my desired one, even though He escaped my thoughts. For ‘I sought him on my bed at night’ that I might know his substance, beginning and end, and in what his being consists but I did not find him.’ I called him by name as far as it was in my power to find him who lacks a name, yet the meaning of a name would not help me attain him whom I sought.” J.181

Thus it is among persons advancing in virtue; being transformed from glory to glory [cf. 2Cor 3.18], they do not always remain in the same character but according to the degree of perfection established in each person, a different character will shine in their lives: a different one succeeds the other because of their increase in the good. J.186

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Seventh Homily

Primary Text

“I consider myself not to have reached [the goal], but I stretch forward to what lies in front of me, forgetting what went before me” [Phil 3.13]. It is clear that Paul alone knew what laid beyond that third heaven (for Moses himself did not speak of it in his cosmogony). After hearing the unutterable mysteries of paradise, Paul still continued to move higher and did not cease to ascend. He never allowed the good already attained to limit his desire. Paul teaches us here, I believe, that the blessed nature of the good is eternally much better than what we have received while what lies beyond our comprehension is always boundless. Something similar will occur to those who partake of the good; they will always have a greater participation in God throughout eternity. J.245

Abstract

-Not to have reached (katalambano).

-Forgetting (lethe, used with verb here) what went before me.

-Paul still continued to move higher (anoteron).

-To limit (horos) his desire.

Notes

Katalambano

-Solomon elevates above everything grasped by sense the loving movement of our soul towards invisible beauty. 22.13

-From what we can grasp we make conjectures by a kind of analogy about the ungraspable. 37.2

-The beauty grasped is great; but infinitely greater is the beauty of which we get a glimpse from appearances. 38.7

-It causes pain in our souls when we recognize that we cannot grasp this good. 137.11

-And has not fully obtain what she was seeking. 138.15

-What is comprehended now has one shape and then another. 140.1

-The sensible is grasped by sense while the intelligible transcends sensible comprehension. 173.10

-Him whom she loves is known only in her impossibility to comprehend his essence. 183.3

-“I consider myself not to have reached [the goal, Phil 3.13].” 245.15

-He never allowed the good already attained to limit his desire. 245.21

-What lies beyond our comprehension is always boundless. 246.2

-The stage attained is indeed greater than what a person had earlier. 247.9

-By the term “alone” I mean he who is comprehended in his immutable and eternal nature. 258.3

-How is that what the soul has always comprehended is the beginning of something beyond her? 320.9

-Since he will see it as something newer and more wondrous in comparison to what he had already comprehended. 321.19

-Forsaking what human nature can attain, the soul enters within the sanctuary of divine knowledge where she is hemmed in on all sides by the divine darkness. 323.5

-Like a horse, she runs through everything she has understood and experienced. 324.4

-“I do not estimate myself to have apprehended” [Phil 3.13]. 326.20

-Man’s inquiring mind cannot comprehend that operation. 337.16

-Nor does the soul estimate itself to have comprehended. 352.9

-The only way for comprehending that power transcending all understanding is never to remain in any notion of him. 352.16

-By always going out from what she has comprehended. 354.7

-We cannot comprehend the greatness of the divine nature, yet we must pass by all illusions. 357.4

-What the bride has found seems more beautiful than her earlier discoveries (prokatalambano). 366.19

-She seeks him who cannot be grasped. 367.12

-This person is led by faith through what is finite and comprehensible to knowledge of the infinite. 386.7

Lethe

-We must put aside thoughts of marriage as Moses commanded. 25.17

-The stretch out to what is in front, forgetting what is behind. 39.14

-Here (harbor) they forget the sea’s evils. 80.21

-The stretching out to what lies before is related to forgetfulness of earlier accomplishments. 174.15

-Being unmindful of lowly, earthly affairs. 262.18

-Sleep brings about forgetfulness of anxieties. 312.2

-Being dead to the past and forgetful of previous things. 366.22

Anoteron

-Not being satisfied with these, she presses on to what is still higher. 176.1

-What can be higher than being in the beloved and having him in oneself? 179.13

-In all the endless ages of eternity the person running to you becomes greater and more highly exalted. 246.19

-You are always higher and loftier than the capacity of those who are rising. 246.22

-The soul thus progresses through higher realms towards the unbounded. 247.17

-(The soul) is changed into a loftier glory by a wonderful alteration. 253.17

-Neither did his act of intimately speaking with God as a friend make him cease to desire what was higher. 356.6

Horos

-Solomon’s wisdom surpassed the boundaries of human wisdom. 29.3

-The blessed, eternal nature...contains all things in itself and is limited by nothing. 157.16

-The good in us alternates with the evil, and the evil becomes a limit on the good. 158.5

-The person who examines material creation can perceive nothing beyond these bounds through his imagination. 173.18

-Neither can any measure of knowledge limit the comprehension of our objective and prevent us from moving further on. 180.2

-Solomon transcended the bounds of human wisdom. 202.14

-He never allowed the good already attained to limit his desire. 245.22

-(Christ) set no limit on our thirst nor on our movement towards him. 248.9

-Wisdom limits our comprehension of God. 334.7

-Our soul’s limit of ineffable knowledge consists in appearances. 336.10

-Such is the measure and bond of perfection in virtue. 439.5

Primary Text

Although the stage attained is indeed greater than what a person had earlier, this stage does not limit his good; rather, the limit of his achievement becomes a beginning for the discovery of higher blessings. The person rising never stands still. He moves from one beginning to another, for the beginning of even greater blessings is never limited. The desire of a soul thus rising never remains in its knowledge, but by an ever greater desire, it moves onwards. The soul thus progresses through higher realms towards the unbounded. J.247

Abstract

-From one beginning (arche) to another.

-The desire (epithumia) of a soul thus rising.

-Towards the unbounded (aoristos).

Notes

Arche

-Ignorance of oneself is the beginning and consequence of never having known anything of the things which one ought to know. 73.10

-Its present state of goodness...is only the beginning of a more transcendent, better stage. 174.13

-The end of the bride’s advancements becomes a beginning for further advancement. 177.19

-This limit of her attainment is the beginning of her hope for what lies beyond. 177.19

-All perfection of knowledge attainable by human nature is only the beginning of a desire for more lofty things. 180.7

-Far from having attaining perfection, she has not even come near to its beginning. 181.10

The good attained by our own diligence is none other than the one implanted in our nature at the beginning. 198.10

-Frankincense is the beginning of faith which you have shared by the resurrection; it is but the beginning of progress to loftier goals. 250.3

-How is it that what the soul has always comprehended is the beginning of something beyond her? 320.9

-The great John speaks about the beginning of this mystery whose roots lie in eternity. 386.23

-His message banished grief which from the beginning we inherited through childbirth in sin. 389.11

-Because creation exists from its very beginning by the divine power, the end of each created being is linked with its beginning. 458.2

-One person with a better inheritance from the beginning has recently emerged from the depths of evil into the truth. 459.8

Epithumia

-(Wisdom) draws the child by yearning and desire to participate in the good. 19.7

-Fanning their desire for a participation in beauty. 19.11

-Solomon has inflamed the desire (epithumetos) of the one still young according to the inner man. 21.16

-The hope of being loved in return disposes the lover to a more intense desire. 22.2

-Solomon elevates above everything grasped by sense the loving (epithumetos) movement of our soul towards invisible beauty. 22.14

-Desire (epithumeo) as much as you can. 23.8

-She both confesses her desire and hastens to enjoy the favor of the beauty of the One she so eagerly desires. 24.12

-The virgin’s attendants...spur her on to an even greater desire. 24.15

-God alone is truly sweet, desirable and worthy of love (epithumetos). 31.6

-(Moses) acquired a still greater desire for these kisses after the theophanies. 31.12

-They never cease to desire. 32.3

-Every enjoyment of God they turn into the kindling of a still more intense desire. 32.5

-The cause of their noble yearning and loving disposition. 38.4

-An infant...and aged person approaching death are incapable of desire. 38.15

-The prelude of her enjoyment might flare up her desire into something stronger. 63.6

-You see that desire (epithumetos) is placed in you to create a longing for th apple tree. 119.5

-(The soul) desires to see apples on the roof. 126.5

-The Song now leads us to desire a contemplation of this transcendent good. 137.5

-She desired (epithumetos) her bridegroom’s shadow. 137.15

-They create in us a desire to see the sun in the open air. 145.11

-As she progresses, her desire grows with each step. 159.8

-We must take as our guide our own longing for what is better. 160.14

-You must show a perfect disposition for desiring to rise to what is better. 161.7

-Now she desires his appearance in the flesh. 164.7

-The bride is perplexed...because she does not have the object of her desire. 179.17

-All perfection of knowledge attainable by human nature is only the beginning of a desire for more lofty things. 180.7

-They want to excite in her a desire for the divine, immaculate marriage. 190.2

-What attracts our desire is pleasant to the sight. 191.9

-Our desire for carnal things in the body’s members is subject to passion and defilement. 191.13

-The love of God arises from what is opposed to carnal desire. 192.1

-If anyone desires (epithumetos) the text’s hidden marrow. 193.12

-He never allowed the good already attained to limit his desire. 245.22

-The desire of a soul rising never remains in its knowledge, but by an ever greater desire, it moves forward. 247.15

-The Word...excites the soul for higher things. 249.4

-The person dead to passion and desire transfers the outward meaning of the Song’s words to that which is pure and undefiled. 262.15

-She pointed out the cause of her desire, namely, that his breasts are lovely. 164.11

-When a person teems with desire or burns with rage. 287.10

-Cinnamon...quenches passion’s fire. 287.19

-Whose plants swell with such fruit and are transformed into every kind of nourishment according to the desire of those who enjoy them! 306.11

-Those who desire God, a good not shadowed over by anything awaits them. 313.24

-The necessity to overcome sleep in searching for the life on high. 315.18

-He never exhausts his desire to see more because what he awaits is always more magnificent and more divine than anything he has seen. 321.21

-She flies like a dove and rests with desire under the apple tree’s shadow. 324.6

-His hand reaches inside and rouses the bride’s desire for seeing him. 333.9

-A sin cannot be found without being yoked to pleasure, for instance, a sin connected with anger and lust. 350.12

-As great and exalted as he was with such experiences, Moses still had an insatiable desire for more. 356.1

-Neither did his act of intimately speaking with God as a friend make him cease to desire more. 356.6

-The person desiring (epithumeo) to see God can behold the desired One by always following him. 356.13

-Because the desire for her beloved is frustrated, her yearning for his beauty cannot be fulfilled. 369.21

-True satisfaction of her desire consists in always progressing in her search and ascent. 370.2

-His throat is most sweet and altogether desirable. 384.12

-Out of a desire for the transcendent good, the cares of this life are nullified. 404.24

-She puts the outer man to death and quenched every carnal thought and desire. 405.6

-To remove everything external out of desire to see the invisible. 411.8

-(Honey’s) enjoyment does not slacken desire by satiety. 425.15

-By rejecting impiety and worldly desires, we might again grow wings through holiness and righteousness. 448.15

-Still another person has grown by a desire for the good. 459.12

-Everyone is drawn to desire what they bless and praise. 468.19

-Everyone will look to the same goal which they have desired. 469.5

Aoristos

-His wisdom is infinite and his very essence is wisdom. 17.5

-The unlimited [divine] nature cannot be accurately contained by a name. 36.17

-Every good conceived as belonging to God’s nature is present in infinite and unbounded measure. 157.21

-Because (the divine nature) is incapable of fellowship with evil, it remains unlimited in the good. 158.11

-The intelligible is infinite and unbounded while the material is limited. 173.12

-The unbounded, incomprehensible divinity remains beyond all understanding. 246.8

-You see how boundless is the path for those rising up to God, yet how is it that what the soul has always comprehended is the beginning of something beyond her? 320.8

-Human nature is not able to contain the infinite, unbounded divine nature. 337.2

-The bride will always see more of her beloved’s incomprehensible beauty throughout all eternity. 370.4

-Our minds do not first attain God’s incomprehensible, invisible nature unless the visible or the flesh is grasped through faith. 387.3

Primary Text

The Word desires us who are changeable by nature not to fall into evil but by constant progress in perfection, we are to use our mutability as an ally in our ascent towards higher things, and by the mutability of our nature we are to establish it immovably in the good. Therefore the Song, like a teacher or protector from evil, mentions beasts that have been conquered. By turning away from evil, we are to strengthen our immutability in the good. J.252

Abstract

-Changeable (treptos) by nature.

-By constant progress (auxesis) in perfection.

Notes

Treptos

-In changeable human nature, good and evil exist by turns. 158.1

-The divine nature is...unmoved, unchangeable (atreptos), always the same. 158.8

-He who is comprehended in his immutable (atreptos) and eternal nature. 258.2

Auxesis

-Beauty will grow (epauxesis) in us, and the breadth and length of our nature will yield a fragrant and pure blossom. 113.1

-This text signifies advance and progress (epauxesis) toward greater perfection. 149.10

-It is always being created while ever changing for the better in its growth (epauxesis) in perfection. 174.9

-Nor can it be circumscribed in its growth towards the good. 174.11

-She always made progress and never remained in the good attained. 175.18

-A different (character) succeeds the other because of their increase (epauxesis) in the good. 186.12

-We expect an increase (epauxesis) of the good with time’s progression. 194.21

-Fitted together into the unity of faith and growing (auxeo) in the bond of peace. 202.8

-He who carefully pays attention to the sequence of the Song’s words understands the growth (epauxesis) of the exalted soul in the good with respect to God. 237.17

-They will always have a greater growth (epauxesis) of participation in God throughout eternity. 246.4

-She hastens onto something even greater. 281.1

-He always grew greater and never remained stationary at any point of his growth. 354.13

-One rightly understands these examples of growth by shifting the narrative to a symbolic plane. 354.19

-“May we grow up (auxeo) in all things into him who is the head” [Eph 4.13]. 382.20

-The great Peter also grew by a similar grace. 432.2

-They do not advance further to marriage or attain perfection. 460.22

-He who quickly grew from a youth to a perfect man arrived at the measure of that spiritual age. 467.18

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(No excerpts are taken from the Eighth, Ninth and Tenth Homilies)

Eleventh Homily

You see how boundless is the path for those rising up to God, yet how is it that what the soul has always comprehended is the beginning of something beyond her? We expected that the bride would come to a stop on her way on high because of the words addressed to her (For what more could she seek after so great a testimony to her perfection?). We then see her inside, not outside her house. She has not yet delighted at the appearance of her groom’s face but is still led by hearing to participate in the good. We learn that for those who are always advancing to what is greater the Apostle's words hold true: “If anyone thinks he knows something, he does not yet know as he should” [1Cor 8.2]. Hitherto the soul understands only what she has understood, but what she still does not know is infinitely greater than what she has already comprehended. J.320

By this example we learn that our withdrawal from false, deceptive ideas of God is a transition from darkness into light. Next, a more careful understanding of hidden things leads the soul through appearances to God’s hidden nature which is symbolized by a cloud overshadowing all appearances and which little by little accustoms the soul to behold what is hidden. Finally the soul is led on high. Forsaking what human nature can attain, the soul enters within the sanctuary of divine knowledge where she is hemmed in on all sides by the divine darkness. The soul forsakes everything without, that is, appearances and ideas; the only thing left for her contemplation is the unseen and unattainable in which God dwells. J.323

When the soul is purged of the gross habits of earthly life, it looks up through virtue to what is connatural and divine; it does not cease to search out and seek the origin of created reality, the source of its beauty from which springs the power whose wisdom is manifested in it. Wisdom moves all one’s thoughts and capacity for investigation to grasp out of curiosity the object of one's search. Wisdom limits our comprehension of God and is the sole divine operation which descends to our mortal existence for the purpose of giving us life. Similarly, water moved by wind does not remain at the edge of the lake but becomes a spring gushing forth which rushes on high to its connatural state. Once it has passed the highest manifestation of water and becomes mixed with air, the wind’s movement comes to rest on high. Such is the case with the soul seeking the divinity. Because the soul reaches from below to a knowledge of the transcendent and to a comprehension of God’s wonderful works, it is unable to proceed further in curiously scrutinizing these works; rather, it marvels and worships him who alone is recognized by his works. J.334

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Twelfth Homily

Primary Text

The soul looking towards God is raised to this sublime height as we have observed earlier. It does not know as it ought, as Paul says [1Cor 8.2], nor does the soul estimate itself to have comprehended but runs to what lies beyond, stretching forward to what is before [cf. Phil 3.13]. The Song offers these words of the bride: “Upon the handles of the lock. I opened to my beloved.” And she adds, “My beloved was gone. My soul went forth at his word” [5.5-6]. The bride teaches us here that the only way for comprehending that power which transcends all understanding is never to remain in any notion of him but to always move forward in her search and never stand still. J.352

Abstract

-But runs (trecho) to what lies beyond.

-That power which transcends (huperecho) all understanding.

-To always move forward in her search (zeteo).

Notes

Trecho

-The cause of their love is the scent of the perfume to which they eternally run. 39.13

-How the soul likened to a horse runs on the divine course! 119.14

-One who runs to the Lord will always have wide open spaces before him. 159.14

-The Word runs quickly upon the mountains which have become valleys. 170.19

-The mind running on high through its understanding of transcendent reality. 180.5

-She alone is seen ascending (anatrecho) and is compared to a grove of trees. 187.1

-The Ethiopians hastened (prostrecho) to the faith from among the nations. 205.14

-The person running to you becomes greater and more highly exalted. 246.18

-That holy way on which the disciples are bidden to run. 330.15

-(Water) becomes a spring gushing forth which rushes (anatrecho) on high to its connatural state. 334.12

-In running towards her spouse, the bride finds no rest in her advancement to perfection. 366.23

-In the second restoration, an interval of time necessarily accompanies those pursuing (anatrecho) the first good. 459.1

Huperecho

-And attribute all manifestations of affection in the text to the surpassing goodness of God. 31.4

-You alone are made in the likeness of that nature which surpasses all understanding. 68.5

-The soul...must establish in itself a nature transcending every intelligence. 87.8

-From the virtues we obtain knowledge of the good which transcends all understanding. 91.2

-Paul inhaled that inaccessible, transcendent grace. 91.9

-The blessed, eternal nature surpassing all understanding contains all things in itself. 157.15

-The soul continually grows through participation in what is beyond it and never stops growing. 158.16

-By participation in the transcendent, it continually remains stable in the good. 174.7

Zeteo

-We seek another meaning in this statement which is worthy of the lawgiver’s majesty. 10.11

-We seek to learn from the One who reveals the hidden mysteries. 10.15

-My defense against those who advise us to look for (anazeteo) nothing more in the divine words than their literal meaning. 13.3

-Our understanding of the divine nature resembles what we seek. 86.15

-With the sense of smell she touches the one see seeks. 88.13

-She seeks to be brought into the very house of wine. 120.3

-For she seeks to be subjected to love. 120.16

-She seeks to be supported by perfumes in order to secure the good things she has. 123.14

-The glory of God of which those who seek the world’s glory are not partakers. 129.10

-(The purified soul) does not yet seem to have grasped what it seeks. 137.12

-And has not fully obtained what she was seeking. 138.16.

-Contemplating her sought-after spouse. 138.19

-Not his form, face or figure indicating the nature of what is sought after. 139.3

-“By night on my bed I sought him” [Sg 3.1]. 171.10

-“I sought him but found him not” [Sg 3.1]. 171.15

-She makes known her soul’s anxiety by describing how she found the object of her search. 179.19

-Neither can any measure of knowledge limit the comprehension of our objective. 180.2

-I seek (anazeteo) him in the cloud. 181.14

-The meanings of a name would not help me attain him whom I sought. 181.21

-The one sought after is incomprehensible. 182.17

-Him whom she sought after is known only in her impossibility to comprehend his essence. 183.2

–Every sign becomes a hindrance to those who seek him. 183.4

-If anyone desires the text’s hidden marrow, let him seek it from the One who reveals the hidden mysteries. 193.13

-This stage does not limited what had been sought in himself. 247.10

-For the person seeking more perfect nourishment. 306.16

-“I sought him but found him not” [Sg 5.6]. 315.10

-By this door the human mind searching for what is hidden. 324.15

-It does not cease to search out and seek (anazeteo) the origin of created reality. 334.2

-Wisdom moves all one’s thoughts and capacity for investigation to grasp out of curiosity the object of one’s search. 334.7

-Man’s inquiring (zetetikos) mind cannot comprehend that operation. 337.16

-“I sought him but found him not” [Sg 5.6]. 340.12

-The one whom she desired escapes her grasp. 353.13

-Neither does it stop to seek that which cannot be found. 357.8

Everything we can discover always transcends our comprehension and completely escapes our search. 357.15

-Seeks him who cannot be grasped. 367.12

-Seeks him who cannot be seized. 369.16

-True satisfaction of her desire consists in always progressing in her search and ascent. 369.23

-She sought him who cannot be found by any signs. 379.9

-That we may know where to seek him. 379.16

-Indicate to us the one whom you seek. 380.2

-How does the bride describe to hr maidens the one whom she seeks? 380.13

-Adapted according to the different persons seeking to receive God’s word. 403.13

-By intense desires it (divine honey) heightens our longing. 425.18

-The characteristics by which they could recognize the one whom they sought. 426.12

-“We will seek him with you” [Sg 6.1]. 429.19

-By seeking the mother of the chosen dove, we will know her as no one other than that dove already mentioned. 468.8

Primary Text

The exit from our present state becomes an entrance to the transcendent good. The soul thus goes out using the Word as a guide who says, “I am the gate, the way,” and “If anyone enters through me, he shall go in and out” [Jn 10.9]. The bride never ceases going in nor going out, but she rests only by advancing towards that which lies before her and by always going out from what she has comprehended. In a similar way the Lord’s face passed Moses by, and thus the lawgiver’s soul kept going out of that state which it had attained, ever following the Word who went before him. J.354

Abstract

-The exit (exodos) from our present state becomes an entrance (eisodos) to the transcendent state.

-Rests only by advancing towards that which lies before (huperkeimai) her.

-The lawgiver’s soul kept going out of (exo) that state which it had attained.

Notes

Exodos

-How blessed is this going-out at her beloved’s word! 353.14

-God truly watches the coming and going of those who are worthy. 353.19

-Those keeping guard...are watching our coming in and going out. 364.3

-The virgins saw the wondrous exit of the soul. 379.7

Eisodos

-If we only prepare ourselves through diligence to enter the Holy of Holies. 45.6

-He who freely rejects participation in the good introduces evil. 55.13

-The arrow’s penetration opens us, as it were, a door and entrance for love. 128.4

-Once you have received these names as keys, O soul, let truth enter. 325.13

-The bride opened a way into her soul for her spouse. 328.7

-The soul then rises and opens to the bridegroom. 345.5

-By her death to all sin she rises to make an entrance for the Word. 352.4

-Her good deeds have approached the narrow, constricted entrance whose bolt the Word offers to persons like Peter. 353.5

-Those keeping guard...are watching our coming in and going out. 364.3

Huperkeimai

-The philosophy of the Song of Songs transcends both by its loftier teaching. 18.10

-The songs of the saints surpass the wisdom of profane songs. 27.3

-(Word’s essence) is inaccessible, intangible and incomprehensible. 89.17

-Song of Songs leads us to desire a contemplation of the transcendent good. 137.6

-And make me doubt that I shall ever attain a true understanding of divine things. 140.3

-There is always an unlimited good beyond what the bride has attained. 159.10

-The necessity to teach lovers of transcendent beauty about God. 173.1

-Its present state of goodness...is only the beginning of a more transcendent, better stage. 174.13

-The mind running on high through its understanding of transcendent reality should realize that all perfection of knowledge...is the beginning of a desire for more lofty things. 180.5

-Their (eyes) location above the other sense organs shows a more honorable use in our life. 217.4

-What we have received lies beyond our comprehension. 246.2

-The desire of a soul thus rising never remains in its knowledge, but by an ever greater desire, it moves onwards to something higher. 247.16

-The bridegroom again exhorts her to stir up her desire for the transcendent. 249.9

-That a certain form of the transcendent nature might become present in them. 271.15

-Certain stars of the divine eloquence are bright twinklings which transcend the soul’s eyes. 295.8

-The soul rising on high calls upon the help of the transcendent God. 304.20

-With the mind it (more perfect soul) regards only what transcends visible objects. 313.5

-The necessity to overcome sleep in searching for the life on high. 315.18

-What the soul has always comprehended is the beginning of something beyond her. 320.10

-The soul reaches from below to a knowledge of the transcendent and to a comprehension of God’s wonderful works. 334.16

-Nor will we understand the Transcendent by its manifestations. 336.7

-The wonderful deeds of the divine hand which transcends our human capacity. 337.7

-How can he comprehend God who lies beyond them? 337.20

-Nor does the soul estimate itself to have comprehended but runs to what lies beyond. 352.9

-A new desire for the transcendent, and it is never dulled by satiety. 366.13

-When her desire is fulfilled, it gives birth to a further desire for the transcendent. 370.3

-Out of desire for the transcendent good, the cares of this life are nullified and put to death. 404.23

Exo

-Let each person go out of himself and out of the material world. 25.6

-Solomon doesn’t not speak of the necessity of being outside the flesh’s impulses. 29.7

-Our choice made from visible things is unclear until we depart from this life. 66.10

-The person who examines material creation can perceive nothing beyond these bounds through his imagination. 173.16

-Once in the divine glory, he will be completely beautiful, far removed from any offensive blemish. 243.20.

-Let us listen as if we had no share in the nature of flesh and blood and have been transferred into the spiritual realm. 262.21

-Virtue is not separate from the divinity. 285.17

-The soul forsakes everything without, that is, appearances and ideas. 323.6

-Truth stands outside our souls because we know in part. 324.15

-I have stripped off my exterior, visible nature. 440.20

-Being outside the protection of God’s own wings, we were stripped of our own wings. 448.12

(No excerpts are taken from the Thirteenth and Fourteenth and Fifteenth Homilies)

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16 May 2004, Seventh Sunday of Easter