Friday, September 15, 2006
A Tear in My Wine at Night?
Tears of compunction should accompany prayer. . . when the gift of tears is granted. . . the delight of those tears should not be counted as idleness (Alfeyev 140).
The theme of spiritual inebriation is the single most characteristic mystical theme in the works of Isaac (Alfeyev 191).
Inebriation is used by Isaac to describe an especially strong experience of the love of God, and the joy and spiritual elevation of a state of mystical ecstasy (Alfeyev 248).
Do not imagine, O man, that among all the works of the monastics there is any practice greater than night vigil. . . A monk who preseveres in vigil with a discerning intellect will seem not to be clad with flesh, for this is truly the work of the angelic estate. . . A soul which labours in the practice of vigil and excels therein will have eyes of cherubim, that she may at all times gaze upon and espy celestial visions (Isaac quoted in Alfeyev 185).
Prayer offered up at night possesses great power, greater than prayer at the daytime. Therefore, all the righteous prayed during the night, while combating the heaviness of body and the sweetness of sleep. This is why satan fears the labor of night vigil and uses every means to prevent ascetics from doing it. . . (Isaac quoted in Alfeyev 191).
Visions, revelations, and insights can therefore be spoken of as different aspects of the same phenomenon: a human person's encounter with realities of the immaterial world. Visions refer to encounters with personal beings (angels, saints). . . revelations: denotes spiritual penetration into the Divine Being or the eschatologically renewed, created world; insight signifies mystical flashes within in a person's intellect, when suddenly, during prayer or reading, the mysteries of the other world are opened to him (Alfeyev 235-6).
Coming soon. . . How One Should Read
The theme of spiritual inebriation is the single most characteristic mystical theme in the works of Isaac (Alfeyev 191).
Inebriation is used by Isaac to describe an especially strong experience of the love of God, and the joy and spiritual elevation of a state of mystical ecstasy (Alfeyev 248).
Do not imagine, O man, that among all the works of the monastics there is any practice greater than night vigil. . . A monk who preseveres in vigil with a discerning intellect will seem not to be clad with flesh, for this is truly the work of the angelic estate. . . A soul which labours in the practice of vigil and excels therein will have eyes of cherubim, that she may at all times gaze upon and espy celestial visions (Isaac quoted in Alfeyev 185).
Prayer offered up at night possesses great power, greater than prayer at the daytime. Therefore, all the righteous prayed during the night, while combating the heaviness of body and the sweetness of sleep. This is why satan fears the labor of night vigil and uses every means to prevent ascetics from doing it. . . (Isaac quoted in Alfeyev 191).
Visions, revelations, and insights can therefore be spoken of as different aspects of the same phenomenon: a human person's encounter with realities of the immaterial world. Visions refer to encounters with personal beings (angels, saints). . . revelations: denotes spiritual penetration into the Divine Being or the eschatologically renewed, created world; insight signifies mystical flashes within in a person's intellect, when suddenly, during prayer or reading, the mysteries of the other world are opened to him (Alfeyev 235-6).
Coming soon. . . How One Should Read
