God reveals Himself to the glorified
and the glorified use their reason
to translate the revelation into
their language.
"If God spoke with human language,
then on the day of Pentecost each
one would not have heard in his own
dialect. These are the mysteries of
God at Pentecost, this is the
experience of glorification. In the
experience of glorification, the
manifestation of God, man's reason
is inspired and translates the
experience into his language. This
divine inspiration inspires each one
with his own concepts."
The experience of illumination and
glorification is passed on in
writing and verbally, as far as it
can be expressed.
"Every time that
Pentecost is repeated, we have the
highest form of divine inspiration,
whether it is written down or not.
Divine inspiration may not be
recorded in writing. Someone may
have this experience and not write
anything. Someone else
has the experience and writes about
it. Yet another, who only has the
experience of illumination and not
of glorification, may also write,
and what he writes is illuminated."
Those
who are glorified are called
Prophets in both the Old and New
Testaments. This experience of the
vision of God is conveyed by using
language.
"When
the Fathers speak about the Prophets'
experience of glorification, they
are obliged to use a particular
language to convey the message of
glorification and illumination from
those who have this experience to
those who do not have it."
On
account of the needs of every age,
and especially because heretics
alter Orthodox theology, the
glorified 'translate' the experience
that they have acquired by the grace
of the Holy Spirit into terms,
images and names that they take from
creation. Even when the experience
is recorded, there is no substitute
for revelation and the experience of
glorification.
"The concepts in the Old and New
Testament can never replace either
the revelation or the experience of
glorification. They do, however,
point out the path that someone
should follow in order to progress
from purification to illumination
and glorification. This is the aim
of the concepts in the Old and New
Testaments. They have no other
purpose."
Those who have reached glorification
convey their experience verbally or
in writing to their spiritual
children to guide them to live
through the same experience. This is
the core of the Orthodox tradition.
"The
essence of the tradition is passing
on this experience."
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