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Path of Cosmic and Personal Divinization: A
Path of Cosmic and Personal Divinization: (Here is a glimpse of what the personal and communal spirituality of Eastern Christianity is about:)
For nearly two millennia, Eastern Christians have practiced embodied spirituality: prayer, fasting and Philanthropia (the active love of all creation), both at home and in community.
One of many Eastern Christian paths, the Byzantine Christian traditions of meditation, ascetical practices and service stretch even further back in the history of humanity, in dynamic continuity with their roots in Jewish, Greek, Celtic, Egyptian and other primordial Wisdom. They are as effective today as they have always been, in providing a path for Reintegration:
As the seeker delves ever more deeply into the heart of the mysteries of being, he or she discovers the inner path of harmony with the cosmos – an integration of the created and uncreated in the Great Dance of Being.
In Byzantine Christian wisdom, the goal of all cosmic existence is to attune to the inner life of the Eternal and Divine Trinity, which we experience as Perichoresis, the Great Dance. All that is created, seen or unseen, is the dynamic living Image of The Holy Trinity, and thus "that which is below is the Icon of that which is above, and that which is above is imaged by that which is below."
God’s own self-revelation surrounds us and fills us here and now, inviting us to consciously join in the Dance which hums and moves around and within us, from the smallest sub-atomic particles and wave-functions, to the vast reaches of the galaxies.
Human Beings have a vital rôle in this Great Dance, for we have been privileged to partake in all the levels of Being: Physical, Psychic and Spiritual. As microcosms of Creation, we are called upon to consciously take up the Great Work of reintegration on all levels of being, with humility, joy and love. This eternal journey of ever-greater Divinization is known as Theosis.
This Great Work of Divinization is a Synergy between the Divine and Creation: "God became human, so that humans might become God" (St. Athanasius). The very ground of being, the Divine Logos (Word, Ratio, Balance-Point, Proportion, Pattern), is incarnate in Jesus Christ, leading the way into the Divine Dance of Love, empowering us have life to the full.
Identified in Holy Illumination with the Incarnate Logos, we grow as individuals, and as community, in the Transfigured Life, vividly revealed on Mount Tabor.
When The Christ was Transfigured, His Uncreated Divinity shone through His created nature but did not obliterate it. In the Mystery of our being a living Icon of the Divine Trinity, the multifoliate diversity of the Creation has a indispensible rôle to play.
The Uncreated Light, the Divine Energies which shone forth at the Transfiguration are "present everywhere and filling all things." Byzantine Christians throughout the ages have practiced ways of personal and Liturgical prayer which dispose the human person to realize the vivifying Gift of the Holy Spirit: the Divine within us.
Byzantine Christianity is a practical, achievable, realistic path of Reintegration, healing and Divinization for each of us, and for the Cosmos, making us participants in the Great Dance, so that we are "moved by the love which moves the Sun and the other Stars" (Dante).
Those who are led to and choose this Path grow according to their own pace in meditation, ascetical practices, Communal prayer and service of others and of the universe, guided by their own experience of The Holy Spirit in harmony with time-tested rituals and the experiences of our ancestors.
On a integrating journey of Divinization of him- or her- self and of the Cosmos, the Byzantine Christian is not a "Sunday-only" participant in the Mysteries. Distinctive millennia-old customs and rituals for each part of the year, the week, the day and the stages of life are available to all who seek to enflame their whole lives with the Divine Light, Life and Love.
The very architecture and arrangements of Byzantine Temples and home prayer-corners, sacred gesture and posture, rhythmic chant, Icons and Incense all play a part in the preparation and growth of the individual and the community in Theosis.
The most common form of meditation among Byzantine Christians is the Prayer of the Heart, a form of Hesychasm with its Christian practice in continuity with even more ancient roots.
While private prayer is silent, Liturgical worship is an expression of ecstatic joy in melody, beauty and fragrance. 10th century visitors at the Divine Liturgy in Constantinople reported "We did not know whether we were in heaven or on earth, but this we knew: here God dwells among us!"
In our Communal life as Byzantine Christians, we encounter the Divine in many ways. Our practice is in continuity with the age-old Apostolic Tradition. The Holy Mysteries are peak moments in the Transfigured Life, including Holy Illumination, Anointing, Crowning and many others.
We are not isolated individuals in this Initiatory path of Theosis. The very Icon of the Transfigured Cosmos is the Patroness of our Community: Mary the Theotokos (The God-Bearer), who is ever present with her guiding love and protection of our Community and its Path.
Amidst the rituals of the Holy Mysteries, we do not "re-enact events," but rather, through the power of the Holy Spirit, we transcend temporal and spatial limitations and are actually made present to the Divine realities we celebrate. In the Seasonal calendar of feasts, we grow each year, surrounded by the wisdom and active nurturing of the Angelic hosts and the whole company of the Saints, this "cloud of witnesses."