Saint Symeon the New Theologian highlights the importance of the Sacrament of Baptism and emphasises the help thus given to us by God. The prophets and the righteous of the Old Testament did not have this help bestowed upon them by God’s grace; yet, through their deeds, they pleased God, whereas we, who have received help against the bondage of the enemy, need only wish and desire to fulfil the Lord’s will: ‘Having been reborn through Holy Baptism, we break free from bondage and become free; and if, of our own free will, we do not obey the enemy, he cannot do anything else against us’1 Thus, speaking of the help we receive through Holy Baptism, Saint Simeon adds: ‘for I believe that the infants who are baptised and sanctified and protected by the shelter of the Most Holy Spirit, are sheep of Christ’s spiritual fold and chosen lambs, for they have been sealed with the sign of the life-giving Cross and have been completely freed from the tyranny of the devil’2”. Through the Sacrament of Holy Baptism, two works take place within the human soul: one to strengthen the will, and the other to put sin to death, to weaken the old man through the will 3. Baptism is the sacrament through which the baptised become members of the Church and are born again in Christ to a new life: ‘for, having come down from on high, our Lord has abolished our death through His own death (Colossians 2:14), completely removing the condemnation arising from our forefather’s transgression and, by rebirthingus, and by remoulding us through Holy Baptism and completely freeing us from it, has placed us in this world entirely free and not subject to the tyrannical influence of the enemy’4”.
The Sacrament of Holy Baptism is that through which the believer becomes a member of the Body of Christ, that is, of the Church; and, having become a member of the Church, the Christian, through a virtuous and humble life, attains to the vision of the divine light. This will be testified to, like Saint Symeon the New Theologian, three centuries later, Saint Gregory Palamas, who says: ‘The beginning was laid in us by the grace of Baptism, which offers forgiveness of all sins and of the guilt arising from the curse, and is called the bath of rebirth’5
The Holy Spirit cannot dwell in a person’s soul without that person feeling and being moved by the Divinity dwelling within them. For this reason, Saint Simeon makes a point which was viewed with scepticism by many of his contemporaries, namely: he says that only the dead feel nothing and therefore those who do not feel the Holy Spirit within them are spiritually dead, that is to say, their soul is so burdened by passions and cares that it has become insensitive to spiritual and intelligible matters. Saint Simeon rebukes those who believe they have the Holy Spirit in an unknown way and points out that they are devoid of the ‘garment woven’ by God, saying to them: ‘Behold, once again I turn to those who say they have the Spirit of God within them in an unknown way (ἀγνώστως) and consider that they have acquired Him within themselves through divine Baptism… to those who say that they have never received a perception (αἴσθησιν) of Him in vision and revelation, but that they have received Him and hold Him within themselves solely through faith and thought, but not through experience (πεῖρα) ‘As many of you as were baptised into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ’ (Galatians 3:27). If those who are baptised have put on Christ, what exactly is it that they have put on? God. So does he who has put on God not recognise with his mind, nor see what he has put on? When one who is naked in body puts on a garment, they feel and see the garment as it is; but will not the one who puts on God, being naked in spirit, recognise this?’6
Through the Holy Mysteries, the grace of the Holy Spirit is imparted to the believer so that they may grow and become a member of the Body of Christ. The Holy Mysteries impart divine light to people, yet the perception and vision of this divine light depend on the purity of the soul, and the ‘intensity’ of this vision depends on the spiritual level attained. Father Stăniloae says that our salvation is achieved through cooperation with Christ, who dwells within us through the Holy Sacraments 7.
The Holy Mysteries impart divine light to people, yet the perception and vision of this divine light depend on the purity of the soul, and the ‘intensity’ of that vision depends on the spiritual level attained.
Thus, by beholding the divine light even in this life, the Christian receives a foretaste of the life to come. To attain the vision of the divine light, self-denial and repentance are first required. At the same time, the guidance of an experienced spiritual father is essential. Yet all this is not enough, for without beholding the divine light, a person lacks the certainty and assurance that they are on the path to God. To strengthen and sustain their efforts, Christians need the grace of the Holy Spirit, which is imparted through the Holy Sacraments in the Church. Thus, only by being in accordance with the teaching of the Church, and in communion with the Church, can the believer be enlightened by the uncreated light of the Most Holy Trinity. The renewal and deification of human nature in Christ are made accessible to all people through the Holy Mysteries of the Church, which are the visible work of the hierarchy and the invisible work of Christ the Saviour: ‘The Orthodox Church holds that salvation is not completed in the death of Christ on the cross, as a legal equivalent of the offence which humanity has brought upon God, but in the union of the crucified and risen Christ with those who believe in Him, so that they too may die to sin and be raised to new life. Consequently, it accords the Sacraments a place of great importance in the economy of salvation as the means through which this union of people with Christ is brought about’8
After receiving the Sacrament of Holy Baptism, a person receives the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in their soul. After Baptism, Saint Simeon recommends repentance as a means of regaining the Holy Spirit: ‘But gather together,’ says Simeon, ‘calling upon all without exception: children, come; women, but make haste, fathers, before the end comes, and all of you, together with me, weep and lament, for after we received God in our infancy through Baptism—or rather, after we became, like infants, children of God—we soon became sinners, we were cast out of the house of David, and this happened to us without our realising it! Let us run to repentance, for through it all who have been cast out return, and there is no other means—do not be mistaken on this point—to enter within and see the mysteries that are performed here and which are being performed even now’9 Thus, Saint Simeon speaks of the fact that through our sins we have lost the fruits of baptism; and therefore, he introduces the idea of a baptism of repentance, of tears and of humility, through which we may once again receive the Holy Spirit, and he shows that this is the only path to God: ‘He who repents is both judged and re-judged by the divine fire, and, having been bathed then in the water of tears, his whole body is moistened and is gradually baptised in its entirety by the divine fire and Spirit, and becomes entirely pure, entirely unstained; and from that moment on, he becomes a son of light and of the day, not of a mere mortal man’10’.) This second baptism is in the Holy Spirit, through Whom we become partakers of the Unwaning Light; for, whilst the first baptism freed us from the tyranny of the enemy, this second baptism of repentance unites us with the Persons of the Holy Trinity: ‘To those who received Christ, He gave the power to become, through baptism, children of God, freeing them from the tyranny of the devil. Then, following this, the Gospel describes the nature of adoption, saying: ‘Who are not born of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God’. Birth here denotes the spiritual transformation which becomes real and visible in the baptism of the Holy Spirit, as the Lord, who does not lie, declares: ‘John baptised with water, but you will be baptised with the Holy Spirit’. Thus, in Him, those who are baptised become light from the Light and come to know the One who has begotten them in the very act of seeing Him’11’.
Saint Simeon speaks of the fact that through our sins we have lost the fruits of baptism and, therefore, he introduces the idea of a baptism of repentance, of tears and of humility through which we may once again receive the Holy Spirit, and he shows that this is the only path to God.
Without diminishing the value of the first Baptism, Saint Simeon highlights the importance of the second Baptism, demonstrating the necessity that springs from the very beginning. Man cannot be saved without Baptism with water and the Holy Spirit, but neither can he be saved without the Baptism of tears: ‘for just as he who has not been baptised with water and the Spirit cannot be saved, so too can he who has sinned after Baptism not be saved unless he is baptised and born again from above; and he who does not even know that he has been baptised, thereby erasing that baptism with thousands of sins and denying the second Baptism, how else can he attain salvation?’12 The difference between the two aspects of baptism lies in the conscious nature of the second: ‘those who received Your baptism in their infancy and have led a life unworthy of it throughout their days, will be condemned more severely than the unbaptised, as You Yourself have said, because they have defiled Your holy garment; and knowing that this is a certain and unquestionable truth, You, O Saviour, have granted repentance for a second cleansing and have ordained for them as their goal the grace of the Spirit which we first received at baptism: for grace comes not only through water, according to Your words, but rather through the Spirit, in the calling of the Trinity. Therefore, since we were baptised as children, unaware and still imperfect beings, we also receive grace in an imperfect manner, obtaining forgiveness for our first transgression of the commandment—the sole reason, in my view, You commanded, Lord, that we should perform this divine baptism: those who are cast into it enter the vineyard, redeemed from the darkness of hell, and are utterly delivered from death and corruption. Such was Adam of old before his sin; so too do all those who have been baptised in full knowledge of the matter become, but not those who, in their insensitivity, have not received the understanding that the Spirit brings about through His work’13
We receive the grace of the Holy Spirit from the moment we are baptised in water in the name of the Holy Trinity; however, because of the sins we have committed, the first baptism must be renewed through the second baptism—the baptism of tears and repentance. Through this second baptism, a person receives the grace of the Holy Spirit to an even greater extent than through the first baptism 14, this does not mean that the second baptism is lesser than the first, but it shows us the goodness of God, Who, knowing that man would not keep the first baptism pure, has made repentance available to man. Another difference is that the presence of the Spirit is not felt in the first Baptism, but this does not mean that grace does not exist, whereas, through the tears of love for God, the divine work is felt 15.
A second baptism, that of tears, is necessary, for no one is pure, even if they were to live but a single day on earth (Job 14:4): ‘Those who received Your baptism in their infancy and have led a life unworthy of it will be condemned more severely than the unbaptised – as You have said, for they have defiled Thy holy garment; and, knowing that this is a certain and unquestionable truth, You, O Saviour, have granted repentance for a second cleansing and have ordained as the goal the grace of the Spirit which we first received at baptism: for grace comes not only through water, according to Your words, but rather through the Spirit, in the calling of the Trinity’16
A second baptism is necessary, because: ‘we were baptised as children, unaware, still imperfect beings; just as we were imperfect, so too do we receive grace, obtaining forgiveness for our first transgression of the commandment—the sole reason why, in my view, You commanded, O Lord, that we should perform this divine baptism: those who are cast into it enter the vineyard, redeemed from the darkness of hell and are utterly delivered from death and corruption. Such was Adam of old before his sin; so too do all those who have been baptised in full knowledge of the matter become, but not those who, in their insensitivity, have not received the discerning understanding which the Spirit brings about through His work’17’.”
Thus, Saint Simeon shows that through the first baptism, which we receive in infancy, we become members of the Church; but, because through sin we defile the garment of the soul, it is cleansed through the baptism of tears and repentance. Although in infancy we are unaware of the grace we have received, Saint Simeon, like Saint Cyprian of Carthage, emphasises the necessity of infant baptism 18. Through repentance, one comes to realise one’s fall from God’s grace, which becomes a spring of tears for the commandments that have been broken: ‘he who repents is both judged and re-judged by the divine fire, and, having been bathed in the water of tears, his whole body is moistened and is gradually baptised entirely by the divine fire and Spirit, and becomes wholly pure, wholly unstained, and, from that moment on, a son of light and of the day, not of a mere mortal man’10 Therefore, as we have seen in the quotations above, Saint Simeon emphasises the conscious experience of receiving the Holy Spirit as a guarantee of receiving Him.
Thus, as we have seen from the writings of Saint Simeon, the grace of God bestowed upon people through the Holy Spirit is absolutely necessary for their salvation. Through the threefold immersion in water at the sacrament of Holy Baptism, God’s grace descends and wipes away original sin; the recipient begins a new life spiritually and, at the same time, receives help to begin the ascent up the ladder of virtues. By defiling the Sacrament of Holy Baptism, a person falls once more under the dominion of sin and, thus, according to the teachings of Saint Simeon, man also requires a second baptism—that of repentance and tears—through which he regains the grace he has lost. Thus, sincere repentance, together with a person’s resolve to sin no more, constitutes the necessary preparation for receiving the Holy Spirit through the baptism of tears.
We can also readily observe the importance he attaches to the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist, as well as to the preparation for receiving it worthily, in order to attain the grace of God, shared through the Descent of the Holy Spirit. Saint Simeon highlights the importance of the Sacrament of the Eucharist by stating that, thanks to the Incarnation of the Word, communion with God the Son is possible, and that through communion we receive God in His entirety, not in part. Through Communion, we enter into communion with the Persons of the Holy Trinity: ‘Christ, having once become kinsman to us through the flesh, has made us partakers of His Divinity and unites us all to Himself. Moreover, the Divinity in which we share through this Holy Communion is not divisible into separate parts; it necessarily follows that we too, having truly partaken of it, are inseparable in the One Spirit, forming one body with Christ’19”. Thus, communion with the Holy Mysteries is, for the faithful, spiritual nourishment that helps them to grow spiritually and which will make them partakers of the Kingdom of Heaven: “participation in the Holy and Most Pure Mysteries is eternal life; and those who have eternal life are those whom the Lord will raise up on the Last Day”20.
Saint Simeon notes that, in order to receive the grace of the Holy Spirit through communion with the Body and Blood of the Saviour, faith in the work of the Sacrament is absolutely essential, for, otherwise, if the one receiving Communion does not believe that Christ the Saviour was truly God and truly Man, it is of no benefit to him; indeed, he even brings upon himself condemnation for his unbelief: ‘To whom does it (the Body and Blood of the Lord) serve no purpose at all? To those who assert that Christ is merely a man, and not God. In that case, you, believer, if you partake only of the bread and not of the deified Body, thinking that you are receiving Christ Himself in His entirety – how can you hope to receive from Him and to have, in a very conscious way (εὐαισθήτως), life within you, when the Lord says: ‘The Body is of no use whatsoever. It is the Spirit that gives life.’ In reality, it is the Spirit Who is truly the food and drink; it is the Spirit Who transforms the bread into the Body of the Lord. In reality, it is the Spirit who cleanses us and enables us to partake worthily of the Lord’s Body21. Through the presence of the Holy Spirit in the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist in the Church, a ‘perpetual Pentecost’ is created22). That is why Saint Simeon emphasises a genuine experience of the Holy Spirit, just as the Holy Apostles felt and saw Him at Pentecost. If receiving Holy Communion does not cause our soul to awaken and leap for joy at the sensation of the Body of our Saviour Christ, it means that we are not yet vessels of the Holy Spirit and have not received Him, for: ‘those who eat His Body and drink His Blood have eternal life, according to His divine word. When we, who partake of them, feel nothing different from when we take material food, and do not become aware of another life, then we have received merely bread, and not God at the same time’23 Thus, Saint Simeon emphasises, once again, the real sense of Christ’s presence. Therefore, to receive the Holy Spirit through Holy Communion, preparation is required—that is, purity and faith—for without such preparation we shall not perceive the Divinity, and ‘under these circumstances, if all this takes place within us, in our view, without our even being aware of it, who could lament, as it deserves, our unawareness? No one, indeed’24
The Holy Mysteries are light 25, and the Eucharist must also be light for the one who receives Communion, for otherwise, if he is not filled with light, it means that he has not fully partaken of Christ the Lord: ‘It is not only in the bread and wine of the Eucharist that the remission of sins and participation in life are granted to us, but in the Divinity which accompanies them and is mystically mingled with them, without being confused with them. I say ‘mystically’, because the Divinity is not revealed to all, but only to those who are worthy of eternal life; and it makes those who see it sons of light and sons of the day; for those who do not see the light despite the brightness of its radiance are left in darkness’26 It follows from this that, through the purity of the soul, the beholding of the light of Christ, and through partaking of the Holy Mysteries—which are also light—eternal life is foreshadowed for the faithful even in this life, and in its fullness in the Kingdom of Heaven: ‘if you thus celebrate the feasts and partake of the Holy Mysteries, your whole life will be nothing but a feast and a single Easter, the passage and transition from the sensible world to the intelligible world, where every shadow, every image and every symbol of the present comes to an end, and where we shall rejoice eternally in all purity, having ourselves been purified by the most pure victory, in God the Father and the co-essential Spirit, beholding Christ ceaselessly, reigning with Christ—a glory which nothing surpasses in greatness in the Kingdom of Heaven’27
…through the purity of the soul, the vision of Christ’s light, and through partaking of the Holy Mysteries, which are also light, eternal life is foreworked by the faithful even in this present life.
Saint Simeon points out that we partake of the divine light through the divine Mysteries only through preparation and prayer. Thus, the saint advises a disciple: ‘Keep to the rule I have laid down for you for the morning service, never forgetting the tears; stand trembling as though you were seeing the Son of God about to be crucified for your sake. And if you are worthy and have received the necessary absolution, draw near, with fear and joy, to partake of the unspeakable blessings’28 Elsewhere, Saint Simeon speaks of the Sacrament of Ordination and highlights some of the conditions without which no one should receive it. Firstly, he shows that the one receiving ordination must be aware of the great responsibility of the priesthood and, in order to prove himself worthy of receiving this Sacrament, must renounce everything and have only God in his heart and mind: ‘Do not be led astray; do not presume to touch or draw near to Him who is by nature unapproachable! For whoever does not renounce the world and the things of the world, and who does not deny his own soul and body, such a man cannot offer the mystical and bloodless sacrifice in a pure manner to God, Who is pure by nature’29”.
Saint Simeon emphasises a conscious partaking of the grace received: ‘if you do so with full awareness and in good conscience, then you partake of such things worthily; but if you do not partake in this way, you are undoubtedly eating and drinking of them unworthily’30 The experience of grace through Holy Communion is granted only to the worthy, whereas in the unworthy, although they partake of the same Holy Mysteries, Christ does not remain within them because He finds no suitable dwelling place: ‘Let not those who partake unworthily of the Divine Mysteries suppose that through them they are simply joined and united with the invisible God; for this does not happen at all, nor will it ever happen to them. For only those who, in partaking of the Divine Body of the Lord, have been deemed worthy to see and to eat with the eye and mouth of the mind, and to perceive the revelation of the invisible Divinity through a spiritual touch, know that ‘The Lord is good’ (Psalm XXXIII, 9)”31. Those who partake worthily feel the presence of grace both spiritually and physically: ‘as those who do not merely eat and drink a bread perceived in a sensory manner, but, at the same time, spiritually partake of God, nourishing themselves with twofold perceptions: at once from one in a visible manner, and from the other in an unseen manner; in both these ways they are united with Christ, who is two-natured by nature, becoming one body with Him (Ephesians 3:6) and partakers of His glory and divinity (1 Peter 5:1)’31
He emphasises the spiritual nature of Holy Communion and shows that it is experienced as light, fire, life and living water: ‘for to those who have not yet progressed beyond the sensory realm, this bread appears in a sensory sense as a mere morsel, but in a spiritual (intelligible) sense it is unfathomable and unapproachable light; in the same way, the wine is also, in a similar manner, light, life, fire and living water’32 Although the Holy Mysteries are light, fire, life and living water, the unworthy cannot perceive them as light because they are spiritually blind; nor can the fire of grace kindle the soul to the longing for God, nor does life unite with a dead soul, and living water passes through the soul as through a reed32. The importance of the Mystery, later emphasised by Saint Nicholas Cabasilas, is linked to the Church, just as there are no shoots without the vine, or no branches without the root, or no limbs without the heart. Thus, it is the foundation, the root and the heart of the Church’s life 33. Wishing to illustrate even more clearly the importance of the Holy Eucharist, Saint Nicholas Cabasilas says: ‘If anyone could take in the Church of Christ at a glance, they would see nothing but the very Body of the Lord, inasmuch as she is united with Him and partakes of His Body’34
As for ordination, Saint Simeon says that the one who receives this sacrament must have a calling from God. Through His grace, God descends upon the chosen one, enlightens his soul, kindles within him a love for divine service, and only in this way, having received God’s call, may one dare to receive the Sacrament of Ordination: ‘even if someone were to have received the full grace of the Spirit and were sinless from his mother’s womb, if God, through His command and His choice, does not entrust him by divinely enlightening his soul and does not kindle within him the desire for divine love, it does not seem wise to me that he should offer the divine sacrifice and touch the untouchable and awe-inspiring Mysteries’35”.
As regards the preparation a spiritual father must have, Saint Simeon makes a point: first he must purify himself of sins in order to be able to help those who come to the Sacrament of Confession: “Take care, therefore, I beg you, never to take upon yourself the debts of your neighbour when you yourself are in debt for something: do not presume to grant forgiveness without having received into your heart the One Who takes away the sin of the world’36. As such, the Incarnate Son of God brings redemption from sin for the human race, and after the Resurrection bestows upon the Apostles the power to bind and loose the sins of men: ‘Neither Adam nor any of his sons would have had the strength to bring about his own restoration and that of those close to him, had not God, the Supernatural, our Lord Jesus Christ, Who came (into the world), had not raised him and us once more from the fall through His divine power’37
Through the Sacrament of Confession, Saint Simeon holds that the one who confesses receives absolution from sins. The confession of sins must be accompanied by sincere repentance and the resolve not to sin again. Through confession, the Holy Spirit descends and strengthens the penitent, giving them the strength, through the fortification of the will, to resist sin. The Sacrament of Confession was instituted by Christ the Saviour because He, being God, foresaw that people would sin even after the Sacrament of Baptism and would therefore need a renewal of the grace received at Baptism. As we have seen, Saint Symeon the New Theologian speaks of a second baptism, the baptism of tears, which is based on the Sacrament of Repentance, or Confession.
Saint Symeon shows that genuine confession, accepted by God, is accompanied by the descent of the grace of the Holy Spirit, which becomes, within the believer’s soul, the spring of true repentance, of contrition and weeping, of tears and humility. Repentance for sins must precede the Sacrament of Confession: ‘Do you wish, then, to learn how, without repentance—and without repentance from the heart, as the Word demands of us—it is impossible for us to be saved?’38
The state of repentance for sins leads the believer to recognise their unworthiness, to realise and confess the sins they have committed: ‘Therefore, my brothers, take heed, I beg you, and listen to the words of your youngest and most sinful brother, and let us come to worship and prostrate ourselves (Psalm XCIV:6) before our Good and Man-loving God. Let us meet His face in confession (Psalms XCIV, 2) and weep before Him Who made us’39’. Furthermore, Saint Simeon emphasises that repentance must be complete and must become, within the believer, not only a source of good deeds, but also a source of good thoughts: “let us repent with all our heart, and not merely reject our evil deeds, but also banish the evil and impure thoughts from our hearts”39.
The importance of the Sacrament of Confession is illustrated by Saint Simeon through a parable, in which he shows that mere regret for sins is not enough, for it is only through the Sacrament of Confession that the Holy Spirit descends to wash away sins. In the parable in question, Saint Simeon once again uses the image of the king who, ‘clad in a diadem and the purple of the kingdom, and possessing immeasurable treasures of silver and gold, sits upon a high throne; if he willingly takes mud and soot and with his own hands smears his entire face, covering all his senses, he can no longer see, hear or smell’40 Although Saint Simeon uses the image of a king, every human being is reflected in the parable above, for man has been placed by God as a king over all that He has created. The smearing of the face with mud is to be understood as the voluntary fall into sin and the defilement of the image of God within man. Through sin, man’s senses are weakened and diminished—especially the spiritual senses, but also the bodily ones—for the Fall also brought about a darkening of the bodily senses; before the Fall, Adam spoke directly with God.
Continuing the parable, Saint Simeon highlights the importance of the Sacrament of Confession, and the fact that mere regret for one’s sins is not enough: ‘whereupon, feeling remorse and seeking deliverance from this evil, he does not hasten to enter his chamber and wash away that mud and soot with plenty of water, so that he might sit once more, as before, pure upon the throne of his kingdom; but, instead, he merely distributes all his treasures to the poor (Psalm 111:19) and gives them all his movable and immovable property; he will derive no benefit from any of this for himself unless he has washed away the soot and mud with water’40 Through these words, Saint Simeon seeks to show that mere regret for sins does not bring about their forgiveness, nor does it bring the help of divine grace to strengthen the will to sin no more. Divine grace descends only through the Sacrament of Confession, following the absolution pronounced by the priest.
To summarise the points made, we emphasise that the writings of Saint Simeon the New Theologian are full of testimonies concerning the vision of the divine light. For Saint Symeon, the vision of the divine light is synonymous with the vision of God; the purpose of the Christian life is the vision of this light. Furthermore, Saint Symeon shows that in order to see God, our entire life must be a quest for Him. Repentance and tears are the first steps towards discovering God as light; ascetic efforts are also necessary, and these must not be separated from love and humility. Furthermore, Saint Simeon emphasises sincerity and kindness, revealing that God reveals Himself rather to those who are meek and humble of heart than to those who live a life of asceticism, yet make this an end in itself and in fact forget that asceticism is but a step towards God. Those who come to receive the revelation of the divine light begin to live in the Kingdom of God whilst still on earth, and the passing from this life is but a step towards a purer and more perfect vision of God. Through the divine light, a transfiguration of the human person takes place, a transfiguration which foreshadows the eschatological transfiguration. In fact, the eschatological transfiguration of man begins right here, in this life, and will be completed with the resurrection of the bodies and the reunion of the soul with the body. To attain the vision of God, man must make a total effort, for there is no time for rest and ease for those who seek salvation, but rather a struggle, as the Desert Fathers used to say: ‘give blood and receive the Spirit’. The Hesychast experience of Saint Simeon has a Christological dimension, for it is Christ Who brings man into communion with the Persons of the Holy Trinity. Christ the Lord is the model to follow; He is the One with Whom man is united in a ‘mystical wedding’. Through the Holy Mysteries, man partakes of divine grace; or, as Saint Simeon puts it, the Mysteries are ways of partaking of divine light. For him, the Holy Mysteries have a distinctly mystical character and are not merely visible symbols; rather, they must also bring about an enlightenment of the soul. For Saint Simeon, the Sacraments also have an unseen aspect: that of the illumination of the soul and the vision of God. Without the conscious reception of the Holy Spirit, the Holy Sacraments remain mere acts, bringing about no change in the human soul.
Through the divine light, a transfiguration of man takes place, a transfiguration which foreshadows the eschatological transfiguration.
- 1
Saint Symeon the New Theologian, Catecheses, Deisis Publishers, Sibiu, 2001, p. 87.
- 2
Ibid., Hymns, Epistles and Chapters, Deisis Publishers, Sibiu, 2001, p. 346.
- 3
Rev. Prof. Dumitru Stăniloae, ‘Our Perfection in Christ According to the Teaching of the Orthodox Church’, in MO, vol. XXXII (1980), no. 1–2, p. 104.
- 4
Saint Symeon the New Theologian, Catecheses, p. 85.
- 5
Saint Gregory Palamas, Discourse on the Incarnation of Our Lord Jesus Christ, 34, in Writings II, p. 242.
- 6
Ilarion Alfeyev, Saint Symeon the New Theologian and the Orthodox Tradition, Ed. Sofia, Bucharest, 2010, pp. 248–249.
- 7
Rev. Prof. Dumitru Stăniloae, op. cit., in MO, XXXII, 1980, no. 1–2, p. 104.
- 8
Rev. Prof. Dumitru Stăniloae, Orthodox Dogmatic Theology, vol. II, p. 7.
- 9
SC 156, Hymnes, 15, 250–261, Les Éditions du Cerf, Paris, 1969.
- 10a10b
Ilarion Alfeyev, op. cit., p. 249.
- 11
SC 129, Ethique, 10, 430–448, Les Éditions du Cerf, Paris, 1967.
- 12
Ilarion Alfeyev, op. cit., p. 250.
- 13
SC 156, Hymnes, 55, 28–51, Les Éditions du Cerf, Paris, 1969.
- 14
The Philokalia, vol. IX, translated, with an introduction and notes by Rev. Prof. Dumitru Stăniloae, EIMBOR, Bucharest, 1980, p. 166.
- 15
Philokalia, vol. VI, no. 34, p. 27; cf. Fr. Iustinian Alupei, ‘Holy Baptism in the Teaching of Saint Simeon the New Theologian’, in Poetic Mystical Theology – a volume containing the academic papers presented at the symposium ‘The Hymns of Divine Love by Saint Simeon the New Theologian’ – Bacău 2009, Basilica Publishers, Bucharest, 2012, p. 519.
- 16
Archbishop Vasili Krivoșein, In the Light of Christ. The Life and Spiritual Teachings of Saint Symeon the New Theologian, EIMBOR, Bucharest, 2005, p. 149.
- 17
Archbishop Vasili Krivoșein, op. cit., p. 149.
- 18
Jaroslav Pelikan, The Development of Christian Doctrine, Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 1969, p. 80.
- 19
SC 122, Ethique, 1.6, 76–82, Les Éditions du Cerf, Paris, 1966.
- 20
SC 122, Ethique, 3, 495–497, Les Éditions du Cerf, Paris, 1966.
- 21
SC 122, Ethique, 3, 538–551, Les Éditions du Cerf, Paris, 1966.
- 22
Rev. Prof. Boris Bobrinskoy, The Communion of the Holy Spirit, EIMBOR, Bucharest, 1999, p. 101.
- 23
SC 129, Ethique, 10, 758–764, Les Éditions du Cerf, Paris, 1967.
- 24
SC 129, Ethique, 10, 774–775, Les Éditions du Cerf, Paris, 1967.
- 25
SC 122, Theological and Ethical Treatises, Theological Treatises, 3, 150–152, Les Éditions du Cerf, Paris, 1966.
- 26
SC 129, Eth., 10, 189–197, Les Éditions du Cerf, Paris, 1967.
- 27
SC 129, Eth., 14, 281–290, Les Éditions du Cerf, Paris, 1967.
- 28
SC 113, Catecheses, 26, 114–120.
- 29
SC 174, Hymns, 19, 86–103.
- 30
Saint Symeon the New Theologian, op. cit., pp. 380–381.
- 31a31b
Saint Symeon the New Theologian, op. cit., p. 381.
- 32a32b
Saint Symeon the New Theologian, op. cit., pp. 381–382.
- 33
A. Volcov, ‘Othod Vaticana ot snov hristianstva’, in Journal of the Moscow Patriarchate, no. 2, February 1951, p. 27; cf. Rev. Prof. Dumitru Stăniloae, ‘Ecclesiological Synthesis’, in ST, vol. VII (1955), no. 5–6, p. 268.
- 34
Saint Nicholas Cabasilas, The Explanation of the Divine Liturgies, trans. Deacon Ene Braniște, published by the Biblical Institute, Bucharest, 1946, pp. 90–91.
- 35
Saint Nicholas Cabasilas, The Explanation of the Divine Liturgies, 19, 158–165.
- 36
SC 129, Eth., 6, 417–421.
- 37
Saint Symeon the New Theologian, Hymns, Epistles and Chapters, Deisis Editions, Sibiu, 2001, p. 307.
- 38
Ibid., Catecheses, p. 74.
- 39a39b
Saint Symeon the New Theologian, Catecheses, p. 75.
- 40a40b
Saint Symeon the New Theologian, Catecheses, p. 76.