A Light to Enlighten the Darkness

God is light, says Saint John, and in him there is no darkness at all. this is a terrifying concept, for it means that in the presence of God there is no concealment, no hiding place, and all our manifold imperfections are revealed in that shadowless and, in one sense, merciless light. Yet if we have the light of Christ in our heart, it is there to shine both for ourselves and for others. If, by the light of God's grace, we are enabled to see more clearly, it is so that we may see more clearly how we may serve our neighbour. If God is the life-giving light which instructs our minds by his wisdom and truth, that is not for our own selfish enjoyment.

Few of us are ‘natural mystics’. The spiritual path in general, and the monastic spiritual path in particular, is not an unending quest for ‘spiritual highs’ and paramystical phenomena. It is, rather, an unending quest for God.

Emma Cazabonne compiled her selections on philophosia, the love of light, over twenty years of lectio divina and a fascination with similarities between Cistercian and Orthodox traditions.