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The quotes of Saint Symeon the New Theologian

33 quote(s)  | Page 2 / 2




B ut neither should you try to seize {God} with the hands of your intellect, for He is ungraspable, and the more you make bold to touch Him or fancy that you hold Him, the more you will have nothing inside and He will immediately disappear from you entirely.


quote 3412  | 
On the Mystical Life : The Ethical Discourses. Trans. Alexander Golitzin. Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir's Seminary Press, 1996,(Vol. 2), p. 136 




H ow then was {the Word} everywhere before making the world and, when He had made it, how was He shining in it without the world comprehending Him? (cf Jn 1:1-15). Pay careful attention: God "Who is everywhere present and fills all things" was not, Scripture says, separated from it by location when He created this sensible world, but by the nature of the glory of His divinity, it being evident that nothing created approached or comprehended Him at all. Indeed, being inseparable from all He is as clearly in all.


quote 3411  | 
On the Mystical Life : The Ethical Discourses. Trans. Alexander Golitzin. Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir's Seminary Press, 1996,(Vol. 1), p. 155 




G od, the cause of all, is One… That One is not such as are visible things. Rather, He transcends incomparably and inalterably all the visible world…


quote 3410  | 
On the Mystical Life : The Ethical Discourses. Trans. Alexander Golitzin. Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir's Seminary Press, 1996, (Vol. 1), p. 122 




S o I entered the place where I usually prayed and mindful of the words of the holy man I began to say, "Holy God". At once I was so greatly moved to tears and loving desire for God that I would be unable to describe in words the joy and the delight I then felt. I fell prostrate on the ground, and at once I saw, and behold, a great light was immaterially shining on me and seized hold of my whole mind and soul, so that I was struck with amazement at the unexpected marvel and I was, as it were, in ecstasy. Moreover I forgot the place where I stood, who I was, and where and could only cry out, 'Lord, have mercy,' so that when I came to myself I discovered I was reciting this. But who it was that was speaking, and who moved my tongue, I do not know - only God knows.


quote 3368  | 
Cathecetical Discourse XVI 




D uring the day he managed a patrician's household and daily went to the palace, engaged in worldly affairs, so that no one was aware of his pursuits. …One day, as he stood and recited, "God, have mercy upon me, a sinner" Lk. 18:13), uttering it with his mind rather than his mouth, suddenly a flood of divine radiance appeared from above and filled all the room. As this happened the young man lost all awareness [of his surroundings] and forgot that he was in a house or that he was under a roof. He saw nothing but light all around him and did not know if he was standing on the ground. He was not afraid of falling: he was not concerned with the world nor did anything pertaining to men and corporeal beings enter his mind. Instead, he seemed to himself to have turned into light. Oblivious of all the world he was filled with tears and with ineffable joy and gladness. His mind then ascended to heaven and beheld yet another light, which was clearer than that which was close at hand. In a wonderful manner there appeared to him standing close to that light, the saint of whom we have spoken, the old man equal to angels, who had given him the commandment and the book. …


quote 3366  | 
The Catechetical Discourses XXII 




T hat human being who is inwardly illumined by the light of the Holy Spirit cannot endure the vision of it, but falls face down on the ground and cries out in great fear and wonder, because he has seen and experienced something that is beyond nature, thought, or conception. He becomes like someone suddenly inflamed with a violent fever; as though on fire and powerless to control the flames, he is beside himself, totally incapable of controlling himself. And though he weeps incessant tears that bring some relief, the flame of his desire breaks out even more intensely. Then his tears flow even more abundantly and washed by their flow, he becomes even more radiant. When, utterly incandescent, he has become like light, then the saying of Saint Gregory of Nazianzos is fulfilled, "God is united with gods and known by them" in the sense perhaps that he is now united to those who have joined themselves to him, and revealed to those who have come to know him.


quote 2808  | 
The Philokalia: The Complete Text, vol. 4 (London: Faber & Faber, 1995) 




T hat human being who is inwardly illumined by the light of the Holy Spirit cannot endure the vision of it, but falls face down on the ground and cries out in great fear and wonder, because he has seen and experienced something that is beyond nature, thought, or conception.


quote 2807  | 
The Philokalia: The Complete Text, vol. 4 (London: Faber & Faber, 1995) 




C ome, true light.
Come, life eternal.
Come, hidden mystery.
Come, treasure without name.
Come, reality beyond all words.
Come, person beyond all understanding.
Come, rejoicing without end.
Come, light that knows no evening.
Come, unfailing expectation of the saved.
Come, raising of the fallen.
Come, resurrection of the dead.
Come all-powerful, for unceasingly you create, refashion and change all things by your will alone.
Come, invisible whom none may touch and handle.
Come, for you continue always unmoved, yet at every instant you are wholly in movement; you draw near to us who lie in hell, yet you remain higher than the heavens.
Come, for your name fills our hearts with longing and is ever on our lips; yet who you are and what your nature is, we cannot say or know. Come, Alone to the alone. Come, for you are yourself the desire that is within me. Come, my breath and my life. Come, the consolation of my humble soul. Come, my joy, my glory, my endless delight.


quote 2806  | 
Saint Symeon the New Theologian, adapted from the translation by Kallistos Ware in The Orthodox Way (Crestwood, NY: St. V1adimir's Seminary Press, 1979). 



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