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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20260306
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DTSTAMP:20260413T171942
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UID:14668-1772755200-1772841599@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading
DESCRIPTION:THE LUMINOUS DARKNESS \nFrom “The Life of Moses” by St Gregory of Nyssa \n◊◊◊ \nMoses entered into the darkness and there he saw God. What does this \nsignify? This present account seems in a way to contradict that of the first \ntheophany. Then God appeared in light\, but now he appears in darkness. Yet we \nmust not imagine this to be at variance with our normal experience of spiritual \ncontemplation. By this statement the text teaches us that religious knowledge is \nfirst experienced as light. All that is seen to be opposed to religion is darkness\, \nand darkness vanishes when we receive the light. \nBut the more the mind advances and by ever increasing and more perfect \napplication attains an intellectual comprehension of realities and approaches \ncontemplation\, the more clearly it sees that the divine nature is invisible. \nHaving left behind all appearances\, not only those perceived by the senses but \nalso those the intellect seems to see\, it plunges ever deeper within itself\, until by \nspiritual effort it penetrates to the invisible and the unknowable\, and there it \nsees God. \nThis is the true knowledge of what is sought; this is the seeing that \nconsists in not seeing\, because that which is sought transcends all knowledge\, \nbeing separated on all sides by incomprehensibility as by a kind of darkness. \nThis is why John the contemplative\, who had penetrated this luminous \ndarkness\, said that no one had ever seen God\, declaring by this negation that the \ndivine essence is beyond the reach not only of men but of every rational nature \nas well. \nAnd so\, when Moses had advanced in knowledge he declared that he saw \nGod in the darkness\, or in other words that he recognized that the Divinity is \nessentially that which transcends all knowledge and which no mind can \napprehend. The text says: Moses entered into the darkness where God was. \nWhat God? He who has made the darkness his covering\, as David declared\, \nwho had himself been initiated into the divine mysteries in that same sanctuary. \nWhen Moses arrived there\, he was taught by word what he had formerly learned \nfrom darkness\, so that\, I think\, the doctrine on this matter may be made more \nfirm for us by the witness of the divine voice. The divine word at the beginning \nforbade that the Divine be likened to any of the things known by men\, since \nevery concept which comes from some comprehensible image constitutes an \nidol of God and does not proclaim God.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-408/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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