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    The Undivided Light: The Holy Trinity (Part 4 of 7)

    ByJobin

    Week 4 of The Undivided Light is now up on Seeking Theosis, and this one is on the Holy Spirit.
    The post draws on Ephrem the Syrian, Jacob of Serugh, and Cyril of Alexandria to look at who the Spirit is and what the Spirit does, both in the broad sweep of salvation history and in the specific life of prayer, baptism, and the Qurbana. There is also a brief and honest note on the filioque question, which is something that comes up whenever the Spirit’s procession is discussed, and where the Oriental Orthodox position is clear and worth knowing.
    It is perhaps the post in the series so far that has felt most personally relevant to write. The Spirit is the person of the Trinity closest to us and yet the hardest to speak about directly, and the Syriac fathers have things to say about that which I have found genuinely helpful.

  • Dwelling in the Spirit – Week 2 | The Spirit Who Gathers

    ByJobin

    Luke says it plainly: after Pentecost, the community was of one heart and one soul.
    Not because they had resolved their differences. Not because they had become identical. But because the same Spirit who had taken up dwelling in each of them was simultaneously inhabiting all of them.
    Cyril of Alexandria: Christ’s prayer “that they may be one as we are one” is not a prayer for institutional coherence. It is a prayer for theotic unity — that the same divine life circulating between Father and Son might circulate among believers through the indwelling Spirit.
    Koinonia is not fellowship. It is participation in divine life, shared outward.
    Week 2 of Dwelling in the Spirit is now on the blog.

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    The Undivided Light: The Holy Trinity (Post 2 of 7)

    ByJobin

    *The Undivided Light: The Holy Trinity* Part 2 of 7

    _The Father, Source Without Origin_

    There is a moment in prayer that most people who pray regularly will recognise. We begin to speak to God, and somewhere in the middle of the words, the words run out. Not because we have lost concentration. But because we have arrived at something so vast that language cannot quite reach it.

    The Christian tradition has a name for what we are standing at the edge of in that moment.
    It is the Father.

    This week the series looks at the first person of the Trinity, the Father, asking what it means in the Syriac and Alexandrian tradition to call God the Source Without Origin. Ephrem the Syrian, Cyril of Alexandria, and Severus of Antioch are the three voices guiding the reflection, and there is a section toward the end on what this theology actually changes about how we pray day to day.

    There is also a short reflection on how the structure of the Malankara Qurbana itself teaches us this Trinitarian truth every Sunday, whether or not we have had words for it.

  • Second Sunday after Pentecost: Not Peace but a Sword

    ByJobin

    The Second Sunday after Pentecost reflection is now on the blog.
    Today’s Qurbano readings sit together in a way that is both challenging and deeply honest.

    The early church in Acts 4 responds to real opposition by praying not for safety but for boldness, grounding themselves in Psalm 2 and the sovereign purposes of God.

    Paul in Ephesians 2 gives us the foundation of that boldness: Christ himself is our peace, the one who broke down every dividing wall in his own body.

    And Jesus in Matthew 10 tells us plainly that following him will sometimes cost something, that the sword of genuine discipleship may divide us from those closest to us.

    The reflection is written to be accessible from age 13 upward, so please do share it with the young people in your families.

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    The Undivided Light: The Holy Trinity (Post 1 of 7)

    ByJobin

    The first post in the new summer series on Seeking Theosis is up.

    The series is called The Undivided Light: The Holy Trinity, and it runs every Wednesday through the summer. This first post asks a simple but important question: why Trinity? It begins not with a definition but with Pentecost, looking at what actually happened on that day and why it reveals the Trinity more clearly than any diagram or formula ever could.

    Three church fathers guide the reading in this post: Ephrem the Syrian, Cyril of Alexandria, and Jacob of Serugh. Their writings are referenced at the end of the post for anyone who wants to follow up.

    You can read it at seekingtheosis.blog.

    Do share it with anyone who might benefit, and prayers for the series as it continues week by week would be very much appreciated.

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    First Sunday After Pentecost: Now That the Fire Has Fallen

    ByJobin

    The First Sunday after Pentecost reflection is now on the blog.

    The central question is simple: a week after the feast, what has actually changed? The three readings of today’s Qurbano answer it together.

    The Bereans in Acts 17 show us daily Scripture reading done with genuine honesty and curiosity.

    Paul in 2 Corinthians tells us that we are new creations and ambassadors of the kingdom, in every ordinary moment of the week.

    And Jesus in Luke 7 closes with a beautiful and challenging line: wisdom is proved right by all her children. Not by those who debated the invitation. By those who lived it.

    The reflection is written such that young teens from age 13 upward can easily comprehend, so please do share it with the young people in your families.

  • Dwelling in the Spirit: The Spirit Has Come to Stay

    ByJobin

    Five days ago the Church kept Pentecost.

    Monday came, and the ordinary week returned. The question Pentecost always quietly leaves behind waited in the ash: what has changed?

    The Fathers answer: everything – because the Spirit has not merely visited. He has come to stay.

    New Friday series begins today on Seeking Theosis.

  • St. George: Trophy-Bearer of Christ

    ByJobin

    St. George: Trophy-Bearer of Christ

    Who was George, really? What did he actually give up when he stood before Diocletian? Why has this soldier-saint held the hearts of the Orthodox Christian faithful
    (especially Indian Orthodox) for so many centuries? And what does his witness say to our generation today?

    Our latest reflection on Seeking Theosis traces the life of Mor Geevarghese from the Roman military barracks to the place of martyrdom at Lydda, through the Syriac tradition that brought him to Kerala, and into the feasts and pilgrimage sites that have made him one of the most beloved saints of the Indian Orthodox Church.

    A saint whose intercessions are sought every day of the year belongs to no single date on the page.

    St. George, pray for us. 🙏

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    The Undivided Light: The Holy Trinity | Introduction

    ByJobin

    A new series begins on Seeking Theosis this Wednesday.

    After Pentecost, the Church enters what is perhaps the most demanding season of all: the season of learning to live inside the mystery that has been fully given to us. That mystery is the Holy Trinity.

    “The Undivided Light: The Holy Trinity” is a Wednesday summer study walking through Trinitarian theology as received and expressed in the Oriental

    Orthodox tradition, through the voices of Ephrem the Syrian, Jacob of Serugh, Cyril of Alexandria, Severus of Antioch, and the liturgical prayers of the Malankara Qurbana.

    Seven posts. Seven Wednesdays. One mystery that is not a problem to be solved but a life to be received.

    The introductory post is up now.

    And if you think of it, please pray for the writer as this series gets underway.

    To read the full blog –

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    The Feast of Pentecost: The Fire Has Fallen

    ByJobin

    *Feast of Pentecost – The Fire Has Fallen*

    Blessed Feast of Pentecost, dear brothers and sisters.

    The nine days of waiting are over. The fire has fallen.

    The feast day reflection is now on the blog, drawing on the prayers and readings of our own Pentecosti service alongside the Syriac patristic tradition.

    It sits with the three-service structure of the feast, the theology of the sprinkling of blessed water, the tripartite gift of the Trinity poured out on the gathered community, and the connection between Pentecost and the theology of theosis that gives the Seeking Theosis blog its name.

    One line from the liturgy has stayed with me through the morning: _the opening prayer that asks to be made worthy to receive the spiritual drink of the new wine of the Comforter Spirit._

    The new wine is being poured on the morning of Pentecosti Sunday. May our vessels be open to receive it.

    Come, Holy Spirit. Ta Ruha d-Qudsha. Come.