Severus of Antioch

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    The Undivided Light: The Holy Trinity (Part 6 of 7)

    ByJobin

    He became human so that we might become divine.
    Athanasius of Alexandria wrote that in the fourth century, and it remains one of the most concentrated summaries of the entire Gospel ever written in a single sentence.
    This sixth post in the summer Trinity series is about theosis, participation in the undivided life of God, and why it is impossible to understand theosis without understanding the Trinity.
    Four fathers guide this post.
    Athanasius of Alexandria on the exchange at the heart of the Incarnation and why the Son had to be truly God for any of it to work.
    Cyril of Alexandria on participation through the Son and in the Spirit, and why the Eucharist is the primary sacramental locus where theosis takes place.
    Ephrem the Syrian, who said in seven words what takes Cyril several pages to establish: he gave us divinity, we gave him humanity.
    Severus of Antioch on the epiclesis as the Trinitarian structure of theosis made visible and enacted in real time, and why theosis is not a private spiritual experience but something that happens within the community of the Church.
    There is also a reflection on the Malankara Qurbana as a theotic event from beginning to end, which may change how you hear the communion prayers next Sunday.
    Week 6 is up now. Link in bio.

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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.