Theology

  • |

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

    ByJobin

    The seventh and final post of The Undivided Light is now up on Seeking Theosis.

    This last post brings the series home to where it has always been pointing: the doxology we sing, the Qurbana we receive, and the daily offices of the Shehimo that frame our days. It draws on Ephrem the Syrian, Jacob of Serugh, Cyril of Alexandria, and Severus of Antioch to look at what Trinitarian worship actually is and why the Gloria we say almost without thinking is one of the most theologically complete sentences the Church has ever produced.

    To everyone who has been reading, sharing, and praying for the completion of this series through the summer: thank you sincerely. The series is now complete and all seven posts remain available at seekingtheosis.blog for anyone who would like to read them or share them with others.

    Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, now and ever and unto the ages of ages.

  • |

    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.