Sunday, June 12 : Symeon the New Theologian

You shone forth, O Savior, you manifested,
the inaccessible light of your essential being
as the light of glory, and you brought light to a soul
immersed in darkness…
Enlightened by the Spirit’s light
we behold the Son, we see the Father
and adore the Trinity of Persons, one only God… For the Lord Christ is the Spirit (2Cor 3,17),
Spirit too is God, the Father of my Lord,
one only Spirit since he is most surely undivided ;
whoever possesses him, truly possesses
the Three without confusion…
For the Father exists ; how can he be the Son ?
For he is unbegotten in his very essence.
There is the Son ; and how can he become Spirit ?
The Spirit is Spirit – and how can he appear as Father ? The Father is Father because ?unbegotten ;
The Father is Father because ceaselessly begetting…
The Son is Son because ceaselessly begotten
and has been begotten since before time began.
He sprang forth from his root without being cut :
he both stands alone and is not separated.
He is wholly one with the living Father and is himself Life and gives life to all (Jn 14,6 ; 10,28).
Everyhing the Father has, the Son has too ;
everything the Son has, the Father has equally.
Seeing the Son, I also see the Father ;
and the Father is seen to be wholly like the Son
except that the one begets and the other is unendingly begotten…
How does the Son proceed from the Father ? As the word proceeds from the mind.
In what way is he distinguished from him ?
As is the voice from the word.
How does he take on a body ?
As the word that is written down… How are we to name the Creator of all ?
All names and actions and outward expression,
all came into the world at God’s command
for it was he who gave names to all his works
and to each reality its own designation…
But his own name has never been known
unless, as Scripture says, as the « inexpressible God » (cf. Gn 32,30)
If, therefore, he is inexpressible, if he has no name,
if he is invisible, if he is mysterious,
if he is inaccessible, alone beyond all words,
beyond not just human but angelic thought,
« He made darkness his cloak around him » (Ps 18,12).
All the rest here below belongs in shadow ;
he alone, as the light, stands outside the darkness.
maronite readings – rosary,team