Gleanings from Orthodox Christian Authors and the Holy Fathers

psalm115,11

3 Entries

Hence when a man suffers the loss of that Good, how are we to represent the magnitude of that catastrophe? The great David rightly shows us how impossible this is. Lifted out of himself by the Spirit, he glimpsed in that blessed ecstasy God's infinite and incomprehensible beauty. He saw as much as a mere mortal can see, leaving the covering of the flesh, and by thought alone entering into contemplation of that immaterial and spiritual realm. And though yearning to say something which would do justice to his vision, he can only cry out (in words that all can echo after him): `Every man is a liar" (Ps. 115:11). And this I take to mean that anyone who attempts to portray that ineffable Light in language is truly a liar - not because of any abhorrence of the truth, but merely because of the infirmity of his explanations. St. Gregory of Nyssa, On Virginity (In From Glory to Glory)

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Hence when a man suffers the loss of that Good, how are we to represent the magnitude of that catastrophe? The great David rightly shows us how impossible this is. Lifted out of himself by the Spirit, he glimpsed in that blessed ecstasy God's infinite and incomprehensible beauty. He saw as much as a mere mortal can see, leaving the covering of the flesh, and by thought alone entering into contemplation of that immaterial and spiritual realm. And though yearning to say something which would do justice to his vision, he can only cry out (in words that all can echo after him): `Every man is a liar" (Ps. 115:11). And this I take to mean that anyone who attempts to portray that ineffable Light in language is truly a liar - not because of any abhorrence of the truth, but merely because of the infirmity of his explanations. St. Gregory of Nyssa, On Virginity (In From Glory to Glory)

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