Phases of Orthodox Spirituality
Contents
Phases of Orthodox Spirituality
The Romanian theologian Staniloae explains different phases of Orthodox Spirituality:
- Practical Phase: Emphasizes doing things which are intended to keep away one’s mind from passions to the level of doing virtues. These virtues are: faith, fear of the Lord, self-restraint, patience, hope, dispassion, and love.
- Contemplative Phase: Where one’s mind is reintegrated and strictly focused on God.
- Mystical Knowledge Phase: In which oneself is no longer concerned with the reasons of things but with the God Himself. This knowledge of God is the supreme manifestation of love.
St. Dionysius the Areopagite described these phases as purification, illumination and perfection.
Purification or Practical Phase
Our faith is the primary virtue which starts from our sacramental fellowship with God in Baptism. We begin our spiritual journey with a belief as taught by our Lord Jesus Christ, which is transferred to us through the Gospel and consummated through Baptism. Baptism is the beginning point of the journey to perfection. Sin causes spiritual death. Self-restraint or self-control makes everyone win over one’s own emotions or desires as well as to depart from such things either by actions, words or thoughts. Repentance is the only way that one’s sins and debts are forgiven. Saint Isaac the Syrian compares our life in this world to crossing the sea in a ship and ‘repentance is the ship’ that brings us to the Divine Harbor. Repentance is the self-cleansing process of a faithful Christian to receive the remission of sins and thereby be sanctified by the Holy Spirit through the grace of God. Long-suffering involves perseverance in one’s spiritual life. It is another virtue in Orthodox Spirituality just to purify and sanctify the faithful. St. Paul writes, “We also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope; And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out His love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom He has given us” (Romans 5:3-4). Often, when we face troubles and disappointments we feel as if we have been forsaken by God. But we must remember that in times of trouble our faith is being tested in order to purify us more. The Psalmist says, “For you, O God, tested us; you refined us like silver” (Psalms 66:10). Patience and hope would lead oneself to meekness and humility – setting aside our ego-centered desires – to learn to practice the virtues which are based on love of God. Hope is the power of advanced faith. It is through hope that we are able to sense a better future in the midst of trials and tribulations in life. Hope in God replaces worries and fears. The less we fear the future and the more we have faith in God and our future with Him in His Kingdom, the greater is the power of Hope in the soul. Dispassion makes oneself achieve a state of spiritual rest as the mind has been freed from the dominion of passions. At this level of mind, it is able to direct its attention to higher meanings inherent in the natural world. Dispassion is a prerequisite for contemplation of God which would lead to illumination. In this spiritual state, one gets the capacity to see and to remember things in a simple meaning without associating them with a self-interest but with divine love only.
Contemplation or Illumination Phase
The contemplative or illuminative stage is closely connected to the apophatic knowledge of God and spiritual understanding of the scriptures through the experience of the gift of the Holy spirit. During illumination, which is God administered, the soul is set to gain self-knowledge through deep humility and contrition. The practice of contemplative prayer is championed during this stage. Illumination is typically linked with the sanctifying acts of the Holy Spirit. More time is spent in prayer and meditation. This is called the mystical experience of Orthodox spirituality.
In the contemplative experience, one requires continual effort. More precisely, we need an unceasing vigil that the integrity of the inward man, ‘the union of heart and spirit’ which is also the expression of orthodox asceticism, withstands all the assaults of the enemy – every irrational movement of our fallen nature. In this stage human nature must undergo a change; it must be more and more transfigured by grace in the way of personal spiritual sanctification which constitutes a holistic experience including body and mind as well. This is best understood by meditating on the verse, “Be still and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10; OSB Psalm 45:10).
Perfection or Deification phase
This stage is also called the mystical knowledge phase. This is the highest level of Orthodox spirituality where one reaches union with God or deification. This is also called theosis or divinization. This is the experience of Divine light that Moses experienced on Mount Sinai. Gregory Palamas writes, “Those who see the Divine Light are capable to penetrate, by the power of the Spirit in them, beyond the pane of physical realities. They find themselves raised to an order of the Spirit” (Staniloae, Orthodox Spirituality). Deification is the process of partaking of the Divine nature of God in His divine attributes. It is by prayer that we grow in God’s love which means: eradication of ego, development of selflessness, and practice of unconditional love. This is a total submission to the will of God and is achieved after we have freed ourselves from the control of passions and reached dispassion. Jesus said, “He who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen” (1 John 4:20).
Vocabulary
- hypostasis – Greek, meaning underlying state or reality of something and in the context of the Holy Trinity, refers to each of the three persons of the Trinity
- energeia – Greek, meaning energy of God, or the activity of God in the world; how God reveals Himself to us
- enhypostasis – Greek, meaning in-person, and refers to the merging of the divine and human natures in the person of Jesus Christ.
- ecclesiology – theology as applied to the nature and structure of the Christian Church.
- cataphatic – use of positive terminology to describe or refer to the divine, to try to describe God by His attributes
- apophatic – use of negative terminology to describe or refer to the divine; stresses interiority, imagelessness, and wordlessness.
- hesychasm –type of monastic life in which practitioners seek divine quietness (Greek hēsychia) through the contemplation of God in uninterrupted prayer. Such prayer, involving the entire human being—soul, mind, and body—is often called “pure,” or “intellectual,” prayer or the Jesus Prayer.
