Meditation of the Day
How to Make the Transfiguration Last
Evagrius says, “Prayer is purity of the mind, the movements of whose prayer are not interrupted except once the holy light of the Trinity has shone out in the mind. “ For he says, “prayer is cut off by means of wonder at the light.” Thus the consummation consists in wonder at God, as we have said, and not in the continual stirrings of prayer. The person who has entered the place of the Mysteries remains in wonder at them, and this is the true prayer which opens the door to the treasures of God, allowing those who seek to have their fill of all they need. “Freely have you received, do yourselves give freely” too to everyone you wish. How could anyone dare to say of those who have been given authority over wealth, to give it as if it were their own to everyone they wished, that they are knocking at the door like beggars asking for alms to meet their needs?
No; rather they distribute life, raise the dead, convey hope, give light to the blind; “you are the light of the world,” he said: “I will give you the keys.” You are no longer someone who asks, for you have acquired authority – as though over what belonged to yourself – to bind and to loose, in this world and in the age of ages. How can such a person prostrate himself at the door and beg like a vagabond, seeing that the keys to the treasury are already placed in his hands, enabling him to take and give, have life and provide life?
John the Elder ( + c. early eight century) was a monastic writer of the East.
h/t Doctors of the Catholic Church and Magnificat
