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cocot
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Can someone explain what the light of Tabor is?
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puzzleannie
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i never heard that particular expression but I assume it refers to the Transfiguration, as described in tomorrow’s gospel for the 2nd Sun of Lent, when Christ is described as being enveloped in a bright light, his face and clothing being white light.
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cocot
Guest
Maybe this is an EO thing. I was reading Vladimir Soloviev Excerpts from Russia and The Universal Church
and he had this to say:
“The monks of the holy mountain of Athos, true representatives of the isolated Eastern Church, have for centuries spent all their energies in prayer and the contemplation of the uncreated light of Tabor (2). They are perfectly right; prayer and the contemplation of uncreated things are essential to the Christian life.”
2–By certain physiological or psychological processes which are summed up among us under the name of ‘cerebral action’ (umnoye delanie) the hermits of Athos experience unique sensations and achieve a state of ecstasy in which they claim to see the divine light which manifested itself at the Transfiguration of our Lord. The curious thing is that this phenomenon is regarded as an eternal, subsistent reality. In the fourteenth century furious controversy arose in the Greek Church over the inquiry into the real nature of the light of Tabor and its relation to the essence of the Godhead.
“The advocates of an exclusive asceticism should remember that the perfect Man spent only forty days in the wilderness; those who contemplate the light of Tabor should not forget that that light appeared only once in the earthly life of Christ, Who proved by His own example that true prayer and true contemplation are simply a foundation for the life of action.”
I understand it is the Transfiguration, but I guess it must be an EO devotion.
and he had this to say:
“The monks of the holy mountain of Athos, true representatives of the isolated Eastern Church, have for centuries spent all their energies in prayer and the contemplation of the uncreated light of Tabor (2). They are perfectly right; prayer and the contemplation of uncreated things are essential to the Christian life.”
2–By certain physiological or psychological processes which are summed up among us under the name of ‘cerebral action’ (umnoye delanie) the hermits of Athos experience unique sensations and achieve a state of ecstasy in which they claim to see the divine light which manifested itself at the Transfiguration of our Lord. The curious thing is that this phenomenon is regarded as an eternal, subsistent reality. In the fourteenth century furious controversy arose in the Greek Church over the inquiry into the real nature of the light of Tabor and its relation to the essence of the Godhead.
“The advocates of an exclusive asceticism should remember that the perfect Man spent only forty days in the wilderness; those who contemplate the light of Tabor should not forget that that light appeared only once in the earthly life of Christ, Who proved by His own example that true prayer and true contemplation are simply a foundation for the life of action.”
I understand it is the Transfiguration, but I guess it must be an EO devotion.
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