The power of prayer; concerning the blessed Hierotheus, piety, and our writings on theology.
1. For a start, then, let us look, if you will, at the most important 680A 680B name, "Good," which shows forth all the processions of God. But we should really begin with an
invocation of the Trinity, the source and, indeed, the superior of what is good. The Trinity shows forth every one of its most excellent processions and we should be uplifted to it and be shaped by it so as to learn of those good gifts which are gathered together around it. For the Trinity is present to all things, though all things are not present to it. 125.
But if we invoke it with prayers that are holy, with untroubled mind, with a suitability for union with God, then we are surely present to it. For the Trinity is not in any one location in such a manner as to be "away from" one place or moving from "one spot to another." Even to speak of it as "present in everything" is inaccurate since this does not convey the fact that it infinitely transcends everything and yet gathers everything within it.
So let us stretch ourselves prayerfully upward to the more lofty 680C
elevation of the kindly Rays of God. Imagine a great shining chain hanging downward from the heights of heaven to the world below. We grab hold of it with one hand and then another, and we seem to be pulling it down toward us. Actually it is already there on the heights and down below and instead of pulling it to us we are being lifted upward to that brilliance above, to the dazzling light of those beams.
Or picture ourselves aboard a boat. There are hawsers joining it to some rock. We take hold of them and pull on them, and it is as if we were dragging the rock to us when in fact we are hauling ourselves
and our boat toward that rock. And, from another point of view, when 680D
someone on the boat pushes away the rock which is on the shore he will have no effect on the rock, which stands immovable, but will make a space between it and himself, and the more he pushes the greater will be the space.
That is why we must begin with a prayer before everything we do, but especially when we are about to talk of God. We will not pull
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125.Proclus, Elements of Theology, 142.
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down to ourselves that power which is both everywhere and yet nowhere, but by divine reminders and invocations we may commend ourselves to it and be joined to it. 126.
2. Now 127. it may be that some explanation is due for the fact that 681A
even though Hierotheus, our famous teacher, has put together his splendid Elements of Theology, 128. I too have composed other theological works together with this present one as though what he wrote were not quite sufficient. If he had set out to deal with all theological questions and indeed had provided an account of every area of theology, I would not have been so mad or so foolish as to believe that in dealing with these same theological topics I could have displayed a more divine insight that he, and certainly I would not have wasted time in a repetition of these same things. And it would have been quite an injustice to my teacher and friend if I were to put forward as my own the renowned contemplation and revelation of someone who, next to
the divine Paul, has been my elementary instructor. Since he, like an 681B
elder, has in fact served as our guide in these divine things, laying down a condensed summary of our boundaries and encompassing so much in one statement for us and for all our teachers of newly converted souls, I am therefore encouraged to explicate and to separate the condensed and singular mental
gymnastics of that man's most powerful intellect, although of course in an argument proportionate to my own powers.
You also have frequently urged me to do the same. Indeed you returned his book to me, claiming that it was too lofty for you. And so while acknowledging his special place as the teacher of those advanced and perfect judgments far ahead of the ordinary, and accepting his writings as second only to the divinely anointed scriptures themselves, I propose to speak, as well as I can, of the things of God and
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126.The Neoplatonist Iamblichus also taught that prayer does not affect the gods, but rather those who pray (dM I, 12, 42.2-5; I, 13, 43.8; I, 15, 46.13f.; V, 26, 237.16 to 238.6). But, of course, so did Origen (On Prayer VIII.2 to X.2) and other church fathers.
127.The authenticity of the rest of this chapter is challenged by Brons, Sekundäre ... , p. 110. His argument rests entirely on the internal consideration of unusual vocabulary. Yet some continuities with the rest of the corpus can be observed, as mentioned in note 131 below.
128.The presentation throughout the corpus of one "Hierotheus" as the author's mentor seems part of the overall fiction. Yet I. P. Sheldon-Williams has argued that the Areopagite makes some allusions to a historical figure, one with Neoplatonic ideas ("The ps. Dionysius and the holy Hierotheus," Studia Patristica 8, Part 2 (1966): 108-17 [Texte und Untersuchungen, 93]).
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to do so for those of my own kind. If solid food may be given only to
the perfect, 129. how much perfection is required when this food is given 681C
to others? In fact I believe I am right in saying that a direct look at the conceptual scriptures and at their comprehensive teaching is only for those of an elder's powers, whereas to understand and to learn the thinking preliminary to all this is for the lesser, yet sacred, initiators. Accordingly I have made it a rule to keep away from anything thoroughly dealt with and explained by my own saintly teacher and I have done so to avoid repetitiousness. Furthermore I do not copy the explanation which he may have set down for any given passage.
As you know, we and he and many of our holy brothers met together for a vision of that mortal body, that source of life, which bore
summit, that chief of all those who speak of God. After the vision, all these hierarchs chose, each as he was able, to praise the omnipotent goodness of that divine frailty. But next to the sacred writers
themselves was my teacher. He surpassed all the divinely rapt hierarchs, all the other sacred initiators. Yes indeed. He was so caught up, so taken out of himself, experiencing communion with the things
praised, that everyone who heard him, everyone who saw him, every 684A
one who knew him (or, rather, did not know him) considered him to be inspired, to be speaking with divine praises. 131.
But I do not need to tell you of the marvelous things that were said there about God. For if I am not mistaken, I know well that you also heard some of the wonderful praises spoken then. For, of course, you are zealous enough not to pursue the divine things from a secondary work.
3. I say nothing of those mysterious experiences. You know
them well, and they cannot be explained to the multitude. And when 684B
it did become necessary to communicate with the multitude in order ____________________ 129.Heb 5:14; see Ep. 9 1112A.
130.This text has traditionally been taken as an account of the "dormition" of the Virgin Mary; see the Scholia (PG 4 236) and Andrew of Crete, PG 97 1064f. See also Gabriele M. Roschini, O. S. M., Lo Pseudo-Dionigi l'Areopagita e la morte di Maria SS (Rome: Marianum, 1958), and the bibliographies in Michael O'Carroll, C. S. Sp., Theotokos. A Theological Encyclopedia of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Wilmington, Del.: Glazier, 1982).
131.Like Carpos (Ep. 8 1097C-1110D) and Moses (MT 1 1000CD-1001A), Hierotheus here has an extraordinary experience, often characterized as "mystical" but in fact identifiable as liturgical; the phrase "experiencing communion with the things praised" echoes the eucharistic language of EH 3 425 D 48-50, 440B 28, and 444A 5. On his "ecstasy" or being "taken out of himself," see DN 13 981B 16- 20.
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to bring as many as possible into our sacred knowledge, he spent more time than most sacred teachers on this labor, and such was the purity of his mind, the scrupulous accuracy of his exposition, and such were his other sacred words that I could not take it on myself to look upon this great sun. I know well that I am not really capable of comprehending those conceptual truths. I know that I lack the words to articulate such knowledge of God. I am so far from having the kind of understanding possessed by those holy men regarding theological truth that in my reverence I would not even listen to, let alone speak of, the divine philosophy were it not that I am convinced in my mind
that one may not disregard the received knowledge of divine things. 684C
I believe this not merely because one's spirit naturally yearns for and seeks whatever contemplation of the supernatural may be attainable but also because the splendid arrangement of divine laws commands it. We are told not to busy ourselves with what is beyond us, since they are beyond what we deserve and are unattainable. 132. But the law tells us to learn everything granted to us and to share these treasures
generously with others. In obedience to such injunctions, in my determination neither to grow weary nor to falter as I seek for whatever is permitted of divine truth, and conscious too that I must not fail those with contemplative capacities no greater than my own, I have decided to put pen to paper. I do not aim foolishly to introduce new
ideas. I want only to analyze and with some orderly detail to expand 684D
upon the truths so briefly set down by Hierotheus.