Saint Gregory Palamas

Saint Gregory Palamas (born in the year 1296 in Constantinople) was a monk of Mt. Athos and Archbishop of Thessalonica. 

The following quotations/notes are taken from Saint Gregory Palamas as a Hagiorite by Metropolitan Nafpaktos Hierotheos translated by Esther Williams, published by Birth of the Theotokos Monastery, 1997. Page numbers are included for reference. The reader is encouraged to acquire and read the entire book which is a rich and edifying source about the life and teaching of St. Gregory. 

St. Gregory Palamas developed the fundamental teaching of the Church concerning the mystery of the indivisible distinction between the essence and energy of God. We must understand that this is not the teaching of St. Gregory Palamas alone, but of the Orthodox Church, and there this theology cannot be called Palamism. (24)

The witness of the saints is not intellectual and conjectural, but empirical. (29)

According to St. Gregory, the nous should detach itself from things outside, from being diffused in the world, and should return to the heart. (42)

Hesychia is nothing other than “keeping one’s heart away from giving and taking and pleasing people, and the other activities.” When a person frees his heart from thoughts and passions, when all the powers of his soul are transformed and turned away from earthly things and towards God, then he is experiencing orthodox hesychia. (63-64)

In the first part he opposes Barlaam’s view that human knowledge is a gift of God, and indeed of equal or higher value than the knowledge of the Apostles and the Prophets. . . . St. Gregory maintains that man’s aim is to progress from image to the likeness of God. . . . St. Gregory emphasises particularly that man purifies the image through Christ’s commandments and the power of the Cross of Christ. 66)

The Holy Mountain - integral  (monasticism)  (60 ff.)

Fasting, Vigil, Prayer (133 ff.)

… it appears that man’s journey toward deification passes through three stages of spiritual perfecting; purification of the heart, illumination of the nous, and deification. . . . This journey is achieved by the energy of God and the synergy of man, since God operates and man co-operates. . . . Ways and means which manifest both God’s energy and man’s synergy are fasting, vigil and prayer. (178)

… orthodox theology is a therapeutic science and way of life. . . . chiefly therapy of the nous and heart. . . . The struggle and effort to be rid of passions should be associated with the return of the nous to the heart. (198-199)

Truly the Panagia is the crowning height of the saints. (295)

St. Gregory’s love for the Panagia came from his personal partaking of the Grace of God, as he felt gratitude for her who was the cause of Grace, and from the deep feeling that he was living in her “Garden” on the Holy Mountain and was its citizen. As a Hagiorite he cherished great reverence and love for the Panagia. He regarded her as his patron and benefactress. (297)

St. Gregory laid great emphasis on the uncreatedness of the divine essence and the uncreatedness of God’s energy (activity). (305)

The saints know from their experience, from participation in Pentecost, that the energy of God is uncreated, because they are granted several times in their life to see this energy as Light. . . . This is seen clearly in the Gospel passage about the Transfiguration of Christ on Mt. Tabor … (308)

… we can say that a purpose and work of the Church is to make relics. (316)

… the purpose of man is to attain deification. . . . There are many degrees of vision of the Light. . . . The only method which leads to deification and vision of the uncreated Light is the ascetic way that is Christlike and in Christ. . . . three stages of spiritual perfection: purification of heart, illumination of the nous and deification. . . . A leading role in man’s effort at purification is played by the separation of the nous from reasoning. . . . In this way one lives noetic hesychia, which is simply that one dwells in God. . . . An intensive effort is made to free the person from imagination as well. . . The basic struggle is against thoughts. . . The passions are cured by repentance, confession, and the struggle which one makes, and by the guidance of an experienced spiritual father. A person cannot live the spiritual life without guidance. (350-353)

It is well known that orthodox theology is empirical. This means that the holy Fathers theolgised not in conjecture and philosophy, but through experience, through the Revelation. God revealed His truth to the Prophets, Apostles, and saints, and through this revelation they guided the Lord’s people. (357)

Not all people can understand the Scriptures equally. Just as the sun sends its rays on all people alike but only those who have their eyes open see it, and just as only those who have good eyesight enjoy the dawn, so it is in spiritual matters as well, the saint emphasises. God sends His Grace to all people, but it is those who have receptivity who enjoy it. They are the saints, who have purified the eyesight of their minds and have acquired the nous of Christ. (373)

Barlaam maintained that knowledge of God is not a matter of the vision of God, which takes place through transformation of the senses, but a fruit of man’s understanding, a working out of reason. Therefore he said that the Prophets’ vision of God is inferior to our own understanding. If this had prevailed, it would certainly have distorted the Church’s truth concerning the knowledge of God. (375)

… St. Gregory Palamas … repeatedly emphasised the truth that the vision of God is not from the outside, but from inside and is essentially identical with the deification of man. This means that through deification main attains the vision of the Light of divinity, which is uncreated. (375)