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Monday of the Fifth week of Easter

Commentary of the day
Symeon the New Theologian (c.949-1022), Greek monk, saint of the Orthodox churches
Hymn 21 ; SC 174

"The holy Spirit that the Father will send in my name--he will teach you everything"

Whoever has the Spirit as their teacher
has no need of human knowledge
but, enlightened by this Spirit's light,
beholds the Son, sees the Father,
and worships the Trinity of Persons,
the one God, who is inexpressibly one by nature.

Stand still, O man! Tremble, you who are mortal by nature,
and consider how you have been taken from nothing
and how, in coming from your mother's womb,
you saw the world that was made before you were.
And if you could have understood the height of heaven
or show the nature of the sun,
the moon and the stars,
where they are fixed and how they move...,
or even the nature of the earth from which you were taken,
its limits and bounds, its size and greatness...,
if you had uncovered the end of all things
and counted the sand of the sea,
and if, too, you could have known your own nature...,
then would you be able to consider your creator,
how, in the Trinity, Unity dwells without confusion,
and how, in the Unity, there is Trinity without division.

Seek the Spirit!...
Perhaps God will comfort you and grant you,
as he has already granted you to see the world,
the sun and the light of day,
yes, he will deign to enlighten you now in the same way...,
to enlighten you with the light of the Threefold Sun...
Then you will learn the Spirit's grace:
that, even when absent, he is present by his power
and, when present, he is unseen because of his divine nature,
and is everywhere and nowhere.

If you try to see him with the senses
where will you find him? You will simply say: Nowhere.
But if you have the strength to contemplate him spiritually
it is he, rather, who will enlighten your soul
and open the eyes of your heart.