" ... become a body wholly filled and flooded with God Himself"
(Ephesians 4:19 / Amplified Bible).
Pope John Paul II once spoke
of the richness of Eastern Christian Spirituality, with its emphasis on “divinization,” the process
whereby a Christian is transformed into a sharer in the Divinity of Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. The
Holy Father pointed out that this emphasis on divinization reflects a conviction that every Christian is called to
the heights of intimate mystical union with God.
The Eastern Christian strives
more to participate-in than to imitate the activity-of Christ. In the light
of Eastern Christian Spirituality, true holiness lies in a heartfelt identification with Christ in the mysteries of His Life,
Passion, Death, and Resurrection, and .. [identification] in the mysteries of His Life in souls,
together-with a wholehearted abandonment to the working of the Holy Spirit, which [abandonment]
allows Him to animate one’s every thought, word, and action from within.
It is remarkable that during
the past 100 years, the Holy Spirit has seen fit to affirm and exalt the principles of the Eastern Christian Spiritual Tradition
through the lives and writings of several Western Saints, Blessed’s, Venerable’s and Servants of God. But, He has done more than that.
He has also shed new light on the mysteries of the Interior Life of Jesus.
Indeed, through these mystical
writings, the Holy Spirit has actually given Latin Christians the gift of an unprecedented understanding
of the Interior Life of Jesus ….
This [understanding of the
Interior Life of Jesus] can lead to a deeper and more complete participation in the Divine Life of God which, in
turn, will lead to a new growth of Holiness in the Church and in the World.
