Press release II

The second day of the Conference is dedicated to the spiritual itinerary which makes Christian life conform with the contemplation of the mystery of the Transfiguration; from the reflections of the Fathers (Ramy Wannous, The Transfiguration in John of Damascus; Ilarion Alfeev, The Experience of the Divine Light in Symeon the New Theologian) to the evolution of the theme in ascetic authors of medieval Byzantium (Antonio Rigo, The Transfiguration in Gregory of Sinai, his Predecessors and Contemporaries) and the Latin West (André Louf, The Transfigured Christ in the “Ladder of Monks” by Guigo II the Carthusian), stopping at the threshold of the Palamist controversy (Ioannis Polemis, The Doctrine of Gregory Palamas on the Vision of Divine Light and Contemporary Athonite Spirituality).

In the long monastic tradition of East and West, beyond the speculative development of Western scholasticism, the spiritual course that leads us to the transfiguration takes place not in the intellect nor in the senses, but in the heart: “Christ is in your heart…Guard your heart because life comes from the heart”, writes Guigo. The intellect lays down its means and it is only love that knows God: “The intellect gets a fleeting taste”, Guigo writes, “but it is love that receives the full reality of the taste”.