Being bodiless, God is nowhere, but as God He is everywhere. If there were a mountain, a place or any part of Creation where God was not, then He would be found to be in some way circumscribed. So He is everywhere and in everything. In what way is this so? Is He contained not by each part but by the whole? No, because then that would be a body. He embraces and encompasses everything, and is Himself everywhere and also above everything, worshipped by true worshippers in His Spirit and Truth.
Interpretation
This quote expresses the idea that God is an omnipresent spiritual being who transcends physical limitations and is present in all of creation.
Gregory Palamas elaborates on the nature of God's omnipresence, emphasizing that being bodiless, God cannot be confined to any specific location or form. Instead, He is everywhere and within everything, transcending the limitations of space and physical existence. The quote underscores that true worship of God occurs in Spirit and Truth, inviting reflection on the nature of spirituality and divine presence beyond mere physicality.
In practice
This quote can be used in a spiritual discussion about the nature of God in a religious study group.
The disciples worshipped the most high Lord Who had come down from heaven, made the earth into heaven and gone up again whence He came, having united things below with things above and formed one Church, at the same time heavenly and earthly, to the glory of His love for mankind.
The light of the Lord's transfiguration does not come into being or cease to be, nor is it circumscribed or perceptible to the senses, even though for a short time on the narrow mountain top it was seen by human eyes.
The recovery of spiritual sight and the healing of physical blindness have much in common. Some of those whose bodily eyes were blind received their sight at once, like the man who heard and immediately saw and was healed. Others recovered their sight gradually as in the case of the man, who, before he was completely cured, said, “I see men as trees, walking”. It is the same with those whose spiritual eyes were healed.
Life of the soul is union with God, as life of the body is union with the soul. As the soul was separated from God and died in consequence of the violation of the commandment, so by obedience to the commandment it is again united to God and is quickened. This is why the Lord says in the Gospels, 'The words I speak to you are spirit and life' (Jn. 6:63).
...angels... are always being filled full of light, becoming ever more radiant and making blessed use of their natural ability to change. They dance for joy around the First Light, look continuously towards Him and are enlightened directly by Him, as they tirelessly sing the praises of the Fount of light and, being ministers of light, transmit illuminating grace to those lower beings who are being enlightened.
...those called by Christ's name should order their lives. They should persevere in prayers and supplications and, in imitation of the angels, have their eyes lifted up to the Master above the heavens, praising and blessing Him with irreproachable conduct, and waiting for His mystical Coming. As the Psalmist says to Him, 'I will sing and will behave myself wisely in a perfect way. O when wilt Thou come unto me?' (Ps. 101:2).
Fire and water may as well agree in the same vessel, as grace and sin in the same heart.
Unable to make what is just strong, we have made what is strong just.
I took the world into me, rearranged it, and sent it back out as a question: "Do you like me?
Magick is the science and art of causing change to occur in conformity with will.
Poverty must be reduced not only for reasons of moral and justice, but also of security.
And we have made of ourselves living cesspools, and driven doctors to invent names for our diseases.
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