Chapter Nine: Know and Not-Know – The Two Wings of the Intellect

Chapter Nine: Know and Not-Know – The Two Wings of the Intellect

As the bird ascendeth by two wings, so the soul ascendeth to God by knowing and not-knowing.

St Dionysius the Areopagite (c. 500) teacheth the via negativa: we know God more truly by what He is not than by what He is.

St Augustine (†430) confesseth: “Si comprehendis, non est Deus” – “If thou comprehendest Him, it is not God.”

•  Know: The cataphatic way – Scripture, creatures, sacraments.
“The heavens declare the glory of God” (Psalm 19:1, Greek: Οἱ οὐρανοὶ διηγοῦνται δόξαν Θεοῦ – “The heavens declare the glory of God”).
This is the path of the beginner and the doctor alike.

•  Not-Know: The apophatic way – silence before the Infinite.
St Gregory of Nyssa (†394) calleth it the “luminous darkness” of Moses on Sinai.
When the mind ceaseth to grasp, the heart beginneth to adore.

He who clingeth only to “know” becometh proud;

he who lingereth only in “not-know” becometh slothful.

The perfect intellect holdeth both in balance, as St Thomas (†1153) saith: “I know that I may love, and I love that I may know.”

Chapter Ten: The Goal of True Thought – Beatitude

The final end of all thought is the Beatific Vision: “We shall see Him as He is” (1 John 3:2).

St Thomas Aquinas (Summa Theologiae I-II, q.3, a.8) proveth by reason and revelation that no created good can satisfy the soul; only the uncreated Good, God Himself, is our beatitude.

All lesser goals (wealth, pleasure, honour, power) are vanities):

“Vanity of vanities, all is vanity” (Ecclesiastes 1:2, Greek: ματαιότης ματαιοτήτων, τὰ πάντα ματαιότης – “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity”).

The eight dynamics (self, family, mankind, creation, spirit, God) are ordered to this one end.

St Augustine: “Thou hast made us for Thyself, and our heart is restless until it rest in Thee.”

Chapter Eleven: Guidance in True Thought – The Spiritual Exercises

The soul is healed not by speculation alone but by disciplined exercises under a guide, as the desert fathers were led by their abbas.

The true guide is the priest-confessor, successor to the apostles, bearing the keys: “Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven” (John 20:23).

Exact exercises (practices) drawn from the ancient Church:

1.  **Examination of conscience nightly (St John Cassian, Institutes).

2.  Frequent confession and Holy Communion (Council of Lateran IV, 1215, but rooted in earlier tradition).

3.  Mental prayer and contemplation (St Teresa of Jesus draws from St Gregory Nazianzen and earlier).

4.  Mortification of the senses (fasting, silence, vigils) – St Benedict’s Rule.

5.  Lectio divina – slow, prayerful reading of Scripture until the heart burneth (Luke 24:32).

These, repeated with humility, dissolve illusions, restore order, and raise the soul to God.

Chapter Twelve: Exact Practices for the Healing of the Mind and Body

The Church hath always possessed precise remedies for the wounds of sin and passion. These are not novelties but treasures handed down:

1.  The Jesus Prayer (used by the desert fathers since the 4th century):
“Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner.”
Repeated with the breath until the mind descendeth into the heart (St Hesychios the Priest, †8th c.).

2.  Custody of the Eyes and Mind – St John Climacus (†649):
“Close the gates of the senses against vain images.

3.  The Threefold Way (Purgative, Illuminative, Unitive) – taught by St Dionysius and St Gregory of Sinai:

•  Begin with mortification of passions.

•  Advance to contemplation of truth.

•  End in union with God.

4.  The Sacrament of Penance – the only certain cure for guilt and spiritual paralysis.
“Confess your faults one to another” (James 5:16) is fulfilled perfectly in auricular confession.

5.  The Holy Eucharist – the true medicine of immortality (St Ignatius of Antioch, †107).

These practices, administered with reverence and exactness, have healed countless souls for sixteen centuries. They remain the only proven path from confusion to clarity, from death to life everlasting.

Epilogue: The Future of True Thought

Two forces now contend upon the earth: the wisdom from above and the fire of man’s pride.

The race is not between nations, but between the Gospel and the final weapon forged by ignorance.

Let no man say, “I have no time.”

The martyrs found time on the rack; the monks in the desert found centuries.

Change no man’s religion by force, no man’s politics by violence, no nation’s borders by war.

Instead, teach every soul to know the One Thing Necessary (Luke 10:42), and all else shall be added.

The copies of this treatise thou failest to distribute will lie in the ashes with the rest.

But the souls thou leadest to Christ will shine as the stars for ever and ever (Daniel 12:3).

And so we labour, until the Daystar arise in our hearts (2 Peter 1:19).

Amen.