Patriarch Bartholomew I on the "spiritual senses of Scripture"

ZENIT have posted the text of the address given by Patriarch Bartholomew I at Vespers on Saturday evening.

That Bartholomew I is able to play such a prominent role at the Synod of Bishops, and, on this occasion, speak at a celebration over which Pope Benedict XVI presided, has very interesting ecumenical implications.

The following is an extract from Bartholomew I's address:

..... we should like to concentrate on three aspects of the subject, namely: on hearing and speaking the Word of God through the Holy Scriptures; on seeing God’s Word in nature and above all in the beauty of the icons; and finally on touching and sharing God’s Word in the communion of saints and the sacramental life of the Church. For all these are, we think, crucial in the life and mission of the Church.In so doing, we seek to draw on a rich Patristic tradition, dating to the early third century and expounding a doctrine of five spiritual senses. For listening to God’s Word, beholding God’s Word, and touching God’s Word are all spiritual ways of perceiving the unique divine mystery. Based on Proverbs 2.5 about “the divine faculty of perception (αἴσθησις),” Origen of Alexandria claims: This sense unfolds as sight for contemplation of immaterial forms, hearing for discernment of voices, taste for savoring the living bread, smell for sweet spiritual fragrance, and touch for handling the Word of God, which is grasped by every faculty of the soul.The spiritual senses are variously described as “five senses of the soul,” as “divine” or “inner faculties,” and even as “faculties of the heart” or “mind.” This doctrine inspired the theology of the Cappadocians (especially Basil the Great and Gregory of Nyssa) as much as it did the theology of the Desert Fathers (especially Evagrius of Pontus and Macarius the Great).

The three main sections of Bartholomew I's talk are then: 1. Hearing and speaking the word through Scripture, 2. Seeing the Word of God - the beauty of icons and of nature and 3. Touching and Sharing the Word of God -- The Communion of Saints and the Sacraments of Life. Apart from the beauty of his presentation and its richly Patristic roots, Bartholomew I's talk also places his subject in a very contemporary context. Well worth a read.