The Point of Mystical Writing

The Ascetical Homilies of Saint Isaac the Syrian

Now because the Holy Spirit speaks through Isaac’s mouth, the words of this thrice-blessed saint are matchless in their beauty and are fired with a divine spark. That is why, even though he writes so much, he makes a holy silence come to rest within our spirit, just as if there were no one speaking, but we only heard the distant echoing of a sea hidden from our sight.

—Photios Kontoglou’s Encomium for Isaac the Syrian,

in The Ascetical Homilies of...