the wisdom and grace of mystery...

In this week's summary of reflections at the Center for Contemplation and Action, Barbara Brown Taylor's synthesis of the apophatic spiritual tradition really spoke to my heart:

I trusted God to be God even if I could not say who God was for sure. I trusted God to hold me and those I loved, in life and in death, without giving me one shred of conclusive evidence that it was so.

One blessing of the Eastern Church is its willingness to live with ambiguity. Yes, some of the creeds are laborious, and the liturgy itself can feel like a spiritual endurance test. Simultaneously, however, there is a deep respect for silence, the wisdom of our senses, beauty, poetry, and what some have called a generous and sensual orthodoxy. Like any other religious tradition, it, too, is far from perfect. Still, their commitment to and trust of mystery is worthy of deeper consideration. This massive icon in St. Vladimir's Cathedral in Kyiv alone offers more grace to me than most of the scholastic theology of the Reformed Church combined.