SAINT DIONYSIUS THE AREOPAGITE

Romans 11:36.

...by calling us back to higher things, [this light] simplifies us and turns us toward the unity of the gathering Father and to a deifying simplicity. original: deificam simplicitatem. In this mystical context, "simplicity" refers to being undivided or focused solely on God, rather than being scattered by worldly distractions. For "from Him and to Him are all things," as the sacred word says.

Section 2. John 1:9. Access to the Father through Christ. The original margin notes John 1:8, but the text quotes verse 9.

Heavenly knowledge from the sacred Scriptures.

The sense of Scripture is manifold; its aim is simple union with God.

Therefore, calling upon JESUS, who is the true Light of the Father—the light which illuminates every person coming into this world—through whom we have obtained access to the Father, the source of light, let us look up, as far as we are able, to the enlightenments of the most sacred Words original: Eloquiorum. Dionysius uses this term to refer to the Holy Scriptures as divine "utterances." handed down from the Fathers. Let us also, as best we can, behold the hierarchies of the celestial minds which have been revealed to us by those Fathers through symbols and upward-leading anagogice: a "lifting up" of the mind from physical symbols to spiritual or "heavenly" meanings veils. We receive the primal and more-than-primal enlightenment of the Father—who is the source of the Divinity—which clarifies for us the most blessed hierarchies of the Angels in figurative signs. Let us then, using the immaterial and unwavering eyes of the mind, fix our gaze again upon His simple ray. For this ray never loses its internal unity, even though it is kindly multiplied and flows out—as is fitting—to accommodate and unify those under its care. It remains stable and firmly established in a single identity within itself. By its power of simplification, it raises up and unites those who look toward it, according to their individual capacity. For it is not possible for that divine-primal ray to shine upon us unless it is covered over by a variety of sacred veils in an upward-leading way, and adapted by Fatherly providence to our own natural and proper state.

Section 3. Why spiritual things [are described through physical images].

For this reason, that original institution of sacred rites [established] our most holy hierarchy, [as something] super-mun- The text breaks off at supermun-, likely continuing as supermundanam or "super-mundane" (above the world) on the next page.