PSALM 19:1

By Metropolitan Ephraim of Boston (Holy Orthodox Church in North America) When our Saviour addressed the Holy Apostles with the words: “Receive ye the Holy Spirit,” He did not mean that they should receive the Essence or the Hypostasis of the Holy Spirit. Why? Because no creature can receive or partake of God’s Essence. If he were able to receive or partake of our God’s Essence, he would then be God Himself! But this is impossible for man, a creature. God is uncreated, whereas man is created. God is eternal by nature, whereas man is very much temporal. God is holy by nature, whereas man is obviously fallen and sinful.

But, by God’s Grace, all things are possible. By God’s Grace, man too can become eternal. By Grace, man, a fallen creature, can and does become holy. By God’s Grace, men can become deified.

Moses the Ethiopian, the thief and murderer, could and did, by God’s Grace, become the meek Saint Moses the Ethiopian.

Mary the dissolute prostitute of Egypt, could and did, by God’s Grace, become Saint Mary of Egypt, the clairvoyant, the supremely-wise, the pure bride of Christ.

So, when the first verse of Psalm 19 blesses us with the words:

The Lord hear thee in the day of affliction;

the Name of the God of Jacob defend thee

it is similar to the words, “Receive ye the Holy Spirit.” As we mentioned above, we do not—indeed, we cannot—receive the Essence or the Hypostasis of the Holy Spirit, but we can and do receive the Grace of the Holy Spirit. So that is what our Saviour is actually saying here: “Receive ye the Grace of the Holy Spirit.”

Likewise, when the Psalmist says, “The Name of the God of Jacob defend thee,” he means “the Power, the uncreated Grace, of the God of Jacob defend thee.”

As we have pointed out elsewhere, “the Name of God (its inner significance and meaning and not its outward letters and sounds) is the divinely-revealed Truth about God Himself; like all revelation of God about Himself, it is His Power, His Energy, His Grace. According to the teaching of the Church, the Grace of God is God Himself (not His Essence, but His Energy). Hence, it is in this sense that St. John of Kronstadt’s famous saying ‘The Name of God is God Himself’ should be understood.” St. Clement of Rome’s statement that “the Name of God gave existence to all creation” must likewise be understood in this sense.

This, too, is precisely what the Prophet David says when he makes the following parallel:

And the heathen shall fear Thy Name, O Lord,

And all the kings of the earth Thy Glory.

(Psalm 101:15)

This, exactly, is what St. Cyril of Alexandria also says:

[John 17:11: “Keep them in Thy Name which Thou hast given Me.”] He says that His disciples ought to be kept in the Name of the Father, that is to say, in the Glory and Power of His Godhead, so that they should be out of the power of the enemy.

(Commentary on the Gospel of St. John 11.9 [John 17:16–17])

Therefore, when we pronounce the Name of God, when we write or read it, when we imprint it in our minds, that is the created aspect, which belongs to our human speech. It is a word, a verbal icon, a created symbol. But the Truth that these created names contain and express, the Truth that shines and flows from them, this Truth is both eternal and uncreated, and it exists whether we articulate it or not. This Truth of God, this Truth about God, as revealed by God Himself, is the uncreated Name of God; it is His Glory, Power, Majesty, Grace, etc. This is the Name of God that the Church has been glorifying and praising from the very foundation of the world, and which she will continue to magnify unto endless ages. As St. John of Tobolsk (+1715) puts it so concisely:

The chosen ones of God greatly desire that the Name of God, His Wisdom, Power, Mercy, and Truth be venerated in holiness by all the nations and tribes, that all the peoples (as creatures of one God) should live in peace and concord.

In Accordance with the Divine Will, Chapter 4

The Name of God is not just a created symbol, as some say (although it is that too); it is, more importantly, God’s uncreated Power and Grace.

“Receive ye the Holy Spirit.”

“The Name of the God of Jacob defend thee.”

Letter written in 1918 by Michael Alexandrovich Novoselov (future Catacomb Bishop and Hieromartyr Mark, + 1937).

Dear NN! Peace be unto you, and rejoice in the Lord.

This letter will probably surprise you, and maybe also sadden you, but I cannot remain silent on these matters which fill my soul. I will start from the very beginning… At the last session of the Missionary Council, which I attended, one of its members (it could have been you) offered the Council that he might speak on the subject of immediately preparing apologetic Christian literature – brochures, articles, maybe even bigger works – with the purpose of spreading it among the people, because a plentitude of harmful anti-religious materials are already circulating among them. Regarding that proposal I replied that even if we could cover the whole of Russia with such apologetic literature, it would not bring much benefit to the Church, because the main affliction of church life in Russia is established much deeper within the church, and thus it can not be cured by such superfluous means of apologetics. And this affliction is nothing else but the lack of Orthodox understanding, Orthodox feeling perception, the abandonment of the patristic foundations of the religious life and religious thought. And this affliction, I pointed out, affects, first and foremost, our hierarchs (surely you remember, that I gave examples and names), and representatives of our academic circles, and clergy, especially the learned ones. Naturally, this spiritual sickness spreads from these heights wide and deep into the whole Church, society and people. I will not repeat here in detail what I said back then, because you recorded my words in the Council minutes yourself. Here I will only continue what I began at the Council, but could not finish. That last speech of mine I ended with these words, which, it seems, were not really heard by the attendees: I said that after pointing out all the sores that afflict the earthly body of our Church, I will not speak about the one wound that I consider to be the most grievous – for I think speaking about it would be untimely and premature. This is what I did not talk about the last time; this is what I want to tell you now. The most severe abandonment of Orthodox reasoning I see is in the so-called name-fighting, that is, in that peculiar message, which was articulated in the infamous epistle of the Synod “to all the brothers, struggling in monasticism”, published in May 1913, and the reports attached thereto.

Triumph of Orthodoxy

"Thou hast given an inheritance
to them that fear Thy Name."

Great Prokeimenon for the First, Third and Fifth Sunday Vespers of the Lent (Psalm 60:5)

The Name of God in the Holy Scriptures: Prophet Esaias

Behold, the Name of the Lord cometh from far, burning with His anger, and the burden thereof is heavy, His lips are full of indignation, and His tongue as a devouring fire.

Esaias, 30:27

Holy Fathers on the Name of God: St. Irenaeus of Lyons

And when they were near to the land, which God had promised to Abraham and his seed, Moses chose a man from every tribe, and sent them to search out the land and the cities therein and the dwellers in the cities. At that time God revealed to him the Name which alone is able to save them that believe thereon; and Moses changed the name of Ausses the son of Navi, one of them that were sent, and named him Jesus; and so he sent them forth with the power of the Name, believing that he should receive them back safe and sound through the guidance of the Name, which came to pass.

St. Irenaeus of Lyons, Proof of Apostolic Teaching, Ch. 27

Holy Fathers on the Name of God: St. Clement of Rome

Abominable men and full of all wickedness were inflamed to such a degree of wrath that they cast into tortures those who, with a holy and a blameless purpose, served God, not knowing that the Most High is a champion and shield of those who with a pure conscience offer adoration* to His Most Holy Name, to whom be glory unto the ages of ages. Amen.

St. Clement of Rome, First Epistle to the Corinthians, 45

* ‘λατρευοντων’ from ‘λατρεία’ - absolute worship, which is due only to God.

Holy Fathers on the Name of God: St. Maximus the Confessor

Besides the already-mentioned modes of operation, the Holy Spirit is present in everyone, who through faith have inherited the truly divine and deifying Name of Christ.

St. Maximus the Confessor, To Thalassius, 15.

Holy Fathers on the Name of God: St. Cyril of Alexandria

"He saith, then: 'Holy Father, keep them in Thy Name which Thou hast given Me; that they may be one, even as We are.' He desires His disciples to be kept by the power and might of the Ineffable Divine Nature, well and suitably attributing the power of saving whomsoever He will, yea, and with ease, to the true and living God."

"He says: 'Keep them in Thy Name which Thou hast given Me.' Note how guarded the saying is. For allotting and attributing as suitable only to the Nature of God providential care over us, He declares at once that to Himself has been given the glory of Godhead, because of the form of manhood, saying that what was His by natural right was given to Him; that is, the Name which is above every name. Therefore also we say that this Name belongs to the Son by nature, as proceeding from the Father."

"...['Keep them in Thy Name which Thou hast given Me'] He says that His disciples ought to be kept in the Name of the Father, that is to say, in the glory and power of His Godhead, so that they should be out of the power of the enemy..."

Commentary on the Gospel of St. John (17:11)

Book XI, 11, 12, 16

The Name of God in the Divine Services

And grant it the grace of redemption, the blessing of Jordan. Make it the fountain of incorruption, the gift of sanctification, the remission of sins, the remedy of infirmities;  the final destruction of demons, unassailable by hostile powers, filled with angelic might. Let those who would ensnare Thy creature flee far from it. For we have called upon Thy Name, O Lord, and it is wonderful, and glorious, and terrible unto adversaries.

From the Prayers of the Blessing of the Water for the Holy Baptism

Holy Fathers on the Name of God: St. Macarius of Corinth

The Name of God is by nature holy and all-holy, and the source of sanctification. When it is named, it sanctifies all things on which it is pronounced and it does not admit of any increase and diminution of its sanctity.

The Explanation of Our Father

Holy Fathers on the Name of God: St. Barsanuphius the Great

The incessant invocation of God's Name, is a medicine which mortifies not just the passions, but even their influence. Just as the physician puts medications or dressings on a wound that it might be healed, without the patient even knowing the manner of their operation, so also the Name of God, when we invoke it, mortifies all passions, though we do not know how that happens.

St. Barsanuphius the Great, Answer 422.

Holy Fathers on the Name of God: St. Maximus the Confessor

And he [Symeon] also gave thanks because his eyes saw the Saviour Jesus, whom he had previously beheld in the mind, in the very circumstances and with the Name that had been prepared before the ages.

St. Maximus the Confessor, The Life of the Holy Theotokos

Elder Aimilianos of Simonopetra on the Name of God

There is nothing left for the monk except this one thing:  to wash the eyes of his heart with the tears of his face while repeating with the Psalmist:  "Every night I flood my bed with my tears;  I drench my couch with my weeping"  (Ps. 6:6), and to touch the fringes of Jesus' cloak (cf. Matt. 14:36) while crying, like the blind man of the Gospel:  "Lord have mercy on me, that I may receive my sight!"  (Luke 18:39-41), such that the darkness may be scattered by the invocation of the Name of the Lord.  The Name of Jesus, of One of the Holy Trinity, becomes thus the personal and inner echo of the divine voice that the disciples heard on Tabor coming from the cloud in order to bear witness to the Savior's divinity.  Christ makes Himself present here through the sacrament of His Name, and dim night is transfigured into "bright cloud," into a darkness where God dwells.

In the dimness of the night, struggling against the darkness of egoism and the attacks of "the world rulers of this present darkness"  (Eph. 6:12),  repelling every false brilliance, that is, every thought, product of imagination, or apparition coming from the devil who knows how to "disguise himself as an angel of light" (1 Cor. 11:14), the monk clings to nothing other than the Name of Jesus alone, not in order to analyze it, but to taste the Lord's presence.  Then the lack of light within his cell is transformed into that "swift cloud" upon which the Lord of glory sits (Isa. 19:1).

Archimandrite Aimilianos of Simonopetra

The Way of the Spirit: Reflections on Life in God



Letter of Prof. Vladimir Lossky on the controversy concerning the Name of God

"You await from me an answer concerning name-glorifying [imiaslavie]. I will attempt to answer your question very briefly and systematically, or more accurately – to outline only that which I would like to say (otherwise one would have to write volumes, so substantive is this theme). The (dogmatic) question about the Divine Name, about verbal-intellectual expressions (“symbols”) of the Divinity are as important as the question of icons. Just as then, the Orthodox formulation of the Truth about icons became a “triumph of Orthodoxy,” so too, now, the Orthodox teaching about names, as well as all the questions connected with it (the teaching of St. Gregory Palamas, forgotten by many – grace, prayer, authentic “anthropology,” teaching about the mind and heart, about the “inner man” and so on) – must lead to a new Triumph of Orthodoxy, to the appearance of new grace-filled strength and holiness. The question about “name-glorifying” stands somewhere in the depth of Church consciousness. It has not yet received an answer (a truer formulation: the Church always has an answer, but one needs to hear and express it). But the “name-glorifying controversies” outlined two currents in Russian theology, consciously or unconsciously being defined in relation to “name-glorifying.” One current – the opponents of name-glorifiers, rejecting the very question of the veneration of the Name: this is mere “iconoclasm,” rationalism, seeing in religion only a volitional aspect and blind to nature (Divine grace); such was Metropolitan Anthony [Khrapovitsky], as the most striking example. The other tendencies – not always openly and openly affiliated with name-glorifying – represent, nonetheless, an extreme, “name-worshiping” [“imiabozhnoe”] in its expression, where the very spoken matter, the “flesh” so to speak of the name becomes Divine by nature, a sort of natural power (just as if the opponents of iconoclasm began to affirm the Divine “uncreatedness” of the board and paint of the icon). This last tendency – in the broad sense – develops as Sophiology, where God and creation are confused. Both one and the other are false. The path to the Orthodox understanding of name-glorifying lies through the careful, still overly pale, formula of Archbishop Theophan (of Poltava): “In the Divine Name the Divinity is honored” (Divine energy). When there will be a clear formula, using spiritual experience and “obviously” spiritual – many questions will fall aside on their own, and many difficulties will become childishly simple."

January 6/19, 1937

(Cited in Sacred Mystery of the Church, Vol. 2, p. 205)

The Name of God in the Lives of Saints: St. Andrew the Fool for Christ's sake

O Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Life-giving, Indivisible Trinity... for the sake of Thy Name we bend the knee of our soul, body, heart and spirit, asking, begging and beseeching Thee: O God, God, terrible Name of Sabaoth, Good, Holy, Lord, Creator, Maker, Almighty, incline Thy Ear and receive kindly our humble peoples’ supplication and prayer, count us worthy of being purified by Thy Might and by Thy Name, compassionate and merciful Lord, slow to anger and rich in mercy. Come, Father, Son and Holy Spirit! Come, terrible Lightning of the Godhead, Come, terrible Might! Come, O Name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, bless and sanctify us, mingle us (with Divinity) and fill us with the Holy Spirit, forgiving our transgressions, whether we have committed them in word or deed or thought!

Prayer of St. Andrew the Fool for Christ's sake

Holy Fathers on the Name of God: St. Maximus the Confessor

That is why the one who had received grace offered thanks to the Lord and glorified his holy Name and called herself humble and handmaiden. She said prophetically, “For henceforth all generations shall call me blessed” (Luke 1:48). Truly the hosts of angels and generations of humanity call her blessed, and those who do not call her blessed and do not glorify her, they are not reckoned among humanity, but they are children of perdition and the portion of the devil. Nevertheless, every generation of true human beings calls her blessed and glorifies her and has her as a helper and intercessor with the Lord. And the words that follow are filled with such grace and wisdom: “For the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his Name. And his Mercy is on those who fear Him from generation to generation” (Luke 1.49-50). His Name and His Mercy are His Only-begotten Son, Whom He sent out of mercy toward those who fear Him to become incarnate from the holy Virgin and to have compassion on the forlorn and to seek the lost. But how is it said that the Son is the Name of the Father? Because the Father is known by the Son, as the Lord himself said, “I have manifested Thy Name unto men” (John 17.6). He has shown strength with His arm (Luke 1:51), that is to say by his Son, for he is called the Arm of God (Isa 53:1; John 12:38), as he is called the Power of God and Wisdom (1 Cor 1:24), and the Image of Power (Heb 1:3), the Immutable Seal (John 6.27), the Right Hand of the Most High (Ps 76).

Life of the Theotokos

Holy Fathers on the Name of God: St. Joseph of Petrograd

To the exclamation, And the mercies of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ shall be with you all, after the consecration of the Holy Gifts, the choir and all the people reply, And with thy spirit! Treasure this prayerful good will of the multitude of the believers. It has great power. O Lord, attend to the voice of the multitude of Thy believing servants, for whose sake Thou hast been well pleased to select me from among them to mediate for them before Thee through Thy Holy Mysteries, and according to their prayer, O Lord, grant me boldness before Thee, grant me Thy grace and strength to mediate worthily before Thee! May Thy great and innumerable mercies, O Lord, abide upon us. May there abide upon us the grace of Thine admonition, instruction, assistance, consolation, joy, refreshment in sufferings, comfort in afflictions, healing in illnesses, strength in infirmities! May Thy Name abide upon us, wondrous in all manner of mercies, both manifest and hidden.

In the Father’s Embrace: the Diary of a Monk

Holy Fathers on the Name of God: St. Ambrose of Milan

Love is shed abroad by the Holy Spirit, Who, prefigured by the mystical ointment, is shown to have nothing common with creatures; and He, inasmuch as He is said to proceed from the mouth of God, must not be classed with creatures, nor with things divisible, seeing He is eternal.
... God, then, sheds forth of the Spirit, and the love of God is also shed abroad through the Spirit; in which point we ought to recognize the unity of the operation and of the grace. For as God shed forth of the Holy Spirit, so also “the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts through the Holy Spirit” Romans 5:5, in order that we may understand that the Holy Spirit is not a work, Who is the dispenser and plenteous Fount of the divine love.
In like manner that you may believe that that which is shed abroad cannot be common to the creatures but peculiar to the Godhead, the Name of the Son is also poured forth, as you read: “Thy Name is as ointment poured forth.” Of which saying nothing can surpass the force. For as ointment closed up in a vase keeps in its perfume, so long as it is confined in the narrow space of that vase, though it cannot reach many, it yet preserves its strength. But when the ointment has been poured out of that vase wherein it was enclosed, it spreads far and wide; so, too, the Name of Christ before His coming amongst the people of Israel was enclosed in the minds of the Jews as in some vase. For “God is known in Judah, His Name is great in Israel;” that is, the Name which the vases of the Jews held confined in their narrow limits.

Even then that Name was indeed great, when it remained in the narrow limits of the weak and few, but it had not yet poured forth its greatness throughout the hearts of the Gentiles, and to the ends of the whole world. But after that He by His coming had shone throughout the whole world, He spread abroad that divine Name of His throughout all creatures, not filled up by any addition (for fullness admits no increase), but filling up the empty spaces, that His Name might be wonderful in all the world. The pouring forth, then, of His Name signifies a kind of abundant exuberance of graces and copiousness of heavenly goods, for whatever is poured forth flows over from abundance.

On the Holy Spirit, Book I .

The Name of God in Early Church Writings: Didache

We give thanks to Thee, O Holy Father, for Thy Holy Name which Thou didst make to tabernacle in our hearts, and for the knowledge and faith and immortality which Thou didst make known to us through Jesus Thy Child. To Thee be glory for ever. Thou, Lord Almighty, didst create all things for thy Name's sake, and didst give food and drink to men for their enjoyment, that they might give thanks to Thee, but us hast Thou blessed with spiritual food and drink and eternal light through Thy Child. Above all we give thanks to Thee for that Thou art mighty. To Thee be glory for ever.

Didache, The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles, 5.

The Name of God in the Lives of Saints: Holy Martyr Abo

For fearful and holy, powerful and wondrous, lordly and almighty is His Name; it is not possible for us to fathom the richness of His Name.

Life of the Holy Martyr Abo the Perfumer (+786)

Icon: copyright and courtesy of Holy Transfiguration Monastery, Boston, MA.

The Name of God in the Divine Services: The Great Blessing of the Waters

“... that the prayer of us sinners over this water may be acceptable to Thy goodness, and that Thy blessing may be granted through it unto us and all Thy faithful people, unto the glory of Τhy holy and worshipful Name.”

“That by elements, by Angels, and by men, by things visible and by things invisible, Thine all-holy Name may be glorified, together with the Father and the Holy Spirit, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.”

The Great Blessing of the Waters

Answer to an Enquiry

Answer to an Enquiry

The Name of God in the Holy Scriptures: Prophet Malachias

For from the rising of the sun even to the going down thereof my Name has been glorified among the Gentiles; and in every place incense is offered to my Name, and a pure offering: for my Name is great among the Gentiles, saith the Lord Almighty.

Malachias, 1:11

The Name of God in the Lives of Saints: St. Basil of Ancyra

“My chief name is ‘Christian,’ derived from ‘Christ,’ the Name that is eternal and beyond human understanding.”

Life of the Holy Hieromartyr Basil of Ancyra (+362)

Holy Fathers on the Name of God: St. Justin the Philosopher

“Moreover, in the book of Exodus we have also perceived that the Name of God Himself which, He says, was not revealed to Abraham or to Jacob, was Jesus, and was declared mysteriously through Moses. Thus it is written: ‘And the Lord spake to Moses, Say to this people, Behold, I send My angel before thy face, to keep thee in the way, to bring thee into the land which I have prepared for thee. Give heed to Him, and obey Him; do not disobey Him. For He will not draw back from you; for My Name is in him.’ Now understand that He who led your fathers into the land is called by this name Jesus (Joshua), and first called Auses. For if you shall understand this, you shall likewise perceive that the Name of Him who said to Moses, ‘for My Name is in him,’ was Jesus.

St. Justin the Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho the Jew, Ch. XXV

Holy Fathers on the Name of God: St. John Chrysostom

For this cause too the angel came bringing His Name from Heaven, hereby again intimating that this is a wondrous birth: it being God Himself who sends the Name from above by the angel to Joseph. For neither was this an empty name, but a Name full of ten thousand blessings.

St.  John Chrysostom, Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew, Homily IV

The Name of God in the Holy Scriptures: Book of Tobit

Many nations shall come from far to the Name of the Lord God with gifts in their hands, even gifts to the King of Heaven.

Tobit 13:11

The Name of God in the Holy Scriptures: Prophecy of Michaeas

And thou, Bethlehem, House of Ephratha, art few in number to be reckoned among the thousands of Judah; yet out of thee shall one come forth to me, to be a Ruler of Israel; and His goings forth were from the beginning, even from eternity. Therefore shall he appoint them to wait till the time of her that travails. She shall bring forth, and then the remnant of their brethren shall return to the children of Israel. And the Lord shall stand, and see, and feed His flock with power, and they shall dwell in the glory of the Name of the Lord their God: for now shall they be magnified to the ends of the earth.

Michaeas 5:1-3

Holy Fathers on the Name of God: St. John of Kronstadt

When you forbid the devil in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ, then this Name, the sweetest to us, and the most terrible and grievous to the demons, itself creates power, like a two-edged sword. Equally, if you ask anything of the Heavenly Father, or do anything in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ, then the Heavenly Father, for the sake of the Name of His beloved Son, shall give you all things in the Holy Spirit, in the Mysteries, if you fulfill His commandments, and will in nowise consider your unworthiness; for wherever the Name of God is made use of with faith, there it creates power: for the very Name of God is power.

St. John of Kronstadt, My Life in Christ, p. 436