Personal God - Archimandrite Sophrony

I AM THAT I AM. Yes, indeed, it is He Who is Being. He alone truly lives. Everything summoned from the abyss of non-being exists solely by His will. My individual life, down to the smallest detail, comes uniquely from Him. He fills the soul, binding her ever more intimately to Himself. Conscious contact with Him stamps a man for ever. Such a man will not now depart from the God of love Whom he has come to know. His mind is reborn. Hitherto he was inclined to see everywhere determined natural processes; now he begins to apprehend all things in the light of Person.

Knowledge of the Personal God bears an intrinsically personal character. Like recognises like. There is an end to the deadly tedium of the impersonal. The earth, the whole universe, proclaims Him: 'heaven and earth praise him, the sea, and everything that moveth therein' (Ps. 69:34). And lo, He Himself seeks to be with us, to impart to us the abundance of His life (cf. John 10:10). And we for our part thirst for this gift.

The soul knows but cannot contain Him, and therin lies her pain. Our days are filled with longing to penetrate into the Divine sphere with every fiber of our being.

From His Life is Mine by Archimandrite Sophrony