The Devil and the Eikon of God

A Silent Retreat

 I am sharing with you the outline of a retreat which I recently made with the thought that it will help to flesh it out. The retreat was occasioned by a Prosopon Icon Writing Workshop held at the Benedictine Center located near Schuyler Nebraska. It fell near the end of my annual observance of the Lent of St Michael which I have kept since 1992, subsequent to a visit to Alvernia. In addition, it was driven by my reading during that Lent of the works of The Rev. Dr. Gabriella Thomas, The Image of God in the Theology of Gregory of Nazianzus and The Problem of the Devil in Cappadocian Thought. To support my wife who wished to attend the workshop, I was faced with time at the Center which led to a resolve that would fill it with a self-guided silent retreat.

 In the West silent retreats are shaped by listening for the inner word, the still small voice, and the text that follows. In the East, it is by looking for the inner light and the face that results from its discovery. Since this retreated was to be heavily weighted by the works of Gregory Nazianzus, it translated silence into detachment, or, perhaps better, the suspense of the senses. In the West this is most like the discipline which St. John of the Cross called the dark night of the soul, a visual counterpart of the silence. In the East this is well attested in the ascetic practices of the hesychasts.  The detachment for which the retreat calls is not only separating from the noise of the world, but also from it sensory input, the light show put on by the world. The goal is to experience the light of God in us, “in whose light we see light.”

 In his maturity, Gregory turned to poetry. His poem “On Rational Natures,” in the Poemata Arcana, provides a guide to finding the inner first light.  This uncreated light, he argues, is the source of human reason, thinking and more broadly what we understand to be consciousness. This necessitates a consideration of the Angels who are according to Gregery second light.  Second light is created light, and the spectrum of created light runs from Angels, unembodied rational natures, to humans, embodied rational natures to elements in which light is embedded. Among the Angels is the one who rebelled, so it is also necessary to reckon with the Devil and his relation to the eikon of God..

 It was for Gregory a small step to move from light to face. The first light is the face of God, so if that light in us makes our light, that light makes our face. Not the physical mask, but persona! portal of our giving and receiving. This makes every human a potential “eikon of God,” a term Gregory has inherited from theological traditions traced to Origin, based on Genesis 1:27.

 The course of this retreat unfolded over the course of three days, and it consisted of addresses followed by exercises. As it unfolded it asks you to address the question of how the angels reacted to that potential for the human to be an eikon of God? How did sin change that potential? What does the Christ, who is “the identical eikon of God,” change that for us? And finally, how does one, relying on their baptismal state, say with Gregory, “I also am an Icon of God.” Reflecting on this sentence, one hears it, on the one hand, as am powerful affirmation and, on the other hand as a solemn obligation, which, seems to me, to be the goal to which a retreat ought to reach.

Michael Tan Creti 2026

Suggested reading list

          The Image of God in the Theology of Gregory Nazianzus, G. Thomas

The Problem of the Devil in Cappadocian Thought, G. Thomas
On Rational Natures in the Poemata Arcana Gregory of Nazianzus

The Little Flower of St. Francis chapter 53

The Dark Night of the Soul, St. John of the Cross

 

Daily Schedule

Each day will begin with Morning Prayer, and will briefly marked by the three midday offices, each of which will be followed by an address and an exercise. Evening Prayer will follow at the end of the day, and the evening will end with compline. Midnight will be marked by an *“Angelus” based on Revelations 12, suggested text in the addendum.

Exercises:

I refer to these exercises as “stilling,” a reference to Psalm 46:10, “Be still and know that I am God,” and to distinguish form Western spiritual exercises whose focus is on silence and on an interior listening. These relate to the focus on the “word” metaphor, while in the East the focus is on the “light” metaphor. The source for this approach can be found in the hesychast teachings of the Philokalia, and of Symeon the New Theologian (949-1022) who build on the Cappadocians.  This tradition wrote and spoke frequently about the importance of experiencing directly the grace of God, often talking about their experiences of God as divine light. 

 

Silence needs to be expanded to the whole range of sensor input. It is not just the noise of the world that needs silencing, but also the light show of the world. It is helpful int this regard to think of St. John of the Cross, whose spirituality pushed at the boundary of Western forms. I refer particularly to his poem, the Dark Night of the Soul: “On a dark night, kindled in love with yearnings, —oh, happy chance! —I went forth without being observed, my house being now at rest.”  What is at rest is his senses. In that state we hope to be in the position of “seeing” the inner light of the mind in which is the act of thinking of consciousness. This suspension of the senses may seem to be too world-denying for modern taste, but I offer a little poem of my own which strikes a balance.

Ah the silence

Not to the denigration of sounds,

But for a moment with the inner ear which made the ear,

and the God that Made them both.

 

Ah the dark

Not to the denigration of lights,

But for a moment with the inner eye and made the eye,

and the God that made them both.

I would suggest that a horizon is a useful to use the metaphor for exploring for a horizon as we explore for the think mind, which is used by various phenomenologists, Karl Raher, for example. ft one identifies the horizon; one must also be experiencing the light that makes it possible.  

 

 

Day One

God and Light

“in your light we see light.”

 

Address 1: First Light First Light

Exercise 1 An introduction to “stilling”, a quieting of the senses.:

Address 2 The Created Light: From Angels to Slim Mold

Exercise 2 Stilling: seeking for the inner light.

Address 3 Introducing the Human

Exercise 3 Stilling: on the making of a face.

 

Day Two

Angels and the Eikon of God

 

Address 4 introducing the Devil;

Exercise 5 Stilling: considering what we owe the angels

Address 5 The Devil’s Work

Exercise 5 Stilling resisting the defacement the world

Address 6 The Effect of Sin

Exercise 6 Stilling and unmasking

 

Day Three

Becoming the eikon of God

Address 7 Becoming the eikon of God

Exercise 7 Stilling enkindling the inner light through Christ.

Address 8 Spiritual Warfare

Exercise 8 Stilling Embracing the Cross

Address 9 “I too am an eikon of God.”

Exercise 9 Stilling Praying to be the ikon of God.

 

On Rational Natures  by Gregory of Nazianzus

an AI Translation Greek (Public Domain, PG 37) 

From the beginning there is the One without beginning,

without cause, without boundary,

infinite, eternal, bodiless, invisible,

incorruptible, unchanging, impassible,

unmoved, incomparable—

one Light from one Light,

one Mind from one Mind,

one Spirit from one Spirit:

one God in three hypostases. 

Angels are a second light, a rational nature—

keen‑sighted, swift, bodiless, ever‑moving,

unaffected, unchanging, simple, without form,

immaterial, invisible.

Their work is to glorify, to hymn, to minister,

to lift up the ascents of human souls. 

Man is a rational nature

composed of soul and body.

The soul is intellectual and immortal; the

flesh is mortal, earthly, weak.

The soul is the ruler; the flesh is the servant.

The soul desires the things above;

the flesh pulls toward the things below.

But God gave the Law,

He gave the prophets,

He gave His own Word,

so that the soul might conquer the flesh,

so that man might ascend to God,

so that the true Light might shine in the heart. 

Thus rational nature is threefold:

the bodiless—angels;

the half‑bodied—humans;

the all‑bodied—beasts.

But man stands in the middle:

above by his soul, below by his flesh.

Above he beholds God;

below he is drawn toward the earth. 

Yet God made man

to be above,

to know God,

to glorify God,

to love God.

Therefore rational nature is

desire for God,

desire for light,

desire for truth.

But the flesh opposes,

the flesh fights,

the flesh drags downward.

Yet the soul conquers,

the soul rises, the soul beholds God. 

Thus rational nature is

struggle and warfare—

struggle against the flesh,

struggle against darkness,

struggle against the world.

But God helps,

God enlightens,

God saves. 

And the end is deification,

union with God,

communion with the Light,

rest in God.

  

Day closes with “Midnight Angelus:” 

There appeared a sign in the heavens: A woman clothed in the Sun, a crescent moon at her feat and a crown of twelve stan on he head. And she was with child.

                         Hail Mary…..

 Michael and his angels fought against the dragon and the dragon, who is called the Devil and Satan, was thrown down to the earth with all his angels.

                         Hail Mary

 But the child was snatched away and taken to God and to his throne; and the woman fled into the wilderness where she has place prepared by God.

                         Hail Mar