Hugh of st. Victor

I had to read this passage like four times in order to kind of understand what was being said. Not all things are what they seam to be. Like "when something is called the highest, this doesn’t mean that it is located above the top of the heavens, but rather that it is the inmost or most intimate of all". Its saying words are just that, "word" they are the things we use to try to express what we feel. Saying something is above does not mean it is really above us, but that it is so important that it is high in the mind and lifted up like something that should be treasured. When a person goes off looking for visible pleasures they will never find what they truly desire to fill that void. The only way to fill it is by knowing that God is within us and he himself will fill that void.

Symeon the newtheologian

This passage seamed strait to the point without really even saying anything. “...when he dives into the water, he can no longer see anything outside, and he knows only that his whole body is in the water.” A person who can only see what is in front of them won’t have their minds clouded by other thoughts. “The more a man enters the light of understanding, the more aware he is of his own ignorance”. To me that meant that the more a person learns they begin to understand how close minded they are and how little they knew before.

Johannes Scotus Erigena

Johannes Scotus Erigena passage was a different read. Every comment was contradicted by a some what explanation. It talked about the things that are incomprehensible comprehensible or the unknown known. It does make since even though it doesn’t really fully explain what is being said. To me it I just talking about how everything a person thinks is hidden, unseen, or unable to achieve it really isn’t. God is everywhere and in everything and like the passage said, God and creation is not two different things, but instead one in the same thing. "For both the creature, by subsisting, is in God; and God, by manifesting himself, in..... Everything" I like this because it speaks that God is not just there for us, but also is in everything around us.

Thomas Traherne

While reading this passage it seemed it was talking a lot about heaven. How “Your enjoyment of the world is never right till every morning you awake in heaven, see yourself in your father’s palace; and look upon the skies and the earth and the air as celestial joys:…..” It like he is trying to say we don’t understand anything as it is until we can see it with the same eyes God does.

Heraclitus

Even though this passage was quite small it had a lot to say. Not so much is the words on the page, but the messages from within. Like…”You can’t step twice into the same river”. Even if something appears to be the same at a glance it is in fact completely different. A person can never step into the same river because a river may be in the same spot, but it changing every second the water runs by. Or the statement…”You wont discover the limits of the soul, however far you go”. There is not a limit to the soul; no matter how hard a person tries if they look for it they will never find it. The closest a person can ever get to achieving the limits of a soul is to just take what they know and except what they don’t. “The hidden harmony is better than the obvious one”. I think anything that is not easy can be much more fulfilling. If you can get to it or see it does not have the same impact that it would if you had to strive to reach it. Lastly “The way up and the way down are one in the same. To me this means that in order to go up or down a person must change directions, therefore no matter which direction it is its still a change.

Maximus of Tyre

My favorite statement in this passage was when he said “God himself, the father and fashioner of all that is, older than the sun or the sky, greater than time and eternity and all the flow of being, is unnamable by any lawgiver, unutterable by any voice, not to be seen by any eye”. This just has such passion and appreciation for the creator. He is the one and the only; he is older than anything and will always be. A name, a voice and to be seen could not express the greatness. There is nothing that could really explain how wonderful and powerful “God” is.

Sharafuddin Maneri

This passage was quite long, but it had a lot of in site as to sharafuddins Maneri belief as to how a person worships God. He talked about “there is neither old nor new: everything is nothing, nothing at all. Yet he is what he is.” I think he is saying God has always been here and there has always been a God. Man start as nothing and they turn into nothing, so how can we measure up? We can’t; the only thing we can do is have faith in God and worship him. “When you lose yourself in God, you proclaim the divine unity. Lose the sense of being lost –that is complete detachment”. Not until a person lets go, I mean really lets go can they truly understand how grate God is. Nor can they even begin to understand anything……