"Spiritual light," sometimes combined with spiritual "warmth" and "fragrance," is in fact the reasonable intuition we have been seeking, the intuition that includes the series of its own groundings. It is perfect beauty as the synthesis of absolute concrete givenness and absolute reasonable justifiedness. Spiritual light is the light of the Trihypostatic Divinity Itself, the Divine essence, which is not only given, but also self-given. Spiritual light is the "light of reason," the light that started to shine for the world at the Birth of our Lord Jesus Christ, as is sung in the Christmas troparion:
Thy birth, O Christ our God,
has shed upon the world the light of reason …
Spiritual light is the "Light of Christ" that illuminates everyone." Spiritual light is the "mental light" that makes "the soul vigilant before Thee," God, as the Holy Church tells us. It is the light of God's love, about which we pray:
With love illuminate me, I pray
that I may see Thee, Word of God
Spiritual light is the light whose seeing constitutes the contemplation of God and therefore our salvation, the salvation of us who cannot be without God. Does not the Orthodox believer pray: "Save me with Thy illumination"?
St. Pavel (Florensky)
Christ Is Born!
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