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 AFTER THE MANNER  OF HEDGEHOGS

Most people are enclosed in their mortal bodies like a snail in its shell,
curled up in their obsessions after the manner of hedgehogs.
They form their notion of God’s blessedness taking themselves for a model.


Clement of Alexandria Miscellanies, V,11 (PG 9,103) 2/3rd centuries

Clément, Olivier. The Roots of Christian Mysticism: Texts from the Patristic Era with Commentary (p. 23)


O thou who art beyond all, 

How canst thou be called by another name? 

What hymn can sing of thee? 

No name describes thee. 

What mind can grasp thee? 

No intellect conceives thee. 

Thou only art inexpressible; 

All that is spoken comes forth from thee. 

Thou only art unknowable; 

All that is thought comes forth from thee. 

All creatures praise thee, 

Those that speak and those that are dumb. 

All creatures bow down before thee, 

Those that can think and those that have no power of thought. 

The universal longing, the groaning of creation tends towards thee. 

Everything that exists prays to thee 

And to thee every creature that can read thy universe Sends up a hymn of silence.

In thee alone all things dwell. 

With a single impulse all things find their goal in thee. 

Thou art the purpose of every creature. 

Thou art unique. 

Thou art each one and art not any. 

Thou art not a single creature nor art thou the sum of creatures; 

All names are thine; how shall I address thee, 

Who alone cannot be named? … 

Have mercy, O thou, the Beyond All; 

How canst thou be called by any other name? 


Gregory Nazianzen Dogmatic Poems, (PG 37,507-8) 4th century


Clément, Olivier. The Roots of Christian Mysticism: Texts from the Patristic Era with Commentary (pp. 24-25)






Every concept formed by the intellect in an attempt to comprehend and circumscribe
the divine nature can succeed only in fashioning an idol, not in making God known.

Gregory of Nyssa Life of Moses 4th century


Only wonder can comprehend his incomprehensible power.

Maximus the Confessor On the Divine Names 6/7th centuries


Clément, Olivier. The Roots of Christian Mysticism: Texts from the Patristic Era with Commentary (p. 23).

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