The Sunday of St. Gregory Palamas is the second Sunday of Great Lent. It comes right after the Sunday of Orthodoxy and celebrates a 14th-century monk and archbishop who defended something that matters to every Orthodox Christian: that we can actually experience God.
Not just know about him. Experience him.
Who Was Gregory Palamas?
Gregory Palamas lived from 1296 to 1359. He was a monk on Mount Athos who later became Archbishop of Thessalonica. But he’s remembered because he defended the hesychasts, monks who practiced deep contemplative prayer, often using the Jesus Prayer (“Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner”) in silence and stillness. They claimed to see the uncreated light of God, the same light the apostles saw at the Transfiguration.
A guy named Barlaam, a scholar from Calabria, said that was impossible. You can’t experience God directly, he argued. You can only know about God through philosophy and reason.
The monks said otherwise. They’d seen the light.
Gregory Palamas stepped in to explain how both things could be true: God is utterly beyond us, and yet we can truly experience him. He made a distinction that’s become central to Orthodox theology. God’s essence, what God is in himself, remains completely beyond us, unknowable and inaccessible. But God’s energies, his actions, his grace, his presence in the world, are uncreated and fully divine, and we can participate in them. When we experience God in prayer, when we receive the Eucharist, when grace transforms us, we’re encountering God’s energies. We’re touching the divine life itself.
This isn’t just theological hairsplitting. It’s the difference between a Christianity that’s all in your head and one that changes you from the inside out.
Why This Sunday, Why Now?
The Church places this feast on the second Sunday of Lent for a reason. We’ve just celebrated the Sunday of Orthodoxy, reaffirming the faith handed down from the apostles. Now, one week into the Lenten struggle, the Church reminds us what we’re doing all this for.
We’re not fasting just to be disciplined. We’re not praying just to check a box. We’re clearing out the clutter so we can experience God. Theosis, union with God, becoming by grace what Christ is by nature, isn’t some abstract doctrine. It’s the whole point. And Gregory Palamas spent his life defending that possibility.
If you’ve ever wondered whether Orthodox Christianity is just ritual and rules, this Sunday answers that question. The ascetic life, the fasting, the long services, the Jesus Prayer, they’re all aimed at something real. The light the monks saw on Athos is the same light that shone from Christ on Mount Tabor. And it’s available to us.
What the Services Say
The hymns for this Sunday are full of light. They call Gregory a champion of the uncreated light, a defender of true theology, a guide who leads us toward union with God. The services don’t just commemorate a historical figure. They invite us into the same experience he defended.
There’s something fitting about celebrating this in the middle of Lent, when a lot of us are tired and wondering if any of this is making a difference. The Church says: yes, it is. Keep going. What you’re doing isn’t pointless. You’re being prepared for something bigger than you can imagine.
A Texas Aside
I think about the guys I know who work the plants around here, out at 4 AM for a turnaround, bone-tired by Sunday morning. Or the nurses coming off a night shift who still make it to Liturgy. They’re not doing this because it’s easy or because they’ve got their prayer life all figured out. They’re doing it because somewhere, somehow, they’ve caught a glimpse of something real. Maybe not the uncreated light exactly. But something.
That’s what Gregory Palamas defended. Not just for monks on a mountain in Greece, but for regular people trying to find God in the middle of ordinary, exhausting life.
Where It Leads
We’re only two weeks into Lent. There’s a long road ahead, the Cross is coming on the third Sunday, then St. John of the Ladder teaching us how to climb toward God, then St. Mary of Egypt showing us that no one is beyond repentance. And all of it leads to Holy Week and Pascha.
But this Sunday reminds us that we’re not just commemorating events from 2,000 years ago. We’re being drawn into the divine life itself. The resurrection we’ll celebrate at Pascha isn’t just Christ’s victory. It’s ours too, if we’ll keep walking this path. If you want to read more about Gregory Palamas and hesychasm, Fr. John Meyendorff wrote a detailed study that’s become the standard work. But honestly, the best way to understand what Gregory defended is just to keep praying. Keep fasting. Keep showing up. The light he wrote about isn’t found in books alone.
