... the visible quality of the divinity, of the energies of grace in which God is made known ... This light is a light which fills at the same time both intellect and senses, revealing itself to the whole individual, and not only to one faculty. The divine light, being given in mystical experience, surpasses at the same time both sense and intellect
Fasting from words, fasting from a volume of speech, being willing to humbly accept the yoke of silence and quietude deprives the tongue of the mastery of our hearts and minds. The tongue is a very useful tool for the art of love and for the art of prayer, but it is also the means by which we afflict others and even our own selves so often. So it must be called into holy obedience.