Benedictus Deus

The constitution defines that the souls of the just, once purified, are with Christ in heaven before they take up their bodies again and before the general judgment, and that they see the divine essence “face to face”, with no creature standing between as the object of sight; the essence shows itself to them plainly and openly.

The text does not mention the Greek controversy, which began a few years later. It is cited in Gregory Palamas and the Hesychast Councils as a formal statement of what the Western church taught about the vision of God at the time when the Eastern councils were teaching that God is seen in his energies and not in his essence.