A NIGHT IN THE DESERT OF THE HOLY MOUNTAIN

  o  ·   1  
  2  ·   3  ·   4  ·   5  ·   6  ·   7  ·   8  ·   9  ·   o  

© Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos

1. Foreword
2. Preface
3. Introduction
1. Silence, Speech and the Life of the Monks
[ BACK ]
Foreword
"A Night in the Desert of the Holy Mountain" is a book which brings to
light the quintessence of Orthodox spiritual life: the Jesus prayer or
prayer of the heart and how it can be practised by both monks / nuns and
lay people.

The discussion flows in a spontaneous and immediate way with the

dialogue form of the book contributing to this.

The reader enjoys the simple presentation of the teachings of the Church
on the Jesus prayer, through the authentic experience of an Athonite
hermit. And "when a hermit's mouth opens, it fills you with fragrance".
The Holy Mountain is a blessed place for the entire Church. There are
monks there who practise without ceasing the Jesus prayer and who
struggle to live the ascetic life, which is actually life according to the
Gospel. Thus they become bearers of the Holy Tradition of the Church.
It is with such a monk and ascetic that the author of this book enters into
dialogue.

The book has been a classic of its kind in Greece where it is now in its
ninth edition. It has also been translated into French, Arabic, Spanish,
and Russian.

The translation into English was undertaken as a response to the requests

of many English speaking friends who believe that the text has a lot to
offer to all our brethren in Christ who thirst and seek for intimate
communion with God; for the transformation and unification of their
inner world through the energy of the grace of God; and who desire to
become indwellings of the most Holy Spirit: The author of this book is
himself an admirer of the neptic tradition of the Church, which he also
presents in his other books.

His series of four books on "Orthodox psychotherapy" is of great interest

since he believes that the neptic tradition of the Church has a therapeutic
value. Archimandrite Hierotheos Vlachos believes that Christianity is
not a philosophy or an ideology, but rather it is a therapeutic science and
a therapeutic treatment which cures the innermost aspect of one's
personality.

It is within this framework that the present book operates.

Many thanks are due to Mrs Rachel Hales (Essex, England) who kindly
offered to examine the translation and make several needed corrections.
Her zeal and personal interest in the text made possible the publication
of this translation. Special mention should also be made of her excellent
work on the passages and poems by St. Symeon the New Theologian as
well as of other Fathers of the Church.

I am also indebted to sister Makrina of the "Birth of the Theotokos

convent"(Thiva, Greece) for her valuable suggestions. The final version
of the translation is, however, the sole responsibility of the translator.

Effie Mavromichali

[ BACK ]
Preface

It is by inspiration of divine love that in our day there is a reawakening

of the desire for mystical theology and the teaching of the Fathers, for
asceticism, sobriety and unceasing noetic prayer of the heart.

How is it that in the high tide of man centered, materialistic, and this
wordly understanding, there emerge souls desiring the true life in Christ
–seeking perfection– union with God; who want to live according to the
tradition of our Church and the holy Fathers? "The right hand of the
Most High has changed". This is the work of the Holy Spirit, Who lives
eternally, and Who sets apart and makes holy the souls in the Body of
Christ, our holy Catholic and Apostolic Church.
After the ordeal of much effort, it is becoming increasingly clear today
that the Tradition of the Holy Fathers is not a luxury, but a prerequisite
for a truly genuine Orthodox way of life. And it is a great blessing that
the most merciful Lord planted in the midst of the Church the paradise
of the garden of the Theotokos, –the Holy Mountain– to revive the
Church through the gift of the grace of God, which comes down to us
today through the living tradition of the Holy Fathers, uninterruptedly.

The author of this present book yearns for this Tradition. He lives and
works in the world, but his abiding city "is in heaven", the heaven of the
Holy Mountain, which is the foretaste of the Kingdom to come.

The Lord, Who loves mankind and Who gives us what our soul truly
desires, has given to Archimandrite Hierotheos Vlachos the grace to love
the spiritual atmosphere of the Holy Mountain and to hear within
himself his own mystical heartbeat of the prayerful words "Lord Jesus
Christ have mercy on me, a sinner".

He has spoken with the Holy Fathers and has received their blessings.
He has heard words spoken of eternal life and out of the fullness of his
heart, he offers these conversations to his brethren.

It is a sign of the love of the Holy Fathers for us, that while they reveal
to us the heights of the spiritual life, encouraging us not to be
fainthearted in our spiritual efforts, they also show us at the same time,
the first steps which we who are inexperienced must take. They show us
the heights, but they take us by the hand in order for us to take the first
steps.

Thus this present work not only presents prayer in its perfected state, but
also introduces it in its initial stages for our brothers and sisters in the
world to practise, so that they can be strengthened and made holy. I
believe that through the blessing of our Lady, the Theotokos, who
herself had received and lived this fullness of grace, this book will prove
beneficial to the writer and the readers. It goes without saying that the
more frequently people read books about the prayer of Jesus, the greater
will their desire be to practise it.

To our God, from Whom we receive so much goodness and perfection,

be glory throughout all the ages.

Archimandrite George,
Abbot of the monastery
of Saint Gregory of the Holy Mountain

[ BACK ]
Introduction

In the following pages I present a discussion which I had with a staretz

on Mt. Athos. I did not intend to record it. One day, however, just as I
was getting ready to read one of the works of St. Maximos, I heard an
inner voice urging me to write down the discussion I had with the wise
Athonite monk. And I obeyed that voice which, I confess, I had not
heard before. I started writing as it came to my mind. That is why what
follows is the output of only a few hours work, and I apologize to the
readers for this.
First of all, though, I would like to make a few comments:

Firstly, the book should not be read as a story or as a tale, but rather as a
teaching sent by God to that wise Athonite who was a Godbearer "by
grace". The reader should stop at times to think, but much more,
however to pray. He might need to read over the discussion twice.

Secondly, the dialogue should be read keeping in mind the purpose for
which it was written, i.e. the practice of the prayerful life. We should at
once make the decision to enter into the divine darkness of the Jesus
prayer, which is Mount Sinai and Mount Tabor, where we will meet
God. "The invocation of the name of Jesus is accompanied by His
immediate revelation, because the name evokes a form of His
presence" (Evdokimof). This thought is in accordance with the Words of
the Lord, "For where two or three are gathered together in my name,
there am I in the midst of them" (Matt. 18. 20), as well as with the
apostolic word, "Therefore I want you to understand that no one can say
Jesus is the Lord except by the Holy Spirit". (1 Cor. 12. 3) When one is
praying the "Jesus prayer", the Holy Spirit descends like the cloud on
Mount Tabor.

Thirdly, the reader should not try to find out who the monk I spoked with
is. He may not be successful and his judgements may be wrong. That
holy staretz would not like this.

Fourthly, the reader may be impressed by the number of quotes coming

from the Fathers of the Church. It must be emphasized, however, that the
Holy Spirit, Who lived and acted within the Holy Fathers, also lives and
acts in the ever vigilant Athonites. They have, in other words, the spirit
of the Fathers and so can be ever mindful of their teachings, without
much labour and special effort.

Apart from that, many times during the discussion, the wise hermit, who
has seen God, would open his books (of St. Gregory Palamas, St.
Symeon the New Theologian, the Philokalia etc.) which he kept near
him, and would read and comment on many passages.

My ardent wish is that there be readers who are helped to experience the
Jesus prayer, which has sanctified so many others, that they too be made
holy.

I feel obliged to turn my thoughts also to the heroic and respected men,
"the imitators of divine love", who live on Mt. Athos, who abandoned
the world and live the real world not the improper world, but the
transfigured world who experience the living God. They are the
contemporary witnesses of Christ, "who have separated themselves from
this world and who are in fact dead, so far as the world is concerned".
These holy men have often supported and helped me many times, have
fed me with their own bread; and I, who am poor, owe them so much. I
am poor. But, if I had not taken even this little food, I would have died! I
am hungry, yet I live through their grace, their blessings and their love.

The following lines are thus dedicated to those fathers who have known
heaven on the Holy Mountain, in gratitude for their great love, "in return
for their love", and who have passionately loved the threefold poverty,
the material one (poverty), the spiritual one (humility and obedience)
and that of the body (chastity); to those fathers who truly have lived the
beatitudes of the Lord; for, by becoming poor in spirit they became rich
and by becoming meek they inherited the earth; they mourned and were
comforted; they hungered for righteousness and were satisfied; they
were merciful and they obtained mercy; becoming pure in heart they saw
God in His power; becoming peacemakers they were made worthy of
becoming sons of God.

Oh Holy Fathers, blessed monks, hermits, we, who are sinners "declare
you blessed, the younger to the elder the sons to the fathers, and the
sinners to the holy ones" (St. Nicodemos of the Holy Mountain).
 Archimandrite Hierotheos Vlachos

[ BACK ]
Silence, Speech and the Life of the Monks
The Holy Mountain is a place of mystery where silence, which is
eternity itself, speaks intensely, since silence is the language of the age
to come. As the holy angels have a noetic power inconceivable to us
through which they transmit divine thoughts to each other (St. Basil the
Great), in the same way the earthly angels –who live on the Holy
Mountain– and compete with the heavenly and bodiless one in life and
prayer have another power in order to transmit what they experience.
And this power is that of silence which, especially on the Holy
Mountain, is the most eloquent of sermons; a "silent exhortation". The
monks there do not speak much; they live the mysteries of God "in
silence;" they experience Orthodox theology in an apophatic way. They
listen to the voice of God through silence and acquire virtue. According
to St. Symeon the New Theologian, "the silence of the lips, the closing
of the eyes, and the deafness of the ears are for beginners in spiritual life
the quick way to acquire virtue".

The silence of the monks is edifying. In the Sayings of the Desert

Fathers we read the following: The Archbishop Theophilos visited a
skete one day, where the brethren were exhorting Abba Pambo to say
something edifying to the Archbishop. The former responded, "if he is
not edified by my silence, he will not be edified by my speech".
One should go to the Holy Mountain with the intention of being edified
through silence. For the visitor who knows how to be taught in this way,
everything will speak to him. The silent figures of the monks, the caves
of the hermits, the monasteries permeated with an atmosphere of
compunction, nature itself and inanimate objects as well, will tell many
stories and transmit wonderful teachings. It is in this way that the Holy
Mountain speaks "in silence".

Sometimes, however, they speak, and then they edify because they set a
good example by how they live". A good life without words edifies more
than words without the example of a good life; in fact the others may
disturb when they speak. If life and speech coexist they manifest an
example of holiness" (Isidore of Pelouse). As the Holy Fathers live a
holy life and have become instruments of the Holy Spirit, "mystical
trumpets" of the Holy Trinity, of Love, of the Word and of Wisdom in
whatever words they utter elevate. They have "words" to speak, because
their acts are abundant. And they say the "words" when they are asked.

From the sayings of the Fathers the following request is familiar:

"Father, tell me a word so that I may be saved". A "word" spoken from
the heart of the hermit as from the Holy Spirit, in the language of the
desert, is considered revealed and authentic; ... and the one who requests
it, receives it as the fruit of grace, without elaborating on it in his mind.
This "word" from the spiritual father is absolutely necessary for the one
who asks. The "word" comes from a soul which is the friend of God,
wounded by the love of God and is spoken in accordance with the
measure of "thirst" of the one who asks. As the Holy Mother of God
conceived the Word of God and gave birth to the Theanthropos Christ,
becoming therefore "the joy of all creation", in the same way do the
Fathers, because of their purity, conceived the word and transmit it to
those who thirst for it, becoming for them their joy...

"A few brothers who had lay persons with them, approached Abba Felix
and begged him to say a word to them. But the old man kept silent. After
they had asked for a long time he said to them, "You wish to hear a
word", they said, "Yes Abba". Then the old man said to them, "There are
no words nowadays. When the brothers used to consult their elders, and
when they did what was asked of them, God would show them how to
speak. However now, because they ask without doing that which they
hear, God has withdrawn the grace of His Word from the elders, and
they do not find anything to say, because there is no longer anyone who
carries out their words".

Hearing this, the brothers groaned, saying, "Pray for us, Abba". (Sayings
of the Desert Fathers).

Through this example it is obvious that the word is the illumination of

grace. Grace illumines pure and holy people and "incarnates" life into
words. It is obvious also that the word is expressed according to the
degree of thirst of him who asks and that the monks know how "to
break" even the coldest heart and make it turn to God, even if they use a
discreet reproach.

So when you ask them with simplicity, humility and willingness to

practise it, you will hear, then, the "glowings" of grace. They are words
simple, humble, yet full of wisdom and grace. Words which are filled
with grace.

And at this point they imitate Christ who is the almighty Logos of the
Father but also the embodiment of deep silence. He spoke, yet He also
kept silence. The movement of God towards man is precisely not only a
"revelation of the Word" but also an "expression of silence". The
movement, therefore, of man towards God as well as towards his
fellowman should be distinguished by these two elements. You visit the
Holy Mountain with the intention of being taught more through silence
and less through the word.
The monks of the Holy Mountain, the hermits, these songbirds of the
desert, live life to its fullest. They are emmersed in Paradise. They are
truly "Godbearers". They live the life of Christ "in earthen vessels", e.g.
in bodies which have been exhausted by ascetic practice and the serving
of others. In these monks, one can see divinization* in action, so to
speak and not divinization as taught theoretically by the inexperienced in
theology. They live both faith and works. For without doubt, faith
without works is an illusion, and works without faith is idolatry. The
grace of God, the image of Christ, are inscribed on their weatherbeaten
faces. The "dance" of the holy ascetics "flees from what is contrary to
nature, salvages what is according to nature and becomes worthy of the
gifts which are beyond nature" (St. Nicodemos).

When you look at them you think that they are unhappy and sad, yet
when their inner calmness overflows how it inundates you! These holy
ascetics are likened to the big dams which retain abundant still waters,
but, when the dams break, the force of the water reveals itself as it floods
the surrounding area. When the hermit's mouth opens it will "flood" you
with fragrance! The mouths of the holy monks are "springs from which
flow honey and pure living water". You may think that their lives are of
no value, but you will realise very soon that these hermits are "trees
reaching high into the sky", well equipped with leaves affording shade,
giving you shelter and refreshing you. You picture them as dressed in
rags, as unapproachable, and as not having bathed thoroughly, because
of their abstinence from washing (alousia), yet very soon you see them
as "undying plants producing splendid fruit", "lilies, evergreen and
always fragrant", whose fragrance satisfies you! And all this because
Christ, the true life, lives in them". Their life is hid with Christ in
God" (Col. 3. 3).

In every Athonite monk who follows in the footsteps of the Holy Fathers
and lives according to their teachings, you can discern, if you have
within you the spirit of God, the coexistence of two seemingly opposite
states: that of death and of life. Life springs from a daily death and death
becomes more dead from the enjoyment of life. The more the death of
death (sin) extends, the greater the life of Life (of Christ) is experienced;
and the more "Life" is experienced, the more death is put to death to the
point that one experiences within oneself the resurrection and the
ascension of Christ. Sin is destroyed and life comes forth. So, it can be
said that monks put on death and enjoy Life. St. Paul writes to the
Romans: "For we know that Christ being raised from the dead will never
die again; death no longer has dominion over Him. The death He died
He died to sin, once and for all, but the life He lives He lives in
God" (Rom. 6, 9). St. Nikitas Stethatos writes that the same happens to
the saintly man who has become like Christ since he lives the life of
Christ, having become dead to the world: "The one who has been raised
from death was raised together with Christ. If he was raised with Christ
through knowledge of Him and death no longer having dominion over
Christ the death of ignorance has no dominion over Him. Thus he no
longer lives for the flesh and the world, having been dead to the
members of his body and to the material things of life, but Christ lives
within him, having yielded to the grace of the Holy Spirit and not to the
law of his flesh; that is to say he has offered his members to God the
Father like weapons of righteousness".

Even in deified monks are found the coinherence of rest and motion.
According to St. Maximos they live an "evermoving rest" as well as a
"restful motion". They remain "in Christ" and move unceasingly towards
the more perfect delight of Him, because Christ is the pearl of great
price. St. Gregory of Nyssa clarifies this point in a vivid manner, "The
strangest thing of all is how rest and motion can coexist simultaneously,
since he who ascends in no way stands still, and he who stands does not
ascend; but here the ascending is accomplished by standing still, which
means that the more one remains firm and steadfast in the good, the
more he advances in the way of virtue". He abides, that is, in the while
continually in motion. He is constantly moving and he remains in Christ.
It is the incessant thirst for Christ but at the same time the divine
satiation. A monk once said: "Something strange is happening to me. I
am hungry, yet I feel full"! This is not at all strange, however, for the
man of God. This is what is referred to as the "perfect but still unfinished
perfection of the perfect" (St. John Climacos).

The life of the monk becomes continually the life of the Word of God,
the life of Christ. Through "violence", the monk experiences all the
"ages" of Christ. Christ is incarnate within him, performs miracles,
suffers the passion, he is resurrected and he ascends. Living, therefore,
in Christ he attains not only the unification of his whole inner world but
also of the world around him. He overcomes all the divisions and he
ascends to an even higher level than the one before the Fall; he becomes
like the first Adam. St. Maximos refers to the five divisions which Adam
failed to overcome, whereas man succeeds in this now through the help
of the new Adam, that is to say of Christ. He can overcome the divisions
between created and uncreated, between intelligible and sensible, heaven
and earth, paradise and the universe, between man and woman. By
overcoming the last division he goes on to overcome the first that of
created and uncreated. A holy man of God brings his whole self as well
as the entire world to God; that is why the saint is the greatest benefactor
of humanity.

On the Holy Mountain I once approached such a gerondas* a gerondas

who enjoys the never-ending fulness of divine mercy. Living in an
opening in the earth, he has overcome all the conventions of this world.
There are no words to describe him. If you characterize him as wise, you
fall short. If you call him mad you do not convey the greatness of his
spiritual folly! you do not know how to describe him. As he has escaped
the categories of this world, he goes on towards the depths of eternity.
He touches the divine fire and he is literally aflame. He is on fire now
with the uncreated Light. For hours at a time while you are talking with
him you think that he will be ignited and be completely consumed in
flames. You think that he will vanish bodily in front of you like the
Prophet Elijah on the fiery chariot. At the very moment when he speaks
to you, you think that he will ascend into Heaven like the Lord who
"while he blessed them, he parted from them and was carried up to
heaven" (Lk. 24. 51). Yet what you think will happen does not, because
something else is happening. The compunction that is created while he is
talking to you about matters of the spiritual life is similar to the
"wonder" that took hold of the disciples on Mount Tabor. "A bright
cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, this is my
beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him. When the
disciples heard this, they fell on their faces, and were filled with awe".
(Matt. 17. 56) While he is speaking, the Holy Spirit descends suddenly,
encompassing you, capturing you. Fear seizes you, but also the desire to
remain there. When the holy ascetic is telling you his simple, unaffected
words, you remember Christ talking to his disciples on the top of a
mountain or on a boat in the sea. The holy ascetic indeed, is talking to
you from the "mountain" of theoria* (of vision of God) and from the sea
of eternity, beyond the mundane and trivial matters, beyond what you
are.

I approached this Gerondas one day. I knew he was a true theologian*.

He did not have knowledge about God, but the "knowledge of God",
which is inaccessible to the majority of people! "The knowledge of God
is a mountain steep indeed, and difficult to climb –the majority of people
scarcely reach its base"3. Only Moses was able to ascend the mountain
of the vision of God and see God. I knew then that this gerondas was a
Moses, a man who had seen God. At the beginning I felt awkward. What
could one talk about with him! What had we in common? Were we on
the same wavelength? We are at the first stage of "practical
philosophy" (purification*), whereas he has already passed from "natural
contemplation" (illumination of nous*) to "mystical
theology" (knowledge of God*), that is, to everlasting knowledge. We
are full of passions,* whereas he is the royal golden throne of the King.
We personify hell, he is Paradise.

However during our discussion the ascetic came down from his height
and raised me higher. He emptied himself and enriched me! "Although
he was once rich, he became poor, so that I could be rich through his
poverty". For unity always demands a movement out of one's self on
both sides, which is also what happens in the union with God. A
movement from God out of Himself as well as a movement from man
out of himself occurs. This is the distinctive trait of divine love.
"Theologians at times call the divine an erotic force, sometimes love,
and at other times that which is intensely longed for and loved.
Consequently, as an erotic force and as love, the divine itself is subject
to movement; and being that which is intensely longed for and loved, it
attracts to itself everything that is receptive of this force and love". (St.
Maximos the confessor). The same Father states further: "The divine
erotic force also produces ecstasy, compelling those who love to belong
not to themselves but to those whom they love. This is shown by
superior beings through the care of inferiors, by those of equal stature
who support each other and by those of inferior status who strive
passionately and are converted to the divine".

I always keep in my memory, and even more so in my heart, every

single minute of that conversation. What follows is how I met him and
what we talked about.

A NIGHT IN THE DESERT OF THE HOLY MOUNTAIN

  o  ·   1     2  ·   3  ·   4  
  5  
  6  ·   7  ·   8  ·   9  ·   o  
© Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos
1. Discussion with the Gerondas on the
Jesus Prayer
1. The significance of the Jesus Prayer
2. The Stages of the Jesus prayer
3. Ways of the "Jesus Prayer"
4. The War of the Devil and Coping with it
5. The Advent and Withdrawal of Grace
6. The Fruits of the Jesus Prayer
7. Errors in practising the Jesus Prayer
and How we Cope with them
8. The Jesus Prayer is necessary for
Clergy and Laymen who live in the
World
9. Saying the Jesus Prayer for Others
[ BACK ]
Discussion with the Gerondas on the Jesus
Prayer
– Holy father, I started in a low voice, a desire has taken hold of me very
strongly lately. I believe that God has planted it. I want to be purified. I
can see the passions unfurling within me. I think my heart is a jungle
which feeds many wild beasts the devil is its master and does whatever
he wants. I want to be free from this awful state. I would like to give my
soul completely to God, I would like him to illumine me. The cunning
devil has devastated it long enough. So, I want to be purified but I do not
know how. Can you hear me, Gerondas! I want to be purified! Show me
the way! I am ready to take it and obey without question whatever you
tell me.

... I had started in a low voice but ended up crying out and weeping. My
last words may have been heard like thunder in the ears of the hermit. So
loud were they! He kept silent for a while. He looked at me with much
love; only monks have this sort of love and know how to show it. He
gave me the impression that I should not be troubled about this concern,
for it was blessed.

– It is obvious, he said, that the Holy Spirit exists and acts within us
when we experience such a state. We begin walking the way of the
theoria (vision) of God. It is the first stage of theoria. If the perfect
theoria (vision) of the uncreated Light is "enraptured light" the soul,
repentance and the awareness of our sinfulness is "fire consuming" the
soul. Then, repentance and the desire for the purification of the soul
from the passions constitutes the time of grace. Only when grace enters
within us can we see our desolation how far we are from God and we
fight to be united with him. We are not able to have these thoughts and
these desires if the grace of God does not visit us.

He was a wise director, an experienced spiritual father indeed a man full

of grace. He knows, like the best doctor, how to calm you down, to give
you peace, to give you a pacifying medicine not in order to leave you
contented with your selfishness but in order to deliver you from it, to
cure you.

– Having clarified this point, he went on, I must also show you some
methods or rather a very simple method. Do not expect me to burden
you with very heavy things. The prayer of Jesus, "Lord Jesus Christ, Son
of God, have mercy on me" the unceasing cry to God, our Saviour
purifies our soul. All our salvation rests upon the invocation of Jesus and
union with him. Let us cry to him to come and He will cure us by his
coming. Let us moan like a sick man and He like a doctor will come
lovingly to our aid . Let us cry like the one who fell among thieves, and
the good Samaritan will come to clean our wounds and guide us to the
Inn, that is to the theoria (vision) of the Light which consumes all our
being. When God comes into our heart, He gains victory over the devil
and cleanses the impurities which the evil one has created. The victory,
therefore, over the devil is the victory of Christ in us. Let us do the
human part, that is to invite Christ, and He will do the divine part, He
will gain victory over the devil and cut him off. So we should not want
to do the divine part ourselves and expect God to do the human one. We
should understand this well, we do the human part, the prayer of Jesus,
and God the divine part, our salvation. The entire work of the Church is
the collaboration of divine and human.

[ BACK ]
1. The significance of the Jesus Prayer
–If I have understood correctly, salvation is attained mostly through
asceticism, watchfulness* and the Jesus prayer. Allow me however a
question. I ask it not because I agree with it but because I hear many
objections about the Jesus prayer.

They say that the "Jesus prayer" and the way it is practised is a Christian
yoga and is connected with prototypes of Eastern religions. What do you
have to say about this?
– It seems that those who say this are completely ignorant of the
gracefilled state of our Church, since we obtain divine grace through the
Jesus prayer. They have not experienced it, that is why they do not know
it. Yet they should never accuse those who have experience. They
blaspheme against the Holy Fathers as well. Many of the Fathers fought
for the Jesus prayer, and they spoke strongly about its value. What then?
Did they fall into error? Did St. Gregory Palamas fall into error? They
are even ignorant of the Holy Bible. The blind men said the words: "Son
of David have mercy on us", (Matt. 20. 30), which means "Jesus have
mercy on us", and their sight was restored; the lepers said it and they
were cured from their leprocy (Lk. 4. 27), etc. The prayer "Lord Jesus
Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me", consists of two basic points:
The dogmatic one –acknowledgement of the Divinity of Christ– and the
suppliant one –supplication for our salvation. In other words the
confession of faith in Christ is connected with the confession of our
inability to be saved of our own accord. This says everything, and the
whole struggle of the Christian is based on these two points: Faith in
Christ and awareness of our sinfulness. The "Jesus Prayer", therefore,
expresses to the utmost the effort of the faithful in a few words and
summarises all the dogmatic teaching of our Orthodox Church.

We acquire this twofold knowledge through the Jesus prayer. St.

Maximos points out that the passion of pride consists of two ignorances:
the ignorance of the divine power and the ignorance of human weakness.
And this double ignorance creates a "confused mind". Proud, therefore,
is the man of ignorance, whereas, on the contrary, humble is the man of
dual knowledge. The latter knows his own weakness and the power of
Christ. So, we acknowledge and confess the power of Christ (Lord Jesus
Christ, Son of God) as well as our own weakness (have mercy on me)
through the Jesus prayer. We acquire in this way the blessed state of
humility. Where there is humility there also, is the grace of Christ, and
this grace is the Kingdom of Heaven. Can you see then the worth of the
Jesus prayer? Can you see that we can obtain the Kingdom of God by its
power?
– I know, Gerondas, that a prerequisite of the Orthodox teaching is never
to separate Christ from the other persons of the most Holy Trinity. For
this reason we often invoke and glorify fully the Holy Trinity in all the
prayers which are said aloud by the priest as well as in the meditative
endings of the prayers during the Divine Liturgy: "For unto Thee are due
all glory, honour and worship, unto the Father and unto the Son, and
unto the Holy Spirit now and forever. . . "; "the grace of our Lord Jesus
Christ and the love of God the Father and the communion of the Holy
Spirit be with you all", etc. I wonder whether the "Jesus prayer", which
refers only to the second Person of the most Holy Trinity, deviates from
this correct teaching.

–Definitely not, and I will explain it to you further. The "prayer" is

called the "Jesus prayer" but is founded on a Trinitarian basis. Moreover,
Christ, "being one of the Holy Trinity" , never exists without the Father
and the Holy Spirit and constitute, together with the other Persons, "a
Trinity of one substance and undivided". Christology is tightly
connected with Triadology. Let me come back to the matter of the "Jesus
prayer". The heavenly Father ordered Joseph through the angel to call
Christ, Jesus: ". . .and you shall call his name Jesus..." (Matt. 1. 21)
Joseph obeying the Father, called the Son of the Virgin, Jesus. Evenmore
so according to the Holy Spirit which illumined the Apostle Paul, "no
one can say "Jesus is Lord" except by the Holy Spirit" (1 Cor. 12. 3). By
saying, therefore, the prayer "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy
on me", we acknowledge the Father and are obedient to Him. Moreover
we feel the energy of and the communion with the Holy Spirit. The
Fathers illumined by the Holy Spirit, told us that the "Father through the
Son in the Holy Spirit, makes everything". The complete Holy Trinity
created the world and made man; and again the entire Holy Trinity
recreated man and the world. "The Father was well pleased, the Word
became flesh". And He "became flesh" by the Holy Spirit. That is to say,
the incarnation of Christ was made "by the good will of the Father and
the cooperation of the Holy Spirit". For this reason we say that the
salvation of man and the acquisition of divine gifts are common acts of
the Holy Trinity. I will mention two characteristic teachings of the Holy
Fathers.

Saint Symeon the New Theologian writes that the Son and Word of God
is the door of salvation according to His declaration: "I am the door; if
anyone enters by me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find
pasture". (John 10. 9). If Christ is the door, the Father is the house".In
my Father's house are many rooms" (John 14. 2). So we enter into the
Father through Christ. And in order to open the door (Christ) we need
the key, which is the Holy Spirit. For we know the truth, which is Christ,
through the energy of the Holy Spirit. The Father sent His Son to the
world, the Son and Word of God reveals the Father, and the Holy Spirit,
which proceeds from the Father and is sent through the Son, forms
Christ in our hearts! We know, therefore, the Father "through the Son in
the Holy Spirit".

St. Maximos speaks often in his works about the mystical incarnations
of the Word. He writes that, just as the words of the law and of the
Prophets were the forerunners of the presence of the Word in the flesh, in
the same way the Son and Word of God, being incarnate, became the
forerunner of "his spiritual presence", "by instructing the souls through
his own words so that they will be able to accept His divine presence".
In other words Christ must be incarnate within us, because we shall not
be able to see His glory in Heaven otherwise. The incarnation of Christ
within us, however, is done by the good will of the Father and the
cooperation of the Holy Spirit. Can you see how the common action of
the Holy Trinity is expressed, how we acknowledge and confess the
great Mystery that the Lord revealed through His incarnation? He who
then denies and does not acknowledge the Jesus prayer makes a big
mistake. He denies the Holy Trinity. He does not obey the Father and
does not accept the illumination of the Holy Spirit, therefore, he does not
have real communion with Christ. So, he must be in doubt as to whether
he is a Christian or not.
–I would also, Gerondas, like you to explain to me and expand more on
what I was saying earlier, on the differences between the Jesus prayer
and yoga, and for you to show me its superiority over the other eastern
religions, since you offer great experience.

–The subject is very big, my son, and one could say many things about
it. From what I said previously the following stand out:

Firstly: In the Jesus prayer faith in God, Who created the world and Who
governs it and loves it, is expressed strongly. He is an affectionate Father
who cares about saving His mortal creation. Salvation is attained "in
God". For this reason when we pray we implore Him by saying: "Have
mercy on me". Self-redemption and self-divinization are far from the
athlete of noetic prayer,* because this is the sin of Adam, the sin of the
Fall. He wanted to become God outside God's plan for him. Salvation is
not attained "through ourselves and does not emanate from ourselves",
as the human philosophical systems claim, but is attained "in God".

Secondly: We are not struggling to meet an impersonal God through the

"Jesus prayer". We do not seek our elevation to "absolute nothingness".
Our prayer focuses on the personal God, the Godman Jesus, for this
reason we say "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God". Divine and human
nature meet in Christ, in other words in the fullness of the divine Word
and all of humanity the perfection of divinity dwells in him in the flesh".
(Col. 2. 9) Therefore, anthropology and soteriology (teaching about man
and his salvation) in Orthodox monasticism are closely connected with
Christology. We love Christ and keep His commandments. We place
great importance on this matter. We insist on the keeping of the
commandments of Christ. He Himself said: "If you love me, you will
keep my commandments". (John 14. 15) By loving Christ and by
keeping his commandments we are united with the entire Holy Trinity.

Thirdly: We do not reach a state of pride through unceasing prayer. The

philosophical systems you mentioned before are possessed by pride. We
acquire the blessed state of humility through the Jesus prayer. We say
"Have mercy on me", and we consider ourselves the worst of all. We
despise none of our brothers. The athlete of the Jesus prayer is a stranger
to every sort of pride. And whoever has pride is foolish.

Fourthly: Salvation, as we said before, is not an abstract notion but

union with God, the Holy Trinity in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ.
This union, however, does not efface the human factor. We are not
assimilated, since we are ourselves also persons.

Fifthly: As prayer develops we acquire the ability to discern error. We

can see and distinguish the movements of the devil but at the same time
the energies of Christ. We recognise the deceit of the devil who, many
times, changes his form even into an angel of light. We distinguish,
therefore, good from evil, the uncreated from the created.

Sixthly: The struggle for the "Jesus prayer" is connected with the
cleansing of soul and body from the corrupting effect of passions. We do
not aim at reaching Stoic apathy but we strive to attain the dynamic state
of dispassion,* which means that we do not aim at the mortification of
passions but at their transformation. Without dispassion one cannot love
God and be saved, but because this love has been corrupted and
distorted, we strive for its transformation. We fight to transform the
distorted states that the devil created in us. We cannot be saved without
this personal struggle which is achieved with the help of the grace of
Christ. According to St. Maximos, "Spiritual Knowledge without
practical life (purification of heart) is the theology of the demons".

Seventhly: We do not try to guide the nous noetic faculty to absolute

nothingness through the "Jesus prayer", but to turn it to the heart and
bring the grace of God into the soul, from where it will spread to the
body also. "The kingdom of God is within us" (Lk. 17. 21). According to
the teaching of our Church, it is our way of thinking, according to the
flesh, which is bad and not our body. We must not try to get rid of "the
garment of the soul", as the philosophical systems claim, but we must try
to save it. Additionally, salvation means redemption of the whole of man
(of the soul and the body). We do not aim, therefore, at the destruction of
the body, but we fight the worship of it. Neither do we want the
destruction of life. We do not aspire to reach a point where we do not
desire life so that suffering ceases. We practise the Jesus prayer because
we thirst for life and we want to live with God eternally.

Eighthly: We are not indifferent to the world around us. The various
systems you mentioned before avoid facing people's problems, so that
peace and impassibility can be maintained. We have in mind the
opposite: we pray unceasingly for all. We are suppliants for the whole
world. Moreover, salvation is union with Christ while we are in
communion with other persons. We cannot be saved just by ourselves. A
joy which is only ours, without being joy for other people as well, is not
true joy.

Ninthly: We do not place great importance on psychosomatic techniques

and on the various postures of the body. We consider some of them as
assisting the concentration of the nous on the heart, i.e. which in essence
do away with all of this. I repeat, we do not strive for impassibility, a
negative state, but for the acquisition of divine grace...

– Thank you very much, Gerondas, for these illuminating thoughts. They
have great importance because they come from you, who knows them
from experience. Allow me a question. Is purification and salvation, that
is divinization, attained only through the "Jesus prayer", Lord Jesus
Christ have mercy upon me? Are other prayers not appropriate? Do they
not help?

–Every prayer has enormous power. It is a cry of the soul. Divine help
comes according to one's faith and fervour. There is liturgical prayer,
individual prayer etc. The Jesus prayer, however, has boundless value,
because, as St. Isaak the Syrian says, it is that small key with whose help
we can enter into the mysteries which "no eye has seen, no ear heard,
nor the heart of man conceived". That is, the Jesus prayer can keep the
nous more in check and make it pray without ceasing; the nous, then,
becomes "without colour", "without form", "without shape" and receives
much grace in a very short period. The Jesus prayer calls forth a lot of
grace, even more than psalmody does, because it is closely connected
with humility and the awareness of our sin. This is what the Fathers tell
us.

St. Gregory the Sinaite says, indeed, that psalmody is for practical* ones
and the beginners, whereas the Jesus prayer is for those who have tasted
divine grace for the hesychasts.

– Usually, my son, he went on, confusion comes with psalmody, but also
selfishness and pride enters the heart for one's beautiful voice, for the
impressions that the others express, whereas there are no external factors
for the appearance of pride when the believer says "Lord have mercy on
me", in his cell. For this reason the hesychasts practise more this sort of
prayer which our Fathers taught us and do matins and vespers with the
prayer rope, repeating the Jesus prayer.

– The Jesus prayer is quite limited, very short. How can the nous be
fixed on it?

– The nous concentrates more on short phrases. But the Jesus prayer has
an immense depth which cannot be seen externally. The nous has the
property to increase love and desire for that which it concentrates on. St.
Maximos says: "the nous seeks to expand on the things it is fixed on; it,
then, turns, its love and desire to those things it expands on, either being
divine and noetic or of the flesh and of passions". Moreover, the same
thing happens with knowledge. Something that, at first glance, is simple
can become a subject of length study and research. How much more the
sweetest name of Jesus! You can study it all your life.
–Since the Jesus prayer possesses such power, allow me, Gerondas, to
ask you how it is done. How can one enjoy it? I know that I may annoy
you by being ignorant and... illiterate in these matters, but you can help
me a lot if you tell me this.

– The Jesus prayer is the greatest science, my son. It cannot be described

precisely nor can it be defined for fear of it being misunderstood or not
being fully understood by those who have not had at least a little
experience. It is indeed a great feat. I would even say that it is the
highest form through which we acquire Theology* or rather the vision of
God. Theology is the offspring and emanation of pure prayer, its
wholesome and blessed fruit. The climate in which it develops and can
be experienced is the quietude of the sweet desert in all its dynamic
content as well as purification from passions.

–I have read, Gerondas, some books and articles referring to this work
which is filled with grace, the work of noetic hesychia the unceasing
calling on the name of Jesus. But I would like you, since you have
shown me its significance, to share with me some thoughts about it out
of your personal experience and the knowledge of the Fathers. I do not
want to learn simply because of curiosity but because of my zeal to
experience, as much as I can, this blessed state. Please do not refuse my
wish.

[ BACK ]
2. The Stages of the Jesus prayer
–I referred to something before. Noetic prayer requires mainly
renunciation of the world, submission to a Gerondas, a decision by the
monk to remain in exile and to keep the commandments of Christ for a
long period of time. In the beginning our attention concentrates on the
fulfilling of the commandments of Christ and is occupied in practising
abstinence and obedience. We know from the teaching of our Holy
Fathers that virtues do not unite man with God perfectly, but they create
the appropriate climate so that prayer comes which unites man with
God–the Holy Trinity. Virtues are a prerequisite for the granting of much
grace, yet they also offer grace. When, therefore, the Gerondas, who has
the experience of the Jesus prayer, realises that his disciple's will has
been cut off, and has been cleansed from the gross passions, only then
does he decide to initiate him in the Jesus prayer. Even then, however, he
does not tell him everything but only as much as he can endure and carry
out. He guides him little by little in case he may be led into
disappointment or error.

–What are these stages? Which are the mystical steps which bring us to
perfect union with Christ and to the enjoyment of deifying grace?

–The basic purpose of the Jesus prayer is to unify the whole of man
"who has become fragmented".

–Please, forgive me for the interruption. What does unification of the

whole of man mean?

–Man, according to Scripture, has been created "after the image of God".
(Col. 3. 10) God is Trinity, that is, one essence in three hypostases
(Father, Son and Holy Spirit). Thus the soul, being created in the image
of God, is single as well as manifold. She has three powers: the
appetitive power, the intelligent power and the irascible power. All three
must be united and be directed to God. According to St. Maximos their
development according to nature is for the intelligent power to have the
knowledge of God, for the appetitive power to desire and love only God
and for the irascible power to carry out the will of the Lord. In this way
the commandment is fulfilled: "And you shall love the Lord your God
with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and
with all your strength". (Mk. 12. 30) When the nous remains in God, it
raises the appetitive power to love Him and the irascible power to fight
against the evil spirit and seek for purification. So, union exists because
an impetus towards God exists. Well then! Sin tears up the union of the
three powers of the soul. The nous comes to ignore God, the appetitive
power loves the creatures and not the Creator and the irascible power is
submitted to the tyranny of the passions. Thus, we have the complete
enslavement of the soul. St. Gregory Palamas describes this state very
well.

Firstly, the nous moves away from God and turns to other creations:
"whenever we open a door to the passions, the nous is immediately
scattered, wandering all the time over carnal and worldly things, over the
manifold pleasures and the impassioned thoughts which go with them".

Secondly, the nous, fallen away from God, leads desire astray from God
and His commandments: "when the nous rebels, desire is also scattered
in fornication and foolishness".

Thirdly, the will is submitted to the passions and is tormented and

becomes enraged: "man, who has been destined to be a child of God,
becomes a murderer, becoming comparable not only to the wild beasts,
but also to the reptiles and venomous animals, he becomes a scorpion, a
snake, an offspring of vipers".

Therefore, the three powers of the soul depart from God but at the same
time, they lose their unity with each other. The appetitive power wants to
return to God but the irascible power does not allow it; desire wants the
return but the nous, not believing in God, does not want to love God. We
strive for this unity and attain it finally through the Jesus prayer. The
return to God starts with the concentration of the nous. Our aim is to
detach the nous from its attraction to surrounding objects and bring it
back to itself so that the desire is brought back.

– I think you have presented it to me very vividly, and thus I have

understood it.

–It is the Fathers that present these, not me, my son.

–After my interruption and your explanation, can you please tell me the
stages of the prayer more analytically? Where does one start from and
how does one progress?

–There are primarily five stages. Firstly: The reciting of the Jesus prayer
vocally. We repeat the Jesus prayer with our lips while trying at the same
time to focus our attention on the words of the prayer. Secondly: The
nous takes the Jesus prayer and says it noetically. Our whole attention is
centred again in the words, but is concentrated on the nous. When the
nous gets tired then we start again to vocalize the prayer with the lips.
This method, of course, or the use of the prayer rope is still the
elementary level school of the Jesus prayer. A beginner should start
however, from this stage, and when he reaches the more perfect, the
imperfect one will then fade away. After the nous has rested, we start
again to concentrate our attention there. St. Neilos advises: "Always
remember God and your nous will become heaven". Thirdly: The Jesus
prayer then descends into the heart.* Nous and heart are united. The
attention now is centred in the heart and is immersed again into the
words of the Jesus prayer, and primarily into the name of Jesus which
has an imperceptible depth. Fourthly: The prayer now becomes
automatic. It is done while the ascetic is working, eating, discussing or
while he is in church or even while he is sleeping. "I sleep but by heart
waketh" is said in the Holy Scripture. (Song of Songs 5. 2) Fifthly: Then
one feels a divine soft flame burning within his soul and making it
joyful. The grace of Christ lives in the heart. The Holy Trinity is
established. "We become the dwelling place of God, when He lives
within us, established in the memory. Thus, we become the temple of
God when remembrance of Him is not disturbed by earthly cares, and
the mind is not distracted by unexpected thoughts. Fleeing the latter, the
friend of God withdraws into Him, chasing away the passions which
invite intemperate thoughts, and occupying himself in a way which leads
to virtue". (St. Basil the Great) Thus, he feels the divine presence within
himself, and this grace passes through to his body which becomes dead
to the world and is crucified. And this is the most extreme stage which is
sometimes connected with the vision of the uncreated Light.* This is,
virtually, the course of the development of the Jesus prayer. Each stage
has a corresponding grace.

–Gerondas, allow me a few questions which arose while you were

talking about the stages of the Jesus prayer. What do you mean by the
word heart?

– According to the teaching of the Holy Fathers, the heart is the centre of
the spiritual world. Among the many opinions of the Fathers on this
subject I will mention a distinctive one of St. Epiphanios, Bishop of
Konstantia of Cyprus: "For this reason, we need not in any way define or
ascertain in what part of man the image of God rather is accomplished,
but we need to confess that the image of God does exist in man, so that
we will not despise the grace of God and disbelieve in Him. For
whatever God says is true, although His word has to a certain extent,
escaped our capacity to conceive it". Just as a beam when it falls upon a
prism is refracted and shown from all sides, in the same way does the
soul also express herself through the whole human being. When we say
the Jesus prayer, however, we fix our attention on the physical organ, on
the heart, so that we are distracted away from the outside world and
bring it back again into ourselves, into the "deep heart". In this way the
nous – the eye of the soul– returns to its home and is united there with
the other powers.
– Allow me a second question. Do all who are enchanted by the
enjoyment of God follow the course you have just described to me?

–Yes, most of them do. There are some however who, from the very
beginning, seek to unite the nous with the heart by doing breathing
exercises. They breathe in the words "Lord Jesus Christ" and exhale the
words "have mercy on me". They follow the air as it comes into the nose
all the way to the heart, and there they rest a little.

This, of course, is done to allow the nous to be fixed on the prayer. The
Holy Fathers have also handed over to us another method. We breathe in
saying all the words of the Jesus prayer and we breathe out saying them
again. This method, however, requires maturity in spiritual development.
But using this way of breathing can cause many difficulties, many
problems; that is why it should be avoided, if there is no guidance from a
spiritual father. It can be used, however, simply to fix the nous on the
words of the prayer so that the nous is not distracted. I repeat, this needs
a special blessing (permission) of a discerning father.

–You said before, Gerondas, that the aim of the Jesus prayer is to bring
the nous back into the heart, that is the energy into the essence. We can
experience this specifically at the third stage of this holy pathway. When,
however, you recounted the fifth stage, you referred to a quotation of St.
Basil the Great: "he who loves God having avoided all these, departs
towards God". How does the nous come into the heart and depart
towards God? Is this perhaps a contradiction?

– No it is not, the holy hermit answered. As the Holy and God–bearing

Fathers teach, those who pray are at various stages. There are beginners
as well as the advanced; as they are better called in the teachings of the
Fathers, the practical and the theoretical ones. For the practical ones,
prayer is born of fear of God and a firm hope in Him, whereas to the
theoretical ones, prayer is begotten by a divinely intense longing for God
and by total purification. The characteristic of the first state – that of the
practical ones– is the concentration of the nous within the heart; when
the nous prays to God without distraction. The characteristic of the
second state of prayer –that of the theoretical ones– is the rapture of the
nous by the divine Light, so that it is aware neither of the world nor of
itself. This is the ravishment (ecstasy*) of the nous, and we say that, at
this stage the nous "departs" to God. The God–bearing Fathers who
experienced these blessed states describe the divine ravishment; "it is the
rapture of the nous by the divine and infinite light, so that it is aware
neither of itself nor of any other created thing, but only of Him Who
through love, has activated such radiance in the nous". (St. Maximos)

– Allow me another question. I wasn’t able to understand the quotation

you mentioned before: "I sleep, but my heart waketh". (Song of Songs 5.
2) Please do love for me.* Explain it to me. How is it possible that the
heart continues to pray while man is sleeping?

–This passage is written in the book of the Old Testament which is

called "Song of Songs". It is not difficult to explain. Prophet David says
that man's heart is deep. All the events, all the impressions of the day
and the occupations of the mind go into the depths of the heart, into what
we call nowadays the subconscious. So, whatever man is occupied with
during the day, the heart will be occupied with these same things at
night, when the mind and the human energies rest. And this can be seen
clearly in our dreams.

St. Basil says that "to a great extent, the phantasies of night (dreams) are
an echo (reflection) of our daily thoughts". Evil occupations and
thoughts of the day create evil dreams. The same also happens with good
deeds. The ascetic or the man of God in general, thinks of God all day
long through the Jesus prayer. The remembrance* of God by the
repetition of the Jesus prayer, is his delight. He does everything, whether
he eats or he drinks, for the glory of God according to the word of the
Apostle. It is natural, therefore, that his heart thinks of God and prays
even during the few hours of nightly rest. His heart is ever awake.
 

[ BACK ]
6. The Fruits of the Jesus Prayer
– I will mention to you some of the fruits of the Jesus prayer, since I can
see you are very eager to learn. In the beginning the Jesus prayer is the
bread which sustains the athlete, then it becomes oil which sweetens the
heart and, in the end, it becomes wine which intoxicates man, that is,
which creates ecstasy and union with God. To be more specific. The first
gift which Christ gives to the man of prayer is the awareness of his
sinfulness. He stops believing that he is "good" and considers himself
"the desolating sacrilege... standing in the holy place" (Matt. 24. 15).
Like the saw of a surgeon cutting through bone, the sharp word of the
Spirit penetrates to the depths of the soul. There is so much impurity
within us! Our soul reeks. Sometimes people come in my cell and they
give a bad odor... from their inner filth. Well then, whatever was
unknown before to the athlete, is now revealed to him through the Jesus
prayer. As a result he considers himself below all people and thinks that
Hell is his only eternal habitation and starts crying. He cries for his dead
self. Is it possible for one to cry for the dead of his neighbour and not for
the dead who is in his own house? In this way the athlete of the Jesus
prayer, too, does not see the sins of others, but only his own death. His
eyes become fountains of tears which flow from the affliction of his
heart. He weeps like a condemned person, and at the same time he cries,
"have mercy on me". "Have mercy on me". "Have mercy on me". With
these tears, as we said above, the purification of soul and nous begins.
As water cleanses dirty things, as the falling rain clears the sky of clouds
and the earth from filth, likewise tears cleanse and whiten the soul. The
tears are the water of the second baptism. Thus the Jesus prayer brings
the sweetest fruit of purification.

– Is man completely purified when divine grace visits him?

– He is not purified completely, but is always seeking purity of heart for

purification is a never ending effort. St. John Climacos reports this
saying which he had heard from a monk, who had achieved dispassion.
"The perfect but still unfinished perfection of the perfect". The more one
weeps the more one is purified; the more one sees the deeper layers of
sin the more he feels the need to weep again. St. Symeon the New
Theologian elucidates this point well:

These by frequent prayer, by unutterable words

by the flow of their tears purifying their souls.
As they see their soul purified, they are set on fire with love, the fire of
desire,
to see it perfectly pure.
But as they are powerless to find perfection of light the process is
incomplete.
The more I am purified I, the sinner, am illumined,
the more He appears, the spirit who gives purity.
Each day, it seems I begin again to be made pure, to see.
In a fathomless abyss, in a measureless heaven,
who can find a middle or an end?
As you understand, my father, man is being continuously perfected and
cleansed. The passive aspect of the soul is first cleansed and then the
intelligent power of the soul. The faithful are initially delivered from the
passions of the flesh; then –through harder prayer and more intensive
struggle, from the passions of hatred, anger and rancour. When man
manages to be freed from anger and rancour, it is obvious that the
passive aspect of his soul has almost been purified. Then the entire
warfare is carried out in the intelligent aspect, and the athlete wars
against pride, vainglory and against all vain thoughts. This warfare will
follow him to the end of his life. But all this course of purification takes
place with the help and energy of grace, so that the faithful becomes a
vessel receptive of rich divine grace. Again St. Symeon writes:

For man cannot overcome his passions

unless the light comes to our help.
Even so, it does not happen all at once.
Man by nature cannot receive all of a sudden, the spirit of God.
But much must be achieved, all of which is in his power.
Detachment of soul, despoiling of goods, separation from his own,
giving up his will, renouncing the world,
patience in temptations, prayer, sorrow,
poverty, humility, dispassion.
–And how does one understand that his soul is beginning to be purified?

–This is easy, the wise hermit answered. It becomes perceptible very

soon. Hesychios the Elder uses a nice image. As the poisonous food
which enters the stomach and causes disturbance and pain, comes out
when we take medicine, and the stomach is relieved afterwards and feels
the relief, the same happens with spiritual life. When man accepts evil
thoughts and subsequently, experiences their bitterness and their
heaviness, he "vomits easily and casts the evil thoughts out completely"
through the Jesus prayer, attaining the sense therefore that purification is
taking place. Moreover, the man of prayer becomes aware of
purification, because the internal wounds that the passions cause cease
bleeding. In the Gospel of the Evangelist Luke we read about the woman
who had a flow of blood that: "she... came up behind him, and touched
the fringe of his garment; and immediately her flow of blood
ceased" (Lk. 8. 44). When one approaches Jesus Christ, he is
immediately healed –"the flow of blood ceases": the blood of passions
ceases to flow. I wish to say that images, circumstances, persons who
used to scandalize us cease to now. In other words, when various
persons or things disturb us, it is obvious that we are wounded by the
attacks of the devil. It is within us that the scandal lies. Being purified
through the help of the Jesus prayer, he sees all people and all things as
creatures of God. He considers, especially human persons, as images of
a God Who is full of love. Whoever, therefore, is dressed with the grace
of Christ also sees the others dressed with such grace, even if they are
naked. Whereas he who is destitude of divine grace, sees even those who
are dressed as if they were naked! I would like at this point to read from
the homilies of St. Symeon the New Theologian again.

–He is a Theologian, indeed. I read a few of his works and I was touched
by them!

– I exhort you to read all his works because you will be able, in this way,
to acquire a taste of mystical theology, of the apophatic way of ascetic
experience. Well, the God–seeing father says:

The holy, pious Symeon the Studite

was not ashamed of seeing the body parts of any person
or of seeing naked people, neither was he ashamed of being seen naked;
for Christ was fully within him; the whole of him was Christ
and all of his members and everyone else's members
whether seen separately or all together he would always see as Christ;
and he would remain unmoved, unharmed and dispassioned,
for he was all Christ himself and saw all those
baptised as having put on Christ.
And if you are naked and being flesh, you touch flesh
and you become excited as a donkey or a horse,
how then do you dare calumniate the holy man
and you blaspheme against Christ who has been united with
us and has given dispassion to his holy servants?".
–As you can see, he went on, the dispassionate man, the one purified
through the Jesus prayer, does not fall into temptation, whatever he
might see. At the same time the devil is defeated; this is a fruit of the
Jesus prayer. The athlete of the Jesus prayer recognises the enemy and
his traps and easily casts him out of his soul. He also realises the devil's
preparation for war and takes action just in time. He sees the arrows of
the devil aimed at his soul, and before they even touch it, they are
destroyed. St. Diadochos says that when the arrows reach the surface
part of the heart, they are destroyed there, because the grace of Christ is
within. Furthermore, as we were saying before, the integration of the
complete person is achieved. Mind, desire and will are united and
combined in God.

– Purification and dispassion are great gifts!!! I exclaimed.

–Yes, indeed, dispassion is a gift of grace. Dispassion presupposes

purification and love and even more it covers love. St. Symeon can help
us even at this point. He uses an effective image. On a cloudless night
we see the moon in the sky filled with the most pure light and many
times a shining circle around it. This is how St. Symeon adjusts this
image to the purified and dispassioned man. The bodies of the Saints are
the sky. Their God–bearing heart is like the moon. Holy love is the
"almighty and all–accomplishing light", which fills the heart each day,
according to its degree of purification, and then a time comes when the
heart is full of this bright light and becomes like a full–moon. But this
light does not diminish, as the moon’s light does, because it is preserved
with good works. "It remains always bright through the zeal and the
good works of the Saints". Dispassion is the circle which surrounds the
all–shining heart, covers it, and maintains it invulnerable from the
furious assaults of the devil. "It shields it from every side and guards it
and maintains it invincible from every evil thought and establishes it
unharmed and free from all enemies; not only this but also it makes it
unapproachable by the adversaries".

Although dispassion is absolutely necessary, it is not the final gift of the

Jesus prayer and the acquisition of everything. From then on the ascent
to God starts. The Holy Fathers describe this spiritual ascent to
divinization in three words: Purification, illumination, perfection. I'll
mention to you two examples from the Holy Scripture to make it more
comprehensible: the ascent of Moses on Mount Sinai to obtain the
"Law" and the march of the people of Israel to the promised land. The
first is described by St. Gregory of Nyssa and the second by St.
Maximos.

–The Fathers always inspire me. They interpret the word of God
correctly, that is why I like to hear the interpretations of the Fathers.

–The Hebrews washed their garments first and cleansed themselves

according to the commandment of God: "Go to the people and
consecrate them today and tomorrow, and let them wash their garments
and be ready by the third day". Then on the third day, all the people
heard voices and "a very loud trumpet blast" and saw thunder, lightning,
and a thick cloud upon the mountain. "And Mount Sinai was wrapped in
smoke". The people walked to the foot of the mountain; only Moses
went into the shining cloud and reached the top of the mountain, where
he received the tablets of the Law (Ex. 19. 10–18). St. Gregory of Nyssa
understands that the way to divine knowledge is purity of body and soul.
He who is going to ascend must be, as far as it is possible, pure and
spotless, both in body and soul. He must also, according to the divine
commandment, wash his garments –not so much the material ones,
because they do not become an obstacle for those who want to be
deified– but rather the deeds of this life which enwrap us like a garment.
He must also distance himself from the "irrational beasts", e.g. he must
overcome every knowledge which is obtained through the senses. He
must be cleansed from every aesthetic and irrational action he must
purify his mind and be separated even from his own familiar companion
–his sense– and being prepared in this way, let him dare to approach the
mountain with the thick cloud upon it. Yet, since the mountain is
inaccessible to the people, let only Moses –that is he who has been
called by God ascend– proceed. Therefore, father, as it is seen here,
purification precedes and the ascent to divine vision follows. The greater
gifts, then, are obtained after purification, which is a prerequisite for
their acquisition.
Let me remind you, the God–seeing ascetic continued, of the second
example. St. Maximos the Confessor writes that there are three stages
for the mystical ascent to God: practical philosophy which is both
negative (purification from passions) and positive (acquisition of
virtues); the natural theoria–vision when the purified nous contemplates
all creation (that is the inner essences of created beings) comprehends
the spiritual meaning of the Scriptures, and sees God in nature and prays
to Him. Then the third and last stage follows: the mystical theology,
which unites God with the militant, the faithful one. These three stages
can be seen clearly in the route of the people of Israel. They were first
liberated from the slavery of Egypt, and crossed the Red Sea where
Egyptian power was defeated. Then they came to the wilderness, where
they received the gifts of divine love manifested in various ways (the
manna, the water, the bright cloud, the Law, the victory against
enemies), and they entered the promised land after many years of
struggle. In the same way, the athlete of the "Jesus prayer" is first
delivered from the slavery of passions (practical philosophy), he enters
then the desert of dispassion (natural theoria–vision), where he receives
the gifts of the love of God. And finally, he becomes worthy of the
promised land (mystical theology) after a heroic struggle; he becomes
worthy of perfect union with God and the enjoyment of eternity, which
is experienced in the vision of the uncreated Light. These three stages,
however, are not clearcut, according to the God–bearing Fathers. When
we reach natural theoria–vision and mystical theology, it does not mean
that we give up ascesis and compunction of the heart, i.e. practical
philosophy. Rather the more a person progresses spiritually, the more he
struggles so that he will not lose the mercy that he received. The Fathers
advise us that when we become worthy of divine and lofty visions, we
should then be more diligent in our expression of love and continence,
"so that by keeping undisturbed the passive aspect of the soul, you will
experience the unfailing light of the soul". It is necessary that man
should always proceed on his spiritual path in fear. In the beginning, he
should have the fear of Hell, of punishment (preliminary fear) and then
the fear, lest he loses grace and falls from it (perfect fear). "Work out
your own salvation in fear and trembling", the Apostle Paul says (Phil. 2.
12).

– Tell me now, Gerondas, what are the gifts that the athlete of the "Jesus
prayer" receives after purification and before he enjoys perfect union
with God? Go on describing to me the other fruits of the Jesus prayer.

–The monk who does violence to himself feels divine consolation. He

feels the presence of Christ, which spreads "sweet calmness",
unperturbed peace, profound humility, and insatiable love for all. The
consolation of divine presence cannot be compared with anything
human. I met an ascetic who became seriously ill and went to the
hospital for treatment. The best of doctors were by his side as they
respected him and wanted to comfort him. He recovered, of course,
thanked the doctors and returned to his little cell. After a brief period of
time, however, he experienced a relapse which the brothers did not
realise, because he was isolated. He suffered much, yet he was feeling
such comfort from God, which could not be compared with the sincere
and loving care of the doctors or with the efficacious action of the
medications. The rest he felt was without precedent. That is why some
hermits (this is incomprehensible to those of the world) avoid diligently
human consolation in order to feel the intoxicating sweetness and the
insatiable joy of divine consolation...

–That is a wonderful fruit of noetic prayer, I said. Go on, father.

–Man acquires grace in the sufferings that his fellow–men cause him. He
flies to the azure and glorious sky of spiritual life, where the arrows of
men of the world cannot reach him. Not only is he not afflicted, but
neither does he not notice them. As an aeroplane cannot be brought
down nor hit when stones are thrown at it the same happens with such a
man. There is no grief because of slander, persecution, contempt,
accusation etc., but there is only grief for the fall of a brother. But even
if he grieves for something, he knows the way to cast it out. Such an
example is told in the "Sayings of the Desert Fathers": "An old man who
came to see Abba Achiles found him spitting blood out of his mouth. He
asked him, "What is the matter, Father?" The old man answered, "The
word of a brother grieved me, I struggled not to tell him so and I prayed
God to rid me of this word. So it became like blood in my mouth and I
have spat it out. Now I am in peace, having forgotten the matter"9.

–This means, indeed, perfect love for the brother, which forgives
everything. He does not even want to recall them. We are already
reaching perfection!

–Certainly. And this is achieved through the Jesus prayer. This love is
the result of the experience of the unity of all mankind. And this is a
wonderful fruit of the Jesus prayer. Not only man himself is integrated,
but also the unity of mankind is felt.

You know, father, the hermit continued, that the unity of human nature
was divided immediately after the Fall of Adam. After the creation of
Adam, God created Eve from his side. Eve's creation gave joy to Adam
and he felt her as his own (from his body) and so he said: "This at last is
bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh... " (Gen. 2. 23). After his fall –
when God asked him– Adam said: "The woman whom thou gavest to be
with me, she gave me fruit of the tree and I ate" (Gen. 3 . 12). Before the
Fall, Eve was "bone" from his bones after the Fall she became "the
woman" that God gave him! It is obvious here the division of human
nature after sin, as it can be seen later in the children of Adam, in all the
history of Israel and in all the history of humanity. This is natural. Since
man was estranged from God, he was also estranged from himself and
separated from other people. This constituted complete alienation and
enslavement. The reunion of human nature was attained "in Christ". He
"stretched out his palms and united what was before divided" and so he
gave the power to each one of us, after being united with him, to
experience the unity of human nature.
The ascetic, then, aquires great love for Jesus Christ through the Jesus
prayer, and he is joined with Him through this love. It is natural,
therefore, for him to love whatever God loves and desire whatever He
desires. God "desires all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of
the truth" (1 Tit. 2. 4). This is what the athlete of prayer wants. He is
shaken by the evil that exists in the world and grieves deeply for the loss
and the ignorance of his brothers. Since sin always has ecclesiastical and
cosmic dimensions and affects the entire world, it is natural that he who
prays experiences all the tragedy of humanity and suffers deeply for her.
He lives the agony of the Lord in Gethsemane. He reaches a point,
therefore, where he ceases praying for himself and prays continually for
others, to come to the knowledge of God. His purification from passions,
his acquisition of the life–giving divine grace, and prayer for others –
which is the result of his experiencing the unity of mankind in Jesus
Christ– is the greatest mission. This is how the Fathers saw the
missionary effort: as a striving for the renewal of the human being and a
reintegration of nature. Each person who is purified becomes a valuable
part of society, as we are all members of the blessed body of Christ. We
can see this vividly in the person of the Most Holy Mother of God. She
was "full of grace", and then bestowed grace and adorned all of human
nature. Purified and "full of grace", she prays for the whole world. And
thus we can say that the Most Holy Mother of God performs the greatest
mission of all and benefits all of mankind effectively.

He kept silent for a while and then went on.

–Still the ascetic feels the unity of all nature.

– What do you mean?

–He is acknowledged by all nature. Before the Fall, Adam was the King
of all creation, and all the animals acknowledged him as a King. After
the Fall, however, this link was broken and this acknowledgement
abolished. Nikolaos Kavasilas analyses this condition vividly. Man, he
says, is created in the image of God. In Adam the image of God was the
clear mirror through which the Light of God reflects on nature. As long
as the mirror remained unbroken, all nature was lit up. However, as soon
as it was broken and smashed, deep darkness fell on all creation. All
nature, then, rebelled against man and now does not acknowledge him,
neither does it want to give him its fruits. Thus, man is sustained with
anguish and labour. The animals are also afraid of him and are quite
aggressive. Yet, when man receives the grace of Christ, all the powers of
the soul integrate. He is in the image and likeness of God. He becomes a
mirror, a light which shines forth the divine grace even to irrational
nature. Now the animals acknowledge him, obey him and respect him.
There are many cases recorded where the ascetic–hermit lives in the
company of bears and wild animals. He feeds them, and they in turn
serve him, thus acquiring divine grace through the Jesus prayer, he
becomes, again, King of nature, and evenmore, he ascends to a more
elevated state than Adam's. Ac cording to the Fathers, Adam was in the
image of God but he had to reach to the likeness of God through
obedience. He was in the stage of the illumination of the nous and he
had to attain to theosis. Whereas the ascetic attains to "the likeness of
God" (divinization), as far as it is possible, through divine grace, without
entering, however, into the Divine Essence. He partakes of the uncreated
energies of God. I shall give you an example of this acknowledgement
on the part of nature from this very present interview. When my ever
memorable Gerondas was saying the Jesus prayer, wild birds would
come to the windows of his cell pecking the panes. One would think that
this was the activity of the devil to hinder him from prayer. But, in fact,
the wild birds were attracted by the prayer of the Gerondas!!!

–Gerondas, you have led me through the stages of perfection; to the end
of spiritual life. Man is capable of becoming a King...

He smiled faintly.
–There are even higher stages. After a great struggle, as I mentioned
before, it is possible for the athlete to submit to ecstasy, the divine
rapture, and enter the new Jerusalem, the new promised land. The nous
is seized in rapture, and contemplates the uncreated Light. At vespers of
the divine Transfiguration we sing: "When the chosen apostles beheld
upon the mountain the overwhelming flood of Thy light, "Christ who has
no beginning, and Thy divinity which no man may approach, they were
caught up into a divine trance". Ecstasy and theoria (vision) of God are
connected. When we say ecstasy, we do not mean something static, but
we refer to divine presence and spiritual movement. It is not inactivity
and death but life in God. The Fathers say that when man is enraptured
in the divine Light, during the Jesus prayer, he ceases praying with the
lips. The mouth and tongue remain silent, the heart is silent, too. The
athlete, then, delights in the theoria (vision) of Taborian Light. He
receives the uncreated energy of God. It is the same Light of Mount
Tabor, which the disciples saw; it is the Kingdom of God –eternity.
According to St. Gregory Palamas, the Light is "the beauty of the age to
come", "the substance of future good", "the most perfect vision of God",
"the heavenly food". Those who become worthy of seeing the uncreated
Light are the Prophets of the New Testament. For, as the Prophets of the
Old Testament would surpass time and could see the incarnation of
Christ, the first advent, in the same way those who contemplate the Light
surpass time and see the glory of Christ in the Kingdom of Heaven.

He was silent for a while, took a deep breath and went on.

–The divine Light possesses all of his being. Even his hut shines from
the presence of Christ and he enjoys this "sober drunkenness". He
beholds the invisible God. "God is Light and his vision is Light", says
St. Symeon the New Theologian. The monk sees divine Light at that
moment, and this is "a pleasing and sacred vision", according to "the
defendor of theologians", St. Gregory Palamas. Makarios the
Chrysokephalos also describes this vision: "What is more beautiful than
being in intimate communion with Christ? What is dearer than his divine
glory? Nothing is sweeter than this light, through which every
illuminating order of angels as well as of men is made lucid; nothing is
more loving than this life, wherein we all live and move and have our
being; nothing is sweeter than ever–incarnate beauty; nothing is more
delightful than the everlasting joy; nothing is dearer than eternal
gladness, dignified majesty and boundless Bliss". In other words, delight
and joy are boundless. These states are indeed too great for words. This
is how St. Symeon the New Theologian describes it.

He took one of his books in his hands and started reading.

"I sit on my bed, free of this world

and within of my hut I can see present
before me, Him who is out of the world, I see Him
and talk to Him; and I dare say I love Him and He loves me,
I eat and I am fed well only with the vision;
and being united with Him I go beyond Heaven
and I know that this is true and certain;
and where my body is therefore I do not Know.
I know that He Who is immovable descends
I know that He Who is invisible appears to me
I know that He Who is separated from all creation
receives me within Himself, and hides me in His arms
and then I am thus out of the world
and I, mortal and small in the world,
I can see the creator of the world within myself
and I know that I will not die, because I have eternal life,
and because all of life is poured forth within me".
The Gerondas read the passage with great longing. His voice was
moving. His eyes sparkled. His face was shining with an inexplicable
joy. His trembling voice –his spiritual delight brought tears to my eyes.

–Thus even his face shines, he went on, from the divine presence. He
enters, like Moses, into the divine darkness of unknowing, into the
"radiant darkness", and acquires "enduring knowledge" and "ineffable
theology".

He stopped again for a while. I was waiting almost ecstatic, literally

gasping.

– Even the body feels the sweetness of this Light and during these
moments it undergoes "change".

–What does this mean?

– "That the body participates in the grace which acts 113 on the nous, is
orientated to it and receives awareness of the ineffable mystery of the
soul" (St. Gregory Palamas). Then the body "becomes strangely buoyant
and glowing", that is, it feels an unusual warmth which is the result of
the vision of Light. It is like the candle which when it is lit up, its main
body (the wax) is at once warm and luminous.

–Please, allow me a question. It may be blasphemous but I will ask it

anyway. Is this "change" of the body a reality or imaginary? Is it an
imagined warmth?

–No, my father it is not. This "change" is real. The body participates in

all the states of the soul. The body itself is not bad, but rather the mind
of the flesh, that is, when the body is enslaved to the devil. Besides, the
vision of the Light is a vision of the physical eyes which have been
altered and strengthened by the Holy Spirit and have become capable of
seeing the uncreated Light. There are many examples in the Holy
Scripture which indicate that the grace of God, through the soul,
penetrates to the body as well, which feels the action of the life–giving
divine grace.

–Could you refer to some of these?

–There are many verses in the psalms of David, which show this: "My
heart and flesh sing for joy to the living God" (Ps. 84). "In Him my heart
trusts; so I am helped and my heart exults" (Ps. 27). Also in the 119th
Psalm: "How sweet are thy words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my
mouth"! We have the story of Moses, too. When he came down from Mt.
Sinai with the ten commandments, his face shone. "When Moses came
down from Mount Sinai, with the two tablets of the testimony in his
hand, he did not know that the skin on his face shone because he had
been talking with God. And when Aaron and all the people of Israel saw
Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to come
near him" (Ex. 34. 29–30). This is also seen in the case of archdeacon
Stephen: "And gazing at him, all who sat in the council saw that his face
was like the face of an angel" (Acts 6. 15). St. Gregory Palamas believes
that the sweat of our Lord Jesus Christ, while praying in the garden of
Gethsemane, shows "the fervour felt in His body because of the
intensive prayer to God".

–Forgive me, father, because I've tired you with my blasphemous and
worldly question. We, people of the world, cannot understand... Allow
me, however, one more question. Are there monks nowadays, who see
the uncreated Light and undergo "change" when they pray?

He smiled and said:

–If the Holy Spirit should cease acting in the Church, then "the
beholders of the uncreated Light", will cease to exist. The Holy
Mountain hides great treasures and those who fight against it in any way,
are accusers and enemies of God. In the time of St. Athanasios the Great
some disputed the Deity of Christ. In the time of St. Gregory Palamas
they disputed the deity of the uncreated energies. Nowadays, we fall into
almost the same sin. We dispute the existence of deified people, who see
the divine Light. Today, there are sanctified monks –Gods by grace. The
continuation of life on earth is due to these deified ascetics. They
brighten our world, which is darkened by sin.
–Allow me another, perhaps indiscreet question. Have you seen the
Light, Gerondas?

................

Let the reader of this book allow me not to describe that moving scene
and what was said. I want to guard it in a mantle of silence. I hope I will
be excused.

After a long pause, enveloped in silence, I was impetuous enough to

disturb once more the silence of the ascetic. Yet, I had to. The hours
were few and I had to learn more. I wanted to profit as much as possible
from my visit with the God–seeing Father.

–Father, I apologize again. You've said that, even nowadays, there are
monks on Mt. Athos, who behold the uncreated Light. I believe that one
monk may see it many times. Does it always have the same brightness?

– We can say that there is spiritual light and the light that man sees with
his physical eyes, after they have been transformed and strengthened to
see it. Spiritual light is the commandments, and he who keeps them
receives it. "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path".
The commandments of Christ are "words of eternal life" and not
moralistic external precepts. Virtues, as well, which are conceived in our
effort to carry out the commandments of Christ, are torches. Faith is
light as well as hope and love. God is the true light and "the light of the
world" (John. 8. 12). But the name of God is love. "God is love" (1 John.
4. 7). That is why we say that love is the brightest light of all other
virtues. Repentance, too, is light, which shines in the soul of man and
guides him to the pool of the second baptism, where the eyes are
cleansed from spiritual cataracts. All Christians who fight the good fight
enjoy this light, especially those who pursue purification from the
passions and they enjoy it, of course, according to the degree of their
struggle. St. Gregory the Theologian says that "where there is
purification, there exists illumination; because without the first the
second is not accorded". In other words, we interpret what St. Symeon
the New Theologian is saying that if man does not see the Light in this
life, he will not see it in the next life either.

Sometimes, however, he went on, because of their great purity and

struggle, and even because of the special good–will of God, some people
become worthy of seeing the Light with their physical eyes which have
been transformed by divine grace like the three disciples on Mount
Tabor. Even here a gradation can be observed. When they see it for the
first time, they behold it as a "great Light", which makes everything
inside them joyful. Yet, in fact, it is a dim light. They behold it, as I said,
as a "great Light" in comparison to the darkness they had been used to.
They now experience something which they had not experienced before.
In the second appearance however, the light is stronger, but man has
already adjusted to the vision... Yet, the more he approaches the Divine
Essence, the more he realises the impossibility of beholding the divine
nature, and this is what the Fathers call "radiant darkness".

–There are many things I have not understood.

– I will help you to understand by examining the case of the God–seeing

Moses, as St. Gregory of Nyssa presents it. Moses saw the Light, for the
first time, on Mt. Choreb in the form of a burning bush, when God called
him to guide the people to the promised land. The second time, he is
called by God to enter into divine darkness and meet Him there. First it
was the Light and then the divine darkness. And St. Gregory explains
that man at first sees Light because he used to living in the darkness. As
the time passes, however, the more he approaches the Divine Essence
the more he "beholds invisibly" the divine darkness, "the impossibility
of beholding the divine essence".

I shall read to you the entire passage: "What does it mean that Moses
entered the darkness and then saw God in it? What is now recounted
seems somehow to be contradictory to the first Theophany; for then the
Divine was beheld in light but now He is seen in darkness. Let us not
think that this is at variance with the sequence of things we have
contemplated, spiritually. Scriptures teaches by this, that religious
knowledge comes at first to those who receive it as light. Therefore what
is perceived to be contrary to religion is darkness, and the escape from
darkness comes about when one participates in light. But as the mind
progresses, and through ever greater and more perfect perseverance
comes to apprehend reality as it approaches more nearly to
contemplation, it sees more clearly what part of divine nature is yet to be
contemplated. For leaving behind everything that is observed, not only
the part that sense comprehends but also what the intelligence thinks it
sees, it keeps on penetrating deeper until, by the intelligence's yearning
for understanding it gains access to the invisible and incomprehensible
where it sees God. This is the true knowledge of what it sought; this is
the seeing that consists of not seeing, because that which is sought
transcends all knowledge, being separated on all sides by
incomprehensibility, as by a kind of darkness"10.

This is what usually happens. Man proceeds from the vision of dim
(small) Light to the vision of brighter (greater) Light until he reaches the
"radiant darkness", as St. Gregory describes. But we need to know the
teaching of the Fathers about the beholding of the "radiant divine
darkness" in order to understand, in the Orthodox way, what was
mentioned before. According to the Fathers, God appears always as
Light and never as darkness. But when the nous of the God–seeing
ascetic, while in "vision", wants to enter into the Divine Essence as well
he meets the unpenetrable –the radiant divine darkness. Divine darkness,
therefore, is not the appearance of God as darkness, but the weakness of
man to see the Essence of God, which is "the unapproachable Light".
The divine darkness, therefore, is Light, but Light invisible and
unapproachable for man. God is Light. "I am the Light of the
world" (John. 8. 12), He said, and not the darkness of the world.
According to St. Dionysios the Areopagite, "the divine darkness is the
unapproachable light wherein God dwells, which is invisible because of
its supreme splendour and unapproachable because of the excessive
shedding of the supra–essential light, and within which everybody who
is deemed worthy of knowing and seeing God, is found, without seeing
or knowing it at the same time". In this sense, therefore, we say that
divine darkness is beyond light.

Many times, however, the Fathers talk about entering into the divine
darkness and beholding the radiant divine darkness, as does for example,
St. Gregory of Nyssa. He talks about his brother St. Basil the Great by
saying: "we knew that many times he was within the divine darkness
where God is". The Fathers do not mean the entrance into the Divine
Essence, but the superiority of the uncreated Light to the "light of
natural knowledge;" because, according to Orthodox teaching, men
participate in the uncreated energies of God and not in His Essence. St.
Paul writes: "...the king of kings and Lord of Lords, who alone has
immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no man has ever
seen or can see" (1 Tim. 6. 15–16). And, in order to summarise, I say to
you, my father, that the radiant divine darkness is for man, according to
the Fathers, the unapproachable Light of Divine Essence. Even when
they talk about the value of beholding the radiant divine darkness, they
do not wish to show the superiority of divine darkness to the vision of
the uncreated Light, but they want to show its value in comparison to the
value of the light of natural knowledge –knowledge of the intellect.

–Gerondas, I would like to ask another question. When man beholds the
Light, does he then continue praying?

–No, he does not. We can call it prayer in divine vision. He beholds

Christ and rejoices in His divine presence. Then prayer proceeds without
words. St. Isaac the Syrian says that, if prayer is the seed, then ecstasy is
the reaping of prayer. And as the reapers are surprised when they see that
a small seed yields such a big harvest, in the same way are the God–
seeing ascetics astonished at seeing "the reaping" of the "Jesus prayer".
This ecstasy is the offspring of prayer during which, according to St.
Isaac "the nous is not praying in the usual way but falls in ecstasy
through things incomprehensible; and this is the ignorance which is
superior to knowledge". This is "the silence of hidden mystery" and the
"muteness of the spirit". The Fathers call this state "prayer", because it is
the greatest gift awarded during prayer and is bestowed upon the Saints,
but man does not know its real name. For at that time he ceases praying.
He is elevated above words and concepts. That is why many of the
Fathers call this state "the divine Sabbath" or Sabbath of the nous. As the
Hebrews were given the commandment to rest on the Sabbath, likewise
the spiritual state is the Sabbath of the soul, which rests from all works
and is calm. Sabbaths of Sabbaths signify the spiritual calm of the
deiform soul which has even withdrawn the intellect from the
contemplations of all divine principles in created beings, that through an
ecstasy of love, has clothed it entirely in God alone, and that through
mystical theology, has brought it to rest perfectly in God"11. The only
thing that man does at that moment is to weep. He pours abundant tears,
not because of the awareness of sin, as before, but because of the vision
of the uncreated energy of God. They are tears of delight, gladness,
joyous tears. They are "painless tears", "gratifying tears", "which refresh
and nourish the heart". Yes, they are tears which fill the eyes making
rivers and furrows on the face. He is then, in rapture. "Whether in the
body or out of the body, he does not know" (2 Cor. 12. 2). Soul and body
are flooded with a joy impossible for human language to describe. St.
Gregory Palamas, offering a passage from St. Dionysios Areopagite
says, that when the lover of communion with God frees the soul from
every attachment and unites the nous with unceasing prayer, he rises by
mystical ascension to heaven and surveys all created things from above,
through stillness and silence. "He unites his nous with unceasing prayer
to God. Through this, he is rapt within himself, and finds a new and
mysterious way to rise to the heavens: what one could call the
impenetrable darkness of the original silence. With joy indescribable, he
remains mysteriously enraptured, in spirit, in veritable rest and in
silence, full of sweetness; and he flies over all created things". At this
point, all worldly things become dust and ashes. They become refuse.
Not only does he not feel the disturbance of passions but also he even
forgets about his life, since the love for God is sweeter than life, and the
knowledge of God sweeter than any other knowledge. "O joyful and
sacred vision". "O divine eternity"! O divine "sweet peace"! "O divine
love"!

–Gerondas, could you stop for a while, please? I feel very dizzy and
tired. I cannot follow you in your ascent. I cannot bear it...

He came near, took my hand, and said in an affectionate voice:

– I understand you. But you wanted me to proceed and talk. And thus I
spoke! I understand your distress. We, too, after the vision of Light, feel
exceedingly tired, literally crushed. When divine grace comes, it is as if
it holds a whip and whips our mortal flesh. I confess that many times
after the Divine Liturgy, I feel exhausted and need to rest, only then does
my human strength recover; it is similar to when one steps off of the
grass, it returns little by little from the earth to its former position. If we
would behold divine grace completely, we should have died. The love of
God cares for everything.

We brought our conversation to a halt. Absolute silence reigned

everywhere. Intermittently you could hear a monk hoeing in the garden
reciting at the same time the Jesus prayer. I was breathing deeply. My
heart was pounding as if it would break... A fever came over me. I had
approached the holy of holies of mystical theology –I had approached
"the intangible for the uninitiated". Down on the sea the reflection of the
sun had sunk into the water and the part of the sea that I could see was
golden like. A school of dolphins (a usual phenomenon on Mt. Athos), as
far as I could distinguish from where I was, was playing in the sea. They
would emerge and then again take a plunge into the golden water.
Monks, I thought, these fervent lovers of heaven, are like dolphins. They
live immersed in the water of grace and emerge only for a while to show
us that they exist and again recede into the "vision" of God. St. Symeon
dwelling within the uncreated Taborian Light, blesses the "lovers" of
God:

"Blessed are those who are clothed in light,

for they are wearing the wedding garment.
Their hands and feet shall not be bound,
nor shall they be thrown into everlasting fire.
Blessed are those who have kindled the light
in their hearts, who keep it unquenched,
for as they joyfully depart from this life,
they will meet the bridegroom, torch in hand,
as he leads them into the bridal chamber.
Blessed are those who have approached the divine light,
who have entered it and been absorbed by it,
mingled in its brightness, sin has no more power,
they will weep bitter tears no more.
Blessed is the monk, offering his prayers to God,
who sees Him, and is seen near Him,
who feels himself out of time and space,
for he is in God alone, knowing not
if he is in or out of the body;
he hears inneffable words, not to be spoken;
he sees what no eye has seen or ear heard,
nor has it entered the heart of man.
Blessed is he who has seen the Light of the world
formed in himself, for he has conceived Christ
within himself; he will be counted as his mother,
as Christ, in Whom there is no lie, has said".
I was beside such a burning mountain. I was close to a monk who was
living, already in this life, the heavenly reality. There was calm outside
in nature, and calm came into my soul. God, Paradise are beyond time
but also within time, quite near to us. Beside us, within us, dividing time
and history.
–Let us stop our discussion, father... said. Let us go outside for a while.

–No, no I said. I want to hear more. You said that the Jesus prayer is a
science, a complete university. I want you to make me a scientist tonight.

[ BACK ]
7. Errors in practising the Jesus prayer and
how we cope with them
– You are asking too much. Nobody can become a scientist of the Jesus
prayer unless he struggles personally, unless he himself starts this work.
Whatever the others would say is simply an introduction, to give him a
good spiritual appetite. However, in order to complete my thoughts
about the Jesus prayer, I must, perhaps, say a few things about the
dangers and the errors that may arise along the way.

–Indeed, I said. You said something before, that the monks avoid the
direct descent of the nous into the heart by the use of various means, in
order to avoid dangers. What are these dangers and errors?

– The error starts with the thought that we must acquire grace in a short
period of time. There are many people who are practising the sacred
work of the Jesus prayer and want to enter into the vision of Light in a
short while. And they lose heart and get disappointed because this
cannot happen immediately and to all. The athlete must accept that he
must struggle many years. God does not force our will, because we are
persons and have free will nor should we force God's freedom, because
He is a Person, too. We should let Him come, whenever He thinks,
whenever He wants.

He stopped for a while.

–Another error is to give great significance to psychotechnic methods.

These methods (breathing in and out, beating of the heart) are simply
helpful means so that we can concentrate our nous and free it from
elements alien to its nature. These methods do not have a magical power,
but they are useful to us in avoiding the distraction of the nous. When
the nous is focused and maintained within itself easily, then all auxiliary
means are unnecessary.

–Are there other errors as well?

–There are, indeed. When we move quickly during the course of prayer.
We mentioned a little while ago that there are various stages of
development in the practice of the Jesus prayer and we summed them up
into five. The first stage is to recite the Jesus prayer with the lips. The
second is to keep the remembrance of Jesus in the mind and it will
descend by itself into the heart. Some people, however, skipping the first
stage, start from the second and do not succeed in accomplishing very
much. Others go straight from the first stage to the third and develop it
mainly by breathing. This is dangerous, because, as I said before, the
physical heart may suffer and this can cause the Jesus prayer to cease.
There is no illness of course, but, nevertheless, it is possible that this
sacred work may stop.

On the subject of tears, he went on, there are also certain problems.

– What do you mean?

– We said earlier that when the Jesus prayer stays in the nous the eyes
shed abundant tears. However, this is not always indispensible. Prayer
can go well even if there are no tears. So, we should not get disappointed
in the absence of tears, because they will come when God allows it. And
even if we are flooded by them, we should not pay attention to them,
neither should we describe these states to others. The ascetic experience
says that when we talk about these states, then they cease immediately,
and it takes a long time for them to return. Needless to say, although we
know the stages of noetic prayer, we should avoid thinking about which
stage we are in. We must proceed in humility. Besides, I think I told you
a short while ago, feeling pride in and during prayer is stupidity. It really
is stupidity. Man is like a beggar who asks for a piece of bread and then
he feels proud because he has obtained it. And this is stupidity and a
sin !

– I can see that humility plays an important part here.

–Yes, it does –in all stages. St. Basil the Great says that humility is the
treasury of all virtues. It conceals all virtues and finally it conceals itself.
In general, we must diligently avoid pride in the spiritual life, especially
when it comes as vainglory. And you know, of course, that vainglory
appears in every virtue; when we talk, when we keep silent, when we
fast, when we keep vigil and even when we say the Jesus prayer, in
hesychia and in forbearance. The Fathers say that vainglory is like a
traitor who secretly opens the gates of the city so that the enemy can
enter. In such a case, no matter how strong the city is and how good its
defences are, it is captured by the enemy. The same also happens in the
spiritual life. No matter how many virtues we have and no matter how
much strength we hold on to, vainglory hands us over to the devil. And
the Fathers recommend that one must never undertake a work which will
possibly lead him to vainglory.

–I did not understand this. Can you explain it further?

–Let me come to the subject of prayer. The faithful must not overdo it,
as far as prayer is concerned, because it is certain, then, that he is being
allured by the devil. In such a case, whatever, he might do –even things
beyond his strength– is achieved by the power of the devil. So, dragged
by the devil, he is later abandoned by him at some time, then pushed
backwards, and impelled to fall very low. He is actually destroyed.

–And how can one avoid this most heavy fall?

–The saving path is mourning and obedience. Prayer is very closely

connected with mourning. When the devil sees somebody living in
mourning, he does not remain there but flees, because he is afraid of the
humility which is engendered by mourning. St. Gregory of Sinai tells us
that the best defence for the athlete of prayer is to be in a state of
mourning, so that the joy which comes in prayer may not lead him into
pride, for the bright sadness keeps his soul unharmed. Mourning and the
awareness of our sinfulness are indispensable in the course of pure
prayer. The athlete “should keep his nous in hell and despair not”.
Moreover, the awareness of our sinfulness, of our nothingness, and the
hope in the Merciful Jesus are characteristic of Orthodoxy and of all of
our hymns. It should be stressed, though, that not all can live in deep
mourning because great strength and an earlier taste of divine grace are
needed so that they are not shaken. However, as far as it is possible, we
should all live this blessed mourning. Indiscriminate obedience to a
Gerondas is also necessary. Everything, even the smallest things, should
be done with his blessing and his wise guidance; even in the case of the
uncreated Light.

– What does obedience to a Gerondas have to do with the vision of the

uncreated Light? I asked astonished at what I had heard.

–When man walks alone, without the indispensable blessing, then he is

pursued by the devil, as we said before. He experiences within himself
the dissatisfied desire to see the uncreated Light. He believes that this is
perfection and he wants to reach there quickly.

– Is this not right? I interrupted him.

–No, it is not. St. Diadochos recommends that the ascetic should not
practise his ascetic life with the hope of seeing the uncreated Light, “so
that the devil will not find his soul ready on that account to be carried
off”. One should start the work of the Jesus prayer with love towards
God and obedience to His holy Will. For, it is possible for the devil –
who can disguise himself as an “angel of light” (2 Cor. 11 . 14)– to take
the form of an angel who will serve him. And, then, the poor man thinks
that he has reached the height of perfection, since he lives with angels,
without being aware that he is conversing with devils. It is also a
temptation when the ascetic while praying accepts thoughts from the
demons that he will soon see the uncreated Light. Much care is needed
in this delicate and dangerous situation. He must stop praying and
reprimand himself severely: “How dare you, so wretched and vile, desire
to see the uncreated Light”. The greatest danger is to think oneself
worthy of seeing the uncreated Light! He can even say: “Alas! the
demons, my murderers are coming to destroy my soul!” Then,
immediately, the enemy disappears. Many times the devil, in order to
satisfy the ambition of the monk and captivate him even more, brings
even light into his cell. It is not the uncreated Light, but the created one,
that of the devil.

–And how can it be distinguished?

–There are many ways which help the monk to distinguish the two
lights. The criteria are as follows: Firstly, if he has reached the vision of
the uncreated Light through obedience. The path of perfect and
indiscriminate obedience is the guarantee that the vision of Light is
genuine. The ascetic must confide all matters concerning “vision” to a
discerning, holy and dispassioned Gerondas and ask him about them.
The thought that he should not ask his guide is from the devil who aims
at keeping him in darkness, error and slavery. Secondly, the Lord said
about the false prophets: “you will know them by their fruits” (Matt. 7.
16). The same holds true in this case, too. A clear distinction between the
uncreated and created light is made by their fruits. The uncreated Light
brings into the soul, calm, peace, humility and awareness of our
wretchedness. When Abraham talked to God, he called himself dust and
ashes: “Behold, I have taken upon myself to speak to the Lord, I, who
am but dust and ashes” (Gen. 18. 27). The same happened with Job: “I
had heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees thee;
therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes” (Job 42. 5). And
Prophet Isaiah, when he saw the glory of God, exclaimed: “Woe is me!
For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of
a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of
hosts!” (Is. 6. 5). On the contrary, the vision of the light of the devil
engenders pride, vainglory, the thought that we have acquired perfection.
St. Gregory of Sinai says: “Know, then, that the energies of grace are
obvious and the demon, even if he disguises himself, cannot administer
them; he cannot give meekness, nor forbearance, nor humility nor hatred
for the world, neither can he extinguish pleasures and passions –this is
the work of grace; his activity is pride, haughtiness, cowardice, and
every kind of evil”. Apart from pride, the vision of the light of the devil
creates disturbance. The energy of the Holy Spirit bestows peace,
boldness and calmness to both body and soul, whereas the activity of the
devil gives vent to fear and disturbance. St. Isaac says that every
disturbance is a plague of the devil, because one transmits to others what
he has in his nature. The Holy Spirit is by nature a spirit of peace and it
transmits peace, whereas the devil is by nature a spirit of disturbance and
fear and transmits disturbance and fear. Thirdly, the soul does not accept
the light of the devil immediately, but it is reluctant at the beginning.
The vision of the uncreated Light conveys certainty and acceptance at
once. The uncreated Light comes unexpectedly and you do not doubt
whether it is genuine or not. Fourthly, even in colour there is also a
difference between the two lights. The disciples witnessed on Mount
Tabor, during the Transfiguration of Christ, that “his face shone like the
sun, and his garments became white as light” (Matt. 17. 2). On the
contrary, the colour of the devil's light is reddish, according to the
testimony of many Saints, who realised the difference. Fifthly, there is
also a difference in shape between the two lights. Those who behold the
uncreated Light “see no shape or form or image, but light without any
form” (Symeon the New Theologian). And if it should take any form, it
would look like the disc of the sun. God appears like the “sun or like the
disc of the sun, presenting Himself in the shape of a sphere, radiant, like
a flame”, without any shape and form. The reverse happens with the
vision of the created light of the devil. St. Gregory Palamas gives the
following example. He writes that once Akindinos went to Mt. Athos.
He stayed there for a few days and told St. Gregory that while he was
trying to pray, he saw a light which was split, and a human face could be
seen within it. The Saint asserted that the light was from the devil,
because it had a shape. “And I declared to him that it was a terrible
deceit and mockery and game of the devil, or rather a cunning trap”.

The Fathers suggest, the experienced ascetic went on, that we should not
immediately accept every incident that occurs during our prayer.
“Consider something as good after great testing”. We must ask the
Gerondas about all of these matters and only after an intense and long
struggle, according to the grace we acquire, are we able to distinguish
error from truth. Vinegar and wine are the same in appearance, but they
differ in taste. Similarly as years pass, the athlete of prayer acquires the
ability to discern the difference. The Gerondas was speaking
unremittingly. His head was bent toward the ground. I was listening to
him, literally charmed. I did not want to interrupt his Orthodox thoughts,
which expressed the teachings of the Fathers. Peace and calmness filled
my heart while he was speaking, and that was a sign that his teaching
was true and sound.

– All of these factors I have just mentioned to you are clearly shown in a
conversation that St. Symeon the New Theologian cites. You can see
there that God appears as Light which brings sweetness. The disciple
asks the discerning spiritual father, who has already seen God, and is
assured that what he saw was God.

He took the book and started reading:

“God is light, His vision is light
When He reveals Himself, It is a light.
The beholder marvels knowing not Who hast appeared,
daring not to ask the question “Who art thou?”
Daring not to lift the eyes to see His greatness,
except in fear, in trembling, prostrate before Him,
knowing only that someone has come, someone has appeared.
If there is a person who has already spoken of these things,
a person who has already seen God, to him, it can be said:
“I have seen”.
“What have you seen, child?"
“A light, Father, sweet, so sweet, to say what it was, is beyond me”,
even as he speaks his heart is dancing on fire with love
for Him Whom he saw. He says, weeping-
the light, this light has come to me, father; my cell was engulfed
the world fled away before His face:
only I by myself and the light. Was I in the body, or out: I do not know.
The joy which I had is with me still, unspeakable,
except in tears which flow unceasingly as you see.
He replied “It is He, my child”.
At these words, He came again and gradually,
little by little, purified, encouraged, I could ask
“my God, Thou art here?" “Yes, I am here, “Your God, Who
“became man for you “and now, “you share my divinity,
“I make you god”. When you devote yourself to tears, to contrition,
to prostration, to humility, He brings you little by little
to knowledge of God”.
The novice appeared then, whom I had begun to feel jealous of, because
he had found such a wise and experienced guide and asked his
Gerondas.

– You told me to water one of the trees. I have done it. Shall I water the
other one, now?
– Yes, water it.

And, turning to me, he said:

–This is the obedience which I was speaking of before, and he who

practises it and asks his instructor about everything, makes spiritual
progress. He achieves many things through obedience. Firstly, he does
not let his imagination work out solutions, as many monks do. In this
way, he purifies his mind, not only of the complex but also of the simple
thoughts; and thus he concentrates more on the Jesus prayer. Secondly,
he gets used to asking. Asking one's own spiritual father is salvation.
Where obedience exists, there, too, exists humility, which is the
foundation of obedience. So the spirit of pride, the devil, can not
penetrate and create stressful situations. In general, obedience is
absolutely necessary in the course of this holy work. We must not
proceed without a guide. The Gerondas shows us the way, regulates the
program of our spiritual life, orders us to stop a task and tells us whether
we are proceeding well and in the sight of God. The person of Gerondas
stands for God Himself. He is “in the place of Christ”. The Gerondas is
for the monks whom he has under his care, what the bishop is for his
diocese and the abbot for his holy monastery.

–Does asceticism give such a great importance to the existence of the

Gerondas?

–Yes, indeed, it does. No one can go on without a Gerondas nor can he

live within pure Orthodox tradition. As physical life is imparted from
generation to generation in the same way too is spiritual life imparted.
The Gerondas, being the possessor and bearer of this tradition, imparts it
to his spiritual child and gives birth to him in Christ. The Gerondas
imparts the tradition to him who wants to obtain it. The meaning of
obedience concerning salvation rests on this point. I am obedient, not so
that I will disappear, but in order to mortify my bad self and get rid of
my own will and accept tradition; in order that Christ be formed within
me. I am obedient so that I may be born. Obedience is also necessary
because the danger of error lurks. That is why Abba Dorotheos writes:
“No one is more wretched, no one is more vulnerable than he who walks
the path of God without anyone to guide him”. The same Father,
interpreting the passage from the Proverbs: “where there is no guidance,
a people falls like leaves” (Prov. 11 . 14), says that the leaf is in the
beginning green and fresh but then it fades and falls. It is despised and
stepped upon. The same happens to the man who does not have a
spiritual father. He soon withers and succumbs to his enemy. “In the
beginning he is full of fervour concerning fasting, vigil, practising
hesychia, obedience, and other virtues; then his fervour fades away and,
because he does not have a spiritual father who sustains, increases and
excites this fervour, he withers away and falls and is subject to his
enemies, who do whatever they want to him”.

I will give you an example so that you understand why the existence of a
Gerondas is necessary for us to avoid mistakes. I met a monk who, while
praying, felt a strong pain in his heart. He told it immediately to his
Gerondas. The Gerondas was worried and, being himself experienced,
asked him where in his heart he felt the pain. When the monk answered
that his heart hurt on the outer lower part, he ordered: “You must stop
saying the Jesus prayer immediately; you will not say it for a week, for
you should have felt pain on the upper in side part of the heart. Since the
passions act on the lower part, the devil is surely preparing something
against you”. Thus, the monk was delivered from the deceit of the devil
which had already begun to take action. The Fathers teach from their
experience: “If you see a young man ascending to heaven by his own
will snatch him by the leg and pull him down because it won't be
beneficial to him”.

I considered that disciple blessed because he was humble and his

spiritual father was holy. And I remembered a poem by Theodore the
Studite:
To the Disciple.

“Come young athlete of God, keep close to me, keep full of zeal,
bend low your neck in complete obedience,
humble yourself, dead to your own will,
telling all the thoughts of heart and mind
you are already in the arena,
have no fear of desert, have no fear of the pillar,
nor of any other order in the race that is before us, the race to know God
you are the first according to Holy Scripture; you follow the path of the
first martyrs”.
– Blessed are the monks, athletes of the spiritual life. Blessed are the
birds which sing and enjoy the dewy spring time of God. We cannot live
these ecstasies. We breath the fumes of our impurities. We eat the dust of
the earth, from which we are made.

–Yet, you too can enjoy the beams of divine glory, shedding of divine
light. If you want to become true theologians you must pray because
only then the Most Holy Spirit is pre sent and acts. “If you are a
theologian you pray truly and if you pray truly you are a theologian”. I
will tell you something to help you to understand this. It is possible after
committing a sin (primarily a carnal one) that a person can write
theological treatises and be engaged in the analysis of the works of the
Fathers, but, since he has lost grace by committing the sin, he cannot
pray. Prayer ceases but work does not. Thus, a true theologian is he who
lives in prayer. Therefore, you too can receive, the joyful heart–beat of
divine illumination.

–But how? I would like your invaluable help on this subject. It will be
very practical as well as indispensable.

 
 

[ BACK ]
8. The Jesus Prayer is necessary for Clergy
and Laymen who live in the World
You must realise the necessity of purification from passions. You should
not only want to make others well but you should believe that you, too,
like all of us, are full of passions. Each passion is a hell. You should also
know that, according to what we have said, the Jesus prayer is a remedy
which cures the soul and purifies it. That does not mean that the Jesus
prayer is a panacea but rather it is the means by which man is united
with God, who is the only one Who purifies and illumines the soul. He is
the physician of our soul and body He is “the true light that enlightens
every man who comes into the world” (John. 1 . 9). As eye salve
cleanses the vision and enables already existing objects to be seen,
similarly, each person must will to be purified and transformed and seek,
through prayer, illumination which comes from God.

–Do you believe that we, who work in the world, can do what the monks
do concerning this divine work of prayer?

–Even if you cannot do exactly what they do, still you can achieve many
things. It must be made clear, however, that noetic prayer is one thing
and praying the Jesus prayer another. Noetic prayer, as some hesychasts
practise it, re quires a life without distraction. It requires quietness and
many other things, as we have already described. If you cannot practise
noetic prayer in the world –and this is very difficult– you must pray with
the Jesus prayer at set times or say it whenever you can. It will do you
great good.

–Can you suggest to me some useful and practical ways?

–Apart from church services, you should also designate a certain hour
for the practice of the Jesus prayer, for meditation on the name of Jesus.
You should start the practice of the Jesus prayer gradually and proceed
according to your thirst and the grace you feel. One can start by saying
the prayer for half an hour in the morning before sunrise, and half an
hour in the evening, after the compline, before sleep. It is necessary for
there to be a fixed hour for prayer which should not be changed for any
reason, not even for good works. It is possible, for example, that
somebody may come for confession at that particular time. If he is not ill
or if it is not very urgent you should not postpone the time you have set
aside for the Jesus prayer. The same should happen concerning good
works. A peaceful and quiet room where no noises are heard is also
necessary for one to start the work of the Jesus prayer, in the way we
mentioned before. That is, in the beginning we should warm our heart or
read a book of the Fathers, which creates in us a feeling of compunction,
and then we should say the Jesus prayer either with the lips, the mind or
the heart, according to our spiritual progress. Little by little the time
devoted to the Jesus prayer will increase and it will sweeten our hearts,
and we shall long for it. But, I repeat, in the beginning we need to force
ourselves to say the prayer even for a short time. It will do us great good.

– Is it enough, this short period of time?

– It is not enough but when there is a good disposition and humility, God
fills up what is lacking in prayer. Since God is so sympathetic to our
downfalls, won't He be extremely merciful to us in the struggle for our
transformation? He fills up whatever is lacking. He takes into account
even the special circumstances of each one of us. It may be that one hour
of your prayer will be more blessed than the many hours of a monk,
because you are also busy with other works.

I admired the discretion of this Athonite monk, of this incarnate angel.

He distinguishes all problems with admirable ability and puts everything
in its proper perspective.
–You should know, however, he went on, that the devil will expose you
to many temptations during prayer, as I said previously. Many incidents
will come up to make you stop praying. But you should also know that
God is testing you through these trials to determine if you really want to
practise the Jesus prayer. In such a case, if you persevere, God will come
to your aid and drive away all difficulties.

–But, Gerondas, if, while praying, thoughts come to my mind of

preparing a speech or a sermon; of doing something for the love of my
brother, must I abandon them?

–Yes, you must abandon them. For, even when good thoughts come
during prayer (I refer to the set times of prayer), the devil exploits them
to obstruct us from prayer. If the devil realises that we are ready to give
up the Jesus prayer for such things, he will send us many thoughts of the
same kind even at the restored set time. But in this case, neither do we
pray, nor are we purified nor have our brethren really benefited. For the
preparation of a sermon, which has replaced prayer, is without fruit. It
won't benefit the brethren.

– It happens sometimes that we return to our cell exhausted, after having

spent a lot of our strength, and then we cannot pray our usual rule. What
should we do in these cases?

–We should not give up the Jesus prayer even then. St. Symeon
recommends that serving our brothers should never be the cause for us
to be deprived of the Jesus prayer, because we then lose many things.
We should never find excuses to avoid prayer. “Labour in service
according to your strength; and in your cell, persevere in prayer with
contrition, vigilance and continuous tears; and do not have it in your
mind; I have laboured exceedingly today, let me diminish the time of
prayer because of physical tiredness. For, I tell you that no matter how
much you work beyond your strength in serving others, if you deprive
yourself of prayer, be sure that you have lost something very great”. Half
an hour of the Jesus prayer is worth as much as three hours of deep
sleep. The prolonged Jesus prayer rests and calms us. So, even from this
point of view, it is an invigorating physiological remedy. My dear father,
wrap up all your works in the golden mantle of the Jesus prayer. It is
because they work much with their brain and not with their heart, that
many of the brethren have tribulations and are in anguish in their
spiritual endeavour. They become tired by thinking what to say, whereas
when they live in grace, then the thoughts come, they literally spring
forth like a rushing river. It is because they do not have a good link with
the Jesus prayer that the brethren quarrel among themselves, do not have
peace, are afflicted by unjust attacks and do not rejoice over them,
according to the commandment of Christ. St. Nicodemos the Hagiorite,
being guided by a long tradition of several centuries, suggests that the
Bishop should be elected from the rank of the monks. Having monastic
consciousness, he will not be troubled by persecutions, slander,
accusations or the anger of men, since he himself is the first to recognise
his own sinfulness and to accuse himself. Thus he acquires all the fruits
we mentioned before –mainly love, which flows from much grace, and
freedom from falling into sin, as the Fathers say.

–What do you mean, father, by monastic consciousness?

–I mean obedience, humility, self-condemnation and an insatiable thirst

for the Jesus prayer –obedience to the Gerondas and the spiritual father.
The monk should be humble toward all people and his humility should
be connected with the struggle for purification from passions. We should
not undertake many works, because, unfortunately, we are influenced in
this matter by other heresies. The greatest work is to acquire humility
and holiness. Then we are truly rich. The Church is not a ministry of
social services, but it is the treasury of divine grace. Priests are not social
workers but those who guide the people of God. And this cannot be done
unless they have humility and holiness. Without holiness and humility
the greatest social work is soon obliterated, whereas when we have
humility and holiness of life, even the smallest social work acquires
extraordinary dimensions. Humility should be connected with self
condemnation, too, that is with self–accusation. We should be the first to
accuse ourselves. We should attach the respect that the others show us to
our priesthood and not to ourselves. We should attribute the accusations
of others to our own sinful state and not to our priesthood. We will
experience then peace and much grace from God, and will drive out
every cause which makes us hate our brother. There must also be
insatiable thirst for the Jesus prayer. We should not consider the Jesus
prayer an opportunity, but we should consider it as life itself. We should
move within prayer. Our theology and our preaching should be born
within its holy atmosphere. We should also have our rule and do it every
day. When we live in this way the world is then benefited beyond
measure. Whoever one may be, either priest or bishop, he should always
have one concern: not to lose his monastic consciousness. It is written in
the “Sayings of the Desert Fathers": “It was related of Abba Netras, the
disciple of Abba Sylvanus, that when he dwelt in his cell on Mount
Sinai, he treated himself prudently, with regard to the needs of his body,
but when he became bishop at Pharan, he curbed himself with great
austerities. His disciple said to him, “Abba, when we were in the desert,
you did not practise such asceticism. “The old man said to him, “There
in the desert I had interior peace and poverty and I wished to manage my
body so as not to be ill and not to need what I did not have. But now I
am in the world and among its cares, and even if I am ill here, there will
be someone to look after me and so I do this in order not to destroy the
monk in me"12. Those who have the consciousness of a monk feel the
need to receive a blessing for whatever work they do. They entrust it to
the Bishop and to an experienced spiritual father to check it and correct
it during its course and at its end. They do not want praises for what they
do, because he who is honoured or praised more than he deserves loses
much. Wherever you are, in the street, in the car you should say the
Jesus prayer; “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me” and “Most Holy
Mother of God save me”. We should often attend the Divine Liturgy
with the proper preparation and participate in the undefiled Mysteries.
All creation praises and glorifies God. A priest who does not offer the
Divine Liturgy is in discord in this wonderful praise. It would be good to
chant from time to time the Canon to our Lord Jesus Christ which is
found in the Book of Hours. You should also chant the special prayers
addressed to our Lord Jesus Christ and found at the end of the book:
“The Unseen Warfare”, composed by St. Nicodemos the Hagiorite. He
urges us to evoke often, the most sweet, joy -producing and the cause of
all good, saving name of our Lord Jesus Christ, not only with our lips,
but also with our heart and mind.

You should also pray for others, too, because God has en trusted his own
people to you. Therefore it is your duty to withdraw and pray for peace
and illumination of his people. As great Moses did...

A NIGHT IN THE DESERT OF THE HOLY MOUNTAIN

  o  ·   1     2  ·   3  ·   4  ·   5  ·   6  ·   7  ·   8  
  9  ·   o  

© Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos

1. Descent from my own Tabor
1. Epilogue
2. Glossary
[ BACK ]
Descent from my own Tabor
As soon as the day had well dawned, I sought to obtain the blessing of
father... and descend from the mountain to the sea and also from the
spiritual mountain to the sea of the world. I found him peaceful and
calm, saying the Jesus prayer and working on his handiwork in order to
earn his living, that is a bit of toasted bread and the most necessary of
things.

–Give me your blessing, I said, and I bent to kiss his hand.

–Good bye my father. The Lady Mother of God be with you. May the
Holy Trinity support you. “May the Lord keep your soul and body from
every evil and from every adversity caused by the devil and from every
imagination causing disturbance; may the Lord be your light, your
protection, your way, your strength, the crown of your joy and eternal
help. Be watchful”. Have always as your inseparable companion the
Jesus prayer. And pray for me so that God may have mercy on me.

The prayers of monks are full of life. They come out of sensitive hearts.

–Gerondas thank you for everything. Pray for me, for my friends, my
spiritual children, for my relatives. Pray, pray holy Gerondas. Pray for
the whole world because you are its highest peak, approaching Heaven.
Pray, Gerondas. You are the most precious person of the human race.
Pray. You are an inestimable treasure of Orthodoxy, who is kept as many
others are, in the treasury of the Holy Mountain. Pray, pray for us,
sinners. You are the copper snake which was raised up in the desert and
we, the sinners, who are bitten by the snakes of sin, see you, and we are
cured. You are our Moses, who on the mountain, (you) raise up your
hands in prayer and we defeat the enemy, down in the world. Do not put
your hands down, because the power of the enemy, of the devil will
crush us. Pray Gerondas...
–May God give you His mercy, my father.
–Your blessing.
–May the Lord bless you. I'll be expecting you next year.

I was climbing down from the mountain to the seashore to meet the boat,
like a burning six-winged seraphim, like the fiery and fire-bearing
Prophet Elijah. My mind was not functioning. Reason had ceased. Only
my heart was aflame. It was flittering. And without my hardly realizing
it, I was chanting phrases from the service that the exceptional Athonite
monk, St. Nicodemus, composed for the Athonite Fathers.

“Who is going to speak about your struggle, blessed Fathers;

Who is going to praise worthily the deeds of your asceticism?
Who is going to praise the temperance of your mind?
your unceasing prayer
your sufferings to gain virtue,
the wearing out of the body,
the struggle against passions,
the all–night assemblies for prayer,
the unceasing tears,
the humility of spirit,
the victories against demons,
and all the other gifts?
O multitude of holy men
sanctified and desired by God.
O honeycombs chosen by God,
who made wax cells,
full of the sweetest honey
of quietness in the holes and caves of the earth
in the Holy Mountain.
Delight of the Holy Trinity!
Delight of the Holy Mother of God!
Pride of Athos,
source of pride for the world.
Pray to the Lord that our souls find mercy”.
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God,
by the intercessions of Thy Saints,
have mercy on me a sinner.
Most Holy Mother of God, save me.

[ BACK ]
GLOSSARY
Ascesis: It is so called man's effort as well as the method he uses to pass
through the three stages of the spiritual life: purification of heart,
illumination of the nous and theosis. Since this is achieved through the
commandments of Christ, ascesis is man's struggle to keep the
commandments of Christ. Thus ascesis is connected with the keeping of
the commandments and the healing of man.

Discernment (diakrisis): A spiritual gift through which one discerns the

inner states. It is not a sharpness of mind but the energy of the grace of
God. It is a gift which pertains to the pure nous. It is mainly the ability to
distinguish between uncreated and created things; between the energy of
God and the energy of the devil but also between the energies of God
and the psychophysical energies of man. Thus, one distinguishes
emotional states from spiritual experiences.

Disciple (hypotactikos): In the narrow sense of the word it means the

monk who obeys a Gerondas so that he gets healed and acquires theosis
in the grace of God. In the wide sense of the word “disciple” means
every Christian who receives spiritual guidance by his spiritual father.
Dispassion (apatheia): The soul has three powers aspects, that is: the
intelligent power, the appetitive and the irascible power. The last two
constitute what is called the passible aspect of the soul. Dispassion, then,
is not the mortification of the passible aspect of the soul but its
transfiguration. Generally, when all the powers of the soul turn to God
and are directed to Him we have the state of dispassion.

Ecstasy (ekstasis): It is not the “going–out” of the soul from the body
but it is the detachment of the nous from the reason and the surrounding
world and its return to the heart. It is not a respite of the energies of the
soul and intellect but it is a respite of physical energies like sleeping,
eating etc.

Imagination – Phantasy: The covering of the noetic energy of the soul.

It is an after–the–Fall phaenomenon. It is an energy of the soul which
covers the nous and darkens it. The ascetic endeavour consists in
purifying the nous from the energy of imagination–phantasy.

Gerondas: The priest or monk who has been healed by the grace of God
and helps effectively his spiritual children –disciples– to be healed, that
is to go through the purification of heart, the illumination of nous and to
attain to theosis divinization.

Heart: The spiritual centre of man's being. It is the do main which is

manifested through ascesis in grace and within which God Himself is
manifested. It is also called the centre of the powers–energies of the soul
(intelligent power, appetitive and irascible power).

Hesychia: The peace of the heart, the undisturbed state of the nous, the
liberation of heart from the thoughts (logismoi), from the passions and
the influence of the environment; it is the dwelling in God. Hesychia is
the only way for man to attain to theosis. External quietness is helpful so
that man can reach the noetic hesychia. A hesychast is one who struggles
to achieve the returning of the nous back into the heart, following a
specific method.

Illumination: When all thoughts–logismoi come out of the heart the

nous returns within it and the prayer operates unceasingly. This is called
illumination of the nous. Thus the illumination of the nous is closely
connected with noetic prayer.

Knowledge (gnosis): It is neither the intellectual engagement with God

nor the knowledge of the reason about God but it is the personal
experience of God. The knowledge of God is closely connected with the
theoria (vision) of the uncreated Light. This knowledge is beyond any
other created knowledge. It is achieved through man's theosis. Theosis is
man's communion and union with God. And it is this union which
engenders knowledge of God, which is of a higher order than and above
any other human knowledge.

Mourning (penthos): Deep sorrow of the soul. The mourning according

to God is an energy of the divine grace and is closely linked with
repentance, weeping, tears. It is called gladdening sorrow because it
does not cause any psychological anomaly but it brings inner peace and
man's yearning to adjust his life to the commandments of Christ.

Noetic Prayer: The prayer which is done with the nous. When the nous
is liberated from its enslavement to reason, to the passions and the
surrounding world and returns from its distraction within the heart, then
noetic prayer starts. Thus noetic prayer is done with the nous within the
heart, whereas the prayer of the intellect is done within the reason.

Nous: The word has various uses in Patristic teaching. It indicates either
the soul or the heart or even an energy of the soul. Yet, the nous is
mainly the eye of the soul; the purest part of the soul; the highest
attention. It is also called noetic energy and it is not identified with
reason.
Passion: The last stage of the development of sin. The stages of sin are:
provocation through the thoughts, joining, assent, desire, action and
passion. Passion is a repeated action which dominates man. In ascetic
theology the movement of the powers of the soul contrary to nature is
called passion.

Pleasure: The pleasure that man feels enjoying an object, an idea etc.
There is sensual pleasure and spiritual pleasure corresponding to the
body and soul accordingly. The pleasure which derives from God is
connected with peace whereas the pleasure which derives from sin and
the devil causes disturbance. Also, a pleasure which causes pain and
guilt comes from the devil and is connected with the passions.

Practical Man- Praxis: Praxis is the struggle to purify one's heart and
that is the first stage of spiritual life. Practical man is one who struggles
to purify his heart. In patristic theology the practical man is also called a
breeder because he tries to tame his passions, which are like animals.

Purification (Katharsis): Purification refers mainly to the soul. In

patristic theology the term “katharsis" –purification– is employed to
denote three states. The first one is the rejection of all thoughts
(logismoi) from the heart. The thoughts-logismoi are so called because
they must be in the reason (in Greek: logiki- logismoi). The second state
is the ascetic effort so that the powers of the soul, intelligent, appetitive,
irascible move in accordance with nature and above nature –which
means they must turn towards God– and not contrary to nature. The third
state is the ascetic method by means of which man reaches from selfish
love to unselfish love.

Reason (logiki): The power of the soul through which we perceive the
surrounding world and we develop our relation with it. We aquire
experience of God by means of the nous and we formulate this
experience, when required, by means of reason, in so far as it is
attainable.
Remembrance of Death: It is not just the feeling that the end of our
biological existence will come but the feeling of mortality –the garments
of the flesh that man wore after the Fall. The remembrance of death is
activated by the grace of God and creates desire for repentance.
Remembrance of death is also the experience of the loss of the grace of
God.

Remembrance of God: The incessant remembrance of the name of

God. It is not just calling God to mind but it is a state attained through
the purified nous. It is achieved and expressed by means of noetic
prayer.

Sin: In theological terms sin is the darkening of the nous. When the nous
goes away from the heart and ceases having remembrance of God and is
distracted to creation through the senses, then it commits sin. This
distraction is manifested in actions which are, thus, called sin. Sin starts
with assent and evolves to desire, action and passion.

Slothfulness (acedia): The spiritual paralysis of the powers of the soul.

It is this state during which there is an absolute indifference to prayer
and fasting and, in general, an inertia about the keeping of the
commandments of the gospel. Since man is a psychophysical being,
spiritual slothfulness is reflected in the body too. It is a psychophysical
weakness and slackness. A psychophysical paralysis.

Sorrow: The inner pain of the soul. There is sorrow ac cording to God
and sorrow according to the world. The former creates spiritual
inspiration, that is it moves within an atmosphere of hope in God and
urges man to spiritual struggle. It gives great strength and energy.
Sorrow according to the world leads man to despair and to a
psychophysical paralysis.

Theology - Theologian: Theology is the knowledge of God. It is not a

result of studying books or exercising the reason; it is on the one hand a
fruit of the knowledge of God and of the personal experience of Him; on
the other hand it is the way which leads to the healing of man and the
knowledge of God. A theologian is one who has passed through the
purification of heart to the illumination of the nous and to theosis. Thus,
he has acquired the knowledge of God and speaks about Him in an
authentic way. A theologian can be even called one who accepts the
experience of the saints, not having himself a personal experience of
God. “He whose prayer is pure is a theologian”.

Theoria -Theoretical Man: Theoria is the vision of the glory of God.

Theoria is identified with the vision of the uncreated Light, the uncreated
energy of God, with the union of man with God, with mans theosis.
Thus, theoria, vision and theosis are closely connected. Theoria has
various degrees. There is illumination, vision of God and constant vision
(for hours, days, weeks, even months). Noetic prayer is the first stage of
theoria. Theoretical man is one who is at this stage. In patristic theology
the theoretical man is characterised as the shepherd of the sheep.

Theosis - Divinization: It is the participation in the uncreated grace of

God. Theosis is identified and connected with the theoria (vision) of the
uncreated Light. It is called theosis in grace because it is attained
through the energy of the divine grace. It is a cooperation of God with
man, since God is He Who operates and man is he who cooperates.

Thoughts - Logismoi: The thoughts which are connected with images

as well as with the various stimulations originating from the senses and
the imagination. The thoughts logismoi evolve to sin through the stages
of desire, action and passion. They are called logismoi because they act
in the reason (logiki).

Uncreated Light: It is the energy of God which can be seen as Light

many times. This energy of God is the glory of divinity. It is called
uncreated Light because it is divine and thus, uncreated. It is not the
energy of a created being.
Watchfulness (nepsis): Spiritual alertness, constant attentiveness and
readiness so that the thought won't progress from the reason and enter
into the heart. It is only the nous that must be within the heart and not
the thoughts-logismoi. This spiritual alertness is called nepsis.