Prayer of heart: sacrament of the presence of God
The deepest sadness and the greatest joy in Christian life are caused by an innate longing for God, a passionate quest for intimate and eternal communion with the Person of the Holy Trinity. Such longing bring sadness, because in this life it goes largely unfulfilled. Yet rather than lead to frustration, it can produce an ineffable joy, nourished by the certitude that ultimately nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus, that our desire for union with Him will ultimately be answered beyond our most fervent hopes. This profoundly spiritual longing is often called “bright sadness” or “joyful sorrow” (charmolupe). In Christian mystical experience, it is the impulse that leads, through ascetic struggle and purification, to theosis or “deification”.
Prayer uttered out of the deepest longing for God, however, demands silence. Silence, at least in our times, seems to be the most difficult of virtues to acquire. We fear it, and we run from it in a relentless search for noise and distraction. At the work place, or [at doctor’s office, in the car, while walking in the park or at the beach, in the elevator, at the restaurant], or shopping for groceries, we expect to be “entertained” by music – any music, so long as it focuses our attention outside ourselves and away from the inner being. Silence, [for the contemporary Christian] means a void, a dreadful emptiness that demands to be filled. With what we choose to fill that void most often produces not only noise but agitation through over-stimulation. Sensory overload is addictive. It becomes an escape from the present, from the self, from God. Like any addiction, it is pathological and life-threatening. From the news media to contemporary works of art, American culture is marked by an insatiable hunger for stimuli that divert our attention from “the place of the heart”, the place of inner silence and solitude. To some degree, however, this has always been the case. When Adam was cast forth from Garden, he lost more than life in Paradise. He lost the gift of silence, and with it he lost “the language of the world to come”.
In human experience prayer offers the way to recover that language, for authentic prayer transcends human language and issues in the silence of God. It is this intuition, confirmed by ecclesial experience that led ancient spiritual guides to develop what is called “hesychast” prayer. The term hesychia signifies inner calm, stillness, silence. It describes not so much a method as an attitude, a disposition of mind and heart that facilitates remembrance of God and concentration upon him to whom prayer is directed.
Such prayer (the “hesychast” prayer), however, must never be treated as a technique, a Christianized mantra, whose use enables one to attain a particular spiritual end. Prayer, as Saint Paul insists, can never be manipulated, since in its essence it is not a human undertaking at all. “We do not know how to pray as we should”, he declares, “but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groaning too deep for words” (Romans 8:26). Yet, like every aspect of spiritual life, it demands synergeia, or cooperation on our part. To attain theoria, the contemplative vision of God, one must proceed by the way of praxis, active struggle toward purification and acquisition of virtue through obedience to the divine commandments.
Prayer, then, is not merely a gift; it is work. It demands patience, persistence and ascetic discipline. It also demands the constant vigilance known as nepsis, or “watchfulness”. The Hebrew sage admonished, “watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it flow the spring of life”. “Watch”, Jesus commanded His disciples at the close of His apocalyptic warnings. “What I say to you, I say to all: watch!” (Mark 13:33-37). Such watchfulness raises a bulwark against demonic images (phantasiai) or thoughts (logismoi), enabling the mind and heart to concentrate on “the one thing needful” (cf. Luke 10:42).
Prayer, then, requires our cooperation with the Spirit of God through “a watchful mind, pure heart and a sober heart” (from the "Evening Prayer to Chris"t of the Byzantine Compline Service). With this conviction, the fathers turned to Holy Scripture in order to discern various levels of prayer that can be attained in the spiritual life. A key passage is 1 Timothy 2:1, “first of all, I urge that petitions, prayers, intercessions and thanksgivings be made on behalf of all”. To the patristic mind these represent four stages, or orders of prayers, from the most elementary to the most sublime.
- The Apostle first names “petition” or “supplications” (deêseis). These include confession of sins, together with requests for spiritual cleansing and wholeness. Their thrust is basically negative, seeking liberation from all that impedes progress toward perfection.
- Second, he speaks of “prayers” (proseuchas), meaning positive requests for the gifts and the fruits of the [Holy] Spirit, for virtue and the attainment if righteousness.
- The third order or level consists of “intercessions” (enteuxeis). At this stage, one turns from one’s own spiritual concerns to focus on the needs of others through intercession; this is in essence a prayer of mediation that seeks another’s salvation.
- Finally, one reaches the level of “thanksgiving” (eucharistias), in which the heart rises toward God in joyous adoration, offered in response to his saving grace.
Yet as the fathers insist, the four stages exist simultaneously in the spiritual life. Thanksgiving must be complemented by ongoing repentance and petition for the forgiveness of sin, just as intercession on behalf of others go hand-in-hand with prayers for one’s self.
Beyond those four levels or orders of prayer, however, there is another ultimate form or degree which is known as kathara proseuchê, ”pure prayer”, that issues from the ineffable experience of union with God, in peace, love and joy. As unitive prayer, it is both the goal and the fulfilment of hesychia.
A key element of hesychasm is frequent repetition: continual prayer as a means to uninterrupted and ever deeper communion with God. The psalmist declared: “I keep the Lord always before me; because He is at my right hand, I shall not be moved” (Psalm 15:8). The Apostle Paul exhorts his followers to “pray without ceasing” (adialeiptôs proseuchesthe 1 Thessalonians 5:17), urging them to persevere seeking constancy in prayer (têi proseuchêi proskarterountes Romans 12:12). Saint Paul expresses the same idea in his letter to Colossians, when he writes, “be constant in prayer” (cf. Colossians 4:2).
Prayer of the heart focuses upon the divine Name because that Name itself is a personal theophany, a manifestation of God in Trinity. By invoking the Name of Jesus, with faith and love, the worshiper ascends Mount Sinai in the grace and power of the Holy Spirit, to stand in awe before the divine Presence. Byzantine theologians developed this image of ascent, the passage of the soul through divine darkness to the uncreated light, on the basis of the primal experience of God as personal.
fragments taken from: "Scripture in Tradition" by John Breck
Prayer uttered out of the deepest longing for God, however, demands silence. Silence, at least in our times, seems to be the most difficult of virtues to acquire. We fear it, and we run from it in a relentless search for noise and distraction. At the work place, or [at doctor’s office, in the car, while walking in the park or at the beach, in the elevator, at the restaurant], or shopping for groceries, we expect to be “entertained” by music – any music, so long as it focuses our attention outside ourselves and away from the inner being. Silence, [for the contemporary Christian] means a void, a dreadful emptiness that demands to be filled. With what we choose to fill that void most often produces not only noise but agitation through over-stimulation. Sensory overload is addictive. It becomes an escape from the present, from the self, from God. Like any addiction, it is pathological and life-threatening. From the news media to contemporary works of art, American culture is marked by an insatiable hunger for stimuli that divert our attention from “the place of the heart”, the place of inner silence and solitude. To some degree, however, this has always been the case. When Adam was cast forth from Garden, he lost more than life in Paradise. He lost the gift of silence, and with it he lost “the language of the world to come”.
In human experience prayer offers the way to recover that language, for authentic prayer transcends human language and issues in the silence of God. It is this intuition, confirmed by ecclesial experience that led ancient spiritual guides to develop what is called “hesychast” prayer. The term hesychia signifies inner calm, stillness, silence. It describes not so much a method as an attitude, a disposition of mind and heart that facilitates remembrance of God and concentration upon him to whom prayer is directed.
Such prayer (the “hesychast” prayer), however, must never be treated as a technique, a Christianized mantra, whose use enables one to attain a particular spiritual end. Prayer, as Saint Paul insists, can never be manipulated, since in its essence it is not a human undertaking at all. “We do not know how to pray as we should”, he declares, “but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groaning too deep for words” (Romans 8:26). Yet, like every aspect of spiritual life, it demands synergeia, or cooperation on our part. To attain theoria, the contemplative vision of God, one must proceed by the way of praxis, active struggle toward purification and acquisition of virtue through obedience to the divine commandments.
Prayer, then, is not merely a gift; it is work. It demands patience, persistence and ascetic discipline. It also demands the constant vigilance known as nepsis, or “watchfulness”. The Hebrew sage admonished, “watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it flow the spring of life”. “Watch”, Jesus commanded His disciples at the close of His apocalyptic warnings. “What I say to you, I say to all: watch!” (Mark 13:33-37). Such watchfulness raises a bulwark against demonic images (phantasiai) or thoughts (logismoi), enabling the mind and heart to concentrate on “the one thing needful” (cf. Luke 10:42).
Prayer, then, requires our cooperation with the Spirit of God through “a watchful mind, pure heart and a sober heart” (from the "Evening Prayer to Chris"t of the Byzantine Compline Service). With this conviction, the fathers turned to Holy Scripture in order to discern various levels of prayer that can be attained in the spiritual life. A key passage is 1 Timothy 2:1, “first of all, I urge that petitions, prayers, intercessions and thanksgivings be made on behalf of all”. To the patristic mind these represent four stages, or orders of prayers, from the most elementary to the most sublime.
- The Apostle first names “petition” or “supplications” (deêseis). These include confession of sins, together with requests for spiritual cleansing and wholeness. Their thrust is basically negative, seeking liberation from all that impedes progress toward perfection.
- Second, he speaks of “prayers” (proseuchas), meaning positive requests for the gifts and the fruits of the [Holy] Spirit, for virtue and the attainment if righteousness.
- The third order or level consists of “intercessions” (enteuxeis). At this stage, one turns from one’s own spiritual concerns to focus on the needs of others through intercession; this is in essence a prayer of mediation that seeks another’s salvation.
- Finally, one reaches the level of “thanksgiving” (eucharistias), in which the heart rises toward God in joyous adoration, offered in response to his saving grace.
Yet as the fathers insist, the four stages exist simultaneously in the spiritual life. Thanksgiving must be complemented by ongoing repentance and petition for the forgiveness of sin, just as intercession on behalf of others go hand-in-hand with prayers for one’s self.
Beyond those four levels or orders of prayer, however, there is another ultimate form or degree which is known as kathara proseuchê, ”pure prayer”, that issues from the ineffable experience of union with God, in peace, love and joy. As unitive prayer, it is both the goal and the fulfilment of hesychia.
A key element of hesychasm is frequent repetition: continual prayer as a means to uninterrupted and ever deeper communion with God. The psalmist declared: “I keep the Lord always before me; because He is at my right hand, I shall not be moved” (Psalm 15:8). The Apostle Paul exhorts his followers to “pray without ceasing” (adialeiptôs proseuchesthe 1 Thessalonians 5:17), urging them to persevere seeking constancy in prayer (têi proseuchêi proskarterountes Romans 12:12). Saint Paul expresses the same idea in his letter to Colossians, when he writes, “be constant in prayer” (cf. Colossians 4:2).
Prayer of the heart focuses upon the divine Name because that Name itself is a personal theophany, a manifestation of God in Trinity. By invoking the Name of Jesus, with faith and love, the worshiper ascends Mount Sinai in the grace and power of the Holy Spirit, to stand in awe before the divine Presence. Byzantine theologians developed this image of ascent, the passage of the soul through divine darkness to the uncreated light, on the basis of the primal experience of God as personal.
fragments taken from: "Scripture in Tradition" by John Breck
posted by the supporting staff @ 9:15 PM
0 Comments
