The Heart of Philokalic Spirituality: The Jesus Prayer

As we continue our reading of “On Watchfulness and Holiness”, Hesychios emphasizes the importance of prayer to Jesus in the spiritual battle; in particular, the Jesus Prayer.  

“You will not find a greater help than Jesus in all your life, for He alone, as God, knows the deceitful ways of the demons, their subtlety and their guile.”  

The Jesus prayer is at the heart of philokalic spirituality for the simple reason that Jesus must be there.  It is through Him alone that we are redeemed and it through his presence alone that we can overcome the temptations of the demons and be healed of our passions.  And so, Hesychios exhorts us: 

“Let your soul . . . trust in Christ, let it call on Him and never fear; for it fights, not alone, but with the aid of a mighty King, Jesus Christ, Creator of all that is, both bodiless and embodied, visible and invisible.”  

It is with utmost humility and trust that we call upon Christ as both the publican and blind man did in the gospel: “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me.”  And when we do this, we likewise seek to fulfill the biblical command to “pray without ceasing.”  There is much to be said about this important prayer and we will come back to it repeatedly in future posts.  However, Hesychios begins by telling us that the more we pray it, the more we call upon the name of Jesus, the greater our joy becomes and the more pliable our hearts become in order that they might once again be shaped and formed in accord with His will:  

“The more the rain falls on the earth, the softer it makes it; similarly, Christ’s holy name gladdens the earth of our heart the more we call upon it.” 

We find this echoed in the experiences of the Russian peasant in the spiritual classic “The Way of the Pilgrim” as he immersed himself more and more fully in the practice of the Jesus Prayer.  He came to know the transforming joy and power of the name of Jesus and came to understand what it means to have the Kingdom of God within you:

“When I prayed in my heart, everything around me seemed delightful and marvelous.  The trees, the grass, the birds, the air, the light seemed to be telling me that they existed for man’s sake, that they witnessed to the love of God for man, that all things prayed to God and sang his praise. . .The invocation of the Name of Jesus gladdened my way.  Everybody was kind to me.  If anyone harms me I have only to think, ‘How sweet is the Prayer of Jesus!’ and the injury and the anger alike pass away and I forget it all. . . Sometimes there was such a bubbling up in my heart and a lightness, a freedom, a joy so great that I was transformed and felt in ecstasy.  Sometimes I felt a burning love for Jesus Christ and for the whole divine creation.  Sometimes my tears flowed all on their own in thanksgiving to the Lord who had mercy on me, such a hardened sinner.  Sometimes the sweet warmth of my heart spilled over into all my being, and I felt the presence of the Lord with great emotion.  Sometimes, I felt a powerful and deep joy invoking the name of Jesus Christ, and I understood the meaning of his saying, ‘The Kingdom of God is within you’”(from the Way of the Pilgrim).  

There is both power and presence in the name of Jesus, “the name that is above every name.”  According to Anthony Coniaris, “the name of Jesus alone can fulfill the whole need of the one who prays when it is prayed with faith and with a life that is lived in obedience to Christ” (“Philokalia: the Bible of Orthodox Spirituality, 45).  

It is for these reasons that Hesychios states so firmly: 

“Those who lack experience should know that it is only through the unceasing watchfulness of our intellect (nous) and the constant invocation of Jesus Christ, . . that we, coarse and cloddish in mind and body as we are, can overcome our bodiless and invisible enemies . . .” (Philokalia, Vol 1, 169)

Through the constant invocation of Jesus Christ, Christ is present in the heart and so we are both strengthened and changed.  Perhaps nowhere is this captured more beautifully than in the words of St. John Chrysostom where we are told that through the Jesus Prayer we find both victory in our spiritual battle and unity with our God:

“I implore you, brethren, never to break or despise the rule of this prayer: A Christian when he eats, drinks, walks, sits, travels or does any other thing must continually cry: ‘Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me.‘  So that the name of the Lord Jesus descending into the depths of the heart, should subdue the serpent ruling over the inner pastures and bring life and salvation to the soul.  He should always live with the name of the Lord Jesus, so that the heart swallows the Lord and the Lord the heart, and the two become one.  And again: do not estrange your heart from God, but abide in Him, and always guard your heart by remembering our Lord Jesus Christ, until the name of the Lord becomes rooted in the heart and it ceases to think anything else.”

One contemporary writer, Fr Theophanes from Kafsokalyvia, Holy Mount Athos, captures the beauty and power of this constant invocation similarly in his work “The Psychological Basis of Mental Prayer in the Heart.”  Fr. Theophanes tells us that we can think of the Jesus Prayer iconographically:

“We might compare this repetitive play to a verbal icon which renders charismatically present him who is portrayed.  This is the mental representation explained in the language of the theology of icons.  Just as demonic mental representations pollute and disorient the person, so the mental representation of the name of Jesus together with all the mental representations which are introduced by the formula being used make joyous and gladden the heart. This has much to do with the person of Jesus. His name is his icon in the intellect of the person praying the Jesus Prayer. His name warms the soul by making Jesus himself present in the soul of the person praying, in the same way that an icon makes him present in that person’s home.”

Such thoughts make it clear that the Fathers and Hesychios are not simply describing a Christian kind of “mantra” in the Jesus Prayer but a great deal more; for while indeed such a prayer repeatedly places certain representations before the intellect and soul, it does so in the context of the faith and life of a Christian and the one invoked is God from God and Light from Light, true God from true God.  Such an invocation brings about not only the deepest healing but through it we are transformed, as St. Paul says, from glory to glory until the two hearts become one; where the estrangement of sin passes away and only an abiding love remains.

What to do with 50,000 Thoughts Per Day: Hesychios on Watchfulness and Holiness

As noted in my previous post, I have begun rereading the works of the Philokalia, starting with those suggested by the starets who directed the Russian Pilgrim in “The Way of Pilgrim” and more recently by Kallistos Ware.  I have decided to start with Hesychios’ writing on “Watchfulness and Holiness” simply because it captures most directly the recent themes from the Philokalia that I have be considering.  St. Nikodimos praises him for his teaching on watchfulness, inner attentiveness and guarding the heart.  The translators of the Philokalia note that while initially it was thought that the author was Hesychios of Jerusalem who lived in the first half of the fifth century, it is now generally believed that he was Hesychios of Sinai who probably lived in the eighth or ninth century. 

Hesychios emphasizes the pure, comprehensive, and ennobling character of this virtue, while also seeking to teach his readers how to acquire and perfect it.   Watchfulness, as Heschyios defines it is “a spiritual method which, if sedulously practiced over a long period of time, completely frees us with God’s help from impassioned thoughts, impassioned words and evil actions.  It leads, in so far as this is possible, to a sure knowledge of the inapprehensible God, and helps us to penetrate the divine and hidden mysteries.  It enables us to fulfill every divine commandment in the Old and New Testaments and bestows upon us every blessing of the age to come.  It is, in the true sense, purity of heart, a state blessed by Christ when He says: ‘Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God’ . . .”  It . . . “is a way embracing every virtue, every commandment.  It is the heart’s stillness. . . unbroken by any thought.  In this stillness the heart breathes and invokes, endlessly and without ceasing, only Jesus Christ who is the Son of God and Himself God.”  

This inner struggle, while hidden from others, is constant and includes “halting every thought at the entrance of the heart.”  As St. Paul exhorts, we are to take every thought captive.  We are to seek to put on the mind of Christ and have the mind of Christ but this comes only by grace and with great struggle to maintain such continuity in one’s attention.  But the fruit of this conscientious practice is inner stability and this inner stability “produces a natural intensification of watchfulness; and this intensification gradually and in due measure gives contemplative insight into spiritual warfare.”  

These are simply the rudimentary elements of watchfulness and Hesychios has much more to say about its practice, in particular the place and importance of the Jesus Prayer (“Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner”).  However, what struck me the most in the initial pages of Hesychios‘ treatise was his comment that the blessed state and fruit of the practice of watchfulness, purity of heart, is rare.  He, of course, was speaking of its rarity among monks, but one, I fear, could perhaps speak of its near non-existence today among Christians.  

The importance of what Hesychios speaks of in these pages of the Philokalia not only escapes many in our generation but the whole idea of controlling one’s thoughts, of scrutinizing one’s ideas is often dismissed in gross caricature as neurotic - a form of repression or simply a manifestation of scrupulosity.  There are such things of course, yet in our day indiscriminate freedom of thoughts and ideas, regardless of their content, meaning or their moral value, is the norm embraced personally and socially.  The truth of the power of our thoughts and their formative influence often evades us.  One Christian blogger, by all standards very thoughtful and virtuous, with humorous honesty captures this while describing the purpose of his blog as follows: “so that no thought of mine, no matter how stupid, should ever go unpublished again!”  Likewise, when asked why he posted some particular thought online, one man responded with similar honesty and good humor: “Just a random neuron firing.”  

Yet, the author of the book of Proverbs tells us, “As a man thinks in his heart, so he is,” and our Lord similarly reminds us, “Out of the heart the mouth speaks” and warns us, “But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”  Thoughts, ideas, images (however they might come to mind) are not to be made light of or believed to be inconsequential.  We must not fail to recognize where, in the spiritual life, the battle is fought.  Anthony Coniaris in his book “Confronting and Controlling Thoughts” stated that “research at the University of Minnesota has revealed that the average human being has about 4000 distinct thoughts in a sixteen hour day.”  More recent studies may modify this number (I have seen estimates from anywhere between 12,000 and 50,000) but “this means that over a life span of seventy years a person has a total of about one hundred million thoughts” (36).  We are thinking beings, but the Fathers remind us that perhaps the majority of these thoughts (often habitual) are negative due to our fallen state and that the mind is a battlefield.  “All battles are lost or won first in the internal dialogue of the mind.  As John Milton wrote: “The mind is its own place and in itself can make a heaven of hell, and hell out of heaven.”  

There is a great deal more to be said about this, for what is being discussed is not simply the power of positive thinking - a psychological method for successful living or for overcoming negative core thoughts and beliefs that lead to destructive behavior or to depression and anxiety.  As we will see through the writings of Hesychios and others it is something that is only done with and through God and by His grace and involves an intense, concentrated and unremitting ascetic struggle to the end of one’s life. . . .  Its goal is not self-mastery but the knowledge and apprehension of God that comes only through purity of heart.

Reading the Philokalia: "Where do we begin?"

In reading about the Philokalia, I have come across a number of wonderful resources.  Among these have been a few articles by Kallistos Ware about the history of the development of the Philokalia.  The most recent article that I have read is entitled “St. Nikodimos and the Philokalia”, one of a series of papers presented at a conference at Cambridge in 2003 and compiled in a book called “Mount Athos, the Sacred Bridge: The Spirituality of the Holy Mountain.”  The aim of the conference was to draw attention to the historic importance, the spirituality, and the religious legacy of the Holy Mountain.  Much of the article is a very thoughtful exploration of the eighteenth century hesychast renaissance that produced the Philokalia and the key figures responsible for this compilation of the writings of the Fathers and those who influenced them.  Ware’s analysis of the overlap between Velichokovsky’s translation program and the contents of the Greek Philokalia is fascinating and alone makes the article worth reading.  Although I have already touched upon some of this history in previous posts, it would definitely be worthwhile to return to the subject in the future.  Beyond this, in the article Ware addresses issues of readership, the scope and content of the Philokalia and the ultimate goal in reading it.  

However, what I found most interesting for the moment was Ware’s response to the question: “In what order should the different treatises in the Philokalia be read?  Where should we begin?”   It is to this question I would like to turn before going back to a discussion of various themes found in the writings as a whole.  Ware states that it is probably not the best plan, so far as the Philokalia is concerned, to read the writings in chronological order from beginning to end.  Rather, he suggests the following sequence “which corresponds in part, although not entirely, to the reading list supplied in a dream to the Russian Pilgrim by his dead starets, and to a similar list given by Fr. Nikon to the English translators of the Philokalia.”  This list includes: (1) Kallistos and Ignatios Xanthopoulos, ‘Century’ (Philokalia 4, 197-295; ET Writings from the Philokalia on Prayer of the Heart, 164-270), (2) Hesychios, ‘On Watchfulness and Holiness’ (Philokalia 1, 141-73; ET 1, 162-98); (3) Evagrios, ‘On Prayer’ (Philokalia 1, 176-89; ET 1, 55-71); (4) ‘A Discourse on Abba Philimon’ (Philokalia 2, 241-52; ET 2, 344-57); (5) St. Symeon the New Theologian, ‘On Faith’ (Philokalia 5, 73-80; ET 4, 16-24); (6) Gregory of Sinai, ‘On the Signs of Grace and Delusion’; ‘On Stillness’; ‘On Prayer’ (Philokalia 4, 66-88; ET 4, 257-86).  Ware notes that Kadloubovsky and Palmer in their translation “Writings of the Philokalia on Prayer of the Heart, open with the same four authors as on the Pilgrim’s list in the same order and add texts from Gregory of Sinai and Symeon the New Theologian.  

Ware does not get into specifics about why this particular grouping may be significant but simply holds it forward as a starting point given the unique nature of the work and its central themes.  He does, however, offer us the following insights: “‘Not a book but a library’: so Kaisarios Daponte described the Philokalia.  It is, however, a library with a specific character and an all-embracing unity.  Although it has much to say about love for our fellow humans and practical compassion, its theme is not social and political action.  Equally its primary subject is not outward asceticism or liturgical prayer.  Its concern is rather with the ‘inner Kingdom’ of the heart, and it shows how this ‘inner Kingdom’ is to be explored through the acquisition of ‘nepsis’ and ‘hesychia’, and through the ceaseless invocation of the Holy Name of Jesus.  It sets before us, as our ultimate raison d’etre, the attainment of self-transcending ‘theosis’, through a union of love whereby we participate in God’s uncreated energies, although not in his essence.  In this way it proclaims both the otherness and the nearness of the eternal; God is beyond and above the entire creation, the greatest mystery of all mysteries, yet he is at the same time everywhere present and fills all things.  Although the Philokalia is neither exhaustive nor systematic, none the less these unifying master themes justify us in speaking of a distinctively ‘philokalic’ spirituality.  The work is indeed exactly what St. Nikodimos of the Holy Mountain claimed it to be: ‘a mystical school of noetic prayer’ (119). 

In the past, I have read the four volumes of the Philokalia and the “Writings from the Philokalia on Prayer of the Heart” as they became available to me and from beginning to end.  Before moving ahead in my own study, I plan to reread the texts in the order suggested above - - keeping Ware’s insights and the historical realities he unpacks in mind and trusting the guidance given to the Russian Pilgrim.  Perhaps in doing so and with the aid of the Holy Spirit, a clearer understanding of the viewpoint of the late eighteenth century will emerge and the desire of St. Nikodimos, St. Makarios and others to revive the neptic-hesychastic spiritual tradition will be enlivened in my own heart.