Hesychasm

This comes from the Greek hesychia, meaning “stillness” or “quiet.” This is the theological backbone of the Eastern Orthodox Church. It focuses on the pursuit of theosis – divine union with God. At its core, Hesychasm is a tradition of prayer that seeks to find God through inner silence & the cessation of all thoughts.

The “engine” of Hesychasm is the Jesus Prayer: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me.” (We think that even if you aren’t religious/spiritual, we’ve all prayed this prayer before!) Unlike Western meditation, which often involves visualizing scenes from the Bible, Hesychasm is apophatic (negative).

The goal is to strip away images, concepts, & intellectual chatter to reach a state of “pure prayer.” Practitioners (known as Hesychasts) aim to move the prayer from the lips to the mind, & finally, into the heart.

In the 14th century, certain techniques were popularized to help the mind. These include:

• Breath Control:
  • Syncing the prayer with the rhythm of breathing.
• Posture:
  • Sitting for long periods with the chin resting on the chest, eyes fixed on the “place of the heart.”
• The Goal:
  • To achieve a state where the prayer becomes “unceasing,” continuing even while the monk sleeps or works.

The history of Hesychasm is defined by a massive 14th century intellectual “cage match.” On one side, Gregory Palamas, a monk from Mount Athos. On the other side, Barlaam of Calabria, a Western-influenced scholar who thought the monks were essentially deluding themselves with “belly-button gazing.”

Barlaam argued that God is absolutely transcendent & unknowable. Therefore, any claim to “see” God was impossible or heretical. Palamas countered with a distinction that saved Eastern mysticism: The Essence vs The Energies.

The Divine Essence:

God’s inner nature, which remains forever hidden & inaccessible to any created being.

The Divine Energies:

God’s “activities” or “operations” (like Love, Grace, & Light) that permeate the world & can be directly experienced by humans.

Palamas argued that when the Apostles saw Jesus glowing on Mount Tabor (the Transfiguration), they weren’t seeing a metaphor. They were seeing the Uncreated Light of God’s Energies. Hesychasts claim through intense prayer, they too can see this Taboric Light.

Palamas wasn’t just a “cloud-dweller.” He was a brilliant aristocrat who gave a promising career at the Byzantine imperial county to become a monk. When Barlaam attacked the monks’ practices as “superstitious,” Palamas wrote the Triads in Defense of the Holy Hesychasts. He bridged the gap between the experiential “feeling” of the monks & the rigorous theology of the Church.

Palamas was even imprisoned for a time during a civil war. But he was eventually vindicated.

In 1351, his theology was officially adopted by the Orthodox Church. To this day, the Second Sunday of Great Lent is dedicated to him. He’s the reason Eastern Orthodoxy views God not as a distant object of study. But as a personal presence to be participated in.

For centuries, Hesychasm was mainly confined to monasteries like Mount Athos. In 1782, a massive anthology called the Philokalia (“Love of the Beautiful”) was published. It collected the writings of the desert fathers & Hesychast masters from the 4th to the 15th centuries.

This book sparked a massive revival. In Russia, it was translated into Slavic (The Dobrotolyubie), fueling the “Elder” (Starets) tradition seen in Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov. In the 19th century, a tiny book called The Way of a Pilgrim (about a wandering Russian peasant practicing the “Jesus Prayer”) became an international sensation introducing the “Jesus Prayer” to millions of non-Orthodox Christians.

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St. Theophan the Recluse

He is also known as Theophanes the Recluse or the Enlightener Theophan the Recluse of Vysha. He was a Russian Orthodox bishop & theologian. He was born January 10, 1815 & passed away on January 6, 1894. He was 78 years old when he passed away. He was canonized as a saint in 1988. He was born as Georgy Vasilievich Govorov. He became a monk in 1841, taking the name Theophan.

He’s best known by the books & letters he wrote concerning spiritual life & the training of youth in the faith. He also played an important role in translating the Philokalia from Church Slavonic into Russian. The Philokalia is a classic of Orthodox spiritually, composed of the collected works of a number of Church Fathers. This was edited & placed in a 4 volume set in the 17th & 18th centuries.

In his works, a persistent theme was developing an interior life of continuous prayer & learning to “pray without ceasing.” This is what St. Paul teaches in his 1st letter to the Thessalonians.

Theophan was canonized by the Local Council of the Russian Orthodox Church of 1988. His canonization was declared because of his “deep theological understanding of the Christian theology…” His feast day is celebrated on January 6th or 10th.

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#17thCentury #1841 #18thCentury #1988 #Bishop #Canonized #ChurchFathers #ChurchSlavonic #EnlightenerTheophanTheRecluseOfVysha #GeorgyVasilievichGovorov #January10 #January6 #LocalCouncilOfTheRussianOrthodoxChurch #monk #Philokalia #Russian #RussianOrthodox #Saint #StPaul #StTheophanTheRecluse #Theologian #Thessalonians

There are three things that impel us towards what is holy: natural instincts, angelic powers and probity of intention. Natural instincts impel us when, for example, we do to others what we would wish them to do to us (cf. Luke 6:31), or when we see someone suffering deprivation or in need and naturally feel compassion. Angelic powers impel us when, being ourselves impelled to something worthwhile, we find we are providentially helped and guided. We are impelled by probity of intention when, discriminating between good and evil, we choose the good.

St. Maximos the Confessor
Second Century on Love no. 32, #Philokalia Vol. 2 edited by Palmer, Sherrard and Ware; Faber and Faber pg. 71, 7th century #Christianity #Catholicism #ChristianOrthodoxy #OrthodoxChristianity #StMaximosTheConfessor #BibleStudy

"He who in any way compares himself with his fellow ascetics or with the brethren who live with him is unaware that he deceives himself and treads a path alien to God. Either he does not know himself or he has deviated from the path that leads heavenwards. But by following this path in modesty of mind, those more spiritually advanced surmount the devil's ploys and, winged by dispassion and adorned with humility, they attain the heights of spiritual illumination."

Nikitas Stithatos, "On the Practice of the Virtues" #83. The Philokalia, vol. 4, page101.

#Philokalia #SpiritualPath