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eBook: Hesychasm
The Bedewing Furnace of the Heart
$22.00
Hesychasm is the quintessence of the unbroken tradition ‘in the Holy Spirit’ of the Orthodox Church. It means the presentation of man before God, with his mind in his heart, invoking the all-holy Name of the Lord Jesus. It constitutes the means by which fallen man regains the primordial breath and glory of the eternal Spirit that he received in Paradise when he was created in the image and likeness of God. Therefore, the supra-cosmic purpose of hesychastic asceticism is to heal and unify man’s fragmented existence and to make him fit for the fulfilment of the two great commandments of perfect love for God and love for one’s neighbour as for oneself. Hesychasm is particularly relevant and necessary in our time because it is the only way to avoid the ‘sin which doth so easily beset us’ (Heb. 12:1) and to abide in the life-giving and sanctifying Presence of God.
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CONTENTS
Be Ye Still and Know
Born Again through Unceasing Invocation of the Name Jesus
Continuing in the Invocation of the Name of the Lord Jesus
Hesychasm, the spiritual work in the heart of man
Two kinds of wisdom. The distinction between Essence and Energy
The creation of man and his calling
Fall and division
The circular movement of the mind
The descent of the mind into the heart
The energy of the divine Name
Spiritual poverty and mourning
Purpose and fruits of hesychia
The true work of the true man
Cosmogony
Prayer to the personal God
Clairvoyance and the spiritual guide
The peace of Christ
Different kinds of light
Humility
On Delusion
ACCOUNTS FROM THE LIVES OF THE HESYCHASTS
Hesychasm, the spiritual work in the heart of man
Two kinds of wisdom. The distinction between Essence and Energy
The creation of man and his calling
Fall and division
The circular movement of the mind
The descent of the mind into the heart
The energy of the divine Name
Spiritual poverty and mourning
Purpose and fruits of hesychia
The true work of the true man
Seeking for the word of salvation
Ascetic instructions
Despondency and Hesychia
Vigilance, the antidote of despondency
Christ, the measure of all things
The unerring life of repentance
Temptations and afflictions
Struggle with the passions and the tiredness of the body
The twofold perspective of the Gospel
The struggle against thoughts
Fighting the enemy
The chain of virtues
God-loving thoughts
The changeability of man
The groanings which cannot be uttered
Striving for purity of mind and heart
Renouncing one’s own will
Spiritual mourning
Non-acquisition
‘Righteous judgment’
Man – the house of the living God
Practical philosophy – natural contemplation – mystical theology
Discipleship
PURE PRAYER AND MENTAL STILLNESS IN SAINTS SILOUAN AND SOPHRONY
Anthropological foundation of hesychia
The four kinds of vigilance according to Saint Hesychios
Mental stillness
Practice (praxis) and contemplation (theoria) in the lives of the saints
From sacred stillness to the love of God
The essence of hesychastic prayer and the relative value of its methods
Compunction, the power of the heart in combat against the enemy
The Great Science (‘The Noble Lore’)
Index of Scriptural References
What Readers Say
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The work of holy stillness is dynamic and so enthralling that when the mind is enthroned in the heart, it is captivated and longs for nothing to tear it away. It descends into the deep recesses of the heart and rises to the infinite heights of the divine Will. Purified in its furnace, the mind becomes fit for the contemplation of the judgments of God. Like the apostles after Pentecost, man now lives as if he were ‘full of sweet new wine’, given over to the sober drunkenness of divine love.
Through the hesychastic method, the ascetic keeps watch over his senses which are the entrances of his soul, so that the enemy cannot enter and tempt him as he tempted the first-created, pillaging Paradise in his heart. Instead of the Cherubim, it is now the mind of man that guards the place of the heart, having as an invincible ‘flaming sword’ the Name of the Almighty Jesus. And if God is well-pleased to make man’s body ‘a place for the manifestation of His glory’, what greater honour can mortal man render to the Great King than to fix his mind in his heart, the place that is the footstool of His feet?
Being free from the agitation and vanity of this world, hesychastic life anticipates the supra-cosmic victory of Christ Who has come and is coming again. More specifically, by his struggle to rid himself of earthly cares and to surrender to the memory of God, invoking His Name with ardent love, the hesychast becomes a sharer in the victory of Him Who encouraged His people with the words: ‘In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.’
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About the Author
Archimandrite Zacharias Zacharou
Father Zacharias studied theology at the Orthodox Theological Institute of Saint Sergius in Paris and at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. He has translated all the writings of Saint Silouan and Father Sophrony from the original Russian into Greek and he presents their rich theology to the Orthodox world by writing books and articles and taking part in conferences. Moreover, he serves as a spiritual Father and minister of the word of God to his brethren and the people that come to him. Read more…
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