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eBook: Hesychasm

The Bedewing Furnace of the Heart

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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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Book: Hesychasm

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AuthorArchimandrite Zacharias Zacharou

LanguageEnglish

FormateBook

PublisherStavropegic Monastery of St John the Baptist

Edition2nd edition

Publication Year2023, Reprinted 2025

ISBN978-1-918281-41-5

Forward
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

Fundamental Principles of Hesychasm
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

The Furnace of the Heart

Hesychasm and Eastern Religions
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

Accounts from the Lives of the Hesychasts (I)
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

Accounts from the Lives of the Hesychasts (II)
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

Accounts from the Lives of the Hesychasts (III)
Struggle with the passions and the tiredness of the body
The twofold perspective of the Gospel
The struggle against thoughts
Fighting the enemy

Accounts from the Lives of the Hesychasts (IV)
The chain of virtues
God-loving thoughts
The changeability of man
The groanings which cannot be uttered

Accounts from the Lives of the Hesychasts (V)
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

Pure Prayer and Mental Stillness in Saints Silouan and Sophrony (I)
Anthropological foundation of hesychia

Pure Prayer and Mental Stillness in Saints Silouan and Sophrony (II)
The four kinds of vigilance according to Saint Hesychios
Mental stillness

Pure Prayer and Mental Stillness in Saints Silouan and Sophrony (III)
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’)

Epilogue – ‘The Word that came forth out of silence’
Index of Scriptural References

Book Sample

Media

Excerpts (5)

Hesychastic prayer is the heart of the Orthodox ascetic tradition. Hesychasm is the ‘innermost body’ of the Body of the Church, the ‘salt of the earth’ and the sustaining power that preserves the world.

The essence of Hesychasm lies in the guarding of the heart from all alien influence, so that man can stand before God in ‘pure prayer’.

In this arduous struggle, the Lord astounds the soul with the unexpected and luminous dawning of His grace in the wondrous place of the deep heart. Then it is that man is built into a temple of Divinity not made by hands, fulfilling his true destiny. By the union of mind and heart, every Christian truly finds himself in the innermost recesses of his soul and, as a God-like mind, as an immortal hypostasis, he invisibly beholds God.

— Hesychasm (The Bedewing Furnace of the Heart) • Forward • Archimandrite Peter

Stillness is a work that requires the extreme tension of all the powers of man. Features of hesychastic life are freedom from cares, vigilance, remembrance of God and unceasing prayer. However, this freedom from cares cultivated in hesychasm presupposes one godly care which urges the ascetic to constantly devise ways of abiding in the presence of God. This care possesses man with power and makes him appear in the eyes of the world as one who has lost his wits. Hesychia begins with fleeing from the tumult of the present world and the agitation of this life. Yet, a more subtle enemy than outward distraction, is the dissipation of the mind and heart caused by passionate attachments, worldly cares and idle, sinful thoughts. In essence, holy stillness is the victory over the causes of inner agitation.

Hesychasm means ‘continually abiding in contact with the energy of God’ through the continual invocation of the saving Name of the Lord Jesus. In other words, the hesychast undertakes the supernatural and supra-cosmic labour of perpetually keeping his mind in his heart, which burns with the ‘consuming fire’ of divine love.

— Hesychasm (The Bedewing Furnace of the Heart) • Fundamental Principles of Hesychasm – Hesychasm, the spiritual work in the heart of man (p. 65)

In essence, the ascetic cannot preserve the lofty spiritual state brought about by hesychastic prayer, unless he strives to imitate Christ-like humility, unless he walks on the verge of despair, unless he keeps his mind in the flames of hell. The slightest thought of pride or vainglory opens the door to the enemy, who enters with raging fury and plunders his heart.

— Hesychasm (The Bedewing Furnace of the Heart) • Fundamental Principles of Hesychasm – Spiritual poverty and mourning (p. 81)

The Church Fathers say, “Give blood and receive the Spirit,” because love springs forth from the blood of martyrdom, whether the external and visible or the inner and hidden martyrdom of the heart.

— Hesychasm (The Bedewing Furnace of the Heart) • The Furnace of the Heart (p. 102)

A divine state is imparted to man when God Himself comes to dwell in his heart. The eyes of his soul open, and he begins to see, feel, think and love like Him Who is distributed and offers Himself unto all to the end. Having come to know the God of love, he also loves his neighbour in a perfect measure through Him. He extends the talent of love to the ‘poor’, in order to make the Lord his Friend. Through love for his neighbour, he is led to a mightier love for the Lord. In this way, a sublime and blessed circumvolution of love begins to be at work, in the image of the angelic life.

— Hesychasm (The Bedewing Furnace of the Heart) • The Furnace of the Heart (p. 116)