   |
Handout #142 |
|
The Jesus Prayer |
| Nicephorus the
Solitary (second half of the thirteenth century), who came from Calabria,
was a monk at Constantinople and then on Mount Athos. He composed a
treatise On Keeping the Heart. He put forward a method of prayer
which involved psychological and physiological techniques.
First of all let your life be tranquil, free from all care, and at peace with all. Then enter your room, shut yourself in, and, sitting in a corner, say what I shall tell you: 'You know that we only exhale our breath, the air that we inhale, because of our heart ... Sit down, recollect your spirit, introduce it - I mean your spirit- into your nostrils; that is the route your breath takes to reach the heart. Push it, force it to descend to your heart at the same time as the air is breathed in. When it is there, you will see the joy that follows; you will have nothing to regret. just as the man who returns home after an absence can no longer contain his joy at being able to see his wife and children again, so the spirit when it is united to the soul overflows with joy and ineffable delight. So, my brother, accustom your spirit not to be hasty to emerge. While your spirit is there, you must neither be silent nor remain idle. But do not have any occupation or meditation other than the cry, 'Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me!' No truce, not at any price. This practice, by keeping your spirit protected from wandering, makes it impregnable and beyond the reach of suggestions from the enemy, each day it raises it in the love and the desire of God. Little Philokalia of the Prayer of the Heart. The Philokalia ('love of beauty) is a collection of Eastern spiritual texts published in the eighteenth century. |