[1] eg, R3 p80 St Gregory of Sinai: “Remembrance of God, or mental prayer, is higher than all other works; as the love of God, it stands at the head of all virtues.”

[2] Jn 15:5-7 “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered… If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.”

[3] R9 p 81: “And all things, whatever you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.” (Mt 21:22)

[4] R3 p28 St John Climacus: “A hesychast is the one that says: “I sleep, but my heart is awake; it is the voice of my beloved!” (SoS 5:2)

[5] R3 p213 St Isaac the Syrian: “ When a man attains constant prayer, it will mean that he has reached the summit of all virtues, and has become the abode of the Holy Spirit; for a man who has not wholly received the grace of the Comforter cannot keep this prayer in his heart with joy. Therefore, it is said that when the Holy spirit comes to live in a man, he never ceases to pray, for then the Holy Spirit Himself constantly prays in him (Rom 8: 26 “For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.”) Then prayer never stops in a man’s soul, whether he is asleep or awake. In eating or drinking, sleeping or doing something, even in deep sleep his heart sends forth without effort the incense and sighs of prayer. Then prayer never leaves him, but at every hour, even if externally silent, it continues secretly to act within. This is why someone has called the silence of the pure bearers of Christ – prayer; for their thoughts are Divine movements, and the movements of mind and heart which are pure are meek voices by which they secretly sing praises to the One Who is in secret.”

[6] R3 p227 St Isaac the Syrian: “A man who keeps hourly watch over his soul has his heart gladdened by revelations. A man who concentrates the vision of his mind within himself, sees there the dawn of the Spirit. A man who abhors all dispersion of the mind, sees his Lord in his own heart.”

[7] R3 p257 St Diadochus of Photice: “One love is the love natural to the soul; the other is the love which is poured into it by the Holy Spirit. The first is moved by our desire and is in proportion to it; so it is easily despoiled by evil spirits when we do not constrain our will to abide in it. But the second so inflames the soul with love of God, that all parts of the soul cleave to the ineffable delight of this Divine love with utter simplicity of purpose. For then the mind made pregnant by the action of spiritual grace, sends forth a rich torrent of love and joy.”

[8] R3 p257 St Isaac the Syrian, when asked what constitutes the coming to maturity of the many fruits of the Spirit: “When man attains perfect love.” When he was asked how to know if anyone attained it: “When memory of God comes to life in his mind, man’s heart is immediately set aflame by love of God and his eyes shed copious tears. For remembrance of loved ones is wont to bring tears and so tears never cease to flow in such a man, for that which moves him to remember God never stops working in him. Therefore, even in sleep he converses with God, since it is natural for love to produce this effect and love is the perfection of men in this life.”

[9] R3 p257 St Isaac the Syrian: “Love incited by something external is like a small lamp whose flame is fed with oil, or like a stream fed by rains where flow stops when the rains cease. But love whose object is God, is like a fountain gushing forth from the earth. Its flow never ceases, for He Himself is the source of this love and also its food which never grows scarce.”

[10] eg, As quoted in R22 p13, St Hesychius of Jerusalem wrote: “Truly blessed is the man whose mind and heart are as closely attached to the Jesus Prayer and to the ceaseless invocation of His name as air to the body or flame to the wax. The sun rising over the earth creates the daylight; and the venerable and holy name of the Lord Jesus, shining continually in the mind, gives birth to countless intellections radiant as the sun.” (On Watchfulness and Prayer, 196, as found in the Philokalia, Vol I, p 197.)

[11] R3 p280 St Hesychius of Jerusalem: “Attention is unceasing silence of the heart, free from all thoughts. At all times, constantly and without ceasing, it breathes Christ Jesus, the Son of God and God, and Him alone, it calls upon Him, and with Him bravely fights against the enemies, and makes confession to Him Who has power to forgive sins. Such a soul, through continual calling on Christ, embraces Him Who alone searches the heart; and it seeks to hide its sweetness and its inner attainment from all men in every way, lest the evil one should have an easy entrance for his wickedness and destroy its excellent working.”

[12] R3, p30 St John of Karpathos: “Much labor and effort is needed in prayer in order to attain to an untroubled state of thoughts – that other heaven of the heart, where, according to the Apostle, Christ dwells: “Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Prove yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you? Unless indeed you are disqualified.” (2 Cor 13:5)”

[13] R5 p91 St Basil the Great: “He who has been set in motion by the Spirit has become an eternal movement, a holy creature. For when the Spirit has come to dwell in him, a man receives the dignity of a prophet, of an apostle, of an angel of God, whereas hitherto he was only earth and dust.”

[14] R14 p280 St John Climacus: “Some emerge from prayer as from a blazing furnace and as though having been relieved of all material defilements. Others come forth as if they were resplendent with light and clothed in a garment of joy and of humility.”

[15] R3 p229 St Isaac the Syrian: “Intense doing gives birth to measureless heat intensified in the heart by flaming thoughts, which arise anew in the mind. And this doing and guarding refine the mind by their heat and endow it with vision. This heat produced by the grace of contemplation gives birth to the flow of tears. Constant tears still the thoughts in the soul and purify the mind, and with a pure mind a man comes to the vision of the Divine mysteries. After this the mind attains vision of revelations and symbols such as the prophet Ezekiel saw.”

[16] R3 p230 Sts Callistus and Ignatius: “This warmth in us may have different and varied origins and natures… Of these, the most genuine warmth is that which comes from pure Prayer of the Heart, with which it is always born, grows and in essential enlightenment comes to rest on its Sabbath, that is, according to the Fathers, it makes a man essentially filled with enlightenment.”

[17] R3 p230 Sts Callistus and Ignatius: “The direct effect of this warmth is to drive away everything which prevents perfect practice of pure prayer. For our God is fire, a fire which burns the evil wiles of the demons and of our passions.”

[18] R3 p230 St Elias Ekdimos: “When the soul becomes free from everything external and is united with prayer, then prayer like a flame envelops it, as fire envelops iron and makes it all fiery. Then the soul, though still the same soul, like red hot iron, can no longer be touched by anything external.”

[19] R3 p229 St John Climacus: “When (spiritual) fire comes into the heart, it resurrects prayer; after its resurrection and ascension on high, Divine fire descends to the chamber of the soul.”

[20] R19 p248 St Macarius of Egypt: “There is indeed a burning of the Spirit, which burns hearts into flame. The immaterial divine fire (to aulon kai qeion pur) has the effect of enlightening souls and trying them, like unalloyed gold in the furnace, but of consuming iniquity, like thorns or stubble; “For our God is a consuming fire.” (Heb 12:29)”

[21] R13 p60 St John Climacus: “When the fire descends into the heart, it revives prayer. And when prayer has risen and ascended to heaven, then the descent of the fire takes place into the cenacle of the soul.”

[22] R13 p61 St John Climacus: “The holy and heavenly fire scorches some on account of their defective purity; but others it enlightens as having attained perfection. The same fire is called a consuming fire and an illuminating light. For this reason some leave their prayer as if it were a hotly heated bathhouse, feeling a certain relief from defilement and earthliness; while others go out shining with light and arrayed in a double garment of joy and humility. But those who after prayer feel neither of these two effects are still praying bodily, and not spiritually.”

[23] R3 p227 St Isaac the Syrian: “He who wishes to see the Lord within himself must use every effort to purify his heart by constant remembrance of God; in a mind thus illumined, he will see the Lord at all hours.”

[24] R3, p38 St Gregory of Sinai: “It is ordained that man must put before all things the universal commandment – to remember God – of which it is said: “And you shall remember the Lord your God, for it is He who gives you power to get wealth, that He may establish His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day.” For, by the reverse of that which destroys us, we may be secure. What destroys us is forgetfulness of God, which shrouds the commandments in darkness and despoils us of all good.”

[25] R3 p211 Sts Callistus and Ignatius: “When through the benevolence and grace of our Lord Jesus Christ this (pray purely and without distraction) comes to pass in us, then, abandoning the many and the varied, we shall unite with the One, the Single and the Unifying, directly in a union which transcends reason, as the glorious Theologian says: “When God unites with gods (that is, God-like men) and is known by them, then the heart is filled with radiance by the penetration of the Holy Spirit.” It is born from the pure and undistracted Prayer of the Heart, such as we have spoken of.”

[26] R13 p58 St John Climacus: “God is the teacher of prayer; true prayer is the gift of God.”

[27] R9 p205: “There also exists, through the grace of God, Prayer of the Heart only, and this is spiritual prayer, which the Holy Spirit moves in the heart: the man who prays is conscious of it, but does not do it; it acts by itself. This prayer belongs to the perfect. The form of prayer accessible to all and demanded of all is the form where mind and feeling are always combined with the words of prayer.”

[28] R25 p209 Lossky: “According to St Symeon the New Theologian, such ecstasies and ravishment are appropriate only to beginners and novices – whose nature has not yet gained experience of the uncreated. St Symeon compares ecstasy to the condition of a man born in a dark prison feebly lit by a single lamp, who can thus have no conception of the light of the sun or of the beauty of the outside world, who suddenly catches a glimpse of a landscape bathed in sunlight through a crack in the wall of his prison. Such a man would be carried away, and would be “in ecstasy”; little by little, however, his senses would become accustomed to the light of the sun, and adapted to the new experience. In the same way, the soul which progresses in the spiritual life no longer knows ecstasies: instead, it has constant experience of the divine reality in which it lives.”

[29] R3 p239 St John Climacus: “The beginning of prayer is to banish oncoming thoughts as soon as they appear. Its middle stage is to keep the mind contained in the words we say or think. The perfection of prayer is ravishment to the Lord.”

[30] R19 p249 St Symeon the New Theologian: “ Blessed are those who incessantly have the eye of the intellect open and see the light in every prayer and talk with Him face to face. Blessed is that monk who stands in prayer in front of God, who sees Him and is seen by Him, and who feels himself as being out of the world.”

[31] R3 p238 St John Climacus: “Men, whose mind has truly learned to pray, indeed converse with the Lord face to face, as those who have the ear of the king (that is his most close and trusted servants.)”

[32] R8 p108: “When spiritual joy comes to the body from the mind, it suffers no diminution by this communion with the body, but rather transfigures the body, spiritualizing it. For then, rejecting all evil desires of the flesh, it no longer weighs down the soul that rises up with it, the whole man becoming spirit, as it is written: “He who is born of the Spirit is spirit.”

[33] R3 p81 St Gregory of Sinai: “If you are truly practicing silence hoping to be with God, and you see something… even the image of Christ or an angel or some saint, … in no way accept it… a beginner should pay attention to the action of the heart, which is not led astray, and refuse to accept anything else until his passions are pacified.”

[34] R20 p1 St Seraphim of Sarov: “Acquire inner peace and thousands around you will find their salvation.”

[35] R11 p110: “St Isaac the Syrian says that it is better to acquire purity of heart than to convert whole nations of heathen from error. Not the he despises the work of the apostolate; he means merely that unless and until we have gained some measure of inner silence, it is improbable that we will succeed in converting anybody to anything.”

[36] R14 p276 St John Climacus: “The beginning of prayer is the expulsion of distractions from the very start by a single thought (monologistos, a repeated short prayer); the middle stage is the concentration on what is being said or thought; its conclusion is rapture in the Lord.”

[37] R21 p55 St John of Kronstadt: “When you are praying alone and your spirit is dejected, and you are wearied and oppressed by your loneliness, remember then, as always, that God the Holy Trinity looks upon you with eyes brighter than the sun; and so do all the angels, including your own guardian, and all the saints of God. Truly they do; for they are all one in God, and where God is there are they also. Where the sun is, thither also are all its rays. Try to understand what this means. Bear in mind with whom you are conversing. Men often forget with whom they are conversing during prayer, and who are the witnesses of their prayer.”

[38] As quoted in Volume 1 of “The Inner Kingdom”, R11 p83.

[39] cf footnote 127

[40] R5 p52 St Gregory Palamas: “When the soul pursues this blessed activity, it deifies the body also; which, being no longer driven by corporeal and material passions – although, those who lack experience of this think that it is always so driven – returns to itself and rejects all contact with evil things. Indeed, it inspires its own sanctification and inalienable divinization, as the miracle-working relics of the saints clearly demonstrate.”

[41] R20 p9 Bishop Kallistos Ware: “When the Philokalia uses the phrase “Prayer of the Heart” it does not mean affective prayer in the Western sense, prayer of the feelings and emotions. It means prayer of the total person, prayer in which the body participates as well as the soul and spirit. After all “the body is the messenger of the soul” As St Maximus the Confessor says, and we ought to use our physicality in the work of prayer.”

[42] R20 p 30 St Isaac the Syrian: “Many are avidly seeking but they alone find who remain in continual silence… Every man who delights in a multitude of words, even though he says admirable things, is empty within. If you love truth, be a lover of silence. Silence like the sunlight will illuminate you in God and will deliver you from the phantoms of ignorance. Silence will unite you to God Himself… More than all things love silence: it brings you a fruit that tongue cannot describe. In the beginning we have to force ourselves to be silent. But then there is born something that draws us to silence. May God give you an experience of this “something” that is born of silence. If only you practice this, untold light will dawn on you in consequence… after a while a certain sweetness is born in the heart of this exercise and the body is drawn almost by force to remain in silence.”

[43] R3 p47 St Gregory of Sinai: “There are two forms of ecstasy in the spirit: one, of the heart (going deep into the heart, in forgetfulness of all things), the other, enravishment (being carried beyond all limits of all that is.) The first belongs to those who are still learning, the second to those who have attained to perfection in love. Both alike place the mind in which they act outside of senses (or the consciousness of outer relationships); for Divine love is an intoxicating forcing of thoughts by the Spirit towards the most excellent, which deprives a man of the sense (or the consciousness) of outer relationships.”

[44] R3 p222 Sts Callistus and Ignatius: “Prayer practiced within the heart, with attention and sobriety, with no other thought or imagining, by repeating the words “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God,” silently and immaterially, leads the mind to our Lord Jesus Christ Himself. By the words “have mercy upon me,” it turns it back and moves it towards him who prays, since he cannot as yet not pray about himself. But when he gains the experience of perfect love, he stretches out wholly towards our Lord Jesus Christ alone, having received actual proof of the second part (that is, of mercy.) Therefore, as someone has said, a man calls only: “Lord Jesus Christ!” his heart overflowing with love.”

[45] R8 p116: “God is essentially apart from other beings by His uncreated nature. The proper condition of these beings is the created state, and when they transcend their own domain by communication with God, they participate in uncreated life: deification.”

[46] R5 p 57 St Gregory Palamas: “This hypostatic light, seen spiritually by the saints, they know by experience to exist, as they tell us, and to exist not symbolically only, as do manifestations produced by fortuitous events; but it is an illumination immaterial and divine, a grace invisibly seen and ignorantly known. What it is they do not pretend to know.”

[47] R5 p64 St Gregory Palamas: “Since the Reality which transcends every intellectual power is impossible to understand, it is beyond all beings; such union with God is thus beyond all knowledge, even if it called “knowledge” metaphorically, nor is it intelligible, even if it is called so”

[48] R8 p116: Referring to the supernatural power to see God, given us by the presence of the Spirit, St Gregory wrote: “Since this power has no other means of acting, having gone beyond all other beings, it becomes wholly light in itself and like that which it sees; it is united without admixture, being light (itself), and seeing light through light. If it looks at itself, it sees light; if it looks at the object of its vision, it again sees light, and if it looks at the means by which it sees, again it sees light. That is what union means; all is so one, that he who sees can make no distinction either of the means or the end or the object; he is conscious only of being light and seeing light distinct from all that is created.” What he means in using these words is that, in Christ, we are given the power to “become Spirit” (cf Jn 3:6 “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.”) Even more, by participating in God’s uncreated grace, we become gods. As St Paul says: (Gal 2:20) “It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me”.

[49] R4 p 414 St Philotheus Kokkinos: “The mental prayer is the light which illumines man’s soul and inflames his heart with the fire of love of God. It is the chain linking God with man and man with God… It allows a man constantly to converse with God.”

[50] R4 p 414 St Philotheus Kokkinos: “Angels have no physical voice, but mentally never cease to sing glory to God… When you pray thus always, you too are then like the holy angels, and your Father, Who sees your prayer in secret, which you bring Him in the hidden depths of your heart, will reward you openly by great spiritual gifts.”

[51] R3 p235 St Basil the Great: “As the Lord dwells not in temples built by human hands, neither does He dwell in any imaginings or mental structures (fantasies) which present themselves (to the attention) and surround the corrupt soul like a wall, so that it is powerless to look at the truth direct but continues to cling on to mirrors and fortune-telling.”

[52] R3 p235 Sts Callistus and Ignatius, quoting Evagrius of Pontus: “Where God is recognized as abiding, there He is known; this is why a pure mind is called the throne of God. The thought of God is not to be found in the thoughts which imprint images in the mind, but in the thoughts which make no imprints. Therefore, a man who prays, must strive in every possible way to repulse thoughts which imprint images in the mind.”

[53] R3 p235 St Maximus the Confessor, in his commentaries on the great Dionysius: “Imagination is one thing, thinking or thought is another. They are produced by different forces and differ in the qualities of their movements. For thought is the action or the production of mind, and imagination is the fruit of passion, the imprint of an image representing something that is or seems to be sensory. Therefore, no imagination can be admitted in relation to God, for He exceeds all mind.”

[54] R14p263 St John Climacus:“Those with a mind accustomed to true prayer talk directly with the Lord, as if to the ear of the Emperor.”

[55] R5 p59 St Gregory Palamas: “The saints purify themselves of evil passions and transcend all knowledge by uninterrupted and immaterial prayer, and it is then that they begin to see God.”

[56] R9 p 206: “There is yet another for of prayer, which is called standing in the presence of God, when the man who prays is wholly concentrated in his heart and inwardly contemplates God as being present to him and within him, with corresponding feelings – either of fear of God and the feeling of wonder and awe before His greatness, or of faith and hope, or of love and submission to His will, or of contrition and readiness for any sacrifice. Such a state comes when a man becomes deeply immersed in prayer by word, mind and heart. If a man prays in the right way and for a long time, these states come to him more and more often, and finally this state can become permanent; then it is called walking before God and is constant prayer. This was the state of David, who says of himself: ‘I have set the Lord always before me: because He is at my right hand, I shall not be moved’ (Ps 16:8)”

[57] R9 p 205: “There also exists, through the grace of God, Prayer of the Heart only, and this is spiritual prayer, which the Holy Spirit moves in the heart: the man who prays is conscious of it, but does not do it; it acts by itself. This prayer belongs to the perfect. The form of prayer accessible to all and demanded of all is the form where mind and feeling are always combined with the words of prayer.”

[58] R3 p236 St Maximus the Confessor: “That heart is pure which, always presenting to God a formless and imageless memory, is ready to receive nothing but impressions which come from Him, and by which is wont to desire to become manifest to it.”

[59] R3 p236 St Maximus the Confessor: “A heart is called perfect when it is devoid of all natural impulse towards any thing or any image; a heart like a well polished tablet on which, being clean, God inscribes His laws.”

[60] R3 p239 St Nilus: “The highest prayer of the perfect is the ravishment of the mind and its total transcendence of everything sensory, when “…the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered” (Rom 8:26) before God, Who sees our heart like an open book intimating its desire by the soundless signs written therein.”

[61] R3 p61 St Gregory of Sinai: “The beginning of mental prayer is the purifying action of the power of the Holy Spirit, together with the mysterious officiating of the mind, just as the beginning of silence is withdrawal from all things of freedom from all cares; the middle stage is the illuminating power (of the Spirit) and contemplation, and the end – ecstasy, or the soaring of the mind towards God.”

[62] R3 p388 St Theoleptus of Philadelphia: “When the mind and thought stand before God through intense concentration of the eye upon Him and warmth of prayer, the heart is moved to tenderness. When mind, word and spirit (heart) press close to God, the first by attention, the second by invocation, the third by tenderness of feeling, then the whole of the inner man serves God, as the Lord ordains: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart,…” (Lk 10:27).

[63] R3 p236 St Maximus the Confessor: “That soul is pure which, freed from passions, is ceaselessly made glad by Divine Love.”

[64] R3 p236 St Maximus the Confessor: “That soul is perfect whose desiring power is wholly directed towards God.”

[65] R3 p236 St Maximus the Confessor: “That mind is pure which, freed from ignorance, is illumined by Divine Light.”

[66] R3 p235 St Hesychius of Jerusalem: “Since every thought enters the heart through imagining something sensory (and moreover the sensory hinders the mental); so the light of the Deity begins to illumine the mind when it is freed of everything and totally empty of form (without representation of shape or form.) For this illumination is manifested in a mind already pure, on condition that it is free of all thoughts.”

[67] R5 p90 St Gregory Palamas: “One recognizes this light when the soul ceases to give way to the evil pleasures and passions, when it acquires inner peace and the stilling of thoughts, spiritual repose and joy, contempt of human glory, humility allied with a hidden rejoicing, hatred of the world, love of heavenly things, or rather the love of the sole God in Heaven.”

[68] R3 p236 St Maximus the Confessor: “That mind is perfect which, having received through faith the knowledge of Him Who is above all knowledge, and having surveyed all His creatures, has received from God an all-embracing knowledge (in its general features) of His providence, and His judgment manifested in them – naturally as much as a man can understand.”

[69] R3 p398 St Theoleptus of Philadelphia: “As Adam was fashioned by God’s hand out of clay and then God breathed into him a living soul; so the mind, recreated by virtues, through frequent invocation of the Lord with pure thought and warm feeling, undergoes a Divine change, gaining new life and creation by knowledge and love of God.”

[70] According to St Gregory Palamas, R43 p111, the Light is “the beauty of the age to come”, “the substance of future good”, “the most perfect vision of God”, “the heavenly food.”

[71] eg, R3 p 201 St John Chrysostom: “Zealous prayer is the light of the mind and soul, a constant, inextinguishable light.”

[72] eg, R51 p161-163 St John of Damascus, On The Trinity: “Light is the Father, Light the Son, Light the Holy Ghost… The Father is a sun with the Son as rays and the Holy Ghost as heat.”

[73] Here are three well known examples from our hymnography: “Come, receive the light from the unwaning Light, and glorify Christ, Who has risen from the dead.” “I see Thy Bridal Chamber adorned, o my Savior, and I have no wedding garment that I may enter therein; O Giver of Light, make radiant the vesture of my soul and save me.” And “Gladsome Light of the Father’s glory, Holy, Heavenly and Immortal; and Holy blessed Jesus Christ! As we come to the setting of the sun and see the evening light, we praise you with loud voices, O Son of God, and Giver of Life; for this the universe glorifies you.”

[74] It has been the long time Orthodox practice that all icons depict Christ and the saints with luminous halos around their heads.

[75] R13 p49 St Isaac the Syrian: “He who desires to see the Lord within himself endeavors to purify his heart by the unceasing remembrance of God. The spiritual land of a man pure in soul is within him. The sun which shines in it is the light of the Holy Trinity. The air which its inhabitant breathes is the All-holy Spirit. The life, joy and gladness of that country is Christ, the Light of the Light – the Father. That is the Jerusalem or kingdom of God hidden within us, according to the word of the Lord. Try to enter the cell within you, and you will see the heavenly cell. They are one and the same. By one entry, you enter both. The ladder to the heavenly kingdom is within you. It is built mysteriously in your soul. Immerse yourself within yourself beyond the reach of sin, and you will find there steps by which you can mount to heaven.”

[76] In speaking about the vision of light that accompanies progress in prayer, St Gregory Palamas wrote (R8 p107): “In His incomparable love for men, the Son of God did not merely unite His divine Hypostasis to our nature, clothing Himself with a living body and an intelligent soul, ‘to appear on earth and live with men’ but, O incomparable and magnificent miracle! He unites Himself also to human hypostases, joining Himself to each of the faithful by communion in His holy body. For He becomes one body with us (cf Eph 3:6) making us a temple of the whole Godhead – for in the very body of Christ ‘In Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily’ (Col 2:9). How then would He not illuminate those who share worthily in the divine radiance of His body within us, shining upon their soul as He once shone on the bodies of the apostles on Tabor? For as this Body, the Source of the light and grace, was at that time not yet united to our body, it shone exteriorly on those who came near it worthily, transmitting light to the soul through the eyes of sense. But today, since it is united to us and dwells within us, it illuminates the soul interiorly.”

[77] R3 p316 St Hesychius of Jerusalem: “Truly blessed is he who cleaves with his thought to the Prayer of Jesus, constantly calling to Him in his heart, just as air cleaves to our bodies or the flame to the candle. The sun, passing over the earth, produces daylight; the holy and worshipful Name of Lord Jesus, constantly shining in the mind, produces a measureless number of sun-like thoughts.”

[78] R19 p253 St Symeon the New Theologian: “Light is the Father, light is the Son and light is the Holy Spirit… the three are one light, one and not divided.” (cf footnote #314… the Fathers often copied and quoted each other.)

[79] R3 p388 St Theoleptus of Philadelphia: “When thought frequently invokes the Name of the Lord, and the mind gives intense heed to this invocation of the Divine Name, then the light of recognizing God, as His God, envelops man’s whole soul like a radiant cloud.”

[80] R5 p66 St Gregory Palamas: “As St Maximus the Confessor says, he who is in God has left behind him all that is after God: ‘All the realities, names and values which are after God will be outside those who come to be in God by grace.’ But in attaining this condition, the divine Paul could not participate absolutely in the Divine essence, for the essence of God goes beyond even non-being by reason of transcendence, since it is also ‘more than God.’”

[81] R5 p65 St Gregory Palamas: “This is why the great Paul, after his extraordinary rapture, declared himself ignorant of what “it” was… But what was “he” himself? He was that to which he was united… Such then was his union with the light. Even the angels could not attain to this state, at least not without transcending themselves by unifying grace.”

[82] R5 p65 St Gregory Palamas: “There is a difference between illumination and a durable vision of light, and the vision of things in the light, whereby even things far off are accessible to the eye, and the future is shown as already existing.”

[83] R22 p13, St Gregory Palamas: “This light at present shines in part, as a pledge, for those who, through impassibility, have passed beyond all that is condemned, and through pure and immaterial prayer have passed beyond all that is pure. But on the Last Day, it will deify in a manifest fashion “the sons of the Resurrection,” who will rejoice in eternity and in glory in communion with Him Who has endowed our nature with a glory and splendor that is divine.”

[84] R16 p364: “Using nuptial imagery, St Symeon the New Theologian describes his union with personified dispassion: ‘Impassibility, whose face is always radiant, is and has always been joined to me… It brought to me the ineffable pleasure of union, an immense desire for nuptial union with God. Having known the union, I likewise became impassible, inflamed with pleasure and burning with desire for it. I shared in the light. Yes, I became light.’” 

[85] R5 p67 St Gregory Palamas: “For it is in the glory of the Father that Christ will come again, and it is in the glory of their Father, Christ, the ‘the just will shine like the sun’; they will be light, and will see the light, a sight delightful and all holy, belonging only to the purified heart.”

[86] R3 p235 St Basil the Great: “As the Lord dwells not in temples built by human hands, neither does He dwell in any imaginings or mental structures (fantasies) which present themselves (to the attention) and surround the corrupt soul like a wall, so that it is powerless to look at the truth direct but continues to cling on to mirrors and fortune-telling.”

[87] R3 p235 St Maximus the Confessor, in his commentaries on the great Dionysius: “Imagination is one thing, thinking or thought is another. They are produced by different forces and differ in the qualities of their movements. For thought is the action or the production of mind, and imagination is the fruit of passion, the imprint of an image representing something that is or seems to be sensory. Therefore, no imagination can be admitted in relation to God, for He exceeds all mind.”

[88] R3 p235 Sts Callistus and Ignatius, quoting Evagrius of Pontus: “Where God is recognized as abiding, there He is known; this is why a pure mind is called the throne of God. The thought of God is not to be found in the thoughts which imprint images in the mind, but in the thoughts which make no imprints. Therefore, a man who prays, must strive in every possible way to repulse thoughts which imprint images in the mind.”

[89] R9 p206: “There is yet another form of prayer, which is called standing in the presence of God, when the man who prays is wholly concentrated in his heart and inwardly contemplates God as being present to him and within him, with corresponding feelings – either of fear of God and the feeling of wonder and awe before His greatness, or of faith and hope, or of love and submission to His will, or of contrition and readiness for any sacrifice. Such a state comes when a man becomes deeply immersed in prayer by word, mind and heart. If a man prays in the right way and for a long time, these states come to him more and more often, and finally this state can become permanent; then it is called walking before God and is constant prayer. This was the state of David, who says of himself: “I have set the Lord always before me: because He is at my right hand, I shall not be moved” (Ps 16:8)

[90] R19 p248: “When a man is united with God, he experiences the light of His grace, for the Holy Spirit resides in and wholly transforms him, bestowing new senses upon him.”

[91] R5 p91 St Gregory Palamas: “The prize of virtue, it is said, is to become God, to be illumined by the purest of lights, by becoming a son of that day which no darkness can dim. For it is another Sun which produces this day, a Sun which shines forth the true light. And once it has illumined us, it no longer hides itself in the West, but envelops all things with its powerful light. It grants an eternal and endless light to those worthy, and transforms those who participate in this light into other suns. Then indeed, the just will shine like the sun. What sun? Surely that same one which appears even now to those worthy as it did then.”

[92] R3 p313 St Hesychius of Jerusalem: “When, empowered by Jesus Christ, we begin to press forward in firmly established sobriety; then, first, there appears in our mind a lamp, as it were, which the hand of our mind holds aloft to guide our mental steps; thereafter comes a full moon, circling in the sky of the heart, and, at last, like the sun, comes Jesus, radiant with truth like the sun, that is, both revealing Himself and illumining contemplation with His all-brilliant rays.”

[93] R3 p200 Sts Callistus and Ignatius: “As the soul leaves, the body becomes dead and stinking; so the soul not urging itself to prayer is dead, damned and fetid.”

[94] R3 p 201 St Isaac the Syrian: “ You cannot approach God without constant prayer.”

[95] R19 p250 St Symeon the New Theologian: “There is no other way for anyone to know God, except through contemplation of the light sent forth by Him.”

[96] R3 p313 St Hesychius of Jerusalem: “As it is impossible for the sun to shine without light, so it is impossible for the heart to be cleansed of the filth of wicked thoughts without prayer in the name of Jesus. If this is true, as I have seen (by experience), let us utter this Name as often as we breathe. For it is light, and those others (wicked thoughts) are darkness. And He (the Jesus we invoke) is God and Almighty Lord, whereas the others are servants of the demons.”

[97] R3 p316 St Hesychius of Jerusalem: “Just as it is impossible for us, as men, to chase birds in the air or to fly as they do, since it is contrary to our nature; so it is impossible for us to be free of the incorporeal thoughts of the demons, and freely and attentively to direct our mental eye to God, without sober and constant prayer. If you have not got this, you are on earth and are chasing tings of the earth.”

[98] R25 p206 Lossky: “Union with God cannot take place outside of prayer, for prayer is a personal relationship with God. Now, this union must be fulfilled in human persons; it must be personal, conscious and voluntary. “The power of prayer… fulfills the sacrament of our union with God” says St Gregory Palamas, “because it is a bond connecting rational creatures with their Creator.” It is more perfect than the practice of virtues, for it is “the leader of the choir of virtues”, says St Gregory of Nyssa.”

[99] R25 p209 Lossky:“The mystical experience which is inseparable from the way towards union can only be gained in prayer and by prayer.”

[100] R19 p236 St Macarius of Egypt: “The blessed Paul urges them to make haste to acquire through insistent prayer that from which it is no longer possible to fall away, that is perfect and unchanging love of the Spirit. The man who compels himself every day to persevere in prayer is enflamed with divine affection and fiery longing by spiritual love towards God, and receives the grace of the sanctifying perfection of the Spirit.”

[101] R19 p236 St Symeon the New Theologian: “There was this alone that held me back – my ingrained propensities and evil habits of sensuality. By the persistent practice of prayer, meditation of God’s oracles and the acquiring of good habits, this fades away.”

[102] R3 p313 St Hesychius of Jerusalem: “Thus ceaseless prayer keeps our mental air free from the dark clouds and winds of the spirits of evil. And when the air of the heart is pure, there is nothing to prevent the Divine Light of Jesus shining in it, as long as we are not puffed up by pride, vanity, conceit and a boastful showing off, and we do not strive towards the unattainable and are not therefore deprived of Christ’s help. For Christ, being the image of humility, hates all those things.”

[103] R5 p65 St Gregory Palamas: “This union of the mind with God is what the Fathers speak of when they say: “The end of prayer is to be snatched away to God.” This is what the great Dionysius says that through prayer, we are united with God… But it is not yet union, unless the Paraclete illumines from on high the man who attains in prayer the stage which is superior to the highest natural possibilities, and who is awaiting the promise of the Father; and by His revelation ravishes him to the contemplation of the light”

[104] R13 p53 St Seraphim of Sarov: “Those who have truly resolved to serve God must practice the remembrance of God and unceasing prayer to the Lord Jesus Christ, saying with the mind: Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” By this practice, while guarding oneself from distraction and while maintaining peace of conscience, one can draw near to God and be united with Him. Other than by unceasing prayer, according to the words of St Isaac the Syrian, it is impossible to draw near to God.”

[105] R19 p248 St Symeon the New Theologian (speaking of the vision of the young George): “He was wholly in the presence of immaterial light (fwti aulw) and seemed to himself to have turned into light… When the visible sun sets, this sweet light of the spiritual star takes its place, as a pledge and confirmation in advance of the unceasing light that will follow on it.”

[106] St Gregory Palamas, quoted in R23, p102: “And that he sees supranaturally light that surpasses light he is well aware; but with what he sees this light he does not then know, not can he scrutinize its nature, because the Spirit through which he sees is unsearchable.”

[107] St Gregory Palamas, quoted in R23 p103: “When the intellect is rooted in its own energy, which constitutes its self-conversion and self-observation, it thereby transcends itself and communes with God.”

[108] R3 p47 St Gregory of Sinai: “It is said that in the life to come the angels and saints shall never cease to progress in increasing their gifts, striving for greater and even greater blessings. No slackening or change of virtue to sin is admitted in that life.”

[109] R3 p235 St Callistus: “Movements produced in the soul by the Divine Spirit, as a result of efforts, make the heart quiet and urge it to call out constantly: “Abba, Father!” This is not accompanied by any imaginings but is devoid of all images. But we ourselves become then transformed by the dawning of the Divine Light, which endows us with an image in keeping with the burning of the Divine Spirit. More than that, it changes and alters us by Divine Power. How – He alone knows.”

[110] R19 p 262 St Symeon the New Theologian believed that seeing the Divine Light in this life is a requirement to being able to see it in the next: “Indeed, since they did not seek with every effort to see the light of His glory while they were still in this world through purification and did not introduce Him entirely into themselves, with good reason He will be unapproachable for them also in the future.” His reasoning: “Because if there is purification here, there will also be vision here; but if you say that vision will be after death, you will place purification also after death and so you will never see God, for after the departure there is no action for you through which you can find purification.” And he adds the rider: “Indeed, if He says that the Spirit is given to those who believe in Him, certainly those who have not the Spirit are not believers in their hearts.” What this really means is that when we progress sufficiently in our spiritual quest in this life and have been deemed worthy of significant spiritual experiences here, then we can be certain of the same in the next life. As far as the alternative is concerned, although he expresses a strong opinion (above) he is also cognizant of the fact that God has a specific plan for the salvation of each one of us and that He is the ultimate judge of what happens to us in the next life. At the same time, we should all be trying to get as purified as we can, as soon as possible.

[111] R19 p 263 St Symeon also taught that if we strive with all our heart to reach God, the rewards for our efforts will certainly be there for us: “Blessed are those who seek with all their soul to come to the light (Jn 3:21) by disregarding everything else, for even if they do not succeed in entering into the light while they are still in the body, nevertheless they will pass away, perhaps in good hope and, albeit in a low degree, they will receive it all the same.” Therefore, our vision of light may not happen here, but after death, according to the will of God. If we are ready, he said, grace will be given to us, “either here or in the age to come.” We need to focus on working to purify ourselves to obtain grace, and not on the vision of the Divine Light; the result can happen “here” or in the “hereafter”. This, of course, is in agreement with the similar statement by St Macarius of Egypt, discussed above.

[112] R19 p 268 St Symeon also wrote a significant amount about the faithful being able to unite God as a reward for their continuous effort: “In proportion to their fervor and to their prompt and joyous work, sooner or later, more or less, they will receive the reward of the vision of God (qewptia) and “will become partakers of the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4); they will be gods by adoption and sons of God.” As St Gregory Palamas clarified about three hundred years later, what is meant here is that we will partake in God’s energies and not in His essence.

[113] As quoted in R19 p263, St Macarius of Egypt believed that the experience of divine grace is not the absolute criterion for our salvation. To the question: “What will happen if I happen to pass away after a life of thirty or forty years without having received the divine power?” He responds: “I answer you on this that God does not judge you as blasphemous, for you have displayed greater zeal. God can tell you, I do not judge you as blasphemous because you have come out behind me and you have lamented and sought night and day; and whereas before you felt secure in appearances and you were puffed up with conceit because of them, now you have made a greater effort in looking for the truth according to the Scriptures in order to receive divine power in yourself.” This, of course, does not mean that one can experience theosis in this life (our main topic here) without experiencing the effects of grace, but expresses the belief that St Macarius had that many of those who do not reach theosis in this life will also be saved by the power of the Holy Spirit.

[114] R19 p263 According to Sts Macarius and Symeon, any tangible evidence of the “reception of the divine power” is not as significant as “the zeal and effort in looking for the truth.” They both taught that the vision of light is primarily a gift of God, offered to those who have succeeded in purifying themselves and have been deemed worthy of enlightenment. Our efforts to unite with God need to culminate in love for Him, leading us to a union, in light, with our Creator.

[115] R19 p258 Similarly, for both Sts Symeon and Macarius, those who have purified their minds can perceive the Divine Light in a new kind of spiritual experience [115] . This is further supported by St Maximus the Confessor in his writings about the opening up of the heart to constant prayer: “At the very onset of prayer the intellect is so ravished by the divine and infinite light that it is aware neither of itself nor of any other created thing, but only of Him Who, through love, has activated such radiance in it.”

[116] R13 p53 St Seraphim of Sarov: “Only those who have interior prayer and watch over their souls receive the gifts of grace.”

[117] eg, Eph 5:11; Cor 11:1

[118] eg, Gal 3:27

[119] cf Jn 14:21; 15:16

[120] cf Rom 6:4; Col 2:12; 3:3

[121] cf Eph 6:18; Gal 4:6

[122] R14 p264 St John Climacus: “He who has achieved stillness has arrived at the very center of the mysteries.”

[123] As in Ps 46:10 “Be still and know that I am God…”

[124] R3 p88 St Maximus the Confessor: “Nothing is more terrible than the thought of death, and nothing more glorious than remembrance of God.”

[125] R13 p66 St Nil Sorsky: “The Prayer of the Heart… waters the soul like gardens. This activity, which consists in the watching of the mind in the heart, outside all thoughts, is extremely difficult for those who have not been trained to it. (It is difficult not only for beginners, but even for those who have labored long but who have not yet received or retained within the heart the sweetness of prayer from the action of grace. It is well known from experience that for the weak this work seems very wearisome and hard.) But when one obtains grace, them he prays without difficulty and with love, being comforted by grace. When the “effect” of prayer comes, then it draws the mind to itself, fills it with joy and delivers it from distraction.”

[126] R13 p60 St Maximus Kapsokalyvitis, as recorded by St Gregory of Sinai: “From my youth I had great faith in my Lady, the Mother of God, and besought her with tears to grant me the grace of mental prayer. Once I came to her temple as usual and fervently prayed to her for this. I went up to her icon and reverently kissed her image. Suddenly I felt as if there fell into my breast and heart a warmth which did not burn, but bedewed and delighted me, and stirred my soul into compunction. From that moment my “heart” began to say the prayer within itself, and my “mind” began to delight in the remembrance of my Jesus and the Mother of God and to have Him, the Lord Jesus, constantly within itself. Since then the prayer has never ceased in my heart.”

[127] R3 p223 St John Chrysostom: “The name of our Lord Jesus Christ, descending into the depths of the heart, will subdue the serpent holding sway over the pastures of the heart, and will save our soul and bring it to life. Thus, abide constantly with the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, so that the heart swallows the Lord and the Lord the heart, and the two become one. But this work is not done in one or two days; it needs many years and a long time. For great and prolonged labor is needed to cast out the foe so that Christ dwells in us.”