This past week, several catechumens, inquirers, parishioners and I took a multi-state trip to visit the two oldest Orthodox Monasteries in the country. Along the way, we also had the added blessing of witnessing the miracle of the weeping icon of the Kardiotiza Mother of God in Taylor, Pennsylvania. Fr. Mark brought the icon out into the center of the Church, opened up the lid, and the Church was permeated with an incredible heavenly fragrance. I watched the faces of our inquirers and catechumens, who like anyone who sees a miracle like this, were left awestruck and speechless! What incredible blessings as we continue our Lenten journey!
With so many people coming to the Holy Orthodox Faith, these kinds of pilgrimages and experiences are incredibly valuable and necessary if one wants to learn about the Faith of our Fathers. We had many conversations with one another in the long drives between monasteries, and in our particular car, a lot of those conversations centered around theology, history, the writings of the saints, and holy scripture. While those conversations were enjoyable, learning more about the faith is not what draws closer to Christ. It was rather the experiences of Christ that made the transformation in our hearts…
The myrrh tears literally pouring into our outstretched hands…The sunbeams coming through an incense filled altar as the choir sang Let My Prayer Arise…The quietness of the mountains…the joyous conversations with those living the angelic life…The walks of prayer in between shrines and through the cemeteries. These were the moments, far more than any theological discussion, that brought us closer to God and closer to each other.
One of the wonderful things about our Holy Faith is that, although it is incredibly helpful, it is not required to visit monasteries and weeping icons in order to converse and experience God. This is one of the many teachings that is highlighted on the second Sunday of Great Lent, where we remember the great teacher St. Gregory Palamas. He was an ardent defender of the practice of Hesychasm (from the Greek word Hesychia which means calm and silence).
While it is impossible to sum up all of St. Gregory’s writings and homilies into a few sentences, one of the things we hear him speak about is the importance of practicing prayer of the heart:
“The closet of the soul is the body; our doors are the five bodily senses. The soul enters its closet when the mind does not wander hither and thither, roaming among things and affairs of the world, but stays within, in our heart. Our senses become closed and remain closed when we do not let them be attached to external sensory things, and in this way our mind remains free from every worldly attachment, and by secret mental prayer unites with God its Father. "
In this, St. Gregory reminds us the importance of silence when we begin our private prayers. Just as one prepares the house to invite a guest of honor, so we also have to do so with our bodies. When we begin our prayers, especially the Jesus prayer, do so in a comfortable position…and allow ourselves to block out all distractions…letting them melt off of us like wax before a fire. We shouldn’t begin to whisper the name of our Lord until we feel yourself at ease and at peace…and then begin: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, Have Mercy on Me the Sinner”.
St. Gregory tells us what happens when we are able to block out the world and enter into the heart of our souls:
“And thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly," adds the Lord. God who knows all secret things sees mental prayer and rewards it openly with great gifts. For that prayer is true and perfect which fills the soul with Divine grace and spiritual gifts. As chrism perfumes the jar the more strongly the tighter it is closed, so prayer, the more fast it is imprisoned in the heart, abounds the more in Divine grace.”
The more we are able to enter within ourselves, the greater the potency of our prayer to God. Our Lord doesn’t live up on a high mountain like the pagan’s believed their gods were. He isn’t inaccessible to us in this life, waiting for us to pass away. He isn’t only experienced in the presence of Holy people or weeping icons. God is present, here and now. He whispers into the very depths of our souls, waiting for us to dive down deep into the eye of our hearts in order to converse with Him. We simply need to find the time to learn and practice this type of hesycashm in our incredibly busy lives.
“And So (St. Gregory tells us) when you enter your closet and close your door, that is, when your mind is not darting hither and thither but enters within your heart, and your senses are confined and barred against things of this world, and 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.”