This is a collection of texts on prayer, drawn from Greek and Russian sources. The spiritual teaching of the Orthodox Church appears here in its classic and traditional form, but expressed in unusually direct and vivid language.
The Art of Prayer is concerned in particular with the most frequently used and best loved of all Orthodox prayers — the Jesus Prayer. It deals also with the general question ‘What is prayer?,’ with the different degrees of prayer from ordinary oral prayer to unceasing prayer of the heart, with the dangers of illusion and discouragement, and the need for seclusion and inner peace.
Father Chariton, ‘Igumen’ or Abbot of the Russian monastery of Valamo, took his texts chiefly from the letters of Bishop Theophan the Recluse, one of the greatest spiritual guides in nineteenth-century Russia. But he used many other writers, Greek as well as Russian, and concluded with the teaching given to monks of his own community of Valamo.
Author(s): Igumen Chariton of Valamo, E. Kadloubovsky (trans.), Elizabeth M. Palmer (trans.), Kallistos Ware (ed.)
Edition: Reprint
Publisher: Faber and Faber
Year: 1997
Language: English
Pages: 288
City: London & Boston
Cover
Table of Contents
Introduction
Foreword
I. The Inner Closet of the Heart
II. What is Prayer?
(i) The Test of Everything
(ii) Degrees of Prayer
III. The Jesus Prayer
(i) Secret Meditation
(ii) Unceasing Prayer
(iii) The Jesus Prayer
(iv) Remembrance of God
IV. The Fruits of Prayer
(i) Attention and the Fear of God
(ii) Divine Grace and Human Effort
(iii) The Burning of the Spirit
V. The Kingdom of the Heart
(i) The Kingdom within us
(ii) The Union of Mind and Heart
VI. War With Passions
(i) War with Passions
(ii) Know Yourself
(iii) Work, Inner and External
(iv) Solitude
(v) Times of Desolation
(vi) Illusion
(vii) Humility and Love
VII. Teachings of the Startsi of Valamo Monastery
(i) Schema Monk Agapii
(ii) Igumen Varlaam
(iii) Igumen Nazarii
Further Reading
Index
