II. Unceasing prayer is an extremely significant aid and a very efficient accelerator for our personal spiritual growth.

In his many letters, St Theophan the Recluse spoke of three levels in this process of spiritual growth: (a) the prayer begins as an external action in which the words are spoken repeatedly and, to the extent possible, our attention is focused on that recitation; (b) gradually, the prayer is established deep in the mind which prays without distraction, in parallel with other thoughts that are devoted to everyday tasks; (c) eventually, and with God’s blessing, the prayer is lived, silently, through the entirety of our spiritual essence, our heart. Words may be spoken or thought or felt, but they are not necessary, as the prayer is no more what we do but who we are. Like the Prodigal Son, we have returned to the Father. Such wholehearted dedication to prayer is a gift of the Holy Spirit [150] . St Theophan also wrote that “growth in prayer has no end.” Even beyond the point where the prayer is established in our heart and it is silent and automatic, the process of divinization that follows is endless, as lack of spiritual growth means the end of life. From an Orthodox, apophatic perspective, as God is beyond limits and finite attributes, so is endless growth in the process of merging with Him, facilitated by Prayer of the Heart. We believe that this process of continuous growth in the presence of the Lord will never end, even beyond His Second Coming.

Following St Theophan’s scheme (cf footnote 122), we will first address how unceasing prayer guides our spiritual progress at the early stages, and then how its help compounds and accelerates as we advance. The third stage, which leads us to the experience of spiritual visions and the Divine Light, and then on to close communion with God that culminates in theosis, will be discussed in the next section of this work.

(a) The Prayer Of The Heart is an extremely significant aid for our personal spiritual growth. Actually, prayer is considered the primary virtue, because, from it, all others emerge and find strength. For example, here is a passage written by St Gregory of Sinai, R2 p259: “The energy of the Holy Spirit which we have already mystically received in baptism, is realized in two ways. First… through arduous and protracted practice of the commandments… Secondly, it is manifested to those under spiritual guidance through the continuous invocation of the Lord Jesus, repeated with conscious awareness, that is, through mindfulness of God. In the first way, it is revealed more slowly, in the second more rapidly, if one diligently and persistently learns how to dig the ground and locate the gold… Let our aim be to make the energy of prayer alone active in our hearts, for it brings warmth and joy to the intellect, and sets the heart alight with an ineffable love for God and man.” This saint spoke frequently of the primacy of prayer among virtues [151] , [152] . Along the same lines, St Macarius of Egypt taught (R19 p216) that prayer, being the mother of all virtues, should be thought of as first, before all the others: “Let the prayer be preferred and zealously pursued and chosen by you before the rest of the Commandments.” At the same time, he believed that prayer cannot stand alone, because it “is the head of all habits, but it is dead without the rest of the members of virtue.” There are five key virtues, he said: “first prayer, then temperance, alms, poverty, patience.” His teaching was that all the virtues are necessary aspirations for a good Christian life, and are all intertwined with, and based on, prayer, in a strongly synergistic relationship. In agreement, St Gregory Palamas, drawing from, and extending, the teachings of other Fathers (eg, St Isaac the Syrian, et al) spoke of two approaches to theosis (R4 p409). They are (1) the cultivation of virtues (eg, through strict adherence to God’s commandments, good works and a sacramental life) and (2) unceasing Prayer of the Heart. The former purifies and prepares us for Union with God, and as such is of extreme importance to all spiritual seekers. However, it is the latter that actually provides the context for this sacred process to be completed – a fact that he and other Fathers make abundantly clear. At the same time, they all agree that a life of true prayer is always founded on a virtuous Christian life within the Church [153] , as discussed later in this section. Also, they remind us that all we can do is supplicate God, ie, ask that He grant us union with Him, if He chooses to, and that we cannot achieve this lofty state on our own. That being said, the supremacy of unceasing prayer from among all virtues is well established in the teachings of many other mystical Fathers as well (eg, St Gregory of Nyssa [154] , St Hesychius of Jerusalem [155] , Sts Callistus and Ignatius [156] , St Mark the Monk [157] , St Nil Sorsky [158] , St Barsanuphius [159] , St Maximus the Confessor [160] , Evagrius of Pontus [161] , and others [162] , [163] ). 

According to Sts Callistus and Ignatius, R3 p268, the Fathers call the mode of life that is based on the Prayer of the Heart by many names, eg, the sane way, praiseworthy doing and true contemplation, most spacious prayer, sobriety of mind, mental doing, activity of the life to come, angelic life, heavenly life, divine conduct, the land of the living, mysterious vision, most complete spiritual feast, paradise created by God, heaven, kingdom of heaven, kingdom of God, the darkness beyond light, secret life in Christ, vision of God, the most supranatural deification, and many other similar names. And (R3 p201) St John Climacus wrote: “In quality, prayer is communion (sunousia, merging into one being) and union of man with God. In action, it is what the world stands by, reconciliation with God, the mother of tears and again their daughter, propitiation for sin, a bridge over temptations, a wall against sorrows, the cessation of warfare, the doing of angels, the food for all incorporeal spirits, the future bliss, a doing without end or limit, the source of virtues, the seeker and finder of gifts, invisible achievement, food of the soul, light of the mind, the sword cutting off despair, the evidence of hope, the loosing of the bonds of sorrow, the riches of monks, the treasure of hesychasts, the gradual decrease of anger to naught, the mirror of achievement, the measure of a man’s degree, the evidence of spiritual state, the foreteller of the future, the sign of glorification. For a man who truly prays, prayer is the torture chamber, the court of justice, and the throne of the Lord even before the throne of the future. Prayer is the estrangement from the world both visible and invisible.”

It is important to remember that no real progress in prayer can be accomplished without progress and improvement in our Christian life [164] . Not only is it important that all our evil behaviors be stopped and sins be confessed, but also it is imperative that our good works (eg, charity, humility, obedience) be multiplied to the extent possible. In this way, the burden on our soul is lessened and our faithful disposition is improved. Of course, all care must be taken that our love for God, coupled with our zeal for salvation and theosis, be kept burning, in all things great or small. In this spirit, we should always come to prayer bringing deeds that correspond favorably to our petition, and constantly work hard to become worthy to receive the grace and virtue that our heart desires [165] . Prayer becomes most effective when it is accompanied by an attitude of self-compulsion, as we exert all of our efforts towards what we ask for. The correct spiritual order is a healthy alternation between asking for a spiritual gift in prayer and trying to acquire it through our own meager efforts. Then God blesses us and multiplies the results of our work. If we pray for some spiritual virtue and at the same time neglect any attempt at getting it on our own, then God does not have anything good to bless and guide to fruition. Following this misguided approach, we tempt God rather than pray to Him, which is a grave sin. Speaking on this from a positive perspective, the Scriptures say: “The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.” (James 5:16).  St Maximus the Confessor tells us that what makes the request most effective is when someone asks a saint to pray for them, and at the same time they pray for it themselves, in addition to really trying to do everything they can to obtain the result of the request through their own natural efforts. And according to St Ignatius Brianchaninov, R13 p98, an essential pre-condition of the Jesus Prayer is to keep His commandments [166] . “Abide in My love” (Jn 15:9) He said to His disciples, meaning to remember Him always, in union with Him in spirit. True prayer without keeping God’s commandments is dead: “If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love.” (Jn 15:10). In other words, if we obey Him, we are able to pray all the time [167] . And the other way around: being united with Him in spirit through prayer, we long for Him with our whole being and naturally act as He expects us to. As we get to know (through unceasing prayer) the virtues of Jesus, and how sweet it feels to be close to Him, we direct all of our actions [168] by faith and respect for His commandments [169] .

We, Christians, are never isolated, but we are members of a sacred family whose central method of safeguarding its cohesion, marshaling its strength, and bringing salvation to the world, at the personal and the group level, is to praise and supplicate God, with both words and deeds. We know that we are sinners, but we also know that God is eager to have us back, and where there’s sin there’s redemption too, which is the promise that our prayer reminds us of. For us, prayer is not a way to find God, but a way of taking refuge in Him, Whom we have found, because He came after us to remind us that He loves us and wants us to be saved. In this context, unceasing Prayer was never thought as pulling us away from the Church, but, instead, as being instrumental in binding us to it permanently. This is due to the fact that the people who pray to their God and Savior, by invoking His divine name constantly, can only find Him in their hearts to the extent that they are faithfully connected to His Church by both, the Sacraments (eg, Baptism, Confession, Holy Eucharist) and good works. The Jesus Prayer, as the Fathers developed it, is the fullest realization of a truly Orthodox Christian life, both personal and communal, and never a replacement for the latter. In this way, it provides a lasting solution to the question of how to balance individual spiritual discipline and devotion, with good works and well rounded, active participation in the Christian community.

It is important to understand that our effectiveness in praying with warm spiritual desire is proportional to our willingness and ability to marshal perfect attention in our mind [170] . If we fail to watch our mind carefully, we cannot be close to Jesus, especially if we try to approach Him through effortful reasoning that strains, but does not purify, our thinking process. Perfect spiritual attention, devoid of low-level desires [171] and pre-conceived notions of what should be or could be, coupled with warm Prayer of the Heart [172] , fills the mind with spiritual light. On the other hand, being without sobriety and without constant invocation of Jesus, makes the mind dark. This can be verified through direct experience on our part, especially under the direction of a spiritually accomplished Elder (which is discussed later in this section). As the Fathers taught, clear, solid attention of the mind is a necessary condition for successful Prayer of the Heart, because it allows us to perceive God revealing Himself to us [173] . With attention, our mind stands firm and does not wander, because stray thoughts are cut off. In this way, we enjoy uninterrupted remembrance of God, which becomes the fountain of our faith, hope and love. Then we can see that the kingdom of heaven is within us; and as we see that, we are encouraged to strive even harder to keep the door open. Everything external is then seen as unworthy of our notice and utterly undesirable.

The way that attention is helping our prayer is to watch for approaching passionate thoughts [174] , or, as spiritual progress is made, any type of involuntary thought, and, eventually, any thought that is not from the Holy Spirit. When such spiritual enemies are sighted, the attention’s function is to silently alert the heart to not attach itself to that thought, if not repulse it with sacred zeal and exclusive focus on prayer. As this is done, the heart, in one and the same spiritual movement, ascends to God in prayer, calling for His help. The Holy Spirit intervenes, strengthening our heart’s focus on the Lord, and the battle subsides [175] . As the demons see that (undesirable to them) outcome, they learn to avoid bothering us in prayer, for fear that our benefit be greater than if they just stayed away [176] . The only risk is that they may come back in through a different door, perhaps a pernicious sense of false pride that our prayer is magnificent. As will be discussed below, our Elder then has to help us regain a measure of humility and proper perspective on the spiritual lay of the land of prayer and our relationship with the Divine. We should always remember that God wants one thing from us: that we purify our hearts [177] by means of attention not to allow sinful thoughts [178] , but stay focused on Him and fill ourselves with prayer [179] in an undivided effort throughout our life. Therefore, prayer should be combined with attention like our soul is linked to our body. First comes attention enlivening the mind, and when the enemies attack it with sinful thoughts, Prayer of the Heart [180] faces them and destroys the opposition [181] , because attention alone cannot do it all. On this continuous battle (attentive prayer against sinful thoughts) depends the life and death of our soul [182] . By using attention to keep our prayer pure, we make spiritual progress [183] . Conversely, lack of attention leaves our prayer unprotected, which then gets weakened, corrupted and extinguished from our hearts.

The Fathers are unanimous that, through unceasing prayer, our mind is guided to become disciplined, focused and silent. For example, Isaiah the Hermit says: “Restrain the unrestrainable mind, scattered and dispersed as it is by the power of the enemy, who, through our negligence, has once again, since Baptism, returned to our slothful soul, along with other more evil spirits; as the Lord said: ‘The last state of that man is worse than the first’ (Mt 12:45).” Also, St John Climacus advises: “Let the memory of Jesus combine with your breath – then you will know the profit of silence.” And, to show what happens after our mind-chatter yields to an ever stronger prayer and devotion to God [184] , Apostle Paul asserts that “it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.” (Gal 2:20). To help us silence our mind, the Jesus Prayer allows us to weaken and eliminate passionate thoughts [185] , [186] , while, at the same time, demonstrate our devotion to God through persistence at uniting with Him. If we are eager to reach spiritual perfection, we will distance ourselves from evil deeds, passionate thoughts and unclean imagination [187] , as in Gal 5:16: “Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.” Even more, we will ultimately withdraw from all involuntary thought. The mind is not strong enough to subdue passionate imagination by itself, because the demons are expert at deceiving it and they introduce impure thoughts [188] from mental angles that are unexpected to all but the most experienced among us (eg, memory, senses, false logic, etc). However, the faithful invocation of Jesus will expel them if we persist at it. According to St Gregory of Sinai, the origin and cause of the ever-flowing thoughts in our mind is that we have lost the single and simple memory of God. What we must do is bring our mind back to its original simplicity. Our disobedience to God did not only discontinue our simple memory of good, but also corrupted our soul’s power and diminished its natural disposition and desire for virtue. The original simple, good, memory can be re-established by uninterrupted remembrance of God, effected by unceasing Prayer of the Heart. In this way, our mind and body are imbued with the Holy Spirit. When thoughts appear uninvited, we should call to our Lord Jesus often and patiently, and they will flee the warmth [189] , [190] of the heart produced by prayer [191] . Actually, as stated before, St John Climacus instructs us to flog our foes (evil thoughts) with the name of Jesus, “for our God is fire devouring evil.”

A key task to be accomplished is to diminish and tame the passions, eg, by using attention to guard our heart from evil desires while our prayer purifies and sanctifies it [192] . As our heart becomes indifferent to sin, passions are subdued and our whole being begins to long for God and union with Him. To achieve that, we improve and increase our prayer, which strengthens our mind, and so forth. As a simple example of how to tame the passions externally, the Fathers teach that those who practice Prayer of the Heart should not eat a lot, because when the stomach is heavy the mind is clouded and the purity and firmness of our prayer diminishes. Similarly for a lot of sleep, many earthly interests and possessions, etc. Fighting the passions internally is an even greater battle [193] , true spiritual warfare [194] , during which the demons attack our soul but are repelled by our warm and attentive prayer and the grace that comes to us for our dedication and effort. By the name of Jesus and our love for Him, the Fathers tell us, passions are dissolved like wax in a flame. Yet, demons try to re-enter the mind, and then the heart, eg, through thoughts or senses. But, if our attention is focused and sharp, and our prayer calm and warm, the evil spirits have no power to disturb us, and they go away. This of course happens to the very best, most perfect in the Prayer of the Heart [195] , those who have renounced all temptations of this world [196] and whose attention remains always intact.

To summarize the above, in the same way that we cannot survive without food and water, our soul cannot please God in being free of inner sin without constant guarding of the mind and purification of the heart [197] , [198] through unceasing prayer [199] , [200] , [201] . Regardless of how much we fear future punishment, we cannot reach God by just trying to refrain from committing sins, which is the negative approach, without true sobriety [202] and constant remembrance of Christ [203] , which is the positive, spiritually assertive way. The Fathers teach us that in order to win the war of our mind, heart and soul, and chase our spiritual enemies away, we need constant supplication to Christ, with humility and untiring persistence [204] . Not doing that would be like going to battle unprotected by armor and weapons [205] , or attempting to swim across the sea fully clothed and carrying a heavy load, or trying to live without air, water and food.

Turning our attention now to what can help us, our isolation from God (brought about by prideful disobedience) can be cured through continuous prayer to Him, assisted by our humble submission to the spiritual guidance of an experienced Elder [206] , [207] . Those who strive to attain pure prayer in silence, must seek the guidance of those who are familiar with it [208] . The reason is that as we make progress towards the gifts of the Spirit, eg, humility, Satan looks for opportunities to undermine our efforts and bring us back under his control. Our spiritual father can help us see what’s happening and face these challenges in a safe way; he can guide us through the difficulties of cleansing our heart and remaining steadfast in prayer. From his independent viewpoint, he can detect any demonic threats to our efforts, perhaps pride disguised as piety due to an early success. He can help us avoid self-conceit; then we can experience prayer free of prelest (ie, misguided beliefs, planê) which is fire that scorches passions and brings joy [209] and quiet to the heart. Without guidance, we cannot discern between demonic suggestions and authentic instructions from above. To follow the correct path and reach our goal we need the help of someone who knows how to get us there. To that end, his suggestions should be followed without question, especially when he warns us against practices or experiences which are detrimental to our progress. His job is not to teach us a secret method of prayer, but to help us resist demonic attacks, stay humble and focused on our spiritual objective, and recognize the true grace of God when He rewards our efforts. Even Saint Paul sought the guidance of his fellow Apostles on several occasions “lest by any means I might run, or had run, in vain” (Gal 2:2). What’s more, we have the words of Christ Himself as He gives us a glimpse into the inner workings of the Holy Trinity, related to following directions, each Divine Person trusting the others in all humility: “For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me” (Jn 6:38); and also “However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come.” (Jn 16:13).

St Gregory Palamas warned us to be very careful when coming across flashy spiritual experiences, in the sense that some early success (eg, an occasional fleeting experience of the Divine) may delude us to believe that we are already accomplished saints [210] . In this way, we risk missing the forest for the trees and falling victims to pride, thereby losing our way towards the correct next steps that will lead us to theosis. In St Gregory’s words, our conceit will “open wide the doors to him who is ever trying to seduce us.” The correct action is to never feel proud or over-confident, but stay the course of pure prayer with the help of a trusted Elder [211] . Then, God will help us see our imperfections, which will enhance our humility and contrition and help us control our sinful tendencies. This can be done with repentance and confession, good works, sacramental life, attention and continuous prayer. The result will be even more pure prayer, leading to more stable openness of heart… and back to the same sacred cycle (contrition, repentance, attention, better prayer, openness of heart) again. When our impurities are mostly cleared, we are able to accept the Holy Spirit working in our heart [212] , [213] , praying for us, and guiding us to theosis [214] .

St Gregory Palamas also insists that the Jesus Prayer is not an easy and mechanical way of obtaining grace: “Any one who considers as abominable the beginning of prayer… that prayer accompanied by tears and repentance which comes from grief truly felt in fasting and vigilance, and the care with which novices are taught to lift up their divided minds, in uniform and harmonious prayer, the man who scorns all that, should be consistent enough also to scorn the end pursued in prayer…”(R7 p 145). Such comments show that he considered the Prayer of the Heart to be a systematic and demanding spiritual discipline that helps the person collect their mind by attention and purify it, under expert supervision, through repentance and humility, in order to advance towards their end objective, theosis. Prayer cannot cause our deification through some sort of blind mechanical repetition of a prayer-like formula, because it is based on a personal [215] , [216] interaction between us and God, where we consciously appeal for His mercy and help. As He listens and takes pity on us, He helps us reach Him. In this way, prayer represents our best means to pull ourselves towards Him [217] , like someone in a small boat pulls desperately on a rope tied to a lighthouse on the shore, trying his best to save himself from the storm. Each tug on the rope is not a casual exercise, but a conscious effort to reach safety. (Mechanization of prayer is discussed further in section IIIa.)

(b) Unceasing prayer is a very efficient accelerator for our personal spiritual growth, because it acts quickly to reaffirm our identity in God. Without care for dogmatic particulars, we seek a direct existential grasp of the link between us and God, a personal pathway that was put in place by Him at the beginning of this world so that we can find our way back to Him. This link can be reclaimed only in deep silence [218] , after we have been purified enough to be able to hear the spiritual whispers that the Holy Spirit utters in our heart; which is a key aspect of our relationship with God and very important for the process of unceasing prayer. The help of the Holy Spirit is mentioned throughout this work and is discussed later in this section, and even more in section IIIa. Under His guidance, we open up to experiencing God’s will directly, determined to accept it in humility and obey His every command [219] . This kind of intimate communication is way beyond the usual petitions of external prayer that we’ve been taught since childhood.

Through prayer we re-discover God’s image planted deep inside us (R19 p219). Each time we pray, He unveils His presence [220] a little better and more clearly [221] . At the end, passionate thoughts are removed, unable to withstand the power of God’s image which is being illuminated through prayer [222] . In this way, we advance towards His likeness [223] , until He takes possession of our whole being - the communion we all aspire to. When the process is ready to complete, visions of the Divine Light usually take place, as elaborated in section IIIb. At the end, we are lifted into union with Him, like the Holy Trinity is One: “That they may be one just as We are one: I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one.” (Jn 17: 22-23).

In other words, our goal is a permanent state of Prayer of the Heart, where we become what God intended us to be, by re-establishing our natural relationship with Him, which is our birthright. According to Bishop Kallistos Ware, R11 p99, while praying, we return from multiple thoughts to a single thought, God, a process that leads us to our goal, ie, union with Him (cf footnotes #148, #267, #278 and St Gregory Palamas’ quote on top of page 36). This is not easy, because thoughts fly constantly through our mind, like flies buzzing all around us, as St Theophan the Recluse said. This instability of our mind and inability to “be here and now” is one of the most drastic consequences of the Fall, because that’s when humans lost (or abandoned) direct, single-minded focus on God - which is when fear of death entered our lives. In order to overcome this fundamental impediment, the first way is to confront our undisciplined streams of thought and expel them, one by one, by sheer force of will. This is practically impossible because the only tool or weapon we have to operate inside our mind is thought itself, which may replace the thoughts we don’t want but will ultimately refuse to die on its own accord, keeping the busy, thinking mind vulnerable to the attacks of the demons [224] . Such a negative strategy is very exhausting and doomed to failure, because, thinking to ourselves “stop thinking” is about as feasible as telling ourselves “stop breathing”: it just can’t be done. In the end, we cannot eliminate darkness from a room by using another type of darkness to overcome it. Eventually, we all come to the simple realization that, for darkness to disappear, the light has to be turned on. And any thought that is not focused on, and derived from, God, is an instrument of darkness in some way. The positive method to eliminate darkness is to introduce light, especially the Source of Light, where we avoid direct confrontation of thought-against-thought and look elsewhere, towards a dominant, luminous presence that can keep the mind focused because of its immeasurable sweetness and clarity: God Himself. The latter is a spiritual strategy that can succeed, where the former, because of its futility, fails. This is the approach recommended by the Fathers, eg, Sts Barsanuphius and John of Gaza, R29 p130: “Do not contradict the thoughts suggested by your enemies, for that is exactly what they want and they will not desist. But turn to the Lord for help against them, laying before Him your own helplessness; for He is able to expel them and to reduce them to nothing.” The Jesus Prayer is the supreme way to combat this buzzing-thought morass that captivates and pollutes our minds, by helping us focus directly and exclusively on God.

When spiritual purification, with the help of the heart prayer, is practiced, together with watching and guarding the mind, all passions and evil thoughts are uprooted [225] and replaced by contrition, mourning, tears, knowledge of ourselves and our sins, memory of death, true humility and obedience. As our mind becomes firmly established in the heart, with pure, unwavering attention and the prayer of Jesus [226] , it becomes impenetrable to suggestions from the devil [227] . In this way, we are led more and more to longing for God. And as we persist in prayer, with strong desire and focus, a whole host of new virtues spring from our heart and become manifest [228] , eg, charity, joy [229] , hope, silence, peace and endless love for God [230] , [231] , our fellow human beings and everything around us [232] . In addition, all of our petitions to the Lord are answered in the name of Jesus Christ [233] . Here, the Fathers suggest that those who have attained perfect Prayer of the Heart and enlightenment should remain in the silence of the Holy Spirit, because they are now united with God and they should not tear their minds and hearts away from Him for any reason (eg, a monk leaving the monastery to help his relatives.) The Holy Spirit will help those in need, in His own time and in His own way.

We should accept the fact that grace and mercy, although always available to those who approach Him with humility and devotion, are only given to us from God, Who, in His love for us, renews them from moment to moment at His discretion. Therefore, the grace that comes to us through Prayer of the Heart is a gift and not the automatic result of some accomplishment. Although the perfect unceasing Prayer of the Heart, and corresponding deep level of connection with God, is offered only to the most advanced, even they can’t take it for granted. Instead, they have to desire it, ask for it, keep it, honor it and live up to it every moment of their lives [234] . Given that pride is a great threat to spiritual seekers, true Prayer of the Heart is always accompanied by the deepest sense of humility, repentance, and obedience to His will. The Fathers say that our own efforts in prayer can take us only up to a certain point, even counting the good works that our prayer inspires us to do. Beyond that, only the grace of God can help us advance if we allow the Holy Spirit to work in our hearts. Throughout this process, our greatest danger is any form of self-contentment that may raise its head, especially as we see some spiritual progress or external confirmation, like a specific prayer getting answered. Here again, the guidance of an experienced Elder is key.

This process of theosis is the same as the process of inviting and accepting the Holy Spirit to establish Himself inside our heart, our spiritual essence [235] . In that sense, while speaking with Motovilov, St Seraphim of Sarov said: “’Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner’… Let all your attention and training be on this. Walking, sitting, doing and standing in church before the divine service, coming in and going out, keep this unceasingly on your lips and in your heart. In calling in this manner on the name of God, you will find peace, attain to purity of spirit and body, and the Holy Spirit, the origin of all good things, will dwell in you, and He will guide you to holiness, to all piety and purity.” Also, St Gregory Palamas wrote [236] that when the person who is experienced in achieving and maintaining communion with God frees his soul from every attachment and unites his peaceful (thought-free) mind with unceasing prayer, he rises by mystical ascension to heaven and surveys all created things from above, through stillness and silence: “He unites his ‘nous’ with unceasing prayer to God. Through this, he is rapt within himself, and finds a new and mysterious way to rise to the heavens: what one could call the impenetrable darkness of the original silence. With joy indescribable, he remains mysteriously enraptured in spirit, in veritable rest and in silence, full of sweetness; and he flies over all created things.” In that same passage he also wrote: “It is of this that the Fathers speak when they say, ‘The end of prayer is to be snatched away to God.’ This is why the great Dionysius says that, through prayer, the mind gradually abandons all relation with created things, ‘first with all things good and bad, then with neutral things capable of conformity to either good or ill, according to the intentions of the person using them…’” And, “Purity of the passionate part of the soul effectively liberates the mind from all things through impassibility, and unites it through prayer to the grace of the Spirit; and through this grace the mind comes to enjoy the divine effulgence, and acquires an angelic and God-like form.” The role that the Holy Spirit plays in our unceasing prayer is a very significant aspect of the whole process, as was mentioned above, and is presented in more detail in section IIIa.

Here again are some more of St Gregory’s words (R4 p409) about the process just discussed, from a slightly different perspective: “When a man abides in this collected state of mind and in this soaring to God, then, curbing his volatile thoughts by intense effort of self constraint, he mentally approaches God, meets with the ineffable tastes of the life to come, and knows by spiritual apprehension how good is the Lord, as the Singer of Psalms says, ‘Taste and see that the Lord is good.’ (Ps 33:8).” In order to achieve that threefold (guarding, being guarded and praying at the same time) but still totally unified, simple state, which is a prerequisite for uniting with the One God, it takes dedication, faith and persistence. Understandably, only the most experienced aspirants are able to maintain this transcendent state for long without being distracted by the indescribable waves of heavenly bliss that pour out of their heart and tend to re-ground them on the physical realm through “good” (but “multiple”) thoughts that emerge automatically. This re-grounding process is somewhat reminiscent of Saint Peter’s experience of losing faith (ie, a totally confident, single focus on the Divine) after only a few seconds of walking on water towards Jesus, and sinking back down until He reached out and pulled him up to safety (Mt 14: 24-31). Working on any other virtue is almost trivial and easily accomplished as compared with reaching and maintaining securely this transcendent state of union. For this reason, St Gregory and other Fathers insist that those who do not focus on the virtue of prayer, miss their chance to receive the best spiritual gifts available to humans [237] . On the other hand, those who work patiently with the Prayer of the Heart are given the greatest access to the Divine [238] and are granted angelic, supernatural powers, eg, “But those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.” (Is 40:31).

To summarize the above, in paraphrasing St Theophan’s (and other Fathers’) classification, we all begin with fear of God, faithful commitment to His commandments, and strong desire to detach ourselves from all external things, either good or bad. We grow by trusting Christ and abiding in prayer, as pure and undistracted as we can make it, cleaving to Him to the extent of our abilities [239] and aligning our will to His. We enter into perfection through unceasing Prayer of the Heart, and when it becomes securely established, warm and natural, our involuntary thoughts become clean, tame and slow, until they disappear altogether. Then, by grace, our mind remains still [240] , full of God [241] , serene, bright and clear [242] . At that point, the divine silence fires up our love for God in our heart, where we find perfect peace, “êsukhia”, fulfillment, ecstasy, wonder, rapture, pure “theôria”, and, ultimately, union with Him, the destination and focus of all of our desires and spiritual movements. As shown in R40 p75, according to St Isaac the Syrian, this is the condition of the future age where “the saints will not pray in prayers, but their minds will be overflowed with the Holy Spirit, and with wonderment they will reside in the ever-spreading glory of God.”