In his Angelus of September 29th 1996, John Paul II speaks on

the contribution that Eastern spirituality makes to the authentic

knowledge of man by insisting on the perspective of the ‘heart’. He
said that Christians of the East distinguish between three kinds of
knowledge, the highest being self-knowledge obtained through
contemplation, whereby man returns deeply into himself, recognizes
himself as the divine image and purifying himself of sin, meets the
living God to the point of becoming ‘divine’ himself by the gift of
grace. This is knowledge of the heart. The meaning of the heart
here is more than a human faculty; it is the principle of personal
unity, where the person recollects himself to live in the knowledge
and love of the Lord. It is not enough to know and think about
things, they must become life, therefore Eastern authors invite us to
‘come down from the head to the heart’. Pope John Paul II says that
due to today’s culture, which puts great amounts of information at
our disposal, which however is not enough for an authentic process
of humanization, there is a greater need then ever to rediscover the
dimensions of the ‘heart’, we need more heart.1
Many Eastern authors refer to the heart to distinguish
themselves from the rationalist ‘West’, who often seem to forget
that the very basis of Christian life is in fact the ‘heart’. These
Eastern authors refer to the ‘heart’ very often in their writings. They
speak of custody of the heart, of purity of the heart, of the thoughts,
desires, and resolutions of the heart, of prayer of the heart, of the
divine presence in the heart, and so on. 2

To help us understand the importance that Eastern authors

give to the ‘heart’, we should first try to comprehend the Biblical
concept, which is the way it is to be understood in Orthodox spiritual
texts. The ‘heart’ the Bible speaks of is not simply the physical
organ in the chest, nor is it the emotional centre psychologists refer
1
POPE JOHN PAUL II, Angelus Eastern Spirituality emphasizes the Heart (29 September 1996) (online) :
www.ewtn.com/library/papaldoc/JP960929.html.
2
SPIDLIK Thomas, The Spiritual Heritage of the Christian East in Catholic Eastern Churches: Heritage
and Identity, edited and with an introduction by Paul Pallath, Rome 1994, 79.

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to, but it is the centre that integrates the fullness of spiritual life
with all the faculties of the human being, including reason, intuition,
and the will. The heart radiates and penetrates everywhere; it is
however hidden in its most mysterious depth. It is in the heart that
we find our faith and love of God which has been poured in by the
Holy Spirit. It is also the place where good and evil thoughts
originate. Through discernment, man learns to notice what is
happening within him, and learns to guard the heart against
temptation: ‘Guard your heart with all diligence’ (Prov 4,23). It is the
most profound place for a human being’s knowledge, feelings, and
decisions, and it is in this unfathomable depth that the human self is
found, as made in God’s image.
The Fathers believed that just as the pupil of the eye is the
point of contact between the external and internal world, there must
be in man a mysterious place, through which God enters the lives of
men with all His treasures. Plato believed ‘that which is the best in
the soul’, that guides it, is the nous or the mind, and this is the point
of contact with God. This tradition which has been Christianized
continues in its classical definition of prayer as the elevation of the
mind towards God. However this reference may cause problems as
it may seem that this is one of many ways to come in contact with
God, as the mind is but one of our faculties, even though the
highest. Subsequent spiritual writers rather than referring to an
organ or faculty, try to find the point of contact between God and
man in the depths or the essence of the soul. This point, today is
again referred to as the heart. Therefore we find that the term
‘kardia’ has regained its position, and therefore the traditional
definition of prayer has been modified to mean an ascent of the
spirit and of the heart to God.3
Theophan the Recluse says that the heart possesses the
energy of all the forces of the body and soul, which is the same view

3
SPIDLIK Thomas, La Spiritualità dell’Oriente Cristiano. Manuale sistematico, Milano
1995, 105.

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the Bible has of the heart. The heart integrates the human person
and is the source of human acts. It unifies the person and gives
continuity to the numerous series of events in the life of a person.
The ideal for the Eastern Christian has always been the state
of Prayer, katastatis, which is a habitual disposition that merits
being called prayer, notwithstanding the acts it produces. This state
of prayer is the state of the spiritual life, and is the constant
disposition of the heart. The definition of a spiritual man includes
the presence of the Holy Spirit, in fact due to the coming of the Holy
Spirit, the Kingdom of God is within us and as consequence the
heart is the battlefield where one fights the enemies of God. And
once these enemies, which are evil passions, have been overcome,
the task of the heart is also to unite the Creator to his creation.
Therefore if the heart is the centre of the human person, then
through the human heart, which has been purified, man enters into
a relationship with all that exists, including the rest of mankind, as
the heart is the way that guides men to unity. The doctrine of man
being created in God’s image means that deep within the innermost
self of the person, there is a point of direct meeting and union with
God - “The kingdom of God is within you” we are told in Luke 17, 21.
Being made in God’s image means man is a mirror of the divine. He
knows God by knowing himself, and he sees God reflected in the
purity of his own heart – “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they
shall see God” Matthew 5, 8. This search for this interior kingdom is
something common in all the writings of the Fathers, because
through knowing oneself then one will get to know God and
therefore become like God. St. Isaac the Syrian writes:

Be at peace with your own soul; then heaven and earth will be at
peace with you. Enter eagerly into the treasure house that is within you,
and so you will see the things that are in heaven; for there is but one
single entry to them both. The ladder that leads to the kingdom is hidden

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 within your soul. Flee from sin, dive into yourself, and in your soul you will
discover the stairs by which to ascend.4

There lies however a difficulty in the practical teaching of how

to maintain the steadfast disposition of the heart, and this leads to
question whether the heart can be controlled. As individuals we are
conscious of our acts, and can evaluate their moral value. The heart
however remains a mystery; it is the hidden part of man which is
known only to God. The Fathers to answer the question of how man
can know himself, said man could know himself by having the soul
present to itself, and depending on how pure it is, then it will have a
direct intuition of itself. Within the heart there is a complete,
instinctive understanding of the human person. We know ourselves
and others through the feelings of the heart. But we must bear in
mind that these feelings are not all of equal value, and their validity
depends on the interior purity of man.
The first step in attaining this purity is through the practice of
virtues, and begins with repentance. By wielding the power of one’s
free will and by listening to one’s conscience, with God’s help man
struggles to free himself from passionate impulses. By adhering to
the commandments and growing in awareness of what is right and
wrong, man then attains purity of heart.
Purity is a common concept in ancient religions, and referred
to the disposition needed to approach sacred things, which was
acquired by ritual and not by moral actions. But this concept
developed and became more profound, therefore in Scripture we
see that the notion of purity becomes interior and moral. The
Fathers presented perfection as the restoration of the primitive
condition, which corresponded to ‘katharsis’ – purging, and was the
method of cleansing the affective part of the soul. When speaking of
repentance, which is metanoia, we have to keep in mind that it is

4
ST. ISAAC THE SYRIAN, Ascetical Homilies 2, tr. Holy Transfiguration Monastery,
11 quoted in KALLISTOS Ware, The Orthodox Way, New York 1995, 55.

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not the same thing as compunction, penthos, which is what drives
away sin. The ascetics believed that forgiveness never allowed the
fountain of tears to dry, because the fountain of past sins is a form
of consolation, it is the experience of how good God is.5
Purification has to be carried out on two levels, that of body
and soul. On the level of the soul one is purified through prayer,
through regular use of the Sacraments of Confession and
Communion, reading Scripture, service to others. On the level of
the body one is purified through fasting and abstinence. This
purification of the passions through God’s grace eventually leads to
what Evagrius refers to as apatheia, which can be defined as ‘purity
of the heart’. This means progressing from instability to stability,
from duplicity to simplicity or singleness of heart. Being pure of
heart means that one is no longer dominated by selfishness and
uncontrolled desire and therefore becomes capable of true love.
One’s heart burns with love for God and others, and for all that God
has created.
This leads to contemplation, wherein one finds God in all
creation, and the more one contemplates God in nature, the more
one realizes that God is above and beyond nature. This leads to
reaching out towards the eternal Truth that lies beyond all human
words and thoughts, therefore one begins to wait upon God in
quietness and silence, no longer talking about or to God but simply
listening, ‘be still, and know that I am God’ (Ps 46, 10).6
This inner silence or stillness in Greek is known as hesychia,
and the one that searches for this prayer of stillness is a Hesychast.
This involves openness of the human heart towards God’s love. But
to be able to do this one has to learn how to listen and not speak;
therefore to avoid the mind wandering off, yet at the same time to
allow it to reach out beyond itself into stillness, the Hesychast

5
SPIDLIK Thomas, The Spiritual Heritage of the Christian East in Catholic Eastern Churches: Heritage
and Identity, edited and with an introduction by Paul Pallath, Rome 1994, 82.

6
KALLISTOS Ware, The Orthodox Way, New York 1995, 122.

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applies himself to the frequent repetition of the name of Jesus within
a short prayer, ‘Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me’.
At times ‘a sinner’ is added at the end. It is referred to as the ‘Jesus
Prayer’, which is a literal transcription of the Greek ‘euche Iesou’,
and has kept the same form for many centuries. It is also referred
to as the ‘heart of Orthodoxy’. The Jesus Prayer is not a hypnotic
incantation to be said mechanically, but with purpose, as invocation,
it is living prayer.
There are three stages in saying the Jesus Prayer. It begins as
a ‘prayer of the lips’, a verbal prayer. Then it develops inward
becoming ‘prayer of the mind’, mental prayer. Finally the mind
‘descends’ into the heart and is united with it, therefore the prayer
becomes ‘prayer of the heart’. At this point it becomes a prayer
that involves the whole person, involving intellect, reason, will,
affections as well as the physical body; it is not just something
thought or said, but what one is, since the essential aim of the
spiritual Way is not to say prayers, but to become prayer. This
therefore brings about in the person that prays an unceasing state
of prayer, which is constant, even whilst doing other things. Origen
states “He prays without ceasing who adds prayer to works that are
of obligation, and good works to his prayer”.7
Therefore the Jesus Prayer starts as a verbal prayer like any
other prayer; however the rhythmic repetition of the short phrase
allows the Hesychast, due to its simplicity to progress beyond
language and image to the mystery of God. With the help of God
the Jesus Prayer develops into a ‘prayer of loving attention’ or
‘prayer of simple gaze’, where the soul rests in God, with nothing to
disturb it. At a certain point the hesychast’s prayer goes beyond
this level, to a higher one, where it doesn’t depend on his effort
anymore and may become what Orthodox writers call ‘self-acting’.

7
SPIDLIK Thomas, The Spiritual Heritage of the Christian East in Catholic Eastern Churches: Heritage
and Identity, edited and with an introduction by Paul Pallath, Rome 1994, 84.

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It stops being “my” prayer, and becomes the prayer of “Christ in
me”.8
The pilgrim, in ‘The Way of the Pilgrim’ repeats the
invocations, starting at 3,000, then to 6,000, then 12,000
aspirations a day. Eventually he doesn’t need to count anymore, as
his lips and tongue pronounce the words by themselves. This
movement is then shifted from his tongue to his heart, and the
pilgrim is conscious that his prayer is being recited within the
beating of his heart. Sometimes those that recite the Jesus Prayer
are awarded moments of rapture, an unexpected free gift, where
the words disappear completely or fade into the background. This
at times is artificially induced with a psychosomatic method which is
achieved through a slowing of the breathing, a search for the ‘me’ in
the depths of the heart and the unceasing invocation of the name of
Jesus thus leading to joy, a growing love of God and to the Taboric
light, which is the divine light from the Transfigured Christ. Man
here is transfigured through the Holy Spirit and becomes an
inexorable fountain of love.
We have briefly examined the importance of the heart in
Eastern Spirituality, and how it is to be understood in the full Biblical
sense. We have also seen how the prayer of the heart becomes the
heart of prayer, thus making the heart the place of the perpetual
presence of Christ. Prayer is everything, it is the faith, salvation, it
is the expression of the life of the Holy Spirit within us, the ‘breath
of the spirit’.

The Lord seeks a heart filled to overflowing with love for God
and our neighbour; this is the throne on which He loves to sit and on
which He appears in the fullness of His heavenly glory. 'Son, give
me thy heart,' He says, 'and all the rest I Myself will add to thee,' for
in the human heart the Kingdom of God can be contained.9

8
KALLISTOS Ware, The Orthodox Way, New York 1995, 123.
9
ST. SERAPHIM OF SAROV, Little Russian Philokalia I, St. Herman of Alaska Brotherhood
104-105 (online) : web.archive.org/web/20021003143226/home.earthlink.net.

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