The Scroll of Elder Paisius

The SCROLL
CONTAINING
SIX CHAPTERS ON MENTAL PRAYER

By Our Father of Blessed Memory, ELDER PAISIUS VELICHKOVSKY

Against the blasphemer, a certain vain-minded monk-philosopher of the Moshensk mountains; written in the Moldavian monastery of Dragomirna.

THE FOREWORD OF ELDER PAISIUS

REPORT HAS COME to me, the least of all, that certain ones among the monastic calling are daring to blaspheme the Divine, ever-memorable and God-created Prayer of Jesus, sacredly performed by the mind in the heart, founding this their babbling on the sand of vain-wisdom without anything to support it. They are armed for this, I dare to say, by the enemy, so that by their tongues as by a weapon he might find fault with this most faultless and Divine work, and that by the blindness of their understanding he might darken this mental sun. Therefore, lamenting such evil-wisdom of these who have gone astray as soon as they are born, speaking lies (Ps. 57: 4), and fearing lest any of those not yet firm in understanding, hearing such fables, might fall like them into the pit of blasphemy and mortally sin before God, blaspheming the teaching of very many of our God-bearing Fathers who have testified and taught of this Divine prayer, being enlightened by Divine grace; and further, not enduring any more to hear the blaspheming words against this faultless work, and in addition being persuaded by the entreaty of the zealots of this soul-saving work – I have resolved, even though this be beyond my infirm mind and weak powers, calling on the help of my most sweet Jesus, without Whom no one can do anything, in order to refute the false reason of the vain-minded and to fortify the God-chosen flock of brethren gathered in our monastery in the name of Christ: to write down a little on Divine mental prayer in the form of extracts from the teaching of the Holy Fathers, so as to give a secure, unwavering, and undoubted testimony of it.

Being dust and ashes, I bend the mental knees of my heart before the unapproachable greatness of Thy Divine glory, and I entreat Thee, O my allsweet Jesus, Only-begotten Son and Word of God, radiance of the glory and image of the Hypostasis of the Father! Enlighten my darkened mind and thought and grant Thy grace to my miserable soul, so that this work of mine may serve for the glory of Thy most holy name and for the benefit of those who wish, through the mental and sacred work of prayer, mentally to cling to Thee our God, and to carry Thee, the priceless pearl, ceaselessly in their souls and hearts, and for the correction of those who in their extreme ignorance have dared to blaspheme this Divine work!

CHAPTER ONE

THAT MENTAL PRAYER WAS A WORK OF THE HOLY FATHERS OF ANTIQUITY; AND AGAINST THE BLASPHEMERS OF THIS SACRED AND MOST FAULTLESS PRAYER.

LET IT BE KNOWN that this Divine work of sacred mental prayer was the unceasing occupation of our God-bearing Fathers of antiquity, and in many desert places as well as in c;nobitic monasteries it shone forth like the sun among monks: on Mount Sinai, in Scetis of Egypt, on the Mount of Nitria, in Jerusalem and in the monasteries which are about Jerusalem, and in a word – in the entire East, in Constantinople, on Mount Athos and in the islands of the sea; and in the latest times, by the grace of Christ, in Great Russia also. By this mental heedfulness of sacred prayer, many of our God-bearing Fathers, being kindled by a seraphimic flame of love for God, and after God for their neighbor, became the strictest keepers of God's commandments, and having purified their souls and hearts of all the faults of the old man, they were enabled to be chosen vessels of the Holy Spirit. Being filled with His various Divine gifts, they were manifested by their lives as lamps and fiery pillars in the world, and having performed numberless miracles, by deed and word they brought an incalculable multitude of human souls to salvation. Many of them, being moved by a secret Divine inspiration, wrote books of their teachings concerning this Divine mental prayer, in accordance with the Divine Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, which books are filled with the wisdom of the Holy Spirit. And this was by the special Providence of God, so that in the last times this Divine work would not fall into oblivion. Many of these books, by God's allowance because of our sins, were destroyed by the Saracens who subjugated the Greek kingdom; but some of them by God's Providence have been preserved to our times.

Against the above-mentioned Divine mental work and the preservation of the paradise of the heart, none among those of right belief has ever dared to pronounce blasphemy, but they have shown great honor and extreme reverence for it as for something full of every spiritual benefit. But the source of malice and opponent of every good work, the devil, seeing that above all those in the monastic state through this work of mental prayer were choosing the good part and sitting with undistracted love at the feet of Jesus, prospering in the perfection of His Divine commandments, and through this were becoming a light and illumination for the world – began to melt from envy and use all his snares in order to criticize and blaspheme this soul-saving work and, if possible, to uproot it entirely from the face of the earth. And so he both destroyed books, as was said above, through the Saracens who are in all ways like him, and likewise sowed his soul-corrupting tares in the midst of the pure and heavenly wheat of this work, in order to make a blasphemy against this saving work through senseless men so that the self-willed who come in contact with this work for the sake of their own self-exaltation, would reap tares in place of wheat and find perdition in place of salvation. And even with this the devil was not satisfied, but found in the lands of Italy the Calabrian serpent, forerunner of Antichrist, in his pride in every way like the devil, the heretic Barlaam; and settling in him with all his power, he moved him to blaspheme our Orthodox Faith, as is written in detail in the Lenten Triodion, in the Synaxarion of the Second Sunday of the holy Great Lent. Among other things, he dared in various ways, both by tongue and by pen, to blaspheme and denounce also the sacred mental prayer, as is written in his sacred book, in the 31st chapter, by our Father among the Saints Simeon, Archbishop of Thessalonica, whose very words I here set forth:

"This impious Barlaam blasphemed and wrote much both against the sacred prayer and against the Divine grace and light which were on Mount Tabor (Matt. 17:5). Not understanding, and not even capable of understanding (for how could one attain to this who had become vain in mind and proud in the conceit of his thoughts?) the meaning of the words Pray without ceasing (I Thes. 5:18), or of the words I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray with the mind also (I Cor. 14:15); or of hymning and singing in your hearts to the Lord (Col. 3:16); or of God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son, that is, grace, into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father (Gal. 4:6); or of I had rather speak five words with my mind than ten thousand words in a tongue (I Cor. 14:19) – he renounced mental prayer itself, or rather, the invocation of the Lord, which is also the confession of Peter when he confessed: Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God (Matt. 16:16), and the tradition of the Lord Himself when He said in the Gospel: Whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in My name, He shall give it you (John 15:16), and likewise: In My name shall they cast out devils (Mark 16:17), and the like. For His name is eternal life (John 17:3): But these, it is said, are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing ye might have life through His name (John 20:31); and the Holy Spirit is given through the invocation of Christ: No man can say the Lord Jesus, except by the Holy Spirit (I Cor. 12:3). Concerning this it is written in a myriad places.

And what did the serpent, fount of malice, succeed in doing by his undertaking with the son of perdition, the thrice-cursed heretic Barlaam, whom he taught, as I have said, to blaspheme against sacred mental prayer? By his blasphemy could he darken the light of this mental work, and, as he hoped, uproot it entirely? By no means; but his malady was turned upon his own head. For at that time the great champion and advocate of piety, most radiant among the Saints, our Father Gregory Palamas, Archbishop of Thessalonica, who in complete obedience and in the unceasing sacred exercise of mental prayer shone forth like the sun on the Holy Mountain of Athos with gifts of the Holy Spirit, before his elevation to the Hierarchal Throne of that Church, in the reign of the most divine emperor Andronicus Paleologus, in the most illustrious great church of the Wisdom of God in the reigning city, at the great Council which was assembled against the above-mentioned heretic Barlaam, being filled with the Spirit of God and clothed in invisible power from above – he closed that mouth which was opened against God and shamed him utterly, and by his words and writings inspired with fire he burned his heresies, suitable only for kindling, and all his blasphemies and turned them into ashes. And this heretic Barlaam with Acindynus and all who thought as they were thrice given over to anathema by the whole Catholic Church of God. And even up to now, yearly on the Sunday of Orthodoxy, he together with other heretics is cursed by the same Church in this way: To Barlaam and Acindynus and their followers and successors anathema thrice.

Behold, O friends who dare to blaspheme mental prayer, and see who was its first blasphemer: was it not the heretic Barlaam, who was thrice given over by the Church to anathema and is to be cursed forever? Do you not also, with your blasphemy, enter into communion with this heretic and those who think as He? Do you not tremble in your souls lest you similarly fall under the Church's curse and become estranged from God? In rising against a most sacred work and scandalizing by your blasphemy the souls of your near ones who are unsteady in understanding, do you not fear the terrible threat of God for this in the Gospel? Are you not afraid, in the words of the Apostle, that it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God (Heb. 10:31), that for this you will fall, if you do not repent, into both temporal and eternal punishment? What plausible reason have you found for blaspheming this most faultless and most blessed thing? I am in total perplexity.

Do you fancy that the invocation of the name of Jesus is of no benefit? But it is not possible to be saved in any other than in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Is the human mind, through which the prayer acts, defective? But this is impossible. For God created man in His image and likeness; and the image and likeness of God is the soul of man, which according to God's creation is pure and faultless: therefore the mind, being the chief of the senses of the soul, as sight is in the body, is likewise faultless.

Is then the heart, upon which as upon an altar the mind sacredly offers to God the mystical sacrifice of prayer, deserving of blasphemy? In no way. Being the creation of God, as is the whole human body, it is most good. And if the invocation of Jesus is soul-saving, and the mind and heart of man are the work of God's hands – then how is a man at fault if he sends up with his mind from the depths of his heart prayer to the most sweet Jesus and begs of Him mercy?

Or is the reason why you blaspheme and deny mental prayer because it seems to you that God does not hear mystical prayer performed in the heart, but hears only that which is pronounced by the lips? But this is a blasphemy against God: for God is knower of hearts and knows exactly all the most refined thoughts of the heart, even future thoughts, and knows them all as God and Omniscient. And He Himself seeks, as a pure and faultless sacrifice, just such mystical prayer sent up from the depths of the heart, having commanded: But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly (Matt. 6:6). These words the lips of Christ, the lamp of the world and universal teacher, St. John Chrysostom, in his 19th Homily on the Gospel of Matthew, with the God-given wisdom of the Holy Spirit, ascribes not to prayer pronounced only by the lips and tongue, but to the most secret, unvocal prayer sent up from the depths of the heart, which he teaches to perform not with actions of the body and not with the sound of the voice, but with the most fervent will, in all quietness, with contrition of thoughts and inward tears, with pain of soul and the closing of the doors of the mind. And he brings forth from Holy Scripture, as a testimony of this prayer, the God-seer Moses, and St. Anna, and the Righteous Abel, speaking thus:

"But are you pained in soul? You cannot but cry out, because to pray and entreat in the way I have mentioned is characteristic of one who is very pained. Moses also, being pained, prayed in this way, and his pain was heard; wherefore also God spoke to him: Why dost thou cry out to Me? (Ex. 14: 15). And Anna, again, fulfilled all that she wished without her voice being heard, because her heart cried out. And did not Abel pray in silence, and even having died? – and his blood gave forth a voice surpassing that of the trumpet. Do thou groan also, then, just as holy Moses; I do not forbid. Rend your heart, as the Prophet commanded, and not your garments. Call upon God out of the depths: Out of the depths, he says, have I cried unto Thee, O Lord (Ps. 129:1); from below, from the heart draw voice; make your prayer a sacrament." And later: "For you do not pray to a man, but to God Who is everywhere, Who hears before you speak and knows unuttered thoughts; if you pray in this way, you shall receive a great reward: Thy Father, He says, which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly." And later: "Inasmuch as He is invisible, He desires that your prayer should be the same."

Do you see, O friends, how by the testimony of this invincible pillar of Orthodoxy there is another prayer than that pronounced by the lips: a se cret, invisible, voiceless prayer offered from the depths of the heart to God, which, as a pure sacrifice, the Lord accepts as an odor of spiritual fragrance, rejoices in it and is glad, seeing that the mind, which above all should be consecrated to God, is united with Him in prayer. Wherefore, why do you arm your tongue with blasphemy against this prayer which is witnessed by the lips of Christ, St. John Chrysostom, slandering, hating, mocking, denying and shunning it as some foul thing, and in a word, not enduring even to hear of it? Fear and trembling overcome me by reason of your irrational undertaking.

Yet again, seeking the cause of your blasphemy, I ask you: Is not the reason why you blaspheme this most soul-saving prayer because, it may be, you have happened to see or hear that some one of the practicers of this prayer has gone out of his mind, or has taken some deception in place of truth, or suffered some harm to his soul, and therefore you have fancied that mental prayer was the cause of such harm? But it is not so, no; that is not the case at all. Sacred mental prayer, according to the writings of the God-bearing Fathers, working by God's grace, purifies a man of all passions, rouses him to most fervent keeping of God's commandments, and preserves him unharmed from all the arrows and deceptions of the enemy. If, however, anyone dare to undertake this prayer with self-will, not in accordance with the teaching of the Holy Fathers, without questioning and taking counsel of those experienced in it, and being haughty, passionate, and infirm, he lives without obedience and submission, and in addition seeks only the life of a hermit without being worthy of seeing even a trace of such a thing because of his self-will: such a one, in truth, I also affirm, will easily fall into all the snares and deceptions of the devil. But is prayer the cause of such deception (prelest)? May it not be. And if for this you find fault with mental prayer, then you should also consider the knife to be at fault if a small child, because of his senselessness at play, should happen to stab himself with it. Likewise, in your view, one should also forbid soldiers to use the military sword which they receive to fight the enemy, if some senseless soldier should happen to stab himself with his own sword. But just as the knife and the sword are not guilty of any fault but only accuse the senselessness of those who stab themselves with them, so likewise the spiritual sword, sacred mental prayer, is innocent of any fault, but rather the selfwill and pride of the self-willed are the cause of demonic deceptions and every spiritual harm.

But why, as if I had been uncertain up to now, do I ask of you the cause of your blasphemy against this sacred prayer? I know it for a certainty, O friends! I know the very cause of your babbling: First, your reading of the Holy Scriptures is not according to the commandment of Christ, that is, not with testing; second, mistrust of the teaching of our Holy Fathers who taught of this Divine mental prayer by the wisdom of the Spirit given them by God, in accordance with the Holy Scriptures; third, in addition, your extreme coarseness: it may be, you have never seen or heard of the writings of our God-bearing Fathers concerning this; or, if you have, then you do not in the least understand the power of their Divinely-wise words – behold the essential cause of your evil-wisdom.

If only you would read, with fear of God and strict attention and undoubting faith, with a labor-loving testing of them and with the humility of wisdom, the patristic books which are above all fitting to be read by monastics and which contain in themselves the whole meaning of life according to the Gospel – the patristic books, I say, which are just as necessary to monks for the benefit and correction of the soul and for the acquiring of a true, undeceived and humble understanding as breath is necessary for physical life: if you would read these books in this way, God would never allow you to fall into such a pit of blasphemy. Rather, through this work he would kindle you by His Divine grace with His unutterable love, so that you would cry out with the Apostle: Who shall separate us from the love of Christ (Rom. 8:35) which we have been enabled to attain by the mental work of this prayer? And not only would you not blaspheme it, but you would even be zealous to lay down your life for it, perceiving in very deed and experience benefit for your soul beyond words from this mental heedfulness. But since you do not read the books of the Holy Fathers with undoubting faith, or in reading them you do not trust them, as the fruits of your blasphemy indicate, or else you entirely disdain to read them: therefore you have fallen into such ungodly sophistry that, as if you had never heard of the Christian writings, you blaspheme and deny this sacred prayer of which the entire Holy Scripture, in the Divinely-wise interpretation of the Holy Fathers, gives testimony.

But in order that you and all who doubt concerning this may be delivered from such harm to the soul, I find no more fitting treatment than this: that I shall strive, as much as the Lord by His grace favors and helps me, to show that our God-bearing Fathers, enlightened by God's grace, have established the building of their soul-profiting teaching concerning this all-sacred prayer performed secretly by the mind in the heart, on the unmoving rock of Holy Scripture. And do you, having yourselves come to see evidently and clearly the truth of the teaching of the Holy Fathers, with the cooperation of the grace of God secretly touching your souls, and having been healed of your infirmity of soul, offer to God most sincere repentance over your inclination – and you shall become worthy of His Divine mercy and complete forgiveness of your sin.


CHAPTER TWO

THE BEGINNING OF THIS DIVINE MENTAL PRAYER, AND WHAT TESTIMONIES THE GOD-BEARING FATHERS BRING FORTH CONCERNING IT FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE.

BEFORE INDICATING from whence this Divine prayer has its very beginning, I must present something by way of general information. Let it be known that, according to the writings of our Holy and God-bearing Fathers, there are two mental prayers: one for beginners, belonging to activity; and another for the advanced, belonging to vision. The one is the beginning, and the other the end; for activity is the ascent to vision. And one should know that, according to St. Gregory the Sinaite, there are eight primary visions, which he enumerates as follows: "We say that the eight primary visions are: first, the vision of God, the invisible and unoriginate and uncreated Divinity, cause of all, One in Trinity and above all being; second, that of the rank and order of the mental powers; third, that of the composition of [visible] beings; fourth, that of the overseeing condescension of the Word; fifth, that of the universal resurrection; sixth, that of the terrible Second Coming of Christ; seventh, that of eternal torment; eighth, that of the Kingdom of God which has no end." Having presented this, I shall relate, according to the poverty of my infirm reason, in what manner activity and vision must be understood.

Let it be known, then (I speak to those who are simple like myself), that the whole labor of monasticism by which anyone may have labored, with God's help, in love for his neighbor and for God, in meekness, humility, and patience, and in all the other commandments of God and the Holy Fathers, in perfect submission of soul and body according to God, in fasting, vigil, tears, and prostrations and other ways of exhausting the body, in all-fervent performance of the church and cell rule, in the secret mental exercise of prayer, in lamentation, and in reflection on death all such labor, as long as the mind is still guided by its own human authority and will, may accurately be called activity; but in no way may it be called vision. And if such mental labor of prayer somewhere in the writings of the Holy Fathers might be called sight, this is only in a simple way of speaking, inasmuch as the mind, as the eye of the soul, is called sight.

But when, by God's help and the above-mentioned labor, and above all by profound humility, a man purifies his soul and heart from every defilement of the passions of soul and body-then the grace of God, the common mother of everyone, taking the mind which has been cleansed by it as a child by the hand, leads it up as by steps to the above-mentioned spiritual visions, revealing to it according to the degree of its purification the unutterable Divine mysteries to which the mind cannot attain. And it is this that in truth is called true spiritual vision, which is the prayer of sight, or, according to St. Isaac, pure prayer, from which come awe and vision. But into this it is not possible for anyone to enter by his own self-willed labor, unless God visit him and lead him up to it by His grace. And if anyone dare to ascend into such visions without the light of God's grace, as St. Gregory the Sinaite says (Homily 130), let him know that he forms imaginations and not visions, imagining them and imaginations being presented to him by a spirit of imagination. And now, such an understanding of active and contemplative prayer being presented, the time has already come to indicate from whence Divine mental prayer has its beginning.

Let it be known that, according to the testimony of our Divinely-wise, Holy and God-bearing Father Nilus the Faster of Sinai, mental Divine prayer such as is suitable for the perfect was given by God Himself already in paradise to the first-created man. For St. Nilus says this (Homily 49) to those who pray fervently, so that they might manfully preserve the fruit of prayer and that their labor might not be in vain: "Having prayed according to rule, await those things which are not according to rule, and stand manfully, preserving your fruit. For it is to this that you were assigned from the beginning: to do and preserve, lest having done it, what is done be left unpreserved; otherwise there is no benefit to you at all from your praying."

Interpreting these words, the Russian luminary St. Nilus, the desertdweller of Sora, who shone forth like the sun in great Russia by the mental work of prayer, as is clear in his Divinely-wise book, says the following: "Now this Saint brings forth from antiquity that one should do and preserve; for the Scripture says that God created Adam and placed him in paradise to do (to work) and preserve paradise. For here this St. Nilus of Sinai calls prayer the doing (work) of paradise, and the guarding against evil thoughts after prayer he calls preserving." Likewise St. Dorotheus also says that the first-created man, being placed by God in paradise, remained in prayer, as he writes in his first Instruction. From these testimonies it is clear that God, hav ing created man according to His image and likeness, conducted him into a paradise of sweetness to work the immortal gardens, that is, the most pure, exalted, and perfect Divine thoughts, according to St. Gregory the Theologian. And this means nothing else than that he remained, as being pure in soul and heart, in contemplative, grace-filled prayer, sacredly working in the mind alone, that is, in the sweetest vision of God, and that he manfully preserved this, it being the work of paradise, as the apple of his eye, lest it ever decrease in his soul and heart. Wherefore, great is the glory of sacred and Divine mental prayer, whose verge and summit, that is, beginning and perfection, were given to man by God in paradise; and so it is from there that it has its beginning.

But incomparably greater glory did it acquire when the One Holier than all the Saints, more honorable than the Cherubim and beyond compare more glorious than the Seraphim, the Most Holy Virgin Mother of God, remaining in the Holy of Holies, ascended to the very height of Divine vision by means of mental prayer and was enabled to be the spacious dwelling of God the Word, Whom the whole creation cannot contain, Who was contained in Her Hypostatically and was born of Her without seed for the sake of men's salvation. Of this witness is borne by the invincible pillar of Orthodoxy, our. Father among the Saints Gregory Palamas, Archbishop of Thessalonica, in his Homily on the Entrance into the Temple of our Most Holy Lady the Mother of God and Ever-Virgin Mary; for he says that the Most Holy Virgin Mother of God, dwelling in the Holy of Holies and coming to understand perfectly, from the Holy Scripture which was read every Sabbath, concerning the human race which was perishing from disobedience, took extreme pity on it and accepted mental prayer to God, that He might soon have mercy on and save the human race. Here I shall present the very words of St. Gregory, a few out of many, which are worthy of an Angelic mind: "For this Divine Maiden, the Virgin, hearing and seeing this, took pity on the common race, and looked how one might obtain a healing and treatment equal to such suffering. She found that She should turn immediately with Her whole mind to God, and She took upon Herself this prayer for us, in order to compel the Uncompellable and attract Him to us the sooner, so that He Himself might uproot the curse from the midst, stop the fire which was devouring the field of the soul, and bind to Himself the creature, having healed his infirmity. Wherefore, the Virgin Full of Grace, having thus examined for Herself what was most fitting and characteristic in every nature, placed mental prayer as wondrous and most glorious and better than any word. And seeking how she might the more skillfully and appropriately converse with God, She came to Him as a self-placed, or rather God-chosen intercessor."

And later he says: "Wherefore, when She saw nothing among existing things better than this for man, She firmly directed Herself, with awe, toward entreaty, renewed the greater and more perfect, and discovered, and acted, and for those things which are after these She gave activity as the supreme ascent to vision; but vision is as much greater than those things that have been mentioned as truth is greater than imagination. But concentrating everyone within himself, and having purified your minds, hear now the greatness of the mystery; for, taking the opportunity afforded by this whole assembly gathered in the name of Christ, I wish to speak a word above all to those who have renounced the world. One who, for the sake of renunciation, has already tasted of those future good things, who is placed with the Angels and is acquiring a dwelling in the heavens: let him desire to emulate, according to his strength, the first and only one to renounce the world from childhood for the sake of peace, the Ever-Virgin Bride."

And later St. Gregory says: "Wherefore, seeking what is most necessary to an intercessor for converse, which is what prayer is, the Virgin acquired sacred silence: silence of mind, and separation from the world, forgetfulness of things below and of the exalted knowledge of a hearer of secret things, unto a better transformation. This activity, as in truth an ascent to the One Who truly Is, or, to speak more truly, to Divine vision, is as it were a brief indication for a soul that has acquired this activity in truth. Every other virtue is like a medical treatment which is applicable to infirmities of soul and to evil passions which have become rooted in because of despondency; but Divine vision is the fruit of a healthy soul, as being some kind of ultimate perfection and an image of Divine activity. Wherefore, a man becomes a partaker of God not by words or by judicious moderation in visible things, for this is earthly, and lowly, and human; but rather by dwelling in silence, for it is by this that we become separated from and are released from things below and ascend toward God. And thus, enduring day and night in prayers and entreaties in the upper chamber of the life of silence, we draw near in some measure and approach to that Inaccessible and Blessed Nature. And those who endure thus, and are dissolved in this way in the Light Which Exists unutterably beyond feeling and thought, see God in themselves as in a mirror, having already purified the heart by sacred silence. And thus, silence is a swift and short guide, as being most successful and uniting one with God, especially for those who keep to it entirely. And the Virgin Who remained in it even from infancy – what is She? She lived in silence in supernatural manner from Her very childhood, and because of this She alone among all women gave birth without a man to the God-man, the Word."

And later he says: "Wherefore also the Most Pure One, renouncing, as it were, the world's very dwelling and talk, moved away from people and, having fled from reproachable life, She chose a life unseen by anyone and uncommunicative, dwelling in the place where no one was allowed to enter. There, being freed of every material tie, and renouncing all contact with and love for anyone, and going beyond showing any mercy for the body, She concentrated the mind in a single turning toward Him and in dwelling with and heedfulness toward Him and in unceasing Divine prayer. And by means of it, dwelling within Herself and placing Herself above multiform disturbance and thoughts and simply above every appearance and thing, She accomplished a new and unutterable path to Heaven, which is, I shall say, the silence of thoughts. And applying Herself industriously to this and heeding it with Her mind, She soared beyond all creatures and saw much better than Moses the glory of God and saw Divine grace belonging in no way to the power of the senses – a sacred and all-joyful vision of undefiled souls and minds, having partaken of which She is, according to the Divine singers, a bright cloud of truly living water, and the Dawn of the mental day, and the fiery Chariot of the Word."

From these words of the divine Gregory Palamas, he who has a mind can understand clearer than the sun that the Most Pure Virgin Mother of God, dwelling in the Holy of Holies, by means of mental prayer ascended to the supreme height of Divine vision; and by renouncing the world for the sake of peace, by sacred silence of the mind, by silence of thoughts, by concentrating the mind toward unceasing Divine prayer and heedfulness, and by ascending through activity to Divine vision – She gave in Herself to the Divine and Angelic monastic order an example of heedful life according to the inner man, so that monks, having renounced the world, looking upon Her might fervently strive, according to their strength and by Her prayers, to be Her emulators in the above-mentioned monastic labors and sweatings. And who can worthily praise Divine mental prayer, a doer of which was the Mother of God Herself, being instructed by the guidance of the Holy Spirit, for the benefit and advancement of monks!

But for the confirmation and undoubted assurance of those who doubt regarding this, as if it were a thing unwitnessed and unknown, it is now time to show what testimonies are brought forth regarding it from Holy Scripture by the Holy Fathers who wrote from the enlightenment of Divine grace.

Divine mental prayer has its unshakable foundation in the words of our Lord Jesus Christ: But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly (Matt. 6:6). These words, as has already been said in the first chapter, are interpreted by the lamp of the world, St. John Chrysostom, by means of God-given wisdom, as referring to unvocal, secret prayer which is sent up from the depths of the heart, bringing forth as testimony from the Sacred Scripture the God-seer Moses and St. Anna, mother of Samuel the Prophet, and Righteous Abel and his blood which cried out from the earth – saying that in their prayer, without uttering a single word, they were heard by God. This great teacher of the universe, the lips of Christ, St. John Chrysostom, has also set forth separately, in three homilies, the teaching concerning this Divine prayer, as is written by the unlying witness, Blessed Simeon the Archbishop of Thessalonica, in chapter 294 of his book, which the whole Catholic Eastern Church holds in great veneration as a pillar and confirmation of the truth.

The fiery pillar and fiery lips of the Holy Spirit, the eye of the Church, Basil, I say, the Great, in explaining the passage of the Divine Scripture: 1 will bless the Lord at all times, His praise shall be always on my lips (Ps. 33: 1), excellently teaches concerning the mental lips and mental activities, that is, concerning mental prayer, bringing forth testimony from the Sacred Scripture; and his very words, filled with Divine wisdom, I here present:

"His praise shall be always on my lips. It appears that the Prophet says the impossible: how can the praise of God be on human lips always? When a man speaks in ordinary worldly conversations, he does not have on his lips the praise of God; when he sleeps, he is entirely silent; and also when he eats and drinks, how can his lips pronounce praise? To this we reply that there are certain mental lips of the inner man by which he is nourished, partaking of the Word of life, which is the bread which cometh down from heaven (John 6:33). It is precisely these lips of which the Prophet spoke: I opened my lips and summoned the Spirit (Ps. 118:131). It is to this that the Lord arouses us, that we should have these lips opened wide so as sufficiently to receive true food, when He says: Open wide thy lips and I will fill them (Ps. 80:11). Wherefore, the thought of God, once engraved on and confirmed in the understanding of the soul, can be called the praise of God which is always in the soul. And according to the word of the Apostle, one who is heedful can do everything to the glory of God, so that every deed, and every word, and every mental activity has the significance of praise. Whether the righteous man eat, or drink, or whatsoever be doth, he doth all to the glory of God (I Cor. 10:31). In such a one, even when he is asleep, his heart keeps vigil." Thus does St. Basil speak. And from his words it is clear that besides the lips of the body there are also lips of the mind, and there is a mental work and praise which are ever mentally within the inner man.

The namesake of blessedness, the Egyptian – or rather, universal sun, who has shone forth with unutterable gifts of the Holy Spirit, the heavenly man, the Great, I say, Macarius, in his heavenly words concerning this holy prayer speaks thus: "A Christian must always have the remembrance of God, because it is written: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart (Matt. 22:37). He must love the Lord not only when he enters the temple of prayer, but also when walking, and conversing, and eating, and drinking, let him have the remembrance of God, and love, and desire; for He says: Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also (Matt. 6:21), and the rest.

The holy and God-bearing Father of old, Isaiah the Hermit, concerning the hidden teaching, that is, the Prayer of Jesus, which is performed by the thought in the heart, brings forth as testimony the words of the Divine Scripture: My heart grew hot within me, and in my meditation a fire shall flame out (Ps. 38:4).

St. Simeon, who is testified of in the above-mentioned book of the most blessed Simeon of Thessalonica, who in the midst of the reigning city [Constantinople] shone forth like the sun by mental prayer in unutterable gifts of the Most Holy Spirit, and consequently is called by the entire Church the New Theologian – in his homily on the three forms of prayer writes thus concerning mental prayer and heedfulness: "Our Holy Fathers, hearing the Lord Who said that Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies, and these are the things which defile a man (Matt. 15:19-20); and again hearing that He teaches to cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also (Matt. 23:26), abandoned every other work and labored only in this guarding of the heart, knowing for certain that together with this doing they would keep without difficulty every other virtue as well. And without this doing it is impossible for there to be a single virtue." These words of the Saint clearly indicate that the divine Fathers placed the above-mentioned words of the Lord as a testimony and foundation for themselves of the guarding of the heart, that is, of the mental invocation of Jesus. This Saint brings forth also, as a testimony of Divine mental prayer, other passages of Sacred Scripture, saying: "Ecclesiastes speaks of this: Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth, and go undefiled in the ways of thy heart, and remove anger from thy heart (Eccl. 11: 9-10), and: If the Spirit of the Lord shall come upon thee, leave not thy place (Eccl. 10:4). By "place" he means the heart, as also the Lord has said: Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts (Matt. 15:19). And again: Be ye not haughty (Luke 12:29), [that is, do not dissipate your mind hither and thither]. And again: Narrow is the gate, and sorrowful is the way, which leadeth unto life (Matt. 7:14); likewise: Blessed are the poor in spirit (Matt. 5:3), that is, those who do not have in themselves a single thought of this world." And the Apostle Peter says: Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour (I Pet. 5:8). And the Apostle Paul clearly writes to the Ephesians concerning the guarding, of the heart, saying: We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places (Eph. 6:12).

St. Hesychius the Presbyter, Theologian and teacher of the Church of Jerusalem, friend and intimate of our holy and God-bearing Father Euthemius the Great, who wrote in Divinely-wise fashion, from the enlightenment of Divine grace, a book in 200 chapters concerning this sacred mental invocation of Jesus in the heart, that is, concerning mental prayer, brings forth concerning this the following testimonies from Sacred Scripture: Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God (Matt. 5:8); likewise: Beware, lest there be a bidden word of iniquity in thy heart (Deut. 15:9); likewise: In the morning will I stand before Thee, and Thou shalt see me (Ps. 5:4); likewise: Blessed is he that shall take and dash thy little ones against the rock (Ps. 136:9); likewise: In the morning I put to death all the wicked of the land, that I might cut off all the doers of iniquity from the city of the Lord (Ps. 100:8); like, wise: Be prepared, O Israel, to call upon the name of the Lord thy God (Amos 4:12); and the Apostle: Pray without ceasing (I Thes. 5:17); and the Lord Himself says: Without Me ye can do nothing. He that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit. If a man abide not in Me, he is cast forth as a branch (John 15:5-6); likewise: Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts: murders, adulteries... These are the things which defile a man (Matt. 15:19); likewise: I delight to do Thy will, O my God: yea, Thy law is within my heart (Ps. 39:9); and others, which because of their multitude I omit.

Our divine and God-bearing Father John of the Ladder brings forth the testimony of Divine Scripture concerning this sacred prayer and true silence of the mind, saying: "The great doer of great and perfect prayer has said: I bad rather speak five words with my understanding (I Cor. 14:19), and the rest; and again: My heart is ready, O God, my heart is ready (Ps. 56:8) likewise: I sleep, but my heart keepeth vigil (Song of Songs 5:2); likewise: I cried with my whole heart (Ps. 118:145), that is, with body and soul; and the rest."

Our divine Father Philotheus, Abbot of the Monastery of the Bush of the Most Holy Mother of God which is on Sinai, who compiled a small book of chapters on the mental guarding of the heart-priceless pearls of Divine wisdom, filled with unutterable heavenly sweetness of the Holy Spirit – places as the unshakable foundation of his words the words of the Sacred Scripture: In the morning I put to death all the wicked of the land (Ps. 100:8), and the rest; likewise: The Kingdom of God is within you (Luke 17:21); and: "He likened the Kingdom of Heaven to a mustard seed, and a pearl, and leaven"; and again: Without Me ye can do nothing (John 15:5); likewise: With all watchfulness keep thy heart (Prov. 4:23); and: Cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also (Matt. 23:26); and: We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places (Eph. 6:12); likewise: Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour: whom resist steadfast in the faith (I Pet. 5:8-9); likewise: I delight in the law of God after the inward man; but I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity (Rom. 7:22-23); and others.

Our divine Father Diadoch, Bishop of Photicus, of whom testimony is given in the book of the above-mentioned Hierarch of Christ, Simeon of Thessalonica, places the following foundation from the Divine Scripture in his homily (one out of 100 chapters in his divine book) on the mental Jesus Prayer sacredly performed in the heart: No man can say the Lord Jesus, but by the Holy Spirit (I Cor. 12:3); and from the Gospel parable of the merchant who was seeking good pearls he brings forth the following words: This is the pearl of great price which can be obtained by him who will sell his property and will have unutterable joy over obtaining it, and the rest.

Our holy Father Nicephorus the Faster, of whom testimony is given in the same book of the above-mentioned Hierarch Simeon, in his homily on the guarding of the heart, which is filled with spiritual profit, likens this Divine mental doing of prayer in the heart to the treasure hid in the field, and calls it a burning lamp, bringing forth the passages of Sacred Scripture: The Kingdom of God is within you (Luke 17:21), and: We wrestle not against flesh and blood (Eph. 6:12); likewise: to dress it and keep it (Gen. 2:15), and the rest.

Our blessed and God-bearing Father Gregory the Sinaite, who by the doing of the Divine prayer ascended to the height of Divine vision and shone forth like the sun with gifts of the Holy Spirit on the Holy Mountain of Athos and in other places, who composed the Hymns to the Holy Trinity which are sung every Sunday after the Canon to the Holy Trinity [at Nocturns] in the Holy Catholic Eastern Church throughout the world, and likewise the Canon to the Life-giving Cross, having embraced the writings of all the God-bearing Fathers, composed a book, filled with every spiritual profit, in which he teaches in refined detail, more than all the other Saints, concerning this Divine prayer sacredly performed by the mind in the heart, and brings forth in confirmation of his words the following passages from the Sacred Scripture: Remember the Lord thy God always (Deut. 8:18); likewise: In the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening let not thy hand cease (Eccl. 11:6), and the rest; likewise: If I pray with the tongue, that is, with the lips, my spirit prayeth, that is, my voice (know, that lips and tongue, and spirit, and voice – are one and the same thing), but my understanding is unfruitful. I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also; and: I had rather speak five words with my understanding (I Cor. 14:14, 15, 19), and the rest, bringing forth as a witness also St. John of the Ladder, who refers these words to prayer. Likewise: The Kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force (Matt. 11:12); likewise: No man can say the Lord Jesus, but by the Holy Spirit (I Cor. 12:3), and the rest.

The follower of the steps of the Apostles, the invincible pillar of the Orthodox Faith, he who by the fiery sword of the Spirit and the truth of Orthodox dogmas annihilated the Spirit-fighting heresies of the Latins, as if they had been the webs of spiders, at the Council of Florence – Mark, I say, the all-sacred, most wise and most eloquent Metropolitan of Ephesus, in the beginning of his commentary on the Church's services, writes concerning the Divine Prayer of Jesus performed secretly by the mind in the heart, making use of the testimony of the Divine Scripture; his very words, Divinely wise, 1 present here: "We should, according to the commandment which has been commanded, pray without ceasing, and offer worship to God in spirit and in truth; but care for worldly thoughts and the fetters of concern for the body lead many away and turn many away from the Kingdom of God which is within us, as the word of God proclaims, and hinder us from remaining at the mental altartable and offering of ourselves spiritual and rational sacrifices to God, according to the divine Apostle who says that we are the temple of God Who dwells in us, and His Divine Spirit dwells in us. And it is not astonishing it such a thing usually occurs with many who live according to the flesh, when we see that certain of the monks, who have renounced earthly things, by reason of the mental warfare at the undertaking of the passions and the great disturbance which arises therefrom and darkens the rational part of the soul, cannot yet attain to pure prayer, even though they strongly desire this. Sweet is the pure and unceasing remembrance of Jesus in the heart and the unutterable enlightenment which comes from it."

Our holy Russian Father, St. Nilus of Sora, who composed his book concerning the mental guarding of the heart from the teaching of the Godbearing Fathers, and in particular from Gregory the Sinaite, makes use of such testimonies as these from the Sacred Scripture: Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, and these are the things which defile a man (Matt. 15:19-20); and: Cleanse that which is within the cup and platter (Matt. 23:26); likewise: It is fitting to worship the Father in spirit and in truth (John 4:23); likewise: If I pray with the tongue, and the rest; and: I had rather speak five words with my understanding, than ten thousand words with the tongue (I Cor. 14:14, 19), and the rest.

Again, the Russian luminary, the Hierarch of Christ Demetrius, Metropolitan of Rostov, who with the spiritual sword of the word annihilated, as if they had been the webs of spiders, the errors of the sectarians and their Godresisting, corrupt understanding, which is contrary to the Sacred Scripture, who wrote for the benefit of the Holy Church many teachings which are filled with the wisdom of the Holy Spirit, and composed a homily on the inner mental doing of prayer which is overflowing with spiritual profit, makes use of the following testimonies from Sacred Scripture: Thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and the rest; likewise: My heart said unto Thee: I will seek the Lord; My face bath sought Thee; Thy face, O Lord, will I seek; in the same way as the deer thirsteth for springs of water, so doth my soul thirst for Thee, O God; likewise: The Kingdom of God is within you; likewise: Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit (Eph. 6:18); and: If I pray with the tongue, my spirit prayeth, but my understanding is unfruitful; and again: I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also, and the rest. These words, agreeing with Sts. John of the Ladder, and Gregory the Sinaite, and Nilus of Sora, he understands as referring to mental prayer.

Indeed, the Church's Typicon itself, which was printed in the great reigning city of Moscow, presenting the Church's law concerning prostrations and prayer, brings forth as testimony of this Divine prayer these passages from Divine Scripture: God is Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth (John 4:24). Likewise: If I pray with the tongue, my spirit prayeth, but my understanding is unfruitful. What is it then? I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also (I Cor. 14: 14-15). And again: In the church I had rather speak five words with my understanding, than ten thousand words with the tongue (I Cor. 14:19). And it brings forth as testimony from the Holy Fathers: St. John of the Ladder, and the divine Gregory the Sinaite, and St. Antioch, and in part their divine teaching on this mental prayer, and in the end it says: "And with this, here we end the discussion of the sacred and ever-memorable mental prayer." And then it speaks also of the holy prayer common to everyone, performed in the Church's services.

And so by God's grace it has been shown that the God-bearing Fathers, made wise by the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit, place the foundation of their teaching concerning the mental sacred activity of prayer, secretly performed within the inner man, on the unshakable rock of the Divine Scripture of the New and Old Testaments, taking from there, as from an inexhaustible source, such a multitude of testimonies.

And who among right-believing Christians, seeing this, could have the least doubt concerning this Divine matter? Only one who submits to the spirit of insensibility, who hears and sees but does not wish to understand and know, could do this. But those who fear God and have sound reason, seeing such testimonies of so many witnesses, will unanimously confess this to be a Divine matter, more natural to and befitting the Angelic monastic order than all other monastic labors. Concerning this work the above-mentioned and very many other of our divine Fathers offer in their writings many worthy words, which are sweeter than honey and the honeycomb and filled with spiritual wisdom, giving instruction concerning the inner, mental labor against the mental and invisible enemies: concerning how one should turn against them this spiritual sword and this flaming invincible weapon of the Name of Jesus which guards the doors of the heart; that is, concerning how this Divine Prayer of Jesus should be sacredly performed with the mind in the heart.

Concerning the sacred doing of this sacred prayer, especially concerning its very beginnings and concerning how beginners should learn it in practice, I, the least one, as far as the power of my infirm mind allows, must write at least a little, God strengthening me, from the teaching of the Holy Fathers. And first of all it must be explained that this Divine prayer is a spiritual art, and then what preparation there must be for practicing it, according to the teaching of the Holy Fathers.