The Prayer of the Heart was 'unorthodox' when it first came to Mt. Athos. The Hesychast movement, which has the Prayer of the Heart as its basic 'technique', was started there by St. Gregory Palamas in the 14th century. Those who practised the prayer were known as 'naval gazers'. After some time the Church authorities accepted the practice of the prayer and kicked those who opposed it out of the church.

A description of the four stages of the Prayer of the Heart:

1. bodily prayer - reading, standing and prostrations
2. attentive prayer - collecting thoughts saying the words with awareness
3. prayer of the feelings - thought with attention becomes feeling of the heart
4. spiritual prayer - ceaseless prayer without words

The advice in the book is to seek a guide to learn the Prayer of the Heart so that your prayer does not become just 'talking to the wind'. That does not mean that to start practising the prayer should be put off until to-morrow!


The Standard Source   September 5, 2001
 23 out of 25 found this review helpful

If you have any interest in the Philokalia at all, you should start with this book. It is not the entire text, by a long shot - the complete text of the Philokalia in English is still being produced, although I believe that most of it has been published. This book deals with those portions of the Philokalia that discuss the Jesus Prayer.

If your interest is in the Prayer, this book belongs on your book shelf. As it is also a representative sample, this book will also help you decide if you want to tackle the entire Philokalia. The book was first published quite a few years ago, and it has been quoted in so many sources that if you're interested in the subject at all you will probably find that you have already read sizable portions of it.


The Pilgrim's Philokalia   May 18, 2000
 111 out of 113 found this review helpful

The four volumes (soon to be five) of the Philokalia in English have been justly hailed as a great publishing event, making widely available the greatest and most profound compendium of spiritual writings in the Orthodox Christian Tradition. This volume, Writings from the Philokalia on Prayer of the Heart, was published early in the Fifties, and is undoubtedly the spark that set off the whole Philokalia enterprise. Also a translation from the Philokalia, only from the seven volume Russian tranlation of the renowned starets, Theophan the Recluse, Writings from the Philokalia on Prayer of the Heart is a one-volume compilation from the much larger collection, and this can be said to be its chief virtue: the selections were clearly chosen with an eye to texts that are of the most immediate and practical use by the reader. There is every indication that the selection may have been made by a wise spiritual elder for one of his disciples, creating a "portable" Philokalia, as it were. Readers of the Philokalia are probably all acquainted with the wonderful little book, The Way of the Pilgrim, which tells an outwardly charming but deeply serious story of the search by an unnamed Russian pilgrim for a method of prayer that will fulfill the Scriptural command to pray without ceasing. A volume like this one, possibly even the very same texts as contained herein, is said to be the Philokalia that the Pilgrim himself carried on his travels through 19th Century Russia. As such, for all those with an insatiable spiritual hunger for communion with God, Writings from the Philokalia on Prayer of the Heart, will be a spiritual treasure to return to again and again.