Communion
The literal translation of the words “pray always” is “come to rest.”
The Greek word for rest is hesychia and hesychasm is the term which refers to the spirituality of the desert. A hesychast is a man or a woman who seeks solitude and silence as the ways to unceasing prayer. The prayer of the hesychasts is a prayer of rest. This rest, however, has little to do with the absence of conflict or pain. It is a rest in God in the midst of a very intense daily struggle.
Hesychastic prayer, which leads to that rest where the soul can dwell with God, is prayer of the heart. For us who are so mind-oriented it is of special importance to learn to pray with, and from, the heart. We have to realize that here the word heart is used in its full biblical meaning. In our milieu, the word heart has become a soft word. It refers to the seat of the sentimental life. Expressions such as “heartbroken” and “heartfelt” show that we often think of the heart as the warm place where the emotions are located in contrast to the cool intellect where our thoughts find their home.
But the word heart in the Jewish-Christian tradition refers to the source of all physical, emotional, intellectual, volitional, and moral energies.
From the heart arise unknowable impulses as well as conscious feelings, moods and wishes. The heart, too, has its reasons and is the centre of perception and understanding. Finally, the heart is the seat of the will: it makes plans and comes to good decisions. Thus, the heart is the central and unifying organ of our personal life. Our heart determines our personality, and is therefore not only the place where God dwells but also the place which Satan directs his fiercest attacks. It is this heart that is the place of prayer. The prayer of the heart is a prayer that directs itself to God from the centre of the person and thus affects the whole of our humanness.
Therefore, the first task of the pray-er, is to enter our own heart. This does not mean trying to unnaturally fill our prayer with feeling or emotional intensity, rather it is about striving to allow our prayer life to engage the whole of our person. The way to God is through the heart. The first great struggle of prayer is to reach the state of mind that is free from disturbance.
Prayer is not an intellectualising process.
In other words, we are not trying to find interesting words or pious phrases or scriptures in order to attract God to our space. God is already in our space – He will be found in the silence of our heart. Prayer opens our eyes of our soul to the truth around us: God is, He is present and He is present within you. Thus, the prayer of the heart is the prayer of truth. It unmasks the many illusions and lies we have been carrying about God, ourselves and our relational connection with God, and leads us into a relationship with God that is based in truth. This trust gives us rest. This rest gives us an anchor to our heart, meaning we will become less distracted by worldly thoughts and more single-mindedly centred on the ‘lover of our soul.’
