Wilfrid Stinissen
The Jesus Prayer is often called the prayer of the heart. In fact, every prayer should be, or at least should become, a prayer of the heart. The reason this particularly applies to the Jesus Prayer is that the heart occupies a special place in it. However, it is first necessary to note that we are not talking about the heart as it is understood in today's (poetic) language. In reality, it has nothing to do with superficial emotions. In the tradition of the Eastern Church, as well as in the language of the Bible, the heart, both in its physical and spiritual meaning, is the most important human organ. And in the heart, one meets God. There, deep within the human heart, divine life lies dormant.
In paradise, man lived in his heart. He was in harmony with his God, and there was perfect unity between his intellectual and emotional faculties. The fall into sin caused something in human nature to become corrupted and divided. Man lost his center, so he now drowns in external things. The paradise harmony that was given to man and for which he was created is gone. Thoughts, images, desires, and emotions oppose each other, making it difficult to turn the whole self to God. Even though the soul deeply feels a painful longing for God, the surface is crowded with small and large appetites that constantly scream "no!". This division resides in the mind (head), where thoughts and images "dance like snowflakes or swarms of mosquitoes in the summer" (Theophan the Recluse, 1815–1894). Orthodox anthropology places great emphasis on this division between the mind (head) and the heart of the fallen man. Sin creates confusion. The unity and harmony that once ruled between the heart, that powerful element through which we feel and experience God, and the head, the seat of rational perception and understanding of the external world, has been broken. The integrity, wholeness of man rests in the harmonious relationship between these two poles, and this harmony arises when the reason submits to the heart.
Therefore, Eastern spiritual writers emphasize again and again that it is necessary to leave the head and immerse oneself in the heart. This is not a process that is purely and exclusively spiritual. The term "heart" also refers to the physical organ located in the chest "near the left nipple, a little above it," as Ignatius Brianchaninov (1807–1867) says.
The physical heart is thus a symbol of the spiritual heart. Therefore, the search for the heart has both physical and spiritual significance. Listening to the beating of our own heart also helps to find our spiritual center.
(Excerpt from the forthcoming book The Jesus Prayer,
to be published at the end of the year by the Carmel Publishing House,
translated by P. Vojtěch Engelhart OSB)
