The Spiritual Heart 4

"It is impossible," we read in the Philokalia, "to purify our heart from passion-filled thoughts and to get rid of the demons from the heart without the unceasing invocation of the name of Jesus Christ."

Saint John Chrysostom says the following about noetic prayer in relation to the heart.

"A soul that... does the prayer of Jesus can... first sees

the wickedness, in the innermost part of its heart and then is able to see the good. This prayer can dig up the sin that lives in the heart and the same prayer can uproot it... the same prayer can subdue the enemy (devil) and little by little remove him completely from the heart. The name of the Lord Jesus Christ, going down to the depth of the heart will subdue the "snake" that rules in its meadow places, and will save and give life to the soul. Continue the prayer in the Lord Jesus steadily, so that the heart will assimilate the Lord in it, and the Lord will assimilate in Him the heart, in a way that both He and it become one. This, however, cannot be done in one or two days but demands many years and much time... Much time and labor is needed for the enemy to be chased away -- from the heart -- and for Christ to be installed there."

Indeed, blessed are those who unceasingly refer to the name of the Lord with the prayer of the heart in them. "The all-holy and sweet name of Jesus Christ is continually cried in the depths of the heart through this cardiac and intellectual [noetic] prayer," as Saint Nikodimos of the Holy Mountain says in his Spiritual Counsel. The same holy Father urges us to occupy ourselves much more with the prayer of the heart. But instead of using my own exhortations, I present his exact words:

"This, briefly my beloved, is the well-known, so called -- by the Holy Fathers ~ intellectual [noetic] and cardiac prayer, of which, if you want to widen your knowledge, read the sermon of Saint Nikiphoros in the book of the holy Philokalia; the sermon of Gregory of Thessaloniki about those who live in sacred silence, and the 100 chapters by Kallistos and Ignatios Xanthopoulos, as well as the writings of Gregory of Sinai.

                                                                  Abbott  Spyridon, The Heart