The Philokalia

 

 

 I recently got in the mail a copy of the Philokalia. It’s the fifth and final volume of the English translation edited by Ware, Sherrard, and Palmer.  The five volume books have quite a reputation, though it’s not nearly  as popular in the West as in some Orthodox circles,  where it is second in stature only to the Bible. It was first compiled on Mount Athos in Greece by two monks,  St Nikodimos and St Makarios, and published in 1782 in Vienna. It was translated throughout the Orthodox world and had a huge impact in Russia. It is a spiritual anthology of many of the most significant monastic and spiritual writers in the Orthodox church.  I often wonder how much someone like me can even profit reading these books, being a lay person and a Roman Catholic. Some of these texts seem to be geared towards Orthodox monks.It's also important to have a spiritual guide or elder.  I was musing about this with a Jewish friend who shared with me that he wasn't always certain that he should read many Hasidic writings. Typically only married men and Rabbis over a certain age read Kabbalah texts.

  In the famous book, The Way of a Pilgrim, however, we find a chronicle of an anonymous layman travelling Tsarist Ukraine, Russia and Siberia with a copy of the Russian Philokalia which he received from a monk. He travels about praying the 'Jesus Prayer' which the pilgrim learns after seeking a way to pray unceasingly.  He carries with him in his napsack, the Philokalia, along with the New Testament and some bread to eat. The Philokalia has exercised a huge influence in the Orthodox world but the publication of the fifth volume of the Philokalia, finally released by Faber and Faber in the English speaking world, was met without fanfare and barely noticed or reviewed. Its interesting to find a central literary allusion to the prayer and to the Way of a Pilgrim in the book Franny and Zooey by J.D Salinger.

I remember first encountering the Philokalia many years ago browsing Hulls Bookstore in downtown Winnipeg. The forth volume had came out in the mid nineties and I was really fascinated by this book though I didn't know much about prayer or the Bible( I still don't) The clerks treated that book with a certain kind of reverence even though they were likely Protestants. The Philokalia is an anthology of spiritual texts from the fourth to the fifteenth centuries. Much of it is is common to both Orthodox and Catholic churches prior to the schism. It articulates a spirituality called Hesychasm, Greek for stillness. Part of the principle teaching of Hesychasm and the Philokalia is the practice of the Jesus Prayer, a short prayer, repeated in union with the breath, consisting of the words " Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me". Sometimes the prayer is shortened or varied depending on the need of the person. The Russian prayer adds the words, "sinner" to the end of the prayer. Many saints were content to just repeat the name of Jesus. The prayer is also referred to as the prayer of the heart. The prayer is rhythmical and is meant to be prayed by the heart and to be as automatic as the vital functions.  It is very common, particularly for beginners, to say the Jesus Prayer on a rope with knots on it (a chotki). This gives the prayer a a certain tactile feel and allows for counting the prayers. Many practitioners recite it many hundred of times. I've been trying to practice this prayer for some time now as well as with the practice of reciting the psalms, or psalmody, but it requires a really strong discipline and ascetic effort to say it all the time. It is meant to be automatic. Prayer without ceasing. As the scripture says , " I sleep, but my heart is awake "That seems to be the essential aspect of the Philokalia and the Eastern contemplative spirituality called Hesychasm.