Basics (part 1 of 2): Eight pragmatic counsels

7 from Metropolitan Theoliptos of Philadelphia and 1 from St. Silouan the Athonite

In this and the following post, as the title indicates, I’ll be dealing with a few basics. Specifically, I’ll list some ways that help us keep the mind (nous) focused and fixed on the immediate goal (skopos) of acquiring pure (or, at the very least, purer) prayer and contemplation. [1] The emphasis will be on preparing ourselves outwardly so that we can be inwardly receptive to the ministry of the Spirit in our experience. As I wrote in a recent post, for the Christian, contemplation is worship; it begins and ends there. Along with that claim, we can also note that corporate and personal prayer are meant to be complementary, supporting and nourishing one another. There is to be no division between the esoteric and exoteric in Christian life. One is not superior or “higher” in relation to the other, and they certainly shouldn’t be seen as in tension. Without the one, ideally speaking, the other will inevitably languish (which is not to ignore the fact that there are many “churches” and forms of corporate “worship” that are detrimental to spiritual health, but I’ll leave that observation for another post). In what follows, then, I’ll list a few practical suggestions for us to take on board. Seven have been picked from “On Inner Work in Christ,” the work of Metropolitan Theoliptos of Philadelphia (c. 1250 – 1322; St. Gregory Palamas was one of his disciples), and an eighth piece of advice, somewhat modified, is taken from St. Silouan the Athonite (1866 – 1938). In the sequel to this article, I’ll highlight an essential aspect of the Christian life, overlooked too often in our time. In that forthcoming post, I’ll be drawing primarily on a significant passage taken from “The Ecclesiastical Hierarchy” of (Pseudo-)Dionysius the Areopagite. That one promises to go a bit deeper than this one does (stay tuned, in other words). Still, the eight recommendations below, even if they appear at first to be unexciting and maybe even a wee bit pedantic, are solid ones for anyone who hopes to advance in interior practice. An athlete, after all, has to limber up before getting into the game.