The Holy Liturgy — the "Hesychast Experience" of Community in Prayer Communion Cover Image
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Sfânta Liturghie — „experiența isihastă” a comunității în comuniune de rugăciune
The Holy Liturgy — the "Hesychast Experience" of Community in Prayer Communion

Author(s): Viorel Sava
Subject(s): Christian Theology and Religion, Theology and Religion, Pastoral Theology, Eastern Orthodoxy
Published by: Editura Doxologia
Keywords: Hesychasm; prayer of heart; Liturgy and hesychasm; cleaning of the heart; cleaning of the mind;

Summary/Abstract: Our study is entitled: The Holy Liturgy – “the hesychast experience“ of the community in prayer communion, and is focusing on the idea of the similarities which exist between the prayer of the heart and the Holy Liturgy. The main goal of both of them is to see The True Light. The prayer of Jesus and The Liturgy have as a starting point a clean mind and a clean heart together with a penitential conscious. Through these the hesychast and the participants in the Holy Liturgy realize a gradual progress in spiritual knowledge and understanding, in communion with God. In the introduction of the article we pointed out the arguments which inspired us for choosing such a topic. The 2022 year being dedicated to the hesychast Fathers of the Church, as Saints Simeon the New Theologian, Gregory Palamas and Paisios Velichikovski, we found appropriate to extend our research to the Holy Liturgy understood as an hesychast experience of the community in the communion of prayer. Then we tried to underline how St Paisios of Neamț though his disciples to gain the Light through the prayer of heart and how the participants in the Liturgy being involved in the liturgical journey can accomplish the same result. In the end of the Liturgy we sing “We saw the True Light…” which is a confirmation of a real experience but not an imaginary one. Finally, we emphasized the idea that the benefits of partaking the Eternal Light begin in this life when we practice the Jesus prayer and participate actively in the Eucharistic Liturgy.

  • Issue Year: XCVIII/2022
  • Issue No: 9-12 Suppl
  • Page Range: 37-51
  • Page Count: 15
  • Language: Romanian