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THE PRAYER OF DEEP SILENCE
A Prayer of the Hesychast Tradition for the Purification of the Heart,
the Reception of the Divine Energies, and Deification (Theosis)
Based on the Philokalia · The theology of Gregory Palamas · The meditations of Isaac the Syrian
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INTRODUCTION
Why Does the Human Being Need Deep Silence?
Hesychasm (Greek: ἡσυχία — hesychia) is the most profound tradition of spiritual practice in the Eastern Church. Its roots reach back to the desert fathers of the fourth century, and it attained its theological maturity through the work of St. Gregory Palamas (1296–1359). The word hesychia means silence, peace, inner stillness — yet not the silence of death, but the most perfect pulse of life.
This is the path to which the fathers of the Eastern Orthodox Church called every human being: not only monks and hermits, but all who desire to live a life fully given to God. The hesychast fathers understood the human person as a dynamic being of silence — a being created, at the very core of its nature, to live through silence. Not passive or empty silence, but active, watchful, prayer-ready silence, in which God may speak and the human being may listen.
“Love silence above all that the world offers, for in silence you will grow beyond yourself and find God, whom you love.”
— St. Isaac the Syrian, 7th century
In the modern world, deep silence has become a rarity. Digital noise, constant connectivity, and the relentless flow of information have brought about a loss of existential peace. Yet it is precisely in silence that the most hidden heart of human existence dwells. The hesychast texts — above all the great Philokalia collection, John Climacus’s Ladder of Divine Ascent, and the meditations of Symeon the New Theologian — teach that the presence of God is found in silence, and that watchfulness of heart (Greek: nepsis) is the path to God.
The Human Person as a Dynamic Being of Silence
Orthodox anthropology understands the human person in trichotomic terms: body (soma), soul (psychē), and spirit (pneuma). Yet these three are not separate parts — they form one integral being, created in the image (eikōn) and likeness (homoiosis) of God. In the hesychast tradition, the heart (kardia) is the metaphysical centre of the entire human being — the place where bodiliness and spirituality meet, where creation touches the Creator, where the temporal encounters the eternal.
Gregory Palamas taught clearly: God in His essence (ousia) is utterly beyond the reach of human beings, yet His energies (energeiai) — His life-giving and sanctifying powers — are in relationship with humanity and permeate all of creation. These energies are the true God Himself — not something created by God, but God Himself, giving Himself to humanity. It is in this that theosis, or deification, consists: the human person does not annihilate their personhood, but overcomes their fallen nature and participates in the fire of Divine Life.
“God became human so that the human might become God.”
— St. Athanasius of Alexandria, 4th century
The Jesus Prayer — “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner” — is the most refined instrument of hesychast practice. It is repeated ceaselessly, synchronised with the breath, until the prayer sinks into the heart and begins to burn there of its own accord. At that moment it is no longer the work of the human being, but the work of the Holy Spirit within the person. This is a prayer that does not ask things of God — it is a movement of drawing near to God, an encounter with the face of the Living God.
How to Use This Prayer
The present “Prayer of Deep Silence” has been written in the spirit and on the basis of texts from the Philokalia, John Climacus, Symeon the New Theologian, Gregory Palamas, and Isaac the Syrian. This is not an ordinary prayer to be read once and set aside. It is a journey that calls for:
→ Bodily silence — find a place where the body can be still
→ Silence of the soul — let thoughts disperse; do not force them, simply observe
→ Silence of the spirit — give the heart permission to be open, without defence, without mask
→ Expectation — for God always comes
The prayer may be read slowly, leaving space for each part so that the words may sink into the heart. The rhythm of breathing may be employed: one phrase on the in-breath, another on the out-breath. The same section may be read repeatedly, until it opens a new depth within. What matters is not the speed of the prayer — what matters is the presence of the heart.
✦ Preparatory Prayer — Entering the Threshold of Silence ✦
Lord, Great Silence,
You who are before all words and after all words —
here I stand, Your created being,
made of dust and the breath of life,
broken and longing,
full of noise I do not know myself,
full of silence I have not yet come to know.
Before I open my mouth — I listen.
Before I ask — I rest in You.
Before I think — I let Your Silence
pass through me as light passes through
glass, changing not the glass,
but giving it new radiance.
Lord Jesus Christ,
Son of God,
have mercy on me, a sinner.
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✦ I · The Confession of Darkness — The Beginning of Nepsis, or Watchfulness ✦
Lord, I know the depth of my own depths:
I am a falling that has not ended,
I am a sin not yet named,
I am a longing I do not understand.
I have looked at myself in the mirror
and seen a stranger.
I have listened to my own heart
and heard many voices,
all demanding to be named,
yet none of them can I name.
But You, Lord, know my name.
You called me before I was born.
You are the Word from which my first breath came,
and You are the Silence
into which my last will return.
Grant me, Lord, a watchful heart —
nepsis, for which the desert fathers sought:
holy sobriety that sees through illusions,
that is not deceived by the voices of passions,
that stands as a gatekeeper to its own inner courtyard
and allows only You to enter.
Lord Jesus Christ,
Son of God,
have mercy on me, a sinner.
✦ ✦ ✦
✦ II · Descending into the Body — The Heart as a House of Prayer ✦
Lord, You have created my heart
as a house of prayer that stands before churches,
before words, before thoughts.
But I have turned it
into a marketplace.
Cleanse it, Lord.
Breathing in: have mercy,
breathing out: on me, a sinner.
Breathing in: Your name,
breathing out: my cares, my fears, my wounding.
Let my breathing become prayer
as the hesychasts learned:
resting beneath the heart, silent, deep,
where Your name burns
like a candle in a room without wind —
motionless and perfectly bright.
There I would arrive:
not into words or images,
not behind feelings or sensations,
but there, where there is only You
and Your Silence,
which is the greatest speech of all.
Lord Jesus Christ,
Son of God,
have mercy on me, a sinner.
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✦ III · Toward the Light of Tabor — The Prayer of the Uncreated Energies of God ✦
Lord, You are the Light that no one created,
the Light that burned before the sun,
the Light that the apostles saw on Mount Tabor,
when Your human form became for a moment transparent
to the divine radiance
that has been in You from eternity.
Palamas spoke the truth:
this Light is not Your essence,
which no one may see and live —
yet it is You Yourself,
giving Yourself as energy,
as true and living encounter.
Lord, I do not ask to see something extraordinary.
I ask only this — to open.
To open myself as a door is opened,
as a window is opened toward the morning:
the light comes in its own way,
I need not summon or direct it —
I need only stand at the open threshold.
Make me a window, Lord.
Through my transparency
let Your Light fall upon those
who dwell in darkness beside me.
I need not myself be the light —
I wish to be that through which Your Light passes.
Lord Jesus Christ,
Son of God,
have mercy on me, a sinner.
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✦ IV · The Dynamism of the Human Being — A Being That Does Not Remain Still ✦
Lord, You have created me
neither as a stone nor as a weed,
but for movement toward You.
I am a being with a destination —
and that destination is You.
Even in my silence there is movement.
Even in my prayer there is growth.
I will never reach a state
in which I have prayed enough,
loved enough,
received enough —
for You are infinite
and my arriving in You is
an eternal journey without exhaustion.
Gregory of Nyssa said:
perfection is eternal growth in perfection.
So too is the depth of silence:
each time I plunge into You,
I discover a new depth,
a new level of Your being,
a new facet of Your love.
I am a dynamic being of silence:
not the silence of standing still,
but the silence of arriving,
not the silence of emptiness,
but the silence of being filled,
not the silence of death,
but the ever-deepening
silence of life.
Lord Jesus Christ,
Son of God,
have mercy on me, a sinner.
✦ ✦ ✦
✦ V · Prayer on Behalf of All — Synaxis, or the Gathering ✦
I do not pray for myself alone.
My silence is full of those
whom I love and who suffer,
whom I do not know and who weep,
whom I have not met and will not meet
and who need Your merciful hand.
Lord, in my silence I carry
all the people who at this moment
sleep in pain,
wake with fear,
walk in loneliness,
die alone.
My silence is for them.
My breath is for them.
My heart, which strives to remain open —
is for them.
For the hesychast fathers taught:
the true life of silence is not flight,
but a deeper presence.
The prayer of those who pray —
carries the whole world
as a tree carries its branches:
from the roots, not from force.
Lord Jesus Christ,
Son of God,
have mercy on us, sinners.
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✦ VI · Theosis — The Cry of Deification ✦
Lord, You do not desire only my salvation —
You desire my deification.
Not my annihilation, but my fulfilment.
Not my disappearance into You,
but my being in You as myself,
more fully than I have ever been.
This is theosis:
not the becoming of a human being divine in essence,
but the human being’s participation
in the Life of God,
in the Light of God,
in the Love of God,
without the boundary disappearing
between Creator and creature —
yet without that boundary becoming a barrier.
Make me, Lord, Your image (eikōn):
not a photographic copy,
but a living likeness
with its own face,
its own voice,
its own singular way
of reflecting You to the world.
Perfect in me the likeness (homoiosis)
that Adam lost,
which You restored on the Cross
and confirmed in the Resurrection —
so that the human body may become
a spiritual body without losing its bodiliness,
so that time may become eternity
without losing the present moment.
Lord Jesus Christ,
Son of God,
have mercy on me, a sinner.
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✦ VII · The Deepest Silence — What Lies Beyond Words ✦
Lord —
…
…
…
This cannot be said.
It need not be said.
Before You there need not be words.
Presence is enough.
So stood Elijah at the mouth of the cave
after the wind, the earthquake, and the fire —
and God was not in them.
But after them
came a voice: the sound of gentle silence.
And Elijah covered his face.
This is that silence, Lord,
for which I long:
a voice that is silence.
A silence that is the most perfect speech.
An encounter that cannot be contained in words,
yet which the heart knows
for ever.
· · ·
Lord Jesus Christ,
Son of God,
have mercy on me, a sinner.
· · ·
Lord Jesus Christ,
Son of God,
have mercy.
· · ·
Lord.
· · ·
[Silence]
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AFTERWORD
The Practice of Silence in the Orthodox Tradition
This prayer does not end. The hesychast fathers taught that true prayer is a state of being, not an activity — and that for the experienced person of prayer, the boundary between prayer and everyday life ceases to exist. Prayer becomes breathing, and breathing becomes prayer. All of life becomes one continuous movement toward God, one carrying of His Name in every moment.
St. John Climacus wrote in his famous Ladder of Divine Ascent that prayer is the state of union of the spirit with God, a disposition arising from love that cannot be delimited. It is a way of deeper being that begins in silence and ends… never ends, for God Himself is eternal, and His presence is endless growth without satiation.
“Prayer is the unbreakable companion of the human soul and God. Whoever unites their mind with God leaves all else unattended.”
— St. John Climacus, 6th–7th century
Symeon the New Theologian, one of the most profound theologians of hesychasm, wrote in his hymns of how the fire of the Holy Spirit can truly descend into the human person, how a person can truly perceive the presence of God — not through imagination, not through emotion, but at the level of genuine spiritual experience. This is not a mysticism aimed at distant horizons, but a mysticism of here, of the present moment, of the human being’s own heart.
The present “Prayer of Deep Silence” is an attempt to offer a way into this tradition. The hesychast tradition is not an exhibit in an antiquarian museum. It is a living guide for those who seek a true, deep, and lasting encounter with God — not behind feelings or experiences, not behind ideology or structure, but in the very heart of silence.
Recommended Reading and Sources
For those who wish to delve more deeply into the hesychast tradition, the following sources are recommended:
Philokalia — The great anthology of texts on spiritual watchfulness, prayer, and purification of the heart, compiled in the eighteenth century by St. Nikodemos of the Holy Mountain and St. Makarios of Corinth. Encompasses texts from the fourth to the fifteenth centuries.
St. John Climacus — The Ladder of Divine Ascent — Thirty steps of spiritual development from the overcoming of passions to the love of God.
St. Gregory Palamas — The Triads (In Defense of the Holy Hesychasts) — The theological foundation of the doctrine of the divine energies and theosis.
St. Isaac the Syrian — Ascetical Homilies — The most profound meditations on silence, grace, and the love of God.
Symeon the New Theologian — Hymns of Divine Love — Deeply felt poetry of the experience of the Holy Spirit, the vision of divine light, and the prayer of the heart.
These texts are not artefacts of an antiquarian museum. They are living guides for those who seek a true, deep, and lasting encounter with God — not behind feelings or experiences, not behind ideology or structure, but in the very heart of silence.
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“God is Silence. And that Silence loves you.”
— The spirit of the hesychast tradition
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Kyrie eleison · Kyrie eleison · Kyrie eleison
Lord, have mercy. Lord, have mercy. Lord, have mercy.
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