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In the Stillness, Waiting

Author Nicholas Worssam
Publisher Canterbury £16.99
Format pbk
ISBN 9781786224880

This is a book about the prayer of silence and those who practised and taught it, from the roots of hesychasm in the desert tradition, via practitioners/teachers from the fourth to the fourteenth century, to the twentieth-century Greek monk St Porphyrios. Hesychastic prayer is the prayer that seeks God in the silence beyond words; in the Eastern Orthodox tradition it is usually associated with recitation of the Jesus prayer. (This is not a contradiction; the Jesus prayer is the way in, but not the goal.) Each of the saints is given ample voice, much of it verbatim. At the end of each chapter, there are questions for reflection and discussion, usually aiming to identify links between the reader’s experience and the teaching portrayed. The author’s own love of the prayer of silence comes through warmly in the introduction; after that, I found the historical account more of a description than an invitation. The ancient texts yield many gems but require careful attention. I would have valued some reflection on the place of silence and the personal pursuit of God in our own cultural and ecclesiastical context.

Reviewed by GERTRUD SOLLARS

Prayer

 

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