this kind of DEEPER PRAYER LIFE
appeals to me
re st gregory palamas & hesychasm
"Kallistos Ware distinguishes five distinct meanings of the term "hesychasm":
- "solitary life", a sense, equivalent to "eremitical life", in which the term is used since the 4th century;
- "the practice of inner prayer, aiming at union with God on a level beyond images, concepts and language", a sense in which the term is found inEvagrius Ponticus (345-399), Maximus the Confessor (c. 580 - 662), and Symeon the New Theologian (949-1022);
- "the quest for such union through the Jesus Prayer", the earliest reference to which is in Diadochos of Photiki (c. 450);
- "a particular psychosomatic technique in combination with the Jesus Prayer", use of which technique can be traced back at least to the 13th century;
- "the theology of St. Gregory Palamas", on which see Palamism.[3..."
"Some words from St. John Climacus
From Step 6 - On Remembrance of Death in The Ladder of Divine Ascent:
- Every word is preceded by thought. And the remembrance of death and sins precedes weeping and mourning.
Not every desire for death is good. Some, constantly sinning from force of habit, pray for death with humility. And some, who do not want to repent, invoke death out of despair. And some, out of self-esteem consider themselves dispassionate, and for a while have no fear of death. And some (if such can now be found), through the action of the Holy Spirit, ask for their departure.
Some inquire and wonder: "Why, when the remembrance of death is so beneficial to us, has God hidden from us the knowledge of the hour of death?" – not knowing that in this way God wonderfully accomplishes our salvation. For no one who foreknew his death would at once proceed to baptism or the monastic life; but everyone would spend all his days in iniquities, and only on the day of his death, would he approach baptism and repentance. From long habit, he would become confirmed in vice, and would remain utterly incorrigible.
And I cannot be silent about the story of Hesychius the Horebite. He passed his life in complete negligence, without paying the least attention to his soul. Then he became extremely ill, and for an hour he expired. And when he came to himself, he begged us all to leave him immediately. And he built up the door of his cell, and he stayed in it for twelve years without ever uttering a word to anyone, and without eating anything but bread and water. And, always remaining motionless, he was so rapt in spirit at what he had seen in his ecstasy, that he never changed this manner of life but was always as if out of his mind, and silently shed hot tears. But when he was about to die, we broke open the door and went in, and after many questions, this alone was all we heard from him: "Forgive me! No one who has acquired the remembrance of death will ever be able to sin." We were amazed to see that one who had before been so negligent was so suddenly transfigured by this blessed change and transformation. We reverently buried him in the cemetery near the fort, and after some days we looked for his holy relics, but did not find them. So by Hesychius's true and praiseworthy repentance, the Lord showed us that He accepts those who desire to amend, even after long negligence...." - http://orthodoxwiki.org/Hesychasm
- "...
" If u declare with your mouth,
"Jesus is Lord," & believe in your heart
that God raised Him from the dead,
u will be saved."
Romans 10.9