The Art of Prayer

The Art of Prayer[short]Compiled by Igumen Chariton of Valamo, Traslated by E. Kafloubovsky and E. M. Palmer, Edited with as introduction by Timothy Ware, Pages: 282[ short][long] This is a collection of texts on prayer, drawn from Greek and Russian sources. The spiritual teaching of the Orthodox Church appears here in its classic and traditional form, but expressed in unusually direct and vivid language. The Arts of Prayer is concerned in particular with most

[short]Compiled by Igumen Chariton of Valamo, Traslated by E. Kafloubovsky and E.M. Palmer, Edited with as introduction by Timothy Ware, Pages: 282[/short][long]

This is a collection of texts on prayer, drawn from Greek and Russian sources.  The spiritual teaching of the Orthodox Church appears here in its classic and traditional form, but expressed in unusually direct and vivid language.

The Arts of Prayer is concerned in particular with most frequently used and best loved of all Orthodox prayers – the Jesus Prayer.  It deals also with the general question ‘What is prayer?’, with the different degrees of prayers from ordinary oral prayer to unceasing prayer of the heart, with the dangers of illusion and discouragement, and the need for seclusion and inner peace.

Father Chariton, ‘Igumen’ or Abbot of the Russian monastery of Valamo, took his texts chiefly from the letters spiritual guides in nineteenth-century Russia.  But he used many other writers, Greek as well as Russian, his own community of Valamo.

“The book represents the fruits of careful reading of spiritual works over many years of monastic life and it gives a fairly comprehensive record of the spiritual teaching of the Orthodox Church in its traditional monastic form.”

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