Asceticism:

1
Asceticism

• Beyond church rites and legalism.

2
Outline
I. Introduction A. The deep spirituality of the
Coptic church is found in its ascetics and
monastic movement.. B. Ancient II. Give
example of Story of Sts. Agape, Irene and
Shiona III. Definition of Asceticism A.
Solitude i. Physical and Spiritual Desert
ii. The Inner life-going into
oneself in order to find God. B. Repentance C.
Humility D. Obedience/Discipleship
E. Prayer Life praying without ceasing
F. Watching
3
Outline cont.

• IV. Conclusion Ways that we can live this deep
  spiritual life today
• A. Inner chamber physical and spiritual
• B. Jesus Prayer (prayer of the heart)
• C. Discipline (routine)
• D. Life of Repentance and Watching/Vigil
• E. Spiritual guidance and practicing obedience/
  Participating in the Mystery of Confession
• F. Spirit of Humility in my relationships

4
Introduction

• Popular spirituality today Eastern Spirituality
  including Meditation Mantras
• The Rothko Chapel

5
Introduction

• Our Coptic Orthodox Church fulfills that
  spiritual need for us on the outside the church
  can seem dry and overly ritualistic if we take
  a deeper look at its rich roots and history we
  will uncover the ancient beauty and rich soil of
  our church the Pearl of Great Price.
• One American guy did

6
Journey Back to Eden

• An ethnographic study by a Benedictine
  monk/anthropologist of the Egyptian monastic life

7
He writes in a journal style titled Becoming
Acclimated P.26

• Becoming Acclimated
• OCTOBER 5, SUNDAY
• During these days I am becoming immersed in the
  monastic
• routine, entering as much as possible into the
  schedules of
• prayers, both communal and private, that the
  monks have
• adopted. Both in St. Macarius and in St. Bishoi
  Monastery, the
• monks rise very early in the morning. Here they
  arise at 230
• A.M. and begin prayer at 300 A.M. Morning
  Prayer consists of
• more than seventy psalms which are sung, one
  after the other,
• with various antiphons, short hymns,
  intercessions, and
• incensations from 300 A.M. until 600 A.M.all
  of this done
• while standing! Then, at 600 A.M. the Coptic
  Mass (the Kodes)
• begins and continues till long past 900 A.M. or
  930 A.M.

8
Journey Back to Eden

• So, in fact, the monks have six hours of
  standing in a very thick cloud of incense every
  morning before they can even have their first
  glass of tea! This is the routine from which they
  never deviate this is the routine which is the
  rhythm of their life, and it is exhausting.
• Nevertheless, it is also very moving, and the
  manner in which the monks celebrate these prayers
  is altogether genuine and sincerenothing
  affected, no sense of drudgery, either. Its
  their work, their primary work, but its a work
  which they perform with great sincerity, great
  veneration, and great reverence in an almost
  simple, childlike way.

9
Journey Back to Eden

• The monks complete the whole Psalter in the
  course of the day (150 Psalms in Coptic or
  Arabic!), which is an extraordinary number. It
  takes a certain amount of practice and
  determination to enter into this regime. The Rule
  of St. Benedict provides for 150 psalms a week
  (with certain repetitions and canticles), whereas
  in my own Benedictine Abbey, we cover the same
  number in a month! We pray them much more slowly
  and with pauses, but we are seated. Comparisons
  are difficult.

10
Asceticism

• How would you define it?

11
Asceticism

• Its a world of spirituality that exists and that
  we can try and get a taste of even if we live in
  the world, in the U.S in the 21st century.
• Its ancient
• St. Antony the first monk in the world
  established monasticism in Egypt.

12
One example in the Synaxarion

• The Martyrdom of the Holy Virgins Agape, Eirene,
  and Shiona.
• On this day( April 16th Ths year it fell on Wed
  of the last week of Holy Lent---Barmouda 8th 1724
  the three holy virgins Agape, Eirene, and Shiona
  (Susinia) were martyred .

13
Asceticism

• 1 Corinthians 924-2724 Do you not know that
  those who run in a race all run, but one receives
  the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain
  it. 25 And everyone who competes for the prize is
  temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain
  a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable
  crown. 26 Therefore I run thus not with
  uncertainty. Thus I fight not as one who beats
  the air. 27 But I discipline my body and bring it
  into subjection, lest, when I have preached to
  others, I myself should become disqualified.

14
Asceticism

• askesis in Greek (means training/practice)-ascetic
  ism the lifelong training in self-control that
  is essential to spiritual growth. A tearing down
  and building up (metahnias), a tearing down of
  the old man (the man of sin) in order to be
  renewed in the new man (Christ Jesus)-the mind of
  Christ. Tear down bad habits and replacing them
  with new ones.
• Asceticism the dedicated, persistent and
  conscious effort we bring to the way we live.

15
Asceticism

• Asceticism is not self-infliction (the guy from
  the devinci code) When we have the right
  understanding of who Christ is we will have the
  right practice. Our Lord Jesus is God incarnate
  fully man and fully divine if we have an
  incorrect understanding of the nature of Christ
  we would abhor and hurt the body despising the
  physical in favor of the spiritual , in the name
  of so called spirituality.

16
Asceticism is Balance

• Asceticism is balanced the monks say about
  themselves (St. Gregory of Sinai) True humility
  is not--- to abuse oneself in self-belittlement.
  Yet it still is voluntary martyrdom death to the
  world to passions to the self in order to gain
  eternal life. A life of discipline, of obedience,
  of fasting and prayer as a means to purification
  of the soul. They see the command to repent in
  Mathew 32 Repent ye for the kingdom of heaven
  is at hand not for a one time deal but for a
  continual life of repentance.

17
Asceticism is Balance

• Asceticism is not self infliction or hatred For
  the holy fathers taught us to be killers of the
  body. The Monks Callistus and Ignatius on
  Directions to Hesychasts
• The outward man perishes but he inward man is
  renewed day by day 2 Corn 416

18
Asceticism

• Ascetics are so enthusiastic about spending time
  with God in fact all their time with Him. As a
  lover with a loved one time passes and they are
  enraptured. The word enthusiasm comes from the
  Greek words en and Theos to be immersed in
  God in the case of the ascetics they are so
  inspired by and passionately dedicated to the
  pursuit of their spiritual growth that they are
  immersed in this process and ultimately they come
  to union with God.

19
Asceticism

• They have Agape love towards God love that
  doesnt hold back and is not concerned about the
  self as to what theyll get for their
  asceticism they do it for its own sake they
  forsook the world because all they wanted was the
  sole focus and pursuit of their salvation so
  they manifested this pursuit in the way they
  lived. They practiced this Agape love in their
  letting go of themselves. They emptied
  themselves of their passions pride self-love
  as God Himself emptied Himself (as is mentioned
  in the Friday Psali) and became man. God cannot
  fill what is already filled with itself. P.44 of
  In the Spirit of Happiness

20
Asceticism

• Ascetics are not attached to anything or one or
  their own selvesall they have is their faith.
• Dying to the World
• Gal 614 But God forbid that I should boast
  except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by
  whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to
  the world.
• Gal 524) And those who are Christs have
  crucified the flesh with its passions and
  desires.
• Meaning of the word world is Evil desires,
  it could mean 1. geographic, 2. people 3. bad
  desires
• Is the world alive in my eyes? If it is, then I
  am affected by it tempted, moved by small
  things, or whatever if the world is truly
  crucified in my eye, its dead, nothing is
  appealing in it in my yes.

21
Asceticism

• Voluntary death Choosing to have a spiritual
  life
• Involuntary death Succumbing to our bodies
  therefore having eternal death.
• They are crucified to the world The cross is the
  key to the Resurrection.
• Three pillars of worship Charity, Prayer and
  Fasting

22
A pillar of Asceticism is Solitude
A Quote from Abouna Elia a monk from St.
Macarius Monastary a disciple of Pope Kyrillos
when he was still a monk (called Abouna Mina the
Solitary at the time) We must go out into the
desert of our own purification and
sanctification. We must accept the eventualities
of divine Providence which come to us with he
same Spirit of affirmation who came over Jesus in
the waters of the Jordan, the Spirit who likewise
drove him in the desert where he was alone and
abandoned, the Spirit who drove him even to the
Cross. .God came to visit us to make this
fountain of life flow into our desert..
23
Back to Fr. Mark Gruber
I reflected afterwards about what Abuna Elia had
shared with me, comparing it to my own experience
of these few months in the desert and to my own
earlier reflections on the Baptism of Jesus and
his subsequent wilderness sojourn. It seems to me
that what Abuna Elia said is an appropriate
measure of the ambivalence of the desert, for it
is certainly a hostile environment. It is one
which impoverishes its inhabitants and
intimidates anyone who passes through it. Yet, at
the same time, if one is patient and does not
rush through it too quickly, he can discover its
hidden springs. There is a kind of silence, for
instance, in which the word of God can echo and
be better heard in his heart.
24
Father Mark Gruber Cont.

• There is a peace in the desert that
• relativizes all the stresses and troubles of
• human life in the city. The desert baptizes us
• into the worst of our human weakness, but it
• transforms that weakness into genuine
• poverty before God. Rather than a place
• that fosters our pretenses and illusions
• about ourselves, it is a means by which we are
• baptized into the truth of divine love, divine
  life. They walk through the barren desert and
  they make it a place of flowing springs (cf.
  Psalm 847).

25
Asceticism includes Humility

• Ascetics high level of spirituality the very act
  that they renounced the world never goes to their
  head. This is the most critical trick by the
  devil for them (and us) the trick that they/we
  have arrived, that were good, we dont need to
  change. They remain watchful and repentant even
  if Christ and a legion of angels welcome them at
  their death it is precisely their true humility
  and feelings of unworthiness that bring them to
  this level and this is the attitude that we want
  to learn. Any act, even the most virtuous, can
  be approached incorrectly, egotistically. P. 67
  of In the Spirit of Happiness

26
Entering the Physical desert allows one to enter
the Spiritual desert

• How do we begin to know our internal vices?
  Whether we are lazy impatient, angry, jealous, ,
  lustful, greedy, egotistical? By beginning to
  know these aspects of ourselves we then allow
  ourselves to be freed from them when theyre not
  in the dark they don t have as much of a strong
  grip on us.. We first need external silence in
  order to gain internal silence and ultimately
  peace.

27
What did they find in their Spiritual Desert?

• Feelings of Greed lust anger emotional
  reactions that sometimes feel beyond our control
  are what the fathers call passions but to be a
  passionate person in our society/modern life has
  positive connotations actually. This is because
  these emotions give color to life they are not
  good or bad in themselves but it is our inability
  to control them but rather they controlling us is
  whats harmful. We need to understand what makes
  us angry, or jealous what triggers those
  feelings and what kind of thinking fuels them.
  Once we can get an understanding of this about
  ourselves (through spending time in silence and
  prayer and self-reflection) we then are less
  gripped by them and are free. The more intense
  the emotion or need, the more our thinking is
  blinded and our free will shackled. In the
  Spirit of Happiness, p.126

28
Different Passions

• St. Gregory of Sinai identifies different
  types of Passions of the mind, of the soul, of
  emotions, of desire and of the tongue for
  example a Passion of the emotions is as we know
  anger, bitterness, hot temper. Of desires love
  of money debauchery self love, of the body
  impurity laziness, gluttony, attachment to the
  world. Passions of speech deceit, craftiness,
  lying, flattery, mockery, idle talk. Passions of
  the mind pride, being puffed up,
  argumentativeness, showing off. The mistress of
  all passions is Self-regard. The passions needed
  to be subjected/ruled by the spirit and by
  reason.

29
Asceticism and Life of Repentance
Continual life of repentance. A monk was asked
what they do all day in the monastery and they
said we fall down and get up, fall down and get
up. Both literally and figuratively. Ascetics
live a life of repentance the Greek word for
repentance is metanoia where we get the Arabic
meh-than-ee-ah) the prostrations we make
seeking Gods mercy and forgiveness and doing it
with a sad heart for our sins but rejoicing as we
get up in the hope of our salvation. Meta
change, noiamind. Repentance is a change of
ones mind.
30
Continual Life of Repentance

• This wasnt easy the spiritual warfare was very
  real in the desert. Its a wrestling both oneself
  and with the forces of evil, opposition on the
  inside and the outside.

31
Ladder of Divine Ascent
32
The result of Asceticism

• But you, my child, although of the flesh, are
  moved by love for a better life and a desire to
  live in your body as though free from it how
  monks Callistus and Ignatius address the fathers
  in their wriritngs Directions to Hesychasts

33
How else were the demons defeated but through
HUMILITY

• He who entirely renounces self-will has
  already attained everything he deems to be good,
  spiritual and pleasing to God, even before he has
  entered a life of spiritual struggle, for
  obedience means not believing that anything good
  comes from oneself, even to the end of life.
  The monks Callistus and Ignatius.

34
Discipleship and Obedience

• The fathers emphasize that if a monk undertakes
  the life of asceticism on his own without
  guidance they will be lost souls. Reaching
  certain spiritual heights without guidance could
  lead one into pride and false understanding of
  themselves.

35
Discipleship and Obedience

• For example
• .When a man sees light with his bodily eyes,
  smells sweet scents, hears voices and many other
  phenomena. Some have become totally possessed,
  and in their madness wander from place to place
  others have been lead astray, mistaking the devil
  for an angel of light, in the guise of which he
  appeared to them without their recognizing him.
  Thus they remained incorrigible to the end,
  refusing to listen to any brothers advice. Some
  of them instigated byt the devil, have committed
  suicide.. St. Simeon the New Theologian

36
Contrast that last quote with

• If someone observes perfect obedience towards
  his spiritual father, he becomes free of all
  cares, because once and for all he has laid all
  his cares on the shoulder of his spiritual
  father. For if a man has given himself up
  entirely to God and has shed all his cares on to
  God and his spiritual father, so that, in his
  obedience, he no longer lives his own life or
  follows his own will, but is dead to all worldly
  attachments and to his own body---what accidental
  thing could ever vanquish and enslave such a man?
  Or what worry or care can he have? Therefore all
  the wiles and stratagems used by the demons to
  entice a man towards many and varied thoughts are
  destroyed and dispersed by attention, prayer and
  obedience. St. Simeon the New Theologian

37
Asceticism includes Obedience

• Ascetics are not their own guides/leaders but
  enter into a disciple relationship lifelong
  learners. Not only have this attitude but enter
  into the difficult relationship with a spiritual
  father who sees their naked wounded and
  sometimes ugly soul loves them prays with and
  for them. Watches them fall over and over again
  and rejoices in their triumphs.

38
Asceticism is Discipline

• From 13th-14th monk St. Gregory of Sinai on how
  an ascetic spends his time
• From the early morning freeing oneself from
  everything, it is necessary to keep remembrance
  of God, by prayer and silence of the heart, and
  for the first hour to pray patiently for the
  second hour to read for the third hour to
  psalmodize for the fourthto pray for the fifth
  to read for the sixth to psalmodize for the
  seventh to pray, for the eight to read for the
  ninth to psalmodies for the tenth to eat, for
  the eleventh to rest--if need be for the
  eleventh to recite the vespers. Thus spending
  the day in a godly manner man pleases God.

39
Spiritual discipline

• Spiritual discipline does not leave room for what
  one feels like doing usually we leave it to our
  feelings to spend time with GodI feel
  depressed so Ill try to pray. But when we have
  a discipline a scheduled time to pray or a tool
  like the agpeya to help us pray we are then
  trained and our ego and our passions (bodily
  desires/emotions) are not in control of our
  spirit but the other way around.

40
Praying without Ceasing Thessalonians (517)
Pray without ceasing

• The monks/nuns are described as angels living on
  earth because their prime occupation is like
  that of the angels which is constant
  praying/praising. Angels give themselves
  completely to their work which is nothing but
  the glorification of God. In the Spirit of
  Happiness, p. 176.

41
Monks are Angels on Earth

• Angels never tire singing praises to the Creator
  nor does a mind, emulating them in purity, ever
  tire in the same. As insubstantial angels in
  heaven care not about food, so those who are
  substantially insubstantial (men who practis
  sobriety on earth) have no care of it when they
  enter into the heaven of silence of mind.

42
Praying unceasingly starts withSilence ?? Yes.
Silence.

• Fathers, harkening to the Lord Who said For
  out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders,
  adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness,
  blasphemies and These are the things which
  defile a man(Matt1519,20), hearing also that in
  another place of the Gospel we are instructed to
  cleanse first that which is within the cup and
  platter, that the outside of them may be clean
  also (Matt2326), have renounced all other
  spiritual work and concentrated wholly on this
  one thing, that is on guarding the heart,
  convinced that, through this practice, they would
  easily attain every other virtue, whereas without
  it not a single virtue can be firmly established.
  Some of the fathers called this doing, silence
  of the heart others called it attention yet
  otherssobriety and opposition (to thoughts),
  while others called it examining thoughts and
  guarding the mind. St. Simeon the New Theologian

43
Why Silence?

• Silence is the mystery of future life whereas
  words are the instrument of this world. The
  monks callistus and Ignatuius
• Stillness of the mind (takes practice) If a man
  prays with his lips while his mind is wandering,
  what use is this? (St. Gregory of Sinai)

44
What is this Future Life?

• Waiting for the True Bridegroom
• They live waiting/watching for the bridegroom as
  the parable of the ten virgins instructs us to
  do. Living with this attitude not only prepares
  us to join the triumphant church and our Heavenly
  father but also enriches our lives Knowing that
  tonights sunset might very well be your last
  changes the way you see it. P. 51 In the Spirit
  of Happiness.

45
In Conclusion Ways that we can live this
Spiritual Life.do we have to be monastics?

• NO! But we can still live it! YAY! ?

46
Ways that we can live this Spiritual Life.do we
have to be monastics?

• Do we have a spiritual Schedule/Routine? Frequent
  practice is the mother of habit and habit becomes
  second nature.
• Agpeya?
• Holy Bible?
• Spiritual Father?
• Confession?
• Am I humble in my relationships?
• You call yourself a sinner, but in effect you
  show that you do not feel yourself to be one. A
  man, who admits himself to be a sinner and the
  cause of many evils, disagrees with no one,
  quarrels with no one, is not wroth with anyone,
  but considers every man better and wiser than
  himself.

47
The Jesus Prayer

• My Lord Jesus Christ Have Mercy on Me a Sinner
• My Lord Jesus Christ, Help Me.
• My Lord Jesus Christ..
• My LordJesus Christ!

48
Driving in traffic, Waiting at the Dr.s office,
until we do it in our sleep!

• The Jesus prayer is a good way to start to train
  ourselves, our mind lips and heart to pray all
  the time so that way our minds are always
  directed towards Christ. Our very breaths our
  very existence become a fragrant prayer. God is
  always present in front of us and whatever we do
  and think is permeated by this focus this
  conscious awareness of being in Gods presence.
  The monk should have memory of God in place of
  breath. (St. Gregory of Sinai)

49
Jesus Prayer

• When you will be worthy of the gift of ceaseless
  prayer in the heart, then, according to Isaac of
  Syria, you will have reached the summit of all
  virtues and become a dwelling place of the Holy
  Spirit then the prayer will not cease, whether
  you sit, walk, eat, drink, or do anything else.
  Even in deep sleep prayer will be active in you
  without any effort, for even when it is
  externally silent, it continues secretly to act
  within. Way of a Pilgrim

50
Jesus Prayer

• The sun passing over the earth produces
  daylight the holy and worshipful Name of Lord
  Jesus, constantly shining in the mind, produces a
  measureless number of sun-like thoughts.

51
Why the Jesus Prayer St. John Chrysostom teaches

• So that the name of the Lord Jesus, descending
  into the depths of the heart, should subdue the
  serpent ruling over the inner pastures and bring
  life and salvation to the soul. He should always
  live with the name of the Lord Jesus so that the
  heart absorbs the Lord and the Lord the heart,
  and the two become one. Do not estrange your
  hear from God, but abide in Him and always guard
  your heart by remembering our Lord Jesus Christ,
  until the name of the Lord becomes rooted in the
  heart and it ceases to think of anything else.
  May Christ be glorified in you.

52
How do I practice the Jesus Prayer?

• You must think of God more often than you breath
  directions to Hesychasts by the monks callistus
  and Ignatius
• It is our mantrabreathe in, breathe out.
• The sun passing over the earth produces
  daylight the holy and worshipful Name of Lord
  Jesus, constantly shining in the mind, produces a
  measureless number of sun-like thoughts.
• Read this book its the guidebook for the Jesus
  Prayer HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

53
Life of Prayer

• Therefore it said that when the Holy Sprit comes
  to live in a man he never ceases to pray, for
  then the Holy Spirit Himself constantly prays in
  him (Rom826)
• It is a give and take relationship we have to
  draw near so He can be near to us we receive
  grace in proportion to our faith.

54
Grace in proportion to our faith?

• Its a combination of work and grace
• Mark the hermit says To make an effort to pray
  is in our power, but to pray purely is a gift of
  grace. And so offer to God what is in your
  power. Begin by bringing to God a sacrifice of
  constancy in prayer, and Gods almighty power
  will swallow your weakness your dry and
  distracted yet frequent prayer will become a
  habit and second nature your prayer will be made
  pure, fervent and powerful. Way of a Pilgrim

55
Having Sobriety of Mind

• What is sobriety?
• Calmness sitting quietly, bringing every thought
  under subjection directing everything thought to
  prayer calming the storms inner and outer.
• Not having useless conversations just for the
  sake of conversation
• Make the most of every opportunity. Let your
  conversation be always full of grace, seasoned
  with salt, so that you may know how to answer
  everyone.Colossians 45-6Prayer needs
  sobriety, just as a small lantern needs a candle
  (perhaps as a lantern needs windless calm to burn
  like a candle.)

56
Prayer requires attention crucifying our minds

• Silence and prayer requires that we break the
  chatter of the mind thats why we can use
  icons to help us focus on the heavenly (we can
  pray with our breathing this focuses our minds
  using the Jesus prayer) St. Nilus says Strive
  to render your mind deaf and dumb during prayer
  then you will be able to pray as you should.
• St. John Climicus or (of the Ladder) says The
  beginning of prayer is to banish ongoing thoughts
  as soon as they appear. Its middle stage is to
  keep the mind contained in the words we say or
  think. The perfection of prayer is ravishment to
  the Lord.

57
The Jesus Prayer is called the Prayer of the
Heart The inner chamber

• St. Isaac writes Strive to enter within you
  inner chamber and you will see the chamber o
  heaven. For the two are the same and one
  entrance leads to both. Therefore it is there
  that one must look to see whether the grace of
  the most holy Spirit has inscribed therein its
  laws. There, Where? In the ruling organ, the
  throne of grace where the mind and all the
  thoughts of the soul are to be found, that is, in
  the heart. Monks Callistus and Ignatius

58
We Shine

• The mind that is sober has complete attention
  through constant prayer together with Holy
  Communion works to brighten and prepare the soul
  for its wedding day Whenever we unworthy
  ones are thought worthy to be admitted, with fear
  and dread, to the Divine and undefiled mysteries
  of Christ, our God and King, then let us all the
  more show forth sobriety, watchfulness of mind
  and strict attention, so that our sins and our
  small and great uncleanness may be destroyed by
  the Divine fire, that is, by the body of our Lord
  Jesus Christ. For when it enters into us it
  straightway drives from our heart the spirits of
  wickedness, and it does away with our sins of the
  past, and the mind is left empty of the restless
  importunities of evil thoughts. If after this we
  guard the mind strictly, and stand in the gate of
  our heart, each time we are again counted worthy,
  and the holy Secret Divine Body will more and
  more brighten the mind, and make it shine like a
  star.

59
What happens when we become vessels of prayer?

• We have power
• The power and strength of this discipline of
  prayer When the soul becomes freed from
  everything external and is united with prayer,
  then prayer like a flame envelops it, as fire
  envelops iron and makes it all fiery. Then the
  soul, though still the same soul, like red hot
  iron, can no longer be touched by anything
  external. St. Elias Ekdikos

60
Pure, Salt, and Light

• Matthew 58Blessed are the pure in heart, For
  they shall see God.
• As salt enhances the taste of bread and all
  food, and even preserves meant from decaying, so
  you should resolve to guard the inner savor of
  the mind and the wonderful activity in the heart,
  for it will bring divine sweetness to both the
  inner and th outer man, drive away wicked
  thoughts, and preserve you continually in what is
  good. Way of a Pilgrim

61
We become one with Him, our Triune God.

• In prayer we reflect the true image in which we
  were creatd Uniting your mind body and soul
  It is evident that prayer which consists of an
  unceasing invocation of the Divine Name, is the
  harmony and union of mind, word and soul (heart).
  For where two or three are gathered in my name,
  there I am in the midst of them (Math 18 20)
  says the Lord. Thus, in recalling the powers of
  the soul from their dispersion among objects of
  passion, and in uniting them with one another and
  with the tripartite soul itself, prayer mirrors
  the One God in three hypostases.
• Glory be to Him forever Amen.

62
References

• Coptic Synaxarium
• In the Spirit of Happiness The monks of New
  Skete 1999 New Skete Monastary Cambridge, N.Y.
• Journey Back to Eden My Life and Times among the
  Desert Fathers Mark Gruber O.S.B, Orbis Books,
  Maryknoll, NY, 2002
• Writings from the Philokalia on the Prayer of the
  Heart Translated by E. Kadloubovsky and G.E.H.
  Palmer, Faber and Faber Limited, 1951
• The Way of a Pilgrim and the Pilgrim Continues
  His Way Spiritual Classics from Russia