The Art of Prayer

Compiled by Igumen Chariton of Valamo

Translated by E. Kadloubovsky and E.M. Palmer

Edited with an Introduction by Timothy Ware

    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 classical and traditional form, but expressed in unusually direct and vivid language. The Art of Prayer is concerned in particular with the 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 prayer 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.