What is Hesychasm?

The First Sunday of Lent is often ascribed to as the “Triumph of Orthodoxy”, as it celebrates the Church’s thorough and definitive rejection of iconoclasm. Icons provide for us a tangible truth, that our God made Himself known to us in the flesh, and He must therefore be depicted as such. But the Second Sunday of Lent can also be called a “Triumph”, for on this day we celebrate St Gregory of Palamas’s staunch defense of hesychasm: the process of attaining divine quietness, which in turn allows us to experience God directly and intimately, in this life.

Hesychasm is a particular discipline within the monastic tradition, with followers of this discipline being called hesychasts. The hesychasts employed in their spiritual life a repetitive use of the Jesus Prayer, combined with intentional and very still postures. In doing so, the hesychasts asserted that, through this method of spiritual stillness, they could commune directly with God, witnessing His Uncreated Light right here on earth. Barlaam, a monk critical of the hesychast tradition, accused them of blasphemy. He asserted that there was no direct way that humans could commune with God in this life, and thus these hesychasts must surely be lying about seeing any Uncreated Light.

But St Gregory came to the swift and assured defense of the hesychasts. He professed how, though God’s Divine essence is indeed wholly separate and apart from humanity, that we humans can still know Him through His energies. Thus, the Uncreated Light of God that the hesychasts saw was not some lesser, created illusion of God’s Divinity, but a revelation of His very real presence in Creation.

So, for us, this Sunday communicates another tangible truth of our Faith: though God and man are totally separate, the Son of God took on flesh, so that mankind might still be united to Him. Still separated by essence, humanity nevertheless can participate directly in God’s Divinity, truly experiencing him tangibly in this life. And we can do so right now, through prayer. This Lent, let us seek stillness of our minds and hearts through consistent prayer, so that God might reveal Himself more and more to us in this way, all by His Grace.