heart
800 The heart has been created to love, do not doubt it. Let us therefore bring Our Lord Jesus Christ into the love that we feel. Otherwise, the empty heart takes revenge and fills itself up with the most despicable vileness.
prayer of the heart
This is beautifully described and faithfully practiced in the hesychastic tradition of the Eastern Orthodox Church. The Greek word “hesychia” means rest, and hesychastic prayer leads us to rest in God. It is described as a descending with the mind into the heart, in order to stand there in the presence of God. Therefore it is also called the prayer of the heart. The most commonly used words are those of the Jesus Prayer: “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me, a sinner,” but sometimes shorter sentences are used, or just the name “Jesus.” Centering prayer, as introduced by Basil Pennington, and the Maranatha (Come, Lord Jesus) prayer, described by John Main, are variations of this form of prayer
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