Hesychasm is a way of prayer that seeks inner stillness and union with God through the continual invocation of Jesus’ name. It’s not a technique you master in a weekend. It’s a path that’s been walked by Orthodox Christians for centuries, especially monks, but it’s also something laypeople can begin to practice with guidance.
The word comes from the Greek hesychia, which means stillness or quiet. Not just external silence, though that helps, but an interior quietness of heart and mind. The Desert Fathers practiced this kind of prayer in the Egyptian wilderness. Byzantine monks on Mount Athos refined it. And in the fourteenth century, a monk named St. Gregory Palamas defended it theologically when critics said the whole thing was suspect.
The Jesus Prayer
At the heart of hesychasm is the Jesus Prayer: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” Sometimes people shorten it to “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me” or even just “Lord, have mercy.” You repeat it. And repeat it. Not mindlessly, that’s the point critics miss, but with attention, with your heart engaged, calling on the actual Person of Jesus Christ.
The goal isn’t repetition for its own sake. It’s that the prayer moves from your lips into your heart. You’re not trying to empty your mind like some generic meditation practice. You’re filling it with Christ’s presence. You’re guarding your heart against the junk that usually clutters it, the resentments, the anxieties, the mental chatter about who said what at work or whether you remembered to pay the electric bill.
Orthodox tradition calls this watchfulness, or nepsis. You’re keeping watch. And in that watchfulness, in that stillness, you’re learning to pray without ceasing like St. Paul said.
St. Gregory Palamas and the controversies
In the 1300s, some Byzantine intellectuals got nervous about what the hesychast monks were claiming. These monks said they experienced God directly in prayer, sometimes even seeing uncreated light like the disciples saw on Mount Tabor when Christ was transfigured. The critics said that was impossible, God is utterly transcendent, totally unknowable. How could a human being experience Him?
St. Gregory Palamas answered them. He made a distinction that’s become central to Orthodox theology. God’s essence, His inner being, is indeed unknowable and unapproachable. But God also has energies, and these energies aren’t created things. They’re God Himself acting, God making Himself present. When we experience God in prayer, we’re encountering His uncreated energies. We’re truly meeting God, even though His essence remains beyond us.
This isn’t just abstract theology. It’s the foundation for understanding theosis, our transformation into the likeness of God. We don’t become God in His essence, that’s impossible. But we participate in His divine life through His energies. That’s what hesychasm aims at.
Is this just for monks?
Historically, yes, hesychasm developed in monasteries. Monks had the time, the training, and the guidance of experienced elders. They could spend hours in the prayer. They practiced ascetic disciplines that supported the inner work. And they lived in communities where everyone understood what they were doing.
But the Jesus Prayer isn’t locked away on Mount Athos. Laypeople can practice it too. You don’t need to quit your job at the refinery and move to a monastery. You can start saying the prayer during your commute, or while you’re waiting in line at Brookshire Brothers, or in those few minutes of quiet before the kids wake up.
The caution is this: don’t try to go deep into hesychastic practice without guidance. Talk to your priest. Read books by people like Metropolitan Kallistos Ware, his book The Power of the Name is a good introduction. And remember that the Jesus Prayer isn’t a magic formula. It works within the life of the Church. You can’t skip Liturgy, ignore confession, and expect the prayer alone to transform you.
What hesychasm isn’t
It’s not Eastern meditation with a Christian label slapped on. People sometimes compare it to Buddhist mindfulness or Hindu mantra practice. There are surface similarities, repetition, attention to breathing, interior focus. But hesychasm is about relationship with the personal God revealed in Jesus Christ. You’re not trying to achieve some impersonal state of consciousness. You’re calling on a Person who loves you and died for you.
It’s also not a guaranteed path to mystical experiences. Some people practice the Jesus Prayer for years and never see visions or feel overwhelming peace. That’s fine. The point isn’t spiritual fireworks. It’s repentance, humility, and gradual healing. It’s learning to keep your mind on God instead of on yourself.
And it’s not separate from the rest of Orthodox life. The hesychasts weren’t lone rangers doing their own thing. They were deeply connected to the Church’s liturgical life, to the sacraments, to their spiritual fathers. The prayer grows out of that soil.
If you’re curious about hesychasm, start small. Learn the Jesus Prayer. Say it a few times a day with attention. Come to Vespers on Saturday evening and let the stillness of that service teach you something about interior quiet. Talk to Fr. Michael or one of the other priests. This isn’t a path you walk alone, and that’s actually the beauty of it, you’re joining a tradition that stretches back through St. Gregory Palamas to the Desert Fathers to Christ Himself, who went up the mountain to pray in silence.
