Friday, February 08, 2008

Hesychia and Lent

St. Basil the Great, in a letter to his friend St. Gregory , writes about hesychia as the beginning of purity of soul, and about hesychia of the body, that is, restriction of the tongue, sight, hearing and words.

For example, he says: "The very beginning of the soul's purgation is tranquility, in which the tongue is not given to discussing the affairs of men, nor the eyes to contemplating rosy cheeks or comely bodies, nor the ears to lowering the tone of the soul by listening to songs whose sole object is to amuse, or to words spoken by wits and buffoons -- a practice which above all things tends to relax the tone of the soul".

Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos in Orthodox Psychotherapy

2 comments:

Alice C. Linsley said...

It is basically the way of humility in all things so that one is not distracted by all the vain things of the world.

Anonymous said...

Much of it was good, some of it violated 1 Timothy 4:1-5, indicating a baleful influence.