Oradea, Romania, September 22, 2022
Icon of great hesychast saints Symeon the New Theologian, Gregory Palamas, and Paisius (Velichkovsky) and an icon of the Mother of God, the first hesychast. Photo: basilica.ro
The great hesychast saints are our preeminent example of attaining grace through prayer, the Romanian hierarch of Oradea exhorted at the annual diocesan clergy conference.
“Let us humbly accept all trials and follow the example of the hesychast saints, making God’s will our will, and this is only possible through prayer,” His Grace Bishop Sophronie said on Monday, reports the Basilica News Agency.
The meeting was part of the diocesan events dedicated to the “Commemorative Year of the Hesychast Saints Symeon the New Theologian, Gregory Palamas, and Paisius of Neamț,” which was declared by the Holy Synod of the Romanian Church.
During the conference, the hierarch emphasized that “through prayer we have the comfort and certainty that God helps us and inspires us.” In order for prayer to reach the heart, to warm it, and to pour God’s grace into our lives, “we need teachers in prayer, spiritual fathers to teach us how to pray,” he added.
And to learn prayer, our “models par excellence are the great hesychast saints whom we commemorate this year in a special way, who clothed themselves with the grace of the Holy Spirit by persistently calling for God’s help in their lives and for the whole world. They are real milestones in our own spiritual ascent,” the Romanian hierarch preached.
“Thus, recognizing them as teachers of prayer for the whole world, we actually call upon them to help us, to strengthen us in our weak prayers, and to fortify our us so that we can persistently call on God,” His Grace reflected.
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