Episode 3: The Jesus Prayer and Yoga, "St. Gregory Palamas: An Introduction."

Mystical Theology: Introducing the Theology and Spiritual Life of the Orthodox Church

Series: Mystical Theology
Unit 14: Gregory Palamas
Episode 3: The Jesus Prayer and Yoga
The third episode in our series discusses the vision of God as experienced by St. Gregory and the Hesychasts through the practice of the Jesus Prayer. In his defense of noetic prayer - the prayer of the heart - St. Gregory presents the Orthodox understanding of the vision of God.

Themes covered in this episode include what is meant by unceasing prayer, Abba Lucius and the Euchites, in the Sayings of the Desert Fathers, and the difference between Orthodox prayer and yoga.
Q&As related to Episode 3 available in The Professor’s Blog: https://mountthabor.com/blogs/the-professors-blog
Recommended background reading: Christopher Veniamin, ed., Saint Gregory Palamas: The Homilies (Dalton PA: 2022).

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Chapters

1. Accusation of Messalianism (00:00:00)

2. The Macarian Homilies (00:00:47)

3. Who were the Messalians? (00:03:00)

4. Abba Lucius and the Euchites (00:07:07)

5. Bogomils (00:12:05)

6. Reason for accusation (00:16:30)

7. “Method” in Gregory the Sinaïte Yoga? (00:17:05)

8. The name of Jesus Christ (00:20:50)

9. Physical / spiritual relationship (00:22:40)

10. No “method” for advanced (00:23:10)

11. Vision of God in Orthodox tradition (00:24:34)

12. Next episode - Hesychast iconography (00:29:32)