Theophan the Recluse on Spiritual Practice

Many Orthodox prayer masters talk about three powers of the soul — mind, will and heart. St. Theophan the Recluse describes how to educate each power of the soul.

The Christian life of virtue depends on educating and training each power.

Educating the Mind

We educate the mind (the intellectual power) through study of the faith - scripture, ancient church writers, and helpful books.

Educating the Will

We educate the will (the desiring power) by assessing our life, especially what we are capable of doing, and calculating how we will move deliberately toward learning humility, patience, chastity, long-suffering, helpfulness, and the like.

Educating the Heart

Lastly, we educate the heart (called the incensive - praising - power) through entering into the spiritual and prayer life of the church.  Personal prayer is good and St. Theophan commends it on a daily basis, but corporate prayer is of a different order because it is outside our control and thus expansive of our limited vision and spirituality.  We are to attend church as often as possible, to participate in the signs and symbols of the faith, to confess and received the Eucharist frequently, in general to live into the services of the church as though they are our real life until they become our real life. 

In the words of St. Theophan:

The soul becomes deadened by the spirit of the world, and possessed by sin that lives in the world.  The entire structure of our church services, with their tone, meaning, power of faith, and especially the grace concealed within them, have an invincible power to drive away the spirit of the world. In freeing the soul from the world"s onerous influence, they allow the soul to breathe freely and to taste the sweetness of spiritual freedom. Walking into the church we walk into a completely different world, are influenced by it, and change according to it.

Read more

• Becoming One with God
• How to Pray the Jesus Prayer

An extract from from St. Theophan the Recluse’s, “The Three Powers of the Soul and their Curative Exercises.”