The prayer of the heart is an early Christian contemplative tradition of striking profundity and beauty. In this work, the inherently embodied, communal nature of this ancient teaching is explored, and its relevance to contemporary mystical seekers is addressed.

Taking as its starting point the holistic biblical orientation of the prayer of the heart, the present work draws on the writings of renowned early Christian ascetics from Aphrahat the Persian Sage and Origen of Alexandria to Maximus the Confessor to consider the deeply experiential, integrative nature of their teaching. Christian authors of the Greek- as well as the Syriac-speaking world placed the heart at the center of a mystical theology that viewed the body as a God-given instrument of divine ascent and the relational setting of Christian existence as an important means of experiencing God’s abiding inner presence. Committed to the unity of body and soul, of individual and community, and of internal and external worship, the early Christian writers presented in these pages believed the hardships and joys of mundane, day-to-day existence to be valuable means of transforming the human heart into a place of interior worship and divine indwelling. The world-affirming tenor of their message promises to speak to all contemporary individuals who seek to experience greater intimacy with God despite the many demands and distractions of worldly existence.

"Jill Gather here presents a warm yet scholarly study that demonstrates the distinctive, and too often neglected, approach of the Syrian church to the mystery of the divine encounter. Her theme is the prayer of the heart, and in the course of demonstrating the deep embodiment of Syrian mysticism, she uncovers fundamental springs of eastern patristic literature. This is a study demonstrating close attention to the texts and historical contexts, which does not neglect the obvious and radiant fact that the overriding passion of all the early Syro-Christian thought was the encounter with the living God in the sanctuary of the heart. A luminous book." - John McGuckin, Columbia University