The prayer of Jesus is not an occasional petition that we direct to God. It is in fact our own deification. There would be no reason to stay all day in conversation with God if it were simply a matter of addressing words to him. God hears very well, even to the noises of our bowels. There would be no need to pray day and night. Rather, the prayer consists before all in feeding upon Christ, the Lamb of God, and of drinking the Savior Himself, by the invocation of His Holy Name. It is an intoxicating beverage, one that carries man into the heavens. It is the whole Christ whom we then absorb, and we become thus participants in God, reflecting - as Christ Himself - the divine attributes. We share in God and subsequently act, we too, mysteriously as gods.
+Elder Aimilianos of Simonopetra, from The Living Witness of the Holy Mountain, Mount Athos: Sacred Vessel of the Prayer of Jesus
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