The scene has repeated itself for decades. An Orthodox Christian, searching for spiritual depth, hears about the Philokalia. He buys it — in English, the Palmer-Sherrard-Ware edition in five volumes; in Romanian, the Stăniloae edition in twelve volumes; in Russian,…
On the shelves of Orthodox bookshops today you can find several different Philokalias — in Greek, in Russian, in Romanian, in English. They are not identical. This article maps the living lines of transmission — from St. Paisius Velichkovsky at Neamț, through St. Theophan the Recluse, to Fr. Dumitru Stăniloae — and explains what each editor added, omitted, filtered, or restored, and why it matters for the reader today.
In the Holy Orthodox Church, water is not merely a creature of nature, but one of the foremost through which the gift of God works. From the very Creation, the Holy Spirit moved upon the face of the waters (Genesis…
From the deserts of Egypt and Saint Isaac the Syrian, through Saint Gregory Palamas and the Philokalia, to Saint Paisius Velichkovsky and Saint Joseph the Hesychast: the unbroken thread of the Jesus Prayer in Orthodox tradition.