Heart (Open or Closed)
- Mar 27
- 5 min read
“The heart is a biblical word little understood these days, yet it has a truly profound dimension. The heart is where union with God may be consummated; as such it has a spiritual dimension. More than an emotional center or a physical organ, the heart is a receptacle for all good and evil. The heart is our psychosomatic Centre, the deepest and most profound part of our being; it is our “inner man;” out of which the energies of the psyche issue forth. There is a close connection between the nous, the psyche, the heart, and the “inner man.” (Archimandrite George)
“The human heart is the place where the Lord likes to rest. It contains all the integrity of the human being in all its powers or energies, physical and mental. And in order for our minds to descend into our hearts prayer must be accompanied by fasting and abstinence from worldly pleasures. Otherwise, the mind (nous), which is the energy of the heart, cannot be focused on prayer, but extends outward.” (Metropolitan Serafim Joanta)
“The human heart can be compared to a room. Imagine a house littered up to the ceiling with old furniture, chests, and unnecessary things. It’s impossible to live in such a room: there’s nowhere to turn, and it’s stuffy and dark in it. Similarly, our hearts are cluttered for years with the junk of pleasure, the furniture of empty worries, the debris of resentment and the dust of vanity. We get used to living alongside this garbage and no longer notice that there is no room in the house for the Owner Himself. Fasting is a time of “spring-cleaning”. We begin to take out of our hearts everything superfluous—everything that occupies a place that rightfully belongs to God alone. And when the room is gradually cleared up, when the noise and fuss subside, we suddenly hear a gentle knock on the door. This is the One Who has been standing at the door for a long time and waiting for us to invite Him inside: Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear My voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me (Rev. 3:20). Fasting opens the door, and Christ enters a purified heart.” (Priest Tarasiy Borozenets)
“Our glorification of ideas perverts our Christian understanding. Christ said, “Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” But we distort this and think it means, “Your treasure will be where your heart is.” We think that the thought is what matters. But Christ was quite materialist (wholistic) about the matter. Your treasure (your stuff) controls your thoughts. If you say you care about the poor, give them some of your stuff. If you don’t care about them, give them some of your stuff. If you give enough, over time you will come to care. The heart follows.” (Father Stephen Freeman)
“Whenever we encounter the Lord in a suffering person who needs our care, there is inevitably a kind of judgment that reveals who we are. That is the case when we see His living icons suffering today as the victims of natural disasters, wars, persecution, and injustice. It is the case when those who bear His image are sick, lonely, hungry, imprisoned, living in fear, or in any other circumstance in which they need our friendship, care, and support. Since we do not yet respond generously to everyone without a second thought, we must mindfully struggle against our self-centeredness and indifference to the sufferings of others, especially those whom the world tells us to ignore. We must not shut the eyes of our souls to the brilliant light of Christ when the darkness within us becomes apparent. We must respond to what every judgment of our souls reveals by taking the steps we can to open our hearts to Christ more fully.” (Fr. Philip LeMasters)
“The human heart is an unfathomable depth, the innermost place of the human being. The grace of God works mysteriously in it…spirituality is aimed at sanctifying the heart, since through the heart the whole person is sanctified. Our prayer is a journey to the heart. The mind is the energy of the heart. In prayer it must constantly go down into the heart. This is the only way to keep thoughts from scattering so that later we can feel peace and joy as the fruits of grace.” (Metropolitan Serafim Joanta)
“The “beachhead”, if you will, of the coming of Christ and His kingdom, was the human heart – not territory nor judicial power….the battleground between God and the devil is the human heart. It is into that human heart that Christ was born in Bethlehem: first into the heart of His mother – who “pondered” all these things. Then into the heart of His foster father, who provided a heart of welcome to a child not of his own fathering. Then into the heart of shepherds and wise men, who were simple and wise enough to hear the voice of angels and to obey the movements of the stars.” (Father Stephen Freeman)
“Why is the heart so important in our lives? Because it is the center and focus of the human being, and all his physical and psychological processes—that is, the energies flowing through him, gather and concentrate in it as in a focus….matter is nothing but energy that has thickened and become plastically tangible. In the beginning God created light: And God said, Let there be light: and there was light (Gen. 1:3). In its innermost depths, all of God’s Creation, including man, is energy filled with light. Man, created in the image and likeness of God, concentrates all creation in his heart. The whole universe is concentrated in the heart of every human being.” (Metropolitan Serafim Joanta, St. Dumitru Staniloae)
“According to this parable [The Parable of the Sower], the receiving of the seed depends on the state of the earth. Has it been cultivated, is it deep, are there no stones in it, do thorns grow in abundance therein? According to the explanation of Christ Himself, the earth is (represents.—Trans.) a human heart. In modern man, this land is flooded and littered with garbage. It is difficult for the seed of the word of God to arise in such soil. The pride of ignorance, the unmoving self-love, the greed and arrogance of consumeristic consciousness, a cult of egotism, a view of the world as a resource for our passions, or as a stage for self-expression—these are the stones that interfere with the growth of the seed; these are the thorns that choke him. It is hard for modern man to bow his unsubmissive neck to the blessed yoke of the Lord’s commandments.” (Sergei Komarov)
“When Christ dwells in your heart, locks break, doors open, and with open arms you go out to meet the hungry, the thirsty, the sick, the wounded, the suffering, the imprisoned—to comfort, to warm, to feed, to bind up wounds, to calm, to speak a gentle word, a word that makes the lonely feel less alone, a word that helps the lost find new meaning in life. Each of us stands before the doors of the Kingdom of Heaven, the eternal Kingdom of Christ, and each of us holds the key: a life according to the Gospel commandments, active repentance, and tireless mercy. Yes, we enter the Kingdom not by our own merits or virtues, but only by the grace and love of God, who expects mercy from us toward others and is ready to forgive any sin—as long as we confess it sincerely before Him. In the Kingdom of Heaven, there will be no locks, no closed doors. Everything will be open to everyone.” (Artemy Slezkin)
Comments