A question from the Orthodox side, which I know you’ve inhabited in the past: the Hours in the East are notoriously, well, Byzantine, but there have been some efforts to make them more accessible. Noteworthy here is the recently published Anthologion, put out by Saint Ignatius Press, which has reader’s services for the full daily cycle as well as variables from the Octoechos, Menaion, Tridion, etc. The Hours have never been particularly accessible to the laity, but now an Orthodox lay tradition of their private recitation seems increasingly possible.
With that said, as someone who has studied Eastern traditions in depth but who (IIRC from one of your interviews) doesn’t have a consistent practice of contemplative prayer, what would you say is the advantage for Christians of prioritizing the Hours over, say, the Jesus Prayer? Orthodox spiritual writing seems to present the latter as the summit of the spiritual life; I’m wondering whether you have a developed rationale for prioritizing discursive prayer over some form of japa yoga? One might think, from reading works like the Philokalia or writers like Theophan the Recluse, that the Jesus Prayer *is* Orthodox spirituality, such that the busy layman might be best served making that the foundation of their prayer life. Do you think there’s an imbalance in Orthodox lay practice/understanding on this point? Do you think the discipline of reciting the daily/seasonal/festal cycle of Psalms and hymns—sanctifying time—represents a legitimate path toward theosis? Perhaps it’s not an either/or, but in practice, something must give.
A question from the Orthodox side, which I know you’ve inhabited in the past: the Hours in the East are notoriously, well, Byzantine, but there have been some efforts to make them more accessible. Noteworthy here is the recently published Anthologion, put out by Saint Ignatius Press, which has reader’s services for the full daily cycle as well as variables from the Octoechos, Menaion, Tridion, etc. The Hours have never been particularly accessible to the laity, but now an Orthodox lay tradition of their private recitation seems increasingly possible.
With that said, as someone who has studied Eastern traditions in depth but who (IIRC from one of your interviews) doesn’t have a consistent practice of contemplative prayer, what would you say is the advantage for Christians of prioritizing the Hours over, say, the Jesus Prayer? Orthodox spiritual writing seems to present the latter as the summit of the spiritual life; I’m wondering whether you have a developed rationale for prioritizing discursive prayer over some form of japa yoga? One might think, from reading works like the Philokalia or writers like Theophan the Recluse, that the Jesus Prayer *is* Orthodox spirituality, such that the busy layman might be best served making that the foundation of their prayer life. Do you think there’s an imbalance in Orthodox lay practice/understanding on this point? Do you think the discipline of reciting the daily/seasonal/festal cycle of Psalms and hymns—sanctifying time—represents a legitimate path toward theosis? Perhaps it’s not an either/or, but in practice, something must give.