Chapter 161

Slight Warmth From Nature

...From the Jesus Prayer they have made something. They think that as soon as someone begins to pray this prayer, they have already done everything. The prayer has become for them like some incantation: pray it, adding bodily postures which are mentioned in some places, and you will get everything. So they hum along, but the heart remains empty, and thoughts wander, even shameful movements come, and they see nothing wrong with it, as if everything is in the natural order of things. Some feel a slight warmth with this, and they cry out: there is grace, there is grace! And they don’t remember that the experienced say: watch, a light warmth will come, do not marvel at it—this is from nature, not from grace.