The holy Fathers attach a great importance and weight to the inner purity of man, to the struggle to attain inner peace and inner freedom. This inner state of peace and freedom comes through Hesychasm and is what can be called godly stillness. From the great number of patristic passages I Shall select the teaching of Abba Isaac the Syrian.
The Saint writes that carefree and Christlike hesychia " is a higher station than that of the almsgiver . . . Almsgiving is like the rearing of children, but stillness is the summit of perfection". He who has the care of many " is the slave of many". He who has forsaken all and cares for the state of his own soul " is a friend of God".
There are many who concern themselves with the first work, but those who do the second, hesychia, are rare.
In another place Abba Isaac the Syrian is astonishing. He compares those who perform miracles and signs in the world with those who practise hesychia, who live in stillness, and he finds the latter superior to the former. Concretely, he writes : "Do not compare those who work signs and wonders and mighty acts in the world with those who practise stillness and knowledge. Love the idleness of stillness above providing for the world's starving and the conversion of a multitude of heathen to the worship of God. It is better for you to free yourself from the shackles of sin than to free slaves from their slavery. It is better for you to make peace with your soul, causing concord to reign over the trinity within you ( I mean the body, soul, and the spirit ), than by your teaching to bring peace among men at variance."
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