PRAYER OF THE HEART IN THE SYRIAC TRADITION
PRAYER OF THE HEART IN THE SYRIAC TRADITION

Summary/Abstract: Even though Christianity is often thought of as being especially associated with Europe, it is always important to remember that its birth was in Western Asia, and that there have always, from the very beginnings, been specifically Asian traditions of Christianity. One of the most important of these is that of the Syriac Churches, whose home is in the Middle East and in the south Indian state of Kerala, where Christianity was first preached, according to a strong early tradition, by St Thomas himself. In the early centuries of the history of the Church, Greek and Latin were by no means the only written languages used by Christians: in the eastern provinces of the Roman Empire, and in the Persian Empire further to the east (that is, the countries of the modern Middle East), those Christians who spoke Aramaic - the language of Christ himself - soon adopted the Aramaic dialect, known today as Syriac, as their literary language. As a result, there came into existence a large body of literature, both poetry and prose, much of which is specifically concerned with prayer and the spiritual life. Among the Syriac Fathers, two writers in particular have proved influential: the poettheologian St Ephrem, who died in 373, and the hermit St Isaac of Nineveh (also known as St Isaac the Syrian), who lived around the end of the 7th century. The former was proclaimed a Doctor of the universal Church by Pope Benedict XV in 1920, while the latter is the only oriental Christian writer to be cited by name in the new Catholic Catechism. These, and other Syriac Fathers, have much of enduring value to say, and here a brief glimpse is offered of their teaching on interior prayer, “the prayer of the heart”.

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