The Way of the Spirit: Reflections on Life in God. By Archimandrite Aimilianos of Simonopetra. Athens: Indiktos, 2009. 398 pages hardback. ISBN 978-960-518-339-4.

This remarkable book contains some of the fine teaching that Fr Aimilianos gave to his monastic community of Simonopetra, and to the convent at Ormylia, in whose care he now lives. It also contains addresses to other church gatherings in Greece over many years; it has been lovingly and carefully edited, and superbly printed also. The editor, Fr Maximos, who is an American monk at Simonopetra, has provided judicious patristic extracts in the footnotes to support and deepen the abbot’s teaching.

Fr Aimilianos was born in 1934, and as a priest and theologian he attracted a following of like-minded men and women, some of whom later joined him in renewing one of the monasteries at Meteora. As a young monk and priest he had a profound vision of the light of God, which enfolded him during the Divine Liturgy. ‘Henceforth every Divine Liturgy, prepared for by a long vigil, was a sublime experience of God’s glory.’ His charism was to be able to attract others to share in this commitment to contemplative worship and to deepen their life in Christ. These addresses are just the tip of the iceberg of a remarkable ministry of teaching and spiritual formation, not least among young people. The monastery attracts many pilgrims to this day.

Early in the 1970s tourism was making such inroads at Meteora, where the monasteries perch on high and hitherto inaccessible rocks, that contemplative monastic life was becoming impossible. So Elder Aimilianos and his companions responded to a call to revitalize the ageing brotherhood of Simonopetra, itself perched on a vast rock nearly 1,000 feet above the sea on the Holy Mountain. On 26 November 1973 Elder Aimilianos was elected abbot of the monastery: this proved to be one of the decisive turning points in the renewal of monastic life on Mount Athos. In 1974 his community of nuns migrated to recreate the monastery of Ormylia in Halkidiki, across the water from the Holy Mountain itself and nearer Thessaloniki. In 1995, however, Elder Aimilianos began to fall ill, and in 2000 he retired from active supervision of the two monasteries.

Throughout his abbacy he proved a true spiritual elder to his flock: ‘like an overflowing spring, the elder ceaselessly poured himself out to his disciples, offering his words to them with all the magnificent prodigality of divine love.’ He kindled many vocations to the priesthood and the monastic life, and his spiritual influence was, and is, felt far from the Holy Mountain. In the words of the present abbot, in his preface to this book:

Elder Aimilianos was our guide, teacher, and father in Christ, and remains so to this day. We lived with him for many years, travelling together in the way of the Spirit. The discourses collected in this volume give expression to his personal experience of God, which was always real, living and dynamic. We believe that they will fill you with joyful hope.

The distinctive character of Fr Aimilianos’s spiritual teaching is distilled in this book, and also in a companion volume called The Church at Prayer: The Mystical Liturgy of the Heart (Athens: Indiktos, 2005; ISBN 960-518-251-3). It is marked by great compassion and sensitivity, towards the presence of God in word and sacrament, and also to other people. It plumbs the depth of Scripture, bringing out the rich poetic nature of its language, and it alerts us to the fact that its pattern is determined by deep spiritual realities, and that there is a coherence of experience of God underlying both testaments.

It speaks also to those in lay life, especially to married couples, for whom Fr Aimilianos showed special regard and understanding. For him marriage and what it truly represents is a central focus of the life in Christ, within a monastery and beyond. He says, ‘Marriage, then, like monasticism, is a longing for the infinite; it is not just the satisfaction of a biological drive, but an orientation of the self towards the eschaton. Marriage is a journey, an ascent towards the perfection of paradise’ (p. 355).

This book is profoundly Christ-centred, being rooted in the regular practice of the Jesus prayer and in careful daily preparation for participation in the Eucharist. The experience of Christ is life-transforming and costly, however: that which in the end renders us dispassionate plunges us into the passion of Christ himself. Fr Aimilianos says, ‘you experience a terrible passion, namely, the passion of Christ, which, again, seems utterly absurd and irrational because it is so intense; it is something that is not of this world [cf. John 18: 36] … The passion of Christ becomes their daily experience’ (pp. 46-7).

Another key note is the keen sense of the reality and nearness of heaven. ‘There is thus a basic movement, an alternation between earthly life and the surging of the soul into the region of heaven, which enables the soul to acquire familiarity with the divine. Heaven and God Himself become familiar to us already in this life’ (p. 49). As St Augustine said, ‘heaven is the country of the soul.’ But the path there is the narrow and afflicted way of which Jesus spoke, the path of self-emptying and humility, of whole-hearted response to the reality of the humble God. Fr Aimilianos describes vividly a monk who ‘in the darkness of the cave, through interminable nights, knelt in prayer. And this kneeling was his self-emptying, it was his “bending down over God” … a falling on to God’ (p. 51).

In the end, Christian prayer is the expression of love, and this spiritual writing is tongued with the living flame of love in a manner similar to that of St John of the Cross. Yet there is a great simplicity and practicality about the way in which Fr Aimilianos speaks: he was truly in dialogue with his hearers, many of whom he knew and loved deeply as their spiritual father.

Prayer is what I do because I love God. If you love someone, you want to communicate with that person. … I pray because that is how I express my love for God; that is how I express my communication and union with God. It follows then that this love of mine is no longer an activity of the intellect, but rather the activity of the whole person. This is why we say that one should ‘pray from the heart’, which means that the whole person should pray, the whole person should be elevated to God. That is what prayer is. (pp. 53-4)

There is a graciousness in this book which is compelling and memorable, and it contains so much that can be read and reread as a sure companion along the narrow path that leads to the life that is life indeed.

FR DOUGLAS DALES

Marlborough College