Fr. Aimilianos of Simonopetra talks about Hesychasm as the way of approaching God without being consumed by the divine fire.
Fr. Aimilianos:
Hesychasm is the candle, it is the light that guides us!
And we know where the light is, there is God.
We cannot stand before God face to face! Who will solve this problem? Who will solve it?
God must find another way. And what does He do actually? Here… God answered. And the solution He taught us to this day: the Hesychasm! The Palamism! Our Church itself who arranged our connection with God. Our church who wants to secure us the inner peace…
Thus, Hesychasm is the way which opens before us.
Because we closed the door leading to God, we closed the door which leads away from God.
Hesychasm has become the seal of our salvation. It has become the assurance of our success. It became the means of not losing God, of having Him both when He is before us and when He is not.
It made God to live with us in a different way, so that we can receive Him without being consumed, without being afraid.
Therefore, Hesychasm is the way of our deification.
But when does Hesychasm begin? Doesn’t it start with St. Gregory Palamas? Certainly not!
Didn’t you hear what God said to Cain? “Be still (isihason)” (Genesis 4:7, Septuagint), He told him. Only in the stillness (hesychia) of the heart and of the surrounding world one can have joy and God, one can have communion with Heaven.
Hesychasm is a monastic movement, ascetic, as we know. It is a life and an experience of monasticism and of our Church.
Hesychasm has developed, in particular, in the Holy Mountain. And it crystallized into a definitive form, we can say, in the 14th century, with St. Gregory Palamas.
It has preserved the character of our Church!
It has preserved the feeling of the presence of God.
It has preserved the work of salvation of the Holy Church.
St. Gregory didn’t bring a new teaching about Hesychasm, but he has handed it to us as he received it, in a perfect form, adding his own world, his own experiences, his own divine revelations.
Thus, Hesychasm is the candle, it is the light that guides us! And we know where the light is, there is God. We don’t see God, but we know that there is God, and we walk unharmed, firm and with faith!