Bits Missing in
Christian
Tradition
By
Reijo Oksanen
”However,
as an Orthodox Christian I did find myself in quite a strange
situation for exactly 50 years (1961 - 2011). The tradition of the
Prayer of the Heart is part of the Orthodox tradition. Who is
teaching it? I thought that one should find someone among the
priests, but, and this is in spite of meeting many spiritually
advanced people, I I did not come across any such priest. Where were
those people who could teach me how to pray continuously?
 |
| Jesus Christ |
In our time teachers of all sorts can be found also in the West. For example within the Catholic Church there is a strong 'movement' to fetch knowledge and practice from Zen Buddhism, and this seems to continue. It is quite common that instead of a priest, we have a Zen Master whose prior education is Christian theology. Why does a priest not learn what he should learn - like how to pray, and also to teach others in how to pray? This is a confirmation of a sad state of affairs: Christian practice is not taught in the Universities! What are taught are morality, psychology and theory; what are not given and taught are the tools and the ability to be able to apply them into practice.
As the education of the average Christian priests does not include the learning of the 'art of arts' (although Orthodoxy is an exception) it is not possible by any even superhuman efforts for a priest to teach others how to pray; both the knowledge and the ability are lacking. This is why those who are in the position of 'educators' (priests) in the churches need to go to other religions and find their 'gurus' to learn the basics of spiritual practice. In other words they have a need to fetch the 'know how of spiritual life' from outside Christianity.
This search for the 'know how' is highly necessary.”
