Week Thirty-Five: Prayer of the Heart. August 27 – Mind in the Heart
The heart is first and foremost an organ of spiritual perception. Its primary function is to look beyond the obvious and see into a deeper reality. Cynthia Bourgeault
Gregg’s Reflection
The most popular post on my blog is Contemplative Practice: Prayer of the Heart. There is a broad yearning to learn how to move from the mind to the heart, where we can experience God. Wade into this practice with me.
I first came across the phrase “put the mind in the heart” not by reading the Philokalia itself, but by encountering it in the writings of those who had been shaped by it. The teaching startled me, because it challenged my modern assumption that the heart is merely the seat of emotions. For the early church, the heart was the place where God and humanity meet.
The longer I have lived, the more I have discovered the limits of living only in my head. My thoughts, while useful, can become circular, anxious, or self-protective. When I allow them to rest in the heart—where God’s presence is already at home—my thinking becomes clearer, quieter, and more aligned with love.
This movement is not about shutting down reason, but about uniting reason with prayer. It is about a deeper integration: intellect and emotion rooted in a center more profound than either, where God’s Spirit breathes. To put the mind in the heart is to live from the wholeness of being, rather than from fragments of thought or feeling.
Scripture
Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.
Proverbs 4:23
Ancient Quotes
The mind must be united with the heart, and prayer must be unceasing. For when the mind descends into the heart, grace abides there, and the whole person is illumined.
Philokalia, Vol. 1, On Prayer of the Heart
Modern Quotes
The heart is first and foremost an organ of spiritual perception. Its primary function is to look beyond the obvious and see into a deeper reality. Faith really designates not a leaping into the dark but a subtle seeing in the dark, but kind of spiritual night vision allows one to see with inner certainty.
Cynthia Bourgeault, Heart of Centering Prayer, p. 53-54
Journaling Prompts
- What does it mean to you that “everything you do flows from the heart”?
- Where in your life do you notice yourself living mostly “in your head”?
- What practices help you bring your thoughts into the deeper awareness of God’s presence in your heart?
Go deeper into this week’s theme:
Read the full Week 35 Reflection: Prayer of the Heart