Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, discusses the prayer of hesychasm: Hesychasm, a contemplative prayer of rest, has its roots in the desert fathers and mothers as well as the Eastern Orthodox tradition. Bishop Kallistos Ware, drawing from John Climacus (AD 525-606) writes: “The hesychast, in the true sense of the word, is not someone who has journeyed outwardly into the desert, but someone who has embarked upon the journey inwards into his own heart. . .
The Eastern Orthodox teachers of hesychasm suggest using the Jesus Prayer as a way to enter into contemplation: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” You might also choose the “replacement therapy” of Centering Prayer. . . The hesychast “is called to become conscious of the actual presence of Jesus in the interior of his own being, a presence given full and existential reality by the life of the sacraments.”
“The hesychast ceases from his own activity, not in order to be idle, but in order to enter into the activity of God. His silence is not vacant and negative—a blank pause between words, a short rest before resuming speech—but intensely positive: an attitude of alert attention, of vigilance, and above all of listening.”
“The principal thing is to stand with the mind in the heart before God, and to go on standing before [God] unceasingly day and night, until the end of life.”