Today is the first anniversary of the falling asleep of Metropolitan Kallistos Ware.
I never met him, but like many English-speaking Orthodox, I have been greatly helped over the years by his many books (and recorded talks). His little book The Orthodox Church (Penguin, 1963) was my first introduction to Orthodoxy from an Orthodox perspective. Of course, his chief legacy will be his part in bringing to fruition the publication of the five-volume translation of the Philokalia (Faber, 1979–2023). But, for me, his most influential publication was his 1994 paper ‘Time: Prison or Path to Freedom?’, which introduced me to the work of arguably the most important Orthodox theologian of the twentieth century, Dumitru Stăniloae.
Metropolitan Kallistos may have been a lecturer at Oxford University for more than thirty years, but he was a monk and priest first. So, what better way to mark today than by quoting him on the importance of prayer?
Prayer is more essential to us, more an integral part of ourselves, than the rhythm of our breathing or the beating of our heart. Without prayer there is no life. Prayer is our nature. As human persons we are created for prayer just we are created to speak and to think. The human animal is best defined, not as a logical or tool-making animal or an animal that laughs, but rather as animal that prays, a eucharistic animal, capable of offering the world back to God in thanksgiving and intercession. (From the Foreword to Praying with the Orthodox Tradition, SPCK, 1989)
Grant, O Lord, eternal rest unto Thy departed servant Kallistos and make his memory to be eternal!
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