The Prayer Life of Saint Isaac the Syrian: The Mystic of Divine Love and Sacred Silence

Introduction

Saint Isaac the Syrian (also called Isaac of Nineveh, c. 613-700 AD) is one of the most distinguished mystics of Christianity and one of the most significant spiritual theologians. He lived a life largely undiscovered by historians, but his writings continue to guide contemplatives all over the world today. His deep and radical view of God’s love for everyone, the importance of the merciful God, and his thoughts about the importance and significance of love formed his spiritual writing as a mystic. His writings are not limited to Christianity but have been shared and treasured throughout time by all three major branches of Christianity: Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, and Roman Catholic.

Isaac’s life exemplifies how genuine contemplation leads to true compassion, not an indifference to humanity, how a mystical union brings an enhanced awareness of the magnificence of God’s love, and how the deepest silence brings forth the highest degree of spiritual wisdom.

The Hidden Life: What We Know and Don’t Know

The life of Isaac is not fully known to us. Much about his life during the seventh century has been left out of history due to the immense amount of turmoil in Christianity: the rise of Islam, the continuing theological controversies that developed following the Council of Chalcedon, and the gradual schism between Eastern and Western Christianity are just a couple of examples of the unstable conditions under which Isaac lived. Even so, we have quite limited biographical information about him.

What we do know is that he was born in the area we now call Qatar, in the region then called Beth Qatraye, to a family of the Church of the East (sometimes called the Nestorian Church, although this term is a potential point for dispute). His brother, Yeshu’yahb, was a bishop, suggesting that Isaac grew up in a Christian family steeped in faith and understanding of the Christian faith.

Around 660-680 AD, Isaac was appointed the Bishop of Nineveh (modern-day Mosul, Iraq). He held this office for an extremely short time—five months—and he resigned from the position. It was almost unheard of at that time for a bishop to resign from his position, and there are several theories regarding the reason why he resigned. One theory is that Isaac found all of the demands of the office of bishop to be in direct contrast to the life of contemplation he desired to lead.

After resigning from his position, he withdrew to lonely mountain hermitages—first to the monastery of Rabban Shabur—where he spent the last forty or so years of his life in quiet prayer, silence, and contemplation. During this time, he wrote the works that have given him a lasting legacy in the Christian world.

The Significance of Obscurity

The fact that so little is known about Isaac’s external life while we have such an abundance of internal wisdom is significant in itself. Isaac demonstrated in his teachings that genuine spirituality occurs in hiddenness, that the most profound developments of the soul occur in silence, and that private communion with God is far more important than any public reputation or status.

In the Gospels, Jesus told us:

When you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly

Matthew 6:6

Isaac’s willingness and determination to live an entirely hidden life represents the living embodiment of this truth; he spent decades in the “secret place,” producing a harvest of spiritual fruit that continues to bless the global Church.

Biographical oblivion is further evidence of Isaac’s belief that personal character or history is comparatively insignificant to the universal spiritual truths he conveyed. Therefore, Isaac’s writings do not center upon the events of his life but rather upon the subject of prayer as a means of attaining the divine union with God, and the primary characteristics of God’s love for us. Isaac’s prayer is applicable to individuals regardless of their life situation or circumstances.

The Brief Episcopate: The Burden of Office

Isaac’s short length of service as Bishop of Nineveh demonstrates how Isaac’s priorities formed the basis of his spirituality. Although we now have vague ideas of what led to his resignation as bishop, his writings do give us some hints.

The Incompatibility of Administration and Contemplation

In his Ascetical Homilies, Isaac wrote:

The man who has tasted the sweetness of interior prayer abandons everything in its favor.

Isaac had the experience of being intimately united with God through contemplation, and as a result, the pastoral and administrative demands of a bishop’s office became an unbearable cage, chaining him to the needs of the community and his church.

Isaac wasn’t being irresponsible; rather, Isaac possessed clarity regarding his vocation, and he knew there would be individuals who would be called to active ministry, while there would also be individuals who were to devote themselves to internal contemplation and prayer. Attempting to force a person who has been called to a contemplative life to perform active ministry will not only hurt the person who has received the call but also the people they are ministering to. Isaac’s resignation demonstrates profound self-understanding and humility. He knew there was a limit to what he could do, and he exercised that understanding rather than remaining in a position that wasn’t compatible with his vocation. He recognized that contemplative prayer is, in and of itself, a true ministry and not just a place to escape from “active” ministry.

The Cost of Solitude

When Isaac resigned his position as Bishop of Nineveh, he experienced much loss. Not only did he give up his rank and privilege, but he also surrendered his level of comfort, security, and influence in exchange for complete poverty, obscurity, and solitude. This radical choice illustrates the teaching of Jesus when He says:

If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me

Matthew 16:24

The same teaching can be found in the Apostle Paul’s writings when he said:

I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ

Philippians 3:8

Isaac placed all of the material benefits of his office, social standing, and level of comfort below the “excellence” of intimate knowledge of Christ that he acquired through devotion to God through contemplation.

The Mountain Hermitage: School of Divine Love

The mountains and the solitude of nature were where his heart truly belonged. As an ascetic, having left worldly cares behind and living a solitary life as a monk at the monastery of Rabban Shabur for many years, Isaac cultivated and developed his mystical theology from these experiences.

The Cell as Sanctuary

Isaac taught that the monastic cells should not be viewed as places for incarceration; instead, they are places of refuge as well.They possess privilege and are not viewed as punishment. He wrote:

Stay in your cell, and your cell will teach you everything.

This paradoxical teaching asserts that authentic spiritual wisdom comes not from extensive travels, multiple teachers, or vast reading, but from patient persistence in one place, allowing stillness and silence to do their transformative work.

The cell becomes:

A school of self-knowledge: Solitude is free from the distractions of life and brings out one’s true self.

A battlefield of spiritual warfare: The place where inner demons must be directly engaged with.

A throne room: Where the King of Glory visits those who wait faithfully

A birthing chamber: Where the new self is born after painful labor

A laboratory: A place where one can experiment in prayer and explore new levels of contemplation.

Through all of the understanding of Isaac, one notes a direct correlation to Jesus’ forty days of solitude in the wilderness (Matthew 4:1-11), Moses’ encounter with God at the top of Mount Sinai (Exodus 19-34), and Elijah’s cave experience at Horeb (1 Kings 19:9-13). The wilderness, mountain, and cave are all examples of solitary locations where God encounters an individual who has been faithful in enduring the hardships of isolation.

The Daily Rhythm

Isaac likely followed a daily schedule with a ceremonial style common to hermits during his period of solitude.

The daily routine likely consisted of:

Night vigils: Isaac would have had multiple vigils each night during darkness with an extended amount of prayer time. His vigils are imitated by the psalmist:

At midnight I will rise to give thanks to You

Psalm 119:62

Scripture memorization and meditation: He continuously contemplated passages from Scripture, primarily from Psalms, until he was able to call them to mind at any time.

Manual labor: Isaac would pass time by performing labor like basket weaving, working in a small garden, and transcribing manuscripts, keeping his body occupied while his mind prayed.

Fasting: His practice was one of fasting, eating perhaps once a day or even less. Fasting would allow him to become weak in the flesh, thus allowing him to be empowered in the spirit.

Prostrations: Isaac would recite hundreds of his practiced prostrations a day in order to express his internal worship outwardly.

Tears: At times he would weep for extreme periods during prayer—what was termed “the gift of tears” by the Eastern Orthodox church.

Silence: Isaac would not speak for days or months at a time, which allowed him to create a complete silence internally that would allow him to hear God speaking to him through his heart.

Isaac’s daily practices represented not an act of self-punishment but rather an act of love. This let him view the entirety of life as possessing nothing when compared to the beauty of God.

The Loss of Sight

Isaac became blind at some point while living in the desert as a hermit. This was attributed either to the loss of sight due to excessive tears shed as a result of his prayers (and the tradition of what the church taught) or from the harsh environmental conditions of the desert. However, what seems to have occurred, according to tradition, is that the loss of his physical sight sharpened Isaac’s spiritual vision.

Isaac is similar to Paul, who lost his vision at the time of his encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus (Acts 9:8-9). The loss of Isaac’s physical sight allowed him to gain spiritual vision—the ability to see with the eye of his heart or through a spiritual lens.

Isaac later wrote:

The ladder that leads to the Kingdom is hidden within you, in your soul.

His physical blindness completed the process of climbing God’s ladder upward to the mystical union with Him.

The Ascetical Homilies: A Mystical Masterwork

Through his writings, the Ascetical Homilies (also called Discourses or Chapters), Isaac attempted to provide a record of his experience of God through prayer, study, and devotion and to provide each person the opportunity to develop their own relationship with God.

The Style: Poetic Mysticism

Isaac wrote in Syriac, a Semitic language whose structure lends itself to parallelism, repetition, and poetic expression. His prose often feels more like poetry—rhythmic, evocative, repetitive—creating a meditative atmosphere that draws readers into contemplative prayer rather than merely conveying information.

This style reflects his conviction that spiritual truth cannot be fully captured in logical propositions. Divine mystery requires poetic language that points toward what cannot be directly stated, evokes what cannot be precisely defined, and invites experience of what cannot be merely intellectualized.

The Central Themes

Isaac’s homilies return repeatedly to several core themes:

Divine love’s incomprehensibility: God’s love infinitely exceeds human understanding or merit

The supremacy of mercy: God’s mercy overflows all boundaries, potentially saving all

Contemplative prayer: The path of interior silence leading to mystical union

Sacred tears: Weeping as sign of heart transformed by divine love

Solitude’s necessity: Withdrawal from worldly distractions to encounter God

Creation’s goodness: Despite ascetic rigor, affirming creation’s inherent beauty

Universal salvation’s hope: Daring to hope that divine love might ultimately save all

Unlike many of the previous ascetic writers, Isaac emphasized love and mercy through faith over law and judgment and the generation of hope for the possibility of universal salvation.

The Theology of Divine Love

A strong theme that runs throughout Isaac’s writing is his emphasis on the overwhelming nature of God’s love. Isaac frequently wrote about how people cannot comprehend the profundity and vastness of divine love because it exceeds human worth by an infinite margin.

The Excessiveness of Divine Love

Isaac wrote:

Do not call God just, for His justice is not manifest in the things concerning you. And if David calls Him just and upright, His Son revealed to us that He is good and kind. 'He is good,' He says, 'to the evil and to the impious.

This remarkable passage doesn’t deny God’s justice but insists that mercy and love infinitely exceed justice. Isaac taught that:

God’s love surpasses human sin: Whatever man’s sinfulness may be, God’s love is greater. No matter how far they fall, God’s love goes deeper than sin.

Mercy triumphs over judgment: As James wrote: “Mercy triumphs over judgment” (James 2:13)

Divine love is unreasonable: God’s love cannot be rationally calculated or measured. God’s love is freely given without any requirement for worth or merit.

Grace exceeds proportion: God’s grace is far beyond what is divinely right or deserved. God’s response to the needs of humanity is far greater than what would be expected or earned.

These beliefs arise from Isaac’s experience of contemplation. While praying, Isaac experienced God’s love in such a profound way that his conventional understanding of justice and merit no longer applied.

God as Suffering Lover

Isaac viewed God as a very real suffering lover, not as a distant cold judge. He stated:

That we should imagine that anger, wrath, jealousy, or hatred exist in God's nature is utterly abhorrent for us to think or say.

Isaac’s statement suggests that God’s love is the purification of the tortured sinners in hell, and also offers hope that through the purification of God’s love, all creatures, even the most hard-hearted and sinful, might eventually be restored to union with God.

Isaac’s optimistic position of universalism (later referred to as apokatastasis) met with much resistance and condemnation from some church councils, but he found supporters in various early church fathers, including Origen and Gregory of Nyssa. While Isaac did not argue for the belief that all creatures will eventually be saved as an article of faith, he viewed universal restoration as a foundation of hope built upon the infinite mercy of God.

While other church leaders may have argued for universalism from a speculative perspective, Isaac argued from a pastoral perspective. Because Isaac had personally experienced the overwhelming love of God, he could not envision any creation being eternally capable of resisting God’s love.

The Hope of Universal Restoration

Isaac was hopeful that God’s love could redeem all of creation—even demons. He wrote:

I also maintain that those who are punished in Gehenna are scourged by the scourge of love...The power of love works in two ways: it torments sinners...but it becomes a source of joy for those who have observed its duties.

Thus, the punishment of hell fire is another form of God’s love for the souls in Hell. And that, this love will eventually lead to their perfection and restoration of the most hardened sinner, or as Isaac called it: apokatastasis.

Universal Restoration was a source of controversy; condemned as heresy by some of the early Church Councils, while endorsed by many respected theologians such as Origen, Gregory of Nyssa, and many others. Isaac did not offer this belief as a dogma; rather, he presented it as the hope of God’s incomprehensible mercy.

Isaac’s motivation was pastoral rather than speculative. Because the experience of Divine Love was so overwhelming to him, he could not envision that a soul could reject it for eternity. Therefore, the Divine Love is so great, relentless, and creative, that it would ultimately melt the hardest of hearts.

The Ladder of Prayer: Stages of Contemplative Ascent

Isaac described the incremental stages of contemplative prayer that he believed corresponded with the development of a soul’s spiritual journey.

Bodily Labors (Praktike)

The first stage involves:

Ascetic practices: Fasting, vigils, physical labor, and prostrations.

Virtue cultivation: Developing humility, patience, love, and other moral virtues.

Battling passions: Confronting and overcoming anger, lust, greed, and pride

Guarding the senses: Controlling what enters the mind through visual, auditory, and other senses.

Obedience: Following the guidance of a spiritual father and following the teachings of Holy Scripture.

Although Isaac states this is an essential first step in a person’s spiritual development, this is not the goal of a person in the development of prayer.

He maintained that the purpose of asceticism is to create an environment and set of circumstances in which contemplative prayer can manifest itself in a person.

Purity of Heart

The second stage involves:

Interior silence: The mind’s noise beginning to quiet

Thoughts’ cessation: Beginning to have control over thoughts and quieting them

Simplification: Having prayer become less complex and more focused

Spiritual perception: Beginning to see spiritual realities that were hidden

Peace: Developing profound inner peace

This is a significant turning point in the soul’s progression because, through the continued practice of bodily labors, the soul has now achieved what those labors were intended to produce: a true interior stillness whereby God can now communicate with the soul.

Jesus stated this stage in his beatitudes this way:

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God

Matthew 5:8

Purity of heart is a prerequisite to seeing God.

Spiritual Prayer (Theoria)

The third stage involves:

Infused contemplation: Prayer no longer requiring conscious effort but flowing spontaneously

Divine illumination: God revealing spiritual truths beyond intellectual reasoning

Mystical vision: Perceiving heavenly realities ordinarily invisible

Supernatural knowledge: Understanding divine mysteries without study

Ecstatic experiences: Occasional raptures where consciousness transcends normal boundaries

Isaac believed the third stage is a gift, not a reward. While one can prepare for the third stage through the cultivation of the previous two stages, one cannot make the third stage happen; one must wait for God to act. This is similar to the way in which Jesus described the work of the Holy Spirit:

The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit

John 3:8

Mystical experience, like wind, comes when and how God wills.

Rapture and Ecstasy

Beyond spiritual prayer lies:

Loss of self-awareness: Complete absorption in God where personal identity temporarily fades

Timelessness: Hours passing like moments

Ineffability: The experience transcending language

Transformation: Permanent changes in character, desires, and perspective

Union: The soul’s intimate communion with divine presence

Isaac described this stage cautiously, knowing that:

It’s rare: When Isaac wrote of this stage, he did so with much caution, knowing that only a very few people obtain this level of prayer and that the experience often lasts for very short amounts of time. This stage is a gift, and the average person should have no delusions of achieving this stage by their own efforts—if it is to occur, it will occur through divine initiative. Those who achieve this stage will ultimately be forever altered or changed in their personhood.

Paul alluded to this stage of prayer:

I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago—whether in the body I do not know, or whether out of the body I do not know, God knows—such a one was caught up to the third heaven

2 Corinthians 12:2

The experience was so profound Paul couldn’t determine whether he remained embodied or not.

The Wonder of Prayer: Isaac’s Mystical Insights

Isaac’s writings contain profound contemplative insights that distinguish him from other spiritual writers.

Prayer as Marvel

Isaac wrote:

Prayer is the wonder of the world; when you see yourself praying and marvel at the sight, that is true prayer.

Prayer, as Isaac describes it, involves a type of schism within the individual. One half of the individual is praying, while the other half is watching with amazement.

The audacity: That finite creatures dare address infinite Creator

The intimacy: That the transcendent God draws near to hear us

The transformation: That prayer changes us mysteriously

The gift: That we can pray at all demonstrates grace

Prayer also transforms individuals in ways that they could never understand. Every time you pray you should remember to be amazed that you can pray—that God, in His infinite nature, is available to you, a finite being, through prayer.

Beyond Petition

Isaac also differentiated between petitionary prayer and pure prayer. While petitionary prayer has its place, Isaac taught that mature prayer has moved past asking and has entered into spiritual wonder that is beyond this world. Isaac stated:

When you have reached this point, you no longer pray a prayer which has a set form, but are moved entirely in spiritual wonder, which is beyond this world.

This is the highest form of contemplative prayer: not asking God for anything, but simply being with Him in wonder and awe.

Mary, at Christ’s feet, was not asking for anything; her act of being there illustrated the concept of being present, absorbing, and loving (Luke 10:39).

The Prayer of Silence

Isaac emphasized silence in prayer as the highest form of prayer. He said:

Try to enter your inner treasure chamber and you will see the treasure chamber of heaven; for the two are the same, and by entering one you behold them both...The ladder leading to the Kingdom is hidden inside you, within your soul.

This teaching points toward:

Interior ascent: Prayer as climbing inward rather than reaching upward

Divine indwelling: Heaven existing within the purified soul

Mystical identity: The connection between human spirit and divine Spirit

Contemplative method: Silence and stillness as pathways to divine encounter

The prophet Habakkuk declared:

The Lord is in His holy temple. Let all the earth keep silence before Him

Habakkuk 2:20

Isaac understood that this interior silence of the heart is the essence of creating a temple where God exposes His presence to humanity.

Tears: The Gift of Compunction

Few Christian writers throughout history have written more beautifully about tears than Isaac. He clearly distinguished between different types of tears and understood their significance in the spiritual realm.

Tears of Compunction

Isaac taught that tears of compunction are born of:

Grief over sin: Feeling sorrowful when you recognize how many times you have offended divine love.

Awareness of unworthiness: You see how far away you are from God’s holiness, as well as how far you are from fallen humanity.

Gratitude for mercy: Coming from the heart of one who feels overwhelmed by grace.

Longing for God: Homesickness for the divine presence

Isaac wrote:

Tears during prayer are a sign that mercy has begun to visit your soul.

These tears aren’t manufactured emotion but spontaneous overflow of a heart touched by grace.

David’s penitential psalms express this:

I am weary with my groaning; all night I make my bed swim; I drench my couch with my tears

Psalm 6:6

Genuine awareness of sin and divine mercy produces tears.

Tears of Joy

Beyond the experience of compunction through tears, in advanced stages, tears may move to pure joy from the experience of witnessing the beauty of the Divine.

Encountering divine beauty: Overwhelmed by God’s glory

Experiencing divine love: The heart melting under love’s warmth

Mystical sweetness: Tasting spiritual realities beyond words

Gratitude: Thanksgiving overflowing in tears

Isaac considered these tears precious gifts:

Before all things, pray to be granted tears, that they may soften the hardness of your soul.

The Danger of Counterfeit Tears

Isaac wisely warned that demons can produce false tears. For example, the demon might produce:

Pride-inducing tears: Such tears may have an element of humility, but they are produced by fallen flesh, causing the individual to think they are holy.

Despairing tears: Such tears will lead to hopelessness rather than to hope.

Self-pitying tears: These create a focus on our suffering, rather than a focus on God’s love.

Genuine tears create peace and humility within; false tears lead to pride or despair. Telling them apart requires testing fruits over time.

The Mercy That Surpasses All

Isaac’s teachings regarding God’s mercy exceed anything that could emanate from the mind of a fallen man, and therefore, his teachings have created controversy.

God’s Mercy Toward All Creation

Isaac dared write:

That a man should keep himself passionless and pure for the love of Christ, desiring to reach Him through ascetic labors, is a good thing. But if he lacks the perfection of love towards all men, and zeal for sinners, considering them all the members of our body, he is still imperfect.

In this teaching, Isaac states that authentic spirituality will produce compassion toward all people. A contemplative who experiences the love of God cannot help but pour out their love to all people. This acts the same way to saints and sinners, friends and foes, believers and unbelievers. Jesus taught the same principle:

Love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good

Matthew 5:44-45

A Heart Broken for All Creation

One of Isaac’s most famous quotes concerning the nature of mercy is: What is a merciful heart? It is a heart on fire for the whole of creation, for humanity, for the birds, for the animals, for demons, and for every created thing…Such a man prays even for the reptiles, moved by infinite pity which reigns in the hearts of those who are becoming like God.”

Isaac writes that the contemplative heart, with its connection to God’s heart, is broken for all creation. The fact that you experience compassion for everything creation offers is natural because of the mystical union you have with God. Because you experience God’s compassionate love for every single part of His creation, you naturally share that same love when you see every creature suffering.

Paul writes:

The love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us

Romans 5:5

Isaac experienced this poured-out love overflowing toward all creation.

Hell as Remedial, Not Vindictive

Isaac controversially suggested that even hell’s punishments might be remedial rather than vindictive:

Those who are suffering in hell do so because they have refused His love; I say that the suffering of those in hell is the sorrow of being unable to love God.

This teaching doesn’t minimize hell’s reality or suffering but reinterprets its nature. Hell isn’t God torturing those He hates but the natural consequence of rejecting infinite love.

Whether this love might eventually break through every resistance, Isaac doesn’t definitively claim—but he dares to hope, trusting God’s mercy to exceed his imagination.

The Body and Creation: Affirming Materiality

Despite his extreme asceticism, Isaac maintained a surprisingly positive attitude regarding the body.

The Body as Good

Isaac thought the body was good; it is the creation of God, redeemed by Jesus Christ’s becoming man, and destined for resurrection. Isaac indicated that asceticism is training the body and not a way to express a hatred of the body, just as athletes discipline their bodies to become the best possible athlete.

According to the Apostle Paul:

I discipline my body and bring it into subjection

1 Corinthians 9:27

This is not from hatred of the body but out of love for the body so that it may serve rather than be master.

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Creation’s Beauty

Isaac wrote:

Paradise is the love of God, wherein is the bliss of all blessedness, as the blessed Apostle Paul testifies: 'Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, neither has it entered into the heart of man what things God has prepared for those who love Him.'

This paradise isn’t separate from material creation but its transfigured reality—matter fully transparent to divine glory. The contemplative begins experiencing this even now, perceiving creation’s inherent holiness.

The Incarnation’s Significance

Isaac’s understanding of the importance of the Incarnation shaped how he perceived the material world as good. When the Word became flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:14), the material became the means by which God is present in the world.

Not just the Incarnate Jesus had God within him, but all material things can possibly mediate the presence of the infinite God. Isaac’s sacramental vision is that creation is an image that reveals God to us—the image of God is visible through creation.

Practical Applications from Isaac the Syrian’s Example

Embrace Solitude

Establish regular times during which you enjoy a quiet time without conversation and technology.

Practice the Prayer of Silence

Learn to have a relationship with God without requiring constant verbal prayer—but simply enjoying His presence—while sitting still.

Cultivate Sacred Tears

You do not manufacture emotions or tears, but when you do cry during prayer—whether during compunction or out of joy—receive it as a gift from God.

Develop Universal Compassion

Allow compassion toward all men and women—especially for those you tend to dislike or oppose.

Marvel at Prayer

Approach each prayer time as a new experience of awe—realizing how great a miracle God makes such that He, the infinite God, reveals Himself to you, the finite being.

Trust Divine Mercy

When you think you are unworthy, remember God’s love is greater than your failures.

Progress Through Stages

Be aware of where you are on the ladder of contemplative growth. You cannot expect to have experiences on stage three before you have completed stage one.

Guard Your Heart

Practice nepsis—being aware of your thoughts/actions, resisting evil as quickly as possible.

Read Contemplative Classics

Read the writings of Isaac and of other mystics. Allow the lives of the saints to guide you..

Balance Asceticism and Affirmation

Discipline the body without hating it; maintain the good in creation that God created.

Seek Spiritual Direction

Do not walk alone in the contemplative life journey. Find mentors who understand all levels of prayer.

Live Eucharistically

Participate regularly in the sacraments. The sacraments are a source of nourishment for our contemplation.

The Controversial Legacy

Isaac’s writings are regarded highly, but his writings have sparked controversy:

The Christological Question

Isaac was a member of the Church of the East who rejected the Council of Chalcedon (451 AD). This leads to difficult questions regarding his legacy. Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic Churches value his writings, but in technical terms, they also view his church as heretical.

That being said, most scholars agree that:

Isaac’s Christology is orthodox: His actual teachings about Christ align with Chalcedonian definitions

His mystical theology transcends controversy: His profound insights into prayer and divine love speak to all Christians

Labels can mislead: “Nestorian” is often inaccurate for describing the Church of the East’s actual beliefs

Spiritual wisdom transcends boundaries: Truth remains true regardless of its human vessel’s denominational affiliation

The Universalism Question

Some Christians reject Isaac’s hopeful universalism because they hold fast to the idea of eternal conscious punishment for the damned. They view Isaac’s hope of universalism to be a dangerous error.

Others respond that:

Isaac presents hope, not dogma: Isaac does not teach universalism as a dogmatic principle, however he holds on to that hope.

Biblical support exists: Passages like 1 Timothy 2:4 ( “God desires all men to be saved” ) and Colossians 1:20 ( “to reconcile all things to Himself” ) support universalist hope

Mercy’s priority: Isaac puts much emphasis on God’s mercy rather than God’s judgment.

Pastoral wisdom: Hope for universal salvation motivates love for enemies more effectively than believing they’re damned eternally

The Ecumenical Impact

Isaac’s writings have a way of bridging the divide between the various branches of Christianity:

Eastern Orthodox: Treasure him as one of their greatest mystics

Oriental Orthodox: Claim him as their own (he belonged to Church of the East, technically Oriental Orthodox)

Roman Catholics: Study him extensively, influenced by his mystical theology

Protestants: Increasingly discovering his profound insights

Because so many kinds of Christians value Isaac’s writings, it suggests that there must be something about his contemplative life that can help to remove differences between branches of Christianity and point to the true God.

Conclusion: The Mystic of Mercy

Saint Isaac the Syrian offers us the opportunity to enter into the deepest levels of our Christian faith—the opportunity to see God as love in His fullness and mercy. His life demonstrates that the contemplative life requires discipline and isolation, but it is not a cold, unemotional relationship with God; instead, he became a man of burning love for all of humanity. The hermit who withdrew from all humanity emerged with his heart ablaze for all humanity. The ascetic who tortured his body recognized the goodness of creation.

The most important insight from Isaac is that true contemplation does not generate certainty of knowledge; however, it does inspire the seeker to wonder and ask questions and guides him to humility. As he got to know God better, his understanding of God became increasingly incomprehensible.

Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out!

Romans 11:33

In closing, may we pursue God in the best way we can, in prayer through contemplation, and be patient while waiting for God’s voice to speak to us. May we have our hearts filled with compassion towards all of His creation, and may we rely on His mercy to exceed all of our wildest hopes. And may we find that God is beyond anything, and yet is very close to us at the same time, totally holy and yet overwhelmingly loving, infinitely beyond yet dwelling in us—the Mystery before whom we can only stand silently as we wonder, love, and praise.

Be still, and know that I am God

Psalm 46:10

While we await the day when we will look upon His face, let us seek Him through the darkness of our faith, the silence of our contemplation, and the tears from our longing with holy desire. Let us also find in Him what Isaac said there is for each of us: that there is a ladder that leads to the Kingdom, hidden within each one of us—in our souls—to be climbed through patient prayer, deepening silence, and surrendered love.

For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ...that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height—to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God

Ephesians 3:14-19

This is the invitation of Isaac—to know the love of God which surpasses all other knowledge, to become filled with God’s fullness, and to overflow with mercy toward all of His creation. May we accept this invitation, pursue it, and through it may we find the love of God that is infinite.