The Enlargement of the Heart is an astoundingly majestic presentation of the nature and purpose of human existence in two of the most important figures in contemporary Orthodoxy: St. Silouan the Athonite (1866–1938) and Elder Sophrony of Essex (1896–1993).

Delivered in Wichita, Kansas at the 2001 Clergy Brotherhood Retreat of the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Church, each lecture is published here in full together with its Asides and corresponding Questions & Answers.

The author is a disciple of the Elder Sophrony and a member of the Monastery of St. John the Baptist, England.

We have just received something precious; we are participating in Tradition in a very ‘existential’ way.”
The Right Reverend Basil Essey
Bishop of Wichita

“The writings of Archimandrite Zacharias evince that inspiration which is born of the undistorted vision of Christ in glory.”

Christopher Veniamin
Professor of Patristics
Saint Tikhon’s Seminary, USA

The Hidden Man of the Heart consists of a series of presentations on the place of the heart in the spiritual life of the Christian, with special reference to the Hesychast tradition of the Orthodox Church, including two of the most influential figures in contemporary Christianity: Saint Silouan the Athonite (1866–1938) and Elder Sophrony of Essex (1896–1993). Delivered in Wichita, Kansas at the 2007 Clergy Brotherhood Retreat of the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Church, each lecture (divided here into chapters) is published in full together with its corresponding Questions & Answers.

The author is a disciple of the Elder Sophrony and a member of the Monastery of St. John the Baptist, England. “Father Zacharias has inherited the rare and precious spiritual gift of ‘speaking a word’, an authentic word inspired by these contemporary spiritual giants [sc. St. Silouan the Athonite and Elder Sophrony].” The Right Reverend Basil Essey Bishop of Wichita

“The writings of Archimandrite Zacharias evince that inspiration which is born of the undistorted vision of Christ in glory.” Christopher Veniamin Professor of Patristics Saint Tikhon’s Seminary, USA

Archimandrite Zacharias is a disciple of Elder Sophrony and a member of the Monastery of St. John the Baptist, England.

Remember Thy First Love is a graphic description of the three stages in the Christian life according to Elder Sophrony of Essex (1896-1993), disciple of St. Silouan the Athonite (1866-1938) and founder of the Patriarchal and Stavropegic Monastery of St. John the Baptist in Essex, England. In Remember Thy First Love, which complements The Enlargement of the Heart (2006) and The Hidden Man of the Heart (2008), Elder Zacharias details the nature and purpose of the first grace given at the beginning of the Christian spiritual odyssey, the experience of the apparent withdrawal of grace, and then our final adoption as children, by which we become heirs of God and joint-heirs of Christ (cf. Rom. 8:17).

“The writings of Archimandrite Zacharias evince that inspiration which is born of the undistorted vision of Christ in glory.”
Christopher Veniamin
Professor of Patristics
Saint Tikhon’s Seminary, USA