Père Dumitru Staniloaë

This article by Father Dumitru Stăniloae examines the relationship between communal liturgy and personal spiritual life in the Philokalic tradition. Drawing on a theological study of patristic and Byzantine texts — notably Callistus and Ignatius Xanthopoulos, Mark the Ascetic, Symeon the New Theologian, Cyril of Alexandria, and Patriarch Callistus — the author shows that the Philokalic way is not separate from the Eucharistic liturgy, but constitutes its interior deepening. The central idea is that Eucharistic communion, by uniting the believer to the pneumatized Body of Christ, gives rise to an "interior liturgy" through which the person progressively offers himself to Christ and, through him, to the Father. The theological contribution of the article lies in the rigorous articulation between Eucharistic ecclesiology and personal ascesis: individual spiritual growth and the life of the community mutually condition one another, oriented together toward plenary eschatological communion.