In these five essays Fr Stăniloae gives us the essentials of his teaching on prayer. They are the fruit not only of personal experience and long familiarity with the hesychast writings of Orthodox monasticism, but also of the spiritual tradition of his native Romania. Through the texts we are given the outline of the icon of humanity restored to God in Christ.
Dumitru Stăniloae (Romanian pronunciation: [duˈmitru stəniˈlo̯aje] was a Romanian Eastern Orthodox priest, theologian, academic, and professor. Father Stăniloae worked for over 45 years on a comprehensive Romanian translation of the Philokalia, a collection of writings by the Church Fathers, together with the hieromonk, Arsenie Boca, who brought manuscripts from Mount Athos. His masterpiece, The Dogmatic Orthodox Theology (1978), makes him one of the most reputed Christian Theologians of the second half of the 20th century. He produced valuable comments on the works of the Fathers of the Church, such as Gregory of Nyssa, Maximus the Confessor, or Athanasius the Great.