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...continued from part five.
By His Eminence Metropolitan Hierotheos
of Nafpaktos and Agiou Vlasiou
"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God" (Matt. 5:8).
The beatitude of purity of heart is very important and is at the center not only of the Beatitudes, but of the entire spiritual life. With purity of heart people know God, they see God.
Purity of heart, so that a person can know God, is at the center of Orthodox theology as well as so-called neptic-hesychastic theology, expressed especially by Saint Symeon the New Theologian, Saint Gregory Palamas and the Fathers of the Philokalia, the so-called Philokalic Fathers.
First, this beatitude has particular importance, because there are people who do not steal nor take the property of others, and may even be merciful, applying to their person the beatitude "Blessed are the merciful," yet they have unclean hearts and commit various carnal sins. Thus, the most important of all is for a person to have a pure heart.
