[...] A multitude of oral and written teachings, advice, suggestions, and paternal admonitions of Father Ephraim had and have as a reference the exemplary ascetic life of his venerable Elder. And this not only towards the monks and nuns who formed the brotherhoods and Monastic Communities under him in Mount Athos, Greece, America, and Canada, but also towards his thousands of spiritual children around the world, making them participants in the ascetic struggles and the divine joy from the fruits of the noetic prayer, which he taught through practice and theory. These most precious spiritual references of Father Ephraim to his venerable Elder, Joseph the Hesychast, were collected with special care and are offered in the present volume, so that the fullness of the Orthodox Church may know the great hesychast of the 20th century, the God-seer, the ascetic, the infallible practitioner of noetic prayer, and the reviver of the Palamite tradition. (Protopresbyter Stephanos K. Anagnostopoulos)