Святитель Феофан затворник о молитве и трезвении

What is prayer? Lifting the mind and heart to God in praise, thanksgiving and asking for the necessary benefits. Therefore, the essence of prayer is the mental ascent to God in the heart. The mind will become conscious before the face of God and, filled with reverent fear, will begin to pour out its heart before Him - this is mental prayer! [267] 1 Prayer, or the aspiration of the heart to God, needs to be aroused and the excited one strengthened, or - what is the same thing - you need to cultivate a prayerful spirit in yourself. The first way to do this is by reading or listening to our prayers. Read or listen to the prayer book properly, and you will certainly arouse and strengthen the ascent in your heart to God, that is, you will enter the spirit of prayer. Great prayer power moves in the prayers of the holy fathers, and whoever penetrates them with all attention and zeal will, by virtue of the law of interaction, certainly taste the power of prayer as his mood approaches the content of the prayer. – In order for our prayer book to become a real means of cultivating prayer, it is necessary to perform it in such a way that both the thought and the heart perceive the content of the prayers that make up the prayer book [34]. From the first time you wake up in the morning, take care to gather yourself inside and warm up. Consider this your normal condition. If you don’t have this, know that there is something wrong with you inside. Having put yourself in such a collected and warmed state in the morning, then - everything that is obligatory must be corrected so as not to ruin your inner mood, and from the voluntary - do what supports this state; what upsets him, do not do it under any circumstances: for this would mean being hostile to oneself. This is your general rule. How it can then be performed in different cases, the work itself will teach you. See for yourself and find out. There is no way for a third party to determine that. Just make it a law to keep composure and warmth, standing with your mind and heart before the Lord. Then this itself will indicate what should be done, or what should be allowed and what should not be done. The all-powerful aid to this is the Jesus Prayer. You need to get used to it so that it is constantly read where the heart belongs. And to get used to it, you need to work hard [130–131]. The real use of the thought of God in life is the presentation of any truth of faith with corresponding feelings and intentions without the movement of reasoning, as if it had already been completed once 2. – The holy fathers call it contemplation, which is the mind’s vision of truth with feelings. Take the trouble to review all the truths, just as you reviewed one... And then contemplate each one revised more often, so that you do not forget it. When you have reviewed all the truths, then all you have to do is contemplate them. The use of contemplation is as follows: in the morning, immediately after restoring full consciousness after sleep, make a general overview of them, beginning with the eternal existence of the Trinitarian God and ending with the Last Judgment and the eternal participation of all, not quickly and not for a long time, but with attention. This can be done according to the Creed. The entire totality of these truths is the structure of the mental, spiritual, Divine world. By revising their consciousness, their consciousness is inserted into their structure and enters the spiritual world. This is in accordance with how, upon waking up, we enter into the structure of the external world around us and consciously keep ourselves in it: the sun and sky above us, the elements and all the creatures on earth around us, as well as family, neighbors, the state with everything that happens in them. The latter happens involuntarily by itself, but you have to work hard on the former, although it is not too difficult. These two worlds, the one contemplated mentally and the externally visible, being aware, in the mental one receive guidance on how to rotate in the visible. This is a general rule of contemplation! Particular: having finished the mental review, in the morning, you need to dwell on the subject that most influenced the feeling, and with it revive the spirit of prayer. When this is not the case, then let the revival of the spirit of prayer be a general reverent feeling for the entire structure of the spiritual Divine world. Try not to leave a single morning without refreshing your inner being with such God-thought contemplation as you are in the habit of refreshing your chambers by letting in the fresh morning air; and then spend the whole day feeling that, in addition to the visible, the invisible also overshadows and surrounds you, not without influence [18–20]. Would you like to hear something about prayer? What can I tell you that you don't know? There is a prayer that a person himself says; and there is a prayer that God gives to the one who prays. The first one who didn't know? You should also know the latter, at least in rudiments. First, when someone approaches the Lord, the first thing is prayer. He begins to go to church and pray at home, with or without prayer books. But my thoughts are all running away. There's no way to deal with them. However, the more you work in prayer, the more your thoughts calm down and calm down, and your prayer becomes purer. However, the atmosphere of the soul is not purified until the spiritual flame in the soul is lit. This light is a work of God’s grace, but not special, but common to all. It appears due to a certain measure of purity in the entire moral structure of the person seeking. When this flame warms up or a constant warmth forms in the heart, then the seething of thoughts stops. What happens to a soul is that which bleeds: a flow of blood flows from it (Luke 8:44). In this state, prayer, more or less, approaches incessant prayer. Its mediator is the Jesus Prayer. And this is the limit to which a prayer performed by a person himself can reach! I think that all this is very clear to you. Further, in this state, prayer is given that is found, and not done by the person himself. The spirit of prayer finds itself and draws it inside the heart - it’s all the same, as if someone took another by the hand and dragged him by force from one room to another. The soul here is bound by an outside force and willingly stays inside as long as there is a spirit that finds it above it. I know two degrees of this finding. In the first, the soul sees everything, is aware of itself and its external position, and can reason and govern itself, can even ruin this state of its own, if it wants. And this should be clear to you. The holy fathers, and especially Saint Isaac the Syrian, indicate another degree of given, or found, prayer. Above the one shown is his prayer, which he called ecstasy, or admiration. And here, too, the spirit of prayer finds itself; but the soul carried away by it enters into such contemplation that it forgets its external position, does not reason, but only contemplates, and does not have the power to rule itself or ruin its fortune. Remember, in “Fatherland” it is written that someone began to pray before his evening meal, but came to his senses in the morning. This is prayer in admiration, or contemplative. In others, it was accompanied by a clearing of the face, light around; in others by lifting from the ground. The Holy Apostle Paul in this state was raptured into heaven. And the Holy Prophets were in it when the spirit took them. Marvel at the great mercy of God towards us sinners. Few people work hard, and what are they rewarded with? We can confidently say to all working people: work; there is a reason! [140–143]. Inner prayer, from the soul, from oneself, according to one’s sense of one’s spiritual needs and those of others, is real prayer. The main thing in prayer is feeling towards God from the heart. Prayer words for this, whatever ones you choose. Feeling towards God even without words is prayer. The word supports and sometimes deepens the feeling. The prayer rules for church services must be followed as they are. As for the prayer rule at home, it does not have immutability, but can be changed in time, and in duration, and in composition - one thing to keep in mind: that everything is not done to please laziness and that the prayer comes from the soul. Whatever rule of prayer you have is good. You can add and change. The short prayers of St. Chrysostom are good - twelve for the night and twelve for the day. You can choose more impressionable verses from the psalms. Do everything with complete freedom. Sometimes and all the time of prayer, pray with your own prayers according to real needs; or insert such a prayer into your rule, at the beginning, middle and end, or without words, only keeping the feeling for God... with the cry: “God, be merciful,” or: “In the image of fate, save.” But there is unceasing prayer, which constantly comes to God from the heart. This is a gift of grace. Saint Macarius the Great says: pray and bother yourself in prayer, and God, seeing how earnestly you want to pray, will give prayer. In the Slavic Philokalia, Elder Maxim Kapsokalivit says about himself that for two years he prayed to the Mother of God that She would give or ask for prayer. One day, he says, as I, having prayed, venerated the icon of the Mother of God, a sweet light instantly sank into my heart and has been glowing there ever since; this is the gift of prayer! Seek it, too, and express it in words in prayer, keeping in mind the prayer that Maximus speaks of. Sometimes it happens that this light falls during the permission of the priest during confession, sometimes during communion of the Holy Mysteries of Christ. Look everywhere [95–97]. Sobriety is a gift of grace, and it is impossible to achieve it on your own, but you just have to work to find it and pray to the Lord for it in the hope of God’s presence. How to search? Do you notice that when there is a feeling in the heart, then attention does not leave the heart: therefore I conclude that if you do so in order to begin mental prayer only by first arousing some feeling in the heart, then attention will not leave the heart, with attention the mind will be there and - mental prayer. Try this, maybe things will go smoothly [258]. When you get up in the morning, establish yourself more firmly before God in your heart, in your morning prayer, and then go about your work, entrusted to you by God, without tearing your feelings and consciousness away from the Hero. And, abiding in God with your mind and heart, with the strength of your soul and body, fulfill the duties that lie upon you [269]. The original title of this collection: “Patristic instructions on prayer and sobriety or attention in the heart to God.” To the author's text of the collection (from St. Basil the Great to St. Barsanuphius and John inclusive), the publishers added quotes about prayer from the letters of St. himself. Feofan. The page of the quotation from the book is indicated in square brackets: St. Feofan. About prayer and spiritual life. M.: Rule of faith. 2005. Reasoning has previously already accepted the truth of faith definitively and therefore does not move in contemplation. – Ed. You might be interested in: