45. Главное занятие вступившего на истинный путь – молитва. Наставление о нерассеянной молитве

How true is your conclusion: “So, it turns out that it’s all about prayer!” Yes, in prayer. Prayer for self-observation is a spiritual barometer. The barometer determines how heavy or light the air is, and prayer shows how high or low our spirit is in its appeal to God. And pray as you started. Stand in front of your icons more often throughout the day and make several bows each time, from the waist to the ground. Falling on your knees and bowing is even better. Nobody sees except the Lord. Prayers in the morning and evening - as usual. In those hours you need more - as you should; and in these frequent falls to the Lord little by little; not, however, as usual with acquaintances when meeting: nod your head - and that’s enough. Diligence, however, will teach you everything, which you can fuel in every possible way. But never forget that the essence of prayer is an uplifting of the mind and heart to God, for God is everywhere. And the Holy Prophet taught his soul: “In every place of His dominion, bless the Lord, my soul!” (Ps. 103:22). The most conducive to this, as I already wrote, is the memory of God, and you added even better: love of God. God bless you for this - for your exceptional love for the Lord. But the path to loving the Lord is the memory of Him with a deepening of thought into His Divine properties and actions. One must accustom oneself to the memory of God, and the means to do so, as he wrote, is a short prayer, constantly repeating in thought: “Lord, have mercy! Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner!” Now you have already started it - and continue; sitting, walking, doing something or saying, on any occasion and at every moment, keep in mind that the Lord is near, and cry out to Him from your heart: “Lord, have mercy!” Say that your thoughts are scattered. Suddenly it’s impossible; you have to work hard until you develop the habit of remaining unconditionally within your heart before the Lord. I, it seems, have already told you that, as soon as you notice that your thoughts have wandered, turn them back and never voluntarily and consciously allow them to wander. This must be done not only during prayer, but always. And make it a law for yourself: to always be with the Lord with your mind in your heart and not allow your thoughts to wander, but as soon as they leave, bring them back again and force them to sit at home, in the cage of your heart, and talk with the sweetest Lord. Having established such a law, force yourself to fulfill it faithfully, scold yourself for violating it, impose fines on yourself, and pray to the Lord to help you in this most necessary matter. If you work hard, you will soon succeed. The conditions for success are the following: 1) continuity of such doing, constancy in it. It’s not like you started and abandoned, you started and abandoned, but like this: you started, and just wait until success comes. And in any business, success depends on consistency of work; 2) for it to happen, you need to arm yourself with patience and self-force. Laziness will come, a desire to relax, even doubt as to whether it is really necessary to do this - drive away all this and, as you have planned, force yourself to do this; 3) for this to happen, be inspired by the hope and hope that the Lord, seeing your work on prayer and the zeal with which you seek skill in it, will finally give you prayer, and it, having become established in your heart, will flow from there in a spring. This most blessed fruit is the fruit of prayerful labor! His hope inspired all prayer books, and receiving it was for them a source of unceasing spiritual bliss, joy and peace of heart in God. Oh, may the Lord grant you this fruit! But he will not give without labor, constant, self-forced, patient, trusting labor. Take heart! I am sending you a book on this subject, “Letters on Spiritual Life,” 9 which is all aimed at helping to strengthen the mind in the heart through attention to the Lord and a prayerful disposition. For in addition to the work of prayer, one must also read books or articles that say everything about prayer and prayerful moods. The more you establish yourself in the memory of God, or in your mental presence of God in your heart, the more and more your thoughts will settle down and the less they will wander. Inner order and success in prayer go together. Remember that from the very beginning of the letters it was said about our spirit 10. This is the restoration of his rights. When this is restored, then active vital processing of the soul and body and external relationships will begin - for purification. And you will become a real person. You can also add a small collection “On Sobriety and Prayer from the Holy Fathers” Letters: “Continued. An explanation of the disorder introduced into human nature by the sin of our ancestors. Communication with God served as the source of the dominion of the spirit over the soul and body. Through violation of the commandment, man separated from God and lost control over soul and body and submitted to the rule of passions. An image of a person tormented by passions after the fall” and “The need for reunification with God for salvation. Man himself cannot do this. The Spirit of God does this in us for the sake of the redemption brought by the Son of God.” You might be interested in: