Слово 15. О разных отличиях безмолвия, о власти ума и о том, сколько властен ум возбуждать собственные свои движения при разных видах молитвы, какой предел дан молитве самим естеством, до какого предела молитва твоя уже не молитва, хотя совершаемое тобою и называется молитвою

Glory to Him who poured out His gifts abundantly on people! He made the flesh serve Him in the rank of incorporeal natures, and He made earthly nature worthy to speak about such mysteries, and especially to sinful people like us, unworthy to hear such verbs. But He, by His grace, revealed to us the blindness of our hearts to the understanding of them, from consideration of Scripture and the teachings of the great fathers. For, as a result of my own feat, I was not worthy of learning by experience even a thousandth part of what I wrote with my own hands, especially in this work, which I offer to excite and enlighten the souls of yours and all who read it, in the hope that perhaps they will perk up and, having desired this, begin to do it. Another thing is prayerful pleasure, and another thing is prayerful contemplation. The latter is superior to the former to the same extent that a perfect man is superior to an imperfect youth. Sometimes verses become sweet in the mouth, and the versification of one verse in prayer continues innumerably, not allowing one to move on to another verse, and the one praying does not know satiety. Sometimes a certain contemplation is born from prayer, and it interrupts the prayer of the lips, and the one praying in contemplation becomes a lifeless body, having come into rapture. We call this state prayerful contemplation, and not the sight of something or an image, or a dreamy ghost, as the foolish say. And again in this prayerful contemplation there is a measure and difference of gifts; and this is still prayer, because thought has not yet crossed over to where there is no longer prayer, to a state that is higher than prayer. For the movement of the tongue and heart to prayer are the keys, and what comes after this is already the entrance to the hidden chambers. Here let every mouth, every tongue be silent; May the heart, this keeper of thoughts, and the mind, this pilot of feelings, and the thought, this fast-flying and shameless bird, be silent, and may all their tricks cease. Let the seekers stop here: because the Master of the House has come. You might be interested in: