Беседа 4. Снова того же мар Исаака другие произведения, составленные им после «Глав о знании» 283 указаний и разъяснения относительно нашего досточестного служения в безмолвии. 284

1. Now, by the grace of God, our Savior, we have completed these “Chapters on Knowledge,” in which great power lies - after all, grace itself clearly ordered them. For my conscience testifies to me that the energy in them was not from our human strength, since we are worth nothing to them in our way of life, and we do not have enough knowledge to allow us to rise to such a height of the mysteries set forth in this work. When we have now reached what follows those "Chapters" written with the help of our Lord, we intend to point out the inner prayers 285 and set them out successively in alphabetical order. 286 2. You should also know, my brother, that an enlightened mind does not need a variety of prayer words: just one prayer door is enough for it to plunge the mind into prayer and dissolve in God. 3. For the variety of prayers greatly helps the mind, exhausted by absent-mindedness: thanks to them and under the influence of their power, the mind is contrite and acquires sweet prayer with prolonged kneeling, intercession for the creature and long-suffering prayers, extruded from within. And so with every word that he encounters 287 in these prayers, he becomes like a man awakening from a dream: he happens to constantly encounter delightful insights in them, 288 because these very words are a gift of grace and there is hidden power in them. And all the time he receives help by thinking about them 289 and reading them. 4. During periods of grace, when you enjoy this prayer and these long genuflections, there is no special need for you to uphold the prescribed rules or worry about the number that 290 for you have concluded the prayers of a certain number 291 and fulfilled the rule that is below you. If you lie on your face almost all day, in front of the Cross, 292 - which includes all partial prayer and service - is it not clear that by doing so you have fulfilled the rules that have become beneath you? 293 “In a great undertaking, do not turn to lesser things.” 294 5. Blessed Mark said this word mysteriously. For he knew that not every person achieves pure prayer; as for those who actually achieve it, its very benefit teaches them that there is no more important matter than it. When it happens that you are deprived of such prayer, do not neglect the rule. 295 If you partially possess it, take care that the rest of the time you follow the rules to the smallest detail; 296 for thanks to concern for the rules you will be illuminated again and will ascend to the unceasing. 297 6. Every son 298 first of all works in the service of his father and only then receives power over his treasures, as blessed Paul said: The heir, while in childhood, is no different from slaves; he is subordinate to trustees and stewards until the term appointed by his father. 299 Let the guardians and stewards of your childhood, 300 guiding you, be the divine laws and the wonderful rules of your holy way of life: they will help you come to the measure of the full stature of Christ. 301 7. For what is the use of laws and rules, other than the insight that is born from them in the soul? But with their help, a person is corrected whenever he becomes darkened and goes astray - that is, during the hours of prayer and statutory worship. 302 And like a person who gets lost, he returns again to the beginning of his road and there he already finds direction and goes where he wants; in the same way, rules and laws correct a person who is darkened: having lost his way, he returns to them, and they again direct him to the path from which he strayed. What is the law of children, which educates a person in freedom and gives him light, and the law of servants, which leads a person like a child and does not allow him to move forward - this is what we intend to indicate in our place. 303 8. We also need to know the following: while a person has certain hours of the day set aside - some for service, others for reading, 304 others for prayer and others for other works - when the appointed time has come, he must fulfill his duty 305 at that very time; 306 and he cannot miss this time and remain in his debt; for in relation to each rule, in its place and at its time, it is necessary for it to fulfill its due. 9 . When a person incessantly clings to God in a constant outpouring of prayer, when he constantly prostrates himself on earth in prayer to Him, and his soul is consumed by desire, and he falls prostrate before the Cross - there is no longer any law or rules over him, and times and set hours no longer have power over him; for from that moment he is above them all, being with God without any limitation. 10. Now let's leave these and draw a conclusion; let us come to enjoy the very communion with God in the prayerful reflections that we are about to compose, for through them we will receive the gift of holiness 307 and the heavenly power that reveals the sacraments in the soul. This refers to Conversation 3. The numbering of paragraphs in this and the following Conversations belongs to S. Brok, but is based on the division of the text in the manuscript. Lit. “Our intention is to streamline conversations about internal prayer (conversations of internal prayer).” This refers to Discourse 5, which contains a prayer in which each paragraph in the original is designated by a letter of the Syriac alphabet from alaph (1) to lamadh (30). Var. "amazing meaning" We usually translate the term sukkale as “insights” (an alternative translation is “thoughts”, Greek ennoiai). Literally: “talking with them” (i.e. with the words of prayers). Lit. "about the purpose of the quantity that remains." Those. prayers that are usually read in a certain number (prayer rules). The expression "lying on your face" is often found in Syrian ascetic literature: it indicates prayer while lying face down on the floor. Prayer before the Cross was widespread in the Syrian tradition. Those. reading certain prayer rules (morning and evening prayers, hours, etc.) becomes unnecessary if a person is able to pray prostrated before the Cross for the whole day. Rev. Mark the Ascetic. On spiritual law, 200. Lit. “When it happens that you are deprived of this, then it is good that a person does not neglect the rule.” Var. “even to the point that it relates to breathing.” Lit. "every son that exists." Lit. "your child's measure." Or "established service". Conversation 14 is devoted to this topic. The term qeryana generally means the reading of Holy Scripture, particularly the psalms. Var. “do what is due.” Var. "at a certain time." You might be interested in: