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1. When praying the Jesus Prayer, thinking about God is necessary The Jesus Prayer is a good means of internal prayer, but in itself it is not internal, but external prayer. Those who get used to it do it very well. But if they stop at one point and don’t go further, then they stop halfway... When praying for Jesus, thinking about God is still necessary: otherwise it is dry food. It’s good for those who have the name of Jesus stuck on their tongue. But at the same time, you can not remember the Lord at all and even hold thoughts that are contrary to Him. Consequently, everything depends on a conscious and free turn to God and labor to maintain oneself in this with reasoning (1, p. 19). 2. Thought of God is to understand the Divine truth, to pursue feelings and draw lessons for oneself I don’t see God-thinking, that is, thinking about Divine truths with conclusions of lessons for oneself... God-thought: taking some divine truth, understanding it in its composition and foundations, carrying it through to feelings and drawing lessons for oneself. What truths should we take? Everything, starting with the divine properties, passing through creation, redemption and general providence to the Last Judgment and eternal life. This is according to the catechism. Take one. Poems that fall on the heart when reading are the best subject for contemplation of God (1, p. 205). 3. Jealousy is strengthened by God-mindedness We are commanded to work out salvation with fear and trembling, for we walk in the midst of nets, walking on a perch over an abyss or along a narrow path, on both sides of which there are abysses (1, pp. 208–209). Hurry up to set fire to jealousy, then everything will go well again. How? – How do they revive a numb member of the body? Friction. Start rubbing your soul. How? - With everything that pious people usually exercise themselves with: contemplation of God, increased self-mortification or severity towards themselves, towards their flesh, and especially through prayer. Please go through the entire series of Divine truths from the pre-eternal existence of God to the end and stop at this last one, namely at your death and the decision subsequent to that, unchanged for all eternity. But stop not with a bare thought, but with a full feeling and as if all this had actually happened to you (1, p. 209). Here you are on your deathbed, Angels come to take your soul... What will they say? The demons will also approach... and what will they scream? How will their mutual bickering end? The path to the Throne of the Judge - God will begin (1, p. 209). We must go through ordeals; the seducing demons will take out their notes and begin to paint the deeds... What will be revealed here?.. When they encouraged us to commit sins, they stroked us on the head... neither of them matters, but then they will begin to denounce and condemn and tear us out of the hands of the Angels. So until the very entrance to the judgment seat. And there is nothing more terrible than these ordeals. Angels protect, but sometimes there is nothing left to protect. St. Anthony the Great saw a certain terrible giant stretching above the clouds, with outstretched arms across the entire horizon... The souls of the dead rose to Heaven. Those that rose above his hands, on those he gnashed his teeth in frustration, and those that stopped below his hands, he struck them with his hand, and they fell into the abyss... Alas! And who will count all the fears that exist then? (1, p. 209). And there is the Court. What can we say in justification or at least a slight apology? What will happen when we hear: guilty... bind... and cast down? Please instill this more deeply in your heart and remember it more often... If this happens, if there is a possibility that the verdict “guilty” will be pronounced, then how can we be careless and indulge in indulgences?.. (1, pp. 209–210). There is a lot of evil from the thought that death is just around the corner. Please bring her closer and remember that it doesn’t cost her anything to jump up from behind the mountains... She’s about to jump up and knock her down... Ah! Oh! Nothing will help. Review all the types of sudden deaths and decide which of them cannot happen again to you, right now, when you are reading these lines? There is no more exciting thought from carelessness than the thought of sudden death. But not a single thought is further from us than this one. Everything here is an enemy - it obscures death... Kindly tie more knots as a reminder of it (1, p. 210). 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. At St. fathers, it is called contemplation, which is the vision of truth with feelings by the mind (1, p. 217). Take the trouble to review all the truths... And then contemplate each one you revised more often, so that you don’t 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. Conscious of these two worlds - the one contemplated mentally and the externally visible - in the mental one receive guidance on how to rotate in the visible. This is a general rule of contemplation! (1, pp. 217–218). Particular: having finished your mental review in the morning, you need to dwell on the subject that most influenced your feeling, and use it to revive your prayerful spirit. 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 (1, p. 218). 5. Thought of God guides and renews the general mood; it is the path of unceasing prayer Thought of God corrects and renews the general mood. It is good to always bring it to the end, that is, to place yourself at the Judgment of God, as if it were in reality, and then cry out: Lord, have mercy! The Fathers write: the best way to stand during prayer is to stand at the Judgment. From the thought of God, some object will lie closer to the heart than others. Then, after finishing this matter, you need to stop there and nourish yourself with it longer. This paves the way to unceasing prayer. Fear for the future is not a bad thing (1, p. 227). Right from sleep there is a rapid influx of thoughts, deeds, and sympathies. We must destroy this and acquire the skill of dedicating our first thoughts to God... This is accomplished by the thought of God (1, p. 235). 7. Thought of God directs a person’s entire being to God The first way to train the soul to frequently turn to God is contemplation of God, or reverent reflection on the Divine properties and actions, reflection on the goodness of God, justice, wisdom, omnipotence, omnipresence, omniscience, on creation and providence, on the arrangement of salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ, on the grace and word of God, on the Holy Sacraments, on the Kingdom of Heaven. Whichever of these objects you begin to reflect on, this reflection will certainly fill the soul with a reverent feeling for God: it directly directs the whole being of a person to God and therefore is the most direct means of accustoming the soul to ascend to God. Having finished your prayer, especially in the morning, sit down and begin to think - now about one thing, tomorrow about another of God's properties and actions, and create a disposition in your soul corresponding to this. Talk to St. Demetrius of Rostov: “Go, holy thought of God, and let us immerse ourselves in meditation on the great deeds of God,” touch your heart with this and you will begin to pour out your soul in prayer. There is little labor, but much fruit. All you need is desire and determination. For example, begin to reflect on the goodness of God - you will see that you are surrounded by God’s mercies both physically and spiritually, and you will fall before God in an outpouring of feelings of gratitude; begin to reflect on the omnipresence of God - you will understand that you are everywhere before God and God is before you, and you cannot help but be filled with reverent fear; begin to reason about the truth of God - you will be sure that not a single bad deed will go unpunished, and you will certainly decide to cleanse all your sins by heartfelt contrition before God and repentance; begin to reflect on the omniscience of God - you will realize that nothing in you is hidden from the eye of God, and you will certainly decide to be strict with yourself and attentive in everything, so as not to somehow offend the All-Seeing God (2, pp. 37-38). The second way to train the soul to frequently turn to God is to turn every matter - big and small - to the glory of God. For if we make it a rule for ourselves, according to the commandment of the Apostle (see 1 Cor. 10:31), to do everything, even eat and drink, for the glory of God, then we will certainly remember God in every deed and we will remember not just, but with fear, lest in some case we would act wrongly and offend God in some way. This will force you to turn to God with fear and prayerfully ask for help and admonition. And since we are almost constantly doing something, we will almost constantly turn to God in prayer and, therefore, we will almost constantly go through the science of lifting up to God in prayer in our souls. In this way we will teach the soul to turn to God as often as possible throughout the day (2, pp. 38–39). The third way to train the soul to turn to God frequently is to cry out from the heart to God frequently throughout the day in short words, judging by the needs of the soul and current affairs. When you start something, say: “Lord, bless!” When you finish the job, say not only with your tongue, but also with the feeling of your heart: “Glory to Thee, Lord!” What passion will rise - say: “Save, Lord, I am perishing!” The darkness of confusing thoughts finds itself - cry out: “Bring my soul out of prison!” Wrong deeds lie ahead and sin leads to them - pray: “Guide me, Lord, on the path” - or: “Do not let my feet become troubled.” Sins suppress and lead to despair - cry out in the publican’s voice: “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” Or just say more often: “Lord, have mercy! Lady Theotokos, save me! Angel of God, my holy Guardian, protect me!” Or in some other word, cry out. Just make these appeals as often as possible, trying in every possible way so that they come out of the heart, as if squeezed out of it. When we do this, we will experience frequent mental ascents from the heart to God, frequent appeals to God, frequent prayer, and this frequency will give us the skill of intelligent conversation with God (2, pp. 39–40). 8. God-thinking teaches the soul to often turn to God in prayer So, in addition to the prayer rule - to teach the soul to ascend to God in prayer - there are three ways to introduce one into the spirit of prayer. This means devoting some time in the morning to contemplation of God, turning every matter to the glory of God, and often turning to God with short appeals. When the thought of God is well accomplished in the morning, it will leave a deep mood for thinking about God. Thinking about God will force the soul to carefully carry out every action - both internal and external - and turn it into the glory of God; and both will put the soul in such a position that short prayerful appeals to God will often come out of it. These three thoughts of God, the creation of everything for the glory of God and frequent appeals are the most effective tools of mental and heartfelt prayer. Each of them lifts the soul to God. Whoever sets out to practice them will soon acquire the skill of believing in ascension to God in his heart. Having been torn away from the earth, the soul will enter its own region and will sweetly dwell in grief: here - heartily and mentally, and there essentially it will be worthy to dwell before the face of God (2, p. 40). 9. Thinking about God is the door through which the soul enters active life “If you do everything indicated as you should, then your life cannot remain only external, but will always be internal; the inner will penetrate the outer; but it is possible that there will be no inner life and your life will remain soulless. How to avoid this? We must put our heart into every undertaking, and a God-fearing heart. For the heart to be in a state of fear of God, it must be constantly overshadowed by the thought of God. Thinking about God will be the door through which the soul will enter active life (2, p. 55). 10. When thinking about God, any Sacrament will always cause a spark to fall in the heart You say: “There is no time to read to kindle the spirit”... If you get used to doing your things as they should, then the very doing of them will warm and kindle the spirit. You don’t need to read a lot to warm your spirit. You just need to bring what you read to your senses. As soon as you achieve this, the soaring of the spirit will immediately begin. Even this is what you can do: when you wake up, mentally go through all the sacraments of our faith from the creation of the world to the final Judgment and the eternal fate of all according to the Creed with attention - a spark will always fall from any Sacrament in your heart. Stop there... And warm yourself up with this all day... Especially during prayer, take care to fan this spark... (4, p. 17). 11. Instruction on the exercise of contemplation of God Make it a rule, right after waking up, to go through with your mind all the works of God... how he created the world, how he provides for it, how he placed our forefathers in paradise, how we sinned in them, how God was pleased to arrange salvation for us through the incarnation of His Son and our God, how He prepared for His appearance, how He came, was incarnated, suffered, died, was resurrected, ascended to Heaven and sent the Holy Spirit, how this Spirit organized the Church of God through the apostles and protected it with commandments, sacraments and government, showing us in all this the easy path to the Kingdom of Heaven... truly promised. And in the evening do the same... and sometimes during the day remember this and thereby disturb your jealousy. There is no better way to do this... (4, pp. 74–75). 12. Thought of God is the most natural food of the soul Imagining Christ the Savior crucified or how you go through His whole life and pray to Him, according to your memories, is nothing. It’s good to do this and warm up your soul. This is saving thought of God - the most natural food of the soul. It is necessary to feed the soul with truths, setting aside time every day for prayerful deepening into the Christian sacraments. It's good to do this in the morning. Unfold the Gospel, read a little, more directly - the day's reading, and delve into it until what you read is accepted by the heart and fulfills - occupies it. You can read both from the Apostle and from the Psalter, but always a little. The point is that the truth should be perceived by the heart, fulfill it and warm it up. This means that the soul has tasted the truth; if she tasted it, she ate it. Reading saving books - then as usual (4, p. 178). 13. Program of Christian thought and inner feelings “I see that you understand what prayer is about. If you please, act like this now. In the morning, when you wake up, mentally go through all the Divine truths according to the Creed: about the consubstantial Trinity and the infinite properties and perfections of God, omniscience, omnipresence, omnipotence, etc., about creation, providence, the incarnation of God the Word for our salvation and redemption, about His suffering, death, resurrection and ascension... about the descent of the Holy Spirit, about the foundation of the Holy Church of God through the saints apostles, about the end of the world and the Judgment of God and about the eternal fate of everyone according to his deeds, about the mercy of God towards us, that we belong to the one true Church and through it we have hope to be worthy of the promises of God both here, and in death, and after death. This revision will give rise to a feeling for God and corresponding appeals to God. Here is the prayer. Then, throughout the day, try to be in this feeling, whether you are at home or in church, constantly standing in your heart before the Lord. More effective than all other thoughts is the thought of death, of Judgment and the final decision of our eternal fate. Hold on to this thought longer. From this a contrite spirit will be born and the heart will be contrite and humble, which God will never despise. Here is the entire internal affairs program. Be like that (5, pp. 171–172). 14. Thought of God warms the soul What should you do to avoid getting cold? - What was said before. As soon as you notice cooling, tug at your soul until you warm it up. The Lord is near, call and he will help. Add to this thought of God... that is, contemplation of the Sacraments of our holy faith. Each of them will pour out a lot of light and warmth... and you will warm up. Just don’t leave the coldness in your soul, but keep fiddling with it until you warm it up. You can punish yourself with something... force yourself to fast a little... sit in solitude for a while, not get enough sleep... bow more... All in all, more awareness of your poverty... and a tearful resort to God's help (6, p. 49). 15. Seeing the Lord before you And among all our leaders we see the rule: to see the Lord before us. This is how a painter looks at the face he is sketching, and like a servant looks at his master, so as not to do anything displeasing to him. From the first, zeal for imitation flares up, and from the second, the fear of God comes into force (6, p. 65). In order to keep your mind in the thought of God, collect several short prayer appeals, solidify them with understanding and feeling. Here's an example: 1) 24 prayers to St. Chrysostom, who are in prayer for the coming sleep; 2) turn the petitionary litany into prayers, like this: grant me a whole holy, peaceful and sinless day, Lord; Following the same pattern are the other words of the litany... 3) from Psalm 50 - until you reward me with the joy of salvation. And repeat them mentally... as soon as necessary - all day and night... (6, pp. 91–92). 17. Thought of God is the key to unceasing prayer If you can be constantly with the Lord, then there is nothing else to look for. This is the whole point, so that our entire life will be hidden with Christ in God. Having now external peace, you get rid of a whole half of the obstacles to that. The other half is inside. And this immediately disappears by itself, as soon as any feeling for the Lord falls on the heart; and if such a feeling does not go away, then everything inside that interferes with being with the Lord recedes by itself. If someone asked: how to always be with the Lord? - you can safely answer: have a feeling for the Lord - and you will be with the Lord. I think I wrote to you about this. What is it like to have a feeling? It seems that just the memory of the Lord already sets in motion the feeling towards Him. If we add to this the thought of what He is and what He has done and is doing for us, then I don’t know whose heart will remain untouched. Therefore, the holy fathers very righteously reverence the thought of God, or the contemplation of the properties and actions of the Lord, as the key to prayer... and unceasing prayer. Because from this the feeling for God comes to life... and connects with the Lord (6, pp. 178–179). 18. The importance of God-thinking for prayer That you remain with the Jesus Prayer alone must be considered a good situation. But that the action from it is not what it was before, it seems, depends on the fact that you remain with this one doing. Apply contemplation of God - at the beginning, and in the middle, and at the end, or... as you do it continuously... often, as you please. Thought on God is in-depth reflection on the economy of salvation: either in general, or on any one subject that is part of it. As soon as you wake up, immediately review everything from creation to the Second Coming, Judgment and the decision of the fate of all. It's coming soon... (6, pp. 208–209). And keep praying while you clean up. Then take one object and delve into it until it embraces your heart... And so all day... mix thoughts of God with prayer. The Lord is close to all who call on Him (6, p. 209). 19. The need for thought of God in spiritual warfare What you do not understand about the method of how the truth should be carried out in the heart, you will understand when you experience it. Here's how to do it! Take any truth and understand it more fully in your mind, as it is confessed, and then pray to the Lord, may He write it in your heart, as it is confessed. This is a simple matter! It’s also not difficult to compose prayers from the truth. Our prayers all come from dogmas. The Lord came to earth for our salvation. Confessing this truth, pray: Lord! Just as then, walking on earth, you healed all sorts of ailments, cleansed lepers, gave sight to the blind, come now to me and enlighten the eyes of my mind, and take away the leprosy of sins from me. This is true in relation to all truth. When all the truths enter the heart, then all doubts will end. They themselves will bounce off like arrows from someone who is covered in armor (8, p. 220). 20. The importance of thinking about God in spiritual life We must remember God. We must bring this to the point that the thought of God becomes akin to and dissolves with the mind and heart and with our consciousness. In order for such a memory and such a thought to be established, one must work on oneself without laziness. Work hard - God willing, you will achieve this; If you don’t work, you won’t achieve it. If you don’t achieve this, nothing will come of you, you won’t get any success in spiritual life, and there won’t be any at all, for this is spiritual life. That's how vitally important it is! While straining to hold the thought of God, do not keep it bare, but combine with it all the concepts you know about God, Divine properties and actions, deepening your mind in this or that. Think more about God’s creation and providence, about the incarnation of God the Word and the work of our salvation completed by Him, about His death, resurrection and ascension into Heaven, the sending of the Holy Spirit, the establishment of the Holy Church - the guardian of truth and grace - and about the preparation of heavenly mansions for all believers in the Kingdom of Heaven and for yourself. Consider also the properties of God - ineffable goodness, wisdom, omnipotence, truth, omnipresence, omnipotence, omniscience, all-bliss and greatness. Please discuss all this during prayer, or better yet, especially while reading. When you discuss everything and clearly contemplate, then when you think about God you will not have a bare thought, but a thought accompanied and attracting many saving thoughts that act on the heart and excite the energy of the spirit (9, pp. 181–182). Try to especially understand, bring yourself to the consciousness of God’s great mercies towards you and then always thank God for them. Thank Him for allowing you to be born into the world, to be born among Christian people, from pious parents, and then to receive such a good upbringing. Give thanks also for the fact that He places in you such holy decisions as you have recently decided and have provided further support for the power of the decision. Look over your entire life from the beginning, as you began to remember yourself, and notice all the cases of unexpected deliverance from trouble and unexpected receipt of joy. We don’t even notice many troubles, because they pass us by unnoticed by us. But, looking back, we cannot help but see that there was trouble here and there and it passed us by, but we cannot say how it passed. Look at such cases in your life and confess that it was the mercy of God, who loved you, towards you. Know that the mercies of God hidden for us, for each of us, are countless, for everything is from God. Confess these mercies and thank God with all your heart. But if you delve well into the course of your life, you will find many cases of God’s obvious mercy towards you. There would have been trouble, but it passed - you don’t know how. God delivered. Confess this and thank God who loves you. And the knowledge of the mercies common to all warms the heart, all the more so will it be warmed by the sight of mercies specifically for you. Love kindles love. Having felt how much the Lord loves you, you cannot remain cold towards Him: your heart itself will be drawn towards Him with thanksgiving and love. Keep your heart under the influence of such a conviction of the Lord’s love for you - and the warmth of your heart will soon grow into the flame of love for the Lord. When this is accomplished, then you will not need any reminders to remember God, and no instructions on how to succeed in this. Love does not allow you to forget your beloved Lord even for a minute. Se is the limit. Please accept this in your mind and accept it with conviction. And then, to this end, direct all the work undertaken to establish the thought of God in the mind and heart (9, pp. 183–184). You might be interested in: