Слово о молитве устной и гласной

No one who wants to succeed in prayer dares to think lightly and judge prayer, pronounced with the lips and voice with the attention of the mind, as an insignificant act that does not deserve respect. If the Holy Fathers speak about the futility of oral and vocal prayer, not combined with attention, then it should not be concluded from this that they reject or disparage oral prayer itself. No! They just demand attention from her. Attentive oral and vocal prayer is the beginning and reason for smart prayer. Attentive oral and public prayer are also mental prayer. Let us first learn to pray attentively, verbally and publicly, then we will conveniently learn to pray with our mind alone in the silence of our inner cage. Oral and public prayer is indicated to us by the Holy Scriptures; the example of both it and public singing was given by the Savior Himself, and by the holy Apostles by succession from the Lord. And “having sung”, at the end of the Last Supper, the holy Evangelist Matthew tells about the Lord and His Apostles, “going out to the Mount of Olives” (Matthew 26:30). The Lord prayed in the hearing of all before the resurrection of the four-day-old Lazarus (John 11:41–42). The saints Apostle Paul and his companion Silas, imprisoned in prison, prayed and sang to God at the midnight hour: the other prisoners listened to them. Suddenly, at the voice of their psalmody, “he became a great coward, because the foundations of the prison were shaken: and all the doors were opened, and the bonds of all were loosened” (Acts 16:26). The prayer of Saint Anna, the mother of the prophet Samuel, often cited by the Holy Fathers as a model of prayer, was not the only intelligent one. “She,” says the Scripture, “spoke in her heart, only her mouth moved, but her voice was not heard” (1 Samuel 1:13). Although this prayer was not public, but, being heartfelt, it was also oral. The Holy Apostle Paul called oral prayer the fruit of the lips, commands to bring “a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of the lips confessing to His name” (Heb. 13:15), commands “to speak to oneself in psalms, songs and spiritual songs,” along with vocal and oral prayer and hymns, “making melody and singing in the hearts of the Lord” (Eph. 5:19). He condemns inattentiveness in verbal and public prayer. “If the unknown” (unknown, incomprehensible) “the trumpet sounds,” he says, “who will prepare for battle? So also, if the word is not prudent” (i.e., unintelligible), “will you give with the tongue, so that the verb can be understood? You will be speaking into the air” (1 Cor. 14:8–9). Although the Apostle said these words specifically about those who pray and proclaim the promptings of the Holy Spirit in foreign languages, the Holy Fathers with justice apply them to those who pray without attention. A person who prays without attention, and therefore does not understand the words he speaks, what else is there for himself if not a foreigner? Based on this, the Monk Nil of Sorsky says that he who prays with his voice and lips without attention, prays to the air, and not to God 122. “It’s strange that you want God to hear you when you can’t hear yourself!” - says Saint Demetrius of Rostov, borrowing words from the holy martyr Cyprian of Carthage 123. And this definitely happens with praying lips and voices, without attention: they so do not hear themselves, they allow themselves so much entertainment, their thoughts wander so far from prayer into foreign objects that it often happens to them to suddenly stop, forgetting what they read, or instead of the words of the prayer they are reading, they begin to say words from other prayers, although the open book is before their eyes. How can the Holy Fathers not condemn such inattentive prayer, damaged and destroyed by absent-mindedness! “Attention,” says Saint Simeon the New Theologian, “should be as connected and inseparable with prayer as the body is connected with the soul, which cannot be separated, cannot be one without the other. Attention must precede and guard enemies, like some kind of guard, let it be the first to struggle against sin, and resist evil thoughts that come to the heart; let attention be followed by prayer, immediately destroying and killing all evil thoughts, with which attention first began to fight: for it alone cannot kill them. The life and death of the soul depends on this struggle, produced by attention and prayer. If we keep prayer pure through attention, we will succeed. If we do not try to keep it clean, but leave it unguarded, then it is desecrated by evil thoughts - we become indecent, we are deprived of prosperity.” Oral, public prayer, like any other, must certainly be accompanied by attention. With attention, the benefits of verbal prayer are innumerable. The ascetic must begin with it. It is first taught by the Holy Church to her children. “The root of monastic life is psalmody,” said Saint Isaac the Syrian 124. “The Church,” says Saint Peter of Damascus, “for a good and God-pleasing purpose, accepted songs and various troparia because of the weakness of our minds, so that we, foolish ones, attracted by the sweetness of psalmody, would, as if against our will, sing to God. Those who can understand and consider the words they pronounce become moved, and thus, like on a ladder, we ascend into good thoughts. To the extent that we succeed in acquiring the habit of Divine thoughts, the Divine desire appears in us and attracts us to achieve understanding the worship of the Father in Spirit and Truth, according to the commandment of the Lord” 125. The mouth and tongue, which often exercise in prayer and reading the Word of God, acquire sanctification and become incapable of idle talk, laughter, or uttering humorous, shameful and rotten words. Do you want to succeed in mental and heartfelt prayer? Learn to pay attention verbally and vocally: attentive oral prayer automatically turns into mental and heartfelt prayer. Do you want to learn to quickly and forcefully drive away the thoughts planted by the common enemy of humanity? Drive them away when you are alone in your cell, with a loud, attentive prayer, pronouncing its words slowly, with tenderness. The air is filled with attentive, verbal and vocal prayer - and the awe of the princes of the air envelops them, their muscles relax, their nets decay and collapse! The air is filled with attentive oral and vocal prayer - and the holy Angels approach those praying and singing, stand in their faces, participate in their spiritual chants, as some saints of God were honored to witness this, and among others, our contemporary, the blessed elder Seraphim of Sarov. Many great Fathers throughout their lives practiced oral and public prayer, and, moreover, they were abundant in the gifts of the Spirit. The reason for their success was that their mind, heart, whole soul and whole body were connected to their voice and lips; they said the prayer with all their souls, with all their strength, with all their being, with all their being. Thus, the Monk Simeon of Divnogorsk read the entire Psalter 126 during the night. Saint Isaac the Syrian mentions a certain blessed elder who was engaged in the prayerful reading of psalms, who was allowed to feel the reading only in the continuation of glory alone, after which Divine consolation took possession of him with such force that he remained for whole days in a sacred frenzy, not feeling either time or himself 127. The Monk Sergius of Radonezh, during the reading of the Akathist, was visited by the Mother of God, accompanied by the Apostles Peter and John 128. They tell about the Monk Hilarion of Suzdal: when he read the Akathist in church, the words flew out of his mouth, as if on fire, with inexplicable power and effect on those who were to come 129. The oral prayer of the saints was animated by attention and Divine grace, uniting the powers of man divided by sin into one: that is why it breathed such supernatural power and made such a wonderful impression on the listeners. The saints sang to God in “heartfelt confession” 130; they sang and confessed to God “unwaveringly” 131, that is, without distraction, they sang to God “reasonably” (Ps. 46:8). It should be noted that the venerable monks of the first times and everyone who wanted to succeed in prayer did not at all or did very little in actual singing, and by the name of psalmody, which is mentioned in their lives and writings, one should understand the extremely leisurely, drawn-out reading of psalms and other prayers. Long reading is necessary to maintain strict attention and avoid distraction. Due to its length and similarity to singing, such reading is called psalmody. It was performed by heart; the monks of those times had a rule of learning the psalter by heart: reading psalms by heart especially promotes attention. Such reading is no longer reading, as if it is not done from a book, but in the full sense of psalmody can be done in a dark cell, with the eyes closed, which protects everything from distraction, while a light cell, necessary for reading from a book and the very look at the book, scatters and rejects the mind from the heart to the outside. “They sing,” says Saint Simeon the New Theologian, “that is, their lips pray” 132. “Those who are not at all singing,” says the Monk Gregory of Sinaite, “they also do good, if they are in prosperity: these do not require the speaking of psalms, but silence and unceasing prayer” 133. Actually, the Fathers call reading the reading of the Holy Scriptures and the writings of the Holy Fathers, and prayer they call primarily the Jesus Prayer, also the prayer of the publican and other very short prayers, abundantly replacing psalmody, which is incomprehensible to beginners, and cannot be explained to them satisfactorily, as exceeding spiritual reason and explained only by blessed experience. Brethren! Let us be attentive in our verbal and public prayers, which we say during church services and in the solitude of our cells. We will not make our labors and life in the monastery fruitless by our inattention and negligence in the work of God. Negligence in prayer is harmful! “Cursed,” says Scripture, “do the work of God with negligence” (Jer. 48:10). The effect of this oath is obvious: complete infertility and failure, despite many years of monasticism. Let us lay at the foundation of the prayerful feat, the main and most essential among the monastic feats, for which all other feats, attentive, verbal and vocal prayer, for which the merciful Lord in due time grants to the constant, patient, humble ascetic prayer mental, heartfelt, grace-filled. Amen. Preface from the Writings of the Holy Fathers on mental activity, heartfelt and mental storage, etc. The inner man, ch. 3. St. Peter of Damascus. About the third vision. Dobrot., part 3. His life. Chet'i-Minei, May 24. Handwritten life of St. Hilarion of Suzdal. 1st of the morning prayers: “Arise from sleep...” 6th of the morning prayers: “We bless you, Most High God...” A Word on the Three Images of St. Prayer. Simeon the New Theologian. Dobrot., part 1. St. Gregory Sinait. 15 chapters on silence, chapter 8. Kindness, part 1. You might be interested in: