Слово о молитве Иисусовой 200

Starting to talk about the Jesus Prayer, I call upon the all-good and all-powerful Jesus to help my feeble-mindedness. Starting to talk about the Jesus Prayer, I remember the saying about the Lord of the righteous Simeon: “This is destined for the fall and rising of many in Israel and is meant for a sign” (Luke 2:34). Just as the Lord was and is a true sign, a debatable sign, a subject of disagreement and dispute between those who knew Him and those who did not know Him: so prayer in His all-holy name, being, in the full sense, a great and wondrous sign, has become, for some time, a subject of disagreement and dispute between those who engage in such prayer and those who do not engage in it. Some Father rightly notes that only those who do not know it reject this method of prayer, reject it out of prejudice and based on false concepts formed about it 201 . Without heeding the cries of prejudice and ignorance, in the hope of God's mercy and help, we offer our beloved fathers and brothers our poor word about the Jesus Prayer on the basis of Holy Scripture, on the basis of Church tradition, on the basis of the Fathers' writings, which set forth the teaching about this all-holy and all-powerful prayer. “Let the flattering lips be dumb, speaking against the righteous” and against his magnificent name “iniquity, pride”, their deep ignorance and the associated “humiliation” of the miracle of God. Having considered the greatness of the name of Jesus and the saving power of praying to it, we exclaim in spiritual joy and amazement: “For the great abundance of your goodness, O Lord, you have created for those who fear you, you have made them to trust in you before the sons of men” (Ps. 30:19-20). “These on chariots, and these on horses” - in our carnal and vain thinking: “but we,” with the simplicity and faith of infants, “will call on the name of the Lord our God” (Ps. 19:8). The Jesus Prayer is pronounced like this: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” Initially it was pronounced without adding the word sinner; this word is added to the other words of the prayer subsequently. This word, which contains the consciousness and confession of fall, notes the Monk Nilus of Sora, is fitting for us, favorable to God, who commanded us to send prayers to Him out of consciousness and confession of our sinfulness 202. For beginners, condescending to their weaknesses, the Fathers allow the prayer to be divided into two halves, sometimes saying: “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me, a sinner,” and sometimes, “Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” However, this is only permission and condescension, and is by no means an order or an establishment that requires absolute fulfillment. It is much better to constantly perform a uniform, integral prayer, without occupying or entertaining the mind with change and concern for change. And the one who finds the need for his weakness to change should not allow it often. Approximately: you can pray one half of the prayer before lunch, the other after lunch. Forbidding frequent change, the Monk Gregory of Sinaite says: “those trees that are replanted often do not take root” 203. Praying the Jesus Prayer is a Divine institution. It was established not through the medium of a prophet, not through the medium of an Apostle, not through the medium of an Angel - it was established by the Son of God and God Himself. After the Last Supper, among other sublime, final commandments and testaments, the Lord Jesus Christ established prayer in His name, gave this method of prayer as a new, unusual gift, a gift of immeasurable value. The apostles already knew in part the power of the name of Jesus: they healed incurable ailments with it, brought demons into obedience, defeated, bound, and drove them away. The Lord commands this most powerful, wonderful name to be used in prayers, promising from it a special reality for prayer. “Whatever you ask,” He said to the holy Apostles, “I will do from the Father in My name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. And whatever you ask in My name, I will do it” (John 14:13–14). “Amen, amen, I say to you, for whatever you ask from the Father in My name, He will give it to you. Until now, do not ask for anything in My name: ask and you will receive, that your joy may be filled” (John 16:23–24). Oh, what a gift, He is the guarantee of endless, immeasurable benefits! He flowed from the lips of the unlimited God, clothed in limited humanity, called by the name of man - Savior 204. A name that is limited in appearance, but represents an unlimited Object, God, borrowing from Him unlimited, Divine dignity, Divine properties and power. Giver of a priceless, imperishable gift! How can we, insignificant, mortal, sinners, accept the gift? Neither our hands, nor our minds, nor our hearts are capable of this. Teach us to know, to the best of our ability, the greatness of the gift, and its meaning, and the method of acceptance, and the method of use, so as not to approach the gift sinfully, so as not to be executed for recklessness and insolence, so that, for the correct knowledge and use of the gift, we may accept from You other gifts promised by You, known to You alone. From the Gospel, Acts and Epistles of the Apostles we see unlimited faith in the name of the Lord Jesus and unlimited reverence for this name of the holy Apostles. In the name of the Lord Jesus they performed the most amazing signs. There is no case from which one could learn how they prayed in the name of the Lord, but they prayed to them without fail. How could they not pray to them when this prayer was taught and commanded by the Lord Himself, when the commandment was strengthened by twice repeating and confirming it? If Scripture is silent about this, it is silent only because this prayer was in general use, not requiring special inclusion in Scripture due to its popularity and common use. The common use and well-known nature of the Jesus Prayer is clearly evident from the decree of the Church, which commands the illiterate to replace all prayers for themselves with the Jesus Prayer 205. The antiquity of this ruling is undoubted. Subsequently, it was replenished as new prayer books appeared in the Church. Saint Basil the Great set out the prayer rule in a letter for his flock, which is why some attribute the very establishment of the rule to him. It is by no means an invention or institution of the Great Saint; The saint only replaced the oral tradition with a written one, just as he wrote the rite of the Liturgy, the rite that existed in Caesarea from the time of the Apostles was not set out in writing, but was passed down through succession orally, in order to protect the great sacred rite from the blasphemy of the pagans. The monastic rule consists most of all in the Jesus Prayer. In this form this rule is taught in general to all monks of the Orthodox Church 206: in this form it was taught by the Angel to the Monk Pachomius the Great for his cenobitic monks. The monk lived in the 4th century; The rule speaks of the Jesus Prayer in exactly the same way as the Lord's Prayer, the fiftieth Psalm and the Creed - as well-known and generally accepted. St. Anthony the Great, Father of the 3rd and 4th centuries, bequeaths to his disciples the most thorough exercise of the Jesus Prayer, speaking of it as a subject that does not need any explanation. An explanation for this prayer began to appear later, as living knowledge about it became impoverished. The teaching about the Jesus Prayer was set out in more detail by the Fathers of the 14th and 15th centuries, when the exercise in it began to be almost forgotten even among monks. The historical monuments of the first times of Christianity that have reached us do not speak about praying in the name of the Lord separately, but only mention it when describing other circumstances. In the biography of Saint Ignatius the God-Bearer, Bishop of Antioch, who was crowned with a martyr’s death in Rome under the Emperor Trajan, the following is narrated: “When he was led to be devoured by wild beasts and he constantly had the name of Jesus Christ in his mouth, the wicked asked him: why does he constantly remember this name? The saint answered that he, having the name of Jesus Christ written in his heart, confesses with his lips the One Whom he always carries in his heart. After the Saint was eaten by beasts, with his remaining bones, by the will of God, his heart was preserved intact. The infidels, having found it and remembering the words of Saint Ignatius, cut this heart into two halves, wanting to know whether what was said to the saints was true. They found inside, on both halves of the cut heart, an inscription in gold letters: Jesus Christ. Thus, the Hieromartyr Ignatius was in name and deed the God-Bearer, always carrying in his heart Christ God, written with the Thought of God of the mind, as if with a reed.” The God-bearer was a disciple of the holy Apostle Evangelist John the Theologian and in his childhood was honored to see the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. This is the blessed youth about whom it is said in the Gospel that the Lord placed him among the Apostles, who were arguing about primacy, embraced him and said: “Amen, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself as a child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:3–4; Mark 9:36–37) 207. Of course, Saint Ignatius was taught the Jesus Prayer by the holy Evangelist and practiced it in these flourishing times of Christianity, like all other Christians. Then the Jesus Prayer was taught to all Christians, firstly, because of the great significance of this prayer, then, because of the rarity and high cost of handwritten holy books, because of the rarity of literacy (most of the Apostles were illiterate), because of the convenience, satisfactoriness, and the special effect and power of the Jesus Prayer. “The name of the Son of God,” said the Angel to Saint Hermias, a direct disciple of the Apostles, “is great and immeasurable: it holds up the whole world.” Hearing this teaching, Hermias asked the Angel: “If all creation is upheld by the Son of God, does He support those who are called by Him, who bear His name and walk in His commandments?” The angel answered: “He supports those who bear His name with all their hearts. He Himself serves as a foundation for them, and holds them with love, because they are not ashamed to bear His name" 208. In Church History we read the following narrative: “A warrior named Neocora, a native of Carthage, was in the Roman detachment guarding Jerusalem, while our Lord Jesus Christ endured free suffering and death for the redemption of the human race. Seeing the miracles that occurred at the death and resurrection of the Lord, Neokora believed in the Lord and was baptized by the Apostles. At the end of his service, Neocora returned to Carthage, and shared the treasure of faith with his entire family. Among those who converted to Christianity was Callistratus, the grandson of Neocora. Callistratus, having reached the proper age, joined the army. The troop of warriors in which he was placed consisted of idolaters. They kept an eye on Callistratus, noticing that he did not worship idols, but at night, in solitude, performed long prayers. One day they overheard him while he was praying and, hearing that he was constantly repeating the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, they reported this to the governor. Saint Callistratus, who confessed Jesus privately and in the darkness of the night, also confessed Him in the light of day, publicly - the confession was sealed with blood” 209. The 5th century writer, St. Hesychius of Jerusalem, already complains that the practice of this prayer has become very poor among monks 210. This impoverishment became more and more intensified over time: why did the Holy Fathers try to support it with their writings. The last writer about this prayer was the blessed elder Hieromonk Seraphim of Sarov. It was not the elder himself who wrote the instructions adorned with his name; they were written down from his words by one of the monks who were instructed by him; they are marked with anointing of grace 211. Nowadays the exercise of the Jesus Prayer has almost been abandoned by monastics. The Monk Hesychius cites negligence as the reason for abandonment: we must admit that the accusation is fair. The gracious power of the Jesus Prayer lies in the very Divine name of the God-man, our Lord, Jesus Christ. Although numerous testimonies of the Holy Scriptures proclaim to us the greatness of the name of God; but with the greatest certainty the holy Apostle Peter explained the meaning of this name before the Sanhedrin of Judea, when the Sanhedrin interrogated the Apostle “by what power or by what name” was they granted healing to the lame from birth? “Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said: Princes of the people and elders of Israel, although we are tormented today because of the good deeds of man, we are weak, because of this we have been saved: be wise to all of you and to all the people of Israel, for in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, for this reason this one stands before you healthy. This is the stone rooted from you who built it, which was the head of the corner, and there is no other salvation: for there is no other name under heaven given among men, in which it is fitting for us to be saved” (Acts 4:7-12). This testimony is the testimony of the Holy Spirit: the lips, tongue, and voice of the Apostle were only instruments of the Spirit. And another organ of the Holy Spirit, the Apostle of Tongues, issues a similar proclamation. “Everyone,” he says, “whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” (Rom. 10:13). “Christ Jesus humbled Himself, becoming obedient even to the point of death, death on the cross. Therefore God also highly exalted Him, and gave Him a name that is above every name, that in the name of Jesus every knee should bow, those in heaven and on earth and under the earth” (Phil. 2:8–10). David, who foresaw the distant future, sang, the forefather of Jesus according to the flesh, sang the greatness of the name of Jesus, picturesquely depicted the action of this name, the struggle through it with the beginnings of sin, its power in the liberation of those praying to it from the captivity of passions and demons, the gracious triumph of those who won the victory in the name of Jesus. Let's listen, let's listen to the God-inspired David! With extraordinary clarity, describing the establishment of the spiritual kingdom of Christ on earth, which is to take place in a thousand years, the King-Prophet says that the dominion of the God-man will extend “from sea to sea, and from rivers to the end of the universe. All the kings of the earth will worship Him, all the nations will work for Him. Honor His name before them, and they will pray for Him and bless Him all day long. Blessed be His name forever; His name abides before the sun: and in Him all the tribes of the earth will be blessed, all the nations will bless Him. Blessed is the name of His glory forever, and forever; and the whole earth will be filled with His glory” (Ps. 71:8, 11, 14–15, 17, 19). The great ministry of prayer, which brings people into close communion with God, has appeared on earth on a vast scale since the time of the reconciliation of people with God through the mediation of the God-man. This service embraced the universe. It settled in cities and villages; it flourished in wild, hitherto uninhabited deserts; it shone in dark dens, in gorges, in abysses and on mountain tops, in the depths of dense forests. The name of the God-man received the most important significance in the service of prayer, being the name of the Savior of men, the Creator of men and Angels, being the name of God incarnate, the Conqueror of indignant slaves and creatures - demons. “Before Him” - our Lord and Redeemer - “the Ethiopians will fall down,” demons, “and His enemies,” fallen spirits, “they will lick the dust” (Ps. 71:9). “O Lord our Lord, for Your name is wonderful throughout all the earth, for Your splendor is exalted above the heavens. From the mouth of a child and of those who piss you have made praise, O Thy enemy, for the sake of destroying the enemy and the local” (Ps. 8: 2-3). Exactly! The greatness of the name of Jesus is beyond the comprehension of rational creatures of earth and heaven: its comprehension is incomprehensibly accepted by infantile simplicity and faith. With the same disinterested mood one should begin to pray in the name of Jesus and remain in this prayer; constancy and thoroughness in prayer should be similar to the incessant striving of a baby for its mother’s nipples: then prayer in the name of Jesus can be crowned with complete success, invisible enemies can be trampled under foot, the “enemy and local” (avenger) can be finally crushed. The enemy is called a localist because from those who pray, especially from time to time, and not constantly, he tries to take away after prayer what they acquired during prayer 212. For decisive victory, unceasing prayer and unceasing vigilance over oneself are necessary. Because of this meaning of prayer in the name of Jesus, David invites all Christians to this prayer. “Praise the Lord, fathers, praise the name of the Lord. Blessed be the name of the Lord from now on and forever. From the east of the sun to the west His name is praised” (Ps. 112:1-3). “Bring to the Lord the glory of His name: worship the Lord in His holy court” (Ps. 28:2); pray so that the greatness of the name of Jesus appears in your prayers, and you, by His power, ascend into the church of the heart not made by hands to worship in spirit and truth; pray carefully and constantly; pray in fear and trembling before the greatness of the name of Jesus, “and let them trust in Thee,” the almighty and all-good Jesus, “who know Thy name” from their blessed experience, “for Thou hast not forsaken them that seek Thee, O Lord” (Ps. 9:11). Only the poor in spirit, who constantly clings to the Lord in prayer because of the incessant feeling of his poverty, is able to reveal within himself the greatness of the name of Jesus. “The humble will not return to shame” from the beginning of his prayer, but will offer it entirely to God, not plundered by entertainment: “the poor and the needy will praise Your name” (Ps. 73:21). “Blessed is the man for whom the name of the Lord is his hope, and he will not despise false vanity and confusion” (Ps. 39:5): when he prays, he will not pay attention to the seductive effect of vain cares and passions that attempt to defile and corrupt prayer. Night time is especially conducive, due to its silence and darkness, to the exercise of the Jesus Prayer; At night, the great ascetic of prayer, David, occupied himself with the memory of God: “I remembered Your name, O Lord, in the night,” he says; At night I tuned my soul with the Divine mood “and”, having acquired this mood, in the activities of the next day “keep Your law” (Ps. 119:55). “At night,” advises St. Gregory of Sinai, referring to St. John Climacus, “devote a lot of time to prayer, and little time to psalmody” 213. In the difficult struggle against the invisible enemies of our salvation, the most excellent weapon is the Jesus Prayer. “All the heathen”—the pagans are the names of the many-verbal and many-wily demons—“have deceived me,” says David, “in the name of the Lord they have resisted them; having deceived me, they have deceived them; they have gone around me like bees on a honeycomb, and they have burned like fire among thorns, and in the name of the Lord they have resisted them” (Ps. 117:10-12). “In the name of Jesus, strike your adversaries: because neither in heaven nor on earth is there a stronger weapon” 214. “Because of You,” Lord Jesus, “we will rip our enemies by the horns, and because of Your name we will despise those who rise up against us. For I trust not in my bow, and my sword will not save me: for thou hast saved us from those who oppressed us, and thou hast put to shame those who hate us. Let us boast in God all day long, and let us confess Your name forever” (Ps. 43:6-9). The mind, having defeated and dispersed the enemies in the name of Jesus, is numbered with the blessed spirits, enters for true worship into the church of the heart, which had hitherto been closed to it, singing a new, spiritual song, singing mysteriously: “I will confess to You, Lord, with all my heart and before the Angels I will sing to You, because I have heard all the words of my mouth: I will worship Your holy church, and Let us confess to Your name about Your mercy and Your truth: for You have magnified Your holy name above all. One day I will call on You, quickly hear me: increase me in my soul by Your power” (Ps. 137:1-3). Saint David enumerates the wonderful actions of the “terrible and holy name” (Ps. 110:9) of Jesus. It acts like accepted medicine, the mode of action of which is unknown to the patient and incomprehensible to him, and the effect itself is obvious by the healing produced. For the sake of the name of Jesus, used by the one praying, help comes to him from God, and he is granted remission of sins; for this reason, Saint David, presenting to the view of God the devastation and disastrous state of the soul of every person caused by a sinful life, begs on behalf of all people for mercy, saying: “Help us, O God, our Savior, for the glory of Your name, Lord, deliver us, and cleanse our sins for Your name” (Ps. 78:9). For the sake of the name of the Lord, our prayer is heard, salvation is granted to us; Based on the conviction of this, David again prays: “God, in Your name, save me, and in Your power judge me: God, hear my prayer, inspire the words of my mouth” (Ps. 54:3-4). By the power of the name of Jesus, the mind is freed from hesitation, the will is strengthened, the correctness of jealousy and other spiritual properties is brought, thoughts and feelings pleasing to God, thoughts and feelings belonging to the immaculate human nature; only such thoughts and feelings are allowed to reside in the soul; there is no place in it for thoughts and feelings that are alien, “for God will save Zion, and the cities of Judah will be built, and will dwell there, and will inherit; and they will keep the seed of your servants, and those who love your name will dwell in him” (Ps. 69:36–37). In the name of the Lord Jesus, revival is given to the soul killed by sin. The Lord Jesus Christ is life (John 11:25), and His name is living: it gives life to those who cry to him to the source of life, the Lord Jesus Christ. “For Thy name's sake, O Lord, live me in Thy righteousness” (Ps. 142:11); “We will not depart from You: quicken us, and we will call on Your name” (Ps. 79:19). When prayer is heard by the power and action of the name of Jesus, when Divine help descends to man, when enemies are repelled and retreat from him, when he is granted remission of sins, when he is healed and returned to an immaculate natural state, when his spirit is restored in its power, then repentance will follow, in the name of the Lord, grace-filled gifts, spiritual property and treasures, the guarantee of a blessed eternity, “for you, O God, have heard Thou art my prayer: Thou hast given wealth to those who fear Thy name. Add days to days of the king: his years until the day of generation and generation. He will remain forever before God” (Ps. 60:6–8). Then a person becomes able to “sing a new song to the Lord”: he is excluded from the ranks of the carnal and spiritual, is numbered among the spiritual and praises the Lord “in the church of the venerables.” The Holy Spirit, who had hitherto invited and aroused him solely to weeping and repentance, invites him, “that Israel may rejoice in Him who made them, and the sons of Zion may rejoice in their King: let them praise His name in person, in the tympanum, and in the psaltery, and sing to Him” (Ps. 149:1–3), because, after the renewal of the soul, its powers, brought into wonderful harmony and harmony, become capable, when touched by Divine grace, to produce spiritual sounds and voices, ascending to heaven, before the throne of God, favorable to God. “Let my heart rejoice in fearing Your name! Let me confess to You, O Lord my God, with all my heart, and I will glorify Your name forever, for Your great mercy is upon me, and You have delivered my soul from the lowest hell” (Ps. 85:11-13). “The righteous will confess to Your name, and the righteous will dwell with Your face” (Ps. 139:14), because, after driving away the enemies who cause absent-mindedness, weakening and desecrating prayer, the mind enters the darkness of not seeing anything, and stands before the face of God without any mediation. Mental darkness is that cover, that curtain with which the face of God is covered. This cover is the incomprehensibility of God for all created minds. The tenderness of the heart then becomes so strong that it is called confession. David depicts the grace-filled effect of the Jesus Prayer in a successful Christian this way: “Bless my soul the Lord, and all that is within me, His holy name” (Ps. 102:1). Exactly! With the abundant effect of the Jesus Prayer, all the powers of the soul, the body itself, take part in it. Saint David, or rather the Holy Spirit through the mouth of David, offers the exercise of the Jesus Prayer to all Christians without exception: “the kings of the land and all the people, the princes and all the judges of the land, young men and maidens, old men and young men, let them praise the name of the Lord, for the name of Him alone is exalted” (Ps. 149:11-13). A literal understanding of the states listed here will be completely infallible, but their essential meaning is spiritual. By the name of people are meant all Christians, by the name of kings are Christians deemed worthy to receive perfection; under the name of princes - those who have achieved very significant success, judges are those who have not yet acquired power over themselves, but are familiar with the Law of God, can distinguish good from evil, and, according to the instructions and requirements of the Law of God, remain in goodness, rejecting evil. Virgo denotes an impartial heart, so capable of prayer. The elders and youths depict the degrees of active prosperity, which is very different from grace-filled prosperity, although the former has its very significant price; one who has achieved perfection in pious activity is called an elder, and one elevated to grace-filled perfection is called a king. Among the incomprehensible, wonderful properties of the name of Jesus is the property and power to cast out demons. This property was declared by the Lord Himself. He said that those who believe in Him, “in His name the demons will be destroyed” (Mark 16:17). It is necessary to pay special attention to this property of the name of Jesus, because it is of utmost importance for those who practice the Jesus Prayer. First, we need to say a few words about the presence of demons in people. This presence can be twofold: one can be called sensual, the other moral. Satan dwells sensually in a person when he inhabits his body with his being and torments his soul and body. Thus, one demon can live in a person, and many demons can live. Then the person is called mad. From the Gospel we see that the Lord healed those who were demonized, and the Lord’s disciples also healed them, casting out demons from people in the name of the Lord. Satan abides morally in a person when a person becomes an executor of the will of the devil. Thus, in Judas Iscariot “Satan was present” (Jn. 13:27), that is, he took possession of his mind and will, united with him in spirit. In this position were and are all those who do not believe in Christ, just as the holy Apostle Paul says to Christians who have converted to Christianity from paganism: “and you, who are the transgressions of the dead and your sins: in them you sometimes walk, according to the age of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit, who now works in the sons of disobedience: in them we also sometimes live in the lusts of the flesh ours, doing the will of the flesh and mind, and being by nature children of wrath, like others” (Eph. 2:1-3). In this position are found, more or less, depending on the degree of sinfulness, those who were baptized into Christ, but were alienated from Him by sins. This is how the Holy Fathers understand the words of Christ about the return of the devil with the other seven fiercest spirits to the spiritual church from which the Holy Spirit has departed (Matthew 12:43–45) 215. The spirits that have entered in this way are again driven out by the Jesus Prayer, while living in constant and thorough repentance. Let's undertake a feat that will save us! Let us take care to drive out the spirits that have entered into us due to our negligence, through the Jesus Prayer 216. It has the ability to revive those killed by sin, it has the ability to cast out demons. “I am,” said the Savior, “resurrection and life: believe in Me, even if you die, you will live” (John 11:25). “This sign will follow to those who believe: in My name the demons will be destroyed” (Mark 16:17). The Jesus Prayer reveals the presence of demons in a person and drives them out of a person. At the same time, something similar happens to what happened during the expulsion of a demon from a raging youth, after the Transfiguration of the Lord. When the youth saw the Lord come, “the spirit shook” the youth, “and the mother-in-law fell to the ground, rolling around in foam.” When the Lord commanded the spirit to come out of the boy, the spirit, from the malice and cruelty of the movement at which he came out, cried out, shook the boy strongly and for a long time, from which the boy became as if dead (Mark 9:17-27) 217. The power of Satan, which resides in man during his distracted life, unnoticed and incomprehensible, when he hears the name of the Lord Jesus called upon by the one praying, he becomes confused. It stirs up all the passions in a person, through them it brings the whole person into terrible turmoil, producing various, strange diseases in the body. In this sense, the Monk John the Prophet said: “We who are weak can only resort to the name of Jesus: for the passions, as it has been said, are demons - and come from invoking this name” 218. This means: the action of passions and demons is combined: demons act through passions. When we see a special excitement and effervescence of passions during the exercise of the Jesus Prayer, we will not become despondent and bewildered because of this. On the contrary, let us take heart and prepare ourselves for the feat of most thorough prayer in the name of the Lord Jesus, as having received a clear sign that the Jesus Prayer has begun to produce in us its characteristic effect. Saint John Chrysostom says: “Remembering the name of our Lord Jesus Christ provokes the enemy to scold. For a soul compelled to the Jesus Prayer can obtain everything through this prayer, both evil and good. First, she can see evil in the interior of her heart, and then good. This prayer can move the serpent, and this prayer can humble him. This prayer can expose the sin that lives in us, and this prayer can destroy it. This prayer can set in motion all the power of the enemy in the heart, and this prayer can conquer and eradicate it little by little. The name of the Lord Jesus Christ, descending into the depths of the heart, will humble the serpent who owns his pastures, and will save and revive the soul. Continue continually in the name of the Lord Jesus, that the heart of the Lord and the Lord may consume the heart, and that the two may become one. However, this work is not accomplished in one day or in two days, but requires many years and time: a lot of time and feat are needed for the enemy to be driven out and Christ to move in.” 219 Obviously, this work is described here, with a clear indication of the instrument of work, about which the Venerable Macarius the Great speaks and invites in his first word: “Go down, whoever you are, through the thoughts that are constantly growing in you, to your soul, a prisoner of war and a slave of sin, and examine to the bottom your thoughts, and explore the depth of your thoughts: and you will see in the depths of your soul the crawling and nesting serpent that killed you with the poison of the parts of your soul. The immeasurable abyss is the heart. If you kill the serpent, then boast before God of your purity; if not, then humble yourself, praying as a weak and sinner to God for your secrets” 220. The same great saint of God says: “The kingdom of darkness, that is, the evil prince of spirits, having captivated man from the beginning, surrounded and clothed his soul with the power of darkness. This evil ruler clothed the soul and its entire being with sin, desecrated it all, captivated it all into his kingdom; he did not leave free from enslavement either his thoughts, his mind, his flesh, and finally not a single part of it; dressed her all in a robe of darkness. This evil enemy of the whole man, desecrated and disfigured the soul and body, he clothed man in the old man, defiled, unclean, ungodly, disobedient to the law of God, that is, he clothed him in sin itself, so that man no longer saw as he wanted, but saw passionately, heard passionately, so that his feet were directed towards evil deeds, his hands to the creation of lawlessness, his heart to evil thoughts. But we will pray to God that He will take off the old man from us, since He alone can take away sin from us, because those who have captivated us and hold us in their power are stronger than us, and He has promised to free us from this slavery” 221. Based on these concepts, the Holy Fathers give those who pray the Jesus Prayer the following most soul-saving instruction: “If the soul does not suffer greatly from the persistence of sin, it will not be able to rejoice abundantly in the goodness of justice. He who wishes to purify his heart, let him constantly kindle it with the memory of the Lord Jesus, having only this through uninterrupted teaching and deed. Those who want to renounce their old age should not sometimes pray and sometimes not, but should constantly remain in prayer by observing the mind, even if they are outside the churches of prayer. Those who intend to purify gold, even if they allow the fire in the crucible to go out for a short time, then harden again in the substance being cleaned: similarly, one who sometimes remembers God, and sometimes does not remember, destroys through idleness what he thinks he can acquire through prayer. It is common for a virtuous man to constantly destroy the earthiness of the heart with the memory of God, so that in this way evil is little by little consumed by the fire of the memory of good, and the soul returns completely to its natural lordship with great glory. Thus, the mind, being in the heart, prays purely and unpretentiously, as the same saint (Diadochos) said: then prayer becomes true and unpretentious when the mind, while praying, is united with the heart” 222. Let us not be afraid, workers of the Jesus Prayer, of neither winds nor disturbances! I call demonic thoughts and dreams winds, and excitement the rebellion of passions excited by thoughts and dreams. From the midst of a raging storm, with constancy, courage and weeping, let us cry out to the Lord Jesus Christ: He will rebuke the winds and waves, and we, having experienced the omnipotence of Jesus, will give Him due worship, “saying: Truly you are the Son of God” (Matthew 14:33). We are fighting for our salvation. Our eternal fate depends on our victory or defeat. “Then,” says the Venerable Simeon the New Theologian, “that is, when practicing the Jesus Prayer, there is warfare: the crafty demons fight with great indignation, through the action of passions they create rebellion and a storm in the heart, but in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ they are consumed and destroyed, like wax from fire. Again, when they are driven away and retreat from the heart, they do not stop fighting, but disturb the mind with external feelings from without. For this reason, the mind does not very soon begin to feel silence and silence within itself, because demons, when they do not have the power to disturb the mind in the depths, then disturb it from the outside with dreams. And therefore it is impossible to completely free yourself from warfare and not be attacked by evil spirits. This is characteristic of the perfect and those who have completely withdrawn from everything and constantly remain in the attention of the heart” 223. Initially, the work itself seems unusually dry, not promising any fruit. The mind, trying to unite with the heart, first encounters impenetrable darkness, hardness and deadness of the heart, which is suddenly awakened to sympathy with the mind 224. This should not lead the worker to despondency and cowardice, and is mentioned here for the purpose that the worker should be forewarned and warned. A patient and careful worker will certainly be satisfied and comforted: he will rejoice in the immeasurable abundance of such spiritual fruits, which he cannot even imagine in his carnal and spiritual state. The action of the Jesus Prayer has its own gradualness: first it acts on one mind, bringing it into a state of silence and attention, then it will begin to penetrate the heart, awakening it from the sleep of death and signifying its revival by the appearance in it of feelings of tenderness and crying. Deepening even further, it little by little begins to act in all members of the soul and body, drive out sin from everywhere, destroy everywhere the dominion, influence and poison of demons. For this reason, during the initial actions of the Jesus Prayer, “there is unspeakable contrition and unspeakable illness of the soul,” says St. Gregory of Sinai. The soul is sick as one that is sick and in labor, according to Scripture (Sir. 48:21): “For the Word of God lives, and is active, and sharper than any two-edged sword,” that is, Jesus, passes, as the Apostle testifies, “even to the dividing of soul and spirit, members and marrow, and judgment by the mind and thought of the heart” (Heb. 4:12), passes, destroying sinfulness from all parts of the soul and body 225. When the seventy lesser Apostles, sent by the Lord to preach, returned to Him after completing the service entrusted to them, they joyfully announced to the Lord: “Lord, even demons are subject to us in Your name” (Luke 10:17). Oh, how just this joy was! How thorough she was! For more than five thousand years the devil ruled over people, catching them into slavery to himself and into kinship with himself through sin, and now he hears the name of Jesus - and obeys the people who hitherto obeyed him, is bound by those bound by him, and trampled upon by those trampled upon. In response to the disciples, rejoicing over the overthrow of the power of demons over people and about the acquisition of power by people over demons, the Lord said: “Behold, I give you power to tread on the serpent and the scorpion, and over all the power of the enemy; and nothing will harm you” (Luke 10:19). Power is given, but the freedom is given to use the power and trample on snakes and scorpions, or neglect the gift and arbitrarily submit to them. By the name of snakes, the Holy Fathers mean undertakings that are clearly sinful, and by the name of scorpios, they mean undertakings covered with the appearance of purity and even goodness. The authority given by the Lord to His seventy disciples is given to all Christians (Mark 16:17). Use it, Christian! In the name of Jesus cut off the heads, that is, the initial manifestations of sin in thoughts, dreams and sensations; destroy the devil’s dominion over you, destroy all his influence on you, gain spiritual freedom. The basis for your feat is the grace of holy baptism: the weapon is prayer in the name of Jesus. The Lord, having given His disciples the power to trample on snakes and scorpions, added: “Besides, do not rejoice in this, for souls obey you: rejoice, for your names are written in heaven” (Luke 10:20). “Rejoice not so much,” says Blessed Theophylact, “that the demons obey you, but rather that your names are written in heaven, not in ink, but by Divine grace and God’s memory,” the Jesus Prayer. This is the property of the Jesus Prayer: it raises its worker from earth to heaven, and includes him among the inhabitants of heaven. Staying with your mind and heart in heaven and in God is the main fruit, this is the goal of prayer; repelling and trampling on enemies who oppose the achievement of the goal is a secondary matter: it should not attract all attention to itself, so that through the consciousness and contemplation of victory it does not allow arrogance and conceit to enter into oneself, and does not suffer a terrible defeat regarding the victory itself. The Gospel further narrates: “At that hour Jesus rejoiced in spirit, and said: The Father, Lord, of heaven and earth, confess that thou hast hidden this from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed it as a child: to her, Father, that thou hast been well pleased with thee. And turn to the disciple and say: All things were handed over to Me from My Father: and no one knows who the Son is, except the Father” (Luke 10:21-22) 226. The Lord rejoices in the incomprehensible joy of God over the prosperity of men; proclaims that the sacraments of the Christian faith are revealed not to the wise and exalted of the world, but to babes in civil terms, such as the disciples of the Lord were, taken from among the common people, unlearned, illiterate. To be a disciple of the Lord, one must become a child and accept His teaching with childlike simplicity and love. The Lord addresses those who have already become disciples with an exposition of the most mysterious teaching, revealing that the Son, despite His acceptance of humanity, remains above the comprehension of all rational creatures. Above their comprehension is His all-holy name. With the simplicity and trustfulness of infants, let us accept the teaching of prayer in the name of Jesus; with the simplicity and trustfulness of infants, let us begin to exercise this prayer: God alone, who fully knows its mystery, will teach it to us to the extent accessible to us. Let us please God with labor and success in the service that He taught and commanded us. The Jesus Prayer was in general use among Christians of the first centuries, as we said above. It couldn't have been any other way. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, the most amazing signs were performed in front of the entire Christian society, which aroused faith in the unlimited power of the name of Jesus throughout the entire Christian society. Those who succeeded understood this power from their success. About this power, abundantly developing in the saints of God, the Venerable Barsanuphius the Great expresses himself as follows: “I know one servant of God in our race, at the present time and in this blessed place, who can raise the dead in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and cast out demons, and heal incurable diseases, and perform other miracles no less than the apostolic ones, as the One who gave him the gift testifies, or, more precisely, talents. And what does this mean in comparison with what can be done about the name of Jesus! 227. Having miracles before their eyes, the will of the Lord in their memory, a fiery love for the Lord in their hearts, the faithful of the primal Church constantly, carefully, with the fiery zeal of the Cherubim and Seraphim, practiced prayer in the name of Jesus. This is the property of love! She constantly remembers her beloved, she constantly delights in the name of her beloved, she keeps him in her heart, in her mind and on her lips. The name of the Lord is more than any name: it is a source of delight, a source of joy, a source of life; it is Spirit; it gives life, changes, melts, idolizes. For the illiterate, it satisfactorily replaces prayer and psalmody: those who are literate, having succeeded in the Jesus Prayer, abandon the variety of psalmody and begin to primarily practice the Jesus Prayer, for the sake of the abundant strength and nutrition inherent in it. All this is clear from the writings and decrees of the Holy Fathers. The Holy Eastern Orthodox Church offers all illiterate people, instead of all prayers, the Jesus Prayer 228, offering it not as an innovation, but as a well-known exercise. This decree, together with other traditions of the Eastern Church, passed from Greece to Russia, and many of the common people, illiterate and even illiterate, were imbued with the power of the Jesus Prayer for salvation and eternal life, many achieved great spiritual success. Saint John Chrysostom, advising careful and constant exercise of the Jesus Prayer, especially to monks, speaks of it as a well-known subject. “Both we and we,” he says, “have spiritual spells: the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and the power of the cross. This spell not only drives the dragon out of its hole and plunges it into fire, but even heals the wounds it inflicts. If many uttered this spell and were not healed, this happened because of their lack of faith, and not because of the invalidity of what was uttered. Many, although they relentlessly followed Christ and pressed Him, did not receive any benefit, and the bleeding wife, who touched not the body, but the hem of His garment, stopped long-term blood flows. The name of Jesus Christ is terrible for demons, for spiritual passions and illnesses. We will decorate ourselves with it, we will protect ourselves with it. By them Paul (the Apostle) became great, although he was of the same nature with us” 229. To the Monk Pachomius the Great, for the large society of monks under his jurisdiction, the Angel of God taught a prayer rule. The monks, subordinate to the spiritual leadership of the Monk Pachomius, had to perform the rule every hour; those who had achieved perfection and the unceasing prayer associated with it were exempted from fulfilling the rule. The rule taught by the Angel consisted of the Trisagion, the Lord's Prayer, Psalm 50, the Creed and one hundred Jesus prayers 230. The rule speaks of the Jesus Prayer in the same way as the Lord’s Prayer, that is, as well-known and in common use. The Monk Barsanuphius the Great tells that the monks of the Egyptian monastery were mainly engaged in prayer, which is also evident from the life of the Monk Pamva, the monk and abba of Mount Nitria, not far from the monastery, in which, like the monastery, the monks spent a silent life 231 . Of the saints of God mentioned in this word, who practiced or wrote about the Jesus Prayer, Saint Ignatius the God-Bearer lived in Antioch and died in Rome; the holy martyr Callistratus was a native and resident of Carthage; Saint Pachomius the Great lived in Upper Egypt; skete and Nitrian monks, as well as the Monk Isaiah, in the lower one; Saint John Chrysostom lived in Antioch and Constantinople; Saint Basil the Great - in the eastern half of Asia Minor, in Cappadocia; Saint Barsanuphius the Great - in the vicinity of Jerusalem; Saint John Climacus on Mount Sinai and for some time in Lower Egypt, near Alexandria. From this it is clear that prayer in the name of the Lord Jesus was ubiquitous and commonly used in the universal Church. In addition to the mentioned Fathers, the following wrote about the Jesus Prayer: St. Hesychius, a Jerusalem presbyter, a disciple of St. Gregory the Theologian, a writer of the 5th century, already complaining about the abandonment by monks of the exercise of the Jesus Prayer and sobriety; venerables: Philotheus the Sinaite, Simeon the New Theologian, Gregory the Sinaite, Theoliptus of Philadelphia, Gregory Palamas, Callistus and Ignatius Xanthopoulos and many others. Their works are mostly included in an extensive collection of ascetic writers, in the Philokalia. Among the Russian Fathers there are works about her by the Venerable Nil of Sorsky, Hieromonk Dorotheus, Archimandrite Paisius Velichkovsky, Schemamonk Vasily of Polyanomerulsky and Hieromonk Seraphim of Sarov. All the mentioned writings of the Fathers are worthy of deep respect for the abundance of grace and spiritual intelligence living in them and breathing from them; but the writings of the Russian Fathers, due to their particular clarity and simplicity of presentation, due to their great proximity to us in relation to time, are more accessible to us than the writings of Greek lamps. In particular, the writings of Elder Basil can and should be recognized as the first book to which in our time anyone who wants to successfully engage in the Jesus Prayer must turn 232. This is its purpose. The Elder called his writings forewords, prefaces, or the kind of reading that prepares the Greek Fathers for reading. The book of St. Nil of Sorsky is excellent. Reading it should also be preceded by reading Greek writers; She, constantly referring to them and explaining them, prepares these thoughtful, holy teachers, often vitias, philosophers, poets, for reading and correct understanding. In general, all the works of the Holy Fathers about monastic life, and especially about the Jesus Prayer, constitute an invaluable treasure for us, monks of recent times. In the time of St. Nile of Sora, three centuries before us, living vessels of Divine grace were extremely rare, they became extremely scarce, as he put it; Nowadays they are so rare that one can say without stopping and unmistakably: they do not exist. It is recognized as a special mercy of God if someone, exhausted in soul and body in monastic life, at the end of this life unexpectedly finds somewhere in the wilderness a vessel chosen by the impartial God, humiliated in the eyes of men, exalted and exalted by God. So Zosima found in the deserted Trans-Jordanian desert, beyond all hope, the great Mary 233. Due to this final impoverishment of spiritual mentors, the books of the Fathers constitute the only source to which a soul tormented by hunger and thirst can turn in order to acquire the essential knowledge in spiritual feats. These books are the dearest legacy left by the Holy Fathers to their monastic offspring, to us poor. These books are crumbs that fell to us and constitute our share, crumbs from the spiritual meal of the Fathers, rich in spiritual gifts. It is noticeable that the time of writing more books about smart work coincides with the time of special impoverishment of smart work in monasticism. The Monk Gregory of Sinai, who lived in the 14th century, when he arrived at Mount Athos, found there, among thousands of monks, only three who had some understanding of smart work. Most of the writings about the Jesus Prayer date back to the 14th and 15th centuries. “Moved by secret Divine inspiration,” says Paisiy Velichkovsky, “many Fathers set out in books the holy teaching, filled with the wisdom of the Holy Spirit, about this Divine mental prayer, based on the Divine Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. This was arranged according to the special providence of God, so that the Divine work would not fall into complete oblivion. Many of these books, by God’s permission, for our sins, were destroyed by the Mohammedans, who enslaved the Greek state; some, by God’s care, have been preserved to our time” 234. The most sublime mental activity is extraordinarily simple; in order to be accepted, it requires infantile simplicity and faith, but we have become so complex that this simplicity is unapproachable and incomprehensible to us. We want to be smart, we want to enliven our self, we do not tolerate self-sacrifice, we do not want to act by faith. For this reason, we need a mentor who would lead us out of our complexity, out of our guile, out of our tricks, out of our vanity and conceit, into the breadth and simplicity of faith. For this reason, it happens that in the field of intelligent doing, a baby achieves extraordinary success, but a sage goes astray and falls into the dark abyss of delusion. “In ancient times,” says Paisiy Velichkovsky, “the all-holy work of mental prayer shone in many places where the Holy Fathers stayed, and then there were many mentors to this spiritual feat: for this reason, the Holy Fathers of those times, writing about it, explained only the ineffable spiritual benefit that comes from it, not having, as I believe, the need to write about that part of the work that befits beginners. They wrote partly about this, which is very clear to those who have experienced knowledge of the feat, but to those who do not have it, it remains hidden. When some of the Fathers saw that the true and unpretentious teachers of this work began to diminish greatly, then, being moved by the Spirit of God, so that the true teaching about the beginning of this mental prayer would not become impoverished, they set out in writing the very beginning and methods of how beginners should learn to enter with their minds the land of the heart, there to truly and unpretentiously perform prayer with their minds” 235 . We have seen that the holy prophet David invites all, without exception, the people of God to pray in the name of the Lord and that by decree of the Holy Church it is lawful for all those who are illiterate and do not know the Holy Scriptures by heart to replace prayers and psalmody with the Jesus Prayer. Saint Simeon, Archbishop of Thessalonica, commands and advises bishops, priests, all monks and laymen to say this sacred prayer at all times and hours, having it as if it were the breath of life 236; during tonsure into monasticism, when the newly tonsured person is given a rosary, the tonsure says: “Take, brother, the spiritual sword, which is the word of God, and carry it in your mouth, mind and heart, and say without ceasing: Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me.”237 But the Monk Nil of Sorsky instructs that “the memory of God, that is, mental prayer is higher than all works, the head of virtues, like the love of God. Whoever shamelessly and boldly wants to enter God and converse with Him purely, whoever is forced to acquire Him within himself, is conveniently killed by demons, if allowed, as he who sought to achieve this boldly and proudly, above his dignity and dispensation” 238. At a superficial glance, the will of the Monk Neil may seem to contradict the law of the Holy Scriptures, the Holy Fathers and the tradition of the Church. There is no contradiction here; this speaks of the Jesus Prayer in its highest degree. All Christians can and should practice the Jesus Prayer with the goal of repentance and calling on the Lord for help, practice with the fear of God and faith, with the greatest attention to the thoughts and words of the prayer, with contrition of spirit; but not everyone is allowed to begin the sacred act of prayer with the mind, in the cell of the heart. First of all, not only monks living in monasteries and engaged in obediences, but also lay people can and should engage in the Jesus Prayer. Such attentive prayer can be called both mental and heartfelt, as it is often performed with the mind alone, and in careful prayers, always with the participation of the heart, expressed by a feeling of crying and tears due to tenderness. The prayerful sacred act of the mind in the heart requires preliminary exercise in the first form of prayer, satisfactory success in this prayer. The grace of God itself, at a time known to it, according to its good pleasure, transfers the ascetic of prayer from the first image to the second. If it pleases God to leave the ascetic during the prayer of repentance, then let him remain with it, let him not seek a higher state, let him not seek it in the firm conviction that it is not acquired by human effort - it is bestowed by God. Staying in repentance is the guarantee of salvation. Let us be content with this state, let us not seek a higher state. Such a search is a sure sign of pride and conceit; such a search does not lead to success, but to stumbling and destruction. Saint Nile, based on the teaching of all the Holy Fathers, forbids prematurely striving to bring the mind down into the heart, to external and internal silence, to a feeling of sweetness and other high prayer states that open when the prayer of repentance is accepted by God and the enemies retreat from the soul. The psalmist said: “Depart from Me, all you who do iniquity, for the Lord has heard the voice of my weeping. The Lord heard my prayer, the Lord accepted my prayer” (Ps. 6:9–10). Consolation, joy, pleasure, the giving of gifts are the consequences of reconciliation. Seeking them before reconciliation is an undertaking filled with recklessness. To acquire deep heartfelt prayer, significant preparation is required: it must consist in a satisfactory study of monastic life through experience, in accustoming oneself to activities according to the Gospel commandments: holy prayer is based on the dispensation of the soul produced by activity according to the commandments, rests in this dispensation, cannot remain in the soul when it is not in such a dispensation. Preparation should consist of a satisfactory study of the New Testament and the Scriptures of the Fathers on prayer. The final preparation is all the more necessary because, in the absence of Spirit-bearing leaders, our only guide must be the Fatherly Scriptures and prayerful lamentation before God. Heartfelt prayer is desired; heartfelt silence is desired; cell-based non-existent silence and living in the most secluded desert are desired, as especially conducive to the development of heartfelt prayer and heartfelt silence. “But these very good and splendid deeds,” says the Monk Nil of Sora, “must be carried out with reasoning, at a decent time, after achieving the proper measure of success, as Basil the Great says: every work must be preceded by reasoning: without reasoning, even a good deed turns into evil due to timelessness and immoderation. When the time and measure of the good are determined by reasoning, then a wonderful profit occurs. And Climacus, borrowing words from Scripture, says: “there is a time for every thing under heaven” (Eccl. 3:1), but among all, he said, and in our holy life there is a time for every activity. And, continuing, he says: there is a time for silence, and a time for unruly rumors; there is a time for unceasing prayer, and a time for unfeigned service. Let us not be seduced by proud zeal and seek ahead of time for what comes at a certain time. Otherwise, we will not get anything in due time. There is a time to sow labors, and a time to reap the ears of ineffable grace” 239. In particular, the Monk Neil prohibits the reckless desire for solitude, and such a desire almost always appears in individuals who do not understand either themselves or monasticism, which is why stumbling and self-delusion, in this type of life, happen the most serious. If monks are prohibited from untimely striving for prayer offered by the mind in the church of the heart, even more so is it forbidden to the laity. Saint Andrew the Fool and some other, very few lay people had the deepest heartfelt prayer: this is an exception and the greatest rarity, which cannot in any way serve as a rule for everyone. Ranking oneself among these exceptional individuals is nothing more than seducing oneself with self-conceit, hidden charm before obvious charm. Paisiy Velichkovsky, in a letter to Elder Theodosius, says: “The books of the Fathers, especially those that teach true obedience, sobriety of mind and silence, attention and mental prayer, that is, that which is performed with the mind in the heart, exclusively befits only one monastic rank, and not all Orthodox Christians in general. The God-bearing Fathers, setting out the teaching about this prayer, affirm that its beginning and unshakable foundation is true obedience, from which true humility is born, and humility protects the one who strives in prayer from all the delights that follow self-inflicted actions. True monastic obedience and the complete cutting off of one’s will and reason in everything is by no means possible for worldly people to acquire. How can it be possible for worldly people, without obedience, through arbitrariness, which will be followed by delusion, to be forced to do such a terrible and terrible thing, that is, such a prayer, without any instruction? How can they avoid the many different and varied charms of the enemy, which are treacherously directed at this prayer and its practitioners? This thing is so terrible, that is, prayer - prayer, not just smart (mental), that is, performed by the mind unartistically, but acted artistically by the mind in the heart - that true novices, who have not only cut off, but also completely killed their will and reasoning before their fathers, true and skilled mentors in the practice of this prayer, are always in fear and trembling, fearing and trembling, so as not to suffer in this prayer has some charm, although God always protects them from it, for their true humility, which they acquired by the grace of God through their true obedience. Moreover, worldly people who live without obedience, if they are forced to pray by just reading such books, will be in danger of falling into some kind of delusion that befalls those who begin the feat of this prayer on their own. The saints called this prayer the art of art: who can learn it without an artist, that is, without a skilled mentor? This prayer is a spiritual sword, given from God, to slay the enemy of our souls. This prayer shone like the sun, only among the monks, especially in the countries of Egypt, also in the countries of Jerusalem, in Mount Sinai and Nitria, in many places in Palestine, and in many other places, but not everywhere, as is clear from the life of St. Gregory the Sinaite. He walked around the entire holy (Athos) Mountain and, having made a thorough search for the performers of this prayer, did not find a single one in it who had even the slightest understanding of this prayer 240. From this it is clear: if in such a holy place the Monk Gregory did not find a single practitioner of prayer, then in many places the practice of this prayer was not known among the monks. And where they practiced it, where it shone among the monks like the sun, there the doing of this prayer was kept as a great and ineffable secret, known only to God and its practitioners. The practice of this prayer was completely unknown to the worldly people. But now, after the publication of the Fathers’ books, not only monks, but also all Christians will learn about him. Regarding this, I am afraid and trembling, so that for the reason stated above, that is, for unauthorized entry into the feat of this prayer, without a mentor, such self-initiators will not be subjected to delusion, from which may Christ the Savior deliver by His grace all who want to be saved” 241 . We recognize it as our duty to present here, to the best of our meager understanding and meager experience, the teaching of the Holy Fathers on the artistic cultivation of the Jesus Prayer, with a clear designation of what kind of exercise in prayer and what kind of mental and heartfelt prayer befits all Christians and novice monks without exception, and what kind of doing is characteristic of those who have succeeded, raised to success by God’s favor and God’s grace. by grace. Without any doubt, the first place among all methods should be given to the method proposed by Saint John Climacus, as especially convenient, completely safe, necessary, even necessary for the reality of prayer, befitting all Christians, laymen and monks who live piously and seek salvation. The great mentor of monastics speaks about this method twice in his Ladder, leading from earth to heaven: in a word on obedience and in a word on prayer. The very fact that he sets out his method in presenting the doctrine of obedience for communal monks clearly shows that this method is also prescribed for novice monks. The proposal of the method is repeated in a separate, lengthy teaching on prayer, after instructions for the silent, and therefore repeated for successful monks: this clearly shows that the method is very good for both the silent and successful monks. We repeat: the greatest advantage of the method is that, while it is satisfactory, it is completely safe. In his word on prayer, Saint John Climacus says: “Strive to return, or rather, to enclose a thought in the words of prayer. If, due to her infancy, she becomes exhausted and evades, bring her in again. Inconsistency is inherent in the mind. He who ordains everything can establish it. If you acquire this deed and constantly adhere to it, then the One who defines the boundaries of your sea in you will come and say to him during your prayer: “You will come to this, and you will not pass” (Job 38:11). It is impossible to bind a spirit, but where the Creator of this spirit is present, everything submits to Him 242. The beginning of prayer is thoughts driven away by prayer at their very beginning; the middle is when the mind dwells in only words pronounced vocally or with the mind, the end is the admiration of the mind to God” 243. In his word on obedience, St. John says: “Struggle with the thought constantly, returning it to yourself when it flies away: God does not require from novices to pray without soaring. Do not grieve when you are robbed, but be content, constantly returning your mind to yourself” 244. Here is taught a way to pray attentively, to pray both publicly and with one mind. The heart cannot help but take part in attentive prayer, as St. Mark said. “A mind that prays without entertainment oppresses the heart” 245. Thus, whoever prays according to the method proposed by Saint John Climacus will pray with his lips, his mind, and his heart; he, having succeeded in prayer, acquires mental and heartfelt prayer, attracts Divine grace, as can be seen from the quoted words of the great mentor of monks. What more could you want? Nothing. With this type of exercise in prayer, what charm could there be? There is only one passion for absent-mindedness: an error, quite obvious, inevitable in beginners, capable of immediate healing through the return of thoughts to words, destroyed by the mercy and help of God in due time, with constant asceticism. They will ask: does such a great Father, who lived at a time when mental work flourished, say nothing about prayer performed with the mind in the heart? He speaks, but in such a hidden way that only those who are familiar with the practice of prayer can understand what is being said. This is what the Saint did, being guided by the spiritual wisdom with which his entire book was written. Having set out the most correct and satisfactory teaching about prayer, which can elevate the worker to a state of grace, Climacus expressed precisely what happens after the overshadowing of the prayerful feat by grace. “It is another thing,” he said, “to turn often to the heart, and another thing is to be in the mind a bishop of the heart, a prince and a bishop, offering verbal sacrifices to Christ” 246 . Another thing is to pray with attention, with the participation of the heart, another thing is to descend with the mind into the church of the heart and from there bring a mysterious prayer, filled with the power and grace of the Divine. The second comes from the first. The attention of the mind in prayer attracts the heart to sympathy; with increased attention, the heart's sympathy with the mind turns into a union of the heart with the mind: finally, with attention acquired by prayer, the mind descends into the heart for the deepest prayerful sacred service. All this is accomplished under the guidance of God’s grace, according to its good will and discretion. The desire for the second before acquiring the first is not only useless, but can be the cause of the greatest harm; to avert this harm, the prayer sacrament is hidden from curiosity and frivolity in a book designated for the general use of monastics. In those blessed times, with an abundance of living vessels of grace, those in need of advice could resort to their advice on all special occasions. Among the Raifa monks, for whom the “Ladder” was written by Blessed John, mental prayer flourished under the guidance of experienced, spiritual guidance. The holy writer again expresses this in parables (in parables - Ed.) and covertly (mysteriously - Ed.) in his word to the shepherd. He expresses himself like this: “First of all, O honest father, we need spiritual strength, so that those whom we wish to introduce into the Holy of Holies, to whom we intend to show Christ Reposing on their mysterious and secret table - especially while they are in the vestibule at this entrance, and when we see that they are crowded and oppressed by the people, in order to deny them the desired entrance - we could, taking them by the hand, like babies, free them from the people thoughts. If the babies are extremely naked and weak, then we need to lift them onto the ramen (shoulders - Ed.), and lift them on the ramen until they pass through the entrance door, I know for sure: usually there will be all kinds of crowding and crowding there. Why did someone say about this cramped space: “This labor is before me, until I enter into the sanctuary of God” (Ps. 72:16–17), - and the work extends only to the entry” 247. “Whoever wants to see the Lord within himself tries to cleanse his heart with the unceasing memory of God. The mental country of the pure in soul is within him. The sun shining in it is the light of the Holy Trinity. The air that its inhabitants breathe is the All-Holy Spirit. The life, joy and gladness of this country is Christ, Light from the Light - the Father, this is Jerusalem and the Kingdom of God, hidden “within us,” according to the word of the Lord (Luke 17:11). This country is a cloud of God’s glory: only the pure in heart will enter it to see the face of their Master and so that their minds will be illuminated by a ray of His light 248 . Try to enter the cage that is inside you, and you will see the heavenly cage. Both are one: you can enter both with one entrance. The ladder to the Kingdom of Heaven is within you: it is arranged mysteriously in your soul. Immerse yourself in yourself from sin and you will find there the steps by which you can ascend to heaven” 249. The Monk Barsanuphius, a monk who had reached the highest degree of spiritual success, led his disciples into the sanctuary of heartfelt prayer of grace and into the states produced by it. Between his instructions we read the following, given to a certain silent person who was under his leadership: “May the only sinless God, who saves those who hope in Him, strengthen your love to serve Him in honor and righteousness all the days of your life, in the church and altar of the inner man, where spiritual sacrifices are made to God, gold, frankincense and myrrh, where a fat calf is eaten, the honest blood of the immaculate is sprinkled Lamb, where the consonant exclamations of the Holy Angels are heard: “then they will lay bulls on your altar” (Ps. 50:21). Then – when? When our Lord comes, this great Bishop, offering and accepting a bloodless sacrifice; when, in His name, the lame man sitting at the red gate is honored to hear a joyful voice: “Arise and walk” (Acts 3:6). The lame man then enters the sanctuary, walking and jumping and praising God. Then the sleep of negligence and ignorance ceases, then the slumber of despondency and laziness is taken away from the leaders, then the five wise virgins burn their lamps (Matt. 25:7) and rejoice with the groom in the holy chamber, chanting in agreement, silently: “Taste and see that the Lord is good: blessed is the man who trusts in Nan” (Ps. 33:9), then the battles, and desecrations, and movements cease, then the holy peace of the Holy Trinity is established, the treasure is sealed and remains invincible. Pray that you may understand and attain and rejoice in Christ Jesus our Lord." 250 The greatest reverence for the prayerful heartfelt sacred act is inspired by the majestic image of it made by the Fathers. This reverence and prudence itself require us to renounce the premature, arbitrary, proud, reckless effort to enter the mysterious sanctuary. Both reverence and prudence teach us to remain in attentive prayer, the prayer of repentance, at the doors of the church. Attention and contrition of spirit - this is the cage that is given as a refuge to repentant sinners. She is the threshold of the sanctuary. In it we will hide and be imprisoned from sin. May all who suffer from moral lameness, all lepers, all who are blind and dry, in a word, all who are sick with sin, “waiting for the movement of the water” (John 5:3) – the actions of God’s mercy and grace, gather together on this Bethesda. The Lord Himself and One, at a time known to Him, grants healing and entry into the sanctuary, solely by His incomprehensible goodness. “I know whom I have chosen” (John 13:18), says the Savior. “You did not choose Me,” he says to His chosen ones, “but I chose you, and appointed you, that you should go and bear fruit, and if you ask the Father in My name, He will give it to you” (John 15:16). A very good method of teaching the Jesus Prayer is offered by the holy monk Dorotheos, a Russian ascetic and ascetic writer. “Whoever prays with his lips,” says the holy monk, “but neglects his soul and does not protect his heart, such a person prays to the air, and not to God, and works in vain, because God listens to intelligence and zeal, and not to long speech. You must pray with all your zeal: from your soul and mind and heart, with the fear of God, with all your strength. Mental prayer does not allow either hesitation or bad thoughts to enter the inner cage. Do you want to learn how to do mental and heartfelt prayer? I'll teach you. Listen diligently and wisely, listen to me, my beloved. First you must say the Jesus Prayer with your voice, that is, with your lips, tongue and speech, out loud to yourself alone. When the mouth, tongue and feelings are saturated with prayer pronounced publicly, then the vocal prayer stops and it begins to be pronounced in a whisper. After this, one must learn with the mind, perceive and always adhere to the guttural feeling. Then mental and heartfelt prayer will begin to mania 251, autocratically, incessantly rise up, circulate and act, at all times, in every case, in every place” 252. The blessed elder, Hieromonk Seraphim of Sarov, bequeaths the novice, according to the pre-existent common custom in the Sarov desert, to continually pray: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” “When praying,” the elder instructs, “pay attention to yourself, that is, collect your mind and unite it with your soul. First, for a day, two or more, do this prayer with one mind, separately, paying particular attention to each word. When the Lord warms your heart with the warmth of His grace and unites you into one spirit, then this prayer will flow within you unceasingly and will always be with you, enjoying and nourishing you 253. This is what the words spoken by the prophet Isaiah mean: “the dew from You is healing for them” (Is. 26:19). When you contain this spiritual food within yourself, that is, conversation with the Lord, then why go to the brethren’s cells, even though you are called by whom? Truly I tell you that idle talk is also idleness. If you don’t understand yourself, can you talk about anything and teach others? Be silent, constantly be silent, always remember the presence of God and His name. Do not enter into conversation with anyone, but together, and beware of judging those who are talking and laughing. In this case, be deaf and dumb. Whatever they say about you, ignore everything. As an example, you can take Stephen the New, whose prayer was unceasing, his disposition was meek, his lips were silent, his heart was humble, his spirit was tender, his body and soul were pure, his virginity was immaculate, his true poverty and desert-like lack of possessions; His obedience was uncomplaining, his work was patient, his work was diligent. When sitting at a meal, do not look or judge how much someone eats, but pay attention to yourself, feeding your soul with prayer” 254. The elder, having given such instruction to a novice monk who spends an active life in monastic labors, and having taught him the exercise of prayer befitting an active one, forbids the premature, reckless desire for a speculative life and for the prayer corresponding to this life. “Anyone,” he says, “who wants to experience spiritual life must begin with an active life, and then move on to a speculative life, because without an active life it is impossible to come to a speculative life. Active life serves to cleanse us from sinful passions and elevates us to the level of active perfection, and thereby paves the way for us to a speculative life. Only those who have been cleansed of passions and have acquired full training in active life can begin to approach it, as can be seen from the words of the Holy Scripture: “the blessedness of the pure in heart is that they will see God” (Matthew 5:8) and from the words of St. Gregory the Theologian: only those who are most perfect in their experience (in active life) can begin to speculate. One must approach the speculative life with fear and trembling, with contrition of heart and humility, with many tests of the Holy Scriptures and under the guidance of a skilled elder, if one can be found, and not with insolence and self-indulgence. The impudent and contemptuous (proud - Ed.), according to Gregory of Sinaite, having not sought (a high spiritual state) according to his dignity, with arrogance intensifies to achieve it prematurely. And again: if anyone, in his opinion, dreams of achieving a high state and has acquired a satanic desire, and not a true one, the devil catches him with his snares, as if he were his servant” 255. Thus warning against a proud striving for high states of prayer, the elder insists, one might say, on the need for all monks in general, not excluding the most novice novices, to live an attentive life and in unceasing prayer. It has been noticed that, for the most part, the direction that is adopted upon entering the monastery remains dominant in the monk for his entire life. “Gracious gifts,” Seraphim asserts, “are received only by those who have internal work and watch over their souls 256. Those who truly decide to serve God must practice the memory of God and unceasing prayer to the Lord Jesus Christ, saying with their minds: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner.” By such an exercise, while protecting oneself from distraction and maintaining peace of conscience, one can draw closer to God and unite with him. According to Saint Isaac the Syrian, we cannot approach God otherwise than through unceasing prayer” 257. For monks and novices who deign to engage in the Jesus Prayer, in order to more conveniently avoid distraction and staying attentive, Seraphim advises standing in church during prayers with their eyes closed, and opening them only when sleep and drowsiness become aggravating. Then he advises to direct your gaze to the holy icons, which also protects against absent-mindedness and stimulates you to prayer 258 . The novice becomes accustomed to the Jesus Prayer with particular comfort during lengthy monastic prayers. While attending them, why wastelessly and mentally harmfully wander your thoughts everywhere? And this cannot be avoided unless the mind is attached to something. Practice the Jesus Prayer: it will keep your mind from wandering, you will become much more focused, deeper, you will listen much better to the readings and church hymns, in an inconspicuous way, and you will gradually learn mental prayer. To those who wish to lead an attentive life, Seraphim instructs not to listen to extraneous rumors, from which the head is filled with idle and vain thoughts and memories, he instructs not to pay attention to other people's affairs, not to reflect, not to judge or talk about them, to avoid interviews, to behave like a wanderer, to honor the fathers and brothers he meets with bows in silence, while keeping himself from looking at them closely 259, because such a view will certainly make some impression in the soul that will cause it entertainment, attracting its attention to itself and distracting it from prayer. In general, one who leads an attentive life should not look at anything closely and not listen to anything with special care, but see as if not seeing, and hear in passing, so that memory and the power of attention are always free, alien to the impressions of the world, capable and ready to receive impressions of the Divine. It is obvious that the methods proposed by Hieromonk Dorotheus and Elder Seraphim are identical with the method proposed by Saint John of the Climacus. But Saint John outlined his method with particular clarity and certainty. This Father belongs to the most ancient and greatest teachers of monasticism, and is recognized as such by the Universal Church; later holy writers refer to him as a most reliable teacher, as a living vessel of the Holy Spirit - on this basis, we with all reliability offer his method for general use to beloved fathers and brothers, not only living in monasteries, but also living in the middle of the world, who have a sincere desire to pray unfeignedly, successfully and pleasing to God. This method cannot be eliminated: eliminating it from prayer would be eliminating attention from it, and without attention, prayer is not prayer. She's dead! She is useless, soul-harming, God-insulting idle talk! He who prays attentively will certainly pray more or less in this way. If attention increases and intensifies during prayer, the image of prayer offered by Divine John will certainly appear. “Ask with weeping,” he says, “seek with obedience, and ask with long-suffering: thus, “Ask and he receives, and he finds, and it will be opened to the one who asks” (Matthew 7:8). 260. Experience will immediately show that when using this method, especially at first, you must pronounce words with extreme leisurely so that the mind has time to fit into the words as into forms; this cannot be achieved by hasty reading. St. John’s method is very convenient both when practicing the Jesus Prayer, and when reading prayer books in private, even when reading Scripture and patristic books. You have to get used to it, as if reading from the warehouses - with such leisurelyness. One who has become accustomed to this method has acquired oral, mental and heartfelt prayer, characteristic of everyone leading an active life. His Holiness Callistos, Patriarch of Constantinople, discusses prayer this way: “Unceasing prayer consists in constantly invoking the name of God. Whether anyone is talking, sitting, walking, doing anything, eating, or doing anything else, he must at all times and in every place call on the name of God, according to the commandment of Scripture: “Pray without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:17) 261. In this way, the enemy's attempts on us are destroyed. We must pray with our hearts, we must also pray with our lips when we are alone. If someone is in the marketplace, or in company with others, he should not pray with his lips, but with one thought. One must watch one's eyesight and always look down to protect oneself from distraction and from the snares of the enemy. The perfection of prayer lies in when it is said to God without the mind deviating into entertainment, when all a person’s thoughts and feelings are gathered into a single prayer. Prayer and psalmody must be performed not only with the mind, but also with the lips, as the prophet David says: “The Lord has opened my mouth, and my mouth will proclaim Your praise” (Ps. 50:17). And the Apostle, showing that lips are also required, said: “We offer a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of the lips of those who confess to His name” (Heb. 13:13) 262. The Monk Barsanuphius the Great answered the priest, who asked him how he should pray: “You should practice a little in psalmody, pray a little orally; It takes time to test and observe your thoughts. He who has a lot of different foods for lunch eats a lot and with pleasure, and he who eats the same food every day not only eats it without pleasure, but sometimes, perhaps, feels aversion from it. This happens in our condition too. In psalmody and oral prayer, do not bind yourself, but do as much as the Lord gives you. Do not give up reading and inner prayer either. A few of this, a few of that - and so you will spend the day pleasing God. Our perfect Fathers did not have a specific rule, but throughout the whole day they fulfilled their rule: they practiced a little psalmody, a little read prayers orally, a little tested their thoughts, a little, but also cared about food; yet they did it with the fear of God” 263. This is how the Reverend Father, who was in great success in prayer, reasoned and instructed his brother. Experience will teach anyone who practices prayer that saying the Jesus Prayer, and all prayers in general, aloud, greatly helps to keep the mind from being plundered by entertainment. In the event of an intensified enemy attack, when one feels a weakening of the will and a clouding of the mind, vocal prayer is necessary. Attentive vocal prayer is both mental and heartfelt. With our poor words we do not deviate or exclude our beloved fathers and brothers from prayerful, sublime prosperity; on the contrary, we sincerely wish it for them. May all monks be like Angels and Archangels, who have no rest day and night from the Divine love that excites them and, because of it, are constantly and insatiably saturated with the praise of God. It is precisely in order to receive the ineffable wealth of heartfelt prayer in due time that a warning is given against acting prematurely, erroneously, and impudently. A reckless, heated desire to discover grace-filled heartfelt prayer within oneself is forbidden; this desire is forbidden because it is caused by ignorance or insufficient knowledge and proud recognition of oneself as capable of grace-filled prayer and worthy of it; This desire is forbidden because discovering grace-filled prayer within oneself through one’s own efforts is impossible; This desire is forbidden, breaking furiously at the gates of the mysterious church of God, so that it does not prevent the goodness of God from ever having mercy on us, recognizing the unworthy as worthy, giving a gift to those who do not expect a gift, dooming themselves to eternal execution in the prisons of hell. The gift is given to those who humble themselves and humble themselves before the greatness of the gift; the gift is given to those who have renounced their will and surrendered to the will of God; The gift is given to the one who tames and mortifies the flesh and blood within himself, who tames and mortifies the carnal wisdom within himself with the commandments of the Gospel. Life will shine forth according to the degree of mortification. Arriving unexpectedly, solely out of her good will, she completes and carries out the killing that was arbitrarily intended. Careless, especially persistent, driven by self-conceit and self-indulgence, seekers of a high state of prayer, are always sealed with the seal of rejection, as defined by the spiritual law (Matt. 22:12–13). Removing this seal is very difficult, mostly impossible. What is the reason for this? Here it is: pride and conceit, which lead into self-delusion, into communication with demons and into enslavement by them, do not allow one to see the wrongness and danger of one’s position, do not allow one to see either the sorrowful communication with demons, or the disastrous, murderous enslavement by them. “First dress yourself with leaves, and then, when God commands, you will bear fruit,” said the Fathers 264. First acquire attentive prayer: to those who have been purified and prepared by attentive prayer, formed, strengthened by the commandments of the Gospel, based on them in due time, God, the all-merciful God, grants grace-filled prayer. The teacher of prayer is God, true prayer is the gift of God 265. To those who pray in contrition of spirit, constantly, with the fear of God, with attention, God Himself gives gradual success in prayer. From attentive and humble prayer comes spiritual action and spiritual warmth, from which the heart comes alive. The revived heart attracts the mind to itself, becomes a church of grace-filled prayer 266 and a treasury of spiritual gifts delivered by it, according to its properties. “Try,” say the great ascetics and teachers of prayer, “to acquire warmth and prayer through heartache, and God will give you to always have them. Oblivion drives them out; it itself is born from negligence 267. If you want to get rid of oblivion and captivity, then you cannot achieve this otherwise than by acquiring spiritual fire within yourself: only from its warmth oblivion and captivity disappear. And this fire is acquired by striving for God. Brother! If your heart does not seek the Lord day and night, with illness, then you will not be able to succeed. If, leaving everything else, you take up this, then you will achieve, as the Scripture says: “become free and understand” 268 . Brother! Pray for the goodness of Him who “desires to save all men and to bring the truth into the understanding” (1 Tim. 2:4), so that He will grant you spiritual wakefulness, kindling spiritual fire. The Lord, the Lord of heaven and earth, came to earth to bring down this fire on it (Luke 12:49). Together with you, according to my strength, I will also pray that this vigil will be granted to you by God, who gives grace to all who ask with difficulty and diligence. She will come and guide you to the truth. It enlightens the eyes, corrects the mind, drives away the sleep of relaxation and negligence, restores shine to weapons that have become rusty in the land of laziness, returns lightness to clothes defiled in captivity by the barbarians, imparts hatred of the vile carrion that constitutes the food of the barbarians, imparts the desire to be satisfied with the great sacrifice made by our great Bishop. This is the sacrifice about which it was revealed to the Prophet that it cleanses sins and takes away iniquity (Isa. 6:7), forgives those who mourn, gives grace to the humble (Prov. 3:34), appears to the worthy, and with it they inherit eternal life, in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit” 269. “Spiritual wakefulness, or sobriety, is a spiritual art that completely delivers a person, with God’s help, from sinful deeds and passionate thoughts and words, when it is practiced over a long period of time and diligently. It is heart silence; it is the storage of the mind; it is attention to oneself, alien to any thought, always, continuously and unceasingly calling on Christ Jesus, the Son of God and God, breathing in Him, courageously taking up arms with Him against enemies, confessing to Him.” This definition of spiritual wakefulness is given by Saint Hesychius of Jerusalem 270. Other Fathers 271 agree with him. “The fire came into the heart and restored prayer. When she rose and ascended to heaven, then the descent of fire into the upper room of the soul took place” 272. These words belong to the lamp of Sinai, John Climacus. It is obvious that the saint speaks from his blissful experience. A similar thing happened with the Monk Maxim Kapsokalivi. “I,” he told the Monk Gregory of Sinai, “from my youth had great faith in my Lady, the Mother of God, and I prayed to her with tears that She would give me the grace of mental prayer. One day I came, as usual, to Her church and earnestly prayed to Her about this. I approached Her icon, began to kiss Her image with reverence, and suddenly I felt that a warmth had entered my chest and heart, not scorching my insides, but on the contrary, delighting and watering, prompting my soul to tenderness. From that time on, my heart began to dwell within itself in prayer, and my mind began to delight in the memory of my Jesus and the Mother of God, and to constantly have Him, the Lord Jesus, within me. From that time on, prayer never ceased in my heart." 273 Prayer of grace appeared suddenly, unexpectedly, as a gift from God; the soul of the Saint was prepared to receive the gift of prayer through diligent, attentive, humble, constant prayer. The prayer of grace did not remain in the Reverend without its usual consequences, which were not at all known and not characteristic of the carnal and mental state. The abundant manifestation of spiritual fire in the heart, the fire of Divine love, is described by George, the Zadonsk recluse, from his own experience 274. But before this, the Divine gift of repentance was sent to him, which purified his heart for love, a gift that acted like fire, destroying everything that desecrated the courts of the Holy and Strong Lord 275, and plunged the body itself into exhaustion. “Holy and heavenly fire,” says Saint John Climacus, “scorches some due to their lack of purity, while others, on the contrary, enlightens as those who have achieved perfection. The same fire is called both a consuming fire and an enlightening light. For this reason, some come out of their prayer, as if from a hot bath, feeling some relief from defilement and materiality, while others emerge enlightened by the light and dressed in a pure robe of humility and joy. Those who, after their prayer, do not feel either of these two actions, still pray physically, and not spiritually” 276. Spiritual prayer is called here prayer moved by Divine grace, and bodily prayer is prayer performed by a person with his own effort, without the obvious assistance of grace. A second kind of prayer is necessary, as the same John Climacus asserts, so that grace-filled prayer will be granted in due time 277. How does the prayer of grace mark its coming? She marks her coming with a supreme cry, and man enters the gates of the sanctuary of God, his heart, in an ineffable confession. Before we begin to describe the method offered by the Holy Fathers almost exclusively to the silent, we recognize the need to somewhat prepare the reader. The Scriptures of the Fathers can be likened to a pharmacy in which there are many healing medicines, but a patient who is not familiar with the art of medicine and does not have a doctor as a leader will find it very difficult to choose a medicine appropriate to his illness. If, due to arrogance and frivolity, without thoroughly checking, in the absence of a doctor, with medical books, the patient hastily decides to choose and take the medicine himself, then this choice may be the most unfortunate. A medicine that is naturally healing may turn out to be not only useless, but also very harmful. We are placed in a position similar to the position of such a sick person, in the absence of Spiritual leaders in relation to the writings of the Holy Fathers on the secret working of heartfelt prayer and its consequences. The teaching on prayer, in the books of the Fathers that have come down to us, is presented with satisfactory completeness and clarity, but we, being placed in our ignorance before these books, in which the actions and states of beginners, intermediate and perfect are depicted in the greatest variety, we find ourselves in extreme difficulty in choosing the actions and states that are characteristic of us. The one who understands and feels this difficulty is incredibly happy. Not understanding it, while superficially reading the Holy Fathers, superficially familiarizing themselves with the works they proposed, many took upon themselves work that was not characteristic of themselves, and caused harm to themselves. Saint Gregory of Sinaite, in his essay written for the very successful man of silence, Longinus 278, says: “It is another matter to be silent, and another to live in common life. Everyone, remaining in the life to which he is called, will be saved. And therefore I am afraid to write because of the weak, seeing that you live among them: for anyone who goes through an excessively intense feat of prayer from hearing or teaching perishes, as if he has not acquired a guide” 279. The Holy Fathers mention that many, having begun to do prayer incorrectly, in ways for which they were not ripe and incapable, fell into self-delusion and mental harm. Not only does the greatest harm come from reading the books of the Fathers, with insufficient understanding of them, but also from communicating with the greatest saints of God, from hearing their holy teaching. This happened to the Syrian monk Malpat. He was a disciple of St. Julian. Accompanying the elder, Malpat visited St. Anthony the Great and was honored to hear from him the most sublime teaching about monastic life: about self-mortification, about mental prayer, about purity of the soul, about vision. Not having properly understood the teaching, having become inflamed with material heat, Malpat took upon himself the strictest feat in a non-exiting retreat, with the hope of achieving that high spiritual state, which he heard about from the Great Anthony, which he saw and felt in the Great Anthony. The consequence of doing this was the most terrible self-delusion. According to the strong work, a strong delusion was formed, and conceit, which took possession of the soul of the unfortunate one, made this soul unapproachable to repentance, and therefore to healing: Malpat was the inventor and head of the heresy of the Euchites 280. Oh, sad event! Oh, the saddest sight! The disciple of the great Saint, having heard the teaching of the greatest of the saints, died due to the incorrect application of this teaching to his activities. He died at a time when, due to the many saints who were capable of leading and healing, there were very few who died from delusion. This is said for our warning. With the shining of countless luminaries, the path of inner monasticism - mysterious, prayerful solitude and silence of the mind in the heart - was recognized as fraught with dangers: all the more dangerous is this path with the coming dark night. The heavenly bodies are hidden by darkness and thick clouds. You should travel with extreme leisurely, groping. The study of the Fatherly books, provided by God's providence for the moral guidance of modern monasticism, is by no means an insignificant feat. To accomplish it, you need self-sacrifice, you need to abandon worldly cares, not to mention entertainment, amusements and pleasures, you need to live according to the Gospel commandments, you need purity of mind and heart, which alone is seen and understood as the spiritual, holy, mysterious teaching of the Spirit, according to the degree of purification. Anyone who has learned that in present times the treasure of salvation and Christian perfection is hidden in words spoken by the Holy Spirit or under His influence, that is, in the Holy Scriptures and the writings of the Holy Fathers, may he spiritually rejoice in the acquisition of essentially useful knowledge, may he hide entirely from the world into a pious life, “so that all that he has may go, sell, and buy the village,” in which salvation and perfection (Matthew 13:44). A thorough study of Scripture, with appropriate activity, requires a long time. By thoroughly studying Scripture, with the greatest caution, constantly asking for God's help through prayer and weeping, out of poverty of spirit, one can also touch on those deeds that lead to perfection. A certain holy monk told about himself that for twenty years he studied the writings of the Fathers, leading the ordinary life of a cenobitic monk; After this time, he decided to actively become acquainted with the deep monastic work, the theoretical knowledge of which he acquired through reading and, probably, due to the nature of that time, from conversations with successful Fathers 281. Monastic success when guided by reading is incomparably slower than when guided by a spiritual mentor. What is written by every holy writer is written from his grace-filled dispensation and from his activity, according to his dispensation and his activity. You should pay special attention to this. Let us not get carried away and admire a book written as if by fire, telling about high deeds and states that are not characteristic of us. Reading it, having inflamed the imagination, can harm us by imparting knowledge and desire for exploits that are timeless and impossible for us. Let us turn to the book of the Father, in terms of the moderation of our prosperity, which is closest to our state. With this view of the paternal books, in the initial reading of a monk who wants to become familiar with the inner feat of prayer, one can offer the instructions of Seraphim of Sarov, the writings of Paisius Nyametsky and his friend, schema-monk Vasily. The holiness of these persons and the correctness of their teaching are undoubted. After studying these scriptures, you can turn to the book of St. Nile of Sora. This book is small in appearance, but its spiritual volume is of extraordinary size. It is difficult to find a question about smart doing that would not be resolved in it. Everything is presented with extraordinary simplicity, clarity and satisfaction. This is how the method of practicing the Jesus Prayer is outlined. However, both the method and the entire book are intended for monks who are already capable of silence. The Monk Nilus bequeaths silence in thought, not only not allowing himself to think about anything sinful and vain, but also about something useful, apparently, about the spiritual. Instead of any thought, he commands to constantly look into the depths of the heart and say: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner.” You can pray standing, sitting, or lying down; those who are strong in health and strength pray standing and sitting, the weak can pray lying down, because in this prayer it is not the feat of the body that dominates, but the feat of the spirit. The body must be given a position that would provide the spirit with all freedom to act according to its nature. It is necessary to remember that here we are talking about the work of monks who, through sufficient bodily feat, brought their bodily inclinations into proper order, and, due to their success, moved from physical to spiritual labor. The Monk Neil commands us to shut our minds in our hearts and hold our breath as much as possible, so as not to breathe too often. This means: you need to breathe very quietly. In general, all movements of the blood should hold and maintain the soul and body in a calm position, in a position of silence, reverence and fear of God. Without this, spiritual action cannot appear in us: it appears when all blood movements and impulses subside. Experience will soon teach that holding the breath, that is, infrequently and gently producing the breath, is very helpful in bringing oneself into a state of silence and in collecting the mind from wandering. “There are many virtuous deeds,” says St. Neil, “but they are all private, but heartfelt prayer is the source of all blessings; it feeds the soul like gardens. This activity, which consists of keeping the mind in the heart, apart from all thoughts, is extremely difficult for those who have not learned it; It is difficult not only for beginners, but also for those who have labored for a long time, who have not yet accepted and retained within their hearts the sweetness of prayer from the action of grace. It is known from experience that for the weak this task seems very difficult and inconvenient. When someone acquires grace, then he prays without difficulty and with love, being comforted by grace. When the action of prayer comes, then it attracts the mind to itself, cheers and frees it from soaring” 282. In order to get used to the method proposed by St. Nilus of Sora, it is very good to add it to the method of St. John Climacus, praying very slowly. In teaching his method, the Monk Neil refers to many Fathers of the Eastern and Universal Church, mainly to the Monk Gregory of Sinaite. The writings of St. Gregory of Sinaite, having full spiritual dignity, are no longer as accessible and clear as the writings of St. Nilus of Sora. The reason for this is the way of presentation, the concepts of that time about various subjects, alien to us, especially the spiritual success of both the person who wrote the book and the person for whom the book was written. The method of prayer proposed by Sinaite is almost the same as that proposed by Nile, who borrowed the teaching of prayer both from the reading and teaching of the book of Sinaite, and from oral conversations with the disciples of Sinaite when visiting the East. “In this morning,” says St. Gregory, referring to the Wise Solomon, “your seed,” that is, prayer, “and in the evening let not your hand leave,” so that the constantness of prayer, interrupted by distances, is not deprived of the hour in which it could be heard: “for fear not what will happen, this or that” (Eccl. 11:6). In the morning, sitting on a chair a span high, bring your mind down from your head to your heart, and keep it there, bending over painfully, and with your chest, shoulders and neck very painful, constantly cry out with your mind or soul: “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me.” Hold your breath a little too, so as not to breathe carelessly” 283. Regarding the teaching that one should hold one's breath, Sinait refers to the Venerables Isaiah the Hermit, John Climacus and Simeon the New Theologian. “If we want to unmistakably find the truth and know it,” says Sinait, “then we will try to have a single action of the heart, completely formless, not allowing freedom of imagination, not allowing the dream to depict the appearance of some saint or light: because it is usually charming, especially at the beginning of the feat, to seduce the mind of the inexperienced with such false dreams. We strive to have one action of prayer active in our hearts, warming and cheering the mind, inflaming the soul to the ineffable love of God and man. Then from prayer comes significant humility and contrition, because prayer in beginners is an ever-moving mental action of the Holy Spirit. This action at the beginning is like fire growing from the heart, but at the end it is like fragrant light” 284. By the name of the novices here we mean the novices in silence, and the entire book of St. Gregory of Sinaite is intended for the instruction of the silent. Saint Sinait again says: “Some, teaching the doctrine of prayer, propose to do it with the lips, and others with only the mind: I propose both. Sometimes the mind, despondent, is exhausted from praying, and sometimes the mouth, and therefore one must pray with both, both the lips and the mind. However, one must cry silently and unabashedly, so that the voice does not confuse the feelings and attention of the mind and does not interfere with prayer. The mind, having become accustomed to doing it, will succeed and receive from the Spirit the strength to pray strongly and in all ways. Then he is not forced to pray with his lips and will not be able to, being completely satisfied with mental prayer” 285. Offering oral prayer at times, Saint Gregory combines his method with the method of Saint John Climacus. In essence, this is the same method, but Saint Gregory speaks of it in its certain degree of success. One who carefully studies according to the Climacus method will, in due time, achieve that state of prayer that the Sinaite speaks of. Prayer, in the very thorough, practical opinion of the Sinaite, should be especially facilitated by patience. “The silent person should mostly sit while praying, due to the difficulty of this feat, and sometimes lie down on the bed for a short time to give the body some rest. Patience must be your sitting in fulfillment of your will, that in prayer you must endure ( Col. 4:2 ) and not get up quickly, faint-hearted due to a very difficult illness, mental crying and constant deepening of the mind in the heart. This is what the Prophet says: “I was filled with pain as one who gives birth” (Jer. 8:21). But with your head down and your mind gathered in your heart - if your heart has opened to you - call on the Lord Jesus for help. “If you have aching shoulders and are often exposed to headaches, endure this with constancy and zeal, seeking the Lord in your heart, because the kingdom of heaven is the property of those who force themselves, and those who force themselves “take it away” (Matthew 11:12). The Lord indicated that true diligence lies in enduring these and similar diseases. Patience and waiting in every activity is the parent of mental and physical illnesses” 286. The word illness here primarily means contrition of the spirit, crying of the spirit, illness and suffering from the feeling of one’s sinfulness, from the feeling of eternal death, from the feeling of enslavement to fallen spirits. The suffering of the spirit is communicated to the heart and body, as inextricably linked with the spirit, and by natural necessity taking part in its states. For those who are weak in body, contrition of the spirit and its crying completely replace bodily labor 287; but from people of strong physique, oppression of the body is certainly required: in them, without oppressing the body, the heart itself will not acquire the blessed sadness that is born in the weak from the sensation and consciousness of weakness. “Any work,” says St. Gregory, “physical and spiritual, without illness or labor, never bears fruit to the one who goes through it, because “The Kingdom of Heaven is in need,” said the Lord, “and the needy women take it away” (Matthew 11:12). By compulsion we mean a painful feeling throughout the body. Many, for many years, did or are doing painlessly, but since they work without illness and warm zeal of the heart, they remain not partakers of purity and the Holy Spirit, having rejected the severity of illness. Those who do their work in negligence and weakness, apparently work, as they think, a lot, but do not reap the fruit for painlessness, being painless in every way. A witness to this is the one who says: “If all our forms of life are sublime, but we do not have a sick heart, then they are not true and useless” 288. The great Ephraim also testifies, saying: “When you work, work painfully, so that you can eliminate from yourself the diseases of vain labor. If, according to the Prophet (Isa. 21:3), our loins do not faint from weakness, being exhausted by the Lenten feat, and we do not conceive the suffering of illness, like one who gives birth to a child, with a painful raising of the heart, then we will not give birth to the Spirit of salvation on the earth of the heart, as you heard, but we will only (worthy of regret and laughter) boast, imagining to be something because of the useless desert and relaxed silence. At the time of our departure from this life, we will all undoubtedly experience the full fruit” 289. The teaching of the Monk Sinaite about the pain that accompanies the true practice of mental prayer of a silent person may seem strange, as it did, to the carnal and spiritual mind, not familiar with the experiences of monastic life. By inviting such people to pay attention to the information acquired through experience, we testify that not only doing mental prayer, but also carefully reading the deep Fatherly writings about it produces headaches. Heart contrition, due to the sinfulness, captivity and death revealed by prayer, is so strong that it produces suffering and illness in the body, the existence and possibility of which is completely unknown to those not familiar with the feat of prayer. When the heart confesses to the Lord its sinfulness in its distressed state, then the body is crucified. “I suffered,” says David, who is experienced in the feat of prayer, “and was muddled to the end, lamenting as he walked all day. For my body is filled with reproach, and there is no healing in my flesh. I was embittered and humbled to death: I groaned because of the groaning of my heart” (Ps. 37:7-9). In the teaching of Saint Gregory on prayer, one notices the peculiarity that he instructs the mind to concentrate in the heart. This is the work that the Fathers call the artistic work of prayer, which they forbid new monks and laymen, which requires significant preparatory training, which even prepared monks must approach with the greatest reverence, fear of God and caution. Having commanded to concentrate the mind in the heart, the Reverend adds: “if your heart is opened.” This means: the union of the mind with the heart is a gift of Divine grace, given in due time, at the discretion of God, and not untimely and not at the discretion of the ascetic. The gift of attentive prayer is usually preceded by special sorrows and mental shocks, which reduce our spirit to the depths of consciousness of poverty and insignificance 290. The gift of God is attracted by humility and fidelity to God, expressed by zealous rejection of all sinful thoughts at their very appearance. Loyalty is the reason for purity. Purity and humility are given the gifts of the Spirit. The artistic practice of mental prayer is outlined with particular clarity and completeness by Blessed Nicephorus, a monk who remained silent in the holy Mount Athos. He rightly calls the work of prayer the art of the arts and the science of the sciences, as providing the mind and heart with knowledge and impressions flowing from the Spirit of God, while all other sciences provide knowledge and impressions only with human beings. Smart doing is the highest school of Theology 291. “This greatest of the greatest deeds,” says the great mentor of the silent, “is acquired by many or all of them from learning. Rare people, being not taught, receive it from God through diligent work and warmth of faith, but rarity is not a law. For this reason, we need to look for an unpretentious mentor, so that through his edification we can learn and be instructed in the derogations and superiorities that occur in the exercise of attention to the gums and necks, introduced by the cunning of the evil one, because the mentor exposes them to us, knowing them from his own experiences to which he was subjected. He reliably shows this mental path, and under his guidance we comfortably complete this path. If there is no mentor known to us, then we must search for him diligently. If, even in such a search, a mentor is not found, then, calling on God in contrition of spirit and with tears, in non-covetousness, and having prayed to Him, do as I tell you. You know that the breath we breathe is made up of air, but we breathe with the heart, nothing else. It is an instrument of life and bodily warmth. The heart draws air into itself in order to release its warmth from itself with its breath and provide cooling to itself. The reason for this mechanism, or, more precisely, the servant is the lung, which God created rare, which is why it conveniently introduces and expels its contents. Thus, the heart, attracting coolness into itself with its breath and spewing out warmth with it, unfailingly observes the order in which it is arranged to contain life. And so you, sitting down and gathering your mind, enter the nostril path through which the breath enters the heart, bring the breath into (the quietest) movement and force the mind to descend with the inhaled air into the heart. When he ascends there, what follows will be full of joy and joy for you. Just as some husband, who was absent from his home, when he returns, does not remember himself with joy that he was honored to see his wife and children, so the mind, when united with the soul, is filled with indescribable sweetness and joy. Brother! Accustom your mind not to leave there quickly, because at first it becomes very depressed from internal confinement and cramped conditions. When he gets used to them, he will not like to wander outside, because the kingdom of heaven is within us. Considering it there and seeking it with pure prayer, the mind recognizes everything external as vile and hateful. If, as has been said, you ascend with your mind to the place of your heart that I have shown you, then give thanks to God and glorify it, and leap, and always adhere to this doing, and it will teach you what you do not know. You also need to know that your mind, being there, should not remain silent and remain in idleness, but have constant work and teaching, never ceasing from it, the prayer: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me.” This prayer, keeping the mind low, makes it impregnable and inviolable to the attacks of the enemy, leading to daily success in the love and desire of the Divine. If, after working a lot, O brother, you are not able to ascend to the lands of the heart, as we told you, then do what I say, and you will find what you are looking for with the assistance of God. You know that the literature of every person is in his chest. Inside the Perseus, with the silence of our lips, we speak, we consult, we perform prayers and psalmody. Having taken away every thought from it - you can do this if you want - leave it to this literature to say: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me.” And be forced to cry out this inside your heart instead of any other thought. When you do this for some time, then, through this, the entrance to your heart will be opened to you, without any doubt, as we wrote, having learned this from experience. The whole face of virtues will come to you, with much-desired and sweet attention: love, joy, peace, and so on: with them it will fulfill all your requests for Christ Jesus our Lord” 292. Here, firstly, we must pay attention to the dispensation of the blessed Father and to the dispensation that he saw in the monk he instructed. This is clear from the articles of his speech preceding the presentation of art, from which it is clear, by reference to the life of Saint Sava, that the instruction on heart silence, for which and in accordance with which external silence in the body is also provided, befits those monks who have fully learned the rule of monastic life, can fight resistant thoughts and guard their minds. Blessed Nikephoros says to the person being instructed: “You know that the literature of every person is in his chest. There, with the silence of our lips, we speak, consult, perform prayers and psalmody.” A clear sense of the power of literature in the Persians, so that prayers and psalmody can be performed there, are very rare, those who have significantly succeeded, who have been engaged in prayer for a long time according to the method of St. John Climacus, who have acquired a significant degree of sterility and by very attentive prayer have aroused the spirit, called here literature, to abundant sympathy for the mind. In people, in their ordinary state, the spirit, struck by the fall, sleeps in an unrestful sleep, identical with death: it is not capable of the spiritual exercises indicated here, and awakens for them only when the mind constantly and intensely engages in arousing it through the life-giving name of Jesus. The method proposed by Blessed Nikephoros is excellent. In its presentation, it is visible to those who understand the matter both the gradualness that should ascend to it, and the fact that its acquisition is a gift from God. As this method is explained in particular detail in the work of the Xanthopouls on prayer and silence, we move on to the mentioned work. Saint Callistus Xanthopoulos was a disciple of the Monk Gregory of Sinaite, he became a monk in Mount Athos, initially studying monastic life in a hostel; he later moved on to the silent life when he found himself ripe for it. He learned mental prayer while in obedience to the monastery cook, and he also had the learning of this world, which is clearly evident from the book he compiled. Already in his old age, Saint Callistus was elevated to the rank of Patriarch of Constantinople. Saint Ignatius was his closest friend and participant in monastic exploits. Both of them achieved great success in prayer. Their book is exclusively written for the silent. To the mechanism outlined by Blessed Nikephoros, they add that when using it one must have one’s mouth closed. They say that the beginner, in relation to the silent life, must practice the Jesus Prayer in the way of Blessed Nicephorus, constantly introducing it into the heart quietly, through the medium of the nostril breath, which is just as quietly emitted, while having his lips closed 293 . It is very important to know the meaning that the holy teachers of mental prayer give to the mechanism they propose, which, as a material method, should in no way be confused with the own action of prayer, which should in no way be given special importance, as if all the success of prayer flows from it. In prayerful prosperity, the power and grace of God operate, they accomplish everything: the methods remain the methods that our weakness needs, and are rejected as unnecessary and superfluous after achieving prosperity. Placing hope in these methods is very dangerous: it reduces one to a material, incorrect understanding of prayer, distracting from the understanding of the spiritual, the only true one. A false understanding of prayer always results in either fruitless or spiritually harmful exercise. “And know this, brother,” say the Xanthonuls, “that every art and every rule, if you want, and various activities, are destined and correctly established for the reason that we cannot yet pray purely and unconditionally in our hearts. When this is accomplished by the good will and grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, then we, having left many things, both different and diverse, are united directly, above the word, with the One, the only and united 294. From being in the above-mentioned art of heartfelt, pure and unpaired prayer - however, it can be partly impure and not alien to entertainment due to, obviously, the thoughts and memories of what was previously done rebelling against it - the ascetic comes to the habit of praying without compulsion, unpaired, pure and true, that is, to come to a state in which the mind abides in the heart, and is not only introduced into it with compulsion, cowardly, through inhalation and then receding again, in which the mind itself constantly turns to itself, dwells with love in the heart and unceasingly prays” 295. The feat of mental and heartfelt prayer “is corrected by the mind from the overshadowing of it with the help of Divine grace and from the like-minded 296, heartfelt, pure, unemotional, with faith invocation of our Lord Jesus Christ, and not from one, simple, above-mentioned natural art through nostril breathing, or from sitting while practicing prayer in a silent and dark place - let it not be! This was invented by the Divine Fathers for nothing other than some aid to the collection of thought from ordinary soaring, to returning it to itself and to attention 297. Before all the grace-filled gifts, non-vagueness is granted to the mind by our Lord Jesus Christ and by calling His holy name into the heart with faith. This will also be helped somewhat by natural art, which helps to bring the mind down to the heart through nostril breathing, sitting in a silent and dark place, and the like.”298 The Xanthopouls strictly prohibit premature pursuit of that which, according to the spiritual system of monastic life, has its appointed time. They want the monk to act in the order established for him, according to the laws taught by Divine grace. “And you,” they say, “wanting to learn the silence that guides you to heaven, follow the wisely established laws, and, first, joyfully love obedience, then silence. Just as action is an ascent to vision, so obedience is to silence. “Do not change the limit of the eternal, - according to the Scriptures, - which your fathers set” (Prov. 22:28); “Woe to one” (Eccl. 4:10). Thus, having laid a good foundation for the beginning, you will be able over time to lay the most blessed cover on the beginning of the creation of the Spirit. Just as everything is rejected from someone whose beginning, as has been said, is not skillful, so, on the contrary, everything is splendid and orderly from someone whose beginning is skillful, although sometimes the opposite of this happens.”299 In general, it is recognized that, until the acquisition of celibacy, which is not deceptive or short-lived, but constant and essential, it is useful to practice the Jesus Prayer in monastic society, assisting the exercise of prayer with the active fulfillment of the Gospel commandments, or, what is the same, with humility. After receiving the gift of non-vapority, one is allowed to touch silence. This is what Saints Basil the Great and Gregory the Theologian did. They, according to the story of Saint Isaac the Syrian, first engaged in fulfilling those commandments that apply to those living in human society, going through prayer corresponding to this position; from this living, their mind began to feel stillness or stagnation, then they retired to the solitude of the desert, there they began to work in the inner man and achieved speculation 300. Perfect silence in our time is very inconvenient, almost impossible: Seraphim of Sarov, Ignatius Nikiforovsky, Nikandr Babaevsky, monks who were very successful in mental prayer, remained at times in silence, then in the company of monks, especially the latter never retired into silence noticeable to people, being a great silent person at heart. The method of silence, which was guided by the Monk Arsenius the Great, was always excellent, and now should be recognized as the best. This Father constantly observed silence, did not go to the fraternal cells, received people into his cell only in cases of extreme necessity, stood somewhere behind a pillar in church, did not write or receive letters, generally removed himself from all relations that could disrupt his attention, and had the goal of life and all actions to preserve attention 301. The image of living and silence, with which the Monk Arseny achieved great success, is highly praised and offered for imitation by Saint Isaac the Syrian, as a very convenient, wise and fruitful image 302. In conclusion of our extracts from the works of the Xanthopoulos, we present their experienced opinion, which agrees with the opinion of the other Holy Fathers, that in order to achieve unparalleled heartfelt prayer, it takes a lot of time and a lot of effort. “To pray constantly within the heart,” they say, “as well as the highest of this state, is not accomplished simply, not as if it happened, not through little labor and time, although this also occurs occasionally according to the incomprehensible vision of God, but it requires a long time, and considerable labor, spiritual and physical feats, much and prolonged compulsion. According to the superiority of the gift and grace, which we hope to partake of, the feats must be equal and corresponding in strength, so that, according to the mysterious sacred teaching, the enemy is driven out of the pastures of the heart and Christ clearly dwells in him.” Saint Isaac says: “He who wishes to see the Lord strives to artistically purify his heart with the memory of God, and thus, with the lightness of his thoughts, he will see the Lord every hour.” And Saint Barsanuphius: “If it is not the inner work of God’s grace that helps a person, then he labors in vain outwardly. Inner activity, combined with heart disease, brings purity, and purity brings true silence of the heart, such silence brings humility, and humility makes a person the dwelling place of God. When God dwells, then demons and passions are cast out, and man is made a church of God, full of sanctification, full of enlightenment, purity and grace. Blessed is the one who beholds the Lord in the inner treasury of the heart, as in a mirror, and with tears pours out his prayer before His goodness.” St. John of Carpathia: “It takes a lot of time and effort in prayer to find in the uncold disposition of the mind some other heaven of the heart, where Christ lives, as the Apostle says: “Or do you not know that Jesus Christ is in you? except that we are unskillful in nature” (2 Cor. 13:5) 303. We are content with these extracts from the Holy Fathers, as they satisfactorily explain the practice of the Jesus Prayer. The same teaching is set forth in other Fatherly writings. We recognize it as necessary to repeat to our beloved fathers and brothers the warning that they should not rush to read the Father’s writings about the sublime deeds and states of monks, although curiosity leads to this reading, although this reading produces pleasure and delight. Our freedom, due to the nature of time, must be especially limited. When there were gracious mentors, then the hobbies of beginners were conveniently noticed and cured. But now there is no one to heal or notice hobbies. Often, a harmful hobby is recognized by inexperienced mentors as a great success; the enthusiastic one is encouraged to become more passionate. The passion, having affected the monk and not being noticed, continues to act, diverting him more and more from the direction of the true. It can be said without a doubt: the majority are in various hobbies, those who have rejected their hobbies and hobbies are very few, and those who are not keen do not exist. For this reason, when the paternal books are left to us as the only means of guidance, we must read them with special care and legibility, so that the only means of guidance does not turn into a means of incorrect activity and the disorder resulting from it. “We will look,” says St. John Climacus about the Choice of a mentor, “not those who are foreknowledgeable, not those who are perspicacious, but most of all, precisely, those who are humble in wisdom, who are most appropriate to the illness that envelops us, in terms of their morality and place of residence” 304 . The same should be said about books, as already said above: we should choose from them not the most sublime ones, but those closest to our state, expressing the desire that is characteristic of us. “It is a great evil,” said Saint Isaac the Syrian, “to teach any high teaching to someone who is still in the rank of beginners and, in terms of spiritual age, an infant” 305. A carnal and spiritual person, hearing the spiritual word, understands it according to his condition, perverts it, distorts it, and, following it in its perverted sense, acquires a false direction, adheres to this direction with tenacity, as the direction given by the holy word. A certain elder achieved Christian perfection according to the special vision of God, having entered into silence, contrary to the rules, from his youth. At first he remained silent in Russia in the forest, living in a dugout, and then in Mount Athos; upon returning to Russia, he was placed in a common monastery. Many of the brethren, seeing undoubted signs of holiness in the elder, turned to him for advice. The elder gave instructions from his own dispensation and damaged the souls of the brothers. A certain monk, well known to the elder, told him: “Father! You speak to the brethren about actions and states that are inaccessible to their understanding and structure, and they, explaining your words in their own way and acting in accordance with this explanation, cause harm to themselves.” The elder answered with holy simplicity: “I see it myself! So what should I do? I consider everyone superior to me, and when asked, I answer from my state.” The elder did not know the general monastic path. Not only is sin detrimental to us, but goodness itself is detrimental when we do it at the wrong time and not in the proper amount; so not only hunger is detrimental, but also excess in food and the quality of food that does not correspond to age and build. “They do not put new wine into old wineskins; otherwise, the mixtures will sag, and the wine will be spilled, and the mixtures will perish; but they pour new wine into new wineskins, and both will be preserved” (Matthew 9:17). The Lord said this about works of virtue, which must certainly correspond to the state of the doer, otherwise they will destroy the doer and themselves perish, that is, they will be undertaken fruitlessly, to the harm and destruction of the soul, contrary to their purpose. In addition to the above aids, there are various other aids available to assist beginners in practicing the Jesus Prayer. Let's list the main ones. 1) Rosary or ladder. The rosary usually consists of a hundred grains, and the ladder consists of a hundred steps, since as a rule, performed with the Jesus Prayer, it is usually calculated in a hundred prayers. Bows are counted according to the rosary, and while sitting, the monks practice the Jesus Prayer, initially according to the rosary. When attention intensifies during prayer, then the ability to pray the rosary and count the spoken prayers ceases: all attention turns to prayer. 2) It is very useful to learn the Jesus Prayer, performing it with bows to the ground and from the waist, making these bows slowly and with a feeling of repentance, as the blessed young man George believed them, about whom St. Simeon the New Theologian tells in his Word on Faith 306. 3) In church and in general when practicing the Jesus Prayer, it is useful to have your eyes closed, and 4) to hold your left hand at the chest, above the left nipple of the chest, slightly higher than it: the last mechanism contributes to the feeling of the power of literature located in the chest. 5) The Fathers advise those who are silent to have a somewhat dark cell, with curtained windows, to protect the mind from distraction and to help it concentrate in the heart. 6) Those who are silent are advised to sit on a low chair, firstly, because attentive prayer requires a quiet position, and secondly, in the image of the blind beggar mentioned in the Gospel, who, sitting along the way, cried out to the Lord: “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me” (Mark 10:47), was heard and had mercy. Also, this low chair represents the rotting place on which Job was cast down, outside the city, when the devil struck him from head to toe with a fierce disease (Job 2:8). The monk must see himself mutilated, distorted, tormented by sinfulness, ejected by it from the natural state, plunged into the unnatural, and from this disastrous state cry out to the all-merciful and almighty Jesus, the Renewer of human nature: “have mercy on me.” A low chair is very convenient for practicing the Jesus Prayer. This does not exclude standing with her; but since almost all the time of a true silent person is devoted to prayer, he is left to do it while sitting, and sometimes lying down. Especially the sick and elderly should beware of excessive physical feats, so that it does not deplete their strength and does not take away the opportunity to engage in spiritual feats. The essence of work is in the Lord and in His name. The paralytic was hung on his bed before the Lord through the cover of the house and received healing (Mark 2:4). Healing is brought about by humility and faith. 7) Devotees of smart work sometimes need to help themselves by dousing them with cold water or applying water-soaked towels to the areas where the blood flows. The water should be summer - not the coldest, because the latter increases the heat. In general, mental activities tend to produce heat in certain proportions. The Monk Abba Dorotheos felt such heat within himself when he was engaged in science, which is why he cooled himself with water 307. Such heat will certainly be felt by those who force themselves very hard to unite the mind with the heart with the help of material aids, giving them excessive importance and not giving due importance to spiritual aids. With a special material effort towards heartfelt prayer, warmth begins to act in the heart. This warmth is a direct consequence of such a feat 308: every member of the human body that is subjected to friction becomes hot, and the same happens to the heart from constant, prolonged tension. The heat that comes from intensified, material achievement is also material. This is carnal, blood warmth, in the area of ​​fallen nature 309. An inexperienced ascetic, having felt this warmth, will certainly imagine something about it, find in it pleasantness, pleasure, which is the beginning of self-delusion 310. Not only should one not think anything special about this warmth, but on the contrary, one should take special precautions when it appears. Precaution is necessary for the reason that this heat, like blood, not only passes to different places in the chest, but can very easily fall on the lower parts of the womb, causing a strong decomposition in them. Naturally, in this case, carnal lust, characteristic of these parts in a state of heat, begins to act. Some, having reached this state and not understanding what was happening to them, fell into confusion, despondency, and despair, as is known from experience. Recognizing their condition as disastrous, they resorted to the famous elders, seeking in their advice a healing for their souls, torn apart by grief and bewilderment. The elders, having heard that when calling on the name of Jesus, a strong fervor appeared, combined with the action of lust, they were horrified by the wiles of the devil. They recognized a terrible deception here, they forbade the suffering to practice the Jesus Prayer as the cause of evil, and told many other ascetics this circumstance as a wonderful, disastrous consequence of practicing the Jesus Prayer. And many believed the pronounced judgment out of respect for the great name of the elders, they believed the judgment as derived from experience itself. Meanwhile, this terrible charm is nothing more than a rush of blood resulting from the increased, ignorant use of material benefits. This flush can easily be cured in two or three days by applying a cloth soaked in summer water to the inflamed parts. It is much more dangerous, much closer to delusion, when the ascetic, feeling the bloody warmth in the heart or chest, considers it to be blessed, imagines something about it, and therefore something about himself, and begins to invent pleasure for himself, to darken, deceive, entangle, and destroy himself with conceit. The more compulsion and tension in the body of an ascetic, the more intensely the blood heat flares up. That's how it should be! In order to moderate this warmth, in order to prevent it from falling down, one must not press the mind with special effort on the heart, one must not strain the heart, not produce heat in it by excessively holding the breath and straining the heart; on the contrary, one must hold one’s breath quietly and bring the mind to unite with the heart very quietly; one must try to ensure that prayer acts at the very top of the heart, where verbal power resides according to the teaching of the Fathers and where, for this reason, Divine services should be performed. When Divine grace overshadows the feat of prayer and begins to unite the mind with the heart, then the material warmth of the blood will completely disappear. The prayerful ritual then completely changes: it becomes as if natural, completely free and easy. Then another warmth appears in the heart, subtle, immaterial, spiritual, not producing any kindling - on the contrary, cooling, enlightening, irrigating, acting as a healing, spiritual, anointing anointing, attracting to the ineffable love of God and people, as St. Maxim Kapsokalivi will tell about this warmth from his blessed experience 311. I offer poor advice to the fathers and brothers, begging them not to reject my poor advice: do not force yourself prematurely to discover within yourself the action of heartfelt prayer. Prudent caution is needed, especially in our time, when it is almost impossible to find a satisfactory mentor for these subjects, when the ascetic must make his way, gropingly, with the guidance of the writings of the Holy Fathers, into the treasury of spiritual knowledge, and also gropingly, himself, choose from them what is characteristic of himself. When living according to the Gospel commandments, engage in attentive Jesus Prayer according to the method of St. John Climacus, combining prayer with crying, having repentance as the beginning and goal of prayer. In due time, known to God, the action of heartfelt prayer will reveal itself. Such an action, revealed by the touch of the finger of God, is superior to that achieved by intense self-force through material benefits. It is superior in many respects: it is much broader, more plentiful, it is completely safe from delusion and other damage. The one who has received it in this way sees in receiving only the mercy of God, the gift of God, and the one who has achieved it through the intensive use of material benefits, seeing the gift of God, cannot help but see his feat, cannot help but see the very mechanical method he used, cannot help but attribute special importance to it. This, on the subtle mental path, is a significant shortcoming, a significant stumbling block, a significant obstacle to the development of spiritual success. There is no end or limits to the development of spiritual prosperity. An insignificant, imperceptible hope in something outside of God can stop the course of prosperity, in which the leader, legs, and wings are faith in God. “Christ is everything to the believer,” said Saint Mark 312. Of those who used material auxiliary means with special care, very few achieved success, but very many were upset and damaged. With an experienced mentor, the use of material aids is not very dangerous, but when guided by books, it is very dangerous due to the convenience of falling, through ignorance and imprudence, into delusion and other types of mental and physical disorder. Thus, some, having seen the harmful consequences of a reckless feat and having only a superficial and confused understanding of the Jesus Prayer and the circumstances surrounding it, attributed these consequences not to ignorance and recklessness, but to the all-holy Jesus Prayer itself. Could anything be sadder, more miserable than this blasphemy, this beauty? The Holy Fathers, when teaching prayer of the heart, did not give precise instructions in which part of the heart it should be performed, probably for the reason that in those days there was no need for this instruction. Saint Nicephorus says, as about a well-known subject, that literature is in the Persians, and that when literature is aroused to participate in prayer, then after it the heart will be aroused to such participation. It is difficult for those who know something with all detail and thoroughness to foresee and prevent with a solution all the questions that may arise from complete ignorance: in what ignorance sees darkness, there is nothing unclear for knowledge. In subsequent times, the vague indication in the writings of the fathers on the heart was the cause of important bewilderment and erroneous practice of prayer in those who, without a mentor, without having studied the writings of the fathers with due care, on the basis of superficial concepts hastily grasped by reading, decided to engage in artistic heart prayer, placing all their trust in material aids to it. A definite explanation of this subject thus became a necessity. The human heart has the appearance of an oblong sac, expanding towards the top and narrowing towards the bottom. It, with its upper end, located opposite the left nipple of the breast, is attached, and its lower part, descending to the end of the ribs, is free; when it begins to oscillate, this oscillation is called a heartbeat. Many, having no idea about the structure of the heart, recognize their heart where they feel its beating. When they begin the exercise of heartfelt prayer on their own, they direct their breath, introducing it into the heart, to this part of the heart, bringing it into carnal heat, and the heartbeat greatly intensifies, calling to themselves and imposing on themselves an incorrect state and delusion. Schemamonk Vasily and Elder Paisiy Velichkovsky tell that many of their contemporaries were damaged by abusing material benefits 313. And subsequently, examples of frustration from such an action were often encountered; They are still found today, although the disposition to practice the Jesus Prayer has diminished to the extreme. It is impossible not to meet them: they must be an indispensable consequence of ignorance, self-indulgence, conceit, untimely and proud zeal, and finally the complete impoverishment of experienced mentors. Schemamonk Vasily, referring to Saint Theophylact and other Fathers, argues that the three powers of the soul, verbal, the power of jealousy and the power of desire, are located as follows: in the upper part of the heart there is the verbal power or spirit of a person, in the middle there is the power of jealousy, in the lower part there is the power of desire or natural lust. He who tries to set in motion and warm up the lower part of the heart sets in motion the force of lust, which, by the proximity of the genital parts to it and by its nature, sets these parts in motion. The ignorant use of material benefits will result in a strong inflamation of carnal lust. What a strange phenomenon! Apparently, the ascetic is engaged in prayer, and the activity generates lust, which should be mortified by the activity, and ignorance, which has abused material benefits, attributes to the Jesus Prayer what should be attributed to the abuse. Heartfelt prayer comes from the union of the mind with the spirit of those separated by the fall, united by the grace of redemption. In the human spirit, the sensations of conscience, humility, meekness, love for God and neighbor and other similar properties are concentrated; during prayer, the action of these properties must be combined with the action of the mind. All the attention of the person doing the prayer should be directed to this. The union is accomplished by the finger of God, which alone can heal the wound of the fall; the worker of prayer proves the sincerity of his will to receive healing by constantly remaining in prayer, confining his mind in the words of prayer, by external and internal activity according to the commandments of the Gospel, making the spirit capable of uniting with the praying mind. At the same time, the artistic direction of the mind towards literature and the upper part of the heart contributes somewhat. In general, excessive tension when using this material aid, as stimulating material warmth, is harmful: the warmth of flesh and blood should not have a place in prayer. Due to the most soul-saving effect on us of prayer in general and the memory of God or the Jesus Prayer in particular, as a means to remain in constant union with God and to constantly repel the attacks of the enemy, practicing the Jesus Prayer is especially hateful to the devil. Those who practice prayer in the name of the Lord Jesus are subject to special persecution by the devil. “The whole feat and all the diligence of our adversary,” says the Monk Macarius the Great, “is to turn our thoughts away from the remembrance of God and from love for Him; for this he uses the delights of the world, and distracts us from the true good to imaginary, insignificant goods” 314. For this reason, he who has dedicated himself to the true service of God, through the unceasing Jesus Prayer, must especially guard himself from distraction of thoughts, not in any way allowing himself mental idle talk, but, ignoring the thoughts and dreams that appear, constantly return to praying in the name of Jesus, as if in refuge, believing that Jesus is vigilantly concerned about that His servant who is constantly with Him with vigilant remembrance of Him. “Evil demons,” says St. Neil of Sinai, “at night they try to disturb the spiritual worker through themselves, and during the day through people, surrounding him with slander, misfortunes and misadventures” 315. This order in demonic warfare will soon be seen through experience by every practitioner of prayer. Demons tempt with thoughts, mental dreams, memories of the most necessary objects, apparently spiritual reflections, arousal of care, various fears and other manifestations of unbelief 316. With all the varied demonic warfare, a feeling of confusion is always a sure sign of the approach of fallen spirits, even if the action they produce has the appearance of righteousness 317 . To ascetics who pray alone and intensely, demons appear in the form of monsters, in the form of tempting objects, sometimes in the form of bright Angels, martyrs, saints and Christ Himself; One should not be afraid of demonic threats, but one should be very distrustful of all phenomena in general. In such cases, which, however, are infrequent, our first duty is to resort to God, surrendering entirely to His will and asking for His help: not to pay attention to the phenomena and not to enter into communication and conversation with them, recognizing ourselves as weak for communication with hostile spirits, unworthy of communication with the holy spirits. The true, God-pleasing ascetic of prayer is subjected to special sorrows and persecution from his brethren, men. And in this, as we have already said, the main figures are demons: they use as their tools both those people who have merged their activity with the activity of demons, and those who do not understand the battles of demons and therefore conveniently become tools of demons, even those who, understanding the cunning of the enemy, are not attentive enough to themselves and are careful, and therefore allow themselves to be deceived. The most striking and terrible example of what terrible hatred for God, for the Word of God, for the Spirit of God can be infected by people who have merged the mood of their spirit with the mood of demons, we see in the Jewish high priests, elders, scribes and Pharisees, who committed the greatest crime among human crimes - Deicide. Saint Simeon the New Theologian says that, at the inspiration of demons, monks who lead a hypocritical life envy the true ascetics of piety, and use all measures to upset them or expel them from the monastery 318. Even well-meaning monks, who lead an outward life and have no idea about spiritual life, are seduced by spiritual workers, find their behavior strange, condemn and slander them, and make various insults and oppressions against them. The great practitioner of the Jesus Prayer, the blessed elder Seraphim of Sarov, suffered many troubles from ignorance and a carnal view of the monasticism of his brothers, because those who read the law of God bodily believe in fulfilling it with only external deeds, without mental feat, “not understanding what they say or affirm about them” (1 Tim. 1:7) 319 . “While walking the path of the inner, speculative life,” Seraphim instructs and consoles, drawing guidance and consolation from his spiritual experience, “one should not weaken, one should not leave it because people, clinging to appearance and sensuality, amaze us with the opposite of their opinions to the heart’s feeling and try in every possible way to distract us from passing the inner path, putting various obstacles for us on it. We should not be hesitant by any opposition while walking this path, in this case being affirmed in the word of God: “We will not be afraid of their fear, nor will we be troubled, for God is with us. Let us sanctify the Lord our God in the heartfelt memory of His Divine name, and He will be our fear” (Isa. 8:12–13) 320. When the Venerable Gregory of Sinai - who in the 14th century was used by the providence of God as an instrument for restoring among the monks the mental deeds they had forgotten - arrived at Mount Athos and began to communicate the knowledge given to him by God to pious, zealous and reasonable ascetics, but who understood the Divine service only physically, they at first greatly opposed him, such a strangeness seems to be the teaching about spiritual feat for those who have no idea about it or about its existence, for those who gave the bodily feat a meaning that does not belong to it. Smart doing seems even more strange for the carnal and spiritual mind, especially when it is infected with conceit and the poison of heresy. Then the hatred of the human spirit, which has entered into communication with Satan, towards the Spirit of God is expressed with monstrous fury. To explain this and in general to clearly present how the carnal and spiritual mind misunderstands everything spiritual, distorts it according to the darkness of the fall in which it finds itself, despite its earthly learning, let us briefly outline here the slander and slander against the clever work of the Latin monk Barlaam and some Western writers. The Most Reverend Innocent, in his church history, relates that Barlaam, a Calabrian monk, arrived in Selun, a city of the eastern Greek empire, in the 14th century. Here, in order to act in favor of the Western Church under the cover of Orthodoxy, he rejected Latinism. Having written several essays to prove the correctness of the Eastern Church, he thereby earned the praise and trust of Emperor Kantakouzenos, knowing that Greek monasticism serves as the main reinforcement of the Church, he wanted to weaken it, even crush it, in order to shake the entire Church. To this end, he expressed a desire to lead the strictest monastic life and slyly persuaded one Athonite hermit to open him to the artistic exercise of the Jesus Prayer. Having received what he wanted, having superficially, meaninglessly understood what was revealed, Varlaam accepted as the only essence of the matter a material aid, which the Fathers, as we have seen, call only some aid, and spiritual visions for material visions, visible with only bodily eyes. He reported this to the emperor as an important misconception. A council was convened in Constantinople. Saint Gregory Palamas, an Athonite monk and a great worker of mental prayer, entered into a debate with Varlaam, and defeated him by the power of God’s grace. Varlaam and his blasphemers are anathema. He returned to Calabria and Latinity, left many Greeks, superficial Christians, with confidence in his teaching, and brought it to the West, where his blasphemies and absurd slander were accepted as a confession of truth 321. The historian Fleury, describing the actions of Varlaam, like him, concentrates all the work of mental prayer in a material aid, distorting it. Fleury makes an extract about the mechanism from the word of St. Simeon the New Theologian about three images of prayer, found in the Philokalia, claims that Simeon teaches, sitting in the corner of the cell, to turn the eyes and the whole thought to the middle of the womb, that is, to the navel, to hold the breath, even with the nose, and so on. It would be difficult to believe that the intelligent and learned Fleury wrote such an absurdity if it were not read on the pages of his history 322 . Bergier, another very intelligent and learned writer, says that the Greek contemplative monks, from the effort of contemplation, went crazy in their minds and fell into fanaticism (prelest). To get into a state of delight, they rested their eyes on the navel, holding their breath: then they imagined that they saw a brilliant light, and so on 323. Distorting the image of prayer of the clever workers of the Eastern Church, and blaspheming it, the Latins do not stop with blasphemy and do not stop blaspheming the action of the Holy Spirit over the states of grace produced by prayer. Let us submit to the judgment of God the slander and blasphemy of heretics; with a feeling of weeping, and not condemnation, let us turn our attention away from the absurdities they utter, listen to what our blessed worker of the Jesus Prayer, Seraphim of Sarov, says about seeing the light of Christ: “In order to receive and see the light of Christ in your heart, you must distract yourself as much as possible from visible objects, having first cleansed your soul with repentance, good deeds and faith in Him who was crucified for us, close your bodily eyes, immerse your mind inside the heart, where one cries out invoking the name of our Lord, Jesus Christ, then, according to the zeal and ardor of the spirit towards the Beloved, a person finds pleasure in the name he calls upon, which arouses the desire to seek higher enlightenment. When, through such an exercise, the mind is fixed in the heart, then the light of Christ will shine, sanctifying the church of the soul with its Divine radiance, as the prophet Malachi says: “And the sun of righteousness will shine upon you who fear My name” (Mal. 4:2). This light is also life according to the Gospel word: “In Him was life, and life was light for man” (John 1:4) 324. From this it is clear, contrary to the understanding of Barlaam of Calabria and the Latins, that this light is not material, but spiritual, that it opens the eyes of the soul and is contemplated by them, although at the same time it acts on the physical eyes, as happened with the holy Apostle Paul (Acts 9). St. Macarius the Great, expounding in detail and with particular clarity the teaching about this light in the 7th word, says that “it is the essential illumination in the soul of the power of the Holy Spirit, through it all knowledge is revealed and God is truly known by a worthy and beloved soul” 325. In agreement with the Great, all the holy Fathers of the Eastern Church testify, having experienced Christian perfection and depicted it in their writings, characteristic of this indescribable sacrament by depicting matter in the land. It is very useful to know that the fruit of pure, unparalleled prayer is the renewal of nature, that the renewed nature is supplied and adorned with the gifts of Divine grace, but the desire for the premature acquisition of these gifts, the desire by which, prompted by self-conceit, prevents God’s good will towards us, is extremely harmful and leads only to delusion. For this reason, all the Fathers speak very briefly about the gifts of grace, and speak in great detail about the acquisition of pure prayer, the consequence of which is gifts of grace. The feat of prayer requires careful training, and the gifts of grace appear by themselves, as properties of a renewed nature, when this nature, after cleansing by repentance, is sanctified by the overshadowing of the Spirit. Elder Paisiy Velichkovsky, who lived at the end of the last 18th century, wrote a scroll about mental prayer in refutation of the blasphemies uttered against it by some vain-minded philosopher, a monk who lived in the Moshen Mountains, a contemporary of Paisiy 326. “In our days,” says Paisius in a letter to Elder Theodosius, “a certain monk, a superstitious philosopher, seeing that some zealots of this prayer, although not according to reason, suffered some delusion due to their self-indulgence and ignorant guidance of mentors who were not skilled in this prayer, did not lay the blame on arbitrariness and unskillful instruction, but armed himself with blasphemy against this holy prayer, He armed himself, excited by the devil, so much that he far surpassed the ancient, thrice-damned heretics, Barlaam and Akindinus, who blasphemed this prayer. Not fearing God, not being ashamed of people, he raised terrible and shameful blasphemies against this holy prayer, against its zealots and practitioners, blasphemies unbearable for chaste human hearing. Moreover, he instigated such great persecution against the zealots of this prayer that some of them, leaving everything, fled to our country and lead a God-pleasing desert life in it. Others, being feeble-minded, were driven to such madness by the corrupt words of the philosopher that they drowned the paternal books they had, as we heard, in the river, tying them to a brick. His blasphemy was so strong that some elders forbade reading the books of the fathers, threatening to deprive him of the blessing for reading. The philosopher, not content with verbal blasphemy, set out to put these blasphemies in writing, then, struck by God’s punishment, he became blind, which was what stopped his God-fighting enterprise.” In general, the carnal and spiritual mind, no matter how rich it is in the wisdom of the world, looks very wildly and unkindly at mental prayer. It is a means of unity of the human spirit with the spirit of God and therefore is especially strange and hateful for those who favor the abiding of their spirit in a host of fallen, rejected, hostile spirits to God, who are not aware of their fall, who proclaim and extol the state of fall as if it were a state of supreme prosperity. “The word of the cross”, proclaimed through the mouth of the apostles to all people “who are perishing through foolishness”; it remains as foolishness when it is proclaimed by the mind to the heart and the whole being of the old man through prayer; but “to those who are being saved it is the power of God” (1 Cor. 1:18). Hellenes who have not known Christianity, and Hellenes who have returned from Christianity to Hellenism, seek, according to their mood, wisdom in mental prayer, and find madness; but true Christians, through the weak and seemingly insignificant feat of mental prayer, acquire “Christ, God’s power and God’s wisdom. Man is wiser than God, and man is stronger than God's weakness" (1 Cor. 1:22-26). It is no wonder that our scientists, having no idea about mental prayer according to the tradition of the Orthodox Church, and having read about it only in the works of Western writers, repeated the blasphemies and absurdities of these writers 327. Elder Paisius Velichkovsky’s spiritual friend also mentions other monks contemporary to him who rejected the exercise of the Jesus Prayer for three reasons: firstly, recognizing this exercise as characteristic of only saints and dispassionate men, secondly, because of the complete impoverishment of mentors for this work, and thirdly, because of the delusion that sometimes follows a mental feat. The groundlessness of these arguments has been discussed by us in its place 328. Here it is enough to say that those who, for these reasons, reject the exercise of mental prayer, engage exclusively in oral prayer, without achieving proper success in it. They, rejecting the experimental knowledge of mental prayer, cannot acquire in oral prayer the due attention that is provided primarily by mental prayer. Psalmody, performed publicly and orally, without attention, with significant entertainment, persistent from bodily workers who neglect the mind, has a very weak, superficial effect on the soul, and delivers fruits consistent with the action. Quite often, when it is done unmissably and in greater quantities, it gives rise to conceit with its consequences. “Many,” says Schemamonk Vasily, “not knowing the experience of smart work, erroneously judge that smart work befits only dispassionate and holy men. For this reason, keeping, according to external custom, one psalmody, troparions and canons, they prefer this alone to their external prayer. They do not understand that such song prayer was handed over to us by the Fathers for a time, due to the weakness and infancy of our minds, so that we, learning little by little, would ascend to the level of mental activity, and not remain in psalmody until our death. What is more childish than this, when we, having read our outer prayer with our lips, are carried away by a joyful opinion, thinking about ourselves that we are doing something great, delighting ourselves with sheer quantity and thereby feeding the inner Pharisee!” 329. “Let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from unrighteousness” (2 Tim. 2:19), bequeaths the Apostle. This testament, which applies to all Christians, applies especially to those who intend to practice unceasing prayer in the name of the Lord Jesus. The Most Pure Name of Jesus does not tolerate being in the midst of uncleanness; it demands that all unclean things be cast out and cast out from the vessel of the soul; entering the vessel according to the degree of its purity, it itself begins to act in it and perform further purification, for which a person’s own efforts are insufficient and which is required in order for the vessel to become a worthy container for a spiritual treasure, an all-holy shrine. Let us avoid satiety and even saturation, let us make a rule of moderate, constant abstinence in food and drink, deny ourselves the enjoyment of tasty foods and drinks, let us soothe ourselves with sleep satisfactorily, but not excessively, let us give up idle talk, laughter, jokes, blasphemy, let us stop unnecessary exits from the cell to the brethren and the reception of the brethren in the cell, under the pretext of love, the name of which they hide behind. empty conversations and activities that empty the soul. Let us give up daydreaming and vain thoughts that arise in us because of our unbelief, because of reckless care, because of vanity, memory, irritability and other passions of ours. With the fullness of faith, let us cast everything on the Lord, and replace our many thoughts, our empty dreams with uninterrupted prayer to the Lord Jesus. If we are still surrounded by enemies, then we will cry out with strong weeping and screaming to the King of kings, as the offended and oppressed cry out from the crowd of people; if we are admitted into the inner chamber of the King, then we will bring Him a complaint and ask for His mercy with the greatest quietness and humility, from the very depths of our souls. Such a prayer is especially powerful: it is completely spiritual, pronounced directly to the very ear of the King, to His heart. A necessary, essential condition for success in the Jesus Prayer is staying in the commandments of the Lord Jesus. “Be in My love” (John 15:9), He said to His disciples. What does it mean to be in love with the Lord? This means constantly remembering Him, constantly remaining in unity with Him in spirit. The first without the last is dead and cannot even be realized. “If you keep My commandments, you will remain in My love” (John 15:10); If we constantly keep the commandments of the Lord, then in our spirit we will unite with Him. If we unite with Him in spirit, then we will strive towards Him with all our being, we will constantly remember Him. Direct your actions, all your behavior according to the commandments of the Lord Jesus, direct your words according to them, direct your thoughts and feelings according to them - and you will know the properties of Jesus. Having felt these properties in yourself through the action of Divine grace and from this feeling acquired an experimental knowledge of them, you will enjoy an incorruptible sweetness that does not belong to the world and this age, a quiet sweetness, but strong, destroying the heart’s disposition to all earthly pleasures. Having delighted in the properties of Jesus, you will love Him and desire that He should fully dwell in you; without Him you will consider yourself lost and lost. Then you will continually cry out, cry out from the fullness of conviction, with all your soul: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” The Jesus Prayer will replace all other prayers for you. And what kind of idea can all of them contain and express, a more extensive thought about the pardon of sinners by Jesus? Set yourself the sole purpose of life to fulfill the will of Jesus in every circumstance, no matter how important or trivial it may seem; try to do the only deeds that are pleasing to Jesus, and all your deeds will be equally worthy of heaven. Love the will of Jesus more than the desires of your flesh, more than your peace and comfort, more than life, more than your soul. Read the Gospel as often as possible, study in it the will of the Lord and your Savior. Do not leave without attention the slightest feature from the Gospel, no apparently unimportant commandment. Curb and mortify all your own movements, not only sinful, but apparently also good, belonging to fallen human nature, often very developed among pagans and heretics, separated from the virtues of the Gospel, “like the Wests from the Easts.” May all your old things be silent in you! May Jesus alone act in you with His most holy commandments, thoughts and sensations flowing from these commandments. If you live in this way, then the Jesus Prayer will certainly flourish in you, regardless of whether you are in the deep desert, or in the midst of the rumors of a community, because the place of residence and peace of this prayer is the mind and heart, renewed by the knowledge, tasting, and fulfillment of “the will of God, good, acceptable and perfect” (Rom. 12:2). Living according to the Gospel commandments is the only and true source of spiritual success, accessible to everyone who sincerely desires to succeed, no matter in what external position he may be placed by the unknown providence of God. By the very nature of this exercise, practicing the Jesus Prayer requires continuous vigilance over oneself. “Reverent caution,” says Elder Seraphim, “is needed here for the reason that “this sea”, that is, the heart with its thoughts and desires, which must be cleansed through attention, “great and spacious, there are reptiles, there are no number of them” (Ps. 103:25), that is, many thoughts are vain, wrong and unclean, the generation of evil spirits” 330. You must constantly watch yourself so that sin does not creep up in any way and devastate your soul. This is not enough, one must constantly observe that the mind and heart remain in the will of Jesus and follow His holy commands, so that carnal wisdom does not supplant spiritual wisdom with some evil cunning, so as not to be carried away by any kind of heated blood, so as to remain, if possible, in constant deadness, in some subtle coldness (1 Kings 19:12). When the sensation of this subtle coolness appears, then from it the will of God is seen more clearly and is carried out more freely. When the will of God is seen more clearly, then hunger and thirst for Divine truth are aroused with particular force, and the ascetic, in the deep consciousness of his poverty and in tears, with new effort tries to reveal this truth within himself through the most attentive, most reverent prayer. “Just as this Divine prayer,” says Elder Paisius, “is the highest of all monastic feats, the pinnacle of correction according to the definition of the Fathers, the source of virtues, the subtlest and invisible work of the mind in the depths of the heart, so, in accordance with this, invisible, subtle, barely comprehensible to the human mind, networks of diverse charms and dreams are set up as an invisible enemy against it” 331. It is impossible to lay any other basis for praying in the name of Jesus other than the one laid down: it is our Lord Himself, Jesus Christ, the God-Man, who incomprehensibly covered the unlimited nature of God with the limited nature of man and from the limited human nature manifests the actions of the unlimited God. In our infancy, the Holy Fathers teach some methods, as mentioned above, to more conveniently accustom ourselves to the Jesus Prayer. These methods are nothing more than methods that do not contain anything special. They should not be dwelled on with undue attention, they should not be given undue importance. All the power and all the effect of the Jesus Prayer flows from the worshiped and omnipotent name Jesus, the only name under heaven in which it is fitting for us to be saved (Acts 4:12). In order to become capable of discovering this action in us, we must be cultivated by the Gospel commandments, as the Lord said: “Not everyone who says to Me: Lord, Lord, will enter into the kingdom of heaven,” both into that which awaits us after our blessed death, and into that which is revealed in us during our earthly life, “but do the will of My Father who is in heaven” (Matt. 7:21 ). Those who succeed do not need any external means: among the noisy crowds, they remain in silence. All obstacles to spiritual success are in us, in us alone! If something from the outside acts as an obstacle, then this only serves as an exposure of our weak will, our double-mindedness, our damage by sin. There would be no need for any external means if we lived as we should live. Our life is relaxed: our will is shaky, insignificant, and therefore we need external methods, like those with legs that are sick in crutches and a staff. The merciful Fathers, seeing that I want to engage in the Jesus Prayer, moreover, seeing that I am quite alive to the world, that it strongly affects me through my feelings, advise me to enter a solitary, dark cell to pray, so that in this way my feelings would become inactive, my communication with the world would be interrupted, and it would be easier for me to deepen into myself. They advise sitting while practicing the Jesus Prayer on a low chair, so that my body has the position of a beggar begging for alms, and I can more comfortably feel the poverty of my soul. When I am present at Divine services and during it I am engaged in the Jesus Prayer, the Fathers advise me to close my eyes to save myself from distraction, because my vision is alive to matter, and as soon as I open my eyes, the objects I see will immediately begin to be imprinted on my mind, distracting me from prayer. There are many other external ways found by practitioners of prayer to materially assist spiritual achievement. These methods can be used to advantage; but when using them, one must take into account the mental and physical properties of each: any mechanical method that works very well for one ascetic may be useless and even harmful for another. Those who succeed reject material methods, just as someone who is cured of lameness throws away a crutch, like a baby who has reached a certain age puts aside his swaddling clothes, like the scaffolding with which it was built is removed from a built house. It is essential for each and every person to begin learning to pray in the name of the Lord Jesus by performing the Jesus Prayer orally while enclosing the mind in the words of the prayer. By enclosing the mind in the words of prayer, the strictest attention to these words is depicted, without which prayer is like a body without a soul. Let us leave it to the Lord Himself to transform our attentive verbal prayer into mental, heartfelt and spiritual prayer. He will certainly do this when he sees us somewhat purified, educated, nurtured, prepared by doing the Gospel commandments. A prudent parent will not give a sharp sword to his infant son. An infant is not able to use a sword against an enemy; he will play with a formidable sword, and will quickly and easily pierce himself with it. A child, due to his spiritual age, is not capable of spiritual gifts; he will use them not for the glory of God, not for the benefit of himself and his neighbors, not for the defeat of invisible adversaries, he will use them to defeat himself, dreaming of himself, filled with destructive exaltation, destructive contempt for his neighbors. And alien to spiritual gifts, filled with foul passions, we are proud and magnified, we never cease to condemn and humiliate our neighbors, who are better than us in all respects! What would happen if we were trusted with some spiritual wealth, some spiritual gift, separating its owner from his brothers, testifying to him that he is God’s chosen one? Wouldn't it become the cause of terrible mental distress for us? Let us strive to improve in humility, which consists in a special blissful mood of the heart, and appears in the heart from the fulfillment of the Gospel commandments. Humility is the only altar on which we are permitted by spiritual law to offer the sacrifice of prayer, on which the sacrifice of prayer ascends to God and appears before His face. Humility is the only vessel into which grace-filled gifts are placed by the finger of God. Let us engage in the Jesus Prayer unselfishly, with simplicity and directness of intention, with the goal of repentance, with faith in God, with perfect devotion to the will of God, with hope in the wisdom, goodness, and omnipotence of this holy will. When choosing mechanical methods, we will try to act with all possible prudence and prudence, without being carried away by empty inquisitiveness, unconscious jealousy, which to the inexperienced seems to be a virtue, and the Holy Fathers call it proud audacity and insane ardor. We will primarily turn to the simplest and humblest methods, as the safest. We repeat: all mechanical methods should be considered nothing more than methods that have become useful to us due to our weakness. Let us not place our trust either in them or in the quantity of our work, lest our trust in the Lord be thus stolen from us, so that in the essence of the matter we do not find ourselves trusting in ourselves, or in anything material and vain. Let us not seek pleasure or visions: we are sinners, unworthy of spiritual pleasures and visions, incapable of them due to our old age. Through attentive prayer, let us seek to turn the mind’s gaze to ourselves in order to discover our sinfulness within ourselves. When we open it, let us stand mentally before our Lord Jesus Christ in the face of the lepers, the blind, the deaf, the lame, the paralytic, the demoniac, and let us begin before Him from the poverty of our spirit, from a heart crushed by illness about our sinfulness, a lamentable cry of prayer. Let this cry be unlimited in abundance! Let all verbosity and all variety of words prove incapable of expressing it. According to its abundance and inexpressibility, let it be clothed incessantly, let it be clothed in the laconic but broad-meaning prayer: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner.” Amen. An article about the Jesus Prayer is included in Part 1 of the Experiments: since this word has its own characteristics, it was not considered unnecessary to bring it to the attention of lovers of God. Regarding the repetitions, which of necessity entered into it from the mentioned article, we can say that the repetition of so many saving truths is by no means useless. “It is not lazy for me to write to you,” says the Apostle, “but to you it is firm” (Phil. 3:1). Schemamonk Vasily Polyanomerulsky. His works were published by the Vvedenskaya Optina Hermitage along with the works of Elder Paisius Velichkovsky. Moscow, 1847. About silence in 15 chapters, ch. 2. Kindness, part 1. Savior - Jesus in Hebrew. Psalter with reproach. Chetii-Minei. December on the 20th day. Similarity 9th, ch. 14. The book of Saint Hermias was especially respected in the primacy of the Church of Christ. Sometimes it was added to the New Testament and read during Divine services. Chetii-Minei. September 27. Word of St. Hesychia. Philokalia, part 2, ch. 1. St. Nil Sorsky, Word 9. About how to sing. Philokalia, part 1. Ladder, Word 21, ch. 7. According to the explanation of Blessed Theophylact. Blagovestnik. St. Gregory Sinait. Chapter 3. About breathing. Philokalia, part 1. St. Barsanuphius. Answer 116. Prpp. Callistus and Ignatius Xanthopoulos. Chapter 49. Philokalia, part 2. St. Callistus and Ignatius Xanthopoulos, ch. 56. Kindness, part 1. About the third type of attention. Dobrot., part 1. About the hedgehog to gain action. Dobrot., part 1. § 4. Psalter with succession. Discourse 8, on the Epistle to the Romans. Canon. Publication of the Kiev Pechersk Lavra. Answer 74. Rev. Gregory Sinait. Chapter 4 of 15 chapters is about silence. Dobrot., part 1. Edition of Optina Pustyn in 1847. Chapters on mental prayer. Ch. 1. Publication of Optina Pustyn, 1847 Elder Vasily. Preface to the book of St. Gregory the Sinaite. Elder Vasily. Preface to the book of Blessed Philotheus of Sinai. St. Gregory of Sinaite visited Mount Athos in the 14th century after the Nativity of Christ. At that time, monasticism in Palestine, especially in Egypt, was almost destroyed by the Mohammedans, who conquered Egypt and Palestine at the beginning of the 7th century. During the time of Saint Gregory of Sinaite, the teaching on mental prayer was diminished to the extreme everywhere. He can be recognized as the restorer of this teaching, as stated in his short biography placed in the Philokalia. And in the time of Gregory of Sinaite, there were monks who achieved great success in prayer, such as Maxim Kapsokalivi, who lived in Mount Athos - Gregory himself used his instructions, calling Maxim an earthly Angel (Dobrot., part 1). St. Gregory was taught mental prayer by some monk on the island of Cyprus; before meeting this monk, he was engaged exclusively in psalmody (Manuscript Life of St. Gregory the Sinaite). Life and writings of the Moldavian elder Paisius Velichkovsky. Edition of Vvedenskaya Optina Pustyn, 1847 About those who think that they will be justified by works, ch. 34. Philokalia, part 1. St. Isaac the Syrian. Sl. 8th. St. Isaac the Syrian. Sl. 2nd. That is, by the action of Divine grace. Flower garden, Teaching 32. Information about the holy monk Dorotheos is placed in part 1, in the article “Visit to the Valaam Monastery.” It is very rare that a union of mind and heart occurs soon after the beginning of a prayerful feat; usually many years pass between the beginning of the feat and the grace-filled union of the mind with the heart: we must prove the sincerity of our will by constancy and patience. St. Barsanuphius the Great and John the Prophet, answer 325. Ladder, Homily 28, ch. 64. Ladder of the Divine Gifts of the Monk Theophan. Dobrot., part 1., Callistus and Ignatius Xanthopoulos, ch. 5; Kindness, part 2, instructions from Elder Seraphim 11. St. Barsanuphius the Great and John the Prophet answers 264 and 274; Ps. 45, 11. The answers given here were given by Rev. Abba Dorotheus, who, with the blessing of these fathers, was engaged in the unceasing memory of God, that is, the mental Jesus prayer. The fathers bequeathed the Abba not to weaken in this feat, but to sow with hope - answer 263. A word on sobriety, ch. 1,3 and 5. Dobrot., part 2. Blessed Nikephoros, A Word on Sobriety and Guardianship of the Heart. Kindness, part 2. St. Simeon the New Theologian, On the third image of prayer. Dobrot., part 1. The story of the recluse is described in the 1st volume of Ascetic Experiences, in the “Sermon on the Fear of God and the Love of God.” St. Isaac the Syrian, Homily 68th. Ladder, Homily 28, ch. 51. Ladder, Sl. 28, ch. 16, 21 and 27. See the article entitled: “One must sing about the hedgehog.” Dobrot., part 1. St. Isaac the Syrian, Homily 55. About silence in 15 chapters, ch. 2 and 8. Knowledge known about silence and prayer. Oh what a way to get action. About silence. About the hedgehog it is appropriate to say a prayer. About what it is appropriate for a silent person to sit and say prayers. St. Isaac the Syrian, Homily 89. On silence and two types of prayer, in 15 chapters, ch. 14. St. Isaac the Syrian, Homily 78. St. Neil of Sinai. About prayer. Dobrot., part 4, ch. 61. Technical monastic word. Alphabetical Patericon and Memorable Tales of Arseny the Great. Ladder, Word 4, Ch. 121. Venerable Abba Dorotheos. Lesson 10, About walking in the path of God. His Holiness Callistos, Patriarch of Constantinople. An image of attention to prayer. Dobrot., part 4. About the spiritual law. Dobrot., part 1, ch. 4. Preface to the chapters of Blessed Philotheus of Sinai. Letter from Elder Paisius to Elder Theodosius, page 231. Publication of Optina Pustyn, 1847. Word 1, ch. 3. Word 2, ch. 15. On prayer, ch. 139. Kindness, part 4. Ibid., ch. 9, 10, etc. Ibid., ch. 91, 100. Ksanfopulov ch. 73. Kindness, part 2. St. Mark the Ascetic. The Word on the Spiritual Law, ch. 34. Part 2. The Varlaam Schism. Dictionnare Theologique par Bergier, Tome 4, Hesichistes. Encyclopedic Dictionary of Starchevsky. Hesychasts. See the same word in Bergier's Theological Lexicon. Ascetic Experiences, part 1. About the Jesus Prayer, conversation between an elder and a disciple. Preface to the book of St. Gregory the Sinaite. You might be interested in: