Поучение 2-е в неделю мытаря и фарисея. О молитве и покаянии

The Gospel being read today depicts the prayer of a publican, which attracted God’s mercy to him. This prayer consisted of the following few words: “God, be merciful to me a sinner” (Luke 18:13). It is worthy of attention that such a short prayer was heard by God, and that it was said in the church during public worship, during the reading and singing of psalms and other prayers. This prayer is approved by the Gospel, set forth as a model of prayer: pious consideration of it becomes our sacred duty. Why did the publican not choose any majestic and touching psalm to pour out his heart before God, but turned to such a short prayer, and repeated it alone during the entire Divine Service? We answer, borrowing the answer from the Holy Fathers 14. “When true repentance festers in the soul, when humility and contrition of spirit appear in it due to the sinfulness that has been revealed to its eyes, then verbosity becomes unusual and impossible for it.” Concentrating within herself, directing all her attention to her plight, she begins to cry out to God with some brief prayer. The spectacle of sinfulness is vast when it is presented to man by God: it is indescribable in its eloquence and verbosity; more precisely, it depicts his sighing and groaning of the soul, clothed in the shortest and simplest words. Anyone who wants to reveal a deep feeling of repentance in himself uses a short prayer as a tool to achieve such a state, pronouncing it with all possible attention and reverence. Abandoning many words, even though they are holy, helps the mind to completely free itself from entertainment, and with all its strength to strive towards self-perception. "In your prayer, do not allow yourself to be verbose, said St. John Climacus, so that your mind does not deviate from considering words. One word of a publican appeased God, and one true saying saved the thief. Verbosity in prayer often leads the mind to distraction and daydreaming, and short words usually collect it" 15. Due to the greatest benefit delivered by short, attentive, concentrated prayer, the Holy Church bequeaths to her children the timely need to learn some short prayer. Anyone who has learned such prayer has a ready-made prayer book in every place and at every time. And while traveling, and sitting at a meal, and doing handicrafts, and being in human society, he can cry out to God. If it is impossible to pray with your lips, it is possible to pray with your mind. In this regard, the convenience of short prayer is obvious: when practicing, it is very easy to lose the meaning and consistency of long prayers; but the short prayer is always preserved intact. After leaving it for a while, you can return to it again without any difficulty. Even during Divine services, it is useful to repeat a short prayer in the spiritual cell: it not only does not interfere with attention to the prayers read and sung in the church of God, but also promotes especially careful attention to them, keeping the mind from being distracted. If the mind is not kept in self-contemplation by short prayer, filling the soul with a feeling of repentance, then it will easily succumb to absent-mindedness; During the Divine service, ignoring church reading and singing, he will deviate into empty thoughts and dreams. This happened to the Pharisee mentioned today, who superficially listened to the divine service and was carried away by sinful thoughts. Sinful thoughts not only deprived his prayer, which was already weak, of all dignity, but also turned it into a reason for condemning the one who prayed. The Pharisee’s prayer was rejected by God: the Pharisee left the church sealed with the seal of God’s wrath, not understanding or feeling his spiritual distress for the reason that his heart, being dead to repentance, was filled with self-righteousness and self-delusion. When praying with a short prayer turns into a habit from frequent and constant use, then it becomes as if natural to a person. When listening attentively to something that particularly interests us, we make various exclamations that not only do not interfere with attention, but also aggravate it: in the same way, having acquired the skill of short prayer, we express through it our sympathy and attention to the prayers and psalmody we hear. Throughout the entire Holy Pentecost, during all services, the prayer is often repeated publicly for all those present in the church: “God! cleanse me, a sinner.” Why is this such frequent repetition of the same prayer? So that we learn to repeat it often. For the same purpose, another short prayer is often repeated: “Lord have mercy.” The Savior of the world, who approved the prayer of the publican, subsequently allowed and granted us to pray in His all-holy name. Prayer in the name of the Lord Jesus and by His name, and as established by Him, is called the Jesus Prayer. Under the reign of the Old Testament, man turned to God, whom he did not yet know definitely; upon the advent of the reign of another in the New Testament, man, in addition to the previous conversion, is given the opportunity to turn to the God-man, as an intercessor between God and men, as such an intercessor in whom the Divinity is united with humanity, as such an intercessor who explained God to people with the detail and completeness possible for human comprehension, who confessed God (John I, 18). The Old Testament prayer “God, be merciful to me a sinner” (Luke 18:13) is equivalent to the New Testament prayer “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner.” The Old Testament servants of God used the first prayer; The New Testament, using the first, most use the second, because it pleased the God-man to combine with his human name a special miraculous spiritual power. For constant prayer, the prayer “Lord have mercy” is also used. It is an abbreviated Jesus Prayer and replaces it in those cases when saying the whole Jesus Prayer becomes difficult somehow: during fright, during unexpected joy, during a serious illness, during a spiritual vision. In the latter case, the exclamation “Lord have mercy” serves as an echo for the mind to those gracious understandings that appear to him after his purification, exceed his comprehension and cannot be expressed in words 16. What is the meaning of the verb “have mercy” or “be merciful” in all these prayers? This is a person’s consciousness of his destruction; this is a feeling of that mercy, that self-pity that the Lord commanded us to feel for ourselves, and which is felt by very few; it is a denial of one's own dignity; this is a request for God’s mercy, without which there is no hope of salvation for the lost. "The mercy of God is nothing other than the grace of the All-Holy Spirit; we sinners must constantly, relentlessly ask for it from God. Have mercy, my Lord, on my distressed state, into which I have fallen, having been deprived of Thy grace, and again establish Thy grace in me. “With the sovereign Spirit" (Psalm L, 14), strengthen with the Spirit of Thy strength me, so that I can resist the temptations inflicted by the devil, and the temptations arising from my fallen nature. Send me the Spirit of chastity, so that I may arise from the state of insanity in which I am, and correct my moral steps (Psalm IX, 14). Grant me the Spirit of Thy fear, so that I may fear You, as befits the weakest creature to fear the great God, its Creator, so that, because of my reverence for You, I may sacredly keep Your commandments. Plant love for You in my heart, so that I will no longer be separated from You, so that I will not be carried away by an irresistible attraction to vile sin. Grant me Thy peace, so that it may keep my soul in unshakable peace, and not allow my thoughts to wander around the universe unnecessarily to my detriment, to confuse me, so that it will concentrate them into self-contemplation and from there lift them up to Thy throne. Grant me the Spirit of meekness, so that I may refrain from anger and malice, and be constantly filled with kindness towards my brethren. Grant me the Spirit of humility, so that I do not become arrogant, do not dream about myself, do not seek human praise and glory, but remember that I am earth and ashes, a fallen being, cast down to the earth because of my unworthiness, destined to be removed from the body and this world by death, destined to be presented to Thy terrible and impartial judgment 17 . “God, be merciful to me, a sinner! Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me! Lord have mercy!” Many say these short prayers with the greatest haste, caring only about fulfilling the prescribed number of them. In this way, they do not allow prayer to penetrate the heart and produce its characteristic effect, which consists in tenderness. The Holy Fathers rightly note that those who pray in this way pray to the air, and not to God 18 . Why are we bored in the church of God? Because they did not feel the effect of prayer. Why do we rush to a full table? Because we know from experience the meaning of material food. Why don’t we rush to the church of God, but try to come to it later, when a significant part of the Divine service has already been celebrated? Because we do not know experimentally the meaning of prayer, which serves as food for the soul, which imparts spiritual strength to the soul. We do not know experimentally the meaning of prayer because we pray hastily, superficially, without attention. The effect on the soul of prolonged but inattentive prayer is similar to the effect of heavy rain on an iron roof, from which all the water runs off, no matter how much it spills, without producing any effect on the roof. On the contrary, attentive prayer can be likened to beneficial rain, irrigating a sown field, giving nourishment to the plants, and preparing a rich harvest. Correcting an important error that deprives the ascetic of prayer of all the fruit of his deed, students and confidantes of holy prayer, the Holy Fathers command to pronounce the words of both short prayers and all prayers in general with particular leisureliness, observing the most careful attention to the words of the prayer 19 . When reading prayers slowly, such attention is possible; There is no room for attention when reading hastily. Prayer devoid of attention is devoid of its essence, devoid of life. Then it becomes like a body abandoned by the soul: it is not fragrant with humility, it does not ascend to God; struck and killed by absent-mindedness, she crawls in earthly decay and stench, communicating them to the praying person carelessly and coldly. The attention of the mind during prayer is reflected in the heart by blissful sadness for sins, which is repentance commanded by God. When the heart is filled with a feeling of repentance, then it, in turn, attracts the mind to special attention. Following attention and tenderness, all the gifts of the Holy Spirit enter the soul, making it the church of God. Let us give our prayer two properties: attention and repentance. With them, like two wings, may she fly to heaven, may she appear before the face of God, may she grant us mercy. The prayer of the blessed publican had these two properties. Imbued with the consciousness of his sinfulness, he did not find in his deeds any hope of receiving salvation, he saw this hope in the sole mercy of God, calling all sinners to repentance, and granting salvation for one repentance. As a sinner who has no good of his own, the publican took the last place in the church; as a sinner unworthy of heaven, he did not dare to raise his eyes to heaven. He directed them to the ground, and, striking his heart with repentance, from the depths of his heart, with all his soul he uttered a prayer combined with confession: “God, be merciful to me, a sinner.” The prayer was so effective and powerful that the sinner left the church of God justified. The Lord, the Savior of men, who knew the heart, witnessed this, and the prophecy of the Prophet came true over the repentant sinner: “The Lord of Zion will build up the human soul, destroyed by the fall, and will appear in His glory. Consider the prayer of the humble, and do not despise their prayers. May this be written for the sake of the whole race, may it be written for the knowledge of all mankind, may it be written for the knowledge of the entire Christian tribe and posterity! And people, guided by repentance and attentive prayer, having felt their renewal by Divine grace, will praise the Lord” (Psalm 101:17-19), who was pleased to accept humanity and save people with His wondrous vision and His wondrous teaching. Amen. Saint Tikhon of Voronezh. T. 14th, letter 4th. Saint Peter of Damascus. About the seven mental visions, article: “dividing the prayer of all minds.” Book 1, Philokalia, part 3. Borrowed from the interpretation of the prayer “Lord have mercy” by Elder Paisius Nyametsky. Writings of Elder Paisius. Ed. Optina is empty. 1847. Venerable Nilus of Sorsky. Preface to the Tradition. "Wait a little (silently) until all your feelings have calmed down. Then create the beginning without haste, without laziness, with tenderness and a contrite heart, saying this: Blessed is the man, etc. quietly and rationally, with attention, and not struggling (slowly): just as the mind understands the verb." Instructions before reading the Psalter. 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