Слово 28. О матери добродетелей, священной и блаженной молитве, и о предстоянии в ней умом и телом

1. Prayer, in its quality, is the abiding and union of a person with God; in action, she is the affirmation of the world, reconciliation with God, the mother and at the same time the daughter of tears, propitiation for sins, a bridge for crossing temptations, a wall that protects from sorrows, contrition of battles, the work of Angels, food for all bodiless, future joy, endless work, the source of virtues, the culprit of talents, invisible prosperity, food for the soul, enlightenment of the mind, an ax to despair, an indication hopes, the destruction of sadness, the wealth of monks, the treasure of the silent, the taming of anger, the mirror of spiritual growth, the knowledge of prosperity, the discovery of spiritual dispensation, the forerunner of future reward, the sign of glory. The prayer of the one who truly prays is the court, the judgment seat and the throne of the Judge before the Last Judgment. 2. Let us arise and hear that this sacred queen of virtues calls to us in a high voice and says: “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you... and you will find rest for your souls and healing for your wounds. “My yoke is good” and heals great sins (Matthew 11:28–30). 3. We, who are coming to appear before the King and God, to talk with Him, must not set out on this journey unprepared, so that He, seeing us from afar, not having the weapons and clothing that those who stand before the King should have, does not command His servants and servants to bind us, and cast us far from His face, and tear up our petitions and throw them in our faces. 4. When you go to appear before the Lord, let the whole robe of your soul be woven from threads, or rather, from the pledge of unforgettable malice. If not, then you will not get any benefit from prayer. 5. Let the whole fabric of your prayer be simple; for the publican and the prodigal son propitiated God with one word. 6. Standing in prayer seems to be one thing, but in fact it has many differences and different degrees. Some approach God as a friend, and at the same time their Master, and bring Him song and prayer, no longer for themselves, but for the intercession of their neighbors. Others seek spiritual wealth, glory, and greater boldness. Others beg God to deliver them completely from their rival. Others ask for some dignity. Others beg for complete forgiveness of debts. Some ask for release from prison, while others finally have their sins resolved. 7. First of all, let us depict on the charter of our prayer sincere thanksgiving to God; then confession of sins and contrition of the soul in feeling; After this, let us present our petitions to the King of all. This image of prayer is the best, as one of the brothers was shown by the Angel of the Lord. 8. If you have ever stood before an earthly judge as an accused person, then you do not need to look for another image to stand in prayer. If you yourself have not stood trial and have not seen others being tortured, then at least learn to pray from the example of the sick, as they beg the doctor for mercy when he is preparing to cut or burn their body. 9. Do not use wise expressions in your prayer; for often the simple and unsophisticated babble of children pleased their Heavenly Father. 10. Do not try to be verbose when talking with God, so that your mind is not wasted on finding words. One word of the tax collector appeased God, and one saying, filled with faith, saved the thief. Verbosity during prayer often entertains the mind and fills it with dreams, but monologue usually collects it. 11. If you feel special sweetness or tenderness in any word of the prayer, then dwell on it; for then our Guardian Angel prays with us. 12. Do not be daring, even if you have acquired purity; On the contrary, approach God with the deepest humility, and you will receive greater boldness from Him. 13. Even if you climb the entire ladder of virtues, even then pray for the forgiveness of sins, hearing that St. Paul says about sinners: “I am first of them” (1 Tim. 1:15). 14. Food is usually seasoned with oil and salt: chastity and tears cry out prayer. 15. If you put on perfect meekness and freedom from anger, you will not have to work much to free your mind from captivity. 16. As long as we do not yet have true prayer, we are like those teaching babies to walk 127. 17. Always try to return your wandering thought to yourself, or, better said, conclude it in the words of prayer. If, due to your infancy, she becomes tired and falls into amusement, then again lead her into the words of prayer; for impermanence is characteristic of our mind. But He who is able to establish everything can give constancy to our minds. If you strive unremittingly in this work, then the One who sets the limits of the sea of ​​your mind will come to you, and will say to him in your prayer: “This far you will come and will not pass away” (Job 38:11). It is impossible to bind the spirit; and where the Creator of this spirit is, everything is submissive to Him. 18. If you have ever looked at the Sun, then you can speak to Him as you should; But what you haven’t seen, can you talk to truthfully? 19. The beginning of prayer is to drive away incoming thoughts at their very appearance; the middle of it is that the mind should be contained in the words that we pronounce and think; and the perfection of prayer is admiration to the Lord. 20. A different kind of joy occurs in prayer for one who labors in community life; and other things for the one praying in silence. The first, perhaps, is a little mixed with exaltation, and the latter is all filled with humility. 21. If you constantly train your mind not to move away from you, then it will be near you during meals. If he wanders everywhere without restraint, he will never be with you. Therefore, the great worker of great and perfect prayer says: “I want to speak five words with my mind” (1 Cor. 14:19) and so on. But for infants this is impossible. Therefore, as imperfect beings, we must combine quantitative plurality with the quality of prayer, because the second is the cause of the first. For it is said: Give pure prayer to the one who prays without laziness, even if not purely, but with effort. 22. Another thing is the desecration of prayer, another is the destruction of it, another is theft, and another is the vice of prayer. Desecration of prayer occurs when a person, standing before God, engages in obscene and unclean thoughts. The destruction of prayer, when the mind is captivated by unhelpful concerns. Stealing is when the thought of the person praying unnoticeably floats; and the vice of prayer is the attack of any thought that approaches us during it. 23. If we are not alone during prayer, then we will use the image of inner prayer. If the ministers of praise are not present, then we will add an external image of prayer to the internal prayer; for in the imperfect the mind is often conformed to the body. 24. Everyone, and especially those who approach to ask the Heavenly King for the remission of sinful debt, must have inscrutable contrition. While we are still in prison (of the passions), let us heed the words of Him who said to the Apostle Peter (Acts 12:8): “Girded” with the laziness of obedience, stripped of your own desires, and having been stripped of them, in your prayer approach the Lord, calling only His holy will. Then you will receive God within you, who holds the helm of your soul and comfortably controls you. 25. Having risen from love of peace and voluptuousness, reject cares, put aside your thoughts, renounce your body; for prayer is nothing other than the alienation of the visible and invisible world. “What do we have in heaven?” - Nothing. “And what did You want from the earth?” “Nothing else than to silently cleave to You in prayer. Some are captivated by wealth, others by glory, others by acquisitions: “I desire to cleave to God and place my trust in Him” of my dispassion (Ps. 73:25, 28). 26. Faith opens prayer; and without faith prayer cannot fly to heaven. 27. Passionate! Let us diligently and persistently pray to the Lord; for all the impassive from the passionate state have achieved immortality. 28. If that Judge does not fear God, but instead the soul, widowed by Him through sin and fall, does His work, then He will take vengeance on it from its rival - the body, and from its enemies - evil spirits (Luke 18:2-7). This good Redeemer of ours attracts the prudent to His love by the speedy fulfillment of their request. Ungrateful souls, like dogs, are tormented for a long time by greed and thirst for unfulfilled desires, thus forcing them to remain with Him through prayer; for an ungrateful dog, having received bread, immediately leaves the one who gave it to him. 29. Staying in prayer for a long time and not seeing fruit, do not say: I have not gained anything. For the very stay in prayer is already an acquisition; and what good is greater than this, to cleave to the Lord and remain unceasingly in union with Him? 30. It is not so much the condemned man who fears the pronouncement of his execution as the zealous man of prayer who fears standing before prayer. Therefore, he who is wise and well-skilled, remembering this coming, can turn away from himself all annoyance and anger, care, vain worries, sorrow and satiety and tempting thoughts. 31. By unceasing prayer in your soul, prepare for the coming of your prayer, and you will soon succeed. I saw those shining in obedience, and, as far as possible, not neglecting the memory of God, performed with the mind, who, having stood in prayer, soon mastered the mind and shed streams of tears, because they were prepared by holy obedience. 32. Psalmody in crowds is accompanied by captivity and soaring, but solitary singing is not so much so; but here despondency sets in, and there, from the example of others, zeal is born. 33. The love of a warrior for the king is shown during battle: and the love of a monk for God is revealed during prayer and standing there. 34. Prayer will show your dispensation; for theologians claim that prayer is the mirror of monks. 35. Anyone who, while engaged in any task, continues it even when the hour of prayer has come, is scolded by demons; for this is the intention of these thieves, to steal something else from us at one time. 36. If someone asks you to pray for him, then although you have not yet acquired the gift of prayer, do not deny. For often the faith of the one asking for prayer will save the one who prays for him with contrition of heart. 37. Do not be proud when you prayed for others and were heard; for it was their faith that worked and accomplished them. 38. Every day the teacher, without fail, demands from every youth that he give an answer to everything that he has learned from him: and from every mind God demands in every prayer that he show the power that he has received from him. So you must pay attention. When you pray soberly, you will soon struggle with anger; for our enemies usually do this. 39. We must always perform every virtue, but especially prayer, with much feeling; and the soul then prays with feeling when it is above irritability. 40. What is acquired through many prayers and years becomes firm and durable. 41. He who has acquired the Lord will no longer say his word in prayer; for the Holy Spirit then prays for him and in him, with “groanings that cannot be uttered” (Rom. 8:26). 42. During prayer, do not engage in any sensual daydreaming, so as not to fall into a frenzy of mind. 43. We receive notification that our request has been heard by God during prayer. Notification is the removal of doubt; notification is a reliable announcement of the unknown. 44. Practicing diligently in prayer, be merciful; for through this virtue the monks will receive a hundredfold in the present century, and in the future - eternal life. 45. Fire, having come to the heart, resurrects prayer; after her resurrection and ascension to heaven, there is a descent of fire into the upper room of the soul. 46. ​​Some say that prayer is better than the memory of death; I glorify two beings in one person. 47. A good horse, the longer it runs, the hotter it becomes and speeds up its run. By running I mean psalmody, and the horse is a courageous mind. Such a one anticipates warfare from afar, and, being prepared for it, remains completely invincible. 48. It is a cruel thing to take water from the mouth of a thirsty person; but it is even more cruel for the soul praying with tenderness to tear itself away from this much-desired task before performing the prayer. 49. Do not leave prayer until you see that its fire and the water of tears have providentially departed from you. Perhaps in your entire life you will not receive such time for the forgiveness of sins. 50. He who tastes prayer often defiles the mind by uttering one word; and then standing up to pray, he does not find what he desired that he found before. 51. Another way is to diligently guard your heart with your mind; and another to be a bishop of the heart through the mind, as a leader and as a bishop, offering verbal sacrifices to Christ 128. Holy and heavenly fire, as one of those who received the title of Theologian says, entering the first souls, scorches it due to lack of purification; and enlightens the second, according to perfection; for the same fire is called both a consuming fire and an illuminating light. Therefore, some depart from prayer as if coming from a fiery furnace, feeling relief from some impurity and substance; and others - as enlightened by the light and clothed in a pure robe of humility and joy. Those who come from prayer without either of these two actions prayed physically, not to say in the Jewish way, and not spiritually. 52. If a body, touching another body, changes in its actions, then how will the one who touches the body of God with innocent hands not change? 53. In our All-Good King one can see actions similar to the actions of an earthly king, who sometimes himself distributes gifts to his soldiers, sometimes through a friend, sometimes through a slave, and sometimes in an unknown way. All this happens, depending on the clothing of our humility. 54. Just as an earthly king is disgusted by someone who, standing before him, turns his face away from him and converses with the enemies of his ruler, so he who stands in prayer and entertains unclean thoughts is also disgusting to the Lord. 55. Drive away this dog that comes to you with the weapon of prayer, and no matter how much he continues to be shameless, do not give in to him. 56. Ask with weeping, seek with obedience, answer with patience. Thus, “if you ask, he will receive, and if you seek, the door will be opened to him who interprets” (Matthew 7:8). 57. Beware of praying indiscriminately for the female sex, lest you be robbed from the right side. 58. When confessing your sins to the Lord, do not go into the details of carnal deeds, how they happened, so that you do not become a slanderer to yourself. 59. During prayer, do not even consider necessary and spiritual things. If not, you will lose the best. 60. He who continually leans on the rod of prayer will not stumble: and even if this happened, he will not fall at all. For prayer is a godly prompting of God (Luke 18:5). 61. We learn the benefits of prayer from the obstacles that demons give us during church meetings; and its fruit comes from the defeat of our enemies. “In this I know,” says the Psalmist, “that you have desired me, that in the time of battle my enemy will not rejoice over me” (Ps. 40:12); and also “I cried with all my heart” (Ps. 119:145), that is, with body and soul and spirit. “For where the last two are gathered,... there God is in the midst of them” (Matthew 18:20). 62. Both the physical and spiritual structure are not the same for everyone; and for some, fast psalmody is appropriate, while for others it is slow; for the former struggle against captivity of thoughts, and the latter against lack of training. 63. If you constantly pray to the Heavenly King against your enemies in all their attacks, then be reliable: you will work a little. For they themselves will soon retreat from you, because these unclean ones do not want to see you receive crowns through prayer for fighting with them, and moreover, scorched by prayer like fire, they will be forced to flee. 64. Be courageous in all cases, and God Himself will be your teacher in prayer. You cannot learn vision in words, for it is a natural ability; Likewise, the beauty of prayer cannot be learned from teaching alone. For in itself it has a teacher - God, “who teaches man understanding,” “who gives prayer to those who pray and blesses the lives of the righteous” (Ps. 93:10; 1 Sam. 2:9). Just as one who teaches a child to walk, when he walks a little and falls, again lifts him up and teaches him to walk further, so we, when our mind in prayer falls away from looking at God, must again correct and restore it until it acquires the firmness of standing. (PG 88, p. 1141.) Another thing is to diligently guard your heart with your mind, that is, to know yourself and observe yourself. And it is another thing to be a bishop and a ruler over the passions, which is much higher than the first. The mind is the boss when it manages and directs well what is in it and what is around it, that is, the spiritual forces and bodily feelings. A bishop, when through prayer he brings a pure and immaculate mind to God’s altar. It’s the boss’s job to watch from the outside. It is the job of the bishop to constantly observe both outside and inside. (PG 88, p. 1145.) It’s different when the mind, like a boss guarding his country and place, guards the heart and holds back, drives away and mortifies its evil desires. And otherwise, when he, like a bishop, sanctifies and sacrifices his heart to God with all its movements; for it is much higher and holier to offer to God all the actions and deeds of the heart than to hold back passions and evil desires. (Modern Greek translation of “The Ladder” by Athanasius of Crete, p. 466.) You might be interested in: