О подвиге чистой молитвы и о ее плодах

We have often said that fulfilling the Divine commandments cleanses the soul of passions and helps pure prayer. Man's feelings are driven by external actions, but when a person turns inward, the passions are pacified and we rise to the spiritual. Those who really pray must be undistracted, must cut off their connection with worldly things. Under these conditions they will be able to achieve pure prayer without distractions. When we are consumed by an inner thirst for the acquisition of pure prayer, we need the work that comes from fasting and vigil. In this way, the sinful inclination of the body is mortified, and the thoughts that inflame passions become weaker. This struggle first leads to sacred tenderness. It makes God sensitive, like a loving Father, and responsive to the request of a praying person. According to the holy psalmist David, “God will not despise a broken and humble heart” (Ps. 50:19). And according to Saint Gregory the Theologian, “God is revered by nothing else so much as by enduring adversity.” Therefore, the Lord taught in the Gospel that prayer accompanied by fasting will bear great fruit. People usually enjoy being busy with vain things, and they are completely ignorant of prayer. However, those who have been rewarded with a thirst for prayer know that this struggle is not an imaginary effort or a short-term phenomenon. People who thirst for prayer know from their own experience that prayer gives a person endless energy, which comes from Divine grace rooted in the soul. A miracle occurs in a person, the feeling of prayer as a source that gives birth to sacred joy. Prayer attracts the mind to itself, removes it from multiform and material fantasies, helps it remain indifferent to everything carnal, which, moving from pleasures to thoughts, attracts a person to passionate pleasure. A person who fights for pure prayer feels how his soul casts off evil carnal lusts and, together with his soul, ascends upward. From this struggle the whole person becomes a spirit, according to what is written: “He who is born of the Spirit is spirit” (John 3:6). Experience shows the reality of everything said above. True prayer to God, together with the unceasing memory of God, finds a favorable place in the soul to receive the grace of the Holy Spirit. The Lord says that His Father “will give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him day and night” (Luke 11:13). Saint John Climacus says that “the end of prayer is rapture to the Lord.” Saint Isaac the Syrian calls enlightenment the fruit of prayer: “Prayer is purity of mind, through which the Light of the Holy Trinity miraculously passes.” The power of prayer is sacred and makes a person’s aspiration to God and union with Him perfect. Prayer is like a connecting link between intelligent creatures and the Creator. Through fervent prayer, a person overcomes passions and thoughts. After all, it is impossible for a passionate mind to connect with God. It is this struggle that is the greatest work of prayer. In comparison with this work, any other work for the acquisition of other virtues will turn out to be small and not exceeding human strength. That is why many, despairing of the narrow path of virtue that is acquired by prayer, abandon this work and are not rewarded with the breadth of its gifts. Those who do not give up the struggle for prayer accept the greatest Divine help and move forward, tasting the joy and sweetness of prayer. This prayer experience gradually makes the work of prayer easier and makes a person like the angels. The experience of prayer strengthens our nature and gives a person the confidence that he is communicating with something that transcends visible human reality. This is the nature of prayer, which elevates a person from earth to Heaven and places him before God Himself and the Creator of all. She takes him to the place where a bloodless, great and truly favorable sacrifice of atonement for the sins of the world is offered to God. The Lord encourages a person to pray alone. Such prayer strengthens the general prayer that is performed in the Church. Anyone who wants to pray only when he comes to the church of God, but at the same time is completely negligent about prayer at home, or on the road, or among the crowd, does not really pray even when he is in the church of God. However, if, before any task that we have to do during the day, we protect our soul with hymns to God and prayers, then the enemy of our salvation will not find a place for himself in us. He will leave and take with him his entire evil gang that is present and tormenting us. If we pray daily, God will adorn our souls, filling them with harmony and chastity, righteousness, meekness and humility. He gives us the grace to be united in love with one another. We will then live a peaceful and blessed life, having among us the King of peace - Christ. It is for this reason that the Church of God every morning, before any other business, calls Christians with the ringing of bells to sacred meetings of prayer. After all, daily conversation with God through prayer and church chants calms worldly passions, restrains the desire for enrichment, dulls our selfishness and abolishes envy. The daily prayer of the Church grants all peace, just government and prosperity to cities, homes, souls and bodies. The grace of prayer blesses both those living in marriage and those leading monastic life. And in general, prayer is the basis and reliability of all blessings, victory over all evil and liberation from all obstacles.