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1. In the morning we must establish ourselves in attention to God
Try to do this: in the morning, during your prayer rule, try to establish your attention before God so that then you can be before Him all day, no matter what happens. If you settle down like this and begin to contemplate the Lord before you with the prophet, with the corresponding feelings, of course, then you will pray unceasingly. And then you won’t be bored (8, p. 4).
2. Prayerful warmth does not come without difficulty. Desired pain in the heart
Whether the Jesus Prayer or some other short prayer is a good thing if it sticks on the tongue. Just take care not to pay attention in your head, but in your heart, and do so not only while standing in prayer, but at all times. Try to create some kind of sore in your heart... Constant work will soon do this... There is nothing special here. This is a natural thing (that the sore will appear). But this will also make you more focused. And the main thing is that the Lord, seeing the work, then grants His grace-filled prayer. Then their own order will come to the heart (8, p. 14).
3. About boredom and reluctance to pray
The fact that you had to stay at home all the time could be turned into something beneficial for your soul. If you didn’t pay attention, it’s your own fault that the time passed was boring. How can you be bored with the Lord? And how can one even desire any entertainment?
And don't pray. It means they were angry with the Lord... or self-satisfaction took over. Full! And you don’t want to ask (8, p. 38).
4. Family prayer and reading
A picture of your home common prayer needs to be drawn. Good!
May God grant you to compose it more often. Angels look at her and rejoice.
You get bored in the evenings. There would be readings and stories. Whoever comes across something good, let him offer: if you want, I’ll read it to you... and let him read it better, more enthusiastically. But it’s better to invent good, edifying stories yourself... and the time will pass in an entertaining way (8, pp. 52–53).
You did well to take communion and give the baby communion. It is not unexcusable that prayers were not read when the opportunity was lacking. Omitting reading can always be rewarded by turning to God in prayer and, if possible, with bows, so that God will bless this action of prayer, with contrition and faith - the main thing, and reading what has been received is only a means to this (8, pp. 80-81).
6. About prayer without bowing
If your head prevents you from bowing, pray without bowing: bowing is an accessory to prayer that helps, and not the prayer itself. Prayer is what the mind and heart have towards God. Bow occasionally. When praying, stand on your feet, then on your knees. If you say the Jesus Prayer, then start not with 3000, but with 1000 and even 500 - and then add. Don't go beyond 3000. Will there be a need? But it’s better to do everything at once - and at night. During the day, so alternately... it doesn’t count to often do the same prayer (8, pp. 92–93).
7. About the proper execution of the Jesus Prayer and its fruits
If your heart warms up when reading ordinary prayers, then in this way kindle the warmth of your heart towards God. The Jesus Prayer, if done mechanically, gives nothing, like any other prayer that is only spoken with the tongue.
During the Jesus Prayer, try to think more vividly that the Lord Himself is near and present to your soul and is listening to what is happening in it. At the same time, awaken in your soul a thirst for salvation and the confidence that, except for the Lord, we have nowhere to expect salvation from. Then cry out to Him, mentally visible before you: G.I.H.S.B.p.n. [Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on us. – Ed.] or: Gracious Lord, save me, in the image of fate. It’s not a matter of words at all, but of feelings for the Lord.
The spiritual burning of the heart towards the Lord is love for Him. It lights up at the touch of the Lord on the heart. Since He is all love, His touch on the heart immediately kindles love for Him. And from love - the burning of the heart towards Him. This is what you should be looking for. The creation of the Jesus Prayer is only a tool for this, or, better, only a work that shows the strong desire of the soul to find the Lord.
Let there be the Jesus Prayer on your tongue, in your mind - contemplation of the Lord before you, in your heart - a thirst for God or communication with the Lord. When all this is constant, then the Lord, seeing how you force yourself, will give you what you ask for (8, pp. 93–94).
When I wrote to you to pray more at night, I meant prayer before going to bed; and when you wake up - and pray while lying down, this is not a bad thing, but a good replacement for empty dreams, in the intervals of sleep. It is good to know a few psalms by heart so that you can read them at this time (8, p. 124).
9. Prayer never fails for God
Prayer will never be in vain, whether the Lord grants the request or not. Out of ignorance, we often ask for unhelpful and harmful things. Without doing this, God will give us something else for our prayer work, unbeknownst to us. That’s why the speech: “So you pray to God - but what did you get?” - clueless. The person praying asks for a benefit for himself, pointing to it. Seeing that what is asked will not lead to good, God does not fulfill the request and thereby creates good, for if he did, it would be bad for the petitioner (8, p. 146).
10. An important obstacle to the acceptance of prayer help
No success, you say. And it won’t happen as long as there is self-indulgence and self-pity. Self-pity and self-indulgence directly indicate that I, and not the Lord, predominates in the heart. Self-love is the sin living in us, from which all sinfulness comes and which makes the whole person sinful - from head to toe, as long as it takes place in the soul. And when the whole person is sinful, how will grace come to him? It will not come, just as a bee will not go where there is smoke (8, p. 190).
The presence of self-love is a sign that the first decision to work for the Lord was formed incompletely and unsuccessfully. This decision has two ends: one - let him deny himself... and the second - let him come after Me. The first requires the complete suppression of egoism or pride and, therefore, the prevention of self-indulgence and self-pity: neither great nor small. Consequently, in whomever they are, the solution was not complete.
Such a decision makes a person similar to those persons about whom the Apocalypse says: neither warm, nor cold... neither this nor that. I want to be saved, but self-resistance is not allowed... God and mammon cannot work (8, pp. 190–191).
You write to ask me to pray to deliver you from self-indulgence. What should we pray about? God won't hear. He hears prayer only for those who are not self-pleasing. And God hears the person himself - everyone only when he does not suffer from these firstborn daughters of sin. For lack of self-pity and self-indulgence, the Lord only gives grace and prosperity. He does not give them himself, but demands that the person himself take them - as a deposit that he should be shown mercy (8, p. 191).
11. Means to achieve mental prayer
They wanted to learn mental prayer. Good! What kind of prayer did you have before?! Prayer is essentially a mental action, and if you didn’t pray smartly, then you didn’t pray at all. And I will tell you that there is no one who does not pray intelligently. Everyone is praying smartly. When everyone prays, they mentally imagine God as present and express their needs to Him. Even though they read prayers, everyone tries to mentally ascend to God. If anything should be said, it is that they do this not perfectly, not continuously, even during prayer, and most importantly - without feelings. Thus, your desire will be: how to achieve perfection in prayer, raised intelligently to God? – The answer to this is: seek and you will find (8, pp. 194–195).
How did you learn to write?! The labor of writing with the desire to write correctly according to samples. Do the same in prayer and you will learn. She won’t come on her own: she needs to study.
1. Learn to walk in the presence of God, before the eyes of God with the corresponding feelings.
2. As soon as there is freedom, bow down in feelings of contrition and humility.
3. Read books all about prayer and meditate on it.
4. Above all, try with all your might to conduct church services in the memory of God, and then conduct home rule.
You need to rub your soul and it will warm you up.
When the warmth comes, then the thoughts will subside - and the prayer will become pure. Still by the grace of God. That’s why we need to pray to the Lord to give us prayer (8, p. 195).
12. You shouldn’t bind yourself to special rules.
I can’t give you a rule. What's the rule?! Just do one thing and that’s it. Let me just add to this: very few things upset and weaken the effect of attention to God - remove them without pity. Do only what helps to retain and strengthen it. To this end, direct reading, meditation, and bowing...
If one activity does not nourish prayer, you need to leave it and take up another. For example, they unfolded the book and began to read - it didn’t work. Leave it, take another. If that one doesn’t come, take the third one... If this one doesn’t come either, stop reading and bow down or meditate. You must have handicrafts that do not distract your attention. The ancient Egyptians sat at their needlework all day long, not giving it up even when someone came. From time to time they only bowed. The main prayer was performed at night. One says: pray in the evening for two hours, then sleep for six hours, and then get up and pray until light...
Rules are needed for those entering the monastery, so that they become accustomed to monastic activities or activities. Then, when they reach certain internal sensations and especially warmth of the heart, they don’t strictly need rules. In general, one should not be attached to the rules, but be free in relation to them, with one intention, no matter how reverent attention to God does not depart...
When it comes to eating, reduce your nutrition a little, and also take away something from sleep. How it is - see for yourself. You don’t need to bind yourself, but act freely: sometimes this way, sometimes that way, keeping one thing in mind - not to please the flesh and not to be self-pleasing in anything. And you can also sleep or stay awake in different ways, having one measure: do not fall asleep soundly (8, pp. 195–197).
13. Means for maintaining spiritual warmth
The warmth of the heart that you write about is a good state. And we must guard and support it. When it weakens, warm it up - just as you do: gather stronger inside and cry out to the Lord. In order not to move away, we must avoid scattering thoughts and impressions on feelings that do not agree with this state, avoid letting the heart rest on anything visible (not only bad things, but everything in general) and no concern absorbing all attention. May there be constant attention to God and unrelenting tension in the body - in order, like a soldier in formation. The main thing is to pray to the Lord to extend this mercy (8, pp. 199–200).
14. Signs and method of acquiring grace-filled warmth in the heart
The first fruit of God's warmth is the collection of thoughts together and their persistent aspiration towards God. The same thing happens here as with bleeding. The woman’s blood flow has stopped, but here the flow of thoughts stops. What is needed? Holding your natural warmth, do not impute it to anything, but only honor it as a preparation for God’s warmth; then to be sick about the poverty of God’s action in the heart and in illness to pray to the Lord unceasingly: be merciful! - Do not turn away Your face! - Enlighten Your face! This can be aggravated by physical deprivations... in food, sleep, work and the like. Nevertheless, the matter must be handed over to God (8, pp. 201–202).
15. Prayer is a painful approach to God in contrition and humility
Prayer is a painful approach to God in contrition and humility. She can, they say, without bowing. For example, out of need, in the presence of others, on the way; For the most part, she is inseparable from bows.
Bowing is a trace of inner prayer (11, p. 7).
The Lord alone is the conqueror of all our infirmities, and His power can only be received through prayer. She is the source of everything and all prosperity. Through it, walking before the Lord is sought and acquired. This action is very simple. To stand intelligently before God, as one stands before the Emperor, in reverent fear, without taking one’s eyes off Him—that’s all. A clear conscience before the Lord and people is a condition for this. And the external order of life must be adjusted so that there is no entertainment. Go to God's church; read the writings of the fathers about attention and sobriety; to run away from bodily peace, to trouble the flesh a little, but for the sake of the Lord. Most of all, pray to the Lord to grant this strength. With the skill of walking before God, the cleaning of the heart, feelings, desires, and thoughts will begin; and before that time there was great turmoil in your soul... Have you ever had a warm prayer, in which everything fled from attention, and only the Lord and a cry to Him from the heart remained?.. If it happened, then this state is the unceasing state of those who walk before God. Little by little they reach...
and there is no end to the degrees, but those who are zealous for spiritual success come. You just need to take it up with jealousy. Work hard and don’t give up, but what’s the use of getting lost in vanity?! What good is it to build with one hand and destroy with the other? One labor - and not for the future. May the Lord give you understanding, pray (11, p. 8)!
Glory to Thee, Lord! How I rejoiced at your concern over prayer. It was your Guardian Angel who alarmed you, so that you would know that you need to pray and read. After all, there is no verbosity in our prayers. It all says the same thing: Lord, have mercy, only in different turns, for the sake of our weakness. Where do we go for Macarius of Egypt! In the states of grace that he portrays from his own experience, he would not even look at the light, he would huddle somewhere in a corner and melt there with tenderness in the fire of God and in the light. Only love for his brothers called him to reason with one, to console another. How did he get to this point? Have you really started straight into a short prayer? No, prayer is not given for free. The saints of God seemed to be praying a short prayer, or better yet, a prayer without words. But this is not because they did not want to read prayers, but because the inner power of prayer tied the tongue and they stood before God and stood for a long time, at night and during the day, without leaving their place, without getting tired and without feeling the need for sleep and food...
If, imitating them, we begin to adhere to their rule of not saying much (in prayer), then we must imitate their example - stand for a long time with a short prayer. Where should we stand? When there are many prayers, we still stand; since the prayer book is not in your hands, then bow, another, and that’s enough.
In order to lure and keep us in prayer, our mother, the Church, who cares for us, ordered us to read various prayers with attention and contrition. But she has a rule for those who are successful in spiritual life: as soon as the heart warms up in prayer and does not want words, stop reading and pray with your heart. This is the beginning of prayer.
When the Lord sends you such a prayer, cherish it and stop reading, just note that the tongue must be tied from within, not to stop the prayer, but only to pray with deep, collected warmth to God, contritely and humbly falling down and sighing about your all-repentance. Now with our prayer we are still doing God a favor. It is necessary to ensure that she is recognized as insignificant, and then as a sinner; then, during prayer, be sinners yourself and stand there as if at a trial. God is always our Judge, but the soul is not well aware of this and gives itself the courage to appear righteous before Him. The Lord is merciful and patient: if only she would come like this (11, pp. 8–10).
Prayer is definitely the main thing. She is our path to God; everything else is an aid to this. I will only say that a little preparation needs to be done before praying. Do not suddenly approach the Lord; you need to dress up spiritually, as they do when they go to the king; think at least a little about yourself and about God before that. Who are we and who is the One with whom we want to talk? What do we need and by what right do we dare to ask for what we need? And the like. The main thing is to put yourself in self-abasement in the presence of God and speak, as it were, into His ears, simply, like a child. How good it is to bow, how good it is to stand in line, without lazily and carelessly loosening your limbs and keeping them all in a certain tension (11, pp. 11–12).
Now unfolded St. Isaac the Syrian - this only teacher of sober life. Wherever you are, take this book with you. I started reading, and the first lines are just what you need. See what praise there is for those who see the Lord in their hearts (Word 8): “He who always thinks about God drives away demons from himself and eradicates the seed of their malice. He who watches over his soul hourly will have his heart magnified by revelations. He who concentrates the vision of his mind within himself sees the spiritual dawn within himself. He who abhors all wanderings of the mind sees his Lord within his heart.”
Here's about. Seraphim stood before the Lord all his life and burned like a candle. So are all the others. But weren't they people? And is their purpose different from ours? Your life is hidden with Christ in God 115 (Col. 3:3). The apostle said this about everyone. And he does not say that he must be hidden, but that he is hidden, in order to show that a Christian is hidden with his whole being in God, through our Lord Jesus Christ. And the word of the Apostle: pray without ceasing (1 Thess. 5:17) - to whom does it apply?.. To only the chosen ones or to everyone without exception? - Yes! To everyone... It has become, and this commandment must be fulfilled (11, pp. 27–28).
May the Lord strengthen you in your zeal to pray and pray. Pray not because it feels good, but because you have to. Most of all, get used to the Jesus Prayer. Let him force it on his tongue so that he consciously and unconsciously repeats it. This is not sudden. I don’t think you have taken on this work yet. It's hard the first time. But conquer yourself. Help you, Lord (11, pp. 31–32)!
The work of prayer consists of this: with the mind in the heart before the Lord, to contemplate the Lord, to walk before His face, ascending to Him and falling before Him in self-abasement, constantly: sitting, walking, and talking. Is it difficult? Yes, it's not easy. This is why this is called prayerful work. And others say that it’s easy... And when they hear about this, they immediately think: oh, that’s okay, I’ll do it that way. There is no need to bow, or read prayers, or go to church, or any other physical labor during prayer. The mind and heart are in my hands. I will pray with them. Good hour! - So they begin. But the mind runs away and dreams, the heart blesses - and nothing comes of it. No. When doing good work, the work of prayerful feat is necessary, physically performed with attention, with mind and heart. And God, seeing this work, will give a heartfelt, light, sweet prayer that delights everything. Be inspired by patience and force yourself to work. What you say about the disintegration of the body is what Isaac the Syrian calls the rest of the body, and he attributes a lot of evil to it. It is true. Have you ever seen an electric car?
If the circuit from the cylinder is connected to the ground, then no matter how much you turn the wheel, the electricity will not be noticeable - everything will go into the ground. The same enemy is the rest of the body.
Drive him away. Get angry with the body and torture it a little. Pray about this - and the Lord will help. And there is a lot of evil in this peace (11, pp. 33–34).
Your time is only when you are in your room. Try to distribute it so that it all belongs to the Lord, especially the morning hours... from waking up to 12 o'clock. Place your morning prayer here. As soon as you wake up, get up. Don't spare your body. If it wants to please, get angry and drive yourself out of bed. It would be good if you could go to prayer right away, so that everyone would think that you are still sleeping. You already know that bows are touching. Yes, bowing is a very important thing. We need to start with them - three, five, ten... until the heart warms up; for when asleep it is always sluggish and cold. Then read the morning prayers slowly, with attention, with the Lord before you, accompany the reading with bows from the waist or to the ground, depending on the movement of the heart; but the more often, the better... Conclude the reading again with bows, praying to the Lord for what you feel you need, until your heart is satisfied. Determine the number of bows, if necessary, for yourself, otherwise, as much as your heart desires... at least a hundred. After completing the prayer, it is good to spend some time in contemplation of God or in the creation of the Jesus Prayer.
Sit down - or standing and walking - and say: Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me... Say this prayer more times... at least a hundred. Then, throughout the day, as often as possible, say this prayer. And it’s good to approach the icon more often during the day and bow down with zeal: five, ten or more, with the prayer: Lord, have mercy, God, be merciful... that’s all. And before going to bed, the same order, i.e. a few bows at the beginning, prayers for those coming to bed, a few bows again and at least a hundred Jesus prayers. How good it is to go to church to cultivate the spirit of prayer!
You know all this... Arrange yourself to go to church more often for mass or vespers, or as best you can. If you could go to church every day and during all services, then the source of heartfelt prayer would soon open up... Attend, at least if possible. To this prayerful work one must add reading the word of God and the holy fathers. It is good to read the daily Gospel and the daily Apostle every day. And do this in the morning, after the Jesus Prayer. But read with reflection, delving into the power of words and, as much as possible, bringing them to the heart. It’s good when some place takes your whole soul. You can walk with it all day, keeping it in your memory (11, pp. 34–35).
Has the name—the sweetest name—of the Lord stuck on your tongue? We need to get it to read itself. Even if the thought runs somewhere... and, coming to its senses, finds the same name in the language... Achieve this. And your heart will be even warmer. This is heaven - on earth, but heavenly! What else should we look for? Unfaithful death will come and close your eyes, tie your hands, give your legs away, and give you to worms. How merciless! But you won’t even know how it will sneak up... But then what! The calculation is already short! The soul is poor, naked, alone - you can see through everything... And it sees itself, everyone else sees it... but there is nowhere to hide and run away. This is the need and the cramped conditions! Remember this hour and this minute. And the Lord will help you prepare for it and boldly stand before the Lord and say: I have fought the good fight. The Lord gave us repentance as a heavenly laver. It cleanses the whole soul, like snow cleanses whiteness. Let us begin to cry and lament. There are many sins, no good. What shall we do? Lord, have mercy!
“I am perplexed by every answer, this prayer to You, as to the Lord, we offer our sins, have mercy on us!” How sweet to the Lord is this voice from the mouth and heart of a sinner! Let's join the ranks of sinners. Their crushing voice passes through the sky and brings the Lord from there to earth. The cry of the unrepentant brings the Lord down to judgment, like Sodom, and the cry of repentant sinners - to mercy, like Nineveh... And trouble will come to us when the thought falls on self-righteousness... What an evil thought this is! How she kills the soul! Like harmful dew on a delicate flower or a terribly cold wind that ossifies everything. Whether it’s a matter for a sinner who repents. The Father's embrace is open to him. He fell on his neck and kissed him. God will not despise a contrite and humble heart. Let's do this. When we taste the sweetness of repentance, we will not want anything else (11, pp. 42–43).
Now you are starting to learn how to catch flies. Fine. I mean condemnation. It’s just not enough to say, you have to feel sorry, contrite and with fear, as at the Judgment, confess your sinful thoughts to the Lord. So anyway. For this there is constant repentance, which is the main task of those who pay attention to themselves. When evil thoughts attack, one must turn the eye of the mind away from them and, turning to the Lord, drive them away in His name. But when a thought stirs the heart and this evil one is more or less pleased with it, then one must scold oneself and beg the Lord for mercy and beat oneself until the opposite feeling is born in the heart: for example, instead of condemnation - exaltation of another, or at least a heartfelt feeling of respect for him. Self-praise and condemnation are two of the most common things among us. The wicked heart is rubbish itself, and everything trumpets: “I am not like the others.” And there are so many shades of this that it is impossible to list. Work harder to strengthen yourself in mental attention and you will see what a treasure our heart is.
Do this: in the morning, become more deeply established in your thoughts about the Lord, stand before Him with your mind during prayer; and then strain throughout the day not to depart from Him, taking His sweetest name as your aid. Whether you are doing anything, talking to someone, walking, sitting, eating - let your mind be with the Lord. You will forget - and again return to the Lord and scold yourself with contrition... and that’s all... this is the feat of attention.
Then, in the light of the Lord, not a single thought will be hidden and its assessment will be correct, all good looks will be scattered. Meanwhile, the soul will cleave more and more tightly to the invisible and become stronger (11, pp. 43–44).
You still need to correct your rule properly... and if during it you feel warmth and tie your tongue, stop reading... But when there is a light warmth that is supported only by reading, then you need to read everything without stopping. Also, reading ascetic books to strengthen oneself in attention is a necessary condition, but only reading books about sobriety, attention and prayer. Other books entertain (11, pp. 44–45).
You think that you are working in vain on the Jesus Prayer, such thoughts come. But don't you think that all the power is in words? Words are aids to a weak mind, which reluctantly stands in one place and on one subject. And the essence of this matter is mental standing before the face of the Lord, with fear and trembling, unceasing, non-wasting, accompanied by the warmth of the heart, pulling together all thoughts and feelings and dispositions. When your heart is warm, there is reverence, your mind sees the Lord, this is the essence of the matter... put this state into words and it will be: Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me! And conversely, when that state does not exist, this prayer will reproduce it: only with attention, with thought and with consciousness must one pronounce it. What's the use of reading without consciousness? After all, this is not some kind of conspiracy. You find it more pleasant to pray to the Mother of God - read it... or the “Our Father”... or another poem that keeps your mind in order. And the fathers did this; they didn’t all say the same prayer.
Joannicius the Great had: “My hope is the Father, my refuge is the Son, my protection is the Holy Spirit...” And then, the Jesus Prayer is recognized by everyone - according to the order of Mary, crouching at the feet of the Savior, which is the only thing needed (11, p. 45).
Well, thank God you started learning your lesson. Bless, O Lord, the glory for the sake of His holy name. It’s difficult at first, and it seems like some kind of absurdity, pretentiousness, and how many unprofitable thoughts about this matter! The main thing is to become your mind in your heart before the Lord and stand before Him relentlessly, day and night, until the end of your life. Use a little work. The duration of studying a lesson is both duty and short, depending on faith and diligence.
Don't weaken. There will be suspicion towards the person advising, and displeasure towards the very act of prayer: blasphemy against it, exhaustion, a desire to give up - precisely because it is tricky. Dangerous! Don't listen, keep your job. The enemy most of all blasphemes this prayer. For then the fire burns him and drives him away. He has no attack on the person in whose heart the Jesus Prayer is implanted.
The sweetest name of the Lord, constantly sounding and speaking in the heart, will beat it even without your knowledge. For it happens that the soul - through negligence and unreason - forgets and daydreams, but, coming to its senses and returning to itself, it finds that the same thing is being sung in the heart: Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner!
Your thought about casting yourself into the dust before the Lord is the core of this work. Be like this incessantly - and that’s all. One must stand in prayer as if at the Last Judgment. - So! In tune! This means not allowing free movement and not giving the body rest. Any rest for the body is detrimental to the soul. Afterwards you will find out everything for yourself... Just put it in measure - a warm fall to God. This is bliss. Consider everything that interferes as an enemy (11, pp. 58–59).
But where the Lord is seated at the right hand of God... we also need to sit there with our minds.
Now I accidentally unfolded the life of Father Seraphim in the place where the soul-saving story is placed, and before this article about the Jesus Prayer. How good both are! Take the trouble to read and read. The whole course is here, everything is indicated. May the Lord bless your work, while it is material, in order to move on to the mental; Get used to counting the knots in your rosary, only with a sentence (11, p. 79)!
What can I tell you about prayer? It’s impossible not to pray. Work on prayer as much as you can.
You can remain with only bows, without reading prayers, and you can sit in prayer when you are weak, and you should always not deviate from the Lord in your mind. Help you, Lord! Do as much as you can, but don’t allow yourself to be without the labor of prayer. For reading to you - Saint Isaac the Syrian. It's good that you have it. Everything is there, just pay attention (11, p. 95)!
Save yourself! You already know from experience that everything that N.N. told you is a complete lie. And bows are not empty, and akathists mean a lot. I'll tell you one case. The late Feofan, abbot of Kirillovsky, traveling from St. Petersburg, stopped to spend the night. They were going to stab him there. The novice noticed this and told the elder, and the elder saw signs that this was the case. Despite this, however, he reliably lit the candle and began to read the akathist to the Mother of God - his constant rule. And I hadn’t even read half of it when some passers-by started knocking on the window, like a convoy, and shouting: “Father Archimandrite! Let's go together, it will be more fun. Harness, we'll wait." They quickly harnessed it, got out and drove off. When we passed the danger line, the convoy disappeared, and Fr. The archimandrite arrived safely at his monastery. So the akathist was not read in vain.
If we become wise, we will be at a dead end at every little thing, but in the simplicity of our hearts it is saving to accept all the rules. All the saints of God, who pleased God, how many bows did they make - and there was no number of them, and how many prayers did they read? They all continued to work in prayer and thereby were saved. Why does the open mouth want to accept grace, like the Quakers and Molokans, who say: “The Church is in ribs, not in logs”? After all, without this order of prayer and asceticism, a person will stand as if in the wind, or even more - as if naked in the cold. And walking in this rank, he is dressed in warm and safe clothes. You all know this. Therefore, there is no need to hesitate with empty speeches. Regarding what happened, I can’t say anything; accept this as an indication from the Mother of God that the path you are following is correct. Such signs or instructions are given not to saints, but to those who seek salvation and need admonition.
You can see for yourself that this is very timely. And thank the Most Pure Lady, who condescended so much to your weakness to dispel your doubt. So think that you, weak and wavering, needed admonition - it was given, but there is nothing to rise above. Let us thank our Most Pure Trustee and lament that we are doing Her work with our hesitations to the point that She needs to do this and that for us.
But the path you have begun is not empty, and your work is not unsuccessful. The enemy clouds everything and makes noise. Stand, take heart, be strong!
Your coldness and dryness - why and for how long? Be patient and force yourself with patience, either to pray, or to read, or better yet, to cry that there is nothing and that you are not going anywhere.
The anxiety of your soul, I think, is due to distraction. If you gather yourself, calm down (11, pp. 95–97).
I’m surprised and can’t guess what happened to you. Thank the Lord that it has passed. Let's pray that it doesn't happen again. His gloom, the prince of the century, gets to you, tries from which side you can be knocked off your feet. There are many temptations around. Run under the roof of the Mother of God and the saints of God! No one can avoid temptations, but falls can be avoided! You can’t do it on your own, but with God and heavenly help. She is ready, she surrounds everyone, but we must not separate ourselves from her, not drive her away. It is driven away by passionate thoughts, feelings and desires.
The Lord looks into the heart, and as it is towards Him, so is He towards it! Then, the inevitable law for all who seek the Lord is to pay attention to themselves, or lead an inwardly alert and sober life. Do you have the Philokalia? Look there at Hesychius, Philotheus the Sinai, Theoliptus and also Diodochos, Bishop of Photiki, all about sobriety. With their help you will understand what sobriety, spiritual vigil and vigor are. There is a saying: silence is such that you can hear a fly fly by... So for a sober person everything is quiet in the soul; like a candle, the heart’s elevation to God burns continuously. A little something from outside now sees and drives away; and again peace... and so on...
This is what we need to achieve. Do this. Do you know the place of prayer or the place of the heart, warmly praying? Where it is warm during prayer, pay attention and be there and do not want to go out; but be not alone, but with the thought of the Lord who is also in you; At the same time, take care of one thing - to preserve this unquenchable warmth towards the Lord. This is the main thing!
When you begin this inner feat, then the matter itself will teach you how to do this, what helps it and what hinders it. Get a hold of it. Only when the warmth is established does internal cleansing begin.
When is pure metal separated from ore? - When the ore gets hot... So it is here... And before that, everything is not only nothing, but also not anything practical, durable. So here's a lesson for you! Learn and tell me what will happen to you and in you! When you stand in your heart with the thought of the Lord, then your mind will stand and stand and become tired and begin to wiggle here and there: as if to run away. Then give him the sweetest name of our Lord Jesus Christ, i.e. Jesus Prayer, and let him repeat it. But remember that the fear of God must freshen the air of the heart in advance and refresh and cleanse it all the time... There is an inner reverent and humiliated fall towards God, turning a person into dust and ashes before the Lord... Do this... And it will be like this for us: in the morning, from the first consciousness with fear, refresh everything inside... prayer will then warm... the Jesus Prayer with an inner fall towards the Lord will prolong this warmth... and glory to God! But we must strive for this. Not suddenly; It’s not like knitting with a needle: you look and you know.
Morning reading is very helpful in maintaining warmth and from it is the thought that will attract attention and, like a ray, fall on the heart and illuminate everything inside. You need to remember it more often and turn it around in your mind. You can also make it a rule: as soon as you come across such a thought while reading, stop reading. There are many enemies to this cause, you will see for yourself... the most important ones are the eyes, ears and movement with the tongue, i.e. seeing a lot, hearing a lot, speaking a lot, freely moving. How can you carry a glass of standing water without getting upset? – You need to walk a little... But you will see everything for yourself when you start the business. Just start, otherwise you will be in trouble. You will get confused. Temptation has befallen you from vain thoughts and inner complacency and self-praise! Here is the objection: how is it possible? Am I not humble? - Wait! Take the trouble to do as prescribed... And then what turns out to be is what it is... And now what can I say? Until the soul sits with its mind in the heart, until then it does not see itself and is not consciously aware of itself. Praise, as I already wrote, is the same as tripping someone running... he will immediately stumble... and his nose will be broken... and some will lose their breath...
God forbid! Well, I killed you! But this is a lesson... Whatever you want, work if you want good for yourself and love the Lord... Work. Just a little bit of success will immediately make all your laziness go away.
He turned around Isaac the Syrian and attacked the chapter, which is not bad for you to read and assimilate in full. Our whole life, both internal and external, is explained. This word is 47 (11, pp. 39–40).
But what kind of ghosts started around you? I'm afraid because of them. Try to extinguish the memory of them. How many ascetics, respected by all, have been caught in the enemy’s net in this way! Trouble. How long will it take to get confused? One needed to find something in his cell, but it was dark - a light appeared and pointed out the thing. It began with this, but it progressed to elevating oneself above the Lord Jesus Christ and ending in madness. Look at Lavsaik, how many examples there are! Then, the fathers laid down a strict rule: do not believe in miraculous things - any light, etc. There will be no sin if, out of fear, we do not believe a true phenomenon; but there is a lot of trouble if we believe what is false. Because then the enemy will grab hold of it and pull everything up and up - and throw it off from there. Pray that there will be no miracles around you. You don't need them. They are needed where there is no faith. What do you need them for? Pray to the Lord to take away the memory of that. And always say it. - Deliver you, Lord! Everything external in spiritual life is very unimportant. It's all in the heart. As for the lesson about the memory of God, we need to work hard. You say: should we start?
Is this left to chance? No. This is an inevitable matter (11, pp. 56–57).
God is everywhere, and our soul is completely before Him through and through. You must also stand before Him with your consciousness. Just as all the Angels and saints behold Him and do not take their eyes off Him, so we, who are still in the body, need to behold Him. Just as the sun holds the planets and leads them along with it, so the entire spiritual world has become, and our souls must hold on to God and be led by Him. And this is not an hour or two, but continuously, from the moment of awakening until oblivion in sleep.
You can’t suddenly put yourself in this state. A feat is needed. This is what is needed now. Grab it! There is nothing to be afraid of. To explain the matter, read the articles on sobriety in the Philokalia. Attention must be placed above the heart. You need to get out of your head and into your heart. Now you have the thought of God in your head, but God himself seems to be outside - and it turns out that this is external work. While you are in your head, your thoughts will not settle down peacefully and everything will pulsate like snow or summer mosquito repellents. As your attention enters the heart, thoughts will begin to subside, and then completely subside - and the atmosphere of the soul will become pure, pure. Then the fly will fly by - you will notice, but before that everything is darkness.
The beginning of the fruit is a concentrated and unceasing warmth in the heart. And that's it. Only familiarity with the Lord must be abandoned. Great fear is required. Just as great nobles stand in order before the king, so let the soul also be before God (11, pp. 57–58).
What is the indecent position of the body in front of the king, are the faulty thoughts of the soul before God; and forgetting about God even for a minute is the same as turning your back to the king.
You once said that there is jealousy in spiritual achievements. Yes, and a great one! See for yourself. Fill your soul with fear. It is not painful, but refreshing. He is the beginning, but he doesn’t leave the whole journey, only it becomes purer and purer. Solitude and reading are two wings of this activity. But start - and see for yourself everything. What helps and what ruins will be revealed now.
But we must strictly implement what we have learned. Conscience will come into its own and begin to chide. Listen. How many quibbles there will be! Do it. Afterwards everything will equalize and go smoothly. Help you, Lord! May the Guardian Angel overshadow you! The cover of the Lady be upon you (11, p. 58).
18. About the rule of prayer and unceasing prayer
“The rule of prayer is a safe fence of prayer... Prayer is an internal matter, and the rule of prayer is an external matter.
But just as a person without a body is not a complete person, so without a rule of prayer, prayer is not complete. You must have both and perform them to the best of your ability...
What does it mean to pray without ceasing? – Be constantly in a prayerful mood. A prayerful mood is a thought about God and a feeling for God together. The thought of God is the thought of His omnipresence, that He is everywhere, sees everything and contains everything. Feelings for God - fear of God, love for God, a zealous desire to please Him alone with the same desire to avoid everything that is displeasing to Him and, most importantly, surrendering oneself to His holy will unquestioningly and accepting everything that happens as if from His hands directly. A feeling for God can occur in all our deeds, activities and circumstances, if it is not only sought, but is already planted in the heart (6, pp. 20–21).
19. About cooling and combating it
The cooling off that you are talking about occurs either from spiritual fatigue, or because the soul has been fed too much of what is spiritual (see the book “What is Spiritual Life” about this), or because too much peace and all contentment has been given to the body, or from conceit and other passions that agitate and occupy the soul. All this is contrary to spiritual life, in which the queen, prayer, litters and blocks the key of prayer. But it happens both by God’s permission and by the withdrawal of grace. When your soul burns with zeal, this is the action of grace, God’s touch on the soul. It happens that when it lasts for a long time, the soul begins to think what a master of prayer she is, forgetting that the liveliness of the prayer movement is not her business, but the work of God’s grace inherent in us. For such thinking, grace withdraws and leaves the soul alone... and it itself is motionless towards the spiritual... and so there is cooling and laziness... What can be done? The main thing is to try to eliminate the causes of this condition.
And then act as you act - fulfill the rule, despite the disintegration, trying to collect thoughts and reproduce feelings for God. For patience and humility, grace will return... and will immediately disperse laziness, just as the wind disperses darkness (6, pp. 22-23).
20. The root of prayer is the memory (mortal) of God with warm faith and feeling for God
The root of prayer is the memory of God with warm faith and feeling for God. It is in your power and your duty to initiate this. From the moment you awaken, try to restore this strength within yourself. - How? Reflection on the mysteries of faith and salvation. When you sleep, it is as if you are not there. And when you awaken, you begin to be again, you enter the realm of conscious existence and into communication with everything that exists and happens. Everything that exists and happens is the Kingdom of God. Your first bow is to the King of kings, with the consciousness that everything is from Him, is held and directed by Him: both the general and the smallest particular. Here you are also in attention, and the present moment of your existence is determined from above.
Put yourself at this point and determine what is therefore required of you with a firm determination not to deviate from it. I think that if you do this, then it is impossible for your soul to remain empty and wallow in vague thoughts and feelings...
I am giving you a comprehensive recipe. Its reduction is in the memory of God, the memory of death and in the fear of God. When these take root in the heart, both prayer and everything else will go well. Do not be neglectful of the work of God (6, pp. 28–29)!
21. On maintaining zeal for prayer
I will note one thing: see that the work of prayer does not come to naught. The way you pray now... is a direct matter of will. His soul is a zealous desire. This zeal must always warm one up to prayer, otherwise there will be no prayer. And you admit: sometimes I pray lazily, without desire. This does not suit the nature of your prayer. Try not to allow this to happen. The matter is in your hands. Otherwise, this is what can happen... now you’re reluctant, tomorrow you’re reluctant... and then the prayer is completely over. Beware of this... and force yourself to willingly pray (6, pp. 47–48).
22. A short prayer - a tool for cultivating constant remembrance of the Lord
I regret that you are unable to make a short prayer. You choose one that is more commonly used: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” Keep repeating it and getting used to it... Introduce it into your prayer rule - morning and evening. Repeat it several times before and after prayer. Repeat it 5–10 or more times... Or even 33 times - according to the number of years the Lord Savior spent on earth. But do not forget that power is not in words, but in thoughts and feelings. A short prayer is a help, but the work is constant remembrance of the Lord, or walking in the feelings of His presence, with reverence. If this were always in us, then there would be no need for words. But since we are confused by overthinking and a lot of impressions, then in order to dispel them, the skill of creating a short prayer is advised... When the language becomes accustomed, it will all be read by itself... and turn back wandering thoughts (6, pp. 51–52).
23. The purpose of short prayer and continuous prayer
That you don’t know how to cope with a short prayer is nothing. It will come with time. Your frequent appeals to God during the day, during every task and after work, are a very good thing. This is part of the general rule of walking with God. Short prayers have the same purpose... In them, the sacred word expresses what you express with yours. Another higher purpose of a short prayer is to deepen thoughts and feelings towards God (6, p. 55).
“I don’t know how to pray for a long time.” But what did the apostle command: pray without ceasing 116?! The memory of God with the fear of God, the love of God with hope and devotion to the will of God constitute the inner religious life... Whoever has it in motion... is always with God... And he is not bored by praying for a long, long time. You have the germ of this in the way you turn to God for help in every case and then give thanks. Develop this... wider and wider (6, p. 56).
24. Short prayers - adding coals to the samovar
Short prayers turn into mechanical work not because of their properties, but because of a weakening of attention to them and their content. If you pay attention and pronounce these prayers with thought and feeling, they will not turn into a mechanical task, but will be like adding coals to a samovar. Get used to saying prayers to St. Chrysostom. They will then become like strings on a harp. Then go to one: Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me (6, pp. 69–70).
25. The need for a rule
The short prayers are exactly the ones you indicated. They hug everyone, you just need to think about them, and then... everything stops at one thing. The order of prayer... you still have to have it, because you can’t rely on us... Good, good - and then everything falls apart, and the soul remains empty. The Lord does this so that the soul does not become arrogant and remembers that it is nothing. Now you are in a blissful mood. This may take a long time. For the mere memory of this will again cheer the soul (6, p. 73).
26. Feeling unfit and using short prayers
Try to generate and confirm in yourself the thought of your worthlessness and sinfulness, which raises the wrath of God against you.
And when you begin to pray, you appear before the face of God as such a sinner, worthless and angry... As soon as you perceive this state of yours, you cannot refrain from crying out: Oh, Lord, save, Oh, Lord, make haste! Why does prayer go poorly? Because we don’t feel the need for God... Are we supposed to handle all our affairs and needs ourselves?!! Pray that God will give you such feelings (6, p. 81).
I suggest you do not just say one short prayer, but collect several of them and then use them morning and evening - and sometimes during the day. In the first place put: Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner... Then: 24 prayers of St. Chrysostom... (in prayers for sleep); further: Have mercy on me, O God, until Reward me with the joy of salvation... – and so on. Finally, turn into prayers the exclamations of the petitionary litany: This day (or evening, or night)... grant, holy, peaceful and sinless, O Lord... A peaceful angel... Grant forgiveness and remission of sins, O Lord... and so on... 6 prayers. If you feel like it, choose prayerful and penitential appeals from the psalms (6, p. 82).
27. The degree of significance of feelings for God
Giving exclusive weight to a feeling is not a right, but it’s not a right either, where you stopped - on the firmness of the intention to stick to the one thing needed. Both are necessary with the addition of a third—clear vision of the matter of salvation. These three, when in proportionate strength, generate and maintain a rapid flow through salvation. And it is impossible to say which of these actions is more significant. Feelings for God attract, jealousy flows, and clear knowledge of the matter shows the way (6, p. 92).
Prayers are a cry to God from the heart; How can we do without feeling? And God says to the Wise One: Son, give me a heart. The good mood of the heart responds with a quiet, joyful feeling, similar to the feeling of health. When I applied the words to you: remember from where you fell... I meant not the fall into sin - deliver, Lord - but the former peaceful mood in comparison with what you described - stormy and indomitable (6, p. 93).
28. Spiritual dispensation during the Jesus Prayer
How nice it was to read that spiritual emptiness pulled you to prayer and you turned to the best one - the Jesus Prayer, and began to do it with such success. Bless, Lord, that you succeed in it, and, moreover, in such a way that nothing can distract you from it (6, p. 102).
You ask what you need. The way you create it is so good. Remember and do so. Let me remind you one thing: you need to pay attention to descend into your heart and stand there before the face of the Lord, who is omnipresent - both in you, and all-seeing - and in you... This is how you thought - woe - to the Throne of God, and down - to yourself, a sinner (6, pp. 102-103).
29. A babbling brook and a reliable watchman
You remembered the short prayer... The priest of God told you kindly that you should not forget this. Try not to interrupt it - and it will become so established that it will repeat itself, and you will have a stream babbling, as Elder Parthenius of Kiev-Pechersk put it. And one of the ancients said: just as when thieves, approaching a house to sneak into it to steal, hear that someone is talking inside, they do not dare to crawl into it, so when our enemies creep up on a soul in order to rob it, and hear that a small prayer is murmuring there, they walk around, but are afraid to go into the middle (6, pp. 105-106).
30. Latin views on prayer
The Latins do not understand mental prayer the way we do. For them it is the thought of God, concluded by prayer... And although this is a very fruitful exercise, it is not prayer... Prayer is a special exercise from the thought of God (6, p. 115).
31. Prayer and work - two currents in one river
Because of the troubles for Dunya, you do not fully comply with the rule. There is no need to worry about this. These troubles will replace the rule, for both are the same kind of work, the same work for the Master, pleasing to Him. When prayer inside is intact and stays with the very deeds, then prayers and work are two currents in the same river, in the same bed and in the same direction. We can also say that here action and reason go together (6, pp. 145–146).
32. Replacing services with the Jesus Prayer
Shift all of our 7 daily services to the Jesus Prayer with bows. Take an example for this in the Followed Psalter, at the end of the outline of the rules for each day - cell... There for each service the number of Jesus prayers and the number of bows are determined; there are two rows of them... one for the lazy, the other for the diligent. You should take the last one... But since you are weak, you can choose the average one or a little more than the average one... and if you please write to yourself... how many prayers - 1) for the Midnight Office; 2) for Matins; 3) for the first hour... and other hours - 3, 6, 9; 4) for lunch; 5) for Vespers; 6) for Compline; 7) for the rule on him. The main thing is the number of prayers... bows... can be left to your discretion - waist and ground... Do a prayer... standing... on your knees and sitting, if you are exhausted (6, pp. 169–170).
33. Prayer always serves as an expression of our attitude towards God
Is prayer in its proper place? Prayer always serves as an expression of our relationship to God. When prayer is good - warm, diligent, attentive, then our attitude towards God is good. Then everything is fine. Try to tighten up your prayer if it has become weak (6, pp. 177–178).
34. Means for reviving feelings for God
If you can be constantly with the Lord, then there is nothing else to look for. This is the whole point, so that our entire life will be hidden with Christ in God. Having now external peace, you get rid of a whole half of the obstacles to that. The other half is inside.
And this immediately disappears by itself, as soon as any feeling for the Lord falls on the heart; and if such a feeling does not go away, then everything inside that interferes with being with the Lord recedes by itself. If someone asked how to always be with the Lord, one can safely answer: have a feeling for the Lord - and you will be with the Lord. I think I wrote to you about this. What is it like to have a feeling? – It seems that just the memory of the Lord already sets in motion a feeling for Him. If we add to this the thought of what He is and what He has done and is doing for us, then I don’t know whose heart will remain untouched. Therefore, the holy fathers very righteously reverence the thought of God, or the contemplation of the properties and actions of the Lord, as the key to prayer... and unceasing prayer.
Because from this the feeling for God comes to life... and connects with the Lord (6, pp. 178–179).
35. The appearance of an inward attraction is a manifestation of a real prayerful spirit, which must become constant, and then the revelation of the Kingdom of God will be completed
[Speransky:] “The Kingdom of God, which lies within us (in other words, the inner word, or contemplative prayer, or pure love), is revealed only when all reflections, all reasoning about heavenly objects become dry, boring, tasteless and when, however, in the depths of your soul you feel a more or less strong attraction to the pursuit of the Divine. Then one should abandon mental prayer (thoughts, reflections, reasoning about God) and constantly get used to being in communion with God, in addition to all images, all thinking, and all tangible movements of thought. Then everything seems silent; don't think about anything; the mind and memory fade and do not represent anything definite; the will alone meekly clings to the idea of God - an idea that seems indefinite, because it is unconditional and does not rest on anything in particular.”
But Speransky talks about the revelation of the Kingdom of God inside in the next section, what is that about? About the involuntary, deep and uncontrollable attractions to God that manifest themselves from time to time in the soul, which self-strengthly and laboriously seeks God. It will be clearer if we say: about what happens to the soul, and how we need to behave when we strongly want to pray or when we are drawn to prayer. Everyone experiences this to a greater or lesser extent both during the transition from self-difficult quest to living communion with God, and upon achieving it. This state is similar to the one a person is in when he thinks about something. A person who is thoughtful goes inside himself and concentrates in his soul, not paying attention to his external environment, to faces, things and events. It’s the same here: only there it’s a matter of the mind, and here it’s a matter of the heart. Finds an attraction to God, the soul gathers itself and stands before the face of God and either pours out its hopes and heartaches before Him, like Anna, the mother of Samuel, or glorifies Him, like the Blessed Virgin Mary, or stands before Him in amazement, as the holy Apostle Paul often stood.
Here all personal actions, thoughts, intentions cease, and everything external moves away from attention. The soul itself does not want to do anything extraneous. This happens both in church and at home during the prayer rule or when reading and thinking; maybe even during some external activities and among society. But in all cases it does not depend on arbitrariness. Once someone who has experienced this attraction can remember it, want to repeat it, strain towards it; but he himself will not attract it with his own effort: it finds it. There is only one thing left for arbitrariness: when it finds it, do not allow yourself to upset it, but try, as much as you have the strength, to give it room to stay in you as much as possible. We can call these manifestations of a real prayerful spirit or sensations of the approach of God, which in the hands of grace, guiding a zealot for salvation, are educational techniques. They indicate what to look for and strive for; and at the same time it is evidenced that the labors of search, hitherto undertaken, are not in vain, and thus zeal for the tireless search is kindled.
This says to the soul: “You see that there is something to work for, work hard!” And as this usually happens after drastic acts of self-sacrifice, expressed in special voluntary deprivations, or in deeds of charity, or activities of piety, accompanied internally by acts of placing oneself in the hands of God, or surrendering oneself to God’s care and God’s guidance, then one is encouraged to collect more such acts, and the work of seeking will come to an end faster. The end of the search is for this temporary state to become permanent, not in the same form, of course, but in the same essence of the matter. When this comes, then the revelation of the Kingdom of God will take place in the soul (10, pp. 31–34).
36. Prayer: a) prayer; b) smart-hearted (active and self-propelled). Self-propulsion is contemporary with inward drives, and when they become constant, prayer becomes incessant and turns into contemplation.
Contemplative prayer and pure love are mentioned early. Those inward attractions before God are the threshold of contemplative prayer, but not contemplative prayer itself. Prayer has different degrees. At first it is only prayerful prayer; but the prayer of the mind and heart must go along with it, be warmed up and supported by it. Heartfelt prayer then gains independence and is either active, strained by one’s own efforts, or self-motivated, finding. In the latter form, it is the same as the shown drives: it is contemporary with them and develops from them. When later the state in which the soul is during those impulses becomes constant, then mental-heart prayer becomes incessantly active. At the same time, the former temporary inclinations are reborn into states of contemplation, in which and from which contemplative prayer is then revealed (10, pp. 43–44).
37. The difference between contemplation and inward attraction. Contemplation is the captivity of the mind with a spiritual object, so that the external is forgotten (the elder during contemplation on Golgotha)
Contemplation is the captivity of the mind and all contemplation by some spiritual object so strong that everything external is forgotten, leaves consciousness: the mind and consciousness go into the object being contemplated, so that it is as if they are no longer in us. Here is an example: the elder was talking with his disciples and stopped, as if he had forgotten. When he later came to his senses, the disciples asked him: where was he? “I was,” he said, “on Golgotha, before the crucified Lord, where Mary Magdalene was at His feet.” But this contemplation was only mental. Contemplative prayer is like this, forgetting everything and being captured in the invisible world. Another example: the elder prepared a meal for himself at the usual hour and began to pray; but he was caught up in contemplative prayer and stood in it until the next day, when he came to his senses. The distinctive feature of contemplative prayer of St. Isaac the Syrian delivers precisely the falling out of consciousness of everything around him and captivity in the heavenly world. According to his testimony, the mind still controls itself, but when it enters into contemplation or contemplative prayer, then it no longer has any power over itself.
In this they differ from the shown inward drives that are being discussed and in which a person, although he does not pay attention to everything around him, does not completely forget it; it does not leave his consciousness; and although he is subject to external action, he controls himself and as much as he can help prolong that state, he can also upset him (10, pp. 44–45).
38. Mental prayer and thought of God: their differences
Mental prayer consists of standing before God with the mind in the heart: either simply, or with the expression of petitions, thanksgiving and praise. This is not the time to engage in reasoning: everything has its turn. When that attraction comes within, then mental prayer appears in force and in its present form, and until that moment it is only what is being sought; there is something to do here. Therefore, thoughts, reflections and reasoning, as well as all other self-actions, really need to be abandoned and suppressed, if they arose during the manifestation of an inward drive, but not mental prayer. She should not only not be abandoned, but should be supported in every possible way so that that state, good and useful, lasts as long as possible. And then, when that state passes, strain your mind in every possible way, do not deviate from God, retaining the memory of Him even during ordinary activities; in other words: try to walk in the presence of God. Speransky talks about this...
It says this: “Constantly get used to being in communion with God, apart from all images, all thinking, all tangible movements of thought.” These are real expressions. This is precisely the essence of mental prayer, or standing before God with the mind in the heart (10, pp. 47–49).
Mental prayer comes in two states: it is either laborious, when a person himself strains at it, or self-propelled, when it stands and acts by itself. The latter happens during the mentioned attraction, and the former should be our constant work. Although it is not successful in itself, for thoughts are all plundered, but, testifying to our desire and effort to have constant prayer, it attracts the mercy of the Lord - and God, for this work, from time to time gives that attraction within, in which mental prayer appears in its true form. And only at this time does she own what Speransky further writes about: “Then it seems that everything in the soul is silent; don't think about anything; the mind and memory fade and do not represent anything definite: the will alone clings tightly to the idea of God.” These words are precise, but what follows is imprecise: “A representation which seems indefinite because it is unconditional and because it does not rest on anything in particular.”
In mental presence before God, laborious and self-motivated, one must be in the conviction that God, omnipresent, is also in us, sees us and listens to us. This conviction, once established, makes it possible to eliminate imagery while mentally presenting oneself to God. But we need to infuse ourselves with this conviction, clearing it in every possible way from images to which our thoughts are so susceptible, no matter what it is occupied with (10, pp. 49–50).
This is what it should be! The words “idea of God” do not fit here, because there is no idea without an image; instead we must put: standing before God in the conviction that He is invisibly present in us and listens to us. “The idea,” says Speransky, “of God seems vague.” - No, it’s not like that: when we acquire clear concepts about God through the knowledge of His Divine properties and actions revealed to us, then the thought of God can never be vague, then God is always contemplated by us under some definitely known to us property of Him. And this is a sign of a true relationship with God and is different from a dreamy aspiration towards Him. In this phrase there is a small piece of foggy mysticism, suffering from uncertainty (10, pp. 50–51).
39. Prayer is the movement of spiritual air in the heart and the first thing in moral and religious life
When a fire is lit, air movement is needed to fan it; in the same way, when the fire of grace kindles in the heart, prayer is needed, which is a kind of movement of spiritual air in the heart. What is this prayer? An unceasing turning of the mind to the Lord in the heart, or an unceasing standing before the Lord with the mind in the heart, with or without appeals to Him, with only feelings of devotion and a contrite fall to Him in the heart. This action, or rather mood, is the main means of maintaining inner warmth and all internal order, of driving away bad and empty thoughts, of affirming good thoughts and undertakings.
Good thoughts and undertakings come - he goes deeper into prayer, and depending on whether they are strengthened in prayer or disappear, he finds out whether they are pleasing or displeasing to God. Bad thoughts come or something begins to disturb the soul - he again goes deep into prayer, not paying attention to what is happening in him - and everything disappears. Thus, mental prayer is placed in him as the main engine and ruler of spiritual life. It is not surprising because all the instructions in the writings of the fathers are primarily aimed at teaching how to pray to the Lord intelligently as one should.
Prayer is the first thing in moral and religious life. The root of this life is a consciously free attitude towards God, which then governs everything. The field where this relationship is revealed and manifested in action is prayer, just as mutual communication is the field where our moral attitudes towards our fellow men are revealed, and asceticism is the field where the moral attitude towards ourselves is revealed. What is our attitude towards God, such is our prayer; and what is prayer, such is our attitude towards God. And since these relationships are not the same, the image of prayer is not the same (10, pp. 122–124).
40. Every rank of people, or every degree of closeness to God, has its own prayer and its own rules for it
A person who is careless about salvation has a different attitude towards God, a different person who has fallen behind sin and is zealous about virtue, but has not yet entered within himself and works for the Lord externally; otherwise, finally, the one who has entered inside and carries the Lord within himself and stands before Him.
The first, just as he neglects life, also neglects prayer and performs it in church, at home, according to established custom, without attention or feeling.
The second one reads a lot of prayers and often goes to church, trying at the same time to pay attention and have feelings in accordance with the prayers he reads, although he very rarely succeeds.
The third, concentrating entirely inward, mentally stands before the Lord and prays to Him undistractedly in his heart, without long prayers, even though he stands for long periods of time in prayer, at home and in church.
Take away the prayer book from the second - you will take away all prayer from him; impose prayer on a third person - you will extinguish the prayer in him with the wind of verbosity. Every rank of people, or every degree of closeness to God, has its own prayer and its own rules for it.
How valuable is an experienced instruction, and how much damage can be done by an unauthorized order!
As soon as someone turns from sin to virtue, he will immediately begin to be jealous of getting closer to God. And his conversion was brought about by the fear of God, and he was converted in order to please God with a good life, to appropriate Him and appropriate Him for himself. Works in this spirit are his steps on the path of approaching God. The field in which this ascent to God is revealed, as already said, is prayer. The one who has repented and decided not to indulge in more bad habits, but to adhere to good morals, immediately leans on it (10, pp. 124–126)!
41. About prayer according to prayer books and personal prayer - the Jesus Prayer
You can’t say to someone like that the first time: “Pray yourself.” He will not be able to do this, just as, for example, someone who has not studied French will not be able to speak French. And one must learn to pray, one must acquire the skill of prayerful turns of thought and movements of feelings from the prayers of others, just as one learns foreign languages from printed conversations. For this purpose, we have prayer books for home use and perform prayer rites in church services.
It is through them that one must first become accustomed to prayer. The law here is this: listen to the prayers, both read and sung, and strain to feel as expressed in those prayers. It is necessary, however, to choose prayers with prudence. Regarding church prayers, the choice is inappropriate: everything is for everyone, and you will do well if you start going to church as often as possible, and every day and at all services - even better. For home prayer, the choice is both appropriate and meaningful. Here is the rule: do not choose many prayers, akathists and canons; take a small rule, it is best to be content with the well-known morning and evening prayers; just look at them thoroughly in freedom, think and feel them, and then do them, slowly, with full attention, reproducing the reverent thoughts and feelings expressed in them, putting at the same time at the beginning, and in the intervals, and at the end, more bows, both to the ground and from the waist.
As you begin to get used to praying properly according to the prayers of others, your own prayerful appeals and appeals to God will begin to arise. Never ignore these ascents to God that manifest themselves in your soul, but every time they arise, stop and pray your prayer.
Do not think that by praying like this you are doing damage to prayer - no, this is where you pray properly, and this prayer is more accessible to God. That is why there is a rule taught by everyone: whether in church or at home your soul itself wants to pray in its own word, and not in someone else’s word - give it freedom, let it pray, even if it prays itself throughout the entire service, but at home it lags behind the rule of prayer and does not have time to complete it (10, pp. 126-128).
Both forms of prayer, according to prayer books, with or without attention and corresponding reverent thoughts and feelings, in their own words, are pleasing to God. He is only unpleasant when someone reads prayers at home or in church, stands at the service without paying attention: the tongue reads or the ear listens, but thoughts wander one does not know where. There is no prayer at all here. But prayer is not a reading one, but a personal one, closer to the essence of the matter and more fruitful. Therefore, it is advised not to always wait until you want to pray yourself, but to force yourself to pray like this, and not only during church services and home prayer, but at all times (10, p. 128).
To gain skill in this self-forced prayer work, experienced prayer workers chose one prayer to the Lord the Savior and established rules for how to perform it, in order to use it to develop personal prayer in themselves. We talked about this before. The point is simple; stand with your mind in your heart before the Lord and pray to Him: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me.” So at home before prayer, during the intervals of prayer and at the end, and in church, and throughout the day, so that all moments of the day are filled with prayer (10, pp. 128-129).
This saving prayer is usually laborious and practical at first. But if someone is not too lazy to work on it, it will become self-propelled, it will create itself, like a stream babbling in the heart 117.
This is a great benefit, and it is worth working hard to achieve it. Workers who have succeeded in prayer indicate for this a little work or a slightly difficult prayer exercise, namely, before or after the prayer rule, morning or evening, or even during the day, set aside some time to perform this one prayer and do it like this: sit down, or better yet, stand prayerfully, concentrate your attention in your heart before the Lord, raising the conviction that He is here and listening to you, and cry out to Him: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me,” and bow, if you wish, from the waist and to the ground. Do this for a quarter of an hour, half an hour, more or less, as is more convenient for you.
The harder you work, the sooner this prayer will take root in your heart. It is better to get down to business more zealously and not to retreat until you achieve what you want or until this prayer itself begins to move in your heart; after that just support. That warmth of heart or burning of spirit that was previously spoken about comes precisely this way. The more the Jesus Prayer takes root in the heart, the more the heart warms up and the more self-moving the prayer becomes, so that the fire of spiritual life in the heart kindles and its burning becomes unceasing, at the same time as the Jesus Prayer takes over the whole heart and becomes moving. That is why those who have received the birth of a perfect inner life almost exclusively pray with this prayer, defining their prayer rule with it 118. Success in this matter depends on the faith with which one undertakes this exercise, on the degree of diligence in continuing and the correctness of its implementation (10, pp. 129–131).
42. The appearance of heartfelt prayer is contemporary with the appearance of warmth of the heart
Mental prayer turns into prayer of the heart or mind-heart prayer. Its appearance is contemporary with the emergence of heartfelt warmth. There is no other prayer in the ordinary course of spiritual life. Mental-heart prayer can penetrate deeply into the heart and in this case be without words and thoughts, consisting only of standing before God and falling reverently and lovingly towards Him. Here it is the same as being drawn inward to God to pray or finding the spirit of prayer. But all this is not yet contemplative prayer, which is the highest state of prayer, which from time to time appears among God’s elect (10, p. 132, footnote 2).
43. The Jesus Prayer is not a talisman, its power comes from faith in the Lord and a deep combination of heart and mind with Him
The Jesus Prayer is not some kind of talisman. Its strength comes from faith in the Lord and a deep combination of heart and mind with Him. In such dispositions, the invoked name of the Lord proves to be multi-effective. One repetition of words does not mean anything (10, p. 133, footnote 3).
44. The degrees of prayer are determined by natural gifts
Reading prayer from a prayer book, as long as it is done with the appropriate thoughts and feelings, is real prayer, capable of attracting all the gifts promised to prayer. Others pray for a whole century only according to prayer books in simplicity of heart, and God does not deprive them of His mercies. And the degrees of prayer are determined by natural gifts.
The highest degrees of prayer require a strong mind (10, p. 134, footnote 2).
45. About visions during prayer - true and false
Speransky talks about the occasional deviations in the matter of inner spiritual life that his friend experienced. Speransky warns him and convinces him to stop these wrongs before they become stronger - he convinces him with a general discussion about our power over the manifestations of the spirit, and with the instructions of the elders on ways to warm life in the spirit, and with his own experience.
We are talking about visions in the body that occur during deepening in mental-heart prayer among those who do not follow the established rules of prudence.
About visions briefly: “Remember that Teresa and other saints prayed for deliverance from visions. No matter how detached they are from the earthly, no matter how spiritual they are, some forms are always mixed in with them.”
Among the rare holy ascetics who wrote about spiritual life, you will not find warnings about these visions or apparitions. Not everyone experiences them. Others never have them; others have a special predisposition to them. But it is not nature that is to blame, but the wrongness of the actions of the persons subjected to them.
In the natural order, or structure, of our forces, imagination stands at the transition from outside to inside.
We must safely pass it in order to safely get to the real place inside. By carelessness, you can get stuck on it and, staying there, be sure that you have entered inside, whereas this is only the outer vestibule, the courtyard of tongues. Yes, that would be nothing; but this state is almost always accompanied by self-delusion, and from it visionaryism develops with its disastrous consequences.
I will outline this state for you from the words of Simeon the New Theologian in his articles on three types of prayer 119.
It is known that all the concern of zealots for spiritual life is directed towards putting themselves in a proper relationship with God. This is accomplished and revealed in prayer. It is the path of ascent to God, and its degrees are the degrees of approach of our spirit to God. The simplest law for prayer is not to imagine anything, but, having gathered your mind in your heart, become convinced that God is near, sees and listens, and in this conviction fall to Him, terrible in greatness and close in benevolence to us. Meanwhile, this is what others do during prayer: “While standing in prayer, they raise their eyes and mind to heaven and imagine in their minds Divine advice, heavenly blessings, the ranks of holy Angels and the abodes of saints - in a word, everything that is said in Scripture about these subjects especially figuratively, recall them from memory and sort them out with their imagination during prayer, trying to shock their feelings with the strikingness of these ideas and imaginations, in which they sometimes they succeed: they soften their hearts to the desire of the Divine, they are moved and cry.”
There is nothing bad or dangerous in representing Divine objects under the images as they are presented in Scripture: we cannot reason about them otherwise than by clothing concepts in images, but we should never think that in reality this is how these images appear, and especially not dwell on these images during prayer. During pious reflections or when thinking about God, this is appropriate, but during prayer it is not. Images keep attention outward, no matter how sacred they may be, but during prayer attention must be inward, in the heart: focusing attention in the heart is the starting point of proper prayer. And since prayer is the path of ascension to God, then deviation of attention from the heart is deviation from this path. This means that those who use the aforementioned imaginary image of holding themselves during prayer at first create obstacles for themselves in the work they have taken on with such zeal.
But in this wrongness of the beginning there is only the beginning of trouble, which leads to something worse and more dangerous. Since this soaring or flying of the mind in the heavenly regions is easy and, due to the connection of the heart with the imagination, immediately leaves a trace of its influence in the relaxation of the senses, the one who practices this immediately begins to dream about the success of his work and his perfection. “This one,” says St. Simeon, little by little his heart becomes proud, for he imagines that what he does and what happens in him comes from Divine grace to his consolation. That’s why he prays to God to let him always be in this state; but it is not a good state, but charm.”
Thus, his path to success is stopped at the very beginning, because what he is looking for is considered achieved, while its achievement has not yet begun. Therefore, such a person “can never come to reason and achieve virtue or dispassion.”
Further, conceit inflames the imagination even more, and it quickly draws new pictures, inserting into its dreams the personality of the dreamer and always presenting it in an attractive form, in closeness to God, Angels and saints. The more he dreams like this, the more rooted in him is the conviction that he is, indeed, already a friend of Heaven and the celestials, worthy of a tactile rapprochement with them and special revelations. At this degree, visionary behavior begins - both as a natural mental illness, and, moreover, as the work of an enemy who does not sleep 120.
“In this way many were deceived, seeing light and splendor with their bodily eyes, smelling a fragrance with their nose, hearing voices with their ears, etc. Some of them became mentally damaged and moved from place to place like crazy. Others, having accepted the demon, who appeared to them in the form of a bright angel, became so entrenched in delusion that they remained incorrigible to the end and did not accept advice from any brother; others, under the inspiration of the demons, killed themselves, were thrown into rapids, and were strangled. And who can count all the deceptions into which the enemy plunged them!
If not every one of those who adhere to this way of prayer suffers harm, then it is only those who live in monasteries with other brethren. But still they spend their lives without any success.”
This is what kind of deviation from the straight path in the work of prayer Speransky points to when he warns his friend against being carried away by visions! Visions are also true. Experienced people know how to distinguish them from the creations of their imagination and demonic ghosts, but since in reality there are more inexperienced people than experienced people, and besides, the enemy is too cunning, it is generally stated by law not to accept any visions and not to trust them.
“Pay attention to yourself carefully, steward of God’s work,” writes another mentor in spiritual life 121, “and do your work wisely. If you see light or fire outside or inside yourself, or some image - of Christ, for example, or an angel, or someone else - do not accept it, so as not to suffer harm. And don’t allow your mind to construct such images in you: this is an external matter and leads to delusion. And if you notice that someone seems to be pulling your mind towards such external imaginations, do not give in, holding on inside and doing the work of paying attention to God without any images (10, pp. 140-147).
Another warning from Speransky to his friend concerns some unusual changes in the body during prayer. These changes or movements are varied and not so much dangerous as bizarre. Another, for example, sighs heavily, or screams, or makes gestures, raises his hands and eyes quickly to the sky, or falls on his face quickly, or contorts his facial features, etc. These movements are not good in home prayer, and even more so when someone is standing in church. They may not begin on purpose, from the movement of internal feelings, but then little by little you can get used to them and produce them without internal feelings, sometimes to see if this will help the inner feelings to renew, and sometimes to show that these feelings do not stop with us. Don’t stop this habit - buffoonery may develop, and even without that the matter is discordant (10, pp. 147–148).
But there may be more internal irritations in the body, and precisely during mental activity or attention to oneself in the heart. During the skill of mental prayer to the Lord in the heart, along with gathering attention in the heart, it is advised to slightly restrict breathing and reduce muscle tension to the chest, considering this not an essential necessity, but an adaptation of the body to mental activity. And in itself, due to the connection of the soul with the body, mental tension should affect the heart, and even more so with the said adaptation. It soon appears in the blood, and from the blood it spreads to the nerves. The irritation that occurs in this case is pleasant, and for inexperienced people, like almost all beginners, it can and is considered a consequence that necessarily follows the action of grace in the heart. This opinion is enough not only not to reject, but also to aggravate the said irritation. There is nothing bad or dangerous here yet, except for the wrong opinion that this is an act of grace. But what happens next?
For the strong-bodied, everything is limited to this, and subsequent experiences convince them that this matter is simple and natural and there is no reason to attribute it to a higher origin. But there are weak-bodied, nervous people, in whom the mentioned irritation enters deeper into the nerves and begins to be reflected in the muscles; slight movements occur, also pleasant, which, intensifying, turn into noticeable shaking. If you do not stop this at first, shaking will begin to accompany each deepening of mental prayer in the heart, and having strengthened and deepened, in some individuals it will begin to turn into convulsions, falls such as fainting with foam at the mouth and gnashing of teeth. And here are the shaking and convulsing worshipers!
In the West there were and are entire societies of such prayers. In this case, the prayer goes on as usual or can go on and be very deep, and shaking, convulsions and even falls also take their course 122. Where they come to this out of ignorance and simplicity, there, perhaps, it is impeccably moral, unless one holds the opinion that a special action of grace is manifested here. But others are prone to whimsicality, are carried away only by imitation and accustom themselves to self-shaking and without prayerful deepening; These are victims of human stupidity and an empty desire to entertain idle spectators. I believe, however, that in our country all such phenomena, even excusable ones, are extremely rare, and one should not mention them when speaking about mental prayer, so as not to cool zeal for this prayer, arousing fears. It had to be said, and is reported only for information (10, pp. 148–151).
Such and such changes in the body must have begun to appear in Speransky’s friend during prayer. He writes to him, urging him to stop this at the very beginning, so that it does not turn into an unkind habit. Speransky first convinces him that this is completely in his power. “You should never,” he writes, “allow yourself to plunge too deeply into contemplation 123 when you are in front of people, even in church. In particular, one should not allow the inner feeling to spread to the body and influence it 124.
Through this you acquire bad spiritual habits, the consequences of which are often dangerous. And don’t think of telling me that it is impossible to abstain from this or that this would mean resisting the action of the Holy Spirit.”
Firstly, you can always refrain from this, for you can always descend from the heights of contemplation, gradually transferring your attention to mental prayer or focusing it on the meaning of the prayers of the Church 125. This deviation in no way impedes the action of the Holy Spirit and does not limit It in the least: it only changes the direction of this action (10, pp. 151–152).
Having premised this general position, Speransky proves it with rules, which St. Paul gave the Corinthian Church regarding the use of grace-filled gifts, namely the gift of tongues. This case clearly proves that a person can and should control his inner movements, even grace-filled ones, and Speransky’s goal has been achieved. But his view of the event in the Corinthian Church and the words of the Apostle Paul is incorrect. It cannot be ignored.
"Teaching of St. Pavel, writes Speransky, is positive on this score. Read carefully the 14th chapter of First Corinthians. Here we are talking about a certain form of action of the Holy Spirit, which the believers of this church achieved preferentially over all others; it consisted in speaking in foreign languages (this is a kind of frenzy or ecstasy, actually revealed by the use of languages unknown to those who speak them). So what? He forbids this gift, although he himself classifies it among the true gifts of the Holy Spirit, and forbids it solely because of the inconvenience of using it in the church, in which it can cause confusion. He advises them to reserve this gift for their solitary exercises, and in the church to use only the gift of prophecy. Moreover, he even forbids them to prophesy otherwise than by observing the order of the order, and prevents all the objections that you could make to me, uttering the great word that the very spirits of prophecy are subject to the prophets.”
You see that this speech strongly proves that a person can rule himself even while he is under the influence of grace. But together it is not difficult to notice that there are provisions here that cannot be agreed with.
Firstly, it is not true that those who spoke in foreign languages were at that time in a frenzy or ecstasy and spoke without themselves understanding their speech. In a frenzy, consciousness of both one’s “I” and everything around is lost, but this was not the case when the gift of tongues was discovered. Those who spoke them were aware of who they were talking to and what they were talking about. The mistake was that they were carried away by the movement of this gift and spoke, knowing that those to whom they spoke did not understand them. When St. writes Paul rules for those who speak in tongues, which means that he considers them capable of ruling themselves during the movement of this gift, but in a frenzy or ecstasy they cannot rule themselves. Moreover, throughout this chapter the gift of tongues is placed along with the gift of prophecy; prophecy, in the form in which it manifested itself in the primal Church, did not put those prophesying into a frenzy, therefore, the gift of tongues did not do this either. And it is not true that the languages remained unknown to those who spoke them; otherwise they wouldn't understand what they were saying. For St. Paul writes that he who speaks in an unknown tongue edifies himself (See 1 Cor.
14:4) - how could he edify himself if he did not understand the language? Finally, it is also false that the apostle forbids the gift because of the inconvenience of using it in church and advises to reserve it for solitary exercises, using only the gift of prophecy in church. St. Paul commands something completely opposite. Be zealous, he says, to prophesy, but do not forbid speaking in tongues (1 Cor. 14:39); if only what was said could be explained in an understandable language (See 1 Cor. 14, 27, 28).
It is clear that St. Paul did not consider any use of this gift inconvenient in the church, but only its use without interpretation. As for saving this gift for solitary exercises, there is no mention of that (10, pp. 152–156).
The second conviction for his friend - to stop dishonest changes in the body - is taken by Speransky from the example of the holy elders and ascetics. He writes: “Following this great authority come all the examples, all the practice of the contemplative saints. Their constant teaching on this subject is that in public one should never allow the inner feeling to spill outward... Not only in essence, but also in form, it is useful, worthy of true humility, to follow the good practice and sound tradition of our true spiritual fathers.”
And this is convincing. During church meetings, it was the law not to stand out in any way from others: just as everyone stands and behaves, so stand and behave yourself. Arseny the Great once sighed in church, not noticing that another was standing close to him. He bowed to him and said: “Forgive me, brother; I have not yet begun to be a monk” (10, pp. 156–157).
46. Examples from the Philokalia: how ascetics aroused the spirit of prayer
How did our ascetics, fathers and teachers kindle the spirit of prayer within themselves and strengthen themselves in prayer?
The main thing they were looking for was for their hearts to burn unceasingly towards the one Lord. God requires the heart because life comes from it. Where the heart is, there is consciousness, attention and mind, there is the whole soul. When the heart is in God, then the whole soul is in God, and man stands in unceasing worship of Him in spirit and in truth.
Others got this main thing quickly and easily. God's mercy! How deeply the fear of God shocked them, how quickly their conscience came to life in all its strength, how quickly zeal was kindled to keep oneself pure and blameless before the Lord, how quickly the work of pleasing God fanned this flame and turned it into a flame! These are seraphim souls, fiery, fast-moving, multi-active (10, pp. 157–158).
But for others everything is going sluggishly. Whether their natural structure is such, or God’s other intentions about them, only their heart does not quickly warm up. It would seem that they have already become accustomed to all the deeds of piety and their life is going righteously, but no - in their hearts everything is not what it should be. This happens not only with the laity, but also with those living in monasteries, and even with hermits. God enlightened, and workers of sobriety established a special way of instilling in the heart an inexhaustible prayer to the Lord that warms the heart. We have mentioned this more than once. Experience justified this technique with success, and it has become almost everywhere, and everyone who goes through it properly succeeds (10, pp. 158–159).
I am now making extracts from the Philokalia. In the first place I will put the experience of warming the heart, described by Simeon the New Theologian in his Word on Faith 126.
There was a young man in Constantinople about twenty years old, handsome in body, but even more handsome in soul and heart. He met a certain holy man, a monk of one of the Constantinople monasteries, and, revealing to him all the secrets of his heart, he said that he earnestly wanted to be saved and had a great desire to leave the world and become a monk. The honest elder approved of this intention, gave him the necessary instructions and gave him to read the book of the words of St. Mark of the ascetic 127. The young man accepted this book as if from the hands of God, in full confidence that he would receive great benefit from it, and, having arrived home, he immediately began to read it with reverent attention, read the whole thing three and four times, and after that still did not let it out of his hands. He was fed from it with spiritual food and still wanted to eat. However, from everything contained in that book, he chose only three chapters for his guidance, which he decided to carry out with all attention, without fail.
First: if you want healing for your soul, keep your conscience clear in every way, so that it does not convict you of anything, and, no matter what deeds it inspires you to do, do them without being burdened - and you will benefit.
Second: he who seeks and expects to receive the action of the Holy Spirit before fulfilling the commandments of God is like a bought slave who asks his master for freedom at the very hour when he is just paying for him.
Third: whoever prays only with his lips and has not yet acquired spiritual intelligence and does not know how to pray intelligently is like the blind man who cried out: Son of David, have mercy on me! Whoever has acquired spiritual intelligence and prays intelligently is like the same blind man, but already healed of blindness, when he, having received the enlightenment of his eyes, saw the Lord and no longer called Him the Son of David, but confessed him to be the Son of God and worshiped Him as befits.
These three chapters were to the soul of that young man, and he received the message in his heart that he would undoubtedly receive great benefit if he listened to his conscience, that he would enjoy the gifts of the Holy Spirit and receive strength from Him if he kept the commandments, and that through the gift of the Holy Spirit he would be worthy of having his eyes opened and he would see the Lord. The hope of seeing the indescribable beauty of the Lord stung his heart with love for her, and he had a great desire to see her. And yet he did not do anything special, but only every evening, going to bed, he did not lie down on his bed before praying and bowing, as that elder commanded him. So some time passed (10, pp. 159–162).
One evening, when he was fulfilling the elder’s prayer rule, his conscience told him: “Make another similar prayer and other bows, saying: “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me!” – as many times as you can.” He willingly listened to his conscience and diligently carried out what it inspired in him, believing that God Himself spoke to him through his conscience. From that time on, he never lay down on his bed until he had fulfilled everything that his conscience told him that he could do. This was the only thing he could do, for he was in charge of managing the house of a nobleman, and during the day he had no free time for prayer; Only in the evening did he always pray as much as his conscience forced him to.
Little by little, the young man’s heart began to warm up and his eyes began to shed tears of tenderness, he made frequent genuflections, sent prayers to the Mother of God, with sighs and heartache. Thinking about what lay ahead before the Lord, he mentally fell at His most pure feet and, with tears of tenderness, begged Him to have mercy on him, as on a blind man, and to grant light to his intelligent eyes. Day by day his prayer grew and brightened and, deepening, sometimes lasted until midnight. He stood motionless then, like some kind of pillar, and did not turn his eyes this way and that to see anything, but stood with great fear and trembling, not dozing, not burdened, not despondent (10, pp. 162-163).
One evening, when he was praying according to custom, he said in his mind: “God! be merciful to me, a sinner!" - the Divine light suddenly dawned on him. Captivated by such a vision, the young man forgot himself and did not understand whether he was on earth or in the air; the whole world disappeared before him, and he himself completely changed, being imbued with that Divine action and filled with tears and inexpressible joy, which did not leave him even when he came to his senses. He did not sleep all that night; sleep did not even come to his mind from spiritual sweetness that filled his heart. After this, the sweetness of tenderness no longer left his heart and drove away from him every worldly and carnal thought; he became insensitive to all things to the point that sleep and food did not come to his mind, and he spent many days in fasting and vigils.
It is amazing and praiseworthy that a twenty-year-old youth, preoccupied with everyday and worldly affairs and besides them, did not think about anything higher, but only heard something small from the elder and learned those three words from the soul-saving book, with that small feat that he carried out with sincere faith and hope, in a short time achieved such spiritual perfection that he was captivated by a mental vision, was honored with Divine enlightenment and tasted spiritual sweetness, which made his entire subsequent path of life easier! Thus, youth does no harm when it is filled with fear and lust for the Divine, and life in the midst of the world in the noisiest city will not prevent us from doing the commandments of God and succeeding in spiritual life, if only we have diligence (10, pp. 163–165).
It is impossible to express how much edification this experience exudes! And here is another, who was with the monk, but imitable for everyone. Gregory of Sinaite asked Abba Maxim Kavsokalivit (this is on Athos): does he keep mental prayer? He answered: “I will not hide from you, honest father, the mercy shown to me by the Mother of God. From my youth I had great faith in my Lady Theotokos and prayed to Her with tears that she would give me the grace of this mental prayer. One day, having come to the church according to custom, with great zeal and with copious tears I prayed to Her about this, and when I then began to venerate the icon depicting Her Divine face with fear, I suddenly felt a warmth that fell into my breasts and into my heart, which did not scorch, but delighted and watered, and moved my soul to tenderness. From that moment my mind began to constantly study in prayer and my heart to delight in the memory of my Lord Jesus and the Mother of God; and this prayer has never failed in my heart. I then desired silence and went into deserted places in order to be rewarded with the most manifest and richest fruit of prayer - the rapture of the mind to the Lord.”
Blessed Gregory asked: “What happens to the soul when this admiration comes?” The elder answered: “When the grace of the Holy Spirit comes in prayer and captivates the mind, then prayer ceases 128, because the mind is then possessed by the coming of the Holy Spirit and cannot stretch out its strength, but is idle and submits only to the Holy Spirit, which, as it pleases, leads it either into the immaterial air of the Divine 129, or into another ecstatic vision 130, or into the Divine conversation. The Comforter, the Holy Spirit, gives consolation to everyone according to their dignity, as and to what extent he wants; He does not show him anything ordinary, but secretly teaches him what he has never seen before and never imagined” 131.
This experience seems to point to the most reliable way of acquiring warm prayer - prayer itself. He says: pray for prayer, and He who gives prayer to the one who prays will give you the prayer you ask for. I would like to cite here how this fact was powerfully expressed in moralizing words in the conversations of Macarius the Great, but I am afraid of becoming boring. I will only say this father’s general thought about this, which he repeated more than once to his disciples: “Force yourself to pray, and the Lord, seeing the zeal with which you seek prayer, will give you prayer.”
But I cannot resist giving here the example of a prayer book that St. Isaac the Syrian in his 10th word. “One day,” he writes, “I came to one brother’s cell and, due to my illness, lay down with him so that he would look after me for God’s sake, since I had no one there. And I saw how this brother performed his prayer. He sang poetry for quite some time (read the Psalter in a chant) and suddenly abandoned the rule, fell on his face and hit his head into the ground a hundred or more times, with the fervor that grace kindled in his heart. After this, he stood up, kissed the Lord’s cross and again cast himself on his face. And he observed this custom all his life, so that it is impossible to count his many genuflections. Twenty times with fear and ardor, with love dissolved in reverence, he kissed the cross and again began poetry; and sometimes, from the great ignition of thoughts that inflamed him with their fervor, when he was unable to bear the kindling of that flame, overcome by joy, he cried out, unable to restrain himself.
In the morning, after the first hour, when he sat down to read, he became like a captive man and during each chapter he read more than once fell on his face and in many verses he raised his hands to heaven and praised God.”
From the above experiments, a very correct conclusion can be drawn that whoever has the zeal to pray has nothing to teach but how to improve in prayer.
The very work of prayer, continued with patience, will bring him to the highest levels of prayer (10, pp. 165–169).
But what should the weak, the sluggish, and especially those who, before reaching an understanding of what prayer should be, have time to harden in external formality and have cooled in the habit of the rules of statutory prayer, do? – They still have refuge – the artistic practice of mental prayer, prayer to the Lord. And isn’t it primarily for them that this artistic activity was invented, or, in other words, the artificial instillation of the mental Jesus Prayer into the heart?
Be that as it may, I will depict this art in all its detail, leaving nothing that concerns it previously in the teachings of the holy ascetic fathers (10, p. 169).
47. About three types of prayer of Saint Simeon the New Theologian
“Art” Simeon the New Theologian describes in his Word about three types of prayer.
The first image of prayer, the wrong one, has already been indicated by me - this is dreamy prayer.
The second, also incorrect or incomplete, I will give here as a transition to the third, which is a real image of prayer. Let me explain a little where this gradation comes from.
The first wrong way of prayer depends on the fact that others act in it mainly with imagination and fantasy. These forces constitute the first instance in the movement from outside to inside, which should have been bypassed, but instead stop there.
The second instance on the way inside is represented by reason, reason, mind, and in general the reasoning and thinking force. One must also pass it by and descend into the heart with it.
When they dwell on it, then a second incorrect form of prayer occurs, the distinctive feature of which is that the mind, remaining in the head, itself wants to settle everything in the soul and manage everything, but nothing comes of its labors. He chases after everything, but cannot overcome anything and only suffers defeats. This state of the poor mind is very fully depicted by the New Theologian.
“The second type of attention and prayer,” he says, “is when someone collects his mind in himself, distracting it from everything sensory, and preserves his feelings (especially sight and hearing, secluded as much as possible and withdrawing from cases that irritate them), and collects his thoughts so that they do not wander around the vain things of this world (and they are all theirs: if you return them, they will run away; if you return them again, they will run away again, and so on endlessly), and sometimes tortures his thoughts (discusses critically, according to the principles of Christian morality), sometimes listens to the words of the prayer (during the time free from prayer, he chases thoughts, but on a rule he listens to the words of the prayer; but this is also unsuccessful), which he reads,” (and meanwhile, as this fermentation occurs in the head, the heart goes on as usual; no one watches over it, and worries and passionate movements come upon it; then the mind forgets itself and runs away to the objects of worries and passions, and perhaps when he comes to his senses), “gathers back to himself all the thoughts that were captured by the devil and turned into fussy and sinful ones.
But sometimes, with great difficulty and self-compulsion, he comes to himself: this is when he is captivated and carried away by some passion. Having such a feat and such a struggle in himself, he can never be peaceful, and although he does not have a moment free from work, he does not receive the crown of righteousness.
Such a person is like a man fighting with his enemies in the darkness of the night: he hears the voices of his enemies and receives wounds from them, but he does not see them and does not know who they are, where they came from, how and why they are fighting him. In this pitiful position he is kept by the darkness that dominates his mind and the storm that agitates his thoughts. And he can never free himself from his mental enemies, nor prevent them from striking him; and what is even more amazing, he remains confident that he pays attention to himself as he should - that is, that he is a member of the rank of real teetotalers. - That is why he is robbed of vanity and often, in pride, he despises and despises others; out of conceit, he considers himself worthy to be a shepherd of sheep and to guide them, in fact becoming like a blind man who tries to lead other blind people.
Here is the second image of prayer, it is proper to call it mental-head, as opposed to the third, mental-heart or heart-smart. - Anyone seeking salvation needs to understand and discern it, so as not to dwell on it out of ignorance and not suffer the harm that it causes. However, this second image is better than the first, just as a moonlit night is better than a moonless and gloomy night (10, pp. 170–173).
I’ll add a few words to this... Elder Vasily the Schemamonk, a faster and friend of Paisius Nyametsky.
“How can one keep the mind unravaged by shielding the external senses alone, when its thoughts spontaneously spread and soar towards sensory things? If it is not possible, then need will insist that the mind, at the hour of prayer, run inside to the heart and stand there, deaf and dumb to all thoughts. He who outwardly only withdraws from seeing, hearing and speaking receives little benefit.
Shut your mind in the inner cage of your heart - and then you will enjoy peace from evil thoughts and taste the spiritual joy brought by mental prayer and heartfelt attention.”
St. Hesychius says: “Our mind cannot defeat the demonic dream by itself, and let it never hope for this. Therefore, be careful that you do not exalt yourself following the example of ancient Israel - and you too will be betrayed to your mental enemies. He, having been delivered by the God of all things from the Egyptians, decided to have a dusty idol as an assistant. By the idol of earth we mean our weak mind, which, while praying to Jesus Christ against the evil spirits, conveniently drives them away; and when he senselessly relies on himself, he falls in a wondrous fall and is broken” (10, pp. 173–175).
Now Simeon the New Theologian continues again: “The third type of attention and prayer is a truly glorious and inexplicable thing, even incredible, until someone experiences it in action. And in our times you won’t find it in very many people. There is no need to occupy your mind with imaginations of heavenly things or, keeping your mind only in your head, chasing thoughts unsuccessfully, leaving your heart to be amazed when and how necessary. What is this?
The preparation for this form of prayer is perfect obedience to one’s spiritual father, accompanied by care and keeping one’s conscience clear before God, before one’s spiritual father, before all people and in relation to all things. Keeping your conscience clear before God means not doing anything that you know is unpleasant and displeasing to God; keeping your conscience clear before your spiritual father means doing nothing - no more, no less - against what he commanded; towards other people, keeping your conscience clear means not doing anything to them that you don’t want them to do to you; To keep a clear conscience towards things means to beware of abuse, but to use everything properly: food, drink, clothing, etc. In short: you must do everything as before the face of God, so that your conscience does not convict you of anything, that you did this or that wrong (10, pp. 175–176).
Having settled in this way, begin to go through the third way of attention and prayer, which consists of the following: during prayer, let the mind remain inextricably inside the heart and from there, that is, from the depths of the heart, send prayers to God - this is the essence of the matter. - When he then tastes from the midst of his heart that the Lord is good, and delights in this, then he will no longer begin to come from the place of his heart, saying, as the Apostle Peter once did: there is good for us in this being 132; but it will always ripen inside the heart and remain there, inventing some image (managing) to drive away all the thoughts planted there by the enemy.
To those who have not yet experienced this saving work, it seems very difficult and embarrassing; those who have tasted its sweetness and enjoy it in the depths of their hearts cry out with the Apostle Paul: who will separate us from the love of God? 133 (Rom. 8:35).
“Our holy fathers, hearing the word of the Lord that evil thoughts come from the heart: murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, blasphemy - and defile a person, hearing also His commandment to cleanse the inside of the glass, so that the outside will also be clean, abandoned every other work and all their zeal, turned all their deeds to the guarding of the heart, probably knowing that this work is convenient to acquire every other virtue; and without him they won’t succeed in any of them. Some of the fathers called this work silence of the heart, others - attention, others - sobriety, others - guarding the mind. They all practiced it and left detailed instructions about it. Whoever wants to know about this, let him read the words of Mark the Ascetic, John Climacus, St. Hesychius, Philotheus of Sinai, Abba Isaiah, Barsanuphius and others (10, pp. 176–178).
This is how you need to go through these activities! But do not forget about acquiring in advance the preparatory instructions that I mentioned to you. There are three of them: first - carelessness about every thing, blessed and unblessed; second, a clear conscience in everything, so that it does not convict you of anything; and the third is perfect impartiality, so that your heart is not attached to anything worldly.
Having established these preparatory dispositions in advance in your heart, proceed to do the work as I show you (10, p. 178).
Having closed the doors of the cell, sit in a silent place, in the corner, stick your brace to your chest, slightly restrict your breathing; then, having distracted the mind from every temporary and vain thing, bring it down to the heart, turning your sensual eyes there too, and, listening to it, keep your mind there: where your heart is, there let your mind be perfect. At first you will meet darkness and harshness there; but then, if you continue the work of such attention day and night, you will find unceasing joy. The mind, struggling in this, will find a place in the heart and then will soon see there what it has never seen or known - it will see itself as bright, full of prudence and reasoning, and from then on, no matter where any thought arises or appears, before it enters the heart and is depicted in it, it will drive it away from there and destroy it in the name of Jesus, saying: “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me!” The rest of what usually happens in this case, you will learn later, with the help of God, yourself, through your own experience, through the attention of your mind, holding Jesus in your heart, that is, the indicated prayer: “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me!”
At the same time, do not forget the following wise instruction of St. Climacus. He depicts the path of our ascent to God under the guise of a ladder with four steps. Some, he says, tame passions; others sing, that is, pray with their lips; still others practice mental prayer; the fourth finally ascend into visions. Those who want to ascend these four steps cannot start from the top, but must start from the bottom - and, having stepped on the first step, with it they already ascend to another, then to the third, and after all - to the fourth. This way anyone can ascend to Heaven. First, one must strive to tame and diminish passions; then practice psalmody, that is, learn to pray verbally; then pray intelligently and, finally, gain the opportunity to ascend into visions.
The first is the work of beginners, the second is of those who grow in prosperity, the third is of those who have reached the end of prosperity, and the fourth is of those who are perfect.”
I have now extracted everything from Simeon the New Theologian about the artistic development of mental prayer. You see that bodily positions and techniques do not constitute the main thing, they are nothing more than devices (10, pp. 175–180).
48. Teaching on prayer by St. Gregory of Sinaite
We should, writes St. Gregory of Sinai, - those who have received the spirit of life in Christ Jesus, converse with the Lord with pure cherubic prayer in their hearts; but we, not understanding the greatness, honor and glory of the grace of rebirth and not caring about growing spiritually through the fulfillment of the commandments, rising to a state of mental contemplation, indulge in negligence, through which we fall into passionate habits and, thus, are cast into the abyss of insensibility and darkness. It also happens that we even barely remember whether God exists; and what we should be like as children of God by grace, we often don’t know at all. We believe, but with an ineffective faith, and after renewal of the spirit in Baptism, we do not cease to live carnally. If sometimes, having repented, we begin to fulfill the commandments, then we fulfill them only externally, and not spiritually, and we become so unaccustomed to spiritual life that its manifestations in others seem to us to be wrongs and delusions.
Thus, until death, we remain dead in spirit, living and acting not about Christ and not corresponding to the definition that what is born of the Spirit must be spiritual (10, pp. 181-182).
Meanwhile, what we received about Christ Jesus in holy Baptism is not destroyed, but is only buried, like some kind of treasure, in the ground. Both prudence and gratitude require care to open it and bring it into the open. The following methods lead to this: firstly, this gift is revealed by the arduous fulfillment of the commandments, so that as we fulfill the commandments, to the extent this gift reveals its lordship and its brilliance; secondly, it comes into manifestation and is revealed by the unceasing calling of the Lord Jesus, or, what is the same, by the unceasing memory of God. And the first means is powerful, but the second is more powerful, so that the first also receives its full strength from it. Therefore, if we sincerely want to reveal the seed of grace hidden in us, then let us hasten to quickly get used to this last heart exercise and always have in our hearts this one act of prayer, sightless and unimaginable, until it warms our heart and inflames it to ineffable love for the Lord (10, pp. 182-183).
The action of this prayer in the heart occurs in two ways: sometimes the mind precedes it, clinging to the Lord in the heart with unceasing memory; sometimes the action of prayer, itself first moved by the fire of joy, attracts the mind to the heart and binds it to the invocation of the Lord Jesus and reverent standing before Him - the first prayer is laborious, the second self-motivated. In the first case, the effect of prayer begins to be revealed by the diminishment of passions by the fulfillment of the commandments, by the warmth of the heart, as a result of the strengthened invocation of the Lord Jesus; in the second, the Spirit attracts the mind to the heart and places it there in the depths, keeping it from ordinary wandering. And then he is no longer like a captive taken from Jerusalem to the Assyrians, but, on the contrary, makes the migration from Babylon to Zion, crying with the prophet: A song befits you, O God, in Zion, and prayer will be offered to you in Jerusalem. From these two types of prayer, the mind becomes either active or contemplative; by action, with the help of God, he overcomes passions, and by contemplation of God he sees how much is available to man (10, pp. 183–184).
Active mental-heart prayer is performed like this: sit on a seat of one inch, bring your mind down from your head to your heart and hold it there; then, bowing painfully and with pain in your toes, shoulders and neck (from muscle tension), cry out with your mind and heart: “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me!” Hold your breath at the same time, do not breathe impudently, because this can scatter your thoughts. If you see thoughts arising, do not listen to them, even if they are simple and good, and not just vain and unclean. By holding your breath as long as you can, keeping your mind in your heart and calling on the Lord Jesus often and patiently, you will soon crush and destroy them, striking them invisibly with the Divine name. St. Climacus says: “In the name of Jesus, beat the warriors; there is no stronger weapon than this, neither in heaven nor on earth.”
When the mind becomes exhausted in such work, the body and heart become ill from the intense exertion of the frequent invocation of the Lord Jesus, so that this work ceases to warm and cheer, which supports the zeal and patience of the ascetics in this work - then get up and sing, alone or with your disciple, or practice meditating on some passage of Scripture or in the memory of death, or engage in reading or handicrafts, or other than to work your body.
This is written for the speechless. Others should be told this in relation to this: then get up and take on your usual affairs with the fear of God and attention to yourself, without, however, skipping the usual spiritual exercises - reading and meditation (10, pp. 185-186).
“When you take up this matter, then it is fitting for you to read only those books that set out the teaching about the inner life, sobriety and prayer, namely: the Ladder, the words of Isaac the Syrian, the ascetic writings of Maximus the Confessor, Simeon the New Theologian, Hesychius, Philotheus of Sinai and other similar writings. Leave all other kinds of scriptures for a while, not because they are bad, but because it is not the right time for you to deal with them in your present mood and desire: they can distract your mind from prayer. Read a little, but with deepening and assimilation. By this the mind, strengthened, is filled with the strength to pray soberly and cheerfully. Reading a lot (and even more so reading extraneous books) relaxes and darkens the mind and makes it powerless and absent-minded in prayer.
As for your deeds, be attentive to yourself and constantly monitor your intentions and goals, determining exactly where they are heading - are you doing everything you do for the sake of God and for the goodness and salvation of your soul, so as not to be stolen from you without knowledge and not to turn out to be only a god-pleaser in appearance, but in your soul a man-pleaser. The enemy tries to steal every work, so that it is not done according to God. But let him relentlessly advocate and advance shamelessly - you keep the sincere intention of pleasing God firm and unchanging and you will not be robbed. Although sometimes the thought involuntarily soars to other goals when attention weakens, this is apologized and forgiven for the sake of that one main intention and aspiration of the heart, which the Almighty sees.
You need to know that a sure sign of the goodness of a feat and at the same time a condition for success through it is pain. The one who walks painlessly will not receive fruit. Heart disease and bodily labor bring into manifestation the gift of the Holy Spirit, given to every believer in holy Baptism, who is buried in passions by our negligence in fulfilling the commandments, but by the ineffable mercy of God is resurrected again in Repentance. Do not give up on your labors because they are painful, so as not to be condemned for infertility and hear: take the talent from him.
Any feat, physical or mental, that is not accompanied by pain and does not require labor, does not bear fruit: the Kingdom of God is in need, and the needy delights e 134 (Matthew 11:12).
Many have worked and are working painlessly for many years, but for the sake of this painlessness they were alien to purity and not involved in the Holy Spirit as those who rejected the severity of illness. In negligence and relaxation, those who do it seem to work hard, but do not reap any fruit because of painlessness. If, according to the prophet, our loins do not break down, exhausted from the labors of fasting, and if we do not implant painful feelings of contrition in our hearts and do not become sick like a woman giving birth, then we will not be able to give birth to the spirit of salvation on the earth of our hearts.
The very words of the prayer sometimes all said: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me!” - sometimes half: “Jesus, Son of God, have mercy on me!” The latter is more convenient for a beginner due to the infancy of his mind. Say them either in your mind only, or with the sound of your voice.
No one can hold the mind, if not the Spirit. Having crawled in the fall, the mind has moved away from God and is carried everywhere like a captive. He cannot be established again if he does not submit to God and if, having united with Him again, he is not held by Him in prayer. When the effect of prayer comes, then it will hold him with joy and will not allow him to be taken captive for plunder.
When thoughts attack and distract you from prayer, do not fight them with your own weapons; but, instead of any weapon, call on the Lord Jesus often and patiently - and they will run away. Not tolerating the warmth of the heart that comes from prayer, they will scatter as if scorched by fire. Our God is fire, consuming malice. Quick to help, He will immediately take vengeance on those who earnestly cry out to Him day and night.
If this inner discipline alone is not enough, stand up and, imitating Moses, raise your hands and eyes to heaven - and God will defeat your enemies (10, pp. 186-190).
This action of calling God to thoughts is depicted by John Kolov in the following comparison: “I,” he says, “are like a man who sits under a large tree and sees that many animals and snakes are approaching him. If he cannot stand against them, he climbs a tree and is saved. So I am: I sit in my cell and see evil thoughts rising up against me; when I lack strength against them, I resort to God through prayer - and I am saved from the enemy.”
Don’t give up praying either. In relation to it, not everyone acts in the same way: some keep a great prayer rule, others completely abandon the prayer book, praying to the Lord with one mental prayer. You choose the middle: do not collect a lot of prayers, for this causes confusion, but do not leave them at all, in case of weakness and relaxation. If you see that prayer is active in you and does not stop moving in your heart, do not leave it and do not pick up your prayer book.
This would mean, leaving God inside, going out from there and extending a conversation to Him from the outside. Those who do not yet have the effect of prayer need to say a lot of prayer, and even without measure, in order to constantly be in this much prayer and variety of prayers, until such painful work of prayer warms the heart and the action of prayer begins in it.
Whoever finally tastes this grace must say prayers in moderation, and remain more in mental prayer, as the fathers commanded. In case of relaxation, you need to say a prayer or read the patristic writings. The use of oars is unnecessary when the wind has filled the sails: they are needed when the wind falls and the boat stops.
He who holds a sorrowful cry in prayer has a great weapon against his enemies, so as not to fall into conceit from the joy given by prayer.
He who keeps this joy-sadness will avoid all harm. Real, unpretentious prayer is one in which warmth with the Jesus Prayer puts fire into the soil of our heart and scorches passions like thorns. It overshadows the soul with joy and peace and comes not from the gums or ears of the country, nor even from above, but vegetates in the heart, like a source of water from the life-giving Spirit. Love this one and strive to acquire it in your heart, keep your mind always dreamless. With her, do not be afraid of anything, for the One who said: take heart: I am, do not be afraid 135, is Himself with us. Whoever, having set himself in this way, lives righteously and chastely, and is alien to man-pleasing and arrogance, will stand and not suffer any harm, even if the entire demonic regiment rises up against him and brings upon him countless temptations.”
The matter of prayer, as you see, is explained in more detail by St. Gregory in some parts. But as for the position of the body, they did not add anything special (10, pp. 190–192).
49. Teaching on prayer by Nikifor the monk
You,” writes Nikephoros, a monk, in the Philokalia, “who wish to perceive the heavenly fire heartily, in feeling, and to experience experimentally that there is a Kingdom of Heaven existing within you, come, I will tell you the science of heavenly living, or, better yet, the art that without difficulty leads its worker into the haven of dispassion. Through the fall we went outside; let us return to ourselves, turning away from the external. Reconciliation and kinship with God is impossible for us if we do not first return to ourselves and enter inside from the outside. That is why it is a wonderful thing to tear ourselves away from the bonds of vain, worldly concerns and to establish and preserve the present kingdom within us. So, imitating our fathers, let us seek the treasure hidden within our hearts and, having found it, let us hold it tightly, doing and keeping it.
I will now cite the testimony of our holy fathers and teachers that a truly Christian life is an internal life, and not an external one (10, pp. 193-194).
The brother asked Abba Agathon: “Which is more correct – bodily labor or guarding the heart?” To this the elder answered: “Man is like a tree; bodily labor is the leaves, and the preservation of the heart is the fruit. Since, according to Scripture, every tree that does not produce good fruit is cut down and thrown into fire, it is obvious that we must direct all our care to the fruit, that is, to the preservation of the heart. However, we also need leafy clothing and decoration, that is, bodily labor.”
St. John Climacus says: "Seal the door of the cell from the body, the door of the tongue from broadcasting, and the inner door from evil spirits. Sitting on high (that is, having established your attention above the heart), observe, if you are skillful, and see how, when, what kind and in what number the thieves approach to enter the vineyard of your heart and steal the grapes. Having become tired, the overseer (that is, listening to the heart), gets up, prays, then sits down again and courageously takes up the same task (that is, guarding the heart)” (10, pp. 193–194).
St. Macarius the Great teaches: “The main task of the ascetic is to enter into his heart, make war with Satan, hate him and, opposing his thoughts, fight against him.”
St. Isaac the Syrian writes: "Strive to enter into your inner treasury, and you will see the treasure of heaven. The ladder to this kingdom is hidden within you, that is, in your heart. So, wash yourself from sin and gather yourself in your heart: there you will find degrees by which you can ascend (to the higher, to perfection in the spirit)."
Here are the sayings of Carpathias (correctly, John of Carpathus): “Many feats and labor are required in prayers in order to find an undisturbed state of thoughts - another kind of heaven of the heart, where Christ lives, as the apostle says: or you do not know that Christ lives in you, unless you are unskillful 136” (2 Cor. 13:5).
Here are the words of Simeon the New Theologian: Since man was expelled from paradise and separated from God, the devil and demons have gained freedom day and night to invisibly shake the mental power of every person. The mind can be protected from this only by constant remembrance of God. Whoever has the memory of God impressed in his heart can keep his mental power from fermenting 137 .
You see that, in addition to external feats, there is also internal work, which consists of paying attention to the mind and guarding the heart.
I will now explain what this doing consists of and how to get used to it.
Almost everyone learns this greatest of great deeds from others through learning. Very rare people unscientifically receive it directly from God, warmth for the sake of their faith. So, you need to look for a mentor who knows the business. If there is no such mentor, then, calling on God for help, in contrition of heart and tears, do what I tell you.
It is known that the breath we breathe carries air through the lungs to the heart. So, sit down and, having collected your mind, bring it inside by this way of breathing, force it, along with this inhaled air, to descend into the very heart and keep it there, not giving it freedom to go out, as it would like. Keeping him there, do not leave him idle, but give him these sacred verbs: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me!”, and let him repeat them incessantly day and night. Take care to get used to this inward stay and take care that your mind does not quickly leave there, for at first it will be very depressed from being confined inside and being cramped. But when he gets used to it, he will no longer rush around external things: he will be happy and happy to be there. Just as a man returning to his home from a foreign country does not remember himself with joy when he sees his wife and children again, so the mind, when united with the heart, is filled with indescribable joy and joy.
If you manage to enter your heart along the path that I showed you, give thanks to God, glorify Him and stick to this practice always: it will teach you what you never thought about. If, after having worked a lot, you are not able to enter the lands of the heart in the way that I showed you, then do what I tell you again, and with God’s help you will find what you are looking for.
It is known that the literature of every person (the inner word, the word with which we converse with ourselves) is in his chest, for there, inside the chest, when the lips are silent, we talk to ourselves and consult, there we make prayers (when we read them from memory) and psalmody, there we conduct every other conversation with ourselves.
Take away every thought from this literature, and let it be said incessantly: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me!” And force yourself, instead of any other speech, to always scream this one thing inside. Continue patiently in this activity for only a few moments, and through this the entrance to your heart will be revealed to you, without any doubt, as we ourselves have learned through experience.
Together with this much-desired and joyful attention, the whole face of virtues will come to you: love, joy, peace, long-suffering, meekness, etc.”
So Elder Nikifor took a different path, but still came to the same thing - to concentrate the mind in the heart and constantly cry out to the Lord there.
Regarding how to hold the body while learning to do this, we find that it teaches one to find the heart through breathing. With this he seems to answer the question of the ignorant, where is the heart. Breathe into yourself, as he says, and where the breath stops, there the heart stops, there stand with attention and mind. Another feature is that he advises those who would find it difficult to act in the previous way to intelligently say a prayer where the organ of speech is - at the beginning of the larynx or at its entrance into the chest cavity. But this does not definitively determine the place of attention and prayer, but only indicates it as a transition point (10, pp. 195–199).
50. The teaching on prayer of Saint Callistus, Patriarch of Constantinople, and Ignatius, his co-secretary
The beginning of life according to God is zeal and diligent effort to live according to the saving commandments of Christ; the end is the manifestation in perfection of that which was imagined in us by Divine grace in Baptism, or, what is the same, putting off the old man with his deeds and lusts, putting on the new, spiritual, that is, the Lord Jesus Christ, as the divine Paul says: my children, in the image of my illness, until Christ will be imagined in you 138 (Gal. 4:19).
"When we are baptized,” says St. Chrysostom, “then our soul shines more than the sun, purified by the Holy Spirit. Just as pure silver, lying against the rays of the sun, emits rays itself, not by its nature, but because of its illumination by the sun, so the soul, purified in Baptism, receives rays from the glory of the Spirit and itself is internally glorious. But, alas! this glory, indescribable and terrible, remains in us for one or two days, and then we extinguish it, causing a storm of everyday worries and passionate affairs.”
In the Divine womb, that is, in the sacred font, we receive perfect Divine grace. If after that we hide it under the darkness of worldly cares and passions, then we can again restore and cleanse it with repentance and fulfillment of God’s commandments and see its prenatural brightness. This happens according to the measure of each person’s faith and the warmth of his zeal to live according to faith, especially according to the good will of the Lord Jesus Christ.
St. Mark says: “Christ, the perfect God, bestowed upon those who were baptized the perfect grace of the Holy Spirit, which does not require any application from us, but it is revealed in us and manifestly created as we fulfill the commandments, until we reach the age of fulfilling Christ” (10, pp. 200–201).
So, since the beginning and root of the saving action is to live according to the commandments of the Lord, and the end and fruit is to restore the perfect grace of the Spirit, first given to us by Baptism, which is in us (for the gifts of God are unrepentant), but buried by the passions and again revealed by the fulfillment of God’s commandments, then it is fitting for us to be zealous for the fulfillment of these commandments, in order to purify and see the gift of the Spirit that exists in us clearer.
The Lord's confidant John says that he who keeps the Lord's commandments remains with the Lord, and the Lord is with him. The Lord Himself expounds this even more fully: He who has My commandments, He says, and keeps them, is the one who loves Me; but if you love Me, you will be loved by My Father; and I will love him, and I will appear to him myself. If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and we will come to him, and we will make our abode with him 139 (John 14:21, 23).
This exact fulfillment of saving commandments is impossible for us without the Lord Jesus Christ, as He Himself says: without Me you can do nothing 140, and as the Apostle confessed that salvation is about no other: He is for us the way, the truth and the life 141. Therefore, our glorious mentors and teachers, with the All-Holy Spirit living in them, wisely teach us: before any other work, pray to the Lord and from Him without a doubt ask yourself for mercy, and constantly have and bear His all-holy and sweetest name always in your heart, in your mind, and in your lips; to live with him unceasingly, and to sleep, and to be awake, and to walk, and to eat, and to drink. For just as at a time when there is no such calling in us, everything bad and destructive flows down on us, so at a time when it is in us, everything that is contrary is driven away, nothing good becomes scarce and nothing happens that we cannot fulfill, as the Lord Himself said: He who is in Me, and I in him, will produce much fruit (John 15:5).
So, having realized your weakness and placed all your trust in the Lord, having loved the commandments to the point of being ready to lay down your life rather than break any of them, turn all your efforts to become accustomed to and strengthen yourself in this unceasing calling on the saving name of the Lord, destructive of all evil and creative for all good. To facilitate this work, the holy fathers indicated a special kind of work, calling it art and even the art of art.
I will offer here the wonderful Nikifor’s natural art about entering the heart through breathing, which greatly contributes to the collection of thoughts 143.
His rule is as follows: sit in a solitary place and, having collected your mind, bring it into your heart by breathing and, stopping there with your attention, cry incessantly: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me.” Do this until this calling is grafted into your heart and becomes continuous.
И все святые отцы так учили. St. Chrysostom teaches: “I pray you, brothers, never cease to fulfill the rule of this prayer.”
In another place: “Everyone must, whether he eats, drinks, sits, serves, walks the path, or whatever he does, constantly cry out: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me,” so that the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, descending into the depths of the heart, will humble the destructive serpent, and save and enliven the soul. calling on the name of the Lord Jesus, so that the heart swallows the Lord Jesus and the Lord - the heart, and these two become one.
And again: “Do not separate your heart from God, but always keep in it the memory of our Lord Jesus Christ, until the name of the Lord is established inside the heart, and do not think about anything else except that Christ may be magnified in you.” St. Climacus also teaches: “Let the memory of Jesus be united with your breath.” And St. Hesychius writes: “If you want to cover your thoughts with shame and be sober in your heart without hindrance, let prayer to the Lord Jesus cling to your breath, and in a few days you will see your desire fulfilled.”
"Let it be known that if we teach our mind to descend into the heart along with the breath, we will also notice that when it descends there, it is single and naked, holding on to the memory and invocation of our Lord Jesus Christ; on the contrary, it proceeds from there and extends to external objects, and is reluctantly divided into many ideas and memories. To preserve this simplicity and singularity of the mind, it was commanded by the fathers experienced in this matter, so that whoever is jealous to acquire the skill to sober up the mind in the heart, sat in a silent and dim place, and especially at the beginning of this good feat. For the vision of external objects is naturally the cause of the scattering of thoughts; when the silent and dark church hides the external from us, the thought ceases to be entertained and more conveniently gathers into itself, as Basil the Great says: “The mind, not extended by feelings to the world, returns to itself.”
Please note carefully that the essence of this feat consists in a like-minded heartfelt, pure and ethereal invocation with faith of our Lord Christ, and not in this one descent to the heart by breathing and sitting in a silent and dark place. All this and the like were invented by the fathers for no other reason than the fact that they saw in this a kind of aid to collecting thoughts and returning them to themselves from ordinary soaring. From the skill of being collected and listening to oneself, the skill of praying purely and unconditionally with the mind in the heart is born.
Know also that all these adaptive positions of the body are prescribed, determined by detailed rules and are considered necessary until we have yet acquired prayer that is pure and ethereal in the heart. When, by the good will and grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, you achieve this, then, leaving behind many and various activities, you will remain united with the one Lord more than the word in pure and unparalleled prayer of the heart (without needing much of those devices).
Rare, however, and barely one in a thousand are worthy to achieve the grace of Christ in this dispensation; and in order to go even further and be worthy of spiritual prayer and anticipate the secrets of the future century, as soon as there is someone worthy of it in Rodech and Rodech. So, if you really want to be worthy of life in Christ Jesus, strive to achieve this so that at every time and every hour and in every matter, you can pray to the Lord purely and earnestly in your heart, so that in this way, from the age of an infant, you will be able to mature into a perfect husband, to the measure of the age of the fulfillment of Christ. Do not forget at the same time that when from time to time self-willed, pure prayer comes to you, you should under no circumstances ruin it with your prayer rules. This is how Philemon teaches: “Whether at night or during the day the Lord grants you pure and unvaping prayer, then leave your rules and, as much as you can, stretch to cleave to the Lord God, and He will enlighten your heart in spiritual work.
When you are worthy of the persistent presence of prayer in your heart, as Isaac the Syrian says, then you have reached the end of all virtues and become the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit; then prayer will not cease, whether you sit or walk, eat or drink, or whatever else you do; even in deep sleep, prayer incense will rise from the heart without difficulty; even if it falls silent in sleep, it will always perform sacred acts inside, without ceasing” (10, pp. 200–209).
51. The importance of artificial techniques in improving smart heartfelt prayer
This is where we will limit our extracts from the Philokalia. Almost all the articles in this book talk about intelligently standing before the Lord. I took only those teachers who remember both bodily techniques or some artificial adaptation of themselves to it. This is what these four are the only ones talking about.
They all consider this bodily adaptation useful and necessary for the time being, but they do not believe that the essence of the matter lies in it. All their attention is directed to giving guidance to the most successful skill in doing mental prayer or to this most intelligent presence in the heart of the Lord, in which the essence of the matter lies. It will not be alien to the meaning of their instructions to say: behave as you want, just have time to acquire this last thing. We offer you body positions that we ourselves have held and from which we have benefited. There are, however, among these bodily activities also those that seem to merge with mental prayer and never depart from it. It is necessary to pay attention to the heart, it is necessary to keep everything in the body in vigorous muscle tension and not allow your attention to succumb and be carried away by external impressions of the senses. These conditions, in whatever form you want and can, fulfill them in that form. A dark and secluded place is considered necessary to remove external impressions; but, if you can distract yourself from these impressions and among their multitude, stay where you want.
Sitting on a small stool, constricting your breathing, hurting your ramen, neck, and breasts is recommended in order to put the body in a cheerful direction; but, if you can do it in some other way or do it with just internal muscle tension, do it as you find more convenient, just don’t let go of your body members. Bringing the mind to the heart through breathing is indicated in the event that you do not know where to stop your attention or where the heart is; and if you already know how to find the heart, do as you know, just establish yourself in the heart. It is indicated to call on the Lord with these words: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me!”, but you can also shorten and change these words or replace them with others, even without words you can intelligently stand before the Lord; for power does not lie in words, but in the mood of the mind and heart. Knowing, however, this is all, you should not neglect the said position of the body. In every possible way the body must be given some position; but if experience has shown that such and such body positions are very suitable for doing mental prayer and success in it, then what is the need to deviate from them or invent new ones?
Moreover, after gaining success in prayer, they will naturally withdraw in some respects, just as the stage is taken away when a house is rebuilt (10, pp. 209–211).
52. About contemplative prayer and deviations when performing prayer
Here's what Speransky says:
"1. In order to enter into contemplation, they seek solitude, that is, the most remote corner of their room.”
That's fair. But it is necessary to insert this action into a number of their other actions in order to understand its meaning.
This is the order of life of the silent, according to Callistus and Ignatius. “After sunset, calling on your beloved and all-powerful Lord for help, sit on a chair in your silent and dim cell and, having collected your mind from your usual wandering outside, enter through your breath into your heart, holding the prayer: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me!” – combining the words of this prayer in some way with breathing inside.
With prayer, keep in mind the memory of death, Judgment and retribution, and, considering yourself more sinful than all people, force yourself to come to tenderness, weeping and tears, in which you will remain until they pass. Sit in this manner, praying and listening to the things said, for one hour. Then, getting up, sing Little Compline with attention and, sitting down, again keep up the prayer, pure and unparalleled, without any thoughts or dreams, with much sobriety - for half an hour. Finally, having marked yourself and your bed with the sign of the Honorable Cross, sit on it, thinking about the transience of real life, the vanity of earthly blessings, the sudden debt of death and how you spent this day; Having then asked for forgiveness of all sins, lie down on the bed, holding a prayer, according to the commandment of the elders: May the memory of Jesus sleep with you, and sleep for five or six hours. Rising from sleep, glorify God and, calling on His intercession, begin the first task, that is, pray in your heart, as shown, purely and immaculately, until one hour; then sing the midnight office.
If you have not yet established yourself well in silence or something else is stopping you, first sing the Midnight Office with attention and reason, and then sit down and pray purely and unconditionally in your heart, as it is said, for one hour or as the Giver of good things helps you. Then, getting up, sing intelligently the Six Psalms, the 50th Psalm and any canon you want. After this, sit down again cheerfully and pray for half an hour; then getting up, singing praises, doxologies, the first hour and dismissal.
From morning to lunch, placing all of yourself on God, force yourself to remain in prayer, pure, heartfelt and unwavering, and in reading. Read what is written in the Psalter, the Apostle, the Gospel and the scriptures of the Fathers. Then, after singing the usual hours, start eating. After dinner, read for quite a long time the fatherly writings about sobriety; Afterwards, sleep for one hour and, getting up, do your handicrafts, holding a prayer. And again, sitting down, pray purely and unwaveringly until evening comes; when evening comes, sing the usual Vespers.”
From this sketch of the day-night activities of the silent man, it is clear that sitting on a chair in the corner of his cell with a mental prayer to the Lord was part of their prayer rule and was not intended at all in order to ascend through this to contemplation, but in order to collect thoughts, go deeper into oneself, warm the heart and acquire the skill of pure and unwavering prayer. As for contemplation, we do not find in any of the fathers that it is possible to enter into it ourselves and, therefore, do something on our part to enter into it. Contemplation, according to them, was given precisely to those who had already managed to completely cleanse their hearts and deeply unite with the Lord. Out of a thousand, one manages to acquire pure prayer; and spiritual prayer or, what is the same, contemplative prayer, in rodech and rodech hardly one turns out to have (10, pp. 212–215).
“There,” Speransky continues, “they take the most comfortable position, that is, they simply sit down, cross their arms under their chests and direct their gaze to any part of their body, namely, to the navel (this is where one of the names given to them comes from). Experience has proven to them all the benefits of such a position, protecting them at the same time from sleep and from being entertained by outside light; but they are careful not to close their eyes; they remain motionless."
Where did all this come from? I learned everything that the holy fathers have about the position of the body during mental prayer.
Everyone can see that there is one thing and another here. We do not find any indication about the position of the hands. Regarding the eyes, we find only in Simeon the New Theologian that they must be turned, also following the mind, to the heart; but this is an internal act, accomplished only by tension. The eyes either close or, open, remain unable to see anything, because attention is distracted from the outside in and does not follow what is visible or heard. We also do not see the navel being taken into account in any way. True, among the newest mentors, as, for example, in the prefaces of Elder Vasily, the fast-monger Paisius Velichkovsky, in the paternal writings about sobriety, that part of the body is mentioned, but in a completely different sense. It is there that those who, not knowing where the heart is, in which attention is commanded to be established, are reproached, reduce the mind to this part of the body or to the loins. Here are his words: “It is appropriate at the very beginning to train the mind at the hour of prayer to stand on top of the heart and gaze into its depth, and not halfway to the side or at the end below...
Some, out of extreme foolishness, or better yet, not knowing what is the top or the middle of the heart and what is the half and what is the end of it, begin to act prayer from below at the end of the heart, at the loins. Others, afflicted with the latest unreason and rudeness, do not know lower than that very place of the heart, under the left breast and side of the existing, but imagining it in the middle of the navel of the womb, they dare - alas, their charms! - there is a prayer to act with the mind. It is appropriate, as it has been said, to create attention and prayer with the mind in the middle of the heart from above the breast, and not halfway from the chest and not from below the loins 144.”
Where did Speransky get his idea from? Or from Latin and French books, or, more likely, from current speeches. In his time, some part of high society was jealous of spiritual life, others laughed at it and invented various fables about their studies. Among them is this navel-gazing, and hence the derogatory name.
«Они, – пишет далее Сперанский, – начинают с “Господи, помилуй”, но у них, как и у нас, это скоро прекращается. A fire, once lit, burns by itself, and no one knows what it feeds on. This is the secret. You find again “Lord, have mercy!” in your thoughts only at the moment when you come to your senses.”
The words of this prayer are: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me!” or: “Jesus, Son of God, have mercy on me!” Огнь, о котором упоминается, возгорается не скоро, а после заметных трудов, когда возгорится теплота в сердце, постоянно усиливающаяся и воспламеняющаяся во время умной молитвы.
In-depth prayer to the Lord arouses warmth. У опытных отцов строго различаются теплота телесная, простая, бывающая вследствие сосредоточения сил к сердцу вниманием и напряжением, теплота телесная, похотная, тут же иногда прививающаяся и поддерживаемая врагом, и теплота духовная, трезвенная, чистая. It is of two kinds: natural, due to the union of the mind with the heart, and gracious.
Experience teaches us to distinguish between each of them. This warmth is sweet, and it is desirable to maintain it both for the sake of this sweetness itself and for the sake of the fact that it conveys good mood to everything internal. But whoever strives to maintain and strengthen this warmth through one sweetness will develop spiritual voluptuousness in himself.
Therefore, teetotalers strain, bypassing this sweetness, to establish themselves in the presence of the Lord with complete devotion to Him, as if placing themselves in His hands; they do not rely on the sweetness emanating from the warmth and do not pay attention to it. But it is possible to cling to it with attention and, resting in it, as in warm peace or clothing, support it alone, without stretching your thoughts higher. Мистики дальше этого не шли; They considered this state to be the highest: there was complete thoughtlessness, immersed in some kind of emptiness. This is the state of contemplation of mystics. It has nothing in common with the state of contemplation that existed among the great teetotaler fathers. Сперанский говорит: «Приходишь в себя и находишь “Господи, помилуй”.
They come to their senses both after thinking deeply and after the aforementioned immersion in thoughtlessness; but they also come to their senses after prayerful admiration into true contemplation, in which they do not control themselves. And since these latter states are rare and are given to few, we can reasonably believe that Speransky does not understand this and did not experience it with his friend.
“They (the silent ones),” writes Speransky, “remain in this state not as long as they want, but as long as it lasts. Its duration varies; there were cases that it lasted more than two days in a row, without food or drink.”
These traits lead to a state of captivity in contemplation. To some extent, something similar is possible both among spiritual sensualists and mystics plunging into emptiness. However, I do not know of any experience of two-day duration of prayerful contemplation. Experiences of how it lasted from evening to morning were recorded by the fathers.
“Here they sometimes see what they call the light of Tabor (a technical term dedicated to the only visions of this kind). I don’t know what it is, but I know positively that this vision is much purer, much more spiritual than our ordinary visions. It is completely inexpressible in words; ours are more or less defined; consequently, the degree, although true, is much lower than this vision, differing, perhaps, by only one step from the actual so-called vision of God” (10, pp. 216–221).
There is no mention of the Favorian light in the Philokalia. A dispute about it arose under Gregory Palamas, but it is difficult to determine what the essence of the matter was. Regarding visions of light or any face, all the fathers whose writings were included in the Philokalia have one law: do not accept.
What kind of visions does Speransky mention? There are visions - the product of a heated imagination, there are visions - enemy ghosts, and there are visions given by God.
Only the latter are true, and they all have one dignity - Divine. For those who have matured into perfect husbands, the Lord allows them to feel in their hearts and with their minds to foresee the ineffable blessings hoped for in the next century. We definitely don’t have words to express them. As for the sight of God, in the future the sight of Christ the Savior, God incarnate, is promised.
The vision of the Trinitarian God is not available to creatures in His person or nature, but only in appearances and revelations that are pleasing to Him and bearable for creatures.
“I don’t dare describe to you as reliably the way they behave (how they behave) in church; but from their teaching I have reason to conclude that they limit themselves to mental prayer, allowing themselves to plunge into the abyss of contemplation only so much as to, so to speak, stand with one foot in communion with all believers, who are not all contemplatives. It is true that they never allowed themselves either tremors or ecstasies - things, I tell you, of a lower order that we can and should suppress; and if they got the better of us, then we should urgently pray to the Lord for their cessation. For imagine that if there were many contemplatives in the church, excited in this way, what would it be, if not a meeting of shakers (truly raging)? This is the question of St. Paul in the above chapter."
There have been many similar phenomena in the West. The Orthodox Church of God has at all times presented examples of great saints and high prayer books; but it did not and does not contain these ugly products of self-made heated blood. There were manifestations of extraordinary actions of grace in God's chosen ones, but they were always peaceful and, overshadowing those who experienced these actions with peace, they spread peace around them.
That is why those who follow the right path of intelligent doing have nothing to fear from any sudden excitement or movements in the body. The grace that overshadows and guides them will not allow this to happen.
You can tell them: “Whether you pray in a church meeting or at home, go deeper into prayer, as much as it depends on you.”
How sober prayer books behaved in church - there are indications of this. One of the fathers says: “When you find where the heart is and get used to gathering in it, then you will perform prayer there, and contemplation of God, and reading, and any other spiritual exercise.”
From another we read: “If you sing with a student, then let him read the psalms, and you, listening to your heart and praying, take care of yourself and, with the power of prayer, drive away all thoughts coming from your heart: both material and mental.”
Judging by this, one can guess that during church services they, together with others, prayed to the Lord without distraction, both listening to the songs and standing before the Lord intelligently. Again it is mentioned about contemplation that one cannot indulge in it; and again it is clear that for Speransky it means a self-made deepening into mental prayer, or, rather, into the emptiness of thoughtlessness (as with the mystics), which can extend to self-forgetfulness.
“Will I,” continues Speransky, “tell you about my own pitiful experience next to these great examples? It's so insignificant. In Perm I experienced for some time something similar to what you are experiencing, but it did not last long. Since then, the form of my contemplation (one must understand - self-absorption in mental prayer) has always been a great emptiness, the absence of any image and any thought. This is, I believe, the same as yours. But the fruits of this state amount simply to a great calmness during the day, to a kind of sweetness, constant, although not strong. This is about feelings; As for the enlightenment of the mind, one notices some ease in understanding well-known passages of the Gospel and an unexpected understanding of certain features in the life of our Lord; in church the reverence is sometimes significant, more often a state of contemplation, less deep, less silent than when I am alone, which completely allows me to follow the service and strictly observe all our customs.
Do not think that I want to narrow all the actions of the Holy Spirit and reduce them to this one form - oh, no; I am convinced that His actions are countless both in their degrees and in material applications (is it not in visible manifestations?); but I ask, I beg you not to indulge in the tangible spilling of the spirit throughout your body, especially in church. The body must be in it as a deaf-mute servant: it is not worthy to take any part here, unless it were completely impossible for you to hold back the flow of grace. So, for example, with this healing, which I consider, of course, miraculous and for which I thank the Lord with you.”
Everything that Speransky said about himself contains the most ordinary signs that accompany the introduction of mental prayer to the Lord in the heart, self-made, laborious. Anyone who happens to pray fervently experiences a pleasant warmth in their heart. Those who are accustomed to mental prayer and perceive it with the feeling of their hearts experience it constantly. For all saints, this warmth is considered the first fruit of instilling mental prayer to the Lord in the heart. It is necessary, however, to know that manifestations of this warmth are not all of the same dignity. Elder Vasily, a follower of fasts to Paisius, writes about this, from the words of Patriarch Callistus, the following: “The warmth comes first from the kidneys, like encircling ones, and it seems to be lovely; but this is not delusion, but a matter of nature, as a direct consequence of that feat. But if anyone begins to consider this a matter of grace, and not of nature, then this will be delusion.
This, whatever it may be, the aspirant should not love, but reflect, and if at the same time the mind descends into lustful thoughts, delusion is truly deceitful; if the body is completely melted from the heart, but the mind remains pure and dispassionate and, as it were, attached to the inner depths of the heart, this is truly an action of grace, and not delusion.” From this it is clear that not every spilling of the spirit throughout the body should be treated unfavorably. When prayer deepens into the heart and overshadows it with warmth, then the mind is always collected and present in itself, and therefore is quick to understand and quick-witted. From this time on, all the truths of revelation begin to enter the heart, each in its own time, as if suddenly, in the form of insight. Only one feature expressed by Speransky seems untrue or untruely expressed. “The form,” he says, “of my contemplation has always been emptiness, the absence of any image and any thought.” Such complete thoughtlessness is alien to the holy fathers. They encouraged me to leave everything, but only to be united with the Lord.
They stood during mental prayer and advised everyone to stand in the conviction that the Lord is near and is listening, that is, to stand intelligently before the Lord and cry out to Him: I will seek Your face, as the prophet sings, I will seek Your face, O Lord. When they say that it is necessary to drive away every thought, they always add: drive away every extraneous thought (10, pp. 221–228).
53. Perfection in prayer is possible only in the true Church
God, the Provider of all, listens to the prayers of everyone, according to their diligence, for for Him there is not a single abandoned or forgotten creature, much less a rational creature that turns to Him as best it can. But we cannot allow all religions to be equal and equally lead their confessors to true perfection. Christian faith alone leads to true perfection in the spirit, because it bestows regenerating, cleansing and perfecting grace; all other religions are without grace (10, p. 252).
...your life is hidden with Christ in God.
Words of Elder Parfeniy, Kyiv schema-monk. The writer himself heard them together with D.I. Makarov, now Archimandrite Lavrenty (10, p. 129, footnote 1).
There is an indication of how to do this in the Followed Psalter, where it is indicated what prayers to perform every day for those preparing for Holy Communion (10, p. 131, footnote 1).
Philokalia. Part 1, p. 62 (10, p. 142, footnote 1).
Almost all mystics were in this state. It is worth reading a few pages from their writings to make sure of this. Teresa was also in it (10, pp. 145–146, footnote 1).
Gregory Sinait. Philokalia. Part 1, p. 129 – on the back (10, p. 147, footnote 1).
In this way I explain the extraordinary states of the body of Basilisk, a man of strict life and a great man of prayer. A manuscript is circulating about what happened to him during prayer (10, p. 150, footnote 1).
Wrong word. Just a kind-hearted prayer, and, moreover, not a self-motivated one, but a laborious one, done with one’s own efforts (10, p. 151, footnote 1).
Our experienced elders have only one warning, namely: when, when doing mental prayer, the blessed warmth begins to approach, from below, from the kidneys, then it must be fought off; when warmth arises, falling from above and sober, do not touch it - let it be (10, p. 152, footnote 1).
For Speransky, contemplation is the same as mental prayer; He calls mental prayer mentality or reasoning about spiritual objects. It’s not like descending from the heights of contemplation, but relaxing the somewhat self-made tension of soul and body and standing in mental prayer in the heart with the simplicity of a child standing before his father (10, p. 152, footnote 2).
Philokalia. Part 1, p. 76 (10, p. 159, footnote 1).
There are several of them in the Philokalia, but the Words were published in Russian translation in a special book (10, p. 160, footnote 1).
Doing, created by our efforts (10, p. 166, footnote 1).
Into the contemplation of the Divine (10, p. 166, footnote 2).
Captivity in the contemplation of the Divine properties and actions of Providence and Redemption (10, p. 166, footnote 3).
Philokalia. Part 1, p. 130 (10, p. 167, footnote 1).
It’s good for us to be here (Matthew 17:4).
Who will separate us from the love of God.
The Kingdom of Heaven is taken by force, and those who use force take it away.
take heart; it is I, do not be afraid (Matthew 14:27; Mark 6:50)
Or do you not know yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you? Unless you are what you are supposed to be.
Nikifor cites many other testimonies. We leave them for brevity: these are enough (10, p. 196, footnote 1).
My children, for whom I am again in the throes of birth, until Christ is portrayed in you!
He who has My commandments and keeps them, he loves Me; and whoever loves Me will be loved by My Father; and I will love him and will appear to him Myself... whoever loves Me keeps My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make our abode with him.
...without me you can do nothing (John 15:5).
the way and the truth and the life (John 14:6)
...whoever abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit.
It is given word for word, as previously stated. Here it is only abbreviated (10, p. 204, footnote 1).
The life of Elder Paisius. P. 93 (10, p. 218, footnote 1).
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