| St. Theophan the Recluse Coldness May the grace of God be with you. You write: ‘My prayer is somewhat cold and weak’. The coldness and weakness aren’t in the prayer, but in the person praying. Try to pray as you should and your prayer will go better. If a school-child writes carelessly, the teacher will scold them and threaten them with some sort of punishment. This makes the child more attentive and they begin to write more carefully. So scold yourself and threaten divine punishment, so that you can concentrate and pray properly. When it comes to our human activities, we’re conscientious and careful enough, so as to avoid being criticized by other people. When it comes to matters of God, though, we deal with them casually, because the Lord keeps silent, is long-suffering and gives the opportunity to serve him to us, his children, who have benefitted so greatly from his goodness. How bitter the hour will be when we have to give an answer before his dread judgment seat, when we’ll have to confess our guilt and our negligence. St. Theophan the Recluse Where did your prayer go? It was fine until now. You felt its beneficial action in your heart. Let me tell you where it went. Because you prayed a couple of times with attention and fervor, you had speedy assistance from Saint Sergius [Radonezhskij]. Did you imagine that your prayer had been firmly established in your heart and that it would simply continue on its own thereafter? This is why you began to pray hastily and carelessly. You’ve also stopped guarding against bad thoughts. Your mind’s given over to daydreaming and wandering. The result: you pray… without praying! There’s nothing left for you to do now but start again to strive to acquire real prayer, asking for the Lord’s assistance in this. Never think that any spiritual work is well-established and secure, particularly prayer. Always pray as though you’re doing so for the first time. You see, whatever’s done for the first time is performed with fervent zeal. I’m afraid you’re beginning to carry out your daily prayer rule hastily and carelessly, in an effort to finish it as soon as possible. See that it doesn’t happen again, because it saddens the Lord excessively. It’s better to say just a part of the set prayers with fear of God and reverence, rather than say them heedlessly. It’s even better to say just one ‘Lord have mercy’ from the heart, on your knees, with contrition, rather than to pray at length without proper attention. Chastise yourself thoroughly for this inattention of yours, because of which your prayer is fruitless. Those who pray carefully and assiduously always enjoy the beneficial fruits of prayer. What blessings we lose when we pray carelessly! |
| Praying to God as Father: On Clean Thursday St. Andrew of Crete’s Penitential Canon provides the prayerful mood for all of Great Lent. “Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy on me,” cries the Church among the canon’s troparia. This is reminiscent of the words of the prayer of St. Ioannicius: “My hope is the Father, my refuge is the Son, my protection is the Holy Spirit,” which the saint spoke from the abundance of his heart among the verses of the Psalter, which he read unceasingly. It is no accident that here, too, every ode concludes with an appeal to the Most Holy Trinity. We dare make this cry in a simple and all-embracing manner, as with the Our Father. People frequently talk about how difficult it is to pray – and, indeed, it is difficult. We recall the words of St. Silouan the Athonite: “To pray is to shed blood.” But at the very beginning of Great Lent we would like to say something a bit different. People ask about learning to pray as if they were trying to solve some difficult task, while genuine prayer comes from the depth of the heart of a Christian who has received the humble spirit of adoption. People constantly ask exactly what sort of prayer rule we should have. The Holy Fathers confirm this, saying: “A moderate rule is priceless.” But to this they unfailingly add: “Only one should not become a slave to the rule.” Because it is possible to collect a multitude of canons and akathists, recite them daily as “read prayers” in the words of St. Theophan the Recluse, and cover oneself with them from head to foot like David in Saul’s armor [cf. 1 Kings (1 Samuel) 17:38-40]. We know that this armor turned out to be too heavy for him, yet the Lord granted him victory over Goliath with another, much simpler weapon. The most important thing in prayer is a repentant spirit, a broken and humbled heart, and – born therefrom – pure and simple love. Genuine prayer is spoken in the language of babes: no matter how they babble, their fathers joyfully attend to them, since this babbling comes from a filial heart. Such is the Holy Spirit, Who during prayer groans with groanings which cannot be uttered in us [Romans 8:26]. |
| Photo: Anna Galperina It is good, very good, to memorize several psalms and recite them while you are working or between tasks, doing this instead of short prayers sometimes, with concentration. This is one of the most ancient Christian customs, mentioned by and included in the rules of St. Pachomius and St. Anthony. After spending the day in this manner, you must pray more diligently and with more concentration in the evening. Increase your prostrations and petitions to God, and after you have placed yourself in Divine hands once again, go to bed with a short prayer on your lips and fall asleep with it or recite some psalm. Which psalms should you memorize? Memorize the ones that strike your heart as you are reading them. Each person will find different psalms to be more effective for himself. Begin with Have mercy on me, O God (Psalm 50); then Bless the Lord, O my soul (Psalm 102); and Praise the Lord, O my Soul (Psalm 145). These latter two are the antiphon hymns in the Liturgy. There are also the psalms in the Canon for Divine Communion: The Lord is my shepherd (Psalm 22); The earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof (Psalm 23); I believed, wherefore I spake (Psalm 115); and the first psalm of the evening vigil, O God, be attentive unto helping me (Psalm 69). There are the psalms of the hours, and the like. Read the Psalter and select. After you have memorized all of these, you will always be fully armed with prayer. When some disturbing thought occurs, rush to fall down before the Lord with either a short prayer or one of the psalms, especially O God, be attentive unto helping me, and the disturbing cloud will immediately disperse. There you are; everything on the subject of a prayer rule. I will, however, mention once again that you should remember that all these are aids, and the most important thing is standing before God with the mind in the heart with devotion and heartfelt prostration to Him. I thought of something else to tell you! You may limit the entire prayer rule just to prostrations with short prayers and prayer in your own words. Stand and make prostrations, saying Lord have mercy, or some other prayer, expressing your need or giving praise and thanks to God. You should establish either a number of prayers, or a time-limit for prayer, or do both, so that you do not become lazy. |
| A Rule of Self-Attentiveness For Those in the World Written in consequence of a certain pious layman’s desire to conduct an attentive life amidst the world. The soul of all exercises in the Lord is attention. Without attention , all these exercises are fruitless and dead. He who desires to be saved should arrange things in such a way that he can safeguard self-attentiveness not only in seclusion, but also among the very scatteredness into which he is sometimes drawn against his will. On the scales of the heart, let the fear of God prevail over all other feelings: then it will be easy to safeguard self-attentiveness , both in the silence of one’s cell and amid the noise surrounding one on all sides. Prudent moderation in food, by reducing heat in the blood, contributes greatly to self-attentiveness ; but inflammation of the blood – such as from excessive consumption of food, from increased physical movement, from the swelling of anger, from the flush of vainglory, or from other causes – generates a multitude of thoughts and fantasies, in other words, scatteredness . For those desiring to be attentive to themselves , the Holy Fathers prescribe, first of all, moderate, uniform, and continual abstinence in food (St. Philotheus of Sinai in The Philokalia ). Having awoken – which is an image of the awakening from the dead awaited by all mankind – direct your thoughts to God, offering as a divine sacrifice the first fruits of the mind’s thoughts before it receives any vain impressions. In quiet and with great care, having done all that is necessary for the body upon arising from sleep, read the customary prayer rule, concerning yourself not so much with the quantity of prayer as with its quality, that is, that it be performed attentively ; so that, due to this attention , your heart might be sanctified and quickened by prayerful compunction and contrition. After the prayer rule, again taking great care to be attentive , read the New Testament, primarily the Gospel. During this reading, make careful note of all of the instructions and commandments of Christ, so that they might guide your actions, both seen and unseen. |
| Разделы портала «Азбука веры» The Rule of the Mother of God of St Seraphim The usual Trisagion Prayers and the Symbol of the Faith are followed by the prayers of the Rule of the Mother of God, in which an opening prayer indicates the meditation for the following decade of Rejoice, O Virgin Mother of God… prayers, which themselves are followed by closing personal prayers. Then follow an Our Father… and Open unto us… prayer prior to beginning of the next opening prayer for the next decade. The rule concludes with It is truly meet… and the usual closing for daily prayers. The Rule of the Mother of God of St Seraphim of Sarov is generally known, with the pre-decade prayers known having been taught to several disciples, but with St Seraphim having kept secret his after-decade prayers. The after-decade prayers included here are those of a disciple of the Saint, a holy nun, except for the tenth, thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth, which were incomplete or lost, and have been reconstructed. In the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. God be merciful to me, a sinner. Glory to Thee, our God, glory to Thee. O Heavenly King, Comforter, Spirit of Truth, Who art everywhere present and fillest all things, O Treasury of every good and Bestower of life: come and dwell in us, and cleanse us from every stain, and save our souls, O Good One. Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal, have mercy on us. (Three times.) Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, both now and ever and unto the ages of ages. Amen. O Most Holy Trinity, have mercy on us. O Lord, blot out our sins. O Master, pardon our iniquities. O Holy One, visit and heal our infirmities, for Thy Name’s sake. Lord, have mercy. (Three times.) Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, both now and ever and unto the ages of ages. Amen. Our Father, Who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy Name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. |
| My “One Thing” Source: Synaxis: A Blog of St Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary Priest Paul Coats 19 May 2016 Photo: http://www.pravoslavie.ru/ At various times and circumstances in my life I’ve struggled with a sense of accomplishment and a sense of order. I’m a pretty well-ordered person, outwardly, but inside I often feel like I’m in danger of failure . . . and I find myself trying to address that by doing more or “accomplishing” more. I “get disciplined” and do some extra planning, and try to follow through better. This goes on for some time, with varying degrees of success. But I easily abandon my best-laid plans of “orderly doing” with the slightest excuse or simply evolve into something else, another mode of operation. All this is probably a very common problem, the psychology or spirituality of which is pretty basic and well understood–by others! Prayer and silence is something I want to do, but have a hard time sticking with it, as do many people. My latest attempt at surrendering my own will to God is to start praying at a particular time of day, and always keep that time of prayer. I have a prayer rule that is my own, but whether I complete it all or only parts is not as important as starting at the same time every day. This is my “one thing” that is a test of my own willingness to surrender my will to God. And even this small thing has proven extremely hard to do . . . a sign of exactly how out-of-control and unwilling I am to surrender anything to God. I think the person that can really follow through with this “small” thing has really achieved something pretty awesome, and by God’s grace has acquired some humility. It occurs to me that the Liturgy of the Church (meaning any service) begins at a particular time and in most churches does not begin late. This is one of many examples of how the Church does for us what we may not be able to sustain on our own. Collectively, we keep each other to the ascetic rule, so to speak–the rule of beginning prayer at a particular time, always, every day (every day the Liturgy is said). Of course starting on time, always at a particular time, doesn’t seem ascetic because we’re all used to it . . . we have to operate that way to be courteous to others and so that our communal life will have order and peace. But this is also a gift to us for our salvation and continued growth–being a part of the community, and accountable to others, becomes our external motivation, a help, a support, a means to get to prayer on time. Of course, we even fall down at this and come to church late sometimes. But . . . prayers begin without us! This can be a hard reality, and a warning, that others are taking up their place in the Kingdom of God whether we are there to partake or not. I’m thankful for this “point” of surrender which does not wholly depend on me. |
| Photo: hranitel.club To avoid turning Lent into hard and senseless weeks of diet, one should keep several simple rules. The aim of a fast is to bend our body to our soul (to restore the right hierarchy of soul and body), to multiply love, to sharpen attention to our spiritual life, to train our will and gain our powers for spiritual fight. 1. “Always be happy, pray all the time, be thankful for everything” The temptation to fall into despair is strong. “How can I live without tasty food? No more entertainments! How long the services are!” In fact, there is no reason for despair. Long services are at the same time the examples of middle-aged spiritual poetry, philosophical reflections on the human’s place in eternity, feeling of unity with other people praying in the church as well as communion with God. Often we can face the other side of the Lenten despair: “I cannot fast according to the statue. I miss services. I get distracted by secular vanity.” Remember that God needs our heart, not our legs or stomach. He sees in a soul the desire to serve Him, and He sees the weaknesses, too. This constant recollection about God will become our constant joy about Him. 2. Keep praying! Of course, there is no need for us to get on the way of hesychasm. Still, we can try to get half a foot closer to perfection. We need to devote more time to prayer than we do usually. We should be more attentive during services – sometimes it might be useful to take a book with the texts of services. We should perform the prayer rule more thoroughly – leave your computer half an hour earlier and read the evening prayers. Add the prayer of St. Ephraim the Syrian. While on the way, read or listen to Psalter. It is rather useful to fight against numerous temptations during Great Lent with prayer: when you feel angry or get despaired you can cope with this condition with the help of short Jesus’ prayer. 3. Church prayer If we did not manage to organize our life in a way that we can only eat permitted foods, read the entire prayer rule or just pray during the day because of the everyday routine, the church comes to our rescue. During Great Lent, Divine services are performed every day in monasteries and many parish churches in big cities. We can go to church before or after work and stay at least for a part of the service. This will help to tune on a completely different from the secular environment mood. If we speak of Great lent, we should point out that there are certain services for which we could even take a day off. These are the Great Canon of St. Andrew of Crete during the first four days of Great Lent, the reading of the entire Canon of St. Andrew of Crete on the Wednesday evening during the fifth week, akathist to the Mother of God on Friday, and the services of the Holy Week. It is advisable to attend the Liturgy of Presanctified Gifts at least once during Great Lent. |
| Photo: http://www.pravoslavie.ru/ At the monastery I visit, the brothers have a rule that includes one hour of saying the Jesus Prayer while doing nothing else. Of course they strive to pray at all times, but for at least one hour each day each monk stands before the icons in his cell and says the Jesus Prayer. When I visit the monastery, I also try to practice this rule. (Gentle snickers are appropriate at this point.) I admit that I have experienced very brief moments of something that smells like a cousin to transcendence, but mostly it is a battle of self discipline that I lose several times within the hour until I finally give up and sit on the edge of my bench-like bed telling God I’m sorry for the last ten or fifteen minutes. There doesn’t seem to be any energy to pray that I have learned to tap into. However, when I am on vacation or at a conference, I experience something very different. I take long walks when I am away from home; and when I do, I say the Jesus Prayer. Although I still do not experience consistency in my prayer, I do experience something else. I experience a kind of desperation that becomes a fervent energy to pray. When I’m at home (and certainly at the monastery), the temptations I experience are usually of a subtle nature. I don’t recognize a train of thought as dangerous right away. However walking the shopping district of Boulder, Colorado, or downtown Chicago, or any city center, I am immediately bombarded with multiple easily-recognizable deadly tempting thoughts. Fear caused by such thoughts so easily gaining traction in my mind and producing almost immediate passionate responses in me creates a desperation that in turn energizes prayer. I find myself internally shouting the Jesus Prayer as I walk as fast as I can. In my experience, desperation is a key. I think that if I more carefully paid attention to my inner life, I would probably recognize the danger of subtle thoughts sooner. And in turn, I would probably find energy to cry out to God for help in contexts that are actually conducive to Communion–like my own office at home or in my cell at the monastery. Baby steps, baby steps, baby steps. Lord have mercy, Lord have mercy, Lord have mercy. |
| The importance of a disciplined life of prayer One medicine for the heart, is the use of a “Prayer Rule.” This “Rule” is of the utmost importance, for the prayer rule helps develop the discipline we all need to progress, spiritually. It is one of the great tools the Orthodox Way has to offer, and has been handed down, from the earliest of times, through the Fathers of the Church. The “art of prayer,” comes from the experience of the Early Church. The Morning and Evening Prayers should be said as though one’s life depended on it, for, in a profound way, our spiritual life DOES depend on it. The Precommunion Prayers, as well as the Postcommunion Prayers, together with abstinence from all food and drink from midnight on, prior to receiving the Holy Mysteries, is also a discipline that, not only is commanded by the Church, but properly prepares us for the reception of Our Lord’s Body and Blood. It is in the reception of His very Body and Blood, where we receive healing of both body and soul. The use of the Jesus Prayer, “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner,” throughout the day, aids us in a most powerful way, to live out our life, focused on Christ. There is power in the Holy Name of Jesus, and this prayer fulfills Saint Paul’s injunction that we “should pray always.” The Jesus Prayer, also known as the Prayer of the Heart, gives us the strength to walk with Jesus, throughout the day, even when driving through heavy traffic, weeding in the garden, waiting for the bus, or sitting in a long board meeting. Finally, it is important to remember that the Church, as defined by the Early Church Fathers, is not a religious institution, but, rather, a living organism, that is the Hospital for the Soul. Her priests, who first sought therapy, became the therapists. Therefore, the frequent use of the “tools” given to us by Christ, through His Church, are of the utmost importance to our spiritual progress. Weekly confession, and weekly reception of the Holy Eucharist, give us spiritual strength, and enable us to live “in the world,” without being “of the world.” |
| We often hear and talk about Great Lent as a special time in the life of the Church: it is the time of a longer prayer, restricting oneself in all spheres of life, the time of careful attention to one’s spiritual state. In order to spend Great Lent with God and His disciples and not to turn it into a month and a half of difficult and meaningless diet, “Pravmir” publishes 10 important rules. 1. Rejoice “ Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks” (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18), – the Apostle’s wise counsel is as relevant as ever in the Lenten days. It is tempting to become despondent, “How am I going to live without delicious food! I cannot have any fun now! The services are so long!” – whereas there is no reason for despondency. Long services are fine examples of medieval spiritual poetry, philosophical reflections on the place of a human in eternity, a sense of unity with other worshipers, and communication with God Himself. More often than not, there is a reverse side of the Lenten despondency, “I cannot fast according to the canons. I skip services. I get distracted by earthly things”. It sounds unoriginal, but it is nonetheless true: remember that God needs a heart not a stomach and legs. He sees both a sincere desire to serve Him and infirmities in a human’s soul. It is this constant remembrance of God that will be our unceasing joy of Him. 2. Pray without Ceasing No, of course, there is no need for all of us to become Hesychasts during Lent, but we can try to become half-step closer to perfection. One should devote more time than usual to prayer. People should pay more attention during the service: sometimes one should bring liturgical books with them. The prayer rule should be fulfilled more carefully: one should turn off their computer half an hour early and read the evening prayers. It is a good idea toadd the prayer of St. Ephrem the Syrian to one’s prayer rule. Likewise, one should listen to or read the Psalter on the way. It is helpful to fight the numerous Lenten temptations with a prayer: to respond to one’s irritation, anger, and sadness with the short Jesus Prayer. |
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