Why is it, you ask, that one can pray for so many years
with a prayer book, and still not have prayer in his heart? I think the
reason is that people only spend a little time lifting themselves up to
God when they complete their prayer rule, and in other times, they do
not remember God. For example, they finish their morning prayers, and
think that their relation to God is fulfilled by them; then the whole
day passes in work, and such a person does not attend to God. Then in
the evening, the thought returns to him that he must quickly stand at
prayer and complete his evening rule. In this case, it happens that even
if the Lord grants a person spiritual feelings at the time of the
morning prayer, the bustle and business of the day drowns them out. As a
result, it happens that one does not often feel like praying, and
cannot get control of himself even to soften his heart a little bit. In
such an atmosphere, prayer develops and ripens poorly. This problem (is
it not ubiquitous?) needs to be corrected, that is, one must ensure that
the soul does not only make petition to God when standing in prayer,
but during the whole day, as much as possible, one must unceasingly
ascend to Him and remain with Him.
In order to begin this task, one must first, during the course of the
day, cry out to God more often, even if only with a few words,
according to need and the work of the day. Beginning anything, for
example, say ‘Bless, O Lord!’ When you finish something, say, ‘Glory to
Thee, O Lord’, and not only with your lips, but with feeling in your
heart. If passions arise, say, ‘Save me, O Lord, I am perishing.’ If the
darkness of disturbing thoughts comes up, cry out: ‘Lead my soul out of
prison.’ If dishonest deeds present themselves and sin leads you to
them, pray, ‘Set me, O Lord, in the way’, or ‘do not give up my feet to
stumbling.’ If sin takes hold of you and leads you to despair, cry out
with the voice of the publican, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner.’ Do
this in every circumstance, or simply say often, ‘Lord, have mercy’,
‘Most Holy Theotokos save us”, ‘Holy Angel, my guardian, protect me’, or
other such words. Say such prayers as often as possible, always making
the effort for them come from your heart, as if squeezed out of it. When
we do this, we will frequently ascend to God in our hearts, making
frequent petitions and prayers. Such increased frequency will bring
about the habit of mental conversation with God.
St. Theophan the Recluse, On prayer, Homily 2
Delivered 22 November, 1864
Delivered 22 November, 1864
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