A Homily on Meditation, or the Remembrance of God (Part 1)

Under the name of instruction, or remembrance of God, the holy Fathers understand some brief prayer, or even some brief spiritual thought, to which they have accustomed themselves and which they strive to make their own to their mind and memory in place of every other thought.

Can one replace all other thoughts with one spiritual, brief thought of God? One can. The holy Apostle Paul says: “I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified” (1 Cor. 2:2). A vain, earthly thought, constantly occupying a man, produces in him a destitution of mind, hinders the acquisition of useful and necessary knowledge: on the contrary, the thought of God, when made one’s own by a Christian, enriches him with spiritual wisdom. To him who has acquired Christ in himself through unceasing remembrance of Him are entrusted the divine mysteries, unknown to carnal and soulish men, unknown to earthly scholars and inaccessible to them: “in Him” (in Christ) “are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Col. 2:3). He who has acquired the Lord Jesus Christ in himself becomes the possessor of these treasures.

Instruction, or remembrance of God, is a divine establishment. It is commanded by the very incarnate Word of God Himself, confirmed by the Holy Spirit through the messengers of the Word (the Apostles). “Watch therefore at every season with prayer” (Lk. 21:36), the Lord once commanded the disciples standing before Him. He commands this to us as well, now standing before Him and beseeching Him, that He may deem us worthy to do His will and to be His disciples, Christians not only in name but also in life. The Lord spoke the words given here, pointing to those moral and material evils with which the earthly pilgrimage of each of His disciples will be surrounded, to those sufferings and fears which precede the death of each of us, accompany it, and follow it, to those scandals and sorrows which will befall the world before the coming of the antichrist and during his reign, finally, to the shaking and transformation of the universe at the time of the second glorious and terrible coming of Christ. “Watch therefore at every season with prayer, that you may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that are about to come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man” in the joy of salvation; “to stand” in that joy both after the personal judgment which comes to each man after the separation of his soul from his body, and at the general judgment, at which the elect will be placed on the right of the Judge, and the rejected on His left (Mt. 25:33). “Be watchful in your prayers”, says the holy Apostle Peter, repeating to believers the commandment of the Lord. “Be watchful and vigilant, for your adversary the devil, like a roaring lion, goes about seeking whom he may devour; resist him steadfast in faith” (1 Pet. 4:7, 5:8–9). Repeating and confirming this all-holy, saving commandment, the holy Apostle Paul says: “Pray without ceasing” (1 Thes. 5:17). “Be anxious about nothing, but in every situation, by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God” (Phil. 4:6). “Continue in prayer” (remain in it), “being watchful in it with thanksgiving” (Col. 4:2). “I desire therefore that in every place the men pray, lifting up holy hands without wrath and dissension” (1 Tim. 2:8). “He who cleaves to the Lord” through unceasing prayer “becomes one spirit with Him” (1 Cor. 6:17). The one cleaving to the Lord and uniting himself to the Lord through unceasing prayer, the Lord delivers from slavery to and service of sin and the devil: “And will not God bring justice to His chosen ones”, proclaims to us the Saviour, “who cry to Him day and night, and will He delay long over them? I tell you that He will bring justice to them speedily” (Lk. 18:7–8). The mark of monastic perfection is unceasing prayer.[1] “He who has attained this”, says Saint Isaac the Syrian, “has attained the height of all virtues and has become a dwelling of the Holy Spirit.” Practice in unceasing prayer, accustoming oneself to it, is necessary for every monk desiring to attain Christian perfection.[2] The practice of unceasing prayer and accustoming oneself to it is the duty of every monk, laid upon him by the commandment of God and monastic vows.

It is evident that the holy Apostles, having received personally from the Lord the commandment about unceasing prayer, and having transmitted it to believers, themselves engaged in unceasing prayer. Before receiving the Holy Spirit, they remained in one house, devoted to prayer and supplication (Acts 1:14). By the name of prayer here are meant the prayers which they performed together, and by the name of supplication the constant prayerful direction of their spirit, unceasing prayer. When the Holy Spirit descended upon the Apostles, making them temples of God, He made them at the same time temples of unceasing prayer, as Scripture says: “My house shall be called a house of prayer” (Is. 56:7). “The Spirit, when He dwells in anyone of men, then that man does not cease from prayer: for the Spirit Himself prays without ceasing.” The Apostles had only two spiritual labors: prayer and the proclamation of God’s Word:[3] from prayer they would turn to announcing God’s Word to men, from the proclamation of the Word they would return to prayer. They were in unceasing spiritual communion, now communing with God through prayer, now communing on behalf of God with men. In both forms of communion the one same Holy Spirit was at work (Acts 6:2, 4). What do we learn from the example of the holy Apostles? That following obedience—obedience to God’s Word that works—we must concentrate all our activity in unceasing prayer, because unceasing prayer brings the Christian into a state capable of receiving the Holy Spirit. The Lord, laying upon the Apostles various ministries, when He had made them capable of receiving the Holy Spirit, commanded them to remain “in the city of Jerusalem”, in a city of peace and silence, free from every ministry: “Remain in the city of Jerusalem”, He said to them, “until you are clothed with power from on high” (Lk. 24:49).

From the writings of the venerable monks it is evident that the remembrance of God, or instruction, was in common use among the monks of the first Church of Christ. The Venerable Anthony the Great enjoins unceasing remembrance of the name of our Lord Jesus Christ: “Do not consign to forgetfulness”, he says, “the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, but ceaselessly turn it over in your mind, hold it in your heart, glorify it with your tongue, saying: ‘Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me.’ Also: ‘Lord Jesus Christ, help me.’ Also: ‘I glorify You, my Lord, Jesus Christ.’”[4]

Unceasing prayer was practiced not only by hesychasts and hermits, but also by communal monks. Saint John of the Ladder speaks of the monks of the Alexandrian cenobium which he visited, saying that they “even at table do not cease from the mental struggle, but by a prearranged sign and gesture, the blessed ones, remind one another of the prayer accomplished in the soul. And they do this not only at table, but at every meeting, at every gathering.” The Venerable Isaac, a hesychast of the Egyptian Scetis, related to the Venerable Cassian the Roman that for his unceasing prayer the second verse of Psalm 69 served him:[5] “Make haste, O God, to deliver me; make haste to help me, O Lord”.[6] The Venerable Dorotheus, a monk of the communal monastery of Abba Seridus in Palestine, taught his disciple the Venerable Dositheos, as is told in the Life of Dositheos, to exercise himself unceasingly in the Remembrance of God, enjoining him to constantly pronounce: “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me” and: “Son of God, help me.” The Venerable Dositheos prayed alternately now with the first words, now with the second words of the prayer given to him.[7] It was given to him in this form because of the beginning state of his mind, so that his mind would not lose heart from the uniformity of prayer. When the blessed Dositheos fell gravely ill and was approaching death, his holy teacher reminded him of unceasing prayer: “Dositheos! Take care of your prayer; see that you do not lose it.” When Dositheos’s illness grew even worse, the holy Dorotheus said again: “How is it, Dositheos? How goes your prayer? Does it remain?” From this one sees the high regard that the ancient holy monks had for instruction. The Venerable Ioannicius the Great constantly repeated in his mind the prayer: “My hope is the Father, my refuge the Son, my protection the Holy Spirit, O Holy Trinity, glory be to You.” The disciple of Ioannicius the Great, the Venerable Eustratios, whom the holy writer of his life called the Divine, acquired unceasing prayer: “he always spoke ‘Lord, have mercy’ within himself”, says the writer of his life. A certain Father of the Raifa desert constantly sat in his cell, engaged in plaiting ropes, meanwhile saying with a sigh, shaking his head: “What will be?” Having pronounced these words and remained silent for a while, he would again repeat:[8] “What will be?” In such instruction he spent all the days of his life, unceasingly lamenting what would follow upon his departure from the body. Saint Isaac the Syrian mentions a certain Father who for forty years prayed with only the following prayer:[9] “I, as a man, have sinned; You, as God, forgive me.” Other Fathers heard that he practiced this verse with sorrow: he wept without ceasing, and this one prayer alone replaced for him all prayers day and night. The majority of monastics always used for instruction the Jesus Prayer: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” Sometimes, as need required, they divided it for beginners into two halves and for several hours said:[10] “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me, a sinner”, then for another period of time: “Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” However, one should not often change the words of the prayer: for trees frequently transplanted do not take root, as Saint Gregory the Sinaite notes. The choice of the Jesus Prayer for instruction is very well-founded both because the name of the Lord Jesus Christ contains within itself a special divine power, and because in the practice of the Jesus Prayer the remembrance of death, of examination by the aerial spirits, of God’s final judgment, of eternal torments, begins to come in due time of itself, and so vividly that it will bring the ascetic into abundant unceasing tears and bitter weeping over himself, as over a corpse already buried and rotting, awaiting revival by the all-powerful Word of God (Jn. 11:39, 43–44).[11][12]

The benefit from instruction, or the remembrance of God, is incalculable: it surpasses words, surpasses understanding. And those who have experienced it are unable fully to explain it. Unceasing prayer, as God’s commandment and God’s gift, is inexplicable by human reason and word. The brief prayer gathers the mind, which, if it is not attached to instruction, said one of the Fathers, cannot cease from wandering and roaming everywhere.[13] The ascetic can have the brief prayer at every place, at every time, in every occupation, especially bodily. Even while attending church worship, it is beneficial to practice it, not only when the reading is not clearly heard, but also when it is read distinctly. It contributes to attentiveness to the reading, especially when it takes root in the soul and becomes as though natural to a man. Instruction in general, and especially the Jesus Prayer, serve as an excellent weapon against sinful thoughts. The following saying of Saint John of the Ladder has been repeated by many holy writers: “Strike the warriors of the adversary with the name of Jesus: for neither in heaven nor on earth will you find a weapon mightier.” From unceasing prayer the ascetic comes to spiritual poverty:[14] accustoming himself to unceasingly ask for God’s help, he gradually loses trust in himself; if he accomplishes anything successfully, he sees in it not his own success but God’s mercy, which he unceasingly beseeches God for. Unceasing prayer leads to the acquisition of faith: for one praying unceasingly begins gradually to feel the presence of God. This feeling can little by little grow and strengthen until the eye of the mind will see God in His providence more clearly than the bodily eye sees the material objects of the world; the heart will feel the presence of God. He who has beheld God in this way and felt His presence cannot but believe in Him with a living faith manifested in works. Unceasing prayer destroys malice through hope in God, introduces into holy simplicity, freeing the mind from various thoughts, from forming plans regarding oneself and one’s neighbor, always keeping it in the poverty and humility of thoughts that constitute instruction. One who prays unceasingly gradually loses the habit of daydreaming, distraction, vain care and excessive worry, loses it more as the holy and humble instruction sinks deeper into his soul and takes root in it. Finally, he may come to the state of childhood commanded by the Gospel, become a fool for Christ’s sake, that is, lose the falsely-named wisdom of the world and receive from God spiritual wisdom. By unceasing prayer curiosity, suspicion, and mistrust are destroyed. From this all people begin to seem good; and from such a heartfelt disposition toward people is born love for them. One praying unceasingly abides unceasingly in the Lord, knows the Lord as Lord, acquires the fear of the Lord, enters through fear into purity, through purity into divine love. The love of God fills its temple with the gifts of the Spirit.

Says the Venerable Abba Isaiah the Solitary in his instruction: “A prudent rich man hides his treasures inside his house: treasure displayed outside is subject to theft by robbers and is envied by the powerful of the earth: so also a humble-minded and virtuous monk hides his virtues, as a rich man his treasures, does not fulfill the desires of fallen nature. He reproves himself hourly and exercises himself in secret instruction, according to what is said in Scripture: ‘My heart has grown hot within me, and in my meditation a fire has been kindled’ (Ps. 38:4). What fire does Scripture speak of here? Of God: ‘Our God is a consuming fire’ (Heb. 12:29). As fire melts wax and dries up the slime of vile filth: so secret instruction dries up vile thoughts, and passions are destroyed from the soul, the mind is illumined, thought is clarified and refined, joy is poured into the heart. Secret instruction wounds the demons, drives away evil thoughts: by it the inner man is given life. God strengthens him who arms himself with secret instruction; Angels impart to him strength; men glorify him. Secret instruction and reading make the soul a house shut and sealed on all sides, an immovable pillar, a quiet and peaceful haven. It saves the soul, protecting it from wavering. The demons are very troubled and silent when the monk arms himself with secret instruction, which is contained in the Jesus Prayer: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me”—reading in solitude assists the practice of instruction. Secret instruction is a mirror for the mind, a lamp for the conscience. Secret instruction dries up lust, tames rage, drives away anger, removes sorrow, takes away presumption, destroys despondency. Secret instruction illumines the mind, drives away sloth. From secret instruction is born compunction, the fear of God dwells in you: it brings forth tears. By secret instruction humble-mindedness free from guile is granted to the monk, watchfulness filled with compunction, prayer undisturbed. Secret instruction is a treasure of prayer: it drives away thoughts, wounds the demons, purifies the body. Secret instruction teaches patient endurance and temperance; announces to its participant the fate of Gehenna. Secret instruction keeps the mind free from fantasies, and brings to it remembrance of death. Secret instruction is full of all good works, adorned with every virtue, alien to and untouched by every base deed.”[15]

Saint Isaac the Syrian: “He to whom instruction in God is unceasing, drives far from himself the demons and uproots the seed of their malice. The heart rejoices at revelations in him who unceasingly watches over his soul. He who turns the gaze of his mind upon himself, sees in himself the dawn of the Spirit. He who has become disgusted with every wandering (distraction, scattering), sees the Master in the inner chamber of his heart… Heaven is within you, if you be pure, and in yourself you will see the Angels with their light, and with them their Master, and within their… The treasure of the humble-minded is within him, and it is the Lord… Passions are driven out and uprooted by unceasing instruction concerning God: it is the sword that kills them. He who desires to see the Lord within himself, strives to purify his heart through unceasing remembrance of God: thus by the brightness of the eye of his mind will he behold the Lord at every hour. What befalls the fish taken out of water befalls the mind that has gone out from the remembrance of God and wanders in recollection of the world… Fearful to the demons, beloved of God and His Angels is he who night and day with fervent zeal seeks God in his heart and uproots from it the opposing suggestions of the enemy.[16] Without unceasing prayer it is impossible to draw near to God.”[17]

The Venerable Cassian the Roman: “Prayer by this small verse (the aforementioned second verse of Psalm 69) must be unceasing, lest temptations cast us down, lest in prosperity we be preserved from pride. Let instruction in this small verse, I say, be ever turning in your breast unceasingly. Do not cease to repeat it, in whatever work or obedience you may be, or if you be journeying. Practice it as you go to sleep, as you take food, and in performing the lowest bodily needs. Such exercise of the heart will become for you a salutary rule, which not only will keep you unharmed in every assault of demons, but also, having cleansed you from every bodily passion, will raise you to invisible and heavenly visions, will lift you up to the inexpressible, known to very few through experience, height of prayer. This small verse will drive sleep from you, until you, having been trained by this exercise inexplicable in words, accustom yourself to practice it even during sleep. It, when you happen to awake, will be the first to come to your mind; it, when you wake, will forestall all other thoughts; it, when you rise from your bed, will occupy you until you begin genuflections; it will accompany you in every labor and work; it will follow you at all times. Practice in it according to the commandment of the Lawgiver (namely, Moses, lawgiver of Israel), sitting in your house and walking along the way, lying down to sleep and rising from sleep; write it on the threshold and on the doors of your lips: write it on the walls of your house and in the inner treasures of your breast, so that when you lie down, it may be ready as a psalm for you, and when you rise and set about fulfilling all that is necessary for a life conducive to the practice and unceasing prayer.”[18]

Saint John Chrysostom: “Brethren! I beseech you: do not allow yourselves ever to cease from performing the rule of this prayer, or to despise it… Whether the monk eats or drinks, whether he sits or serves, whether he travels or does something else, he must unceasingly cry out: ‘Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me!’ That the name of the Lord Jesus, sinking into the depths of the heart, may humble the serpent holding sway over the pastures of the heart, may save and give life to the soul. Remain unceasingly in the name of the Lord Jesus, that the heart may swallow the Lord and the Lord the heart, and that these two may become one.”[19]

A brother asked the Venerable Philemon: “What does it mean, Father, secret instruction?” The elder answered: “Go, be watchful in your heart and speak in your thought watchfully, with fear and trembling: ‘Lord, Jesus Christ, have mercy on me.’”[20]

Why is unceasing prayer or unceasing remembrance of God called instruction? Because the ascetics, upon whose deeds the dew of divine grace has descended, have discovered in the repeated brief prayer a spiritual, profoundest, inexhaustible meaning, constantly attracting and deepening their attentiveness through its spiritual novelty. And the brief verse became for them the most expansive science, the science of sciences, and the practice of it in the true sense instruction.

Such are the instructions of the holy Fathers: such was their practice. Not only all their deeds and words, but all their thoughts were dedicated to God. This is the reason for the abundance of the gifts of the Spirit in them. On the contrary, we are negligent about our deeds; we act not as God’s commandments command, but as it may happen, by the first impulse of the senses, by the first thought that comes. We are even more negligent about our words than about our deeds, and we pay no attention to our thoughts; they are scattered everywhere, they have all been offered by us as a sacrifice to vanity. Our mind, contrary to the state of a mind guarded by instruction, is like a four-gated chamber with all doors open, with no guard, through which anyone can enter and exit as they wish, bringing in and taking out whatever they please.[21] Brethren! Let us cease from such careless and fruitless living. Let us imitate the practice of the holy Fathers, and among other practices, the remembrance of God, in which they unceasingly kept their mind. Young man! Sow with zeal the seeds of virtues, accustom yourself with patience and by pressing yourself to all God-loving exercises and labors, accustom yourself also to the remembrance of God, enclose your mind in holy instruction. If you see that it unceasingly slips away into foreign and vain thoughts: do not fall into despondency. Continue the struggle with steadfastness: “Strive to return”, says Saint John of the Ladder, “or rather, to enclose your thought in the words of prayer. If it is snatched away (from its enclosure in the words of prayer) by immaturity—again lead it back (into them). It is natural to it to be unstable (to be constantly moving); but He who establishes all things can give it stability. If you constantly remain in this struggle, then He who sets the boundaries of the sea will come to you and say to your mind in your prayer: ‘Thus far you shall go and no farther’ (Job 38:11).” Instruction outwardly seems a strange, dry, tedious practice, but in essence is the most fruitful practice, the most precious church tradition, a divine establishment, a spiritual treasure, the heritage of the Apostles and holy Fathers, who received and transmitted it to us at the command of the Holy Spirit. You cannot imagine the riches of which you will become heir in due time, having acquired the habit of remembering God unceasingly.[22] Into the mind and heart of the beginner “have not entered the things which God has prepared for those who love Him” (1 Cor. 2:9) not only in the age to come, but in this very life (Mark 10:30), in which they foretaste the blessedness of the age to come. “Prepare yourself”, said Saint John of the Ladder, “through unceasing prayer accomplished in the secret of your soul, for prayerful standing, and soon you will make progress.” In due time instruction will embrace your entire being, you will become from it as if intoxicated, as if belonging to this world and at the same time not belonging, estranged from it: belonging in body, not belonging in mind and heart. He intoxicated with sensual wine does not remember himself, forgets his grief, forgets his rank, his nobility and estate:[23] and he intoxicated with divine instruction becomes cold, insensate to earthly desires, to earthly glory, to all earthly advantages and prerogatives. His thought is unceasingly with Christ, whom instruction serves as a sacred fragrance: “to some an odor of death to death; to others an odor of life to life” (2 Cor. 2:16). Instruction mortifies in a man the sympathy with the world and the passions, gives life in him to sympathy with God, with all that is spiritual and holy, with blessed eternity. “What have I to do in heaven?” cries out he intoxicated with instruction. Nothing. “And from you what have I desired on earth?” Only that I should unceasingly cleave to you in silent prayer. For some riches are desired, for others glory, but for me is desired “to cleave to my God and to place on Him the trust of my dispassion” (Ps. 72:25, 28).[24]