Chapter 2

Teaching the Soul to Pray

Yesterday I showed you one way of cultivating in yourself the prayer-filled spirit—namely, the performance of our prayer recitations in accordance with their purpose. But here only the beginning of the science of prayer is laid down; we must go further. Remember how people learn languages, for example. At first they memorize words and forms of speech from books. But they do not stop at this alone, but strive with its help to reach, and truly do reach, the point where they themselves, without the aid of what they have memorized, conduct properly a long speech in the language being learned. So must we proceed in the matter of prayer. We learn to pray from prayer books—praying by means of ready prayers transmitted to us by the Lord and the holy fathers who have advanced in prayer. But we must not stop at this alone; we must go further and, having grown accustomed through mind and heart to turn to God with outside help, we must attempt our own ascent to Him—and reach the point where the soul itself, with its own, so to speak, speech, enters into prayerful conversation with God, itself ascends to Him, opens itself to Him and confesses what is in it and what it desires.

And we must teach the soul this. I will indicate to you briefly what must be done in order to succeed in this science.

The very practice, with reverence, attention, and feeling, of praying from prayer books leads to this. For as water flows out by itself from a vessel that is overflowing, so from a heart filled through prayer recitations with holy feelings, the soul’s own prayer to God will begin to flow forth by itself. But there are also special rules directed exclusively to this goal, which every one desiring success in prayer should set for himself to fulfill.

Why is it, tell me, that after praying from prayer books for so many years sometimes people still do not have prayer in the heart? I think, among other reasons, because they only somewhat exert themselves to ascend to God at the time when they perform their prayer rule; during all the rest of the time they do not even remember God.

They finish, for example, their morning prayers and think that in relation to God everything has been fulfilled by that; then the whole day—only task after task—and they do not turn to God at all; only toward evening does it occur to them that soon they must again stand for prayer and perform their prayer recitation. From this it happens that if the Lord gives some good feeling in the morning, it is stifled by the tumult and busyness of the day. From the same cause evening does not bring a desire to pray—a person cannot master himself to soften his soul even a little, and prayer generally does not come easily or mature. This wrongness—is it not nearly universal?—must be corrected; that is, we must arrange it so that the soul does not turn to God only when standing in prayer, but throughout the entire day, as much as possible, continuously ascends to Him and remains with Him. For this:

First, you must during the day frequently call out to God from the heart in brief words, according to the needs of your soul and current affairs. When you begin something, for example, say: “Bless, O Lord!” When you finish a task, say: “Glory to You, O Lord,”—and not with the tongue alone, but with the feeling of the heart. When some passion arises, say: “Save me, O Lord, I perish.” When a darkness of troubling thoughts comes upon you, cry out: “Lead my soul out of prison.” When evil deeds present themselves, and sin draws you toward them, pray: “Guide me, O Lord, on the path,” or “Let my feet not be moved.” When sins oppress you and draw you into despair, cry out with the voice of the tax collector: “God, be merciful to me, a sinner.” So in every circumstance. Or simply say often: “Lord, have mercy”; “Lady, Theotokos, have mercy on me,” “Holy Angel of God, my guardian, defend me,” or call out with some other word. Only make these invocations as often as possible, striving always that they proceed from the heart, as if wrung from it. When we act this way, there will be frequent mental ascents to God from the heart, frequent turnings to God, frequent prayer—and this frequency will impart the habit of mental conversation with God.

But for the soul to cry out thus, we must first make it turn everything to the glory of God—all its doing, great and small. And this is the second way to teach the soul to turn to God more often during the day. For if we establish for ourselves the law to fulfill the Apostle’s commandment to do all things to the glory of God, even “whether you eat or drink” (1 Cor. 10:31), then surely, with each deed we will remember God, and remember not simply, but with fear, as if to avoid at some point acting wrongly and offending God in some deed. This will make us turn to God with fear and prayer to ask for help and understanding. As we are almost constantly doing something, we will almost constantly turn to God in prayer, and consequently almost continuously practice the science of prayerful ascent from the heart to God.

But for the soul to fulfill this—that is, to do all things to the glory of God—as it should, we must dispose it to this from early morning—from the very beginning of the day, before “the human goes out to his work and to his labor until evening” (Ps. 103:23). This disposition is produced by meditation on God. And this is the third way of teaching the soul to turn frequently to God. Meditation on God is reverent reflection on God’s divine attributes and actions and on how knowing them and their relation to us obligates us—reflection on God’s goodness, justice, wisdom, omnipotence, omnipresence, omniscience, on creation and providence, on the arrangement of salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ, on grace and God’s word, on holy mysteries, on the Kingdom of Heaven. About whatever of these subjects you begin to reflect, this reflection will surely fill your soul with reverent feeling toward God. Begin to reflect, for example, on God’s goodness, and you will see that you are surrounded by God’s mercies both bodily and spiritually, and you would have to be stone not to fall before God in an outpouring of feelings of gratitude. Begin to reflect on God’s omnipresence—you will understand that you are everywhere before God, and God is before you, and you cannot but be filled with reverent fear. Begin to reflect on God’s omniscience, you will know that nothing in you is hidden from God’s eyes, and you will surely resolve to be strictly watchful over the movements of your heart and mind so as not to offend the all-seeing God in some way. Begin to reason about God’s justice—and you will be convinced that no evil deed will remain without punishment, and you will surely resolve to cleanse all your sins through heartfelt sorrow before God and repentance. Thus, about whatever divine attribute or action you begin to reflect, every such reflection will fill your soul with reverent feelings toward God and dispositions toward Him. It directly directs all of a person’s being toward God and is therefore the most direct means to accustom the soul to ascend to God. The most fitting and convenient time for this is morning, when the soul is not yet burdened by multitudes of impressions and cares about tasks, and specifically after morning prayer. Finish your prayer, sit down, and with your mind sanctified in prayer, begin to reflect now on one divine attribute or action, tomorrow on another, and produce in your soul the corresponding disposition. “Go,” said the holy Dimitri of Rostov, “go, holy meditation on God, and let us plunge into reflection on the great works of God,” and he would pass through in thought either the works of creation and providence, or the miracles of the Lord Savior, or His passion, or something else, stirred his heart thereby and began to pour out his soul in prayer. So everyone can do. There is little labor—only desire and determination are needed; but there is much fruit.

So here are three ways, besides the prayer rule, to teach the soul to ascend in prayer to God: devote some time in the morning to meditation on God; turn every deed to the glory of God, and frequently turn to God with brief invocations. When meditation on God is well performed in the morning, it will leave a deep disposition for thinking about God. Thinking about God will make the soul carefully perform all its actions, both inner and outer, and turn them to God’s glory. And these two will place the soul in such a state that frequently there will flow from it prayerful invocations to God. These three—meditation on God, doing all things to God’s glory, and frequent invocations—are the most effective instruments of noetic and heart prayer. Each of them raises the soul to God. Whoever resolves to practice them will soon acquire the habit of placing ascent in his heart toward God. The labor in this is like climbing a mountain. The higher one climbs the mountain, the more freely and easily one breathes. So here too, the more one grows accustomed to the shown practices, the higher one lifts the soul, and the higher the soul rises, the more freely prayer will work in it. Our soul by nature is an inhabitant of the higher divine world. There it should dwell uninterruptedly both in thought and in heart; but the weight of earthly thoughts and attachments draws it down and burdens it. The shown ways tear it from the earth little by little, and finally will tear it away completely. When they have torn it away completely, then the soul will enter its own domain and will dwell sweetly on high—here spiritually and mentally, and afterwards will be deemed worthy to abide before God’s face in the ranks of angels and saints with its very being. May the Lord deem you all worthy of this through His grace. Amen. November 22, 1864.