Chapter 1

The Beginning of the Science of Prayer

On the feast of the Presentation of the Holy Theotokos into the temple, I find it timely to offer you instruction on prayer—the chief work of the temple. The temple is a place of prayer and the field for its development. For us, entry into the temple is entry into the prayer-filled spirit. And the Lord is pleased to call the heart His temple, where entering noetically, we stand before Him, stirring up ascent to Him as fragrant incense of myrrh. Let us then learn how to achieve this!

When you gather in the temple, you certainly pray. And performing prayer here, surely you also do not abandon it at home. Therefore it would be superfluous to speak to you of our obligation to pray when you do pray; but I think it is not at all superfluous to point out two or three principles to you about how to perform prayer, if not as teaching, then as a reminder. The work of prayer is the first work in Christian life. If with respect to the usual order of affairs the saying is true—live a century, learn a century—how much more does it apply to prayer, whose action should have no interruption, and whose degrees have no limit.

I recall the wise custom of the ancient holy fathers, by which they, greeting one another upon meeting—did not ask about health or anything else, but about prayer, saying: how is it, or how does prayer work? For them, the action of prayer was a sign of spiritual life—and they called it the breath of the spirit. There is breathing in the body—the body lives; breathing ceases—life ceases. So it is in the spirit. There is prayer—the spirit lives; there is no prayer—there is no life in the spirit.

Not every performance of prayer or recitation of prayers is prayer, however. To stand before an icon—at home, or here—and to make prostrations is not yet prayer, but belongs to prayer; to read prayers from memory, or from a book, or to listen to another reading them is not yet prayer, but only an instrument or means of manifesting and stirring up prayer. Prayer itself is the arising in our heart one after another of reverent feelings toward God—the feeling of self-abasement, devotion, thanksgiving, glorification, petition, fervent falling before Him, contrition, submission to God’s will, and so on. Our entire concern should be that during our prayer recitations, these and similar feelings fill our soul, so that when the tongue reads prayers, or the ear listens, and the body makes prostrations, the heart is not empty, but some feeling is stirring in it, directed toward God. When these feelings exist, our prayer recitation is prayer; when they do not exist, it is not yet prayer.

It seems that nothing could be simpler and more natural to us than prayer, or the turning of the heart to God. Yet it does not happen in all people and not always. We must arouse it and strengthen it when aroused, or, which is the same thing, we must cultivate the prayer-filled spirit in ourselves. The first means to this is prayer recitation through reading or listening. Perform the prayer recitation as it should be done—and you will surely arouse and strengthen the ascent in your heart to God, or enter into the prayer-filled spirit.

In our prayer books are placed the prayers of the holy fathers—Ephrem the Syrian, Macarius of Egypt, Basil the Great, John Chrysostom, and other great teachers of prayer. Being inspired by the prayer-filled spirit, they set down in words what this spirit revealed to them and transmitted it to us. In their prayers moves great power of prayer, and whoever devotes his full attention and zeal to them will, by virtue of the law of mutual influence, surely taste the power of prayer in measure with how closely his disposition aligns with the content of the prayer. To make our prayer recitation a truly effective means for cultivating prayer, we must perform it so that both mind and heart receive the content of the prayers composing it. I will point out three very simple means for this: do not approach prayer recitation without prior, though brief, preparation; do not perform it carelessly, but with attention and feeling; and do not immediately after finishing prayers turn to ordinary occupations.

Prayer recitation is undoubtedly our most ordinary activity, but it cannot be that it requires no preparation. What is more ordinary for those who can read and write than reading or writing? Yet when sitting down to write or read, we do not begin at once, but pause for a while, at least enough to place ourselves in a suitable position. How much more are preparatory actions toward prayer necessary before prayer—especially when the preceding activity was from an entirely different realm than prayer.

So then, approaching prayer recitation, whether in the morning or evening, stand for a bit, or sit, or walk about, and labor in that time to clear your mind, drawing it away from all earthly affairs and concerns. Then consider who He is toward whom you will turn in prayer, and who you are, about to begin this prayerful turning to Him—and stir up in your soul a disposition of humbled and reverent, awe-filled standing before God in the heart. In this lies all preparation—to stand reverently before God—small, yet not insignificant. Here the beginning of prayer is laid down; and a good beginning is half the work.

Having established yourself in this way inwardly, then stand before an icon and, having made some prostrations, begin the usual prayer recitation: “Glory to You, our God, glory to You!”—“King of Heaven, Comforter, Spirit of Truth, come and dwell in us,” and so on. Read unhurriedly—think carefully about every word, and lead the sense of every word down to the heart, accompanying this with prostrations. In this lies all the work of reading prayer that is pleasing and fruitful to God. Think carefully about every word and lead the sense of every word to the heart—in other words, understand what you read and feel what you understand. No other rules are needed. These two—understand and feel—fulfilled as they should be, adorned every prayer recitation with full dignity and impart all fruitful action to it. You read: “cleanse us from all defilement,”—feel your defilement, desire purity, and hopefully seek it from the Lord. You read: “forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors,”—and in your soul forgive all, and with your heart ask the Lord’s forgiveness for yourself as one who has forgiven all. You read: “Your will be done,”—and in your heart completely surrender your lot to the Lord and show unreserved readiness to receive with equanimity all that the Lord is pleased to send you. If you act thus at every verse of your prayer, you will have true prayer recitation.

To be more successful in performing it this way, do the following:

1) Have a prayer rule, with the blessing of your spiritual father—not a large one, but such that you can perform it unhurriedly, in the normal course of your affairs;

2) Before you pray, in free time read carefully into the prayers that form your rule, understand fully every word and feel it, so that you may know beforehand what feeling should be in your soul at each word, and even better, if you memorize the appointed prayers. When you do this, it will be easy for you during prayer recitation to understand and feel. One difficulty will remain: the fleeting mind will constantly run off to other matters. Here is what you must do:

3) You must exert effort to preserve attention, knowing in advance that your mind will run away. Then, when during prayer it does run away—bring it back; it runs away again—bring it back again; so each time. But every time that something is read during the mind’s running away—and consequently without attention and feeling—do not forget to read it again; and even if your mind runs away several times at the same place, read it several times until you read it with understanding and feeling. Overcome this difficulty once—the next time it may not happen, or not with such force. This is how you must act when the mind runs away and scatters. But it can also happen that some word affects the soul so powerfully that the soul does not wish to continue further in prayer recitation, and although the tongue reads the prayers, the mind keeps running back to that place which affected it so. In such a case:

4) Stop, do not read further; instead, dwell with attention and feeling at that place, feed your soul on it, or on the thoughts it produces. And do not hurry to tear yourself away from this state—so that if time does not allow, leave your rule incomplete rather than disturb this state. It may overshadow you, perhaps, throughout the entire day, like your Guardian Angel!

Such grace-filled influences on the soul during prayer recitation show that the spirit of prayer is beginning to penetrate, and that, consequently, preserving this state is the most reliable means for cultivating and strengthening in us the prayer-filled spirit.

Finally, when you finish your prayer recitation, do not immediately turn to some occupation, but again stand for a bit and think about what you have accomplished and what it obligates you to, striving, if you have been granted something to feel during prayer, to preserve it after prayer as well. However, if anyone truly performs his prayer recitation as it should be done, he himself will not wish to quickly busy himself with affairs. Such is the nature of prayer! What our ancestors said upon returning from Constantinople: whoever has tasted what is sweet will not wish for what is bitter—comes true for everyone who has prayed well during his prayer recitation. And it should be known that tasting this sweetness of prayer is the very goal of prayer recitation—and that if prayer recitation cultivates the prayer-filled spirit, it does so precisely through this tasting.

If you will fulfill these few rules, you will soon see the fruit of prayerful labor. And those who fulfill them even without this instruction already taste this fruit. Every prayer recitation will leave a trace of prayer in the soul—continuous repetition of it in the same manner will root it in you, and perseverance in this labor will graft the prayer-filled spirit itself. May the Lord grant it to you through the prayers of our Most Pure Lady the Theotokos!

I have shown you the first, initial way of cultivating the prayer-filled spirit—that is, the performance of prayer recitation in accordance with its purpose, at home morning and evening and here in the temple. But this is not yet everything. Tomorrow, God willing, I will show you another way. Amen. November 21, 1864.