Chapter 187

One Must Pray Without Images

What the elder said about visible objects as necessary in prayer—I think you have misunderstood. You must strive in every way that when you think of God, you think of him as the purest Spirit, having no form or image. But grace alone, working a feeling toward God in the heart, gives such thinking. Until that point, our thinking of God is incomplete, mixed with some form. For example, the prophet says: I have set God before me always, for he is at my right hand (Ps. 15:8). This is an image. Another like it: Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to heaven, you are there; if I descend to the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast (Ps. 138:7–10). This too is an image of God’s omnipresence. So it is with every other thinking about God and divine things.

The elder’s thought was that it is difficult for us to free ourselves from images when thinking of God; but you understood it to mean that you must always have an image and that without it you cannot even pray. That is your mistake, not the elder’s. Therefore strive in every way to pray without images of God. Stand in your heart with faith that God is there too, but do not reason about how he is.

Pray and seek that God’s grace may at last grant you a feeling toward God.

(Letter 898. Volume 5, pp. 167–168)