Chapter 3

Prayer as the Measure of Our Spiritual Being

I am very glad that all is going well with you, not in the monastery, but in your soul! For when there is prayer, nothing better is required. This is why it has been noted that the ancient monks, when they met with others — whether in mutual visits or elsewhere — first of all would inquire how prayer was going. In true prayer, all our highest relations to God are in action, and they ensure that at that time our spiritual life is in proper order. Prayer is a testimony to our spiritual being and the measure of it!

Why should it be surprising when we read that one of the saints rose to pray and did not depart, sometimes through the whole night and then into the day? Prayer lifted him into his native home, where the Father, Mother, brothers and sisters embrace him with full love and comfort and delight him. May the Lord grant you never to lose the structure of prayer within.

(Letter 542. Vol. 3, p. 242–243)