Chapter 96

Prayer Through Deeds

You complain of the poverty of your prayer. But indeed, one can pray without standing at prayer. Every raising of mind and heart to God is true prayer. If you do this during your tasks, then you are praying. I remember that in Basil the Great, the question of how the apostles could pray unceasingly is resolved thus: they thought of God in all their deeds and lived in unceasing dedication to God. This disposition of spirit was their unceasing prayer. Here is your example. I think I have already written to you that from active people, to whom you belong, one cannot demand the same as from sedentary people. Their chief concern should be not to allow improper feelings in doing tasks and to strive in every way to dedicate all of them to God. This dedication will transform deeds into prayer. It is written that the blood of Abel cries out to God (See: Gen. 4:10). So also deeds dedicated to God cry out to Him. One elder, when someone brought him something edible, said: “How foul it smells,” and yet what was brought was very good in content. When they asked him: “How can this be?”, he explained that it was sent not with good feelings and from something bad. Thus every deed is anointed with the feelings with which it is done. And those who have purified feelings perceive this. It turns out that just as a good fragrance comes forth from good flowers, so also from deeds done with a good disposition comes forth their own fragrance and ascends on high, like incense from a censer. Here is another prayer.

(Letter 555. Vol. 4, pp. 8–9)