Chapter 102

On the Warming of the Heart in Prayer

102.2.1 The mercy of God be with you!

102.3.1 Good that you have received communion. Let this be unto your salvation!

102.4.1 Give rest, O Lord, to the eldress Alexandra as well![1]

102.5.1 If your heart grows warm when you read the usual prayers, then kindle the warmth of the heart toward God in this very way. The Jesus Prayer, if you say it mechanically, gives nothing, just as any other prayer that is merely spoken with the tongue.

102.6.1 When you pray the Jesus Prayer, try to think more vividly that the Lord Himself is near and stands before your soul and attends to what is happening within it. And in your soul awaken a thirst for salvation and the conviction that there is no other source from which we can expect salvation except the Lord. Then cry out to Him, mentally beholding Him before you: “Lord, Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on us!” or “Merciful Lord, save me by whatever means You know!” The whole matter is not in the words, but in the feelings toward the Lord.

102.7.1 Spiritual fervor of the heart toward the Lord is love for Him. It is kindled by the touch of the Lord upon the heart. Since He is wholly love, His touch upon the heart immediately kindles love for Him. And from love comes the burning of the heart toward Him. This is what should be the object of your seeking. The practice of the Jesus Prayer is only an instrument for this, or rather, only a labor that shows the soul’s strong desire to find the Lord.

102.8.1 On your lips, let there be the Jesus Prayer; in your intellect, the vision of the Lord before you; in your heart, a thirst for God or communion with the Lord.[2] When all this becomes constant, then the Lord, seeing how you press yourself forward, will grant what is asked.[3]

102.9.1 Please arrange all this in your mind and take it as your guidance, and read it often so as to refresh your memory of how you should act.

102.10.1 And explain all this to Chernichka. My soul aches for her, desiring that she be more firmly established in the inner man... For then no waves can shake her, like a solid rock.

102.11.1 Be saved!

102.12.1 Your intercessor, Bishop Theophan.

102.13.1 .