Chapter 28

On Prayer Rule and Short Prayers

^28.2.1 May the mercy of God be with you!

^28.3.1 Most reverend Father, N!...

^28.4.1 Because of the weakness of your eyesight, you may limit your prayer rule to a set time, and an hour, as you’re already doing, is quite sufficient for it. Instead of reading prayers from prayer books, you may pray using short little prayers. Here’s how to do it: choose three, four, or five short little prayers suited to your spiritual needs, memorize them, and repeat each one five to ten times during your prayer rule, just as you do with the Jesus Prayer, taking great care that your thoughts and feelings—the very ones the little prayers express—go hand in hand with the words. Labor at this for an hour, and that’s enough. The main thing is that every little prayer you say should come from the heart. To achieve this, you need to think them through deeply when you’re learning them. The content of your little prayers should include: doxology, thanksgiving, petition, and especially repentance. You need to select little prayers like that.

^28.5.1 Sit down, read the psalms... and whatever verse strikes your heart, write it down. Then take the Octoechos, which is entirely made up of compunctionate appeals to God, choose the appeals that suit you, and write them down. You can also draw them from prayer books. You’ll gather many... Choose from these the ones most suited to you, and pray with these little prayers.

^28.6.1 An example of short little prayers can be seen in the twenty-four little prayers of Saint Chrysostom, which are placed among the prayers before sleep. You can now learn them by heart, think them through, feel them deeply, and use them. It’s clear that Chrysostom prayed with them.

^28.7.1 Rework the litany of supplication into short little prayers, like this: ‘Grant me, Lord, a day (or night, evening) that is perfect, holy, peaceful, and sinless,’ and the other six little prayers. Take from: “Have mercy on me, O God” the verses – up to “...Restore to me the joy of your salvation”... All these verses are deeply penitential.

^28.8.1 There’s your rule for the first time. Later you can select more little prayers that you need. Remember, it’s not words that pray to God, but the intellect and heart. So never pray with words alone. In the book Unseen Warfare there is mention of short little prayers. See the chapters on prayer.

^28.9.1 May the Lord bless you!

^28.10.1 Be saved!

^28.11.1 Bishop Theophan.

^28.12.1 April 4, 1891.