Chapter 29

On Prayer From the Heart Outside the Church

^29.2.1 May the mercy of God be with you!

^29.3.1 I give thanks for your prayerful remembrance at the shrine of the Saints, the servants of God.[1]

^29.4.1 Lord, bless your solitude. Don’t be troubled that you’re not in church. For God, every prayer from the heart is equally precious, wherever it may be offered. Here the only difference is habit. You can get used to prayer outside church too. Read less from prayer books. Pray more in your own words… you can even manage with just ‘Lord, have mercy’… Replace the services with prostrations and be satisfied with them. That’s what all the desert-dwellers and hermits did. And this is far better than reading. You can’t get by without reading at all. But something from memory, without a book. Bless us, Lord!

^29.5.1 I give thanks for the prostration of the Most Reverend Joseph. May he pray for me. Slothfulness has completely overcome me. What would I have done without her, thrice-cursed one.[2] Now it’s become a bit easier, as I told Metropolitan Platon about her.[3] Indeed, he prayed. Oh, when will I be free of her?!

^29.6.1 God’s blessing upon you all.

^29.7.1 Pray to God for me, a great sinner.

^29.8.1 Your intercessor, Bishop Theophan.

^29.9.1 October 7, 1874