Chapter 51
On the Jesus Prayer and the Preservation of Interior Warmth
51.2.1 Great is the mercy of God toward us sinners! The Lord has called you. It is good that you obeyed and went. You went; so do not look back, and do not be lazy in your work.[1] Your first obedience has laid the foundation, and the end lies ahead. You have boarded a boat and set sail. With fear and trembling pray to the Lord, that he may help you cross your sea and reach the harbor. An abyss beneath us. How long before disaster strikes? The little boat will capsize—and down we go! But the shore—who knows how near it is? The shore is the grave. Until your last breath, you cannot abandon vigilance against the expectation of shipwrecks. Keeping this in mind, never give way to negligence or any relaxation, thinking that you are somehow beyond danger. Know this: whatever you may have accomplished and whatever may have been revealed to you, it is all nothing until you reach the harbor. I write this not to discourage you, but so that you keep your ear sharp. The Lord is your Helper—the Lord almighty and full of mercy. You must not therefore give way to despair, but go forward boldly in hope, even though with fear. But the Lord is a Helper to the zealous, to those who labor.[2]
51.3.1 You have now entered a monastic community—the most suitable place for those who practice ascesis. Do not think that now you can diminish your vigilance over yourself and reduce your labors. No. Rather, this is where you must sharpen your attention and watchfulness over yourself all the more. In the world there are its own temptations; in the monastery there are its own—and the latter, surely, will be far more severe. Be ready to meet it. You say that where you lived, children and servants often angered you. Now that you live alone, you’re safe from that side. But the enemy will find a way to stir up the passion that’s settling. Watch yourself, and train yourself not only to overcome the rising of passions, but to prevent them from arising in the first place.
51.4.1 What you experienced during prayer is the mercy of God toward you. The Lord has made you know by this feeling of His closeness to you that He is not unwilling to receive your labors, if only you keep your covenant with Him. Thanksgiving to the Lord! But don’t think that this is the summit or the end. This is only the beginning, and a weak one at that. You must now, following this sign, enter ever more deeply within, and become so firmly established there that you remain there without ceasing day and night. And that state which was then present—warm, peaceful, unmoved—you must take care to make your constant condition. So hold fast now to this one goal and pursue it, while strictly fulfilling all the requirements and proper order of your outward life. From the moment you wake in the morning, take care to gather yourself inwardly and kindle the warmth. Consider this your normal state. Whenever this is absent, know that something is amiss within you. Once you’ve established yourself in the morning in this collected and warmed state, then—all your obligatory duties must be carried out in such a way that they don’t disturb your inner disposition, and from what is voluntary, do what sustains this state; but whatever would disrupt it, do not do under any circumstances—for that would mean warring against yourself. This is a general rule for you. How it can then be carried out in different circumstances—the practice itself will teach you. Look to yourselves and grow wise. An outsider has no way to determine this. Make it your law to preserve recollection and warmth of the heart, standing with your intellect in your heart before the Lord. Then this itself will show you what you ought to do, or what you should allow yourself and what you should not.
51.5.1 The all-powerful aid to this is the Jesus Prayer. You must become accustomed to it so that it reads unceasingly there, in the place of the heart. But to become accustomed to it, you must labor. Now then, take up this work. Or are you already familiar with it? It seemed to me that you say this prayer only according to your rule.[3] Say it according to your prayer rule in turn, but you should also say it unceasingly—sitting, walking, eating, working. If it doesn’t take firm hold in your heart, you can set everything else aside and occupy yourself with it alone until it becomes rooted there. This work is simple. Stand before the icons in a prayerful posture (you may sit), and, bringing your attention down to where the heart is, say the Jesus Prayer there slowly, remembering the presence of God. Do this for half an hour, an hour, or longer. At first it will be difficult, but once you acquire the habit, it will happen naturally, as breathing does. With your interior life arranged in this way, there will begin in you a noetic life, or as they say, noetic activity. The first requirement here is purity of conscience, its blamelessness not before God alone, but also before people and before yourself, even before things. So whenever even the slightest thing slips into your thought or word that troubles your conscience, you must at once repent inwardly before the Lord, who sees all things, and he will bring peace to your conscience.
51.6.1 It helps greatly to establish a regular order of life and activities, so that you don’t have to think each time what to do, but so that it’s already decided and known beforehand. You’ve done that now; what remains is the struggle with thoughts, which will buzz around constantly like persistent mosquitoes. Learn for yourself how to deal with them. Experience is the teacher. One thing I’ll say. Usually thoughts circle in the head. These are empty. But watch for those that pierce the heart like an arrow and leave a mark there, like a scratch. At once take hold and erase that mark with prayer, raising up in its place the opposite feeling. When the warmth of the heart is preserved, these cases are rare and weak.
51.7.1 Keep to your prayer rule as it is for now, until circumstances show you that something needs to be changed. I believe that after what you have experienced, prostrations will suit you better than reciting prayers. And give more attention to this part, taking care not merely to complete a set number of prostrations and recite the Jesus Prayer as many times as you have determined, but rather that sighs toward God may come forth from your heart.[4] Regarding the recitation of prayers, take this one rule to heart: when your attention becomes fixed on something while you are reading prayers, so that it no longer follows the further reading, then stop reading and pray wordless prayer, under the influence of the feelings awakened by the subject that has held your attention. If this might cause your prayer rule to extend too long, you can shorten it, but don’t skip such moments and don’t sin against yourself by allowing the good impression from your prayers to be scattered through the mechanical completion of the appointed prayers. But the practice of prayer itself will teach you everything, if you perform it as you should—not, that is, to get through the prayers, but to pray truly.
51.8.1 In prayer you must free yourself from all images, establishing yourself most firmly in contemplation, or awareness of the presence of God in your heart—formless. When reflecting on the works of God, images do no harm; but to clothe the very being of God in an image and to pray to Him under that image—that should not be done.
51.9.1 To picture Christ the Saviour crucified—or as you pass through His whole life and pray to Him in keeping with those memories—there is nothing wrong with that. It’s good to do this and warm your soul that way. This is saving meditation on God—the soul’s most natural food. You must nourish the soul with truths, setting aside each day its own time for prayerful immersion in the Christian sacraments. It’s good to do this in the morning. Open the Gospel, read a little—something brief, rather than lengthy daily reading—and dwell in it until what you’ve read is received by your heart and fills it, occupies it. You can read from the apostle and from the Psalter, but always just a little. The whole point is that the truth be received by your heart, fill it, and warm it. This means that the soul has tasted truth; if it has tasted, then it has also been nourished. Reading salvific books—that has its own place.
51.10.1 May the Lord bless you! Pray to the Lord, and to the Sovereign Lady, and to all the Saints, that they themselves may teach you how things should be with you. Still, you must return to this: to work out your salvation with fear and trembling.