Chapter 63
On Prayer Without Images and Attention of the Heart
63.2.1 May the mercy of God be with you!
63.3.1 What the eldress said about visible objects as necessary for prayer—I think you didn’t understand it that way. You must strive in every way, thinking about God, to think of Him as the purest Spirit, having no form or image whatsoever. But to hold such a thought is given only by grace, when a feeling toward God is formed in the heart. Until then our thought of God remains imperfect, mixed with some form or other. For example, the prophet says: I have set the Lord always before me; because he is at my right hand.[1] This is an image. Another similar one: Where shall I go from your Spirit?[2] and from your face where shall I flee?[3] If I ascend to heaven, you are there; if I descend to Hades, you are there.[2] ‘If I take my wings early and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there Your hand shall lead me and Your right hand shall hold me.’ And this is an image of the omnipresence of God... So it is with every other thought about God and divine things... The eldress’s thought is that it’s hard for us to free ourselves from images when thinking about God; but you understood that one must always have an image and that without such an image one can’t even pray. This is your mistake, not the eldress’s. So please make every effort to pray without images of God... Stand in your heart with faith that God is right there too, but don’t try to figure out how He is there. Pray and seek that the grace of God may finally give you a feeling toward God.
63.4.1 Who came up with this idea—keeping your attention on your lips or the tip of your tongue?! It’s a bad idea: drop it. Strive to be attention in your heart, and nowhere else.[4] That the intellect flees from the heart after a few prayers and falls away from the remembrance of God—this comes from weakness of attention and indifference to prayer. The soul doesn’t treasure prayer and hurries to get through it as quickly as possible, mumbling it carelessly. Seek the fear of God and with it approach prayer and pray, keeping your attention on the meaning of the words of prayer. Then short little prayers and the Jesus Prayer are used to instill in the heart a feeling toward God and thereby fix your attention. But if we treat prayer carelessly, we will never make progress in it. Remember also that prayer never reaches perfection by itself, but only together with all the virtues. As the virtues are perfected, so prayer is perfected. The chief ones are: fear of God, chastity, humility, contrition, mortification of the flesh, patience, love... When these are present, all the others will appear as well, and with them prayer.
63.5.1 “Should I set myself a rule by the quantity of prayers and prostrations, or should I care more about attention?” – Without attention, prayer is not prayer. Consequently, this is the main thing. But you must also set a rule for the number of prayers and prostrations. This is for your prayer rule at home. The best way to make progress in prayer is to attend church for all the services and there strive to pray with reverence. Look in the Slavonic Philokalia at the account of Maximus of Kapsokalyvia and imitate him. When you attain what he attained, then you will have true prayer. Lying on your side, you’ll gain nothing...
63.6.1 You’re asking about a certain brother. Tell him everything that’s written here, and that’s enough... Let him leave aside lips and tongue, and do as the fathers have written, that is, stand with attention in the heart. You can advise him: leave aside all these additions, just be in the heart and with feeling, falling to the ground, cry out: ‘Lord, have mercy!’ Just like Maximus Kapsokalivis. And let him labor in this way entirely. Let him go to church without fail, make more prostrations at home, and let him unceasingly repeat some prayerful verse with attention and reverence, especially the Jesus Prayer. The goal of the labor is an abiding feeling toward God, or what Maximus Kapsokalivis received. You must especially refine the flesh through fasting, vigils, and bodily labor, and keep it constantly under tension, like a soldier on parade. Flee from distraction, idle talk and laughter, and empty reading. And all will go well.
63.7.1 You must labor and overtax yourself without mercy.
63.8.1 May the Lord bless you!
63.9.1 Be saved!
63.10.1 Your intercessor, Bishop Theophan.
63.11.1