Chapter 66
On the Remembrance of God and Prayer of the Heart
66.2.1 May the mercy of God be with you!
66.3.1 Your humble feelings—that after living so long in the world and in the monastery, you see no progress at all, as if you’d never even begun—are blessed, and always remain in them, and when you wake up, let your first word to God be: Grant me, Lord, to make a good beginning!
66.4.1 That’s said, of course, about everything in general, but you need to look closely at what exactly is lacking, and try to acquire that.
66.5.1 After all, you’re not a thief, not a robber, not a drunkard, not a fornicator, not a brawler... and in general—your conduct is good. So what is lacking? And why is your conscience restless and dissatisfied? Here you answer yourselves: it is because I do not remember God. That is true: without remembrance of God, without fear of God, without feeling toward God, it is impossible to make the soul content. If that is so, then all your concern must now be directed to this. Prayer, which we all speak of, is the direct path to this. You labor in this. May the Lord bless your labor!
66.6.1 The thought that it’s not yet time for you to engage in prayer is false. Everyone must pray with heart and intellect. Any other prayer is not prayer. So be willing to labor and not grow lazy.
66.7.1 Do you have Symeon the New Theologian? Take him and read him again, if you’ve already read him. If you don’t have one, buy a copy from the monks of Mount Athos and read it—at least the first volume. It teaches the fear of God very well.
66.8.1 Send me the letters of the elders. I’d like to know how they understand prayer.
66.9.1 You ask whether one should pray for those of other faiths? For those who have taken their own lives? Do as the Church commands. So answer those who ask about this in the same way.
66.10.1 May the Lord bless you!
66.11.1 Your well-wisher, Bishop Theophan.
66.12.1
66.13.1 (A question. Tell me, for the Lord’s sake, am I continuing in prayer correctly: whether I am in the church, in my cell, or wherever I happen to be, I strive to gather my feelings and to present the Lord before myself without form, and at this my lips close, my tongue remains without movement, and only with my intellect and heart do I speak the prayer;[1] Then all the members of my body come into order, a feeling of reverence toward the Lord takes hold of me, and I clearly see my own nothingness.