Chapter 7
On Prayer as the First Work of Christian Life
7.2.1 May the mercy of God be with you!
7.3.1 Prayer is the first work in Christian life. Prayer is the breath of the spirit. There is prayer – the spirit lives; no prayer – no life in the spirit.
7.4.1 To stand before an icon and make prostrations is not yet prayer, but only an accompaniment to prayer; to recite prayers from memory or from a book, or to listen to them, is not yet prayer, but only an instrument of prayer or a means of awakening and stirring it up. Prayer itself is the arising in our heart, one after another, of reverent feelings toward God – the feeling of self-abasement, devotion to God, thanksgiving, doxology, petition, contrition, submission to the will of God, fervent supplication, and so on.
7.5.1 Our whole concern here must be that during our prayer these and similar feelings fill our soul—that our heart not be empty. When these feelings are present in it, or some one of them directed toward God, then our prayer rule is prayer; but when they are not, it is not yet prayer. You must awaken prayer—or the turning of your heart toward God—and strengthen what you have awakened; in other words, you must cultivate in yourself a spirit of prayer.
7.6.1 The first way to do this is through our read prayer or our listening to prayer. Read or listen to the prayer rule as you should, and you will surely awaken and strengthen the ascent in your heart toward God—that is, you will enter into a spirit of prayer. In the prayers of the holy Fathers there moves a great power of prayer, and whoever penetrates them with full attention and zeal will surely taste that power of prayer, in measure as his disposition draws near to the content of the prayer.[1] To make our prayer rule an effective means of cultivating prayer, we must recite it in such a way that both our thought and our heart take in the content of the prayers that make up the prayer rule.
7.7.1 Here, then, are three very simple practices: do not begin your prayer rule without proper preparation; do not recite it carelessly, but with attention and feeling; and do not immediately turn to your usual occupations once the prayers are finished.
7.8.1 a) Preparation for the prayer rule.
7.9.1 When you are about to recite your prayer rule, whenever that may be, stand for a moment, or sit, or walk about—and take pains in that time to sober your thought, drawing it away from all earthly concerns and things. Then consider who it is to whom you will turn in prayer, and who you are, about to begin this prayerful turning to him—and stir up in your soul the disposition that befits it: one of self-abasement and filled with reverent fear in standing before God in your heart.[2] In this lies all the small but significant preparation—to stand reverently before God in your heart. Here is the beginning of prayer, and a good beginning is half the work.
7.10.1 b) The actual recitation of prayers.
7.11.1 Once you’ve settled yourself inwardly, stand before the icons, make the sign of the cross, make a prostration, and begin your usual prayer rule. Read slowly, pay attention to every word—bring the thought of each word down into your heart, accompanying this with prostrations and the sign of the cross. In this lies the whole matter of prayer that is pleasing to God and fruitful. – Pay attention to every word and bring the thought of the word down into your heart, in other words: understand what you are reading, and feel what you have understood. When you read, ‘Cleanse me from all defilement’, feel your own defilement, desire purity, and ask for it from the Lord with complete confidence. When you read, ‘Your will be done’, surrender your fate completely to the Lord in your heart, and with full readiness meet with equanimity whatever the Lord sends you. When you read, ‘And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors’, forgive everyone in your soul for everything, and in this way ask the Lord for forgiveness for yourself. If you act in this way with every verse of your prayer, you will have a proper prayer rule. To help you carry this out more successfully in just this way, here is what you need to do: 1) have for yourself a definite prayer rule—a short one, so that with your usual occupations you can fulfill it without hurrying; 2) in your free time, study the prayers of your rule carefully, understand each word of the prayer and feel it, so that you know beforehand what should be in your soul and heart at each word, so that during the recitation of your prayer rule it will be easy for you to understand and feel; 3) if your flighty thought wanders off to other things during prayer, make every effort to keep your attention and bring your thought back to the subject of prayer; if it wanders off again, bring it back again: repeat the reading until you have read each word of the prayer with understanding and feeling. By this you will train your thought away from distraction in prayer; 4) but if some word of the prayer acts powerfully on your soul, stop at it and don’t read further; stand at that place with attention and feeling—nourish your soul with it, or with the thoughts it produces; don’t disrupt this state until it passes of its own accord: this is a sign that the spirit of prayer is beginning to take root in you, and this state is the most reliable means for cultivating and strengthening the spirit of prayer in us.
7.12.1 c) What should you do after prayer?
7.13.1 When you finish your prayer rule, don’t immediately move on to other activities; But also, even if only for a moment, pause and consider what you have done and what it binds you to—preserving especially after prayer what has worked powerfully upon you. The very nature of prayer is such that if you pray well, as you should, you won’t want to busy yourself with worldly affairs soon after: as it says, whoever has tasted what is sweet will not want what is bitter; And the tasting of this sweetness of prayer is the goal of the prayer rule, and through this tasting of the sweetness of prayer in the prayer rule the spirit of prayer is cultivated.[3]
7.14.1 By keeping these few rules, you will soon see the fruits of the labor of prayer. Every prayer rule will leave a trace of prayer in the soul—continuing it steadily in the same order will root it there, and patience in this labor will graft in the spirit of prayer.
7.15.1 This, then, is the first—the foundational—way of cultivating in us the spirit of prayer! This is the proper performance of our prayer rules, in keeping with their purpose. But that is not all; here only the beginning of the science of prayer is laid.[4] You must go further.
7.16.1 Once you have grown accustomed to turning to God with your intellect and heart by means of external help—through prayer books—you must then make attempts at your own direct ascent to God, reaching the point where your soul itself, so to speak, enters into prayer-conversation with God in its own words, rises up to Him, opens itself to Him, and confesses what is within it and what it desires.[5] And you must teach your soul to do this. What must one do to make progress in this science of God?
7.17.1 And practice, with reverence, attention, and prayerful feeling, in praying through prayer books leads to this same end; for from the heart, through prayer rules filled with holy feelings, one’s own prayer to God will begin to pour forth of itself.[6] But there are also particular rules for this, which lead to proper progress in prayer.
7.18.1 The first method of training the soul to turn frequently to God is meditation on God, or reverent reflection on the divine attributes and actions—reflection on the goodness of God, His righteousness, wisdom, almightiness, omnipresence, and all-knowingness; on creation and providence, on the ordering of salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ; about grace and the word of God, about the holy mysteries, about the Kingdom of Heaven. Whatever subject you turn your mind to contemplate, such contemplation will surely fill your soul with reverent feeling toward God: it directs your whole being straight toward God, and therefore it is the most direct means to train your soul to rise toward God. When you have finished your prayer rule, especially in the morning, sit down and begin to meditate—now on one attribute of God, tomorrow on another of his actions—and stir up in your soul the corresponding disposition. Speak with Saint Dimitry of Rostov: “Come, holy meditation on God, and let us immerse ourselves in contemplation of the great works of God”—stir your heart by this, and you will begin to pour out your soul in prayer.[7] Little labor, great fruit. All that’s needed is desire and resolve. Begin, for example, to reflect on the goodness of God—and you will see that you are surrounded by the mercy of God both in body and in spirit—and you will fall before God in an outpouring of grateful feeling. Begin to reflect on the omnipresence of God—and you will understand that you are always before God and God is before you—and you cannot help but be filled with reverent fear. Begin to consider the righteousness of God—and you will be convinced that no evil deed will go unpunished—and you will certainly resolve to purify all your sins through contrition of heart before God and repentance. Begin to reflect on the all-knowing nature of God—and you will know that nothing in you is hidden from the eye of God—and you will certainly resolve to be strict with yourself and attentive in all things, so that you do not somehow offend the all-seeing God.
7.19.1 The second way to train the soul to turn frequently to God is to direct every deed—great and small—to the glory of God. For if we make it a rule for ourselves, according to the apostle’s commandment, to do all things, even eating and drinking, to the glory of God, then we will certainly remember God at every deed—and remember him not simply, but with concern—lest we act wrongly in some case and offend God by some deed. This will compel us to turn to God with fear and to ask prayerfully for help and instruction. And since we are almost unceasingly doing something, we will almost unceasingly turn prayerfully to God and, consequently, will almost unceasingly practice the science of prayerful ascent of the soul to God. In this way we will teach the soul to turn to God as often as possible throughout the day.
7.20.1 The third way of training the soul to turn frequently to God is to cry out from the heart to God often throughout the day with brief words, according to the needs of the soul and the tasks at hand. When you begin something, say: ‘Lord, bless!’ When you finish a task—not only with your tongue but with the feeling of your heart—say: ‘Glory to You, Lord!’ When some passion rises up, say: ‘Save me, Lord, I am perishing!’ When a darkness of troubling thoughts comes upon you, cry out: ‘Bring my soul out of prison!’ When unjust deeds lie before you and sin draws you to them, pray: ‘Lead me, Lord, on the path’ or: ‘Let not my foot be moved.’ When sins weigh you down and drag you into despair, cry out with the voice of the publican: ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ And so in every case. Or simply say more often: ‘Lord, have mercy!’ Lady Theotokos, save me! Angel of God, my holy Guardian Angel, protect me!’ Or call out with some other word.[8] Only—as often as you can—make these invocations, striving in every way for them to come from your heart, as though wrung from it. When we do this, there will be accomplished in us frequent, noetic ascents from the heart to God, frequent turnings toward God, frequent prayer; and this frequency will give us the habit of noetic communion with God.
7.21.1 So, besides the prayer rule—which teaches the soul to rise in prayer to God—there are three other ways that lead into the spirit of prayer. These are: to devote some time in the morning to meditation on God, to turn every deed to the glory of God, and to turn often to God with brief cries of prayer. When meditation on God is well accomplished in the morning, it will leave a deep disposition toward thinking about God. Thought about God will cause the soul to perform every action—both inner and outer—with care and to turn it to the glory of God; and both of these will place the soul in such a condition that brief cries of prayer to God will often burst forth from it. These three—meditation on God, the practice of doing all things to the glory of God, and frequent cries of prayer—are the most effective instruments of noetic and prayer of the heart. Each of them lifts the soul to God. Whoever sets himself to practice them will soon acquire the habit – to set ascents in his heart toward God.[9] Torn away from the earth, the soul will enter into its own realm and will dwell there sweetly on high—here in heart and mind, and there will be deemed worthy to dwell before the face of God.[10]