Chapter 88
On the Jesus Prayer: Vocal, Noetic, and Prayer of the Heart
88.2.1 The mercy of God be with you!
88.3.1 1. On vocal prayer. In its shortened form it is said thus: “Lord, have mercy”; “Lord, Jesus Christ, have mercy on me, a sinner”, and in its full form thus: “Lord, Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner”.
88.4.1 At first it is pronounced mostly by force and reluctantly, but as you practice it and compel yourself to it (if only you have a firm intention to diminish all-encompassing passions through prayer with the help of God’s grace), then from frequent practice of it, as the passions diminish, it will gradually become easier, more pleasant, and more desirable.[1]
88.5.1 In vocal prayer, you must do everything you can to keep your intellect in the words of the prayer, speak slowly, concentrating all your attention on the thoughts expressed by the words. And when your intellect is drawn away into extraneous thoughts, without distress bring it back again to the words of the prayer. Undistracted attention is not given to the intellect quickly, nor whenever we wish, but when we humble ourselves and when God is pleased to grant it. This gift of God is not determined by time, nor by the number of prayers, but by heartfelt humility and the grace of Christ, and by constant effort toward it. From vocal attentive prayer comes a transition to noetic prayer, which is called by this name when we are drawn to God by the intellect alone, or when we behold God...
88.6.1 2. On noetic prayer. In noetic prayer it is absolutely necessary to hold your attention in the heart before the Lord. In proportion to our zeal and humble effort in prayer, God grants the first gift to our intellect—recollection and concentration in prayer.[2] When attention to the Lord becomes constant, then it is grace-filled attention; but our own attention is always forced. From such noetic prayer there is a transition to prayer of the heart, to interior prayer, if only there is an experienced teacher, very skilled and free.[3] When we are with God through the feelings of the heart, and love of God fills the heart, then such prayer bears the name of prayer of the heart.
88.7.1 3. On interior prayer of the heart. In the Gospel it is written: If anyone wishes to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross. If we apply these words to the practice of prayer, they will mean the following: whoever wishes to struggle ascetically lawfully in the labor of prayer must first deny his own will and his own reasonings, and then bear the cross—that is, the labor both of soul and body which is unavoidable in this ascesis. Having given yourself wholly to the unwearying care of God, you must humbly and with equanimity bear this labor for the sake of the true good which is granted to the diligent one who prays by God in his own time, when God by His grace sets bounds to our intellect and establishes it immovably with the remembrance of God in the heart.[4] When such a standing of the intellect becomes as it were natural and constant, the Fathers call it the union of the intellect with the heart. Once the intellect is established in this way, it no longer desires to be outside the heart. On the contrary, if circumstances or much conversation keep it away from the attention of the heart, it experiences an irresistible longing to return inward again with a certain spiritual thirst and renewed zeal to continue building its interior dwelling. When the heart is established in this way, everything from the head descends into the heart, and then a certain noetic light illuminates his whole interior, so that whatever he does, says, or thinks is done with complete consciousness and attention. He can then clearly see what thoughts, intentions, and desires come to him, and willingly compels his intellect, heart, and will to obedience to Christ, to the fulfillment of every commandment of God and the fathers. Any deviation from them he wipes away with the feeling of heartfelt repentance and contrition, with sincere sorrow and with tender, humble prostration before God, asking and awaiting help from above for his weakness. And God, seeing such humility in him, does not withhold His grace from him.
88.8.1 Know that the prayer of the intellect and heart comes to the heart quickly for some and slowly for others. I know of three people: one of them received it as soon as it was spoken, in that very hour; another received it after six months; a third after ten months; and one great elder received it after two years. And why it happens this way—only God knows.
88.9.1 Know also that before the passions are destroyed, prayer is one thing, and another after the heart is purified of passions: the first is a help in the purification of the heart from passions;[5] and the second is, as it were, a certain spiritual pledge of future blessedness. Do this: when you feel the intellect entering the heart and the working of prayer, then give full freedom to such prayer, removing everything that hinders it; and while it continues, do nothing else. When you don’t feel such a drawing, then pray with vocal prayer and prostrations, striving in every way to keep your attention in the heart before the face of the Lord. Your heart will grow warm even in this manner of prayer.
88.10.1 Be sober and watchful, especially during the prayer of the intellect and heart. No one is so pleasing to God as the one who engages rightly in the prayer of the intellect and heart. When it’s inconvenient for you or you don’t have time to practice prayer, then by every means keep within yourself during all your occupations the spirit of prayer—that is, hold God in your memory and in every way strain to see Him before you with the eyes of the intellect, with fear and love, and, feeling Him present before you, commit yourself with reverent submission in all your affairs to His sovereignty, omnipotence, all-seeing gaze, and omniscience, so that in your every deed, word, and thought you remember God and His holy will. That, in short, is what the spirit of prayer consists of! The lover of prayer must necessarily have this spirit, and, as far as possible, by constant attention of the heart bring his understanding under God’s understanding and submissively and reverently submit to Him; likewise, bring his own desires and wishes under God’s will and wholly surrender himself to God’s understanding and God’s will. In every way one must stand against the spirit of self-will, or the desire and impulse to act without any restraint. This spirit whispers to you: this is beyond my strength, I don’t have time for it; or: I’m not ready to take this on yet, I need to wait; or: my duties of obedience get in the way, and many other such excuses. Whoever listens to it will never learn to pray. Working alongside this spirit is the spirit of self-justification, which steps in and begins to act after someone, carried away by the spirit of self-will, has done something that troubles his conscience. Then the spirit of self-justification employs various tricks to deceive the conscience and make its wrongdoing appear as righteousness. May God keep you safe from these evil spirits!