Chapter 15

It Comes From Grace and a Pure Conscience

There is prayer that a person himself makes; and there is prayer that God gives to the one praying (1 Sam. 2:9)... At first, when someone approaches the Lord, the first thing is prayer. He begins to go to church and pray at home using prayer books and without them. But all his thoughts scatter. He cannot manage them at all. Yet the more he labors in prayer, the more the thoughts settle and settle, and prayer becomes purer. However, the atmosphere of the soul does not clear until a spiritual spark is kindled in the soul. This spark is the work of God’s grace, but not a special grace—rather the general grace given to all. It appears as a result of a certain measure of purity in the entire moral structure of the person seeking. When this spark kindles or a constant warmth is formed in the heart, then the tumult of thoughts ceases. What happens to the soul is like what happened to the woman with the flow of blood: the flow of her blood stopped (Luke 8:44). In this state, prayer, more or less, approaches the unceasing. The Jesus Prayer serves as an intermediary to it. And this is the limit to which prayer made by a person himself can reach! (9, 240)

Deepened prayer, unceasing prayer, and other manifestations of prayerful grace—all come from grace... Ours is the labor within our ability, but all-earnest and constant. The prayer sought is grace. When the time comes, it will be given. One must only not neglect, but seek with all earnestness and employ all that is possible. But the chief thing is a pure conscience. For the grace of prayer is the grace of the most sincere communion with God. Nothing impure can come into communion with God. (10, 35)