The publishing house "Rays of Sophia" (Minsk) published a collection of abbot Khariton (Dunaev) "Smart doing. About the Jesus Prayer. Collection of Teachings of the Holy Fathers and Experienced Doers.
The collection can be called a textbook or a reference book on the art of prayer. In it, the abbot of the Valaam Monastery collected and systematized about four hundred teachings of various saints and ascetics of piety in general about prayer work and in particular about the Jesus Prayer. Abbot Khariton placed here quotes from the works of St. Theophan the Recluse, St. Ignatius (Bryanchaninov), St. Gregory Palamas, St. John Chrysostom, St. John of Kronstadt, St. Paisiy Velichkovsky and many others. This edition was first printed in 1936 and since then has had a huge number of reprints, since more than one generation of Orthodox people is convinced of its unconditional spiritual benefit.
What is prayer? What is its essence? How to learn it? What does the spirit of a Christian who prays in humility of heart experience? All these questions should constantly occupy the mind and heart of the believer, for in prayer a person converses with God. Both the holy fathers and the teachers of the Church give answers based on grace-filled illumination through the experience of prayer, which is equally accessible to both the simpleton and the sage. These answers are collected on the pages of the book Smart Doing. About the Jesus Prayer. Collection of Teachings of the Holy Fathers and Experienced Doers.
The collection was compiled in the 30s of the last century by Abbot of the Valaam Monastery Khariton (Dunaev). The book has been repeatedly reprinted in Russia and abroad. Addressing the readers, the author-compiler writes in the preface: “There are many among you who do not know what the inner work of a God-thinking person is, and also do not understand what God-thinking is. And there are those who do not know anything about prayer performed by the mind, but think that it is only fitting to pray with those prayers that are written in church books. As for the secret conversation with God in the heart and the benefit that comes from this, they are by no means aware of this and have never tasted the spiritual sweetness of this.
The author compares such people with those born blind. He who is blind from birth, he "only hears about the radiance of the sun, what is the radiance, does not know." So they only hear about God-thinking teaching and prayer, but they do not understand, because of their ignorance they are deprived of many spiritual blessings. Therefore, for the sake of instructing the simple, something is offered here for inner learning and for God-thought prayer, so that with God's help anyone who wants to begin to be at least a little instructed. The spiritual training of the inner man, according to Fr. Khariton, begins with such Christ's words: "When you pray, go into your closet, and having shut your door, pray to your Father in secret" (Matt. 6:6).
At monastic vows, when the rosary is handed over, which is called the spiritual sword, unceasing day and night prayer of the Jesus Prayer is bequeathed. “After entering the monastery,” says Abbot Khariton, “I was jealous of this will for the monks and was led in this by my elder, who resolved all my perplexities encountered during prayer. After the death of the elder, in order to resolve my perplexities, I was forced to resort to the writings of the God-wise fathers. Extracting from them the essentials about the Jesus Prayer, I wrote it all down in my notebook, and in this way, over time, I compiled a collection of prayers.”
As the author notes, "the material of the collection grew from year to year, and therefore does not have a strictly systematic order and sequence of subjects." For its compiler, it served as a reference. Then Father Khariton came up with the idea of publishing a collection, in the hope that, perhaps, it would help those who were looking for guidance to improve their inner spiritual life.
In the collection there are repetitions of the same thing - from a sincere desire to capture more strongly in the mind everything that is written about. So, the purpose of publishing this collection is to clarify the method of production of the Jesus Prayer in various ways and by repeated repetitions, to show all its necessity in the work of our spiritual service to God. In a word, to remind both modern monasticism and all those who are zealous for their spiritual salvation the ancient patristic teaching about smart work and about the fight against passions.
Especially since today, according to St. Ignatius, “people, for the most part, have the most obscure, confused concept of the Jesus Prayer. Others, who consider themselves gifted with spiritual reasoning and are revered by many as such, are “afraid” of this prayer, like some kind of infection. Citing “charm” as the reason – as if an indispensable companion of the exercise with the Jesus Prayer, they themselves move away from it and teach others to move away.
Further, St. Ignatius says: “The inventor of such a doctrine, in my opinion, is the devil, who hates the name of the Lord Jesus Christ as crushing all his strength; he trembles at this all-powerful name and therefore slandered Him before many Christians so that they would reject the fiery weapon, terrible for the enemy, saving for themselves.
The collector himself, not daring to even think of calling himself a “clever prayer book,” only dared to extract from the treasury of the holy fathers their God-wise advice on unceasing prayer.
This collection includes about four hundred sayings of the holy fathers and contemporary ascetics, and, in addition, whole teachings of ascetics of piety experienced in the feat of prayer, such as St. Demetrius of Rostov, Archimandrite Paisius Velichkovsky, elder schemamonk Vasily. An index is offered to the attention of readers, which lists the sayings of the fathers given in the book, indicating the authors and books from which these sayings are borrowed, with a link to the pages of this collection on which they are printed.
“SMART DOING.
ABOUT THE PRAYER OF JESUS»
Collection of teachings of the Holy Fathers and experienced practitioners
Compiled
Hegumen of the Valaam Monastery KHARITON
Edition of the Valaam Monastery
From the compiler
"What is prayer? What is its essence? How to learn it? What does the spirit of a Christian who prays in humility of heart experience?
All such questions should constantly occupy both the mind and heart of the believer, for in prayer a person converses with God, enters into grace-filled fellowship with Him, and lives in God. And the holy fathers and teachers of the Church give answers to all these questions, answers based on grace-filled illumination through the experience of prayer, an experience equally accessible to both the simpleton and the sage" (Bishop Nikon).
“Every Christian must always remember that he needs to unite with the Lord Savior with all his being, he must be allowed to dwell in our mind and heart, and for such a union with the Lord, after communion of His Body and Blood, the best and most reliable means is the mental prayer of Jesus .
Is the Jesus Prayer also obligatory for the laity? It is absolutely obligatory, because, as mentioned above, every Christian needs to unite with the Lord in his heart, and the Jesus Prayer is the best way to achieve this connection" (Bishop Justin).
To a monk, at his tonsure as a monk, when the rosary is handed over, which is called the spiritual sword, he bequeathed unceasing, day-night prayer with the Jesus Prayer.
Upon my entry into the monastery, I was jealous of this will for the monks and was led in this by my elder A., who resolved all my perplexities encountered during prayer. After the death of the elder, in order to resolve my perplexities, I was forced to resort to the writings of the God-wise fathers. Extracting from them the essential about the Jesus Prayer, I wrote it all down in my notebook, and thus, over time, I compiled a collection of prayers.
The material of the collection grew from year to year, and therefore it does not have a strictly systematic order and sequence of objects; he served personally for me as a reference.
Now the idea came to me to publish my collection or reference book, in the hope that, perhaps, it will help those who are looking for guidance to improve their inner spiritual life, and the wise advice of St. fathers and contemporary ascetics will help them in their good intentions.
In the collection there are repetitions of the same thing; it is from a sincere desire to imprint more strongly in the mind all that is written about. Everything transmitted from heartfelt conviction should have the liveliest interest, all the more necessary in modern times, when everywhere there is an extreme impoverishment of all strivings in the field of spiritual life.
So, the purpose of publishing our collection is precisely to clarify the method of producing the Jesus Prayer in all possible and varied ways and repeated repetitions, to show all its need and necessity in the matter of our spiritual service to God. In a word - to remind both modern monasticism and all those who are zealous for their spiritual salvation, the ancient patristic teaching about smart doing and about the fight against passions, especially since now about the Jesus Prayer, according to Bishop. Ignatius, "people, for the most part, have the darkest, confused concept. Others, who consider themselves to be gifted with spiritual reasoning and are revered by many for such, are" afraid "of this prayer, like some kind of infection, leading to charm" - as if an indispensable companion of the exercise by the Jesus Prayer, they themselves move away from it and teach others to move away." Further, Bishop Ignatius says: "The inventor of such a doctrine, in my opinion, is the devil, who hates the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, as crushing all his strength; he trembles at this all-powerful name and therefore slandered Him before many Christians so that they would reject the fiery weapon, terrible for the enemy, saving for themselves.
Therefore, the compiler had an urgent need to collect everything necessary to explain this spiritual work and the perplexities encountered in this. The collector himself, not daring to even think of calling himself a "smart prayer book", only dared to extract from the treasury of St. of their fathers, God-wise advice on unceasing prayer, advice that is necessary, like air to our breath, to all who are zealous for their salvation.
This collection on mental work, on the question of prayer, includes about four hundred sayings of St. fathers and contemporary ascetics, and, in addition, whole teachings of ascetics of piety experienced in the feat of prayer, such as: St. Demetrius of Rostov, Archimandrite Paisius Velichkovsky, Elder Schemamonk Vasily and other doers of the sacred Jesus Prayer.
At the end of this book, readers are offered an index that lists the sayings of the fathers given here, indicating the authors and books from which these sayings are borrowed, with a link to the pages of this collection on which they are printed.
Igumen Khariton.
ABOUT THE PRAYER OF A MAN SECRETLY IN THE CAGE OF HIS HEART, LEARNING AND PRAYING SECRETLY
Preface.
There are many among you who do not know what the inner work of a God-thinking person is, and also do not understand what God-thinking is, and who do not know anything about prayer performed by the mind, but think that it is proper to pray only those prayers that are written in books. church. As for the secret conversation with God in the heart and the benefit that comes from this, they are by no means aware of this and have never tasted the spiritual sweetness of this. Just as a blind man only hears about the radiance of the sun, but does not know what radiance is, so they only hear about God-thought teaching and prayer, but they do not understand. Due to their ignorance, they are deprived of many spiritual blessings and lag behind virtuous progress, which leads to perfect pleasing to God. Therefore, for the sake of instructing the simple, something is offered here for inner learning and for God-thought prayer, so that the one who wishes, with God's help, begins to be at least a little instructed.
The spiritual training of the inner man begins with these words of Christ: "When you pray, go into your cell, and having shut your door, pray to your Father in secret" (Matt. 6:6).
Chapter I
A person is twofold: external and internal, carnal and spiritual. The outer is visible, carnal, while the inner is invisible, spiritual, or, according to the word of the Apostle Peter, "a man hidden in the heart in the incorruptibility of a meek and silent spirit" (1 Peter 3:4). And St. Paul explains the duality of man, saying: "While our external man smolders, but the internal is renewed" (2 Corinthians 4:16). Here the apostle clearly speaks of the outward and inward man. Thus, the outer man is made up of many members, while the inner man is perfected by the mind, attention to himself, the fear of the Lord and the grace of God. The deeds of the outer man are visible, but the inner ones are invisible, according to the Psalmist: "A man will come, and the heart is deep" (Ps. 63: 7). Likewise, the apostle says: "Who knows from a man that is in a man, like the spirit of a man that lives in him?" (1 Corinthians 2:11). Only He who tests hearts and wombs knows all the secrets of the inner man.
Education is also twofold - external and internal: external in books, internal in God-thinking; outward in love of wisdom, inward in love of God; external in ornate, internal in prayers; external in wit, internal in warmth of spirit; external in arts, internal in thoughts; the external "mind is puffed up" (1 Cor. 8:1), while the internal is humbled; the outer one is curious, wanting to know everything, while the inner one listens to itself and desires nothing else but to know God, saying with David: “My heart will tell you: I will seek the Lord, my face will seek Thee, Thy face, Lord, I will seek” (Ps. .26:8). And again: "In the same way the deer desires for the fountains of water: this is my soul's desire for Thee, O God" (Ps. 42:2).
Prayer is also twofold - external and internal: openly done and secretly; conciliar and alone; due and optional. Duty, done clearly according to the church charter, conciliar prayer has its own times: Midnight Office, Matins, Hours, Liturgy, Vespers and Compline, to which prayers people are called by ringing, for they, as a tribute befitting the King of Heaven, must pay every day. Prayer done secretly and voluntarily happens even without time, when someone wants it, without any call, only according to the movement of the spirit itself. The first, that is, church, prayer has the prescribed number of psalms, troparia, canons, and other chants and priestly actions, while the other (secret, arbitrary), as untimely, is indefinite in the number of prayers, for everyone prays as much as he wants - sometimes briefly, sometimes the same long. The first is pronounced aloud with the lips and voice, the second - only with the mind. The first is pronounced while standing, the second is not only standing or walking, but also resting on a bed, in a word, always, whenever it happens, raise your mind to God. The first, conciliar, takes place in the temple of the Lord, in a church, or on occasion in any house where several people gather, while the second, secluded, takes place in a closed cell, according to the word of the Lord: "When you pray, enter into your cell and, having closed the door pray to your Father in secret" (Matthew 6:6). Again, the cage is twofold - external and internal, material and spiritual: the material is made of wood or stone, while the spiritual is the heart or mind, or (according to St. Theophylact) a secret thought. This is the same. (Commentary on Matthew, chapter 6). Therefore, the material cell always stands in one place, while the spiritual one rushes everywhere with a person: wherever a person is, his heart is always with him, in which he can, with his mind, having collected his thoughts, shut himself up and pray to God in secret, whether he will be among people or talking to many. Inner prayer (if it happens to someone, being among people, to move towards it in spirit) does not require either a mouth or a book, it does not use the movement of the tongue or a guttural voice (although this happens in private), but only the elevation of the mind to God and self-deepening, which can be done anywhere.
Dear brothers and sisters!
You are about to get acquainted with the book, which opens up the distant horizons of the most difficult path - the path of prayerful achievement. This work, modest in volume, but extremely saturated with intense spiritual thought, will help many who are thirsty to embark on this saving path, to endure in a difficult spiritual battle.
The value of this book lies in the fact that the author reveals his personal outstanding experience, through which the most ancient Orthodox tradition comes to life before us, which has been raising people from earth to Heaven for two thousand years. I have had a chance to read a lot on this topic in my life, and I must note that in this work we meet some very important aspects of prayer practice, which are pointed out for the first time.
The path of inner work is open to both the monk and the layman, it is open to any heart that sincerely aspires to God. It becomes especially important to study the prayer path in our time, when a person grows stronger and stronger to the earth, less and less capable of mountainous impulses.
There is no doubt that this book, written with such love by a true ascetic, imbued with such ardent sympathy for the monastic feat, and after the loss of the manuscript with understanding and diligence restored by his followers, will serve as healing spiritual food for all who hunger for the Truth. May the blessing of God rest upon this work.
Archpriest Georgy Breev, confessor of the city of Moscow,
pastor of the temples of the Icon of the Mother of God
"Life-Giving Spring" in Tsaritsyno
and Nativity of the Virgin in Krylatskoye
From publishers
Dear readers!
Before you is a work written in the late 50s by Archbishop Anthony (Golynsky-Mikhailovsky), an ascetic monk who experienced the path of prayerful achievement. That was the time when an absolute shortage of spiritual literalism reigned in our country, and such texts were rare even in "samizdat". But it seems that even today, with all the availability of ascetic writings, this work can be useful to those who are driven by the desire to join the prayerful experience of the fathers of the Orthodox Church. Based on personal experience, the book presents the patristic tradition of smart doing. Here, the teaching of the ascetic fathers about the Jesus Prayer, about the action of the grace of God, is summarized.
Unfortunately, the original manuscript has been lost and the text has come down to us in lists with significant distortions, with numerous arbitrary insertions. These circumstances did not allow the publication of the material in the form in which it was preserved. Serious editorial work was required to reconstruct the text, while preserving the features of the author's style as much as possible.
Information about the fate of the author is very limited and contradictory, scant documentary evidence does not allow us to fully restore the biography of Vladyka Anthony (†1976). However, this in no way detracts from the significance of this work, just as the work of an icon painter or architect is not depreciated because it remains nameless, for the fruits of deeds performed for the glory of God are the common property of the Church.
Editor
Foreword
"My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me; however, not as I will, but as You"(Matthew 26:39).
The two thoughts expressed here - "Lord, have mercy on me" and "Be, Lord, Thy holy will" - constitute the essence of the Jesus Prayer. First of all, you need to know that the Jesus Prayer is the effective essence of repentance, indicated by Christ the Lord. It teaches the doer to cut off the desires of his will, to love God more than the creature, to sincerely humble himself, to truly know himself, not to rely on himself in any way, to ascribe all that is good not to himself, but to God, and to give glory to Him for everything.
The Jesus Prayer brings one closer to God, and reconciliation with God gives rise to true love for one's neighbor. Prayer unites the soul with her bridegroom - the Lord and becomes a conversation between the Lord and the soul. The great work of the Jesus Prayer begins with verbal labor in the active period and extends to the contemplative period, elevating a person to a truly spiritual chaste life, and the most worthy, "those who are not defiled with their wives"(Rev. 14:4), who have reached the dispensation of true spiritual virginity, are worthy of the highest virtue - prayer visual.
Prayer, in proportion to the action in it of the word, mind, heart and Spirit of God, has the corresponding names. She happens verbal, smart active, smart-heart active. These three types of prayer are available to a person during the period of his decrepit activity, that is, until his complete devotion to the will of God. The next two types of prayer are acquired by the ascetic only after the cleansing of the heart from passions and sin and are called smart-heart self-propelled driven by the Holy Spirit, and smart-heart clean, or nonparous. The latter is a truly contemplative prayer, bringing all the virtues, being the mother of them all, to the perfection of spiritual chastity. The most worthy through this prayer are brought to the union of the soul with the Heavenly Bridegroom into a single spirit. A person then acquires the highest gift - prayer visual. Then, united with the Lord, he sees, understanding, the great mysteries of God and His wisdom, glorifies the Holy Trinity with all his spiritual being, having acquired God in his heart.
On the path to God, prayer is an urgent spiritual weapon of the mind, since the battle is waged with the spirits of darkness, acting through passions, with the passions themselves, with the flesh and the world, which, belonging to the earth, attract to the earth. Prayer - a spiritual sword - cuts all these hordes of evil, leading to complete inactivity, exposes the impotence of malice before the power of God, makes it possible to comprehend human weakness in the fight against evil and changes human nature itself. Prayer invulnerably leads the purifying mind, weak in itself, but strengthened by God, and the soul through all deadly temptations, glorifying God, the Almighty Creator.
Jesus Prayer
"Out of the heart come evil thoughts"(Matthew 15:19) - thus spoke the lips of the sweetest Lord Jesus, the Ascetic, the Head and Founder of the work of true repentance. After the fall, after man loved his evil, imperfect will more than the all-perfect will of God, malice entered his heart. Self-will alienated the soul from the Lord, and man was left only with his insignificant forces. He had to resist evil, which is impossible without God's help, and the human mind and soul, having loved self-will, lost their lordship, and with it the ability to distinguish between good and evil, lost reasoning, exposing the machinations of the devil. Ignorance - a child of a darkened mind that has loved its own will - embraced the mind and soul. Ignorance gave rise to doubt, and hence came confusion, which is both the mother and daughter of all the passionate waves that rise in the human heart. Thus, the ship of the mind and soul is continually sinking into the sea of confusion, sunk by self-will.
All this happened to a person due to the clouding of the mind. The heart is filled with unnatural habits - passions, and the latter, having taken root in the heart, have grown together with human nature and, against the desires of the mind and heart, involve a person in a passionate life unsuitable for him. Satan, being the culprit and chief of darkness, did not hesitate to appear sovereignly in a darkened mind and a passionate heart. So the heart, destined to be the abode of God, turned into a den of robbers - demons and passions. A person is in a fall, the mind and soul have deviated from nature, passed into a sub-natural state.
It is impossible to get out of this difficult situation on our own. Passions have received the power of nature, while Satan is much stronger and more cunning than an inexperienced mind and intercepts every human intention for good, which is why a person sometimes, doing good, as it seems to him, reaps the fruit in the form of intensified passions. It happens that a person despairs of his salvation and leaves his labors, and sometimes, worst of all, lays hands on himself. But one should know that a person finds himself in such a desperate situation only when he does not fight in the name of God, but tries to fight with his own strength. The one who puts his trust in God wins in the name of God, and when he is defeated, he rises again and fights until the final victory.
The darkness of ignorance enveloped humanity until the time of the coming of Christ. People languished, constantly embarrassed and grieving, crying out to God with all their being, and the Lord brought to fruition what had been predestined when the forefathers were expelled from paradise - to reveal a seed from a woman that would strike the serpent in the head (cf. Gen. 3, fifteen). Christ was conceived in the womb of the Virgin, was born, took upon Himself the burden of the sin of all mankind and fought with sin. The ascetic and humanity taught how to distinguish good from evil and how to fight the devil. All-conquering, He Himself first defeated all the power of the enemy, so that it would become clear to a person how to fight and defeat demons and their evil demonic passions.
Satan, having settled in the heart, hides in it, embraced by the darkness of passions, and delights in the suffering of a person, usually acting in such a way as to confuse him and not be recognized, not to reveal his whereabouts. Satan, being a murderer from the beginning, whispers all malice from his heart and immediately hides, and a person takes it for his own thoughts. This is what the Lord points out when he says that (Matt. 15:19), thoughts that defile the mind and soul, deprive them of their naturally inherent peace. Countering evil must begin at its first appearance, while it is in its infancy. While evil has not yet taken root, it is easily cut off, if only to detect it. And such cutting off is done by the sweetest name of the Lord Jesus.
The evil that comes from the heart is generated by the culprit of evil - the devil. The devil, the flatterer and the sly one, the center of every abomination, seducing a person with his thoughts, promises everyone that for which he has the most passionate attraction. Being an insidious trickster, the devil approaches a person subtly and always surpasses the human mind in subtlety. Hiding his presence, he passes off the thoughts he generates as thoughts that belong to the person himself. A deceived person becomes a complete prisoner of the devil, thus being doomed to eternal death, unless the Lord protects the person with His grace.
The cunning of the devil surpasses the human mind in its sophistication, and therefore it is impossible and useless for a person to fight with the devil, acting in the heart through passions. It is impossible until a person receives from God the power and strength to attack the power of the enemy. But for this you need to go through a comprehensive test, gain experience in the struggle and victory over the devil through temptations allowed by the grace of God. And this is only possible when a person follows the Ascetic Christ in everything, fighting and defeating evil by the power of the grace of God, which always works through prayer. Grace guards the one who prays, leads him, with the necessary gradualness gives useful and saves him from harm.
All mankind, as mentioned above, before the coming of Christ to earth was enveloped in the darkness of ignorance, and people died in darkness, not knowing the truth, oppressed by the devil, who creates evil in their hearts. Christ, having trampled down death by His death, destroyed the dungeon of hell, gave all who wished the opportunity to be saved with His help, and, as the Almighty, brought out of hell all the faithful who were kept there. After that, all the holy fathers, realizing human weakness, seeing the almighty power of God, conquering evil with its culprit and leader, desiring to follow Christ in fulfillment of the will of the Heavenly Father, knowing, according to the Lord’s direction, from where evil takes its beginning, by their own strength towards the work of salvation did not start. All of them accomplished their salvation by the power of God's grace, rebelling against evil at the very moment of its birth, destroying it by the power of the name of the sweetest Jesus Christ.
The Lord, constantly invoked in prayer, conquers evil, pacifies the spirit of man, restores inner silence and disposes the mind to continue to be in prayer. Further, we will talk about how to act flawlessly in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ against all evil, in the name with which all the holy fathers won in the battle with the devil.
There are many prayers in the Holy Church, and all of them are powerful in driving away the adversary. But the strength of prayer depends on the strength of the mind, on experience in recognizing the cunning of the enemy, in distinguishing between good and evil, it also depends on the ability not to amuse yourself in prayer. A weak mind, like ours, is almost incapable of gathering its attention in prayer, because, having become accustomed to sensual life, it even during prayer dreams of sensual things peculiar to it, which is why a person is only in the body of an icon, and his mind and heart hover in God knows where . Attention that is not accustomed to being held in prayer is plundered, the mind is not able to control itself, the tongue cannot freely pronounce the words of prayer, because of the diversity and multitude of these words. Things are not going, and if they are moving, then too slowly.
Knowing all this, the holy fathers, mentors and workers of true repentance, chose the laconic Jesus Prayer received from the Holy Spirit as their main weapon, giving it precedence over all others. All the prayers that exist in the Orthodox Church are effective and salvific, but the prayer "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner," containing the name of the Lord Christ and the prayer of a penitent sinner, has always attracted the minds of those who are being saved. Some of the holy fathers incessantly said other short prayers, but the majority were mainly engaged in the Jesus Prayer. Anyone who wants to work for the Lord in doing the Jesus Prayer, because of its brevity, by laboring, can master free prayer without compulsion of the tongue, which will gradually attract both the mind and the senses.
The essence of doing this prayer is to drive away every thought that comes from the heart, and, at the same time, not to allow sinful thoughts and desires coming from outside to penetrate into the heart, in order to accustom the memory to always stand before the Omnipresent God, and the mind to constantly read a prayer and listen only to her alone instead of all other, even natural for him, thoughts. This leads over time to what " eye does not see, and ear does not hear, and does not arise in the heart of a man"(1 Corinthians 2:9), through this work the human heart is settled into the abode of the Most Holy Trinity.
Doing the Jesus Prayer, called sobriety by the holy fathers, should be an integral part of monastic life. It is also necessary for all the laity, for without the remembrance of God it is impossible for anyone to be saved.
Such a seemingly simple matter as reading a short prayer, in reality, is not so simple. Prayer has different types, or degrees, which are called verbal, smart active, smart-heart active, smart-heart self-moving, smart-heart clean, visual. At each level, explanations from an experienced person are needed. Awareness is very important here, because through mental work the Lord arranges our salvation, giving a person through prayer at the right time from His grace everything necessary. Great is the need for an experienced, knowledgeable mentor, an elder teacher who has passed not only the initial stages of prayer, but also prayer visual who could freely and invulnerably lead the disciple through all temptations. The skillful one knows by experience what temptations and at what time can visit the one who is being saved, he will warn any temptation with instructions, indicate what and how to do in order to avoid mistakes, explain how to recognize the devil's cunning when demons attack "from the left" and when approached under the guise of good with " right" side.
But alas! Some do not have the time and desire to adequately exercise their mind, word and heart in this great work, while others, having a desire, do not know how to start it. Others approach, but act sensually, exercising their carnal mind, living willfully, according to their own understanding, and think of themselves at the same time that they are leading a spiritual life. Such people do not know that truly spiritual life begins by the great mercy of God only when a person completely surrenders himself to the will of God. And this becomes possible only after the mind has been cleansed of obscuration and the soul has been cleansed of passions. Until then, a person does not live spiritually, but by human wisdom - by the knowledge of the carnal mind, even if he knows the whole theory of Christian theology and is great in the eyes of people. Such people often get entangled in the seductive nets of the carnal mind and, worst of all, the true bearers of the spiritual mind are considered unthinking. Such, praying according to the Prayer Book, consider the doers of mental prayer to be ignorant and fallen into delusion, but in fact they themselves are deceived and ignorant. Their procession is not to salvation, but from it.
The ancient holy fathers, the great creators of mental work, wrote a lot about the Jesus Prayer. But they begin by describing the high degrees of contemplative prayer, writing about prayer smart-heart self-propelled, omitting the previous initial levels. Only rare ones concern prayer smart-heart active and the dreamy temptations that accompany it. At the same time, all the fathers write briefly and covertly, and for this reason.
When the holy fathers wrote about the Jesus Prayer, then there were many laborers with experience and there was no need to describe in detail the initial stages, since there was someone to instruct. In addition, an unprepared person could read the scriptures, and only a ready one could benefit. Therefore, the fathers wrote briefly and covertly. The one who is ready will understand what is necessary in a brief description, but the one who is not ready will not damage his mind. Not everyone understands that spiritual prayer begins to act in a person only after he begins to fully fulfill the will of God. Until now, prayer has been only active. Those who take it for spirituality are bitterly mistaken. If the still unfinished work of the carnal mind is taken for the spiritual, then this is deception and grief.
At present, there are almost no experienced craftsmen left. Anyone who desires to pray is already at the very beginning subjected to doubts about the correctness and success of their actions. Having worked a little and not seeing the desired fruits, he leaves this sacred work, and sometimes even blasphemes him. This is how a person moves away from the possession of the heavenly mind, manifested on earth by Christ: "lift up the world, the light of mind." And this loss dooms us to immersion in the mental darkness in which mankind lived before the coming of Christ. When the ability to rationally glorify God is lost, then they glorify in one language, and words without the participation of the mind do not kindle the heart, but quench it.
So, with all my weakness, weeping and lamenting from my impotence, I nevertheless strongly desired that the reasonable glorification of God should continue, so that the number of those preparing their hearts for God would not decrease, but grow. To all who are thirsty to truly glorify God, I dared to offer these words not as an instruction, for you yourself are smarter than me, but in the form of brotherly advice, sharing what I have due to my poverty. Not relying on my own strength, but only relying on the Almighty power of my Lord, rejecting my own wisdom and everything that has no confirmation in the Holy Scriptures or in the inspired writings of the Holy Fathers, who have experienced the life of repentance, I state everything that I myself once had great need, needing literally every word now written here.
Of course, not everything is expounded, but only the most important thing, that which every worker of repentance has to meet, the very essence that is needed by everyone is expounded. And everything that happens besides what is described here is secondary and does not threaten the death of the soul. Accept, O Lord, this work to the glory of Your Holy Name, and having enlightened to this work, help me to complete it worthily for the salvation of souls that thirst for Your righteousness.
"If you begin to work for the Lord God, prepare your soul for temptation"(Sir. 2:1). Know that if you follow the Lord, if you follow His divine teaching, then temptations will meet you along the way. The flesh, the world, and the devil are your enemies, but you are your own enemy no less than them. From now on, refusing to follow the inclinations of your will, you part with a peaceful life and unceasing struggle becomes your lot. When you start doing the Jesus Prayer, get ready not for a peaceful life, but for enduring all kinds of sorrows caused by the flesh, the world, the devil, and your own self-love.
Sorrows come from without and from within, but their onslaught is restrained by the grace of God, which does not allow the surviving sufferer to grieve more than he is able to bear. Sorrows are allowed by grace to the extent of the strength of the mind and soul of the one who is being saved, and not at the will of malicious demons. Under such guidance of grace, a person acquires patience, learns devotion to the will of God, so as not to lose heart in the subsequent battle. He gains experience by learning to use diligently in prayer, and by skill he gains knowledge and wisdom.
If you want, brother or sister, to acquire an unceasing remembrance of God and in prayer to converse with Him unceasingly, as with a friend, face to face, then pray that the Lord would send you a mentor who is not deceived, who knows with experience the great work of prayer of repentance, tested in battles. . Experienced mentors are very rare, but by the grace of the Lord they are still preserved, they still exist to our time. Look diligently for an experienced one, ask God with tears, so that He will show you one who knows the unforgotten path of repentance. But remember, brother or sister, that there is no need to look for a miracle worker. Do not look at the outward, but look for someone who truly knows the spiritual life and spiritual warfare, who has a spiritual mind, who has seen the secrets of the Kingdom of Heaven. One who could lead you into the Kingdom of God, which exists within you, who himself went through all the temptations and knew all the flattery of Satan with all the tricks of the devil. Such a spiritual man knows about the heaviness of the heart that comes from the passions agitated by the devil, knows and can help in any sorrow, can deliver from any heaviness born of embarrassment. Have only firm faith in such a person, in the likeness of faith in God, for such a person is guided by God Himself.
If the Lord shows you such a mentor, then cling to him with all your heart and do not ever dare to betray him or disobey his words. Have him for Christ Himself and know that the holy fathers said this about it: “If you see your mentor sleeping or lying down, eating or drinking, talking or doing anything else, you should not be tempted by your cowardice, for he is pleasing to God for his work. and that does not harm him." Strictly know that he is the judge of your deeds, and not you - his, you have a need for him, and not he for you. He bears your infirmities and endures your self-will, and you are a burden to him, which he bears out of love for you. In him, having come to a truly spiritual mind, God Himself acts, dwelling in his heart, and his will is always pleasing to God, since he lives by the will of God. He, like the holy Apostles, does the work of saving people. What you do not like, accept from him, fulfill and keep as an irreplaceable value. Rebuke, taunts, and everything that hinders your will, accept from him willingly, since by this he heals the ulcers of your soul and mortifies your will, resurrects your mind and soul from sinful death.
Such a mentor has already resurrected his mind and soul by the power of God from sinful death, cleansed his heart from passions and demons, prepared his heart for the hopeless sojourn of the Triune God in it: "and We will come to him and make our abode with him"(John 14:23). Such a mentor is a sage of sages, a great philosopher, even if he has not been trained in external sciences. He is a true theologian, constantly theologising, for he lives by God, in God's way. This is what the holy fathers say, this is what they indicate, blessing to remain under the guidance of an experienced mentor, not having any sadness about themselves, but only unquestioningly fulfilling everything indicated by him.
But you, mentor, father, guide in spiritual wisdom, check yourself first of all, make sure that you have a truly spiritual mind, a mind sanctified by the Holy Spirit, a mind approved by God, so that it is possible for you, with full peace of mind in God abiding, usefully instructing the spiritual children you flock, leading them on the unforgettably thorny path of repentance to the true wisdom of the spirit.
But if you, teacher, do not possess the true mind, but have only true knowledge, which comes through complete devotion to the will of God, then even then you can guide your children on the path of repentance. But in matters of truly spiritual wisdom, guide only yourself, and refrain from leading others in this matter, since you have not yet come to true reason.
He who has neither true reason nor true knowledge cannot lead others. This would be extremely dangerous, for such a one is still only walking in repentance. And the one who is on the path of repentance has not yet reached salvation. Whoever is on the road himself still makes mistakes and often turns the truth into a lie, and calls a lie the truth. He who has not attained true knowledge cannot teach others, even if outwardly he is educated like a theologian. He himself is under the influence of passions that completely own him, how can he save anyone from passions? He who does not understand the truth instead of benefit creates a great obstacle for the student. Such people often consider themselves worthy leaders, but in fact they lead their flock to destruction, and what is even worse, they consider the true teachers of the truth of God to be deceived, separating their children from experienced mentors, being themselves completely smitten with the charm of passions and sin.
Brother or sister! If you begged God much and much to grant you a mentor, but did not receive this, if you searched and searched persistently everywhere, but did not find one, because they are so rare these days, do not despair, "It is not possible to eat from man, but from God all things are possible"(Matthew 1-9:26). Relying on God, with a firm intention not to deviate in any way from the chosen path of doing prayer, firmly believing that the Lord is near those who call Him, act according to what is indicated here.
The Lord, having enlightened you with an urge to prayerful work, thereby testifies to your calling to this work. It pleases God. He Himself will help to start. After all, it is He who helps every time a prayer is said, and every single word of prayer is prophesied with His help. All the time you are praying, He wants to be with you, and He will look at you. Always and everywhere, by His grace, acting in prayer, He will support you, teach and enlighten you, now scourging, now merciful to you. By punishing, He shows His Fatherly love for you. He will beat, but at the same time accept you as a son, so that you become skilled with Him. He will look at how you love Him, testifying to your love by prayerful remembrance of Him.
To the extent that you force yourself to pray—to the extent that your mind stays attentively in it, to a sympathetic attitude of your heart—the Lord will help you with His grace to assimilate prayer, will help you evade sin. Doing this is fraught with difficulties in mastering filial obedience to God, but do not be discouraged by this, the main thing is not to despair and inaction, do not leave prayer. The Lord will help you, and sorrow will pass.
If the prayer work begins to seem useless to you, resolutely reject such thoughts, because there can be no prayer that does not bring benefit and fruit. Seeming barrenness is the result of ignorance, a person does not understand what the fruit of prayer is, and meanwhile the fruit is already ripening under the influence of grace. Through prayerful work, all the virtues in the soul are cultivated, and this happens imperceptibly. Man's business is to never leave prayer, to the best of his ability to listen to prayer and force himself to this work. And in everything else, you need to put your trust in God, expecting mercy from Him, and submit to His will. Then the Lord, acting in prayer by His grace, will reward the one who prays according to his efforts.
In the matter of prayer, the frequency of prayer and the constancy of the memory of the beloved Lord are of great importance. The attention of the mind will gradually become stronger, which is the fruit of prayer. With increased attention, a person will begin to see in himself an increasing amount of evil emanating from the heart, where the devil lives, arousing passions. Evil manifests itself in thoughts and desires, and the mind, thirsting for salvation, should not pay any attention to thoughts, but stop them, paying attention to prayer, which weakens the passions. This is swearing.
A person who repents of fruits does not notice prayer. This is how it is arranged by the grace of God in secret from a person for his benefit, for a person is too greedy for self-conceit. It seems to the one who is praying that he is standing still, or it seems that he is getting even worse. He prays again and again sees his seeming failures. Thoughts are driven away again and again by prayer, as a result, the mind reveals more and more of them, and a person in such a battle begins to humble himself, learns to surrender himself to the will of God, and this is exactly what is required.
Everything that is salvific for a person is arranged by grace in response to a person’s good will for salvation, to his self-compulsion to pray, and to the extent of compulsion, success is achieved, both in prayer and in general on the path of salvation. The great work of prayer is the fulfillment of the words of Christ: "Unless one is born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God"(John 3:3), for prayerful activity leads to the complete regeneration of the whole person by the power of grace. A person should in no case leave a prayer.
The devil, secretly working in the heart, is incredibly afraid of attentive prayer, because he knows that through this all his tricks are revealed to the human mind. When a person clings more and more to prayer and does not let go of the name of Christ, he becomes convinced that it is impossible to live without it, otherwise enemy thoughts instantly take possession of the mind, and passions enslave it.
A person has nothing to be proud of, for every achievement of success is accomplished not by him, but by grace. Yes, and these successes are not the achievement of spiritual perfection, but only the purification of the mind from obscuration, the purification of the soul from passions, the training of warfare. Not realizing this, a person always strives to exalt himself, regardless of the fact that his mind is enveloped in the darkness of ignorance. So you, brother or sister, take all this into account as you embark on this sacred work that can sanctify and enlighten a person. Coming to the beginning, determine to dedicate your whole life to prayer work, although it will seem that it is difficult. The path of asceticism is difficult, but paradise is sweet and beautiful is the Bridegroom of the soul - Christ the Lord, and the path of doing prayer is the path to Him.
Remember, brother or sister, that no matter how great the temptations, no matter how terrible they may seem, in no case do not despair and do not lose heart, but instead always heed the prayer being read. Prayer is called a rod, leaning on which a person stands firmly, and if he deviates into thoughts or desires, gets carried away by what he saw in a dream or something from his everyday environment, then, remembering the prayer, he will take up it and find peace, reconcile with grace and again will continue to move forward.
The Holy Fathers call prayer, including that of Jesus, "the mother of the virtues," and this is because to the extent that a person succeeds in prayer, the same progress is made in other virtues. Prayer, like a mother who nourishes her children, nourishes all the virtues, which is why prayerful activity is, in essence, saving life itself, bringing the mind and soul to the highest wisdom of God.
When prayer is permeated with the action of the Holy Spirit, then all the virtues will be moved by the Holy Spirit, for this sake let us labor. A person, being busy with prayer, abides in the memory of God, and the memory of God testifies to love for God. When praying, a person always repents of his sins, recognizing himself as a sinner. When praying, a person fights evil, but not with his insignificant strength, but with the name of God, thereby recognizing his weakness and glorifying God's power. Prayer opens the eye of the spiritual mind to a person, shows him his sins hidden in his heart, and his weaknesses, so that a person comes to humility.
A person recognizes his weakness and impotence in the fight against evil and begins to hold on more and more with the mind of prayer, more and more fully surrender himself to the will of God. Again and again prayerfully calling on God for protection from his rival - the devil, a person remembers death, since the struggle with sin is inseparable from the memory of death. "Sin is death," and the thought of sin leads to the thought of death, which lays the body in the earth. Convinced that sin is conquered by prayer, a person learns courage through prayer.
Prayer also teaches generosity in enduring sorrows, convincing that temptations and sorrows become the cause of subsequent knowledge and salvation. So all other virtues, and even love itself, ripen with the help of prayer. The holy fathers, the great creators of mental work, contemplators of the true mysteries of God, called prayer a rod and explained with conviction: "Whoever leans on a prayer rod, he will not fall, and if he falls, he will not be broken, but he will get up and go further."
Such is the testimony of the saints, and while Satan seeks in every possible way how to lead the soul into confusion, let a person remain in prayer with his mind and remain calm, because, listening to prayer, he defeats the enemy, achieves success and peacefully marches on, driven by prayer, which is mine. poverty, with all my various weaknesses and unreason, I had to experience many times.
Prayer is verbal
The doing of the Jesus Prayer, like any other prayer, begins with making a prayer with a word. “Lord, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner,” this is how a person calls out to God several times when reading the morning and evening rule, or simply always and everywhere, in any situation and in any place, acting as the spiritual father indicates. If there is no father, then one should try everywhere and always to remain with prayer.
To the rule read from the Prayer Book in the morning and in the evening, you can add hundreds of five Jesus prayers. Read with attention as much as possible, doing this: before the rule, put thirty-three bows of the earth, when you begin to read the Jesus Prayer, then after every hundred put three bows of the earth, and after every ten - one waist. At the end of the whole rule - again thirty-three bows to the earth. When the forces are weak, you can not lay prostrations. Or replace them with waist ones, or simply cross yourself and, listening to the words, continue the prayer without embarrassment. Before the holidays and on holidays, it is also possible to replace prostrations with waist ones. If there is a need to add to five hundred prayers another hundred, two, three, four, five, - you can add, and from what is read from the book - reduce. You can create a thousand both in the morning and in the evening. If there is an even greater need for prayer, then add more, and subtract from what you read from the book. If there is an increased desire and an inner need to say the Jesus Prayer instead of the morning and evening rule, then do not interrupt this desire. From the rule read according to the Prayer Book, you can leave out the morning and evening prayers, and omit everything else, so that the skill in the Jesus Prayer is improved.
Thus, the mind will gradually begin to gather and be carried away into a prayerful feeling. Take care in every possible way not to leave the Jesus Prayer between the rules. To this end, adapt yourself, seeking every opportunity to avoid verbosity, and arrange your external affairs and life accordingly.
This would seem to be an easy matter. What could be easier than repeating the same words of a short prayer? But in practice it is not so simple. The soul, having lost the habit of remembering God, having previously spent a sensual life instead of standing before God, continues to be carried away by the variety of impressions stored by memory, perceived through sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch. The mind follows memory like a slave, because everything in the inner man that should be under the control of the mind, including the five outer senses, has prevailed over the mind. External senses serve as conductors of what is imprinted in memory, and these impressions captivate and contain both the mind and the heart, while the mind and heart - the precious center of the essence of the human being - are destined by God to be His dwelling. When a person plunges his mind and heart into impressions, begins to be guided by feelings, then his soul begins to live a life that is inferior to nature - passionate. When feelings dominate the mind, then the mind, enslaved by lusts, loses the freedom received as a great gift from God, and leads to complete disorder of the entire inner person. Feelings that are not accustomed to being awake and participating in prayer are carried away by everything that can only be perceived from within and without. A person with such an internal disorder is not capable of sobriety, of spiritual fasting, he, with all his desire, will not be able to curb either the mind or feelings. Everything in him fell into disarray from a sober, inattentive life. For this reason, a person, embarking on prayer work, from the very beginning must be ready to wage a struggle with the entire structure of his former life, in order to be completely reborn with the help of grace, to get rid of everything unnatural in himself.
A person reads a prayer and is distracted, reads it again and is distracted, and again remembers it and reads it again. Again and again a person loses his prayer, being carried away either by previously imprinted in memory, or by new perceptions coming from outside. The memories kept by the heart rise and come to mind in the form of thoughts, and then the devil will not be slow to arrive in time, mixing something of his own into them. But as soon as a person decides on an attentive attitude towards himself, then, only having begun, he will already begin to discover what is happening in his inner world. As attention grows, as the prayerful activity of the mind becomes more and more possible to keep feelings from being distracted, more and more clearly one sees the malice emanating from the heart through thoughts. And this is already a certain fruit of prayer. No matter how much attention is distracted by thoughts, no matter how weak prayer is, one should not come from this into inaction. A person should not leave prayer, on the contrary, he should be more and more jealous of it in order to cleanse the heart from sinful pus.
No matter how much the mind forgets the prayer, remember and do it again and do it. As the Lord self-compels, your forgetfulness will decrease, and your attention will begin to increase, even if very slowly. The more time the human mind indulges in prayer, the more surely it approaches the Lord to the work of the Angels, to the eating of the food of prayer.
Always be busy with prayer - day, night, evening, morning, being at home and outside it, on the road and at work, standing, walking, lying and sitting, during the rule and beyond all the rules. Always pray. And that's why. Both passion and virtue are rooted in a person from skill. The same good deed, being repeated, is assimilated from repetition, becomes a habit and is done without compulsion, as something natural. So repeated sin creates passion. And passion, which has come into force, captivates to sin out of habit and, becoming like a natural property, forces a person to sin even against his will.
The Jesus Prayer, like other virtues, needs skill. A person needs to try through self-compulsion always, both in joy and in sorrows, to remain in prayer. As coercion settles, with the help of the grace of God, a habit, a person is strengthened for the upcoming prayer feat. The skill of doing prayer is acquired by the constancy of the pronunciation of prayer words. Prayer verbal needs quantity - multitude. Perhaps more times you should read the prayer during the day. In the future, although not immediately, the number will increase, depending on the attention and diligence of the praying mind.
While doing verbal prayers the devil, the flesh and the world act from without and from within, diverting the mind from prayer. Fight against mentally visible evil with the help of prayer itself - listen to it and thereby drive away all evil. Prayer is the beginning of the fight against evil and sin, prayer gains strength for battle. It is impossible to fight the devil and sin with your own strength.
The external life of a person during the passage of the Jesus Prayer verbal should go like this. In whatever circumstances the prayer worker is, whatever position he holds, whatever obedience he passes, in every position he should strive for solitude and speak as little as possible, keeping his mouth. With silent lips, prayer is done more and more conveniently. It should always be remembered that God Himself looks at the ascetic. Insults and insults must be endured patiently and unconditionally forgive everything. When offended, do not resent. From time to time, from the depths of your heart, sigh with the words of the publican: “God, be merciful to me a sinner!”, And to the Mother of God: “Mother of God, do not leave me a sinner!”, And to the Guardian Angel in the same way - and continue to do it unceasingly and do the Jesus Prayer.
In the time free from work and obedience, or when the mind is tired of the tension of prayer, one should read soulful books. It is good to read the lives of saints and ascetics of piety who were saved in the last times, the Holy Gospel, the Acts and Epistles of the Holy Apostles. The great books, which speak of a truly contemplative life, are not harmless to touch at this time, it is better not to read them until the time is right. Reading them in an inexperienced mind can give rise to unbearable sorrows, from which the mind weakens and cannot not only fulfill what is written, but also becomes unable to do what it can, it becomes greatly embarrassed and even discouraged, removing itself from the presence of the grace of God. Books that do not encourage the correction of morality, that is, non-religious content, should not be read at all at this time. Have full concern for your moral correction, hoping for the help of grace acting in prayer.
Sleep should be six to seven hours if you have strength and health, and if you are sick or weak, you can sleep up to eight hours a day. Do this until the time when prayer itself legitimizes the duration of sleep, and as long as it allows, you will rest for as long. Such a long (6-7-8 hours) rest is needed because the Jesus Prayer requires intense activity of the mind from the praying person, and this is possible only when the mind is reinforced by rest. Otherwise the mind is powerless to pray attentively.
You should always eat with abstinence. This means: leave the table, feeling that you are a little undernourished, that you are not quite full. Likewise accustom yourself to abstinence in drinking. Do not use intoxicating things at all, so as not to inflame lust and fornication. Eat little that contains a lot of fat, so as not to upset yourself with prodigal lust and aggravation of the stomach, disposing the mind to drowsiness and inactivity. Eat more lenten, digestible food, thanking God for His mercy and firmly believing that the nutrition contained in lenten food is quite sufficient to maintain the life of your body and for doing prayer. Keep food preparation simple, avoiding refinement. Business relations and in general the whole way of life should be simplified to the limit, so that there are no reasons for unnecessary worries about external things, in order to avoid distraction and scattering of the mind. Remember that a person on earth lives like a guest or a wanderer. Spent the night and hasten to eternity, where you will need to give an answer for the life lived on earth. Do not get carried away with anything earthly, even very important - the earth is not a place for life, but only a place for preparing for eternal life. Firmly grasp the fact that a person on earth is destined to mourn, and not rejoice: "In the world you will mourn"(John 16.33).
Train yourself to be content with only the essentials. Everything superfluous requires extra care, takes away part of the time given to you to gain spiritual benefit and to glorify God. Hold always and everywhere only that which contributes to salvation - for this sake the Creator settled us on this earth in sorrow. In every possible way avoid visiting those places where entertainment cannot be avoided, and do not think about them. If necessary, when you find yourself in such a place, quickly move away from there, remembering that all your care consists in drawing closer to the Lord through prayer, and the one who leaves this care begins to retreat. Never give freedom to your desires, it destroys the soul and darkens the mind. How much you restrict your desires, how much you will be alone and silent for God's sake, to how much the Lord will be with you, and neglect of prayer removes you from the Lord.
Love God. Witness love for God by cutting off your own will and fulfilling the will of God. The Lord wants our mind to be occupied with unceasing prayer, so take care of this in every possible way. Avoid social amusements, banquets, and the like. Treasure every moment of time given to you for salvation, for the enlightenment of the mind, knowing that it is impossible to obtain such saving time after death. Public dinners can be dispensed with, but the harm from them is difficult to avoid. In general, try to avoid everything that leads away from solitude, instead use all your desire for a prayerful conversation with the Lord.
Do not see success in your prayer work, for when you go through prayer verbal, you, with all the desire to live for the sake of God, while you still live with passions. A person lives in the heart, and passions live in the heart - sinful habits. They only become weak during verbal prayer, but do not leave the heart. Stay away from any visions, revelations or any gifts, in whatever form they may appear, no matter how sacred and blessed they may seem to you - do not apply your mind to anything, but only pay attention to the prayer you read. Consider yourself unworthy of any gifts, as it really is. You did not begin to seek gifts through prayer, but prayer itself and devotion to the will of God. And this is given by God not to the proud, who desire gifts, visions and revelations, but to those who see themselves as unworthy not only of gifts, but of this very life full of sorrows. Such people see their own sinfulness, and the measure of consciousness of their sinfulness is the measure of the cleansing of the heart from sin, which is the most valuable thing in doing intelligent repentant prayer. "Yes, Lord, King, grant me to see my sins and not condemn my brother" - Saint Ephraim the Syrian prayed like that, and was not looking for gifts. And again: "The one who sees his sins is higher than the one who saw the Angel" - the first opens a spiritual eye, and the last saw only sensually.
It is necessary to read the Jesus Prayer, as it is said, everywhere and always. When you are alone, it is convenient to read in a whisper, but in public, read to yourself. Reading to yourself is useful and in private, what is more intimate is better for you. Learning to pray internally will help you to be busy with prayer among the society of people, listening to its words, secretly working out your salvation.
When you are in the temple of God, you can occupy your mind with the Jesus Prayer during all the services. During the liturgy, especially at the Great Entrance, when all those praying more fervently ask each according to their needs, and you do the same: ask God, as best you can, for forgiveness of your sins. If the Jesus Prayer has already taken root and is read without much difficulty, then read it in these sacred moments. It contains a repentant appeal to God with a petition for the forgiveness of sins, and this is the essence of all our prayers and deeds. If in the church service, especially at the liturgy, you manage to be in great attention, when the mind is not plundered by thoughts, then pray as you wish. But I never advise you to neglect the all-powerful Jesus Prayer, since all the virtues are acquired by it.
Banish all worldly amusement from yourself, arrange your cell-room, alien to amusements. When the need arises for reflection or for talking with people, then talk about death, about hell, about the fate of unrepentant sinners. When a strong sadness overcomes, then, in addition to reasoning about hell, which can be avoided through the patient enduring of sorrows on earth, one can recall paradise, the bliss of closeness to God, which one receives for the fulfillment of the holy will of God, while patiently enduring what is encountered in life. , while doing the Jesus Prayer smartly. "Through many tribulations it is fitting for us to enter into the Kingdom of God"(Acts 14:22). Sorrows, internal and external, patiently endured on earth, will replace the sufferings of hell for us in eternity and will appear, in imitation of the Lord, in the image of the Cross of Christ, instilling us into eternal life, that is, into God, to a hopeless dwelling in Him.
To be saved means to mourn. There is no salvation without sorrows, just as there is no happiness for a follower of Christ on earth: "In the world you will mourn"(John 16:33). The followers of Christ spend their whole lives on earth in sorrow, sorrow is their constant companion and tyrant, but also a teacher of true, heavenly, God's wisdom. The path of the Cross of Christ is stony and thorny, but it endows a person with true knowledge, understanding of the essence of things and phenomena, creates a true Theologian out of him, even if a person is very simple and in no way skilled in external sciences.
All deeds must be done honestly, without hypocrisy and human pleasing, so that the conscience does not reproach for anything and is pure. Learn to love people, to see in everyone your neighbor, sick and relaxed, forgive him all the insults and insults inflicted on him. Honor your ill-wishers as benefactors. Thus, by humbling and reproaching oneself in every possible way, one can gain love for everyone and not have enemies among people. In such a dispensation one should go through doing verbal the Jesus Prayer until it becomes habitual.
This doing is not determined by time, and not everyone is the same. The young, with diligence, succeed more quickly, and the elderly more slowly, since the memory of the elderly is more embraced by sensuality than that of the young. Only those who do not want to work on their salvation do not have time at all. Thoughts during verbal prayer are countless, they are born in the heart, almost all with the participation of the devil. The mind that listens to prayer breaks passionate thoughts about the stone of the sweetest name of the Lord Jesus Christ. There are unrelenting thoughts, languishing a person against his will, for a day, two or more. These must be confessed to your elder or old woman, or, if there is no elder, bow down before God, asking Him to take revenge on your rival - the devil. Fulfill what the elder told you exactly, and the thought discovered and announced in front of the elder witness or before God will be removed. If only the elder was in truth, would be above the temptations of his disciple, would not be overwhelmed by thought in the same form and image.
In the case when there is no one to tell the thought, decide for yourself not to agree with the thought for the rest of your life and, do not lose heart, fight. Lord, seeing your striving for good and your struggle. He himself will help you, forbidding the thought, or, without taking away the scolding, will give you patience. God allows this so that for your struggle and patience you can gain a saving profit and in due time inflict a deep wound on the head of the devil. Confession and communion should be done as often as possible, but not too much, since one must adequately prepare. If it is not possible to take communion even once a year, then, placing all your hope in the Lord, continue in prayer, and the Lord, seeing your good will, will accept the desire as the very communion.
With doing prayer, one acquires remembrance of God, the vision of one's sinfulness and helplessness, the vision of one's righteousness and confidence in one's strength disappear. A person ceases to consider himself worthy of anything special, because through attention to thoughts and desires he finds himself completely mired in sin. A sinner is not worthy of God's visitation, and you do not consider yourself worthy. In view of what has been said, when doing a prayer, do not take into account anything unusual in yourself or around you - any kind of light, warmth, the faces of saints or something like that, since everything except prayer and attention to it comes from the devil.
Grace to the doer of prayer is given in the prayer itself, cleansing the mind from obscuration, and the soul from passions. This is the main value for the penitent, and nothing else. Grace is inherent in the human mind only when the mind peacefully, without embarrassment, prays and conquers thoughts in the name of God. Chasing after anything else is disastrous for the mind - you will reap barrenness and sadness, and you will not escape charms.
There are sometimes thoughts called natural, they come from a mind that does not want to sin. They should not be spread about, as they are harmless and useless. The matter of the mind is only one thought to accept - prayer. All other thoughts are wanderers passing by, unnecessary to the mind, and whoever begins to rant with them will not escape harm. An innumerable number of thoughts come to mind, but one should not be afraid of this at all, they will all disappear without a trace, unless the mind does not heed them, doing prayer. Nothing can conquer the mind when the name of God is with it.
To commit verbal no special wisdom and knowledge is required from a person in prayer, only diligence is needed, and success will undoubtedly follow. There are no special hard-to-recognise temptations at this time, the devil mainly fights with thoughts, but for safety it is necessary to move away from the outside world. AT verbal Anyone can practice prayer, just do not accept any visual or mental images, but read the prayer and listen to it. Period length verbal prayer depends on the zeal and diligence of the ascetic and on the degree of hardening of the heart, acquired before engaging in prayer work.
The result of the exercise in prayer verbal is a habit acquired by the grace of God. Evidence of acquired skill will be that after a temporary distraction from prayer, the tongue will begin to pronounce the prayer words by itself, then attention will be drawn to the words, and the mind will meaningfully continue the verbal reading of the prayer.
Prayer smart active
smart active the jesus prayer is called smart because it is read mentally, and active It is called because, until the time of complete devotion to the will of God, it is done by a person intentionally, and not automatically by the Holy Spirit.
Having become accustomed, as mentioned above, in prayer verbal, the mind begins, according to the expression of the holy fathers, to listen more warmly, more diligently to the words read by the tongue, and listening, gradually begins to immerse itself in prayer with pleasure. Finally, having fallen in love with this activity, the mind, instead of being carried away by the rotation in thoughts emanating from the heart, begins to create prayer itself. From now on, born not on the lips, but in the secret depths of the mind, the prayer is not pronounced, but mentally thought. There are people who, even before the practice of prayer, have developed by nature the abilities of the mind, such can, bypassing verbal, immediately proceed to prayer, done mentally.
Hostile thoughts are now distinguished more clearly. Prayer generated by the mind is naturally inherent in the mind, and all incoming thoughts, as alien, are easy to recognize and cut off. It is much more convenient for the mind to keep its attention on the prayerful thought that is born in its depths. The strength of the mind increases, the readiness of the mind to repel the mental attacks of the devil strengthens. Attentively praying to its own thought, born by itself, the mind becomes more refined than before, when it only listened to the words spoken by the tongue.
From this time on, a person in the arrangement of his mind begins to follow the path of the Angels. Essentially, clever prayer is nourished by the spirit and created by the spirit, such is the food and the constant work of the holy angels. Now such a person, without embarrassment, can be clothed in an Angelic image - in a mantle, without embarrassment, you can become his godfather, as evidence of the vows given to God by tonsure. This one is already an imitator of the Angels.
The tonsure performed on a person who does not have smart prayers is doubtful. Is it not for this reason that the monasticism of our times has fallen into decay and the phenomenon of smart doing has become so rare. The abbots and abbesses themselves, with some exceptions, do not have this angelic work, although outwardly they are clothed in the clothes of the angelic image, wearing them as a condemnation. And those presented by them for tonsure do not differ in anything corresponding to the Angelic image. And so our cloisters were filled with monasticism, which was carried away by scientific knowledge and differed from worldly society in clothing, and not in the internal structure of a person doing the angelic work of unceasing prayer. And what is even worse, smart work was considered by many of them a mistake and delusion, since they considered monastic dignity only in the external everyday life of monastic life. But God needs our heart. If you clean the inside, then the outside will be clean. God needs our spirit, our mind and soul, not a body clothed with clothes.
A person who has acquired the skill of doing smart prayers, thereby testifies to the mercy of God revealed to him, that the Lord accepts his repentance. This is God's notice that, by working further on the purification of his heart, a person will receive the grace of complete forgiveness, and then all passions will be crushed and expelled. Prayer clever- the mercy of God - with grace warms the mind of a person, and he becomes a prisoner of this deed. found smart prayer, let him not despair of his salvation, but with strengthened faith and with greater zeal, let him proceed to a further struggle with the devil, who continues his attacks through thoughts.
From now on, the thoughts emanating from the heart are no longer as gross as before - they appear in more subtle forms. Subtle forms of temptations are more difficult to recognize, but one who has acquired by grace smart prayer also receives grace-filled help against the tricks of the devil. Now the mind, which previously did not notice the subtle temptations operating in the heart, begins to discover them and cuts them down with the sword of clever prayer. Every time an enemy thought is seen and repulsed, this forces the devil to invent new traps, but the mind, which stubbornly listens only to prayer and rejects everything else, receives as a gift of grace even greater subtlety in distinguishing the devil's attacks.
This also applies to attention. If with each cutting off of a hostile thought, attention continues to be held in prayer, then it becomes stronger and stronger. That is the order of the fight. The mind is tempted by more and more subtle thought, but, standing in prayerful attention, it shows its contempt for the devil and love for God, and each such victory strengthens the attention and subtlety of the mind. An attentive mind is able to struggle not only with thoughts, but also with other satanic temptations allowed by grace.
The devil often approaches with thoughts that seem good, in order to more conveniently distract from prayer, which he hates above all else. He gives the ability to reason about questions of theology, reveals some secrets, offers a semblance of high talents or some other lie. The mind that dreamed of gifts instead of begging for forgiveness, the mind that embarked on theology, forgetting about its unworthiness, the mind that was carried away into communion with spirits instead of repentant standing before God, the mind that receives revelations from spirits or is inclined to something of that kind - such the mind has left God and turned away to helpers to Satan. The temptation of such a mind is great, and what is worst of all - he will not accept advice from anyone, remaining in his delusion.
For a man there is nothing higher than to talk smart prayer with the omnipresent God, to stand before Him mentally, begging for the forgiveness of their sins. Prayer is called the mother of virtues, since only through it are all true virtues acquired and grace-filled gifts accepted. Attention and heed to your prayer, and God Himself will do everything great and mysterious when it is needed, when your heart is completely cleansed of passions and when the will of God will be done completely. The Lord Himself acts in prayer and through prayer, and everything besides prayer, no matter how salutary or good it may seem, is not capable of victory over the devil, as having no true power in itself.
Clever prayer, like verbal, has an initial need for quantity. It is necessary to multiply the quantity so that the mind becomes stronger in mental creativity, so that, invariably surrendering to the will of God, the mental action turns into a mental habit. A sign of acquired skill in smart prayer is that, waking up from sleep, a person first of all feels the prayerful movement of the mind, and that after any deed that distracts the mind, prayer itself begins to sound in thoughts, and attention itself always tends to prayer. Prayer does not leave a person while eating and doing other things. It is also a sign that a person, while listening to something, continues to listen to prayer and does not listen to thoughts, but his mind itself is drawn to prayer.
During this period, when the temptations from the devil become more subtle and complex, it is very difficult not to get confused in them. If there is an experienced mentor - an elder, a spiritual father, a teacher - then there is no problem, he will indicate when, how to act, and prevent temptation. If there are no experienced people, then even then one should not indulge in fear - stay with prayer and only listen to prayer, and drive away everything else. God allows every prayer worker to be tempted to the extent of his smart powers; the devil cannot do anything beyond what is allowed. If only the battle with Satan was waged with the sword of prayer, and temptations would be beneficial, they would serve to comprehend the cunning of the devil and strengthen the human mind.
The mind should not listen to any supernatural phenomena: neither the light, even if it comes from the icon, nor the voice, even if the Angels sing, because the mind comes and turns in prayer to the Lord of the Angels Himself, invisibly omnipresent. And what can be higher than this? In no case should one take into account the angels or saints that appeared before you, since until complete purification from passions, until the complete fulfillment of the will of God, there are no true phenomena, but only demonic obsessions. If, knowing this, the mind is not carried away by ghosts, then they will all pass by, grace will not allow temptation to be higher than the strength of the one who prays.
Grace always acts in prayer, and through prayer promptly supplies everything the mind needs. When refined, the mind acquires a vision of its own sinfulness, with which the human heart is overflowing, and then the mind cries and cries out to God for mercy. The devil is afraid of a person who is in smart work and sees his sinfulness, he flees from him with his charms, because he knows that he will be defeated, and the ascetic will gain experience in recognizing temptations and maturity in the fight against them. Again and again conquered by grace, the devil continues to approach the ascetic with skill. Forced to offer ever new tricks, he thereby, against his will, enriches the mind of the one who prays with the knowledge of the art of battle. In temptations, gracefully allowed, a person becomes convinced of the powerlessness of the devil and comprehends in practice how powerful is the name of the Almighty Lord.
It is impossible to describe everything that happens while doing smart, and not everyone is the same. Much depends on the zeal of the ascetic, and partly on the complexity of his external activity and on the combination of circumstances. The main thing is that the mind be cleansed of delusion, and the soul be freed from passions in order to see its sinfulness and mourn for it. Except for the name of the Lord, one should not be captivated by anything, not agree with anything, but only know always and in everything one prayer with attention to it.
To the extent that a person succeeds in prayer, to the same extent success grows in all other virtues, he becomes stronger in devotion to the will of God, in fulfilling it. Consciousness of one's own sinfulness rejects the idea of one's dignity. The constant remembrance of the Lord grants the mind to see in itself the right hand of God, which strikes enemies. Hold on to the memory of the Lord, praying to Him with attention, and He Himself will avenge you, slay the adversaries for you, whom you are powerless to fight. Only a good intention, disagreement with evil, determination to fight evil depends on a person, but all victories are achieved by Jesus Christ. Without God, you can do anything against the devil, against evil, but everything will be immediately plundered by one of the passions. Success is accomplished by the grace of God and is invisible to man.
Grace accepts a person’s good will and teaches him to rely not on himself, but on God who saves, teaches him to fight in the name of God, reveals to a person his impotence, insignificance and humbles him. Grace teaches us to surrender ourselves to the will of God, to find everything and place everything in the one God. Thus, a person’s activity is successfully arranged by grace, and a person, seeing such care for himself, acquires natural trust and begins to fully surrender himself to God, acting not only at the beginning of the Gethsemane prayer: "If it is possible to eat, let this cup pass from me" asking for mercy, but also at the end of it: "Otherwise not like I want to, but like You"(Matthew 26:39), surrendering to the will of the Heavenly Father, kindling with ever greater love for Him. Thus, preparation is made for even greater feats, for further struggle with the devil.
A person becomes convinced that God does any struggle with the enemy for him, and all that is required of him is compulsion to prayer and attention to it. He becomes more and more convinced of the need for diligent attention to prayer, since the demons are incredibly cunning and attack from completely unexpected sides. Even what was hitherto understood as good suddenly turns out to be an intricately woven devilish network. And a person resorts to the Lord even more zealously, hiding in prayer, seeking protection from God.
As the totality of passions forms a chain, so the virtues form a single inseparable chain. One good deed entails the whole chain, one good deed nourishes and strengthens all the virtues. The same happens with passions: victory over one of them makes all passions recede, because of their articulation. In accordance with this law, the passions are exhausted as the mind is purified, while the virtues are revived and strengthened, and this happens throughout the entire period of doing. smart prayers. A person who is not engaged in prayer is not aware of anything of the kind.
The grace of God, while accomplishing the salvation of a person, hides its benefits from him, so that the ascetic does not stop on the way. Grace quenches passions, shows the mind the cunning of demons, restores virtues in the soul, while remaining hidden from both the one who prays and the devil. Acting secretly, grace promptly punishes the ascetic with sorrows, allows him to stray into small errors, and then strictly demands correction and admonishes, thus teaching him to hope in God who saves, but not in himself. And so during the whole time of the mental prayer, from which the mind becomes more and more skilful, preparing to accept in due time the power and autocracy granted from God for victory over the devil, flesh, the world and all evil, so that henceforth man, in the likeness The Lord, being himself tempted, was able to help others who still have an inexperienced, embarrassed mind. When doing smart prayer, any unnecessary acquaintance should be stopped and touched only with those people with whom it is connected by extreme necessity. You should live as secluded as possible, tie your mouth with more strictness than when praying. verbal, silence. Any rule read from the Prayer Book should be replaced smart Jesus Prayer. When you are among people and the rule is read from the book by someone else, you can occupy your mind with your usual business. smart prayers. It is necessary to have temperance in everything and always, it is urgent in prayer, and it is better to accustom yourself to temperance gradually. You need to eat in moderation and, leaving the table, always feel that you would eat more. Otherwise, a heavy stomach will lead to drowsiness, the watchful eye of the mind will be clouded, and the mind will begin to incline a person to rest.
It is natural for the mind to be free from everything that leads it to inactivity and drowsiness, which prevents it from listening to the prayer that it does. It is necessary to avoid society even more strictly than before, not out of contempt for a person, but out of love for God, for the sake of the most convenient prayer. Sorrow about earthly cares must be avoided even more strictly, being content with what God gives, and not mourning for what is not given. In general, earthly things should be taken care of as little as possible; those who do not know the purpose and purpose of earthly life are baked about this. All that is unkind to you from your brother, forgive, not repaying evil for evil. Pray for him - and you are guilty before God. Realizing the sinfulness acting in the heart, do not reach despair, but only cry and repent about what you have done, sigh and regret, crushing the passions with the prayer of repentance. Do not judge the deeds of others, since he himself is a sinner without number, and besides, he did not see all the evil in his heart, and there a whole nest of passions is twisted, about which it is said: "From the heart proceed evil thoughts"(Matthew 15:19).
There is a need to cry, so that the soul is washed with tears, bitterly grieving and lamenting over the sinful heart, established on the root of proud selfhood. When there are no tears flowing from your eyes, make up for it with grief of the heart, thereby suppressing the activity of passions, not deigning them, not fulfilling their demands. Bows should be laid according to the forces and according to the action of the passion of fornication. When there is strength and health, or passion acts strongly, then you need to make more bows, not be lazy, but with weak forces, condemning yourself, be content with a small number of bows. Indulgence to the body in its demands should not be given, it should not be trusted even when it will show its weaknesses. You have to be very careful with it, otherwise you can't get rid of it. It is better not to listen to this enemy at all. Give him what he reasonably needs, and let him be satisfied. The holy fathers say that the purpose of the body in this life is to be in the role of a deaf and dumb servant, doing everything that is indicated to him. The saints were strict with their bodies, they listened to them very little, knowing that this temple was given to the soul only for repentance, and for nothing else.
You must judge yourself honestly and give a true price. Since you see your heart overflowing with passions, consider yourself a sinner more than all people - this is the right judgment about yourself. You should consider yourself the worst and useless, recognize yourself as the lowest of all in mind. It is necessary to see that everyone is fulfilling what was intended for them from God, only you alone do not fulfill the will of God, to see that you sin even when the Lord Himself helps you not to sin, and you also enjoy sin.
It is better to live in a cell alone, it should be kept in simplicity, in an average dispensation, when there are neither unnecessary worries, nor excessive negligence about order. The same should be attributed to clothing, and to other things necessary in everyday life. In the event that the Lord sends you a life poorer than the average, accept poverty from His hand with gratitude, believing that He knows what is the greatest benefit for you. But if extreme poverty befalls you, and do not be burdened by it, knowing that our wealth is the Lord, and all of ours is in the Lord, and we are ready to give everything in order to find the Lord, near being, and this fulfills the purpose of earthly life. To spend earthly life in vain is very disastrous, therefore, take care, first of all, of repentance, which reconciles with the Lord.
Have a hard, but warm, bedding on your bed at night, otherwise you may catch a cold and grieve yourself, showing an obstacle to yourself in doing prayer. Persons of the opposite sex, the images of which the devil calls from your memory, imagine lying in a coffin, decomposing with a stench in a multitude of worms. Remember the unknown and your hour of death, perhaps the last minutes of your life on earth are coming, after which torment that has no end awaits you for your sins. So bad thoughts and passionate desires will quickly disappear.
In the case when the same obsessive thought bothers you, without retreating for two or three days, and there is no experienced person nearby who you can tell about it, and you are exhausted in the struggle, then stand in your cell in front of the icon, raise your hands up and say loudly to the Lord, who is present here, about the thought attacking you. Firmly believe that God accepts your confession, and the devil's wiles will leave you, being announced before the Lord. The devil is darkness and the mystery of iniquity, and can only act secretly and in darkness, until the time of his announcement. When he is discovered and the light penetrates where he was in darkness and craftiness, he runs without looking back, scorched by light. In the same way, the revelation weakens the devil during the confession of thoughts to the elder. Discovered, and even with witnesses, he is forced to leave.
If the struggle does not recede from you even after confessing your thoughts before God, then take it more seriously with attention to prayer and know that the Lord wants to teach you even more patience through such warfare, prepares you, like a father a child, for great temptations, so that in this struggle and patience worked out the work of your salvation. The Lord, allowing the continuation of the battle, strengthens, strengthens your virtues in the struggle, while the passions of the heart are weakened in this struggle. In all cases, God arranges the most useful for you, but you do not despair and do not become very discouraged, but, listening to prayer, struggle with an intractable thought, knowing that it is not yours, but the devil’s. This can serve you as some semblance of how demons will incessantly torment sinners in hell, influencing their passions, exciting one after another, with the complete impossibility of getting rid of the intrusiveness of the devil. So we should not be burdened by the abuse we allow, but we should thank God, who punishes us on earth for the sake of deliverance from torment in eternity.
To resort to the Lord, as indicated above, begging to deliver from the struggle with the thought, one should as rarely as possible - only in extreme cases of exhaustion and despair, for the struggle is the lot of a warrior and one must fight, and not shy away from the fight. Best of all, listening to prayer, do not lose heart, but fight and fight. By struggle we achieve victory, by struggle we acquire virtue, we draw near to God and weave a crown of glory on the head of reason. There is no need to be afraid of various unsightly thoughts, since in the struggle with them a person is prepared by grace to successfully pass the field of even greater temptations and comprehend the power and glory of God, receiving help and patience from the Lord in the struggle.
If you have a spiritual father, an elder leader, do not hide anything from him, tell him all the secrets of your heart. If he is of low rank or has no rank at all, then do not be embarrassed by this, as long as he has a truly spiritual mind, which is the fruit of all struggle and the crown for victory over passions. Choose a confessor at the direction of your elder and ask the elder what and how you should confess to the confessor. Whatever the elder tells you, then do it without violating a single word of his. He knows better than you what is useful to you, you just do not hide anything from him. It is best when the elder himself is ordained to the dignity.
If you do not have a father who guides you in doing prayer, do not tell anyone, including in confession, about your doing. Just bow down before the Lord, tell Him in prayer all the secrets and all your sorrows with firm faith that He hears and looks at you, that through your mournful prayer He will arrange what is useful to you. But you pray and pray, listening to prayer, but do not grumble at the temptations sent to you, for your benefit. All the saints are called ascetics, since they all fought, endured and conquered temptations with the help of grace, and the saints had incomparably more temptations than you.
In the absence of an elder, choose for yourself a confessor, if possible, from monasticism. If the confessor does not know anything about the Jesus Prayer, then it is better not to tell him about it, just confess your sins that burden your conscience. Otherwise, not knowing how to do the Jesus Prayer, he will only harm you with his advice. And it is difficult to meet those who know the practice of the Jesus Prayer in our day.
If there is an urgent need to confess to an unfamiliar priest, then you reveal your sins to him, and do not say a word about doing prayer. Grace through him will forgive your sins with peace of mind. When you confess to an unfamiliar priest the struggles of fornication, keep in mind that other confessors, not knowing the ascetic life and the struggle with passions, often unreasonably advise you to leave the struggle and go into the world to lead a married life. They are guided by the words of the apostle: "It's better to get married than to get fired up"(1 Corinthians 7:9), not realizing that the apostle says this to those lonely people who do not want to fight, but are inflamed with passion. If you have chosen a life of struggle with passions, then reject such advice and do not visit an unreasonable confessor a second time. He himself is mentally ill more than others. He indulges passions, not knowing that he needs to fight them all his life, fight both thoughts and desires that inflame the lustful part of the soul. Confessors are well-known, therefore it is necessary to write about this in warning of trouble.
The nuns have to confess to their father, and if it suddenly turns out that he advises going into the world to live as a family, you must immediately open this abbess, from whom nothing should be hidden. It is absolutely impossible to hide the unreasonable advice of the confessor, although given at confession, for the nun is united in her soul with the soul of the abbess, and the abbess will have to answer for the death of the soul of the nun, if only the nun was in complete obedience to her. The abbess should dismiss such a monastery father-confessor from the monastery, reporting to the bishop, as he ruins the souls of the sisters, preventing the feat of struggle with passions.
The path of penitent life is also possible, which is called "middle" by the holy fathers and highly approved by them. This is something between solitude and a monastic community, when two or three like-minded people gather who have agreed views and desires regarding the passage of a life of repentance and prayer. It is difficult to meet such prudent, simple and like-minded people in our time. They must renounce self-will, cutting off their desires before each other. Perplexities, temptations and doubts must be resolved at a general council in accordance with the instructions of the holy fathers. Their leaders should be only God and the holy fathers. But the safest way of a life of repentance and prayer is the way of living with an elder, just be obedient and do what has been said, and the elder will prevent any danger, indicating how to act. If only the elder were truly understanding spiritual life, he would be known for the correctness of faith.
No less than everything else in smart In the Jesus Prayer, what matters is where the attention of the mind is established when praying. The holy fathers, prayer books, workers of sacred sobriety point out, and the experience of those who labor attest to this, that prayer, performed by the mind, naturally occurs where every person has the organ of speech, that is, in the larynx. It is here, in the larynx, in the region of the vocal cords, that one should pay attention during the whole time of the mental prayer, but not in any other place. Do not direct your attention either to the head, or to the womb, or to the stomach, or to the lustful region, which is especially disastrous, but in every possible way keep your mind with attention in the larynx, stand here and do not deviate anywhere. Do not strain to move your attention to the heart, this is possible only when doing a prayer smart-heart when the heart prays with the mind. This will be said in due time, now remember one thing: from the area of the organ of the word, do not deviate with attention anywhere during the entire time of prayer. smart.
The action of the passions during the passage smart prayer is greatly intensified. Satan excites the passions that he holds in his hands as a weapon in the fight against man, and the mind, with sharpened attention, more clearly feels the excitement of the aroused passions. A person, seeing the attacks of the murderers of demons, understands with sorrow that if prayer leaves him, then the soul will be taken alive to the underworld, and therefore he clings to prayer even more zealously, hides in it with his mind from adversaries and with the help of God avoids the uprisings of passions erected by the devil.
Everything Important in Prayer smart described here. Don't be discouraged, do it. Stand with attention, as indicated, before God, and only take care of this. The heart has not yet been cleansed of passions, and the mind is not free from delusion, you do not have the possibility of approaching the Celestials, therefore neither the Angels nor the saints of God can appear to you. No matter how pure and holy it may seem, keep away from yourself and do not give consent to anything, then with the help of grace you will avoid any delusion. Whatever you come across - do not accept, but, as they said, remain in prayer and pay attention to prayer, drive away all malice with prayer. Treasure prayer. The fruit of intelligent prayer is the purification of the mind and the sight of sins in one's heart, repentant contrition of the heart and the restoration of virtues.
Monasticism or worldly life - this does not matter in the matter of prayer. Whether to be a monk, a novice, or a simple layman, it does not matter, as long as the environment and environment do not interfere with the work of prayer, do not interfere with the creation of inner monasticism.
Smart-heart active prayer
A person ascends to the next degree and acquires prayer smart-heart active. It is called smart-heart because in it, together with the mind, the heart also prays, that is, the whole inner man. Active it is named because the will of a person still continues to act in him, manifesting itself in motives and deeds. A person has not yet entered into the complete fulfillment of the will of God, but fulfills it only partially, in the rest, while carrying out his activities, he fulfills his own will. Chastity has not yet been achieved.
How to get used to prayer verbal, the mind listens to the words and, gradually plunging into prayer, acquires a skill in it, so when praying smart when it takes root in the mind, in response to mental labor, the heart begins to gradually warm up. In other words, when the mind is constantly occupied with prayer and a person has directed his whole life to this doing, then the inner feelings begin to tune in to prayer and plunge into it, they participate in the mind in the prayer action and, being captivated by the name of God, no longer distract the mind from prayer.
Satan with his demons, armed with the passions that dwell in the heart of an old, still self-willed man, establish themselves on the proud human self. Here, at the very foundation of an conceited heart, the devil erects for himself a great temple of passions. But this, hitherto indestructible fortification, holding captive all people at all times, is now beginning to crumble under the influence of smart prayers.
Satan, seeing the destruction of his temple of passions, does not remain indifferent. Every moment he invents new and new methods of struggle, and grace, for the sake of edification, allows a person to be tempted. Seeing the weakening of passions, Satan begins to frighten the doer of prayer through imagination, appearing to him in monstrous forms, wanting to forever tear a person away from prayer, or at least for a while, or at least for a minute. When a person's heart begins to participate in prayer, then Satan, seeing this, understanding the short duration of his stay in such a heart, becomes angry and gnashes his teeth like a king driven from his throne, losing his power.
Satan is well aware of the possibility of a person to pray with his heart, and this is what he fears most of all. If the heart unites with the mind in doing prayer, then the struggle through the passions becomes too hard for Satan, since the mind now acts strongly and powerfully with the complicity of the heart, striking down all the devil's pretexts with grace. The mind now reaches with attention to the foundations of sin, to the roots of evil, and thereby inflicts a mortal wound on the head of the devil. There is a law according to which the roots of passions found in the heart are destroyed by this action itself. And when there is no evil left in the heart, then the devil and demons will no longer be able to stay there. As long as Satan and passions dwell in the heart, they dominate the mind and trample the soul with its virtues. The human heart is destined to be the abode of God, but as long as it is enslaved by passions, God cannot dwell in his dwelling. When the purification of the heart begins, the devil, losing his dominion over a person, especially contrives in all sorts of temptations. Mortally wounded, he still holds his heart's possessions. But, being spiteful and rising to more and more fierce battle, the devil involuntarily more and more exposes to his own destruction the secret roots of passions. Detected by the mental eye, they are immediately expelled. And an experienced and attentive mind, strengthened by grace, already enters into the subtlest tricks of the devil.
This is the time when grace grants the mind to see the roots of passions, their basis - the devil himself with demons hidden in the heart. This time is the most mournful on the entire path of repentance. The burden of suffering during this period is comparable to a small hellish torment, here the words are true: "Raise up to heaven, and cast down to hell." The enraged Satan, being expelled from the heart, begins to act in sensual images, coming from the left, then from the right side. Doer smart-heart prayer is invaded by a variety of animal-like creatures and unimaginable monsters attacking singly and in multitudes with the sole purpose of striking fear and distracting from prayer. The one who prays will repulse every temptation and turn it into nothing, if only he remains attentive in his smart-heart doing, in which the grace that dwells in prayer itself will help him. Thus is gained a great experience of warfare.
Having failed in attacks from the left side, coming in intimidating images, the devil begins to tempt from the right side - he appears in images of goodness and holiness. These temptations are harder to recognize. Here, some ascetics, arbitrarily leaving attentive prayer, received deep, heavy wounds or suffered a complete collapse. However, those who did not take into account any visible images, but mentally conversed with Christ with firm faith in His presence, invisible and unimaginable, successfully passed the temptation. The one who remembered that he cannot see God, the Mother of God, Angels and saints with his senses, who remembered that heavenly manifestations are given in asceticism exclusively to those who are pure in heart, survived. The holy is not to the sinner.
Satan is able to ghostly take on the image of Christ in the likeness of how the Savior is depicted on icons, he can show a reviving icon and the Almighty descending from it, ready to bless, or an icon moving towards you and growing in size. You can see the light from an icon or some holy Celestials, hear voices, or singing, supposedly Angelic, or something like that, the reality or imaginary of which can be difficult for a person devoted to sensuality to recognize. Satan does this so that the one who prays, carried away by dreams, worships him, the devil, who appears in one of the images, which some did and from which they were damaged by the mind, falling into dementia. But the one who knows how high the price of forgiveness of sins is, who knows his unworthiness, he only listens to prayer. Only the one who never trusts his feelings passes through temptations without a single misfortune. Know, brother or sister, that by doing this all the time of your repentance, you will gain victory by grace, you will know the will of God, you will fulfill it completely and you will be saved.
man praying smart heart, receives mercies from the Lord, which are manifested in the fact that the effect of prayer is improved, the mind is freed from obscuration, the heart, lamenting, is more and more cleansed of passions and sins. Nevertheless, such prayer continues to be active, that is, although a person makes war with the devil, his demons and passions, betraying himself to the will of God, this devotion to God remains partial for the time being. This feeling has not yet penetrated into the depths of the heart, has not become a property of the heart, and all this is because the devil is still rooted in the heart, the root of the roots is established at the base of the heart - the proud self.
This is how man suffers and fights, day and night without leaving the fight. Endless temptations bring the mind into a natural rage against the passions. The mind, indignant against evil, is filled with a strong desire to no longer sin, and therefore, with special diligence, it searches everywhere for passionate manifestations and immediately mortifies them with prayer. And grace incessantly helps the mind, remaining itself imperceptible, invisible to the mind. Finally, thanks to unceasing mindfulness, the mind discovers the very root of the roots, the cause of all evils - pride.
As soon as the root of evil is revealed, with the help of God, all the abuse turns against pride, which by grace is finally torn out of the heart, truncated to death in the head. The heart, together with this last passion, gets rid of all passions. In a great battle, Satan's place of residence is destroyed, and he himself is cast out of the heart. He will no longer be able to stay there, since the abode of passions with its foundation - self-conceited pride - no longer exists in a person. The devil has nowhere to dwell and hide, he is visible from everywhere and illuminated, but he cannot endure light, for the devil is darkness.
In anger, the devil prepares for single combat, prepares to make the last battle. And Satan appears praying in all his terrifying form, existing in hell, with Judas the traitor on his knees. The spectacle of hell is great and terrible. But Satan, who came in the flames of hell to the last battle, sees his own impotence. The one who prays this time does not distract his mind from prayer, he strikes the enemy with the sweetest name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Satan comes into fear, trembling, hesitation, moves away and disappears, completely leaving the battlefield, turning out to be insignificant before the name of God in the mouth of the ascetic. And so the purification of the mind from darkness is accomplished, the purification of the heart and soul from passions, from sin and from the devil. The whole operation of the will of God begins.
The last test was allowed by the Lord, so that Satan would be shamed to the end, and the ascetic would become skillful in all the temptations that happen to the one who prays. Until that time, prayer and grace acted from the outside, wanting to penetrate the heart, introducing the mind into it, and the devil struggled while being inside the heart, which was very convenient for him. Now, grace enters with prayer into a purified heart, and God Himself dwells in it as in an abode originally intended for Him.
Prayer at this stage of achievement passes into its next stage and from active becomes self-propelled. Here lies the boundary between the two main periods of the ascetic's life. The active period of purification ends and the period of enlightenment of the mind begins - the period of contemplation. From now on, the path of penitential labor, the path of doing the carnal mind leads to the acquisition of the Holy Spirit. Here is the beginning of spiritual life.
From now on, prayer completely turns into a feeling of the heart, and from now on a person prays with his heart, moved by the Holy Spirit, with his mind standing in his heart to God. The devil, banished outside, no longer attacks a person himself, but begins to act through other people, inciting envy and hatred in them. Now people are starting to persecute the true follower of Christ, doing all sorts of dirty tricks to him.
This is the general order of the fight. But let's go back a little. So, a person, seeing in the heart the dominant root of evil - pride, rises against it, kills it and sweeps it out, thereby purifying the heart from all passions and from Satan. We note, first of all, that such an ascetic cannot be a self-willed person, since the heart is cleansed by God for the fulfillment of His will and for the unceasing prayerful memory of Him - God. If the heart is pure, it means that the person has learned to do the will of God, fully cognized it. And the will of God consists in this, that a person should receive from Him as a gift a great, incomparable virtue - a prayerful feeling living in the heart, driven by the Holy Spirit.
Among the truly spiritual virtues acquired through purification of the heart, humility, called humility of mind, is especially sublime. In essence, humility is true self-knowledge, born in the endure of sorrows, among failures and impotence, when in the fight against evil a person comes to know the true insignificance of his "I". What had hitherto been called humility was only a prototype of it, a kind of semblance that had nothing to do with self-knowledge and was comparatively useless.
Recognize a prayer smart-heart active, distinguish it from smart possible only by the nature of the temptations described above that accompany doing, and not otherwise. special feature smart-heart prayer will not be distracted attention, prayer now needs not so much a plurality of pronunciation, but as attention, in order to more conveniently detect hordes of demons and their cunning.
During the passage smart-heart active prayer, the attention of the mind should be concentrated in the same place as during prayer smart. That is, the mind, listening to prayer, let it stay in the region of the larynx, where the organ of the word is located, where food is swallowed. This is known by experience, and Paisiy Velichkovsky speaks about the same. As regards the union of the mind with the heart, as has already been explained, grace itself introduces the praying mind into the heart. And this happens at the proper time, not before the heart is cleansed of passions.
Keep this in mind, doer of this sacred Jesus Prayer, this: with all diligence, stand with attention only where it was indicated, and if you allow your mind, listening to prayer, to rotate in other places of your being, then you will create great sorrow for yourself, but you will not receive any benefit. . By setting the mind as indicated, you will provide the shortest path for the mind to enter the heart, so that with all your soul you can fully bring praises in unceasing prayer, worshiping the Lord "spirit and truth"(John 4:24). In every possible way avoid standing with attention in the head, in the inside of the womb, in the kidneys, which is very disastrous. Attention always stand where indicated.
It is said by the holy fathers that the Lord Himself indicates the way of entering the heart and that this does not happen before the cleansing of the heart - the Lord Himself brings into the heart the mind that listens to prayer, and with prayer the Lord Himself enters the heart, since the name of the Lord is inseparable from the Lord Himself. Let not a man dare, before purification, to independently invent ways to enter the heart. Shame. There is no other way than what has been said. The Holy Fathers do not mention anything more about the place of focusing attention. They mostly wrote covertly and briefly, since at the time of their residence there were many workers in the field of this sacred work and there was no need for interpretation.
The doer of prayer, until he has come to the measure of purity of heart, cannot pay attention to physical sensations: warmth in the body or in the chest, burning or some kind of jumping inside the body or under the skin. All this must be rejected without attaching any importance. Such warmth has a sensual, created origin. For the most part, all these phenomena are natural-nervous, therefore, innocent, but if we take them for grace, then deception will follow. There may be a sweetness in the larynx, or a certain fragrance, or something similar, that is, the action of one of the five external senses. Pay no attention to anything sensual, drive away. Know only prayer, take care only of attention. Prayer contains everything you need, and it leads to the fact that "Eye does not see, and ear does not hear, and it does not rise up in the heart of man, even though God has prepared for those who love Him"(1 Cor. 2:9). When the heart is cleansed by God, then the Lord will live there and act, and in the Lord both grace and gifts, and everything and everything abound completely. The Lord, having given Himself to man, grants him all that belongs to Him.
God grants a person the rebirth of virtues, strengthening them in the heart - this is what is wonderful and should delight the one who prays, and nothing else than what can be captivated. Before gaining purity, if there is an effect of grace, it is only such that awakens from sinful hibernation, and then punishing and retreating-educational grace already begins to act, that is, grace that guides the mind of a person in the matter of salvation, teaches him, perfecting in attentive doing prayers, in humble devotion to the will of God, in the temptations of the struggle for the acquisition of virtues, in the knowledge of one's insignificance and sinfulness. And not otherwise.
All who consider themselves worthy of the gifts of grace, expecting rewards, visions and miracles, found themselves in the networks of the enemy, and all who march in a sincere consciousness of their sins, their weakness, their insignificance and unworthiness, relying only on God, out of love sparing them, unworthy, but the penitents, safely reached the pier. They, having learned to do the will of God, live according to it and fulfill God's desires as if they were their own, for both completely coincide.
So, everything that happens to you during prayer, good or bad, temptation or seemingly blessed, you should not take into account. Place all your hopes on the Lord - He Himself in prayer acts by His grace. Devote yourself exclusively to prayer, for all possible gifts and miracles are hidden in it. Diligently listening to pray, you walk with the Lord, and clinging to something else, even if it seems to be grace-filled, you leave the Lord. And all yours is in the Lord, and every minute spent outside the memory of God is a loss for you.
Mouth during prayer smart-heart active you need to keep silent, even stricter than with mental prayer. In food, one must have such abstinence that only life is preserved. Sleep six or seven hours, if prayer does not require less, and if you are exhausted, eight hours. Do not offend anyone, forgive everyone, remember death and hellish torments whenever you can. It is necessary to live at this time in need, to do everything you need yourself, not to rely on anyone. Thank the Lord for everything and have complete abstinence in everything. Fight despondency with prayer and needlework.
It is most convenient to go through these three degrees of prayer - verbal, smart and smart-heart active, - being in the lower rank, being a novice. Although one who has mastered mental prayer can be tonsured into a mantle, but one who has smart heart- in the schema, but, as it is said, it is more peaceful in the obedient class.
Confession and communion can be both often and rarely, depending on the circumstances. Do not grieve if it happens too rarely, once a year or less, just do not leave an attentive prayer, and your will will be considered by the Lord as communion itself. The Mother of God did not receive communion even once, at that time the Sacrament of the Eucharist had not yet been established, but, performing mental deeds, She, as you see, reached the fullness of purity and became the Mother of the Son of God. The value of Communion does not depend on frequency or rarity, but on reverence for the shrine and on the awareness of one's unworthiness. Those who went to the deserts did not see a human face and, with rare exceptions, did not take communion, but it was they who "the whole world is not worthy of them"(Heb. 11:38), were great in the sight of God, and did not partake often. Remember God's love for you and keep Communion with dignity. Do not be like Judas the traitor, into whom Satan entered with Communion, and he partakes in his unending destruction.
You can only receive communion from an Orthodox priest. I do not advise you to take communion too often, because in this case a person loses reverence for the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ.
When such sadness happens to you, even if often, but apart from your permission, that is, when you fell asleep, you were with prayer, and not in a passionate exercise of your mind, then, after reading the "Rule against defilement", do not be sad - this happened from the envy of the devil that aroused passion. During the day, do not remember this, so as not to defile the mind, but attend to prayer as usual.
In general, fight against all passions, hiding your mind in attentive prayer, and fight, and fight. Read books related to your work, the best: "Philokalia", John of the Ladder, "Invisible War", Isaac the Syrian, Paisius Velichkovsky or other holy fathers-teetotalers, and especially the fifth volume of "Philokalia". But do not neglect the indications in this little work. It is the essence of experience, confirmed by modern holy fathers, and can serve you, in the absence of books, as a completely sufficient guide in doing the Jesus Prayer, intellectual and spiritual. Set aside other books and literary literature for a while and do not read, so that your mind can turn only in prayer and in everything related to it. Establish your life in such a way that you exercise in prayer according to the above.
Everything that has been said so far refers to prayer, which is within the limits of human capabilities. Passage of prayer verbal, intelligent and smart-heart active carried out by a man of the old state. This is the period of smart doing, when prayer is performed by human effort. Only at the next stage is the complete fulfillment of the will of God achieved, and prayer becomes driven by the Holy Spirit. Let us repeat that during mental work, a person is required to constantly be forced to acquire a skill, constant attention to prayer. It is more convenient to spend time in solitude, keep your mouth in silence, if necessary, talk only about useful things - about death, hell, torment and suffering of unrepentant sinners. In moments of great sorrow, you can remember about paradise, about the bliss of the righteous, for the sake of which you endure sorrow on this earth full of sorrows. Endure reproaches and every reproach patiently for the Kingdom for the sake of God and for the sake of eternally unending life. Endure everything without a murmur: hunger, cold, nakedness, expectations, temptations, illnesses, oppressions, every sorrow and every burden. Always have abstinence in food, otherwise the aggravation will languish. Be constantly hungry and thirsty for the sake of truth. To do this, always leave the table when you have not eaten and drunk enough, but you feel the need to eat and drink more. Then hunger and thirst between feasts will be incessant.
Every business must be approached conscientiously and always keep to the middle, that is, neither run ahead nor lag behind. In free time or when the mind gets tired of prayerful tension, you need to read soulful books. Avoid by all means those places where you do not receive benefit for salvation. One who lives with a spiritual father or in a monastery must by all means cut off his own will and fulfill holy obedience, which is "higher than fasting and prayer." Feats to which the Lord has not called you, do not begin. Everything you need at all degrees of prayer is described here. Hold fast to prayer and all that has been said here.
Having begun to make the Jesus Prayer, a person gives himself up to the guidance of God, and the Lord Himself leads such people. The procession in a different, arbitrary way is completely fruitless, repentance without the Lord is impossible. In failures, one should not despair, but surrender to the will of God, and thus in failures you will reap the fruit of academic achievement. As food for the imagination, one must give the appearance of oneself, laid in a coffin, with a body infested with worms, for the care of which so much time has been killed. Forgive your neighbors all their insults and condemnations. Judge only yourself, not others. The deeds of others can only be judged by one who has previously justly condemned himself.
In prayer, do not be philosophic, but read simply and with attention, have the faith of a child that God is near and hears the words of your prayer. When you fail, don't be discouraged. Do not allow yourself to think that you will achieve this and that then. These things are in the hands of God. He gives gifts when we deserve it by doing the will of God and when we are able to receive them, otherwise new wine from our old wineskins will be spilled. God bestows no earlier than the corresponding prayer dispensation, and constant self-condemnation is required of us. Your job is to always force yourself, to surrender yourself in every possible way to the will of God, which provides for us, and, being in patient expectation, never leave prayer for anything.
The five external senses - sight, hearing, taste, touch, smell - do not dissolve, constrain them in every possible way, so that these conductors of evil in the heart, leading the mind away from prayer, tempting to the outside, do not dominate you, captivating with what is perceived. The thoughts that come from the heart must be driven away, broken in prayer for the stone of the name of God, being always in attention, being sober and awake, observing your feelings. Arrange yourself in such a way that nothing in your cell can entertain you, so that everything helps to gather your mind. If you fall down, that is, you forget your prayer, you entertain yourself with thoughts, get up, remembering prayer, read and pay attention. And whenever you remember, start again and listen so that the prayer is read by the mind.
Everything needed for guidance on these degrees of prayer is described here in sufficient detail and simply. In other places, such a description cannot be found, which was the greatest sorrow for me in my weakness in prayer work. The ancient holy fathers wrote about noetic prayer, but having slightly revealed what was necessary, they immediately hid it, giving only a suggestive thought, prompting them with a hint to questions - and beginners turned questions to experienced ones, who were in abundance, and experienced ones explained, helped to understand perplexity. A person engaged in clever work, meeting with many different doubts and temptations, is himself almost unable to comprehend what is said in the scriptures briefly and covertly. The holy fathers had perfect minds, and what puzzles us was quite understandable to them, so they did not write unnecessary details. There was someone to clarify the details to those in need, there were doers.
Here it is written in accordance with the teaching of the fathers, only without any concealment, for the benefit of those who pray. Experienced people have become very impoverished, there are almost no people left who know smart work, which is the salvation of a person through the sight of his sinfulness and weakness, through contrition and purification of the heart. Therefore, now it is necessary not to hide, but to disclose in every possible way all the important details, giving the necessary answers and resolving the perplexities of the mind, so that the mind with the soul, bitterly grieving and despondent, would not fall into despair.
It is impossible to determine the period of active prayer, the time of self-compulsion in years or tens of years. The term depends on the diligence of a person, on the way of life spent before prayer, on the degree of coarseness of the heart, its inertness in self-love and passions, and on such reasons as the speed or slowness of breaking ties with the world, on the zeal with which position, property, money are left. . But under all conditions, the law is the same for everyone - to make and make a prayer, holding on to what is indicated here, and in no case leave it.
Do not boast about doing prayer, and do not talk about it to anyone except the elder, it is done in the secret of the heart and is not done in order to deserve praise. It is necessary to get rid of passions, from sin and from the devil by grace. You, sinner, need prayer not for self-exaltation, not for ranting about it, not for praise, but for receiving with the graceful help of purity of heart.
Do not set big rules for yourself, but have as your rule the "unceasing rule," that is, unceasing prayer. Follow the usual rule as follows: read evening prayers in the evening, morning prayers in the morning, read akathists, canons, kathismas, and whatever else you can. You can read a chapter from the Gospel and the Epistles of the Apostles, after all, apply five hundred prayers of Jesus, both in the evening and in the morning. And when there are urgent matters, then ask for forgiveness from God, condemn yourself, breathe from the depths and, without embarrassment, do the work with the Jesus Prayer, thus replacing the usual rule. The rule read from the book can be reduced, and the number of Jesus Prayers must be increased as you get used to it, since the Jesus Prayer gradually captivates the mind, and he reluctantly leaves it. Spend the time between the evening and morning rule with the Jesus Prayer.
Do not voluntarily make any promises, since failure to fulfill is a cause of embarrassment, and having fulfilled the promise, you will not escape the thought of self-praise or even pride. It's good this way: not to promise, but to fulfill everything desired with the help of God. And do not type rules with the arrangement "I will definitely execute". Different things happen in the life of every person, and the fulfillment of the rules is not always possible, and from the violation of obligations, the benefit of the previously executed rule is also lost. In this matter, it is more convenient to stick to this order: set yourself a rule lasting an hour or an hour and a half, two or three or more, depending on the possibilities, and fulfill it without any special promises, without retreating, except for the most urgent matters.
In perplexity, do not be overly discouraged, pray, and the Lord will indicate the solution either through the voice of conscience, or through the writings of the inspired holy fathers, or through the Holy Scriptures. Do everything so as not to act against the will of God, revealed in the Law of God, which is given to us as leaders.
As for the writings of the holy teetotaling fathers about the artistic Jesus Prayer, their indications of introducing the mind into the heart by breathing, of bowing the head and sitting on a spinning chair, and of tensing the muscles that promote attention were given in order to help in finding the place of the heart. You do as repeatedly, simply and briefly indicated to you in this scripture. Do this and you won't go wrong.
Do not worry about the place of your heart, just pray, struggling with passions, and the Lord Himself enters into a purified heart, bringing with him both the mind and prayer, for the heart is the abode of God, and only God knows the way to it. As long as the heart boils with passions or at least one sin remains in it, until then it is impossible for the Lord to abide in it. Where the Lord is, there is no sin. And without the Lord, both the mind and the prayer in the heart are useless. The Lord is outside, and prayer with the mind is outside. The Lord will cleanse the heart, then there will be in the heart and mind, and prayer, and the Lord Himself, for the name of God is present in prayer, and where His Holy name is, there is the Lord Himself. This is how one should understand about the heart and about the path to the heart.
Be, doer of prayer, in simplicity, and not in the tricks of insolence. The Lord hears your prayer, believe this and pray. Do not agree with thoughts, avoid everything sinful, consider yourself the most sinful of all and in every way unworthy of God. Cry, mourn and listen to prayer.
Prayer smart-heart self-propelled
After everything experienced on the path of repentance, after days of great sorrow, a person comes into complete devotion to the will of God and becomes a son of God by grace. Now the mind, together with prayer, is introduced by God into the heart for doing prayer. smart-heart self-propelled. From now on, a person proceeds to true knowledge and complete fulfillment of the will of God, enters into a truly spiritual life, and his mind acquires true chastity, reaching, although still barely approaching, one of the abodes of the mind, of which the Lord said: "In my Father's house there are many mansions"(John 14:2).
The mind, having entered the heart, does not stand idly, but together with the heart begins to pray, not by a word and not by a thought, but by the very feeling of the heart, which does not stop, does not stop even during sleep, and at any time, since this feeling is completely incessantly. And a person prays unceasingly with the whole being of his mental-heart nature to the Lord, believing Him and surrendering all of himself before Him with heartfelt gratitude. All the virtues entered the heart with prayer, and among them the feeling of heartfelt thanksgiving.
Now a truly spiritually virtuous life begins, when virtues are done not for show, but from the heart and in the very heart.
The mind, once entering the heart, never goes outside, unless it voluntarily wishes to turn to the outside. While being inside, the mind, if it touches the external out of necessity where and when necessary, then only superficially, without the participation of the whole heart. The mind, having ascended into the heart, into the spiritual feelings of the heart, continuously converses with God, converses with its soul, approaching it and bringing it closer to itself - such is the prayerful activity of a person who leads a truly spiritual, chaste life.
The virtues are enlivened by the action of prayer, they increase, intensify, improve, "come from strength to strength"(Ps. 83:8). For one increase and all. The full growth of one virtue entails the growth of the others to the same extent, for the virtues are all of the same nature and constitute one single soul. The virtues of all without one and one without all do not exist, they reside in the heart and are called true, and Truth is one and indivisible.
The first of the true virtues, after the mind enters the heart, is the virtue of humility. True humility is nothing but true knowledge of oneself, leading to humility of mind. At the same time, a person fully cognizes his proud and insignificant "I", created from nothing by the providence of God and now, self-conscious, returned to his insignificant "nothing". He realizes that his own being is dust, and the spirit of life that the Creator breathed into him - his soul - is the breath of God. Everything precious in it is from the Lord. He himself is the dust of the earth.
When the Lord, already guiding man Himself in everything, grants him to know himself as the most insignificant of all things, then, inseparably with self-knowledge, the knowledge of God is given to man, which the holy fathers call "knowledge of the truth." The knowledge of the truth - God - is essentially a reasonable vision of God with truly spiritual eyes. God allows us to know Himself, to taste Himself, which is the sought-after essence of human life. This is a great gift, a reward incomparable to anything. This is something that can be contemplated and tasted only with truly spiritual attention. That is why it cannot be bestowed earlier, during the active period, when a person is still in a state of decrepitude.
Where there are gifts, there is God Himself who gives gifts. To whom God has given true virtue, to him He will also grant Himself, since true virtue is the virtue of God. Therefore, a person, having completely surrendered to the will of God, having received from God what he seeks - the knowledge of truth, begins to live in God's way, a truly spiritual life, which is called "life according to God", and this is already forever. Until now, a person has lived by carnal wisdom, although he could be called and reputed in society as a spiritual person, but this is erroneous.
In its very essence, a natural person is distinguished from a spiritual person, as the Apostle Paul teaches (see 1 Corinthians 2:14-15). Strictly speaking, spiritual life in a person begins only after the acquisition of the Holy Spirit, which gives eternal life to the human spirit.
Prayer of the mind-heart is pure
It was mentioned above that after complete devotion to the will of God, the first degree of truly spiritual prayer is called smart-heart self-propelled. Little has been said about her, but quite enough. Then follows a more perfect degree of prayer - prayer pure, or non-parous. Such smart-heart prayer is performed with the mind and heart, already completely cleansed of obscuration and passions. An impassive heart prays purely, thoughts no longer emanate from such a heart, therefore inseparableness is inseparable from purity when the mind is freed from thoughts and sinful desires.
Such prayer is truly contemplative, and man now lives a truly spiritual, chaste, contemplative life. In leading such a life, one prays in truth by the Holy Spirit. The virtues of true chastity are cultivated by the Lord to ever higher degrees. The Lord blesses a person to the extent that his mind is able to perceive, and his soul to feel the sent grace. God gives Himself all to man, and man cries out to the Lord, melting from the Lord's benevolent love for him: "Quiet the waves of Thy grace, Holy Father, for I am melting like wax."
During the contemplative life, in prayer clean it becomes possible for a person to foresee further degrees of perfection, which can be acquired at the highest levels of spiritual life after entering into prayer visual. The mind during a contemplative life ascends from perfection to perfection, all the virtues grow to their fullness, enlightened by the goodness of God, nourished by the spiritual food of the Spirit of God from the meal of the Heavenly Father, a person indwells the mind in the abodes of Heaven, passing through various degrees of true knowledge, visiting one after another all brighter abodes of Heavenly Father.
In contemplation, a person becomes a crusader, in the likeness of Christ the Crusader, in everything doing the will of his Heavenly Father. It is impossible to be a crusader without sorrow, so Christ, the Son of God by nature, was in sorrow all his earthly life. Sorrows in the contemplative life embrace the entire spiritual man, but these sorrows are not those of the active man. These sorrows are spiritual. Every advancement to the highest is fraught with difficulties, and the contemplative is subjected to sorrows, despite the fact that he is already free from passions. And sorrows are so great that they can only be endured by those who are driven by filial love for the Heavenly Father. The Heavenly Father raises this new man higher and higher, out of His love He reveals to him the mysterious knowledge about man and about Himself incomprehensible.
During a contemplative life, sleep flees from a person, the body forgets about food, the mind is filled with the fullness of revelations. All this is accessible, of course, only to strong spiritual forces. Love for God and neighbor comes to an irresistible measure, the mind burns, blazing with love.
visual prayer
Everything written here is about the true spiritual mind, starting with total devotion to the will of God and ending with prayer. visual, can be correctly understood only when a person himself comes to a truly spiritual state of chastity of mind and soul. Otherwise, any attempts to understand the essence of spiritual phenomena through reading will lead to false knowledge, since it is impossible for a carnal mind to comprehend what is revealed from the Spirit of God, for the truly spiritual is a mystery.
Therefore, little can be said about prayer visual, for we are entering the region where "let all human flesh be silent." And the one who is raised by God in these abodes becomes a seer himself.
Contemplation precedes the true vision of the mind. Pure contemplative prayer precedes the highest degree of all virtues - prayer visual. This virtue is otherwise called virginity of the spirit. In prayer visual the mind directly sees God, comprehends all the deeds of God's economy, starting with the Divine Council on the creation of man and ending with the second coming of Christ and the Last Judgment, extends to the understanding of the great Divine mysteries.
The most worthy of contemplative minds are instilled by the Father in the highest heavenly abodes, in the abodes of spiritual virginity, for it is necessary that at least in some of them all the possibilities of a human being should operate in full. In such, spiritual chastity passes into spiritual virginity, a contemplative life and pure prayer turns into prayer visual. This is arranged by the Lord Almighty Himself, nourishing with the Heavenly sacraments such a Heavenly person, who lives spiritually, but still roams the earth with his body. God brings such visual prayer, into the sight of the most secret mysteries of God, and this is the ultimate enlightenment of the mind and soul in the virginity of the spirit, the acquisition of all possible perfections, the utmost closeness to God, the ascension into the apocalyptic city "new Jerusalem coming down from Heaven from my God"(Rev. 3:12).
Into this true virginity of the spirit the Lord elevates the rare. From here a person glorifies God with his heart, in him there is a word sung by the Church in a grand voice: "It is brightened by the Trinity unity, sacred mystery." The soul, purified as far as possible, according to the words of St. Macarius the Great, "the Spirit Himself exists" and is much loved by the Lord. And the Lord rejoices with the joy of the Spirit in such a soul - His bride. The Holy Fathers liken such souls to the sun, since they live having the mind of God, they received the Light from the everlasting Light.
Truly spiritual life begins with a person’s perception of sonship to God by grace, and since a person becomes a son, he becomes, like Christ, the spiritual heir of the Heavenly Father, and He will grant him, a son by grace, the Mind of Christ, so that the adopted son lives to the glory of God.
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II. PRAYER OF JESUS
51. This divine prayer, consisting in invoking the Savior, is the following: Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me! She is both a prayer, and a vow, and a confession of faith, a giver of the Holy Spirit and divine gifts, cleansing of the heart, exorcism of demons, Jesus Christ infusion, a source of spiritual understanding and divine thoughts, a remission of sins, a healer of souls and bodies, a giver of divine enlightenment, the mercy of God a storehouse, a revelation of the Mysteries of God, an intercessor, a single savior, as if the name of the Savior of our God is bearing in herself, the name of Jesus Christ the Son of God, named on us. "And there is no other name under heaven by which it is fitting for us to be saved" (Acts 4:12), as the Apostle says... Jesus Christ, from whom nothing should ever separate us, and for the sake of grace on behalf of this, remission of sins, healing of the soul, sanctification, enlightenment, and, above all, for the sake of salvation. for Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God." See faith! - and "Yes, believing, have a life in His name." Behold salvation and life! (John 20:31). 52. Let no one think, my Christian brethren, that it is only persons of holy orders and monks who have the duty to pray unceasingly and always, and not the laity. No, no: we all Christians have a duty to always remain in prayer... And Gregory the Theologian teaches all Christians and tells them that it is more necessary to remember the name of God in prayer than to breathe in the air... Also, keep in mind the way of prayer how it is possible to pray without ceasing, namely, to pray with the mind. And we can always do this if we want. For when we sit at needlework, and when we walk, and when we take food, and when we drink, we can always pray with the mind and make an intelligent prayer, pleasing to God, a true prayer. We will work with the body and pray with the soul. Let our outer man fulfill his bodily deeds, and let the whole inner one be dedicated to the service of God and never lag behind this spiritual work of mental prayer, as the God-man Jesus commands us, saying in the Holy Gospel: “Whenever you pray, enter into close your cell, and when you have shut your doors, pray to your Father who is in secret" (Matt. 6:6). The cell of the soul is the body, our doors are the five bodily senses. The soul enters its cage when the mind does not wander back and forth on the affairs and things of the world, but is inside our heart. Our feelings are closed and remain so when we do not allow them to cling to external sensual things, and thus our mind remains free from all worldly attachments and unites with our Father God by secret mental prayer.
53. Learn mental prayer of the heart, for the Jesus Prayer is a lamp to our paths and a guiding star to heaven, as St. fathers (in the Philokalia). The Jesus Prayer (continuously glimmering in the mind and heart) is a scourge against the flesh and its evil lusts (especially prodigal and belly-mad ones). To the usual prayer - Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, add: Mother of God, have mercy on me a sinner. - One external prayer is not enough: God listens to the mind; and therefore those monks who do not combine external prayer with internal prayer are not monks, but black firebrands. - That monk does not have the seal of Christ, who does not know (or has forgotten) doing the Jesus Prayer. The book does not teach prayer (only shows the direct way how to practice it); one must have a strong occupation in it (prayer).
54. It is necessary to turn to the Lord, descending with the attention of the mind to the heart and there calling on Him. If we would unfailingly fulfill this small rule: - having established the mind in the heart, stand before the Lord with fear, reverence and devotion, then not only passionate desires and feelings, but also bare thoughts would never arise in us.
55. Have you read about the Jesus Prayer?.. And you know it by deed. She is the only one who can make sure that proper order is strong inside, and she will not let the external master's squabbles upset this order. It will only make it possible to fulfill the prescription of the fathers: hands at work, mind and heart with God. When it takes root in the heart, then there are no breaks inside, but everything is one and the same... It is hardly possible to start a systematic thing inside, but one or the same thing can be kept with the diversity of inevitable deeds - and this will give the Jesus Prayer when it is grafted into the heart. How will you get used to it?! Who knows how? but is grafted. The worker is aware of this, not knowing how it happened. Labor ... walking in the presence of God with frequent repetition of this prayer as much as possible. As soon as freedom, now for it ... And it will be given ...
Reading is one of the ways to renew and revive the Jesus Prayer. But it is advised to read more about prayer.
56. When the memory of God is there and keeps the fear of God in the heart, then everything will turn out well, but when it weakens or is kept only in the head, then everything is at random.
57. Attention to what happens in the heart and proceed from it - is the main thing in a Christian life. This brings both the inner and the outer into proper order. But reasoning must always be applied to attention in order to examine as it should what is happening inside and what is required by the outside. Without reasoning and attention to nothing.
58. It is possible - in the performance of external obediences - that there will be no internal, and your life will remain soulless. How to avoid this? We must put a God-fearing heart into every work. In order for the heart to be in a state of God-fearing, it is necessary that it be constantly overshadowed by the thought of God. Thinking about God will be the door through which the soul will enter active life. All labor must now be directed to continually thinking of God, or in the presence of God. ("Search for God... Seek His face out...") This is where sobriety and mental prayer stand. God is everywhere; make your thought be with God everywhere. How to do it? Thoughts jostle like mosquitoes in their columns, and above thoughts and feelings of the heart. In order to stick a thought to a single one, the elders used to get used to the continuous pronunciation of a short prayer, from skill and frequent repetition, this prayer was so imposed on the tongue that it repeated it by itself. Through this, thought also clung to prayer, and through it to unceasing thought about God. After the habit, prayer connected the memory of God, and the memory of God - prayer; and they supported each other. This is walking with God.
Smart prayer is when someone, having established attention in the heart, from there lifts up a prayer to God. There is clever deed when someone, standing with attention in the heart with the remembrance of the Lord, tears away every other thought that attempts to penetrate into the heart.
59. The Monk Nil of Sora says: “And in order not to fall into delusion while doing noetic prayer, do not allow any ideas, any images and visions in yourself; for hovering, strong dreams and movements do not cease to be even when the mind stops in the heart and prays, and no one is able to rule over them, except for those who have reached perfection by the grace of the Holy Spirit and except for those who have acquired steadfastness of mind through Jesus Christ.
60. A certain brother, named John, came from the seaside country to this holy great father Philemon and, embracing his legs, said: “What should I do, my Father, in order to be saved? I see that the mind is amusing and wandering about objects here and there where it shouldn't." After a short pause, he said to him: "This illness is external, and remains in you because you still do not have perfect love for God; because the warmth of love and knowledge of Him has not yet arisen in you." The brother asks him: "What should I do?" "Go," he answers, "have a secret exercise in your heart for the time being; it can cleanse your mind of this." The brother, not understanding what was said, said to the elder: "What is the innermost exercise?" "Come," he answered, be sober in your heart and in your mind soberly with fear and trembling say: Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me! The brother went away from him and, with the assistance of God and the prayers of the Father, became silent and tasted the sweetness of this occupation; it only lasted a short time. As he evaded it and could not soberly perform it and pray, he again came to the elder and told him what had happened. This one says to him: “Now you have already learned the path of silence and the exercises of the inner, and have tasted the sweetness of it. and with an attentive mind, offer this prayer, and sing, and engage in prayers and psalms.Even when fulfilling any necessary need, let your mind not be idle, but secretly let it be engaged and pray ... Always, and going to sleep, and waking up, and taking food and drink, and or talking with someone - keep your heart in secret and mental occupation with psalms or prayer: Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me!
61. In purely contemplative prayer, the word, like thoughts themselves, disappears, but not because you want it, but because it happens by itself.
Smart prayer turns into a prayer of the heart, or smart heart. Its appearance is contemporary with the birth of warmth of the heart. There is no other prayer in the ordinary course of spiritual life. Clever-hearted prayer can penetrate deeply into the heart, and in this case be without words and thoughts, consisting in one standing before God and reverently-loving falling down to Him. Here it is also like being drawn inward before God for prayer, or finding the spirit of prayer. But all this is not yet conscious prayer, which is the highest state of prayer, which at times manifests itself in God's elect.
62. "A monk must, whether he eats, drinks, sits, serves, walks the way, or does anything else, cry out unceasingly: Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me! May the name of the Lord Jesus, descending into the depths of the heart, humble the serpent that holds the pastures there, but it will save and revive the soul. Therefore, abide unceasingly with the name of the Lord Jesus, that the heart of the Lord and the Lord may swallow up the heart, and the two be one. Do not separate your heart from God, but abide with Him and keep your heart always with in remembrance of our Lord Jesus
Christ until the name of the Lord takes root inside the heart and it does not think of anything else - may Christ be magnified in you.
63. Therefore, our very wisely glorious leaders and mentors, and with the Holy Spirit living in them, and all of us, more than those who have desired to enter the field of divine silence, dedicate themselves to God and, having cut themselves off from the world, teach rational silence primarily before everyone other deeds and cares, to pray to the Lord and ask Him for mercy with undoubted hope, incessantly having deed and occupation invoking His all-holy and sweetest name, always carrying Him in the mind, in the heart and in the mouth, and in every possible way forcing oneself in Him and with Him and breathe, and live, and sleep, and stay awake, and walk, and eat, and drink - and everything in general, whatever we do, do it. For just as, in His absence, everything evil flows towards us, leaving no room for anything beneficial to the soul, so, in His presence, everything opposite is driven away, there is no shortage of anything good, and everything is possible for fulfillment, just as our Lord Himself proclaims. : "whosoever shall be in Me, and Az in him, that shall bear much fruit: for without Me ye can do nothing" (John 15:5).
64. "If you truly desire to cover your thoughts with shame, to be complacently silent, and without difficulty to be sober in your heart; may the Jesus Prayer cling to your breath, and in a few days you will see it in action."
65. What is sought by the Jesus Prayer? - So that the blessed fire sinks into the heart, and unceasing prayer begins, which determines the blessed state. It is fitting to know that the Jesus Prayer, like a spark of God falling into the heart, blows it into a flame; but she herself does not give this spark, but only contributes to its acceptance. - What contributes? The one that gathers thoughts together and gives the soul the opportunity to stand before the Lord and walk in His presence. - The main thing is standing and walking before God, crying out to Him from the heart. This is what Maxim Kapsokalivit did... So let everyone who seeks the blessed fire do it, but do not worry about the words and postures of the body. God looks at the heart.
Against this, I say that others completely forget about crying out from the heart ... All their concern is for the words and the position of the body, and, having recited a certain number of Jesus prayers in this position, with bows, they rest on this, with a certain conceit and condemnation of those who walk to the church for a common statutory prayer. Others live like this all their lives, and are empty from grace.
If someone asked me how I should do my prayer work, I would say to him: get used to walking in the presence of God, or keep the memory of God and revere; to maintain this memory, choose a few short prayers, or directly take 24 Chrysostom prayers and repeat them often with appropriate thoughts and feelings. As you get used to it, your head will be enlightened by the memory of God and your heart will be warmed. In this situation, finally, a spark of God will sink into the heart - a ray of grace. You can't produce it in any way, it comes directly from God... Then you can stay with the Jesus Prayer alone and with it fan the spark of prayer into a flame. This is the straight path.
66. Then, when you notice that someone is beginning to delve into prayer, you can invite him to say the Jesus Prayer without ceasing, and at the same time keep the memory of God with fear and reverence. - Prayer is the first thing. The main thing that prayer seeks is to receive that spark that was given to Maxim Kapsokalivit... This spark is not attracted by any art, but is given freely by the grace of God. What is the labor of prayer required for, as St. Macarius... If you want to acquire prayer, he says, labor in prayer... God, seeing how diligently you seek prayer, will give prayer (Word 1, chapter 13).
67. In ordinary experiences of a pious life, this is obviously justified over the habit of the Jesus Prayer. There are few words in it, but they combine everything. It has been recognized from time immemorial that, having learned to pray this prayer, you can replace all prayers with it. And is there anyone among those who are zealous for salvation who would not be familiar with this work? The great power of this prayer, according to the image of St. Fathers; meanwhile, in fact, we see that not everyone who is accustomed to it is involved in this power, not everyone eats from its fruits. Why is this? From the fact that they themselves want to take into their possession what belongs to the gift of God and is the work of the grace of the Lord.
To start repeating this prayer in the morning, in the evening, walking, sitting and lying down, at work and at leisure - is our business, this does not require special help from God. Working all in the same order, you yourself can reach the point that the tongue, even without our consciousness, will repeat this prayer. This may be followed by a certain pacification of thoughts, and even a kind of warmth of the heart, but all this will be, as Monk Nikifor notes in the Philokalia, the work and fruit of our efforts. To dwell on this is also to be satisfied with the ability of a parrot to pronounce well-known words, even such as "Lord have mercy." The fruit of this is this: you will think that you have, while you have absolutely nothing. This is what happens to those who, while learning this prayer, since it depends on us, do not reveal the consciousness of what its essence is. Without realizing it, they are satisfied with the indicated natural beginnings of its actions and stop searching. But whoever's consciousness opens up, he will not stop searching; but, seeing that no matter how much it intensifies to act according to the senile instructions, all the expected fruit is not revealed, it cuts off all expectation of the fruit from one of its efforts, and puts all hope on God. When this is formed, then the opportunity opens up for a grace-filled influence: grace comes at the moment it alone is guided and instills that prayer in the heart. Then, as the elders say, everything will also be according to the external order, but not also according to the internal strength.
What is said about this prayer is applicable to every manifestation of spiritual life. Take an angry man and suppose that he was zealous to quench his anger and acquire meekness. In ascetic books there are indications of how one should govern oneself in order to achieve this. He learns all this and begins to act according to the instructions he has read. How far will he reach with his efforts? Not further, as until the silence of the lips during anger, with some taming of the anger itself; but in order to completely extinguish anger and instill meekness in the heart, he himself will never reach this point. This happens even when grace comes and instills meekness in the heart.
So in relation to everything. Whatever fruit of spiritual life you seek, seek with all your might, but do not expect fruit from your search and your efforts, but cast your sorrow on the Lord, without any assignment of anything to your share, and He will create (Ps. 36: 6 ).
Pray: "I desire, I seek, but Thou live me in Thy righteousness." The Lord has determined: "Without Me you can do nothing" (John 15:5). And this law is fulfilled in the spiritual life with precision, not deviating a hair's breadth from the definite. When they ask: what should I do to acquire this or that virtue? You can answer everyone: turn to the Lord, and He will give you; there is no other way to get what you want.
68. I will write to you now about ways to kindle a constant fire or warmth in the heart. Remember how warmth is excited in the physical world: when you rub wood against wood, you get warmth and even fire; keep a thing in the sun, and it warms up, and if you concentrate more rays, then it lights up. The way to generate spiritual warmth is similar to this. Works are the friction of asceticism; keeping in the sun is a smart prayer to God...
Through the labors of asceticism, a fire can ignite in the heart, but not soon, if they are left alone: this path is many obstacles. That is why the zealots of salvation, experienced in the spiritual life, without deviating from these labors, by God’s inspiration, have discovered and put into use for everyone another method for warming the heart, and, moreover, the simplest and easiest in appearance, but no less difficult to perform, only more quickly. leading to the goal: this is the expedient performance of mental prayer to the Lord Savior. It consists in the following: become mind and attention in your heart, and, having raised the conviction that the Lord is near and attentive, cry out to Him tenderly: "Lord, Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner or a sinner," and do this unceasingly, and in church, and at home, and on the way, and at work, and at the table, and in bed, in a word - from the moment you open your eyes until the moment you close them. This will exactly correspond to holding the thing in the sun, because here there is holding oneself before the face of the Lord, Who is the sun of the intelligent world. It is necessary to know that the fruit of this prayer begins when it takes root in the heart and deepens into it; and for this it is necessary to work on the skill of doing it; for this it is necessary to separate a certain part of the time exclusively into it, in the morning and in the evening.
When you go through all this with zeal, without laziness and without condescension, - the Lord is merciful, - a spark will light up in your heart, which will testify to the birth of our inner spiritual life in the center of nature, or to the Lord's reign in us ...
A distinctive feature of the state, when the Kingdom of God is revealed inward, or, which is also, when a non-waste spiritual fire is kindled in the heart from a relationship with God, is abiding within. Consciousness is all concentrated in the heart and stands before the face of the Lord, pouring out its feelings before Him, most of all painfully falling to Him in humble feelings of repentance, with an inherent readiness to devote one's entire stomach to the service of Him alone. Such a system is established every day, from the moment of awakening from sleep, lasts all day, with all work and occupation, and does not depart until sleep closes the eyes. Together with the formation of such a system, all the mood that had been quality inside until that moment, during the period of searching, into this transitional state of languor, as Speransky calls it, ceases ... The uncontrollable fermentation of thoughts ceases; the atmosphere of the soul becomes pure and cloudless: there is only one thought and memory of the Lord. Hence the lordship in everything internal. Everything there is clear, every movement is noticed and worthily evaluated, in the intelligent light emanating from the face of the Lord contemplated. As a result of this, every unkind thought and unkind feeling that is born in the heart, in the very embryo they meet with resistance, and are driven away... conscience is always kept clean before the Lord. As a reward for all such inner work, boldness towards God in prayer is given, which constantly glimmers in the heart. The unceasing warmth of prayer is the spirit of this life, so that, with the cessation of this warmth, the movement of spiritual life also ceases, just as with the cessation of breathing, bodily life ceases.
69. I am not saying that everything is done as soon as you reach this state of tangible communication. This is supposed to be only the beginning of a new degree, or a new period of Christian life. Henceforth, the soul and body will be transformed according to the spirit of life in Christ Jesus, or their spiritualization. Having prevailed over himself, a person will begin to put into himself everything that is true, holy and pure, and cast out everything that is false, sinful and carnal. And hitherto he labored at the same thing, but was continually robbed; from what he managed to create, it was immediately almost ruined. Now it's not. Man has become a firm foot and, not succumbing to opposition, leads his creation purposefully. Perceived, according to Barsanuphius, the fire that the Lord came to earth, and in this fire all the forces of human nature begin to burn out. If you stir up a fire with long friction and put it into the firewood, the firewood will catch fire and, while burning, will emit crackling and smoke until it burns out. Burnt ones are filled with fire, emitting a pleasant light, without smoke and crackling. Exactly the same thing happens inside. The fire is perceived, burnout begins. How much smoke and cod is at the same time - those who have experienced it know. But when everything burns out, the smoke and crackling stop, and only light quality inside. This state is the state of purity; it's a long way to go. But the Lord is many-merciful and omnipotent... It is obvious that those who have accepted the fire of tangible communion with the Lord will not have peace, but much work, but sweet and fruitful work; hitherto he was both bitter and unfruitful, if not completely barren.
70. To the extent that you begin to get used to praying properly, according to other people's prayers, your own prayer appeals and appeals to God will also begin to arouse in you. Never ignore these ascents to God that are manifested in your soul; but whenever they are excited, stop and pray your prayer. Do not think that by praying like this, you are doing damage to prayer - no: it is here that you pray as you should, and this prayer is more profitable to God. That is why there is a rule taught by everyone: whether in church, or at home, your soul itself wants to pray with its own, and not with someone else's word - give it freedom, let it pray, at least it will pray itself for the whole service, but at home it will lag behind the rule of prayer and won't be able to do it.
Both types of prayer, according to prayer books with attention and corresponding reverent thoughts and feelings, or without them, in their own words, are pleasing to God. It is only unpleasant for him when someone reads prayers at home, or in church, stands in the service without attention: the tongue reads or the ear listens, and thoughts wander about not knowing where. There is no prayer at all. But prayer is not readable, but personal prayer is closer to the essence of the matter and more fruitful. Therefore, it is advised not to always wait until you feel like praying yourself, but to force yourself to pray like this, and not only during church services and home prayers, but at any time. For skill in this self-compulsory prayer work, experienced prayer books chose one prayer to the Lord Savior, and established rules for how to perform it, in order to develop their own prayer with the help of it. The matter is simple, stand with your mind in your heart before the Lord and pray to Him: "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me." So at home before prayer, in the intervals of prayer, and at the end, so it is in church, and all day long, in order to fill all moments of the day with prayer.
This salvific prayer at first is usually laborious, practical. But if someone is not too lazy to work on it, it will also become self-propelled, it will create itself, like a brook murmuring in the heart. This is a great blessing, and it is worth the effort to achieve it. Workers who have succeeded in prayer indicate for this a small labor, or a not difficult prayer exercise, namely: before or after the prayer rule, morning or evening, or even in the afternoon, set a few times for the performance of this one prayer, and perform it like this: sit down, but rather stand prayerfully, concentrate your attention in your heart before the Lord, raising the conviction that He is here and listening to you, and cry out to Him: “Lord, Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me,” and bow, if there is a desire, waist and earthly. So do a quarter of an hour, half an hour, more or less, as you like. The harder you work, the sooner this prayer will take root in your heart. It is better to take up the matter more zealously and not retreat until you achieve what you want, or until this prayer begins to move in your heart; then just keep it up. That warmth of the heart, or burning of the spirit, of which we have spoken before, comes precisely in this way. The more the Jesus Prayer takes root in the heart, the more the heart is warmed, and the more self-moving the prayer becomes, so that the fire of spiritual life ignites in the heart, and its burning becomes unceasing, at the same time as the Jesus Prayer occupies the whole heart and becomes incessantly moving. That is why those who have received the birth of a perfect inner life almost exclusively pray this prayer, defining their prayer rule by it.
71. St. Gregory of Sinai writes: “What we have received about Christ Jesus in holy baptism is not destroyed, but only buried like some kind of treasure in the ground. And prudence and gratitude demand that we take care to open it and bring it to light. lead the following ways: firstly, this gift is revealed by the laborious fulfillment of the commandments, so that as we fulfill the commandments, this gift reveals its lordship and its brilliance; secondly, it comes into manifestation and is revealed by the unceasing invocation of the Lord Jesus, or what is the same, and the first means is powerful, but the second is more powerful, so that the first also receives its full strength from it. Therefore, if we sincerely want to reveal the seed of grace hidden in us, then let us quickly get used to the exercise of the heart, and always have this in our hearts. one deed of prayer, formless and unimagined, until it warms our heart and inflames it to indescribable love for the Lord.
72. This prayer is called the Jesus Prayer because it addresses the Lord Jesus, and is in its composition verbal, like any other short prayer. But it happens to be smart and should be called when it rises not in a single word, but also with the mind and heart, with the consciousness of its content and feeling, and especially when, through prolonged use with attention, it merges with the movements of the spirit so much that they alone and inherent are seen inside, and like there are no words. - Any short prayer can ascend to this degree. The Jesus Prayer, however, has the advantage because it unites the soul with the Lord Jesus, and the Lord Jesus is the only door to communion with God, to which prayer strives. For He Himself said: "No one will come to the Father except by Me" (John 14:6). Why the one who has acquired it acquires for himself the entire power of embodied dispensation, in which lies our salvation. Hearing this, you will not be surprised why the zealots for salvation spared no effort, trying to get used to this prayer and to assimilate its power for themselves. Take an example from them and you.
Acquisition of the Jesus Prayer outwardly consists in achieving it by itself incessantly revolving in the tongue, but inwardly - in focusing the attention of the mind in the heart and incessant standing before the Lord in it, with warmth of the heart accompanying this in various degrees, and cutting off all other thoughts, and especially with a contrite and humble fall to the Lord Savior. The beginning of this habit is due to the frequent repetition of this prayer as much as possible with attention in the heart. Frequent repetition, being established, gathers the mind together, in standing before the Lord. The establishment of such a system inside is accompanied by warming the heart and driving away thoughts, even simple ones, and not only passionate ones. When the fire of clinging to the Lord begins to flicker in the heart, then along with it, a peaceful dispensation of the heart will be established inside with contrite and humble, mental, falling down to the Lord. Until now, our own work comes through with the help of the grace of God. What else, higher than this, can be accomplished in the work of prayer, that will be the gift of one grace. At St. The fathers are remembered about this only so that someone, having reached the indicated limit, does not think that he has nothing more to desire, and does not dream that he stands at the very top of prayerful, or spiritual perfection ...
Do not rush to chase one prayer after another, but say them with measured duration, as they usually say in front of a large person when they ask him for something. However, do not worry about words alone, but more so that the mind be in the heart and stand before the Lord, as if inherent, with a full consciousness of His greatness and grace and truth ...
To avoid mistakes, have an adviser - a spiritual father, or an interlocutor - a brother of one mind, and confide to them everything that happens during such work of yours. Always act in the greatest simplicity, in great humility and non-appropriation of success. Know that real success occurs within, imperceptibly, without showing off, as the growth of the body takes place. Therefore, when you cry out inside you: ah, here it is! - know that this is an exclamation of the enemy, presenting to you something that seems instead of the real. This is where self-delusion begins. Silence this voice at once; otherwise, he will hum like a trumpet from you, nourishing conceit.
73. One must know that a sure sign of ascetic achievement, and at the same time a condition for success through it, is painfulness. He who walks painlessly will not receive fruit. Heart disease and bodily labor bring into manifestation the gift of the Holy Spirit, given to every believer in St. baptism, which is buried in the passions by our negligence in fulfilling the commandments, but by the indescribable mercy of God is resurrected again in repentance. Do not depart from labors because of their pain, so that you will not be condemned for barrenness and not hear: "Take a talent from him." Any feat, bodily or spiritual, not accompanied by pain and not requiring labor, does not bear fruit: "the kingdom of God is in need, and the needy delight it" (Matthew 11:12). Many have worked and are working painlessly for many years, but for the sake of this painlessness they were both alien to purity and not involved in the Holy Spirit, as they rejected the ferocity of diseases. In carelessness and relaxation, those who work seem to work hard, but do not reap any fruit, because of painlessness. If, according to the prophet, our loins do not break, exhausted from fasting labors, and if we do not plant painful feelings of contrition in our hearts, and do not become sick, like a woman giving birth, then we will not be able to give birth to the spirit of salvation on the earth of our heart.
Fruits of prayer.
74. The primary fruits of prayer are attention and tenderness. These fruits appear before all others from any correctly performed prayer, but mainly from the Jesus Prayer, the exercise of which is higher than psalmody and other prayers. From attention tenderness is born, and from tenderness attention is aggravated. They intensify, giving birth to each other; they give depth to prayer, gradually enlivening the heart; they give her purity, eliminating absent-mindedness and daydreaming. Like true prayer, so attention and tenderness are the gifts of God.
75. Know that attention should never leave the heart. But deeds in the heart are sometimes only smart, done by the mind, and sometimes heartfelt, that is, both begun and continued with a warm feeling. This is the law not only of hermits, but of all who must stand before God purely in heart and work before His face, that is, all Christians. The mind gets tired of saying the word of prayer. Pray then without words - thus bowing down before the Lord mentally in your heart and betraying yourself to Him ... This will be the actual prayer, the word is only its expression ... and it is always weaker than the prayer itself before God.
Heartfelt prayer is never premature. She is the start. By affirming it in the heart, the work of God will sing. It must be developed without sparing labor. God, seeing the work, gives the desired. Real prayer does not happen on its own: it is a gift from God. Seek and find! That you did not use the artistic method of instilling prayer is no harm. That way is not inevitable; and without it is possible. Not the position of the body - the main thing, but the internal system. The whole thing is: "to stand with attention in the heart and look to God, or cry out." - I have not yet met anyone who would approve of that artistic technique. Bishop Ignatius and Fr. Macarius of Optina also disapproves of him.
76. Artistic performance of the Jesus Prayer... its simple creation with attention in the heart or walking in the memory of God, the essence of our work, and in themselves have their own natural, not grace-filled fruit. This fruit is: the collection of thoughts, reverence and fear of God, the memory of death, the pacification of thoughts and some warmth of the heart. All these are the natural fruits of inner prayer. It is necessary to affirm this well, so as not to trumpet before oneself and before others and not rise.
As long as we have only natural fruits, we are not worth a penny, both in essence and according to the judgment of God. Price to us when grace comes. For when she comes, this will mean that God has looked upon us with a merciful eye...
In what exactly this action of grace is revealed, I do not have to tell you; but what is certain is that it cannot come before all the above-mentioned fruits of inner prayer appear.
77. The fruit of prayer is concentration of attention in the heart and warmth. This is a natural action. Anyone can achieve this. And to make this prayer to everyone, not only a monk, but also a layman.
This is not some lofty deed, but a simple one. And the Jesus Prayer, alone in itself, is not miraculous, but like any other short prayer, verbal and, therefore, external. But she can go smart and warm... all in a natural way. What comes from grace must be expected, but it is impossible to take it in any way.
What they wrote to you about the need to purify the passions first refers to lofty contemplative prayer; and this is a simple prayer ... which, however, can lead to high prayer.
In order for this occupation to be successful, every time you start it, you must leave everything, so that the heart is completely free from everything, so that it does not stick out in attention: neither a person, nor a deed, nor a thing. Everything must be thrown out at this time. Having served this rule, it is not necessary to leave this prayer at any time, but as soon as freedom, now for it.
During the service, one must pay attention to the service... standing with attention in the same place where the Jesus Prayer is being performed. And when something is not clearly read and sung, then create this prayer.
78. Do not forget that it should not be limited to one mechanical repetition of the words of the Jesus Prayer. This will lead to nothing, except for the mechanical skill of repeating this prayer with the tongue, without even thinking about it. And of course it's not bad. But it is the furthest outer edge of this matter.
The essence of the matter is the conscious standing in the presence of the Lord with fear, faith and love. This mood is possible without words. It must be restored in the heart first of all. Words will then go on to keep attention on this one and deepen those feelings and dispositions.
79. Whether it’s Jesus’ or some other short prayer, it’s a good thing if it imposes on the tongue Take care only in this case, not to be attention in the head, but in the heart, and be there not only while standing at prayer, but at all times . Take the trouble to form in your heart some sort of sore... Constant labor will soon do this. There is nothing special here. This is a natural thing (the fact that the sore - the disease will seem). But even from this there will be more composure. And the main thing is that the Lord, seeing the work, grants help and His grace-filled prayer. Then their orders will go to the heart.
80. Are you afraid to fall into spiritual lust? How does it get here? After all, prayer is not done for sweetness, but for the fact that it is a duty to serve God in this way; sweetness is a necessary attribute of true service. In addition, the main thing in prayer is to stand before God with the mind in the heart with reverence and fear, sobering and driving away all whims and planting sickness before God in the heart. These feelings: the fear of God and sickness, or a contrite and humble heart, are the main features of true inner prayer and the test of any prayer, by which we must judge whether our prayer is in the proper order or not. When they are, prayer is in order. When they are not there, it is not in order, and it is necessary to insert it into your rank. With their absence, sweetness and warmth can give rise to self-conceit, and this is spiritual pride ... and this will be detrimental charm. Then sweetness and warmth will depart; only the memory of them will remain, but the soul will still think that it has them. - Fear this, and kindle more the fear of God, humility and a painful falling towards God, always walking in the presence of God. Se is the main thing!
81. The warmth of the heart, about which you write, is in good condition. And we must watch and support it. When it weakens, warm it up the way you do: gather stronger inside and cry out to the Lord. In order not to leave, it is necessary to avoid scattering thoughts and impressions on feelings that do not agree with this state, to avoid that the heart does not lie down on something visible and no care absorbs all attention. Attention to God, let it be non-waste and the tension of the body is unrelenting, to the point, like a soldier in the ranks. The main thing is: pray to the Lord, may he prolong this mercy.
As for before - is it? then, once and for all, make it a rule to drive such questions without pity as soon as they are born. This is the creation of the enemy. If you dwell on this question, then the enemy will immediately give you a solution: oh, of course it is ... You are well done! - Then the good fellow will rise on stilts, begin to dream about himself, and put others in nothing. And grace will depart. But the enemy will keep him thinking that she is with him. And this is: to imagine having, while there is nothing. Sts. fathers wrote: "do not measure yourself." And to take and solve that question, means to start measuring yourself: how much you have grown. So if you please, run away from this, like from fire.
82. Real warmth is a gift from God; but there is also natural warmth, the fruit of one's own efforts and free moods. They are as far apart as heaven is from earth. What you have is not visible. After it will open.
"Thoughts are tired, do not allow to be established before God." This is a sign that your warmth is not God's, but your own. The first fruit of God's warmth is the gathering of thoughts together and their unrelenting striving towards God. It happens here, too, that with bleeding. That one has a hundred blood streams... and here the current of thoughts stops. What is needed? Keeping your natural warmth, impute it to nothing, but only consider it a preparation for God's warmth; then to grieve about the paucity of God's action in the heart and in sickness to pray to the Lord incessantly: "Be merciful! Do not turn away Your Face!.. Enlighten Your Face!.." To this, aggravate bodily deprivation... in food, sleep, work, and the like. All the same, leave the matter in the hands of God.
83. From the first awakening in the morning, take care to gather inside and kindle warmth. Consider this your normal state. As soon as this is not there, know that what is wrong inside you. Having placed oneself in the morning in such a collected and warmed state, then, everything that is obligatory must be corrected so as not to ruin one's inner mood, and from an arbitrary one, that which supports this state, to do; what upsets him, do not do it under any circumstances: for it would mean to be at enmity against yourself ... Set only by law to keep composure and warmth, standing with your mind before the Lord. Then it will itself indicate what should be done, or what should be allowed and what should not.
The all-powerful aid to this is the Jesus Prayer. It is necessary to get used to it so that it is constantly read where the place of the heart is. And to get used to it, you need to work hard. Now take up this matter. Or are you already familiar with it? - It seemed to me that you are doing this prayer only on the rule. On the rule in its own way, otherwise it is imperative to create it, sitting, walking, eating food, working. If it does not hold fast in the heart, you can leave everything and take care of it alone until it takes root. This business is simple. To stand in front of the icons in a prayer position (you can sit down), and descending with attention to where the place of the heart is, to work there slowly the Jesus Prayer, while remembering the presence of God. So half an hour, an hour, or more. At first it is difficult, but when the skill is acquired, it will be done as if naturally, as breathing is done.
With such an arrangement of your inner life, a smart life will begin in you, or, as they say, smart deeds. The first here is the requirement of purity of conscience, its irreproachability not only before God, but also before people and oneself, even before things. Why, little by little slips that in a thought or word that confuses the conscience, now it is necessary to repent inwardly before the Lord, Who sees everything and pacifies the conscience ...
There is only one struggle with thoughts that will buzz every now and then like unrelenting mosquitoes. Learn how to deal with them yourself. Experience is science. I will say one thing. Usually thoughts swirl in my head. These are empty. But you look for those who, like an arrow, pierce the heart and leave a mark there, like a scratch. Immediately take hold and erase this trace with prayer, restoring its opposite feeling in its place. When heat is stored, these cases are rare and weak.
84. Let there be the Jesus Prayer on the tongue, the foreknowledge of the Lord before oneself in the mind, the thirst for God or communion with the Lord in the heart. When all this will be and will be constant, then the Lord, seeing how you force yourself, gives what you ask for.
85. Every prayer must come from the heart, and any other kind of prayer is not prayer. And prayers according to the prayer book, and your own prayers, and short prayers - should go from the heart to the Lord, foreseeable before you. All the more so should the Jesus Prayer be.
86. You suggest that I explain the matter of prayer... But there is nothing to explain here. Stand with your mind in your heart before the face of the Lord and cry out to Him: Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner! - It will be a work of prayer. Depending on how hard someone will work, the Lord, seeing the work, will give him a spiritual prayer, which is the fruit of the grace of the Holy Spirit. That is all that should be said and understood about the Jesus Prayer. Everything else that comes up with the case does not go. - It is the enemy that distracts from real prayer.
87. It is necessary to establish attention in the heart and stand there without starting before the Lord. I have already written to you about this more than once. Then you will notice any powder. Pray, God bless!
88. As long as there is zeal, the grace of the Holy Spirit is also present. She is fire. The fire is supported by wood. Spiritual firewood - prayer... As grace touches the heart, immediately the mind and heart turn to God - the seed of prayer. Then comes divinity.
The grace of God directs the attention of the mind and heart to God and keeps it on Him. As the mind does not stand without action, then, being turned to God, it thinks about God. Hence the memory of God is a constant companion of the state of grace... The memory of God is never idle, but it certainly leads one into the contemplation of the perfections of God and God's deeds: goodness, truth, creation, providence, redemption, judgment and retribution. All this in the aggregate is the world of God or the spiritual realm. He who is zealous abides in this region forever. Such is the nature of jealousy. From here back: stay in this area supports and revives jealousy. Would you like to be jealous? keep all the prescribed mood... In parts - this is spiritual firewood... Always have such firewood at hand, and as soon as you notice that the fire of jealousy is weakening, take some log from your spiritual firewood and renew the spiritual fire. And everything will go well. From the totality of such spiritual movements comes the fear of God, reverent standing before God in the heart. This is the guardian and guardian of the blessed state... Look into this, think it over carefully, instill it in your consciousness and heart... and unceasingly enliven in yourself... and you will live.
Your tower is exactly like a desert cell. You can see and hear nothing... You can read and think something, pray something, and think again too... That's it. If only God would give warmth to the heart, and it would not depart! A clear conscience and unceasing prayerful appeal to God should produce precisely this. But everything is by the hand of God.
89. Diligently fulfilling the rule, keep sobriety of mind and warmth of heart. Hurry to stir up the latter, when it begins to decrease, and hurry, firmly knowing that, as soon as it is gone, this means that more than half of the path to apostasy from God has been passed. The fear of God is the guardian and activator of inner warmth. But humility is also needed, and patience, and fidelity to the rules, and above all, sobriety. Take heed, for the Lord's sake. Worry yourself in every possible way so as not to fall asleep, or, having dozed off, wake up.
Secret teaching
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From the book of 100 prayers for quick help. The main prayers for money and material well-being author Berestova NataliaJesus Prayer Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner. Brief prayer options for all occasions: Lord, Jesus Christ, have mercy on me. Lord, have mercy. Confession of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, a request for mercy and help, hope for
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From the book Soulful Teachings author Optina MacariusPRAYER OF JESUS Instruction for those who wish to undergo the noetic Jesus Prayer… You are looking for from me not the rules of prayer, but the everlasting noetic prayer. It's a high thing, and beyond my measure and dignity. I dare not even think of contradicting the words of Gregory Palamas, which is possible
What is prayer? What is its essence? How to learn it? What does the spirit of a Christian who prays in humility of heart experience? All such questions should constantly occupy both the mind and heart of the believer, for in prayer a person converses with God, enters into grace-filled fellowship with Him, and lives in God. Both the holy fathers and the teachers of the Church give answers to all these questions, answers based on grace-filled illumination through the experience of prayer, an experience equally accessible to both the simpleton and the sage. These answers concerning prayer are collected on the pages of the book, which is called “Clever doing. On the Jesus Prayer: A Collection of Teachings of the Holy Fathers and Its Experienced Doers. It was published in the Minsk Luchi Sofia Publishing House and took its place on our bookshelf. ***
This collection was compiled in the 1930s by Abbot Khariton (Dunaev) of the Valaam Monastery. The book has been repeatedly reprinted in Russia and abroad. Addressing the readers, the author-compiler writes in the preface: “There are many among you who do not know what the inner work of a God-thinking person is, and also do not understand what God-thinking is. And there are those who do not know anything about prayer performed by the mind, but think that it is only fitting to pray with those prayers that are written in church books. As for the secret conversation with God in the heart and the benefit that comes from it, they are by no means aware of this and have never tasted the spiritual sweetness of this.
The author compares such people with those born blind. He who is blind from birth, he "only hears about the radiance of the sun, what is the radiance, does not know." So they only hear about God-thought teaching and prayer, but they do not understand. Due to their ignorance, they are deprived of many spiritual blessings and lag behind virtuous progress, which leads to perfect pleasing to God. Therefore, for the sake of instructing the simple, something is offered here for inner learning and for God-thought prayer, so that the one who wishes, with God's help, begins to be at least a little instructed. The spiritual training of the inner man, according to Fr. Khariton, begins with such Christ's words: "When you pray, enter into your closet, and having shut your door, pray to your Father in secret" (Matt. 6:6).
But to a monk, - the author continues, - when he is tonsured into monasticism, when the rosary is given, which is called the spiritual sword, he bequeathed unceasing, day and night prayer with the Jesus Prayer. Upon my entry into the monastery,” says Abbot Khariton, “I was jealous of this will for the monks and was led in this by my elder, who resolved all my perplexities encountered during prayer. After the death of the elder, in order to resolve my perplexities, I was forced to resort to the writings of the God-wise fathers. Extracting from them the essentials about the Jesus Prayer, I wrote it all down in my notebook, and in this way, over time, I compiled a collection of prayers.”
As the author notes, "the material of the collection grew from year to year, and therefore does not have a strictly systematic order and sequence of subjects." For its compiler, it served as a reference. Then Father Khariton came up with the idea to publish this collection or reference book, in the hope that, perhaps, he would help those who are looking for guidance to improve their inner spiritual life, and the wise advice of St. fathers and contemporary ascetics will help them in their good intentions. In the collection there are repetitions of the same thing; it is from a sincere desire to imprint more strongly in the mind all that is written about. Everything transmitted from heartfelt conviction should have the liveliest interest, all the more necessary in modern times, when everywhere there is an extreme impoverishment of all aspirations in the field of spiritual life.
So, the purpose of publishing this collection is precisely to clarify the method of producing the Jesus Prayer in all possible and varied ways and repeated repetitions, to show all its need and necessity in the work of our spiritual service to God. In a word - to remind both modern monasticism and all those who are zealous for their spiritual salvation the ancient patristic teaching about smart doing and about the fight against passions. Especially since today, according to St. Ignatius, “people, for the most part, have the most obscure, confused concept of the Jesus Prayer. Others, who consider themselves to be gifted with spiritual reasoning and are revered by many for such, are “afraid” of this prayer, like some kind of infection. Citing “charm” as a reason - as if an indispensable companion of the exercise with the Jesus Prayer, they themselves move away from it and teach others to move away.
Further, St. Ignatius says: “The inventor of such a doctrine, in my opinion, is the devil, who hates the name of the Lord Jesus Christ as destroying all his strength; he trembles at this all-powerful name and therefore slandered Him before many Christians so that they would reject the fiery weapon, terrible for the enemy, saving for themselves. Keeping these words of the holy father in mind, the compiler had an urgent need to collect everything necessary to explain this spiritual work and the perplexities encountered in this. The collector himself, not daring to even think of calling himself a "smart prayer book", only dared to extract from the treasury of St. of their fathers, God-wise advice on unceasing prayer, advice that is necessary, like air to our breath, to all who are zealous for their salvation.
This collection of mental work on the subject of prayer includes about four hundred sayings of St. fathers and contemporary ascetics, and, in addition, whole teachings of ascetics of piety experienced in the feat of prayer, such as: St. Demetrius of Rostov, Archimandrite Paisius Velichkovsky, Elder Schemamonk Vasily and other doers of the sacred Jesus Prayer. At the end of this book, readers are offered an index that lists the sayings of the fathers given here, indicating the authors and books from which these sayings are borrowed, with a link to the pages of this collection on which they are printed.
*** According to Bishop Justin, “every Christian must always remember that he needs to be united with the Lord Savior with all his being, he must be allowed to dwell in our mind and heart, and to such a union with the Lord, after communion of His Body and Blood, The best and most reliable means is the noetic prayer of Jesus. Is the Jesus Prayer also obligatory for the laity? It is absolutely obligatory, because, as was said above, every Christian needs to unite with the Lord in his heart, and the Jesus Prayer is the best way to achieve this connection.” This book is designed to understand the essence of this prayer.