On Prayer

 by Archimandrite Thaddeus Vitovnitsky

Strong faith in man invariably causes and seeks prayer. Long-lasting strong prayer certainly creates love. In human life there is no other more noble goal than to purify your heart so that it sings of joy. And heartfelt prayer always leads to heartfelt joy. Joyful man is not difficult, because he is full of love.

Unforgiving, simple-minded people who are not burdened with everyday cares can quickly receive the divine fire of unceasing prayer.

And we want to know what it is, what it is, we are overwhelmed by worldly concerns and interests. Need to get rid of all this and upgrade. But we cannot achieve this ourselves; it is necessary that the Holy Spirit descend into the heart. As long as we are innocently united with the Lord, the wisdom of this world does not enter into us, because we receive true wisdom and true knowledge from God.

As far as our soul is humbled, the secrets of heaven are revealed to her. The secrets of everything that surrounds us are revealed to the humble and meek. He thinks much deeper than those who have been studying the wisdom of this world for years. Because God contains the secrets of our world, and as long as we think that we have achieved something, we know something, true, divine wisdom cannot be revealed to us and our discoveries in medicine, physics are given by great labors and are superficial.

First of all, attention is necessary in prayer. Without attention, prayer is worth nothing, but if we leave it completely, it becomes even worse, even harder. Labor is of great importance, but we constantly pay attention to something else. The holy fathers prayed that the Lord would deliver them from forgetting prayers.

Prayer must precede attention, it is like a guardian. If we pray without attention, there is neither truth nor spirit in prayer. When there is attention, we know what we ask, what we pray for, all attention should be collected in the words that we utter. When we appeal to a person with a request and know that he can do this for us, we turn to him with our whole being. We ask him: do it for me, I know that you are able to do it for me. We are fully confident and ask him. And we often pray without attention, for the sake of order, out of habit, and we think that we prayed, but in fact we were not at prayer, we were thinking about something else.

In every case, the Lord must be present, because the enemy constantly comes up with questions: where were they, what did they do, what did they hear, starting from childhood, and then builds their combinations of thoughts, and we think that all this is ours. The fallen spirits presented the entire registry of our lives: what we did, how we were treated, so we need a lot of stress to get closer to the Lord and live with Him constantly. This is a working prayer, but there is also a gracious prayer. She comes as a gift from the Lord. Seeing that we, having rejected all worldly pleasures, strive to unite with Him with our whole being, He gradually frees us from the cares of this light, from attachment to earthly things and leads the soul to simplicity and humility. He teaches us not to take insults in our hearts, and whatever happens to be humbled. So, gradually clearing,

It is necessary to pray, as Father John of Kronstadt prayed, who carefully read the prayers and felt that his heart was warmed with separate words, and peace and joy were spreading in his soul.

Words of prayer must be pronounced with the faith that the Lord hears and sees us. And if during a prayer something rises in the heart, take it and hold it, linger on it and stand in it. When we feel a favorable arrangement, we can move from silence to the Jesus prayer. At first it sounded like this: Lord, Jesus Christ, Son of God, and the Word of God, for the sake of the Virgin, have mercy on me. If we can, we say the Jesus prayer with feeling, and if we can’t, we will try to fall in our hearts to God, as we know and are able to, and rejoice in the silence before the Lord.

If we do not have an experienced confessor, who could lead us, it is dangerous to force ourselves to prayer. I was still a very young novice when I myself began to pray. Father Ambrose told me: “Whatever you do, repeat to yourself: Jesus, Son of God, have mercy on me.” I was still a boy, and listened to him with all my heart. Every day I confessed to my father the confessor what was happening inside, in the soul, and he advised me how to act. After a while, I felt a prayer enter the heart with the air that I breathe. Over time, the prayer itself began to be created in the heart.

But after my confessor died, I spent many years in great mental anguish. I came to some confessors, asked for advice. But it did not help. This continued until I read Theophanes Vyshensky’s “The Way of Salvation” and the Lord helped. When there is no one among the people who would comfort us, then the Lord comes and through the book pleases the soul.

Need to exercise. And prayer is also an exercise. Everyone should practice the Jesus prayer. It reads: Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner. And if you exercise every day, constantly, then it will start on its own, without your will, without your desire, when it turns into a skill, it becomes an incredible force – the divine. Feel the peace and joy, joy unspeakable. You yourself wonder what it is, everything is nice for you, everything is good for you, you want to touch everything, and no matter what you look at, everything is holy for you. This divine grace, which is given to man as a gift, regardless of our will and desires, goes on its own.

It is necessary to pray as much as possible and in every place. But it is clear that in this case a Christian cannot be like the Pharisee, who even changes his face to be noticed. Holy Fathers say that prayer requires an absolutely safe life. We pray absently. We did not commit ourselves to the will of God, we all think that we should keep everything in mind and that the Lord has all sorts of worries in the whole world and in the whole universe.

We ask: “Does He think about us or not?” This means we have little faith, no hope. And the Lord does all things. This means that any incident, every trifle, even the most insignificant, – everything that happens to us and near us, everywhere, indicates God’s providence and His allowance. Nothing in the world happens without fishing and permission. Everything, beautifully and sublimely, is the providence of the Lord. He alone knows why everything that seems erratic to us is tolerated, and for how long. We must feel His presence everywhere. You will see if we live always and everywhere in the presence of the Lord, all our work will be from the heart. We do not work for people, we work for God. Every work is divine, from God. Then we will not be busy. And while we are busy, we are not able to reach the Kingdom of Heaven. Why not able? Because we are subject to Satan here. When you pray watch your words carefully. There should be your attention, because the mind is able to imagine anything. Man, when he is in prayer, he does not think, because he does not represent anything. The Holy Fathers say that when a person prays, he should have one thought, that in this world there is no one, only God and he, and he turns to God. There is not anyone. There is no one in the whole universe, only the two of them, understand? This is also a performance. Just do not turn around on yourself, as soon as you turn around, you immediately think about your problems. We bother ourselves the most. Not others bother us, we bother ourselves. The Holy Fathers say that when a person prays, he should have one thought, that in this world there is no one, only God and he, and he turns to God. There is not anyone. There is no one in the whole universe, only the two of them, understand? This is also a performance. Just do not turn around on yourself, as soon as you turn around, you immediately think about your problems. We bother ourselves the most. Not others bother us, we bother ourselves. The Holy Fathers say that when a person prays, he should have one thought, that in this world there is no one, only God and he, and he turns to God. There is not anyone. There is no one in the whole universe, only the two of them, understand? This is also a performance. Just do not turn around on yourself, as soon as you turn around, you immediately think about your problems. We bother ourselves the most. Not others bother us, we bother ourselves.

The greatest obstacle for ourselves is ourselves. We think: “Evil is somewhere outside, it is spinning itself.” But if there was no evil in us, it would not cling to us. Evil within us. It is not guilty, we are to blame for breaking the peace. Let them accuse us, let us stipulate, let them have free will, let them do their work, and we have our own work – to keep the peace.

Pray without ceasing, the apostle teaches. Internal prayer is the work of man himself, because through prayer a person draws his heart towards the Lord. And the fallen spirits watch, as if to tie him to some earthly object. We must not forget that all that we can do for ourselves to be saved and enter the kingdom of God, we can only do here on earth. As soon as we move from “this side,” we cannot help ourselves. Then only the prayers of the saints will help us. Therefore, we must constantly remember our departed and pray for them. When God hears our sincere prayers for the departed, they help them.

A small speck interferes with vision, and a little care interferes with prayer. Prayer requires an absolutely safe life. When a person learns to do everything that he does, with all his heart, to do with desire, then he becomes prayerful, and he succeeds in his work.

The Holy Fathers say that the most difficult thing is to pray, but when jealousy comes and self-pity is overcome, then the heart will love prayer and then you will always have little time to pray.

Prayer is the breath of the soul. Therefore, we constantly need to be in prayer. Prayer draws strength from the source of life. The Lord is both the father and the mother who keeps and feeds. Learn to be with them all the time.

Archimandrite Thaddeus Vitovnitsky “Spiritual teachings”