Chapters on Prayer by the Blessed Kallistos, Patriarch

Chapters on Prayer by the Blessed Kallistos, Patriarch

1 When you want to know the truth, imitate the cithara player. He bows his head and, listening to the singing, strikes the strings with the plectrum. The strings resound together, moved by a skillful hand, the cithara plays a song – and the cithara player enjoys the honeyed sweetness.

2 O industrious worker of the vineyard, let this be a clear example for you, and believe it. When you are sober where the cithara player is, that is, in the depth of the heart, you will easily find what you desire. The soul, embraced by divine pleasure, cannot turn back. “My soul clings to You” (Ps. 62, 9), says divine David.

3 Know, beloved, that the cithara is the heart, the strings are the senses, the plectrum is the thought that always moves the verbal power – that is, the memory of God. Through it, some unspeakable sweetness enters the soul, and the soul looks with a pure mind at the divine world.

4 If we do not restrain the bodily senses, then the water that wells up in us as a spring will not flow out, the water that the Lord gave to the Samaritan woman. She, seeking natural water, found the living water flowing in herself. The earth naturally has water in itself and immediately pours it out, and so in the earth of the heart, water naturally murmurs and flows out, like the light of the Father, which Adam lost through disobedience.

5 Just as natural water always flows from a spring, so also that living and murmuring water flows from the soul. This same water dwelt in the soul of the God-bearing man Ignatius and taught him to say: “There is no fire in me that feeds on natural things, but there is in me water that acts and speaks.”

6 This blessed and thrice-blessed state of sobriety of the soul is like murmuring water flowing from the depth of the heart. Water, flowing from a spring, fills the spring, and the water that jets from the heart and always flows, prompted by the Spirit, fills the entire inner man with divine dew and the Spirit, and makes the outer man fiery.

7 When the mind is purified from the external and completely subordinates the senses to active virtue, then it remains immovable like the celestial axis, for it looks inside, into the depth of the heart. And, guiding the head, it contemplates the depth of the heart with a bright thought, and draws divine knowledge from there, and subordinates to it all bodily senses.

8 Hearing this, let no one of the unlearned or of those who need milk touch untimely the forbidden things. Those who prematurely seek that for which they still need much time, and try to enter the harbor of passionlessness, the holy fathers consider foolish. It is impossible for one who does not know letters to learn anything from a book.

9 He who in his soul performs the struggle from the divine Spirit makes his heart quiet, crying: “Abba, Father!” But this happens without any representations or images. And he transforms us with the dawn of divine light and gives us the proper appearance, according to the burning of the Holy Spirit. However, He who has divine power changes and transforms us as He Himself knows.

10 The mind, purified by sobriety, is easily darkened if it is not fenced off from external things by the frequent memory of Jesus. He who has combined action with contemplation, that is, the guarding of the mind, does not turn away from noise and does not refuse loud and indistinct sounds. When the soul “faints with love [for Christ]” (Song 2, 5), it follows Him as a relative.

11 To restrain fleshly passions and disturbances or to withdraw from them with understanding, according to the words of the Psalmist: “Be still, and know” (Ps. 45, 11), is proper for those who live in the world, but it is impossible to eradicate or destroy them. It is easier to eradicate them in the desert life.

12 When water flows, its flow is sometimes fast, sometimes slow. In the first, turbidity will not rise due to speed. And even if it becomes slightly turbid, it will be cleaned more easily because its flow is fast. When the flow slows down, it will not only become turbid, but may also stagnate. Then it needs purification and movement.

13 Upon beginners, and those learning customs, and the active, the demon acts not by clear or unclear sounds, but to those exercising in vision, he inspires some delusions: as if there is light in the air, and sometimes as if fire arises from this light – in order to deceive the ascetic of Christ.

14 When you want to know how to pray, look at the end of attentiveness or the end of prayer and do not let yourself be deceived. And its end, beloved, is constant contrition, brokenness of heart, love for one’s neighbor. And the opposite to this is the thought of desire, whispers of slander, hatred for one’s neighbor and similar things. Kallistos – the holiest Patriarch of Constantinople, named Xanthopoulos, became famous under Andronikos II Palaiologos in 1360. Having learned from Gregory of Sinai, and later having written his life in detail, he performed his struggle on the holy Mountain of Athos, in the skete of Magoula, which lies opposite the monastery of Philotheou. He lived with his fellow ascetic Mark for 28 whole years. And with Ignatios Xanthopoulos he was so close, as if in their two bodies was one soul. Afterward he became patriarch and went with the clergy to Serbia for the peaceful union of the Church there, and traveled through the Holy Mountain. There he was met by Maximos Kapsokalyvites with a prophecy, saying: “This elder has lost his flock,” and after him sang: “Blessed are the undefiled in the way.” And as soon as Kallistos arrived in Serbia, there he passed from corruptible life to incorruptible life. The venerable Symeon of Thessalonica also tells of these two ascetics and to this story adds about this deifying prayer: Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God – such a word: Chapter 260. In a special way in these days of ours, they wrote about it, that is, about prayer, by the Spirit, for they themselves are from God, theological, and God-bearing, and Christ-bearing, and truly divine, our holy father Kallistos, patriarch of the imperial New Rome from God, and his like-minded companion, fellow ascetic venerable Ignatios. And in the book that they compiled, they philosophized spiritually and wisely and very highly, and in a hundred chapters in a perfect number they laid out a perfect understanding of this prayer. Although they were shoots of this imperial city, they left everything and lived virginally, first as monks in obedience, and afterwards together as ascetics and lived heavenly and inseparably, and preserved unity in Christ, for which Christ Himself prayed for all of us to the Father. As lights, according to the words of the Apostle Paul, they appeared in the world, holding fast the word of life. Almost all saints attained unity in Christ and love, so one should not wonder that they differ in something between themselves, whether in views, or customs, or some momentary sorrow, without which people can almost never manage. They were like angels, therefore they accumulated and preserved God’s peace, for which Christ prayed and which is Christ Himself. “He is our peace,” says the Apostle Paul, “He who has made both one… the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding” [Eph. 2, 14; Phil. 4, 7]. They, having reposed in peace, now enjoy the greatest silence, purely now seeing Christ, whom they loved with all their soul and whom they sought, and they constitute one whole with Him, and insatially partake of His divine sweetest light. The betrothal to Him they received even here, purified themselves by contemplation and actions, and on the mountain received divine illumination, like the apostles. And many witnessed that they saw them with faces enlightened, like that of the first martyr Stephen, for not only into their hearts was grace poured, but also onto their faces. Therefore they became like the great Moses. According to the testimony of eyewitnesses, their faces shone. For they, having suffered well and by experience known this blessed passion, can speak of the divine light of the natural action of God and grace, and of the sacred prayer, and be its holy witnesses.