Содержание
От издателей
Что такое молитва
Молитва – главное в христианской жизни
Молитва – мера нашего духовного бытия
Молитва – плод и привлекательница Духа
Молитва – духовный барометр
Трудитесь в молитве
О чтении священных книг
О чтении Евангелия
О том же
Как читать Божественные книги
О том же
Как читать псалмы
О чтении и заучивании Псалтири
О заучивании псалмов
О чтении канонов
Читать для назидания
Что читать о молитве
О церковных службах
О важности хождения в церковь
Учащайте бывать в храме Божием
Бывайте сколько можно чаще в церкви
О важности церковных служб
Как держать себя на церковной службе
Если не слышим или не пониманием церковную службу
Если не можем пойти на церковную службу
Что мешает успеху в молитве
О празднословии
Для успеха в молитве надо украсить сердце свое добродетелями
Опасайтесь уклониться в праведность
Надо утвердить в себе мысль о своей греховности
Не меряй себя
Свои мысли надо записывать
Свое духовное делание нужно скрывать
О том же
Что в молитве главное
Помните, что Господь близ
Младенчество в молитве
Не в форме сила
О навыке ходить пред Богом
Помнить Бога
В сердце надо стоять вниманием пред Господом
Наипаче пекитесь о молитвенных чувствах
Как удерживать мысль и чувство обращенными к Богу
О важности внимания к Богу
Путь к молитвенному состоянию
Как возноситься к Богу мыслями
Навыкайте ходить в присутствии Божием
Приобретайте навык неотходно стоять пред Господом
Труд памятования о Боге
Главное в молитве – чувство к Богу
О внутреннем огне
О горении сердца к Господу
О благоговеинстве и страхе Божием
К Богу никогда не обращайтесь кое-как
Проба всякой молитвы
Чего нужно искать молитвой
Главное в молитве – возникновение благоговейных чувств
О молитве с чувством
Нужно развивать сердечную молитву
Как обучить душу часто обращаться к Богу
Богомыслие или молитва Иисусова
О труде молитвенном
Понуждайте себя к молитве
Если молитва не идет
Молитесь чаще и усерднее
Силой заставлять себя стоять пред Богом
О безжалостности к себе и всецелом предании себя Богу
Потрудитесь образовать в сердце болячку
Молиться надо долго
Если вы к вечеру устали
Как научиться молиться
Докучать надо Господу
Непрестанная молитва – дар благодати
Нужны чистая совесть и труд
О поклонах, внимании и церковном богослужении
Молитва никогда не пропадает даром
Главное – не лениться и молиться всегда от сердца
О внимании
Для успеха в молитве надо внимать себе
О том же
Всегда старайтесь хорошо молиться
Ум следует держать в сердце
Надо возвращать внимание
Внимание держите на словах молитвы
Назначение коротеньких молитв
О поклонах и рассеянности
Никогда не читайте молитвы спешно
Молитвы проговаривайте не спеша
Положите себе законом не спешить
Вниманием надо сойти в сердце
О плодах молитвы
Как молиться при множестве дел
Утром установитесь вниманием пред Богом
О непрестанном молитвенном настроении
Надо всегда держать молитву
Молитва делами
О молитве без слов
Не расставаться с молитвой среди всех дел
Не тяготиться заботами житейскими
Как наладить домашнюю молитву
При утомлении от общения
Как совершать молитвенное правило
Первый способ восхождения в сердце к Богу
О молитве для новоначальных
Новоначальные должны молиться по молитвеннику
Без правила молитвенного молитва не полна
Приготовление к молитвословию
Само́ совершение молитвословия
Содержание молитв надо воспринимать мыслью и сердцем
Читание по книжке сильно рассеивает
Меньше читайте по молитвенникам
Когда совершать вечернее правило
Что делать в промежутках между сном
Не считать окончание молитвословия концом молитвы
Что делать после молитвы
Можно ли сокращать молитвенное правило
Когда невозможно прочитать все правило
Если не осиливаем правила по немощи
Никогда не вяжите себя правилом
Изменять правило может тот, кто его установил
О поклонах
Под поклонами должна идти молитва от сердца
О поклонах и страхе Божием
Сколько класть поклонов
О поклонах
О поклонах и количестве молитв
Как переходить к молению своими молитвами
Всякое правило хорошо
О молитве по книге
Правило может быть изменяемо
О правиле молитвенном и поклонах
Не будьте рабом правила
С правилом нужно обращаться свободно
Внешнее в правилах можно изменять
Как составить свое правило
Начинать молиться своим словом
Пример молитвенного правила
Как составить свое правило
Как составить свою ко Господу молитву
Еще пример молитвенного правила
О коротких молитовках вместо чтения по молитвослову
О молитвах святого Иоанна Златоуста
О кратких молитовках
О том же
О том же
О том же
О том же
О том же
О том же
О том же
О том же
О разленении и охлаждении к молитве
Совет на случай охлаждения и нечувствия
Отчего бывает охлаждение к молитве
Нужно возгревать усердие
Не отступайте вниманием от Господа
Надо восстанавливать внутреннее горение
При рассеянии
При охлаждении в деле молитвы
О разленении в молитве
Советы о молитве Иисусовой
Новоначальным не нужно правило молитвы Иисусовой
Постарайтесь навыкнуть краткой молитве
Молитва Иисусова – цвет и плод
Преддверие к молитве
Прямой путь в молитве
Молитва Иисусова сильна именем Господа
Существо молитвы Иисусовой – в богомыслии
Суть молитвенного дела
Цель молитвы – согреть сердце любовию к Богу
О молитве усердной
Стань вниманием в сердце
Слова молитвы – не главное, а орудие
Сила молитвы совсем не в словах
О том же
Добрый конец – от благодати Божией
Как исполнять урок молитвенный
Как научиться молитве Иисусовой
Об Иисусовой молитве полной и по частям
О количестве молитв
О количестве поклонов
О позывах к молитве
Творить ли молитву Иисусову в храме
О четках
О тяге к уединению и безмолвию
Надо изгонять все образы
Представлять Бога образно нельзя
Молиться нужно без образов
На молитве образов строить нельзя
Отгоняйте все образы
Каких образов надо бояться
О прелести
О расслаблении в теле от молитвы
О появлении тяжести в голове
О раздражительности
О физических ощущениях при молитве
Об искусственных приемах молитвы
О внешних приемах молитвы
О механических приемах совершения молитвы
О приемах при молитве и даре благодати
О художественном образе делания молитвы
О внешних приемах совершения Иисусовой молитвы
Молитва спасительна, художество вредно
Опасна не Иисусова молитва, а художество
О причудах совершателей молитвы Иисусовой
О том же
О теплоте духовной и кровяной
Степени молитвы
Еще о степенях молитвы
О молитве Иисусовой, словесно, умно и сердечно совершаемой
Иисусова молитва, умная молитва и умное делание

From the publishers

Prayer is the queen of all virtues, it is an invisible ladder along which the soul ascends to God, prayer sows in the soul those seeds from which heavenly flowers bloom in eternity. If there is no prayer, then a person’s spirit is paralyzed, the spiritual life in him has frozen.

But how to learn to pray? How to instill a spirit of prayer in your soul? How to tune in to prayer? How to do it? How to learn to concentrate on the words of prayer? How to pray when you are very busy? What is the most important thing in prayer, without which it is not prayer? What prevents the correct performance of prayer? What is the Jesus Prayer and can everyone start doing it? What is spiritual delusion and how not to fall into it? We find answers to these and other questions in the correspondence of St. Theophan, the Recluse of Vyshensky, who for more than two decades from his secluded monastery cell responded to many letters that were sent to him in abundance by God-loving people from different parts of the country asking him to resolve the questions that arose for them. And in the complex vicissitudes of the spiritual life of all these people, there was no situation that he could not resolve.

Saint Theophan the Recluse was a unique personality. He accomplished the great ascetic work of translating into Russian the spiritual heritage of many ancient holy fathers – great ascetics, unsurpassed practitioners of mental prayer. In this way, he revealed to us the priceless treasures of their spiritual experience, the experience of people whose lives were a continuous feat of pleasing God, people who ascended to the heights of angelic purity and holiness, who possessed such the power of prayer that God performed miracles for its sake. Having perfectly known and mastered from the ancients this high science of prayer – the science of sciences and the art of arts, Saint Theophan and now remains the best teacher for all those who thirst for spiritual help and are zealous for the salvation of their souls.

Holy Hierarch Father Theophan, pray to God for us!

Troparion to Saint Theophan, tone 8

Teacher of Orthodoxy, / teacher of piety and purity, / Vyshensky ascetic, St. Theophan the God-wise, / with your writings you explained the Word of God / and you showed all the faithful the path to salvation, / pray to Christ God for the salvation of souls ours.

Kontakion, tone 4

Theophany of the same name, / to Saint Theophan, / with your teachings you have enlightened many people, / with the Angels now standing before the Throne of the Holy Trinity, / pray unceasingly for all of us.

What is prayer

Prayer is the main thing in the Christian life

The work of prayer is the first task in Christian life. Prayer is the breath of the spirit. There is prayer – the spirit lives, there is no prayer – there is no life in the spirit.

(Letter 227. Issue 2, p. 33)

The work of prayer is the work of all Christians. The work of prayer is not only the work of the silent, but of all Christians – and this is to its highest degrees. All degrees of God’s prayer are the essence of the matter. With God, everyone is equal, and He looks only at the heart. As the heart is to Him, so He is to the heart, no matter whose heart it is. The Lord said: as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You, that they also may be one in Us (Cf. John 17:21).

This is about all Christians. The Apostle says: our life is hidden with Christ in God (Col. 3:3).

(Letter 256. Issue 2, p. 89)

Prayer is the measure of our spiritual existence

I’m very glad that everything is going well for you, not in the monastery, but in your soul! For here, since there is prayer, then nothing better is required. Therefore, it was noted somewhere that the ancient monks, when meeting with others – during mutual visits, or so where – first of all inquired how the prayer was going. In real prayer, all our relationships with God, the highest ones, are in action and make sure that at that time our spiritual life stands in its order. Prayer is evidence of our spiritual existence and its measure!

Why be surprised when we read that one of the saints began to pray and sometimes did not retreat the whole night with an increase in the day? Prayer took him to his home, where Father, Mother, brothers and sisters embrace him with complete love and console and delight him. May God grant you never to lose the prayer structure within.

(Letter 542. Issue 3, pp. 242–243)

Prayer is the fruit and attraction of the Spirit

The grace of the Holy Spirit is with us from the moment of Baptism and Confirmation. Church prayers, home prayers, works of asceticism and good deeds develop this gift and give it scope to act in us. The best means for this is heartfelt prayer, which itself must be considered a fruit of the Spirit and at the same time an attractor of the Spirit. In this sense, church prayer for the Holy Spirit is also an attraction to the Spirit.

(Letter 342. Issue 2, p. 211; Letter 1340. Issue 8, p. 95)

Prayer is a spiritual barometer

Prayer is a spiritual barometer and thermometer. Set it up well, and everything will go well.

(Letter 556. Issue 4, p. 10)

Work in prayer

Work in prayer. She is a source of consolation, enlightened thoughts and affirmation of good character.

(Letter 378. Issue 3, p. 13)

Do not prefer anything to prayer. Never contradict the movements of prayer and do not prefer anything to it; on the contrary, always be ready to sacrifice everything to her. For she is a queen. And its fulcrum is a broken spirit (Ps. 50:19).

(Letter 261. Issue 2, p. 103)

About reading sacred books

About reading the Gospel

Reading the Gospel and other things is good and kind. At the same time, whatever poem or thought sinks into your soul, dwell on it and remember it more often during the day and expand your thoughts.

(Letter 947. Issue 6, p. 23)

About the same

Reading the Gospel and the Psalter is a good deed. Do not leave the books until you have learned some lesson or rules for life.

(Letter 1220. Issue 8, p. 4)

How to read Divine books

Do you require a decision on how to read the Gospel and the Apostle – chapter by chapter or, as is indicated in the church, by beginning?1 As you are already accustomed to reading in the church way, then continue this way. If you read according to the beginnings, then, having read what is prescribed in the morning, by the evening there will be nothing left; Is it possible to divide: in the morning read the concept from the Gospel, and in the evening – from the Apostle. Reading chapter by chapter is a lot.

Try to reflect and remember. Instead of Thomas a Kempis2, choose another book to read, our writer. What kind of books do you have? Let’s make a choice together. The lives of the saints in Chet-Minea are good to read; Although we cannot live like this, we are obliged to imitate them whenever possible and even through force.

One akathist is enough. But it would be better to read the akathist to the Mother of God. The canon on the outcome of the soul need not be introduced into the rule.

(Letter 487. Issue 3, pp. 154–155)

About the same

Akathists and canons are good to read as expected. Look in the Followed Psalter, at the end. The psalmist will help you. But don’t type too much. You can replace them with bows and the Jesus Prayer. And look at this too. And it happens better.

You can read the Gospel while sitting, but without diminishing reverence.

How long to read the Psalter? As much as you want. One kathisma, two, three or several psalms.

“Singing psalms” means reading them in a chant, as, for example, in church they sing after “Lord, I have cried” at Vespers.

(Letter 113. Issue 1, p. 113)

How to read the psalms

If you want the psalms not to entertain, read their interpretation and understand their meaning. Then, never read too much, and read slowly, thinking about every word. When your heart warms up from this, you can leave the psalms. Remember the legend about a certain old man, that he read only one “Glory”, and then went into his heart and contemplation and prayed like that.

(Letter 908. Issue 5, p. 184)

About reading and memorizing the Psalter

Memorizing the Psalter is a good deed. Fill yourself with prayerful thoughts and feelings. The Holy Fathers instilled this in everyone. And they advised reading the psalms not only during prayer, but also in addition. And you can read it while you’re doing it, and especially when you’re on the move from one place to another. But in order to maintain thoughts about God and feelings for Him between activities, it is best to learn a short prayer.

(Letter 947. Issue 6, p. 23)

О заучивании псалмов

You have memorized the Six Psalms and add: “I especially like the last two.” This gives me the idea to suggest to you: as soon as you come across a psalm you like, memorize it. Then use them: either while standing in prayer to God in the morning and evening and in the form of warming up the prayerful spirit, or between tasks – when you walk, or fall asleep, or wake up; Fill every idle time with this reading. Look – the second psalm of the third hour – and the third of the sixth. They are similar to I lifted up my eyes to the mountains (Ps. 120: 1).

(Письмо 955. Вып. 6, с. 48)

О чтении канонов

Should the Guardian Angel read the canon? Read. And when you are weak or have a lot to do, instead of reading the canon, offer a short prayer to it: “O Angel of God, my holy guardian, pray to God for me, a sinner,” 50 times with bows as desired (that is, bow to the ground or from the waist). With this (that is, short prayers) all the canons can be replaced. But attention must be kept not on words alone, but with corresponding thoughts and feelings.

(Письмо 378. Вып. 3, с. 12–13)

Читать для назидания

Regarding reading. Reading for knowledge is one thing, but reading for edification is another. With the first, you read a lot, but with the second, you don’t need to read a lot, but as soon as something from what you read falls on your heart, stop and think, trying to clarify, and even more so, to deepen this thought into your heart. This is the same as turning this into an object of thought about God. This way you will feed the soul and grow it, and not fill it up like a sack.

(Letter 187. Issue 1, p. 220)

What to read about prayer

About prayer, read the collection “On Sobriety and Prayer”: everything that the fathers said about this is collected there. It is not bad to look through those chapters in the book about spiritual warfare5 that talk about prayer. And this is quite a lot. It is better to work in prayer than to philosophize about it and read wisdom. It’s very simple.

(Letter 902. Issue 5, p. 177)

About church services

On the importance of going to church

Going to church is the best way to open the spirit of prayer, in which the heart does not dare to harden.

(Letter 190. Issue 1, p. 232)

Church prayer is better than home prayer. Church is your consolation. Thanks be to the Lord, who allows you to experience the benefits of being in church. Saint Chrysostom remembers that you can pray at home; but you can’t pray at home like you do in church.

(Letter 448. Issue 3, p. 90)

Frequently visit the temple of God

If you find it convenient, visit the temple of God more often. Nowhere is the spirit of prayer revealed so much as in churches, with an attentive and reverent stay in them. If you do this, you will soon see the fruit, but not after the first and second visits to the temple. We must spend months and show constancy and patience in this work.

But I’ll add here too – don’t tie yourself down. If you bind with anything, hold on to it: for this determines the fruitfulness of such a seed.

(Letter 191. Issue 1, p. 234)

Go to church as often as possible

In church you pray well and don’t notice how the service is going on. Be good! If you can, go to church as often as possible. It is the true house of God, even though it is built of bricks and mortar. The heart feels that it is in the Father’s house, and it is sweet to it. The best way to cultivate prayer is to go to church. At home laziness overcomes, but there is no place for laziness; for what else to do but pray?

(Letter 256. Issue 2, pp. 92–93)

On the importance of church services

All church services must be maintained. And I’ll tell you that there is no better way to discover mental-heart prayer than to be in church, at church services. In church services the spirit is prayerful. Anyone who sits through the service with attention to everything read and sung cannot help but warm up in a prayerful mood. If this is the case today, tomorrow, and the day after tomorrow, and so on, then the prayer fire will finally light up in the heart. But when God gives it, then you will run to church as to a royal feast, and nothing will stop you. Just try to listen to church singing and readings, and without attention nothing will happen.

(Letter 241. Issue 2, p. 58)

How to behave at a church service

About laziness in services. You need to overcome the tension by focusing your attention and praying to the Lord about this particular illness, and the Lord will help.

How to behave at the Liturgy. To revive faith in the Sacrament, to raise the fear of God, to revive the hope of salvation, in vain the Lord, everyone wants to be saved (Cf.: 1 Tim. 2:4) and calls everyone to this, both strict and abundantly merciful. You need to get used to these feelings and pray for their granting.

Coming to Holy Communion, I think, is not a sin to do more than once, but it seems better at one time. But reading it out in church is not a good habit: church service requires attention.

The enemy confuses you to run away from church in order to pray more diligently in your cell… – And miss the church service, and not pray in your cell. We must observe church services and rules with attention and feeling. And especially pray with mental prayer at home. And church service must be idle with mental prayer. The service content is all smart. Listen, understand and feel what is sung and read, and this is mental prayer.

(Letter 242. Issue 2, p. 59)

If we do not hear or do not understand the church service

In church, sometimes neither what is sung nor read is heard or understood. In this case, stand before the Lord and say the Jesus Prayer. In the church, every action has its own meaning. Whoever follows this meaning with his mind and understanding will constantly receive nourishing influences for the spirit from another world – and at the end of the service he will leave the church as if he were leaving a table richly and variedly served.

(Letter 113. Issue 1, p. 113)

If we can’t go to church service

It’s good to fast more often, but see for yourself how to do it. Which church services your…service allows you to go to, go to, and which ones you cannot go to, for those at home, correct your bows with the Jesus Prayer, as also prescribed in the Following Psalter.

(Letter 113. Issue 1, p. 114)

What hinders success in prayer

About idle talk

You can’t stop talking idle talk. Idle talk is the most ruinous thing. Equal evil is when they walk without respecting their feelings. Both of these greatly hinder success in prayer. When the Jesus Prayer begins to take hold in the heart, then the tongue will be tied. He will be bound by reverence for the Present Lord.

(Letter 896. Vol. 5, p. 166)

To succeed in prayer, you need to decorate your heart with virtues

Please know that to succeed in prayer, you must try to decorate your heart with all the virtues, especially: humility, contrition, submission and rejection of your own will.

(Letter 377. Issue 3, p. 11)

Beware of straying into righteousness

Most of all, we need to be wary of deviations into righteousness. As soon as you start to dodge into it, know that you have started to walk crookedly. Then grab yourself by the feet and mercilessly drag yourself back into sin. Of course, a sense of righteousness and a sense of sinfulness. The Lord only accepts those who come to Him with a sense of sinfulness. From the one who comes to Him in a sense of righteousness, He turns away. He came to save sinners, not the righteous (See: Matt. 9:13). God will not despise a contrite and humble heartt (Ps. 50:19). The most evil thing is satiety. He’s full, he’s lounging around and puffing. Spiritually it happens.

Someone had the custom of asking: “When you go to prayer, are you going to receive a pension or to ask for alms?” A very clear question.

(Letter 261. Issue 2, pp. 102–103)

You need to confirm within yourself the idea of ​​your sinfulness.

Try to generate and confirm in yourself the thought of your worthlessness and sinfulness, which raises the wrath of God against you. And when you begin to pray, do not appear before the face of God otherwise than… sinful, worthless and angry. As soon as you perceive this state of yours, you will not be able to refrain from crying out: “O Lord, save me, O Lord, make good luck!”

Why does prayer go poorly? Because the need for God is not felt. “And we’ll manage all our affairs and needs ourselves?!” Pray that God will give you such feelings. You will be lost without them.

(Letter 967. Issue 6, p. 81)

Don’t measure yourself

You rightly do not give much weight to what happens to you. The beginnings… what else to do! And in general, there’s no point in being too busy with yourself. The Holy Fathers say: “Do not measure yourself.” The best measure for yourself: “There is nothing. Lord, let me make a good start! Lord, save me through destinies!” And drive away every thought about measuring yourself, and, forgetting what is behind, – just as if it did not exist – stretch yourself to what is before (Cf.: Phil. 3:13). The enemy encourages you to measure yourself in order to arouse conceit and ruin the whole thing. Always tell yourself: “There is nothing, there is nothing to measure.”

(Letter 256. Issue 2, p. 93)

You need to write down your thoughts

In an hour of meditation or while bowing, saving thoughts, or guiding, or explanatory thoughts will suddenly appear; you need to notice them – and write them down.

(Letter 1458. Issue 8, p. 197)

About thoughts born during prayer

You make notes: good. It occurred to me to ask you: do any thoughts come to you when reading or praying, good thoughts about the order of spiritual life? If they come, get a book or notebook and write them down the same way they come, not writing, but expressing only what came. One of the ascetics, I forget who, never missed them, but always wrote them down on the wall with charcoal. Write it down. Afterwards, you will sometimes run and thereby refresh good memories. I mean such thoughts that are born of themselves, occupy attention, and move the heart – good, edifying thoughts.

(Letter 730. Issue 4, p. 218)

You need to hide your spiritual work

If you can, hide your affairs in spiritual life as much as possible and do not reveal them in your eyes, in conversations, or in other relationships, but act simply. Just avoid idle chatter.

(Letter 488. Issue 3, p. 156)

About the same

Tears during prayer, both in church and at home, are beneficial. But there is no need to show them. These are Margaritas6 spiritual, but from display they fade and lose their shine and their value. But it is better to shed tears at home, and hide your tears in church, leaving a tearful mood in your heart, or a broken spirit and a contrite and humble heart (See: Ps. 50:19). Always try to have this.

(Letter 489. Issue 3, p. 159)

What is the main thing in prayer

Remember that the Lord is near

The main thing is to always try to remember that the Lord is near and sees everything, and behave accordingly, both externally and internally.

(Letter 487. Issue 3, p. 155)

Infancy in prayer

Infancy in prayer, as in the whole spiritual structure in general, is the best mood; and take care of it, and ask the Lord not to let you lose this feeling. Children come up to their father or mother and don’t say anything, they just hover around them – because it is sweet for them to be with them… Behave in such a way that in the simplicity of your heart you always hover around the Lord.

(Letter 256. Issue 2, p. 89)

Out of shape strength

Strength does not lie in form, but in the spirit of prayer. What you try to feel in prayer is the most useful thing for prayer. To feel like a condemned person at the hour of prayer – one of the fathers put prayers in the essence. Somewhere, I don’t remember, the question is written: “What is the best way to stand in prayer?” – and the answer: “Stand as at the Judgment, fixing your gaze on the mouth of the Lord, from which the final decision is ready to come to you: “Come” or “Depart”” (cf. Matthew 25:34,41). And cry out: “Lord, have mercy!” That’s what’s happening to you. It also seems to me that with a single Jesus Prayer you can fulfill all sorts of rules, just so that it is not only in word, but also in deed (in the mind and heart).

(Letter 1. Issue 1, p. 7)

About the skill of walking with God

Prayer is an internal matter. Everything that is done externally does not belong to the essence of the matter, but is an external situation. Everything that appears to be good from this appearance only seems good, but is not. Therefore, no attention should be paid to this.

It’s better to stop what you’re doing. The main thing you need to practice is the memory of God, or walking in the presence of God. Try to acquire the skill of always being aware and feeling that you are under the eye of God, penetrating the entire depth of your heart and seeing all your inner movements.

The Jesus Prayer is among the means to success in the skill of walking with God.

Everything you need to know about the production of this prayer is found in the book on invisible warfare7. Look there. The main thing here is to pay attention in your heart and cry out to the omnipresent Lord. It’s better to stand than sit. It’s better not to think about breathing, head position, etc. at all, but to pay all attention to the internal structure.

The root of a good inner order is the fear of God. It must be made non-waste. He will keep everything in tension and will not allow either members or thoughts to dissolve, creating a cheerful heart and a sober thought.

But we must always remember and feel that success in spiritual life and in all its manifestations is the fruit of God’s grace. Spiritual life is all from the Most Holy Spirit of God. We have our own spirit, but it is powerless. It comes into force when grace overshadows it.

(Letter 895. Issue 5, pp. 162–163)

Remember God

Let’s suppose that you came to a big person to ask him for something, and instead of asking, you walk around the rooms, look at what’s on the walls, stare out the windows and under… What will that face do, looking at you? – He will call the footman and order you to be escorted out without honor. We do exactly the same thing when, having gathered in church for prayer, we dream about extraneous things. Applying this to yourself, will you say that it’s nothing when you remember that you dreamed almost the entire service? And don’t disturb her [thoughts], let them bother you. Better yet, try to strain your attention in every possible way so that it does not wander away from prayer and service. And pray to the Lord about this, to help you.

So that the mind does not run away during prayer, we must try to remember God all the time: both at work, and while walking, and at home, and outside, and alone, and with sisters. When this happens, then during prayer you will adhere to the work being done. – Remember God and reverently ascend to Him.

(Letter 1442. Issue 8, pp. 172–173)

You must pay attention to the Lord in your heart

The essence of prayer is in the mental presence of the Lord with an invocation to Him, in the feeling of either thanksgiving, or glorification, or petition, or contrition, or fear, or hope, or some other feeling related to the Lord, so if there is no feeling for the Lord, then prayer is not prayer. When someone is feeling, he has no time to pay attention to the external position of both the whole body and its different parts – lips, tongue, fingers. – You must pay attention in your heart, but not before your heart, but before the Lord. If the Lord is not in your attention, then there is no prayer.

(Letter 899. Issue 5, pp. 169–170)

Take special care of your prayerful feelings

Is prayer in its proper place? Prayer always serves as an expression of our relationship to God. When prayer is good – warm, diligent, attentive – then our attitude towards God is good. Then everything is fine. Take the trouble to tighten up your prayer if it has become weak. When speaking in prayer, take special care of the prayerful feelings: faith, hope, thanksgiving, contrition, surrendering yourself to the will of God and all others.

When a prayerful feeling comes to you, dwell on it and warm it up while it lingers in your soul. Call another when one leaves. So all day long. This will be unceasing prayer. Sometimes the feeling comes naturally, and sometimes you need to summon it. How? The thought of God, or reflection on all the sacraments of faith, especially the economy of salvation – and the end of everything. Pass your thoughts on all these subjects more often – and one will certainly fall on your soul. That’s the feeling. God bless you!

(Letter 1025. Issue 6, pp. 177–178)

How to keep your thoughts and feelings turned to God

Morning prayer is intended for this purpose, to plant these two things [thought and feeling towards God] in the mind and heart. And then go out with them about your work and doing. If you bring this up in your soul in the morning, then you have prayed properly, although you will not read all the prayers.

Let’s assume that you set yourself up this morning and went to work. From the first step, impressions of deeds and things and persons will begin, distracting the soul from God. What should I do? We must renew our thoughts and feelings by turning our minds and hearts internally to God. And to make this more convenient, you need to get used to some short prayer and repeat it as often as possible. Every short prayer goes towards this. But the most beautiful prayer of all is to the Lord Savior: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me!” Work hard to get used to it and don’t lag behind until you get the hang of it. It, having taken root, will be a constant engine of standing before God with thoughts and feelings towards Him. Here is the whole prayer program for you!

(Letter 947. Issue 6, p. 21)

On the importance of attention to God

I can’t give you a rule. What’s the rule?! Do this one thing, and that’s it. Let me just add to this: very few things upset and weaken the effect of attention to God – remove them without pity. Do only what helps to retain and strengthen it. To this end, direct reading, meditation, and bowing.

Every type and every order of occupation is good as long as it contributes to this. There is no need to schedule classes. If one activity does not nourish prayer, you must leave it and take up another. For example, they unfolded the book and began to read – it didn’t work. Leave it, take another. If it doesn’t work, take the third one. If this one doesn’t come either, stop reading and bow down – or think. You must have handicrafts that do not distract your attention. The ancient Egyptians sat at their needlework all day long, not giving it up even when someone came. From time to time they only bowed. The main prayer was performed at night. One says: “Pray for two hours in the evening, then sleep for six hours, and then get up and pray until light.”

When attention to God is alive and prayer is going on internally, then it is better not to start doing anything (at home), but to sit, or walk, or, better yet, stand in front of icons and pray. When attention begins to weaken, warm it up by reading or thinking.

Rules are needed for those entering the monastery, so that they become accustomed to monastic activities or activities. Then, when they reach certain internal sensations and especially warmth of the heart, they don’t strictly need rules. In general, one should not be attached to the rules, but be free in relation to them, with one intention, no matter how reverent attention to God does not depart.

(Letter 1458. Issue 8, pp. 195–196)

The path to a state of prayer

Our relationship with God is all marked by prayer. The whole point, therefore, is in prayer. Lean on it.

Prayer is not just about standing in prayer. Keeping your mind and heart turned to God and aspiring is already prayer, no matter what situation one is in. The rule of prayer is in its own way, and this state of prayer is in its own way. The path to it is the habit of always remembering God and the last hour, with Judgment following it. Get it right, and everything will go well. This will be: dedicate every step inside to God. And steps must be directed according to the commandments. You know the commandments. That’s it! Each case can be brought under a commandment and one’s action in it can be internally dedicated to God. In this way, your whole life will be dedicated to God. What else is required? Nothing. See how simple it is.

(Letter 255. Issue 2, p. 84)

How to ascend to God with thoughts

We started praying short prayers and gave up. If they had not abandoned it, the matter would have gone far; and now it’s time to start again. Real prayer is that which comes straight from the heart and ascends to God. And no other prayer is a prayer if it is not like that. This is what our entire concern should be in the matter of prayer. But usually our mind is cluttered with many non-Divine thoughts, our will with many worldly worries, our heart with sympathies and earthly pleasures; why is it that immediately ascending to God is the same for us as climbing out of a quagmire. – Small prayers are a very suitable means or aid for this. They train the mind to stick to one thing; Little by little they win sympathy over to their side and distract them from their worries. This effect is stronger and more likely to manifest itself, if not only on the rule, but also at other hours – watch them with attention. – The final fruit is the formation of a feeling for God, which is inseparable from unceasing prayer, or is one and the same with it. – Here there is a living union with God – the goal of spiritual life.

“Right from sleep there is a rapid influx of thoughts, and deeds, and sympathies.” We must destroy this and acquire the skill of dedicating our first thoughts to God. This is produced by the thought of God. This seems to be what was discussed. Namely, according to the Creed, one must go through all the holy truths until the Universal Judgment and the decision of the fate of all.

If you please follow these two techniques, and it will be good. Add only to this – to evade evil and do good in word, deed and thought. And the whole program is here.

Write on a piece of paper and read it often: when you wake up – thoughts of God; then short prayers with attention and feeling, and throughout the day: turn away from evil and do good (Cf.: Ps. 33:15.). Do every task – even the smallest – in the best way, as before the eye of God.

(Letter 192. Issue 1, pp. 235–236)

Learn to walk in the presence of God

We have the Lord the Savior, the All-Merciful, always ready to help. Turn the eyes of your mind and heart to Him. Can’t go to church? Pray at home.

Learn to walk in the presence of God, that is, to constantly remember the omnipresent and all-seeing God, and to behave in thoughts, feelings and deeds as it should be in the eyes of God. And keep this one occupation until your consciousness merges with the thought of God. If you succeed in this, then you will not need any outside instructions. The fear of God will come and everything will begin to be arranged.

Read the Gospel and the Epistles of the Apostles, a little every day, with reflection and application to yourself.

Conduct yourself strictly; be merciful to others and humble yourself before everyone. Never offend, and when you are offended, thank. Do not judge anyone, consider everyone a saint, and consider yourself alone a sinner.

(Letter 374. Issue 3, p. 8)

Acquire the skill of constantly standing before the Lord

As much as I see, your soul finds no peace. Why doesn’t she find peace while working for the Lord, Who is our peace?! This seems like something you need to decide. When the soul is restless in the world, it is natural: the world cannot satisfy the spirit. And when someone begins to work for the Lord, he should have tasted peace right away, even if not completely. And you are restless, and, chai, you have long since embarked on this path. So, if you please, delve into yourself and solve this. No one else will solve this.

You wrote that you stand up for prayer, begin to say the Jesus Prayer, and then give up, considering yourself unworthy to stand wisely before the Lord. I don’t understand what’s going on here. It is necessary not only when we stand in prayer, but always to walk before the Lord as if looking into His eyes or being under His eyes. Because that’s how it is. And how about you… As soon as your thought comes before the Lord, you run away.

If the Lord forbade appearing before Him, of course, there would be something useful in your action; but when the Lord Himself draws near (See: Lamentations 3:57), requires everyone to draw closer to Him (See: James 4:8), then what is the point in your action? This is the second time you write. Please give up this, and try to acquire the skill of constantly standing before the Lord. How you wake up, before you fall asleep and all the time with fear and trembling and with all attention to both yourself and the Lord.

(Letter 774. Issue 5, pp. 33–34)

The work of remembering God

God Himself instills the memory of God into the soul. But for this, the soul must sweat and work for itself. Work hard, forcing yourself to constantly remember God. And God, seeing how earnestly you desire this, will give you a memory of Himself. Short prayers are very useful in our own work on remembering God. Prayers – whatever you want: “Lord, have mercy! – Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me! “Jesus, Son of God, have mercy on me!” and others. Anything goes. Whichever one you like best, use it.

(Letter 955. Issue 6, pp. 47–49)

The main thing in prayer is feeling towards God

The prayer that you perform – internally, from the soul, from yourself, according to your sense of your spiritual needs and others – is real prayer. And please continue to work in this kind of prayer more than any other. The main thing in prayer is feeling towards God from the heart. Prayer words for this – whatever ones you choose. Feeling towards God even without words is prayer. The word supports and sometimes deepens the feeling.

(Letter 516. Issue 3, p. 205)

About inner fire

Your first word about the light is what it is. – Answer. When God gives, then you will know. Without tasting the sweetness of honey, you cannot know what kind of sweetness it is. So it is here! This is revealed by a constant feeling for God.

With a burning glass, you explained well how the inner fire is ignited. So do it.

How to stand before the Lord with your mind and heart? – Just as you stand before the Emperor, so you must here. The prophet says: I will foresee the Lord before me, as he is at my right hand and so on (Ps. 15:8). This vision appears in its present form after receiving the fire.

It is not contrary to God to ask for this gift. That for some this matter ended badly, it is not grace that is to blame, but the one who received and did not keep.

You ask: “Isn’t it like a light when you stand in prayer with reverence and a feeling of your insignificance?” – It is connected with the light; but with him it does not waste. The light comes without discretion. And almost always through the Sacraments of Confession and Holy Communion.

(Letter 913. Issue 5, p. 193)

About the burning of the heart to the Lord

If your heart warms up when reading ordinary prayers, then in this way kindle the warmth of your heart towards God. The Jesus Prayer, if done mechanically, gives nothing, like any other prayer that is only spoken with the tongue.

During the Jesus Prayer, try to think more vividly that the Lord Himself is nearby, standing before your soul, and listening to what is happening in it. At the same time, awaken in your soul a thirst for salvation and the confidence that, except for the Lord, we have nowhere to expect salvation from. Then cry out to Him, mentally visible before you: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner,” or: “Merciful Lord, save me in the same way as fate.” It’s not a matter of words at all, but of feelings for the Lord.

The spiritual burning of the heart towards the Lord is love for Him. It lights up at the touch of the Lord on the heart. Since He is all love (1 John 4:8, 16), His touch on the heart immediately kindles love for Him. And from love – the burning of the heart towards Him. This is what you should be looking for. The creation of the Jesus Prayer is only a tool for this, or, better, only a work that shows the strong desire of the soul to find the Lord.

Let there be the Jesus Prayer on your tongue, in your mind – contemplation of the Lord before you, in your heart – a thirst for God, or for communication with the Lord. When all this is constant, then the Lord, seeing how you force yourself, will give you what you ask for.

Please understand all this, and take it as a guide, and read it often in order to refresh your memory of how you should act.

(Letter 339. Issue 2, pp. 208–209; Letter 1338. Issue 8, pp. 93–94)

About reverence and fear of God

This brother said that he did not even understand what kind of reverence and fear of God this was. This is very bad. Who can stand before the king without fear?! And especially before God?! In Kyiv, in the Lavra, there was a brother who used to say: “Look, don’t become a friend with God.” Is this not the problem with that brother? It is not surprising when for him the fruit of prayer is determined only by warmth and sweetness. This is spiritual voluptuousness. The main thing is the fear of God and the spirit is crushed. Warmth and sweetness are good in spiritual matters, but they should not determine the price of spiritual works.

(Letter 902. Issue 5, p. 176)

Never approach God haphazardly

When things do not allow you to fully fulfill the prayer rule, then perform it abbreviated. And you should never rush. God is everywhere. Say thanks to Him in the morning and ask for a blessing in your own words, a few bows – and that’s enough! Never approach God haphazardly. And always with great reverence. He does not need our bows or our verbose prayers. A cry from the heart is short and strong – that’s what’s profitable! And this can be done casually. And therefore, pray unceasingly. Take care of this and direct everything here.

They asked Saint Epiphanius: “How should we set the clock?” Watch?! There are no special hours for prayer: it must be all-hourly and all-minute. They asked Saint Basil the Great: “How to pray unceasingly?” He answered: “Have a prayerful disposition in your heart, and you will pray unceasingly. Work with your hands, and lift your mind to God.” The apostles walked around the whole earth, how much work?! Meanwhile, they prayed incessantly. And they wrote this commandment. The spirit of faith, trust and devotion to the will of God – this is what needs to be warmed in the heart.

(Letter 250. Issue 2, pp. 78–79)

A test of every prayer

As for your internal state, I don’t see anything improper in it. That there is sweetness and warmth, and a desire to get away from everything, and fear of what might interrupt such a state, all this is in the order of things. Are you afraid of falling into spiritual lust? How will it get here?! After all, prayer is not done for sweetness, but because it is a duty to serve God in this way; sweetness is a necessary accessory to true service. In addition, the main thing in prayer is to stand before God with the mind in the heart with reverence and fear, which sobers up and drives away all whims and implants pain in the heart before God. These feelings: fear of God and pain, or a broken and humble heart (Ps. 50:19), these are the main features of real inner prayer and the test of any prayer, by which we must judge whether our prayer is proceeding in the proper order or not. When they are there, prayer is in order. When they are not there, it is not in order, and it is necessary to insert it into your rank. In their absence, sweetness and warmth can give rise to conceit, and this is spiritual pride, and this will be a destructive delusion. Then the sweetness and warmth will go away; 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 painful falling towards God, always walking in the presence of God. This is the main thing!

(Letter 291. Issue 2, pp. 145–146)

What to look for in prayer

What one should seek through prayer is the planting in the heart of a quiet but warm feeling for God that does not go away; not to seek delight and special movements, and when God sends special prayerful feelings, to thank for them, and not to appropriate them to oneself, and not to regret when they leave, as if about some great loss, but always humbly descend from them to a quiet feeling for the Lord.

(Letter 929. Issue 5, p. 216)

The main thing in prayer is the emergence of reverent feelings

Standing in front of an icon and bowing down is not yet prayer, but only an accessory to prayer; reading prayers – from memory or from a book, or listening to them – is not yet prayer, but only an instrument of prayer or a way of discovering and inciting it. Prayer itself is the emergence in our hearts of one after another reverent feelings for God; feelings of self-abasement, devotion, thanksgiving, glorification, petition, contrition, submission to the will of God, diligent prostration and the like.

All our concern here should be that during our prayer these and similar feelings fill our soul – so that the heart is not empty. When he has all these feelings or any one of them directed towards God, then our prayer is prayer, and when not, it is not yet prayer.

(Letter 227. Issue 2, pp. 33–34)

About prayer with feeling

That when you pray, you try to delve into every word and say the prayer with feeling – this is the essence of prayer, and force yourself to always do this. But when you pray with feeling, where is your attention if not in your heart? A feeling always attracts attention. There is a busy market in my head. You can’t pray to God there.

That sometimes prayer goes well by itself is a good sign. This means that she has begun to graft herself onto the heart. Keep your heart from attachments, try to remember God, acting in vain before you and in His presence, help the poor and needy – and your prayer will soon take wing. That it disappears and leaves a cold – regret it. Contrite and pray to God and the Lady Theotokos, may they not allow your warm prayer to fade away.

Real prayer is a gift from God! And pray about this. The cooling of the heart is preceded by clinging to something, preoccupation with something, anger and condemnation, discontent and some kind of pleasing to the flesh, sybaritism and distraction of thoughts! Take care of this, and there will be less cooling. Bless, Lord, your efforts on yourself!

Heart! Where is life if not in the heart?

(Letter 602. Issue 4, pp. 78–79)

We need to develop heartfelt prayer

Prayer from the heart is never premature. She is the beginning of the matter. By establishing it in the heart, God’s work will be accomplished. It must be developed without sparing labor. God, seeing the work, gives what is sought. Real prayer is not homemade: it is a gift from God. Seek and you will find (Matthew 7:7).

The fact that you did not use an artistic method of instilling prayer is no harm. That method is not inevitable: it is possible without it. It is not the position of the body that is important, but the internal structure. The whole point is: to stand with attention in the heart and look or cry out to God. I have not yet met anyone who would approve of that artistic technique. His Eminence Ignatius and Father Macarius of Optina also do not approve of him.

That you have repentant feelings in prayer and tears is a real thing. Without repentant feelings, prayer is not prayer. So write her as if she were not an ex. Prayer without these feelings is the same as a dead miscarriage. So do the holy fathers. And blow away your tears. Get used to howling over yourself as if over a dead person, and with lamentations. For the main thought or place where one should keep oneself mentally is the hour of Judgment, or that moment when God is ready to say: “Come” or “Depart!” Oh Lord, save me! And how not to cry, unable to say affirmatively that He will not say: “Go away”?

(Letter 256. Issue 2, pp. 93–94)

How to train your soul to turn to God often

Having become accustomed with your mind and heart to turn to God with outside help – according to prayer books, you must then make experiments and your own ascension to God – to reach the point where the soul itself, so to speak, with its own speech, enters into a prayerful conversation with God, itself ascends to Him and reveals itself to Him and confesses what is in it and what it desires. And the soul must be taught this. What should one do to succeed in this science?

And the skill of praying according to prayer books with reverence, attention and feeling leads to the same thing; for from the heart, filled with holy feelings through prayer, its own prayer to God will begin to flow out of itself. But there are also special rules for this that lead to proper success in prayer.

The first way of teaching the soul to frequently turn to God is contemplation of God, or reverent reflection on the Divine properties and actions: reflection on the goodness of God, justice, wisdom, omnipotence, omnipresence, omniscience, – on creation and providence, on the arrangement of salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ, – on the grace and word of God, on the Saints Sacraments, about the Kingdom of Heaven. Whichever of these objects you begin to reflect on, this reflection will certainly fill the soul with a reverent feeling for God: it directly directs the whole being of a person to God and therefore is the most direct means of accustoming the soul to ascend to God. Having finished your prayer, especially in the morning, sit down and begin to think – now about one thing, tomorrow about another of God’s properties and actions – and create a disposition in your soul corresponding to this. Speak to Saint Demetrius of Rostov: “Go, holy thought of God, and let us immerse ourselves in meditation on the great deeds of God,” – thereby touch your heart, and you will begin to pour out your soul in prayer. There is little labor, but much fruit. All you need is desire and determination. For example, begin to reflect on the goodness of God – you will see that you are surrounded by God’s mercies both physically and spiritually – and you will fall before God in an outpouring of feelings of gratitude; begin to reflect on the omnipresence of God – you will understand that you are everywhere before God and God is before you – and you cannot help but be filled with reverent fear; begin to reason about the truth of God – you will be sure that not a single bad deed will go unpunished – and you will certainly decide to cleanse all your sins by heartfelt contrition before God and repentance; begin to reflect on the omniscience of God – you will realize that nothing in you is hidden from the eye of God – and you will certainly decide to be strict with yourself and attentive in everything, so as not to somehow offend the all-seeing God.

The second way of teaching the soul to frequently turn to God is to turn every deed – big and small – to the glory of God. For if we make it a rule, according to the commandment of the Apostle8, to do everything, even eat and drink, for the glory of God, then we will certainly – in every deed – remember God, and we will remember not simply, but with fear: lest in some case we act wrongly and offend God in some way. This will force you to turn to God with fear and prayerfully ask for help and admonition. And since we are almost constantly doing something, we will almost constantly turn to God in prayer; and, therefore, we will almost constantly go through the science of prayerful lifting up to God in the soul. In this way we will teach the soul to turn to God as often as possible throughout the day.

The third way of teaching the soul to frequently turn to God is to frequently, throughout the day, cry out from the heart to God in short words, judging by the needs of the soul and current affairs. When you start something, say: “Lord, bless!” When you finish the job, say not only with your tongue, but also with the feeling of your heart: “Glory to Thee, Lord!” What passion will rise – say: “Save, Lord, I am perishing!” The darkness of confusing thoughts finds itself – cry out: “Bring my soul out of prison!” Wrong deeds lie ahead and sin leads to them – pray: “Guide me, Lord, on the path,” or: “Do not let my feet become troubled.” Sins suppress and lead to despair – cry out in the publican’s voice: “God, be merciful to me, a sinner.” So anyway. Or just say more often: “Lord, have mercy! Lady Theotokos, save me! Angel of God, my holy guardian, protect me!” Or in some other word, cry out. Just – as often as possible – make these appeals more often, trying in every possible way so that they come out of the heart, as if squeezed out of it. When we do this, we will make frequent mental ascents from the heart to God, – frequent appeals to God, – frequent prayer; and this practice will give us the skill of intelligent conversation with God.

So, in addition to the prayer rule – to teach the soul to ascend to God in prayer, there are three more ways to introduce one into the spirit of prayer. This is: devoting some time in the morning to contemplation of God, – turning every matter to the glory of God, and – often turning to God with short appeals. When the thought of God is well done in the morning, it will leave a deep mood for thinking about God. Thinking about God will force the soul to carefully carry out every action – both internal and external – and turn it into the glory of God; and both will put the soul in such a position that short prayerful appeals to God will often come out of it. These three: thinking about God, creating everything for the glory of God, and frequent appeals are the most effective tools of mental and heartfelt prayer. Each of them lifts the soul to God. Anyone who sets out to practice them will soon acquire the skill of establishing ascension in his heart to God. Having been torn away from the earth, the soul will enter its own region and will sweetly dwell in grief – here heartily and mentally, and there – and will essentially be honored to dwell before the face of God.

(Letter 227. Issue 2. pp. 37–40)

Thought on God or the Jesus Prayer

Thought on God can be replaced by the Jesus Prayer, but what is the need for this? They are one and the same essence. Thought of God is in thought the holding of some truth: the incarnation, death on the Cross, Resurrection, omnipresence, etc., without any direction of thought.

(Letter 113. Issue 1, p. 114)

About the work of prayer

Force yourself to pray

It was a law among the holy fathers: to force yourself to pray – at home, in church, and while doing business, and on walks, and during times free from everything. That’s all you need to know about prayer.

(Letter 915. Issue 5, p. 196)

If prayer doesn’t work

What to do when prayer doesn’t come to mind? If this is home prayer, then you can postpone it a little – for a few minutes. If it doesn’t happen after that, force yourself to fulfill the prayer rule forcibly, straining to both understand what is being said and feel it. It is similar to how when a child does not want to bow, they take him by the forelock and bend him over.

(Letter 113. Issue 1, p. 112)

Pray more often and more diligently

You have a disposition to pray… Thank the Lord. And please satisfy yourself to the best of your ability and beyond your strength – both in church and in your cell.

Would you like to learn how to pray… Pray more often and more diligently – and you will learn. Nothing else is required. If you work patiently, then over time you will develop unceasing prayer. Set yourself this as the goal of your search and search. The Lord is near. Have the memory of God and always try to keep the Lord before you and keep yourself in reverence before Him.

(Letter 496. Issue 3, p. 168)

Force yourself to stand before God

Any kind of science is cool. Even theological science is not excluded from this, although here the subject, chilling the way the subject is interpreted, may sometimes and accidentally fall on the heart by the subject itself. Science is of a spiritual nature, and prayer is of a spiritual nature. That’s why they are at odds. And there’s nothing to say about everyday matters, especially those who, unfortunately, have a caring disposition.

Can’t you set aside at least half an hour in the morning and evening for detached contemplation and prayer? Force yourself to stand before God without distraction, even without reading prayers, but with one cry: “Merciful Lord, have mercy on my soul!” And it’s good to bow. May the Lord make you wise!

(Letter 277. Issue 2, p. 130)

About ruthlessness towards oneself and complete surrender to God

Please keep in mind that the teacher of all good is the Lord, our Savior. If you surrender yourself wholeheartedly to the Lord, then He Himself will teach, or through the Guardian Angel, all Christian science.

Compassion for oneself, readiness for any service to others and surrendering oneself entirely to the Lord with a prayerful abiding in Him – these are the producers of spiritual life.

(Letter 1458. Issue 8, pp. 197–198)

Try to create a sore in your heart

A prayer that is not collected and the soul is cold should not have a limit or end. Like the fallen, we have grown cold, and we need to rub ourselves for a long time to warm ourselves up. Labor is therefore inevitable. And if it continues constantly and wisely, then it is always crowned with success, not from us, but from the mercy of God, of which there is no end.

Whether the Jesus Prayer or some other short prayer is a good thing if it sticks on the tongue. Just make sure to pay attention not in your head, but in your heart, and be there not only while standing in prayer, but at all times. Try to create some kind of sore in your heart… Constant work will soon do this. There’s nothing special here. This is a natural thing (that a sore will seem painful). But this will also make you more focused. And the main thing is that the Lord, seeing the work, grants help and His grace-filled prayer. Then things will come to their own hearts.

(Letter 326. Issue 2, pp. 198–199; Letter 1233. Issue 8, p. 14)

You need to pray for a long time

“I don’t know how to pray for a long time.” – But how did the apostle command: Pray without ceasing (1 Thess. 5:17)?!

The memory of God with the fear of God, the love of God with hope and devotion to the will of God constitute the inner religious life. Whoever has it in motion is always with God. And he is not bored by praying for a long, long time. – You have the germ of this in the way you, in every case, turn to God for help and then give thanks. Develop this – wider and wider.

(Letter 957. Issue 6, p. 56)

If you are tired in the evening

How can you be bored with the Lord? And how can one even desire any entertainment?

And don’t pray. It means they became angry with the Lord, or self-satisfaction took over. Full! – And you don’t want to ask.

When you get tired in the evening, start praying on your knees or even sitting, then standing. And everyone needs to pray. Thank the Lord for the day, ask for good night, repent of the bad.

(Letter 1269. Issue 8, p. 38)

How to learn to pray

They wanted to learn mental prayer. Good! What kind of prayer did you have before?! Prayer is essentially a mental action – and if you didn’t pray smartly, then you didn’t pray at all. “And I’ll tell you that there is no one who doesn’t pray intelligently.” Everyone is praying smartly. When everyone prays, they mentally imagine God as present and express their needs to Him. Even though they read prayers, everyone tries to mentally ascend to God. If anything should be said, it is that they do this imperfectly, not continuously, even during prayer, and most importantly – without feelings. Thus, your desire will be: how to achieve perfection in prayer – raised intelligently to God? The answer to this is: seek and you will find (Matthew 7:7).

How did you learn to write?! The labor of writing with the desire to write correctly according to samples. Do the same in prayer and you will learn. She won’t come on her own; need to study.

First. Learn to walk in the presence of God, before the eyes of God with the corresponding feelings.

Second. As soon as you have freedom, bow down in feelings of contrition and humility.

Third. Read books all about prayer – and think about it.

Fourth. Above all, try with all your might to conduct church services in the memory of God, and then do the home rule.

You need to rub your soul and it will warm you up. When the warmth comes, then the thoughts will subside, and the prayer will become pure.

Still by the grace of God. That’s why we need to pray to the Lord to give us prayer.

(Letter 311. Issue 2, pp. 174–175; Letter 1457. Issue 8, pp. 194–195)

It is necessary to bother the Lord

But behind all of them there is one sin: they will make a bow or two, and give them what they want, take it out and put it in. If it is not given according to their desire, they raise a murmur and blaspheme God’s providence. So they don’t get anything. This – take it out and put it down – means commanding God. It doesn’t need to be like this, but like this: “Lord, You see that I need this and that, that this and that weighs on me. Help me and arrange me as Your holy will pleases, and not as my will desires!”

Having set yourself up in this way, you need to pray for a long time – not for a long time at a time, but for a long time over time: now, tomorrow, a week, a month, a year. Everyone is screaming and shouting: “Lord, deliver me! Lord help me! However, not mine, but Your will be done!” Thus the Lord spoke in the Garden of Gethsemane (See: Matt. 26:39), and the widow in the parable pestered the judge – and received what she asked for (See: Luke 18:1-8). The saints have this word: “We must bother the Lord and His saints.”

(Letter 1428. Issue 8, pp. 163–164)

Continuous Prayer is a Gift of Grace

But there is unceasing prayer, which constantly comes to God from the heart. This is a gift of grace. Saint Macarius the Great says: “Pray and strain yourself in prayer, and God, seeing how earnestly you desire to pray, will give prayer.”9 In the Slavic Philokalia, Elder Maxim Kapsokalivit says about himself that for two years he prayed to the Mother of God that She would give or ask for prayer. “One day,” he says, “as I prayed and venerated the icon of the Mother of God, a sweet light instantly sank into my heart and has been glowing there ever since.”10 This is the gift of prayer! Seek it, too, and express it in words in prayer, keeping in mind the prayer that Maximus speaks of. Sometimes it happens that this light falls during the permission of the priest during confession, sometimes during communion of the Holy Mysteries of Christ. Look everywhere. Keep your prayer work as it is, trying in every possible way to warm up your feelings towards God.

(Letter 516. Issue 3, pp. 205–206)

A clear conscience and work are needed

Why are you whining?! Everything is in order in your prayer order: there is nothing to add. Keep it as usual and wait for God’s mercy. In-depth prayer, unceasing prayer and other manifestations of prayerful grace are all from grace. Ours is feasible, but diligent and constant work. The prayer sought is grace. The time will come, and it will be given. You just need to not be lazy, search diligently and use everything possible. But the main thing is a clear conscience. For the grace of prayer is the grace of sincere communication with God. Nothing unclean can come into fellowship with God. So, having prepared and worked as you work, wait – and it will come. And when? When it comes, then it will come.

I guess that you don’t have Macarius the Great. Get it. He will be very helpful to you in explaining the point that everything is from God, but according to our labors. Without work, nothing will happen. And work alone is nothing. Both are needed. This is the same as air and lungs. Move your lungs and air will come in. Stop it and it won’t go in.

(Letter 775. Issue 5, p. 35)

About bows, attention and church services

“Should I define myself by the number of prayers and bows or should I be more concerned about attention?” Without attention, prayer is not prayer. Therefore, this is the main thing. But at the same time, it is necessary to determine the number of prayers and bows as a rule. This is for home prayer. The best way to succeed in prayer is to go to church for all services and try to be in reverent prayer there. Look in the Slavic “Philokalia” at the legend about Maxim Kapsokalivite and imitate him. When you receive what he received, then you will have a real prayer. “Lying on your side won’t gain anything.”

(Letter 898. Issue 5, pp. 168–169)

Prayer is never wasted

Prayer is never wasted, whether the Lord grants the request or not. Out of ignorance, we often ask for unhelpful and harmful things. Without doing this, God will give us something else for our prayer work, unbeknownst to us. That’s why the speech: “So you pray to God, but what did you get?” – clueless. The person praying asks for a benefit for himself, pointing to it. Seeing that what is asked will not lead to good, God does not fulfill the request and thereby creates good: for if he had fulfilled it, it would have been bad for the petitioner.

Beware how dangerously you walk (Cf. Eph. 5:15) in the midst of this evil age!

(Letter 1406. Issue 8, p. 146)

The main thing is not to be lazy and always pray from the heart

For this reason, solve all your questions about prayer as you wish. Just ask that you not be lazy and that prayer always come from the heart.

(Letter 917. Issue 5, p. 199)

About attention

To succeed in prayer you must pay attention to yourself

We must establish faith that God sees and hears everything and knows all our secrets. Why do you need to pay attention to yourself and tear away all the bad things11, and as soon as it comes through in thoughts or feelings, immediately spew it out, and immediately repent and ask for forgiveness.

(Letter 377. Issue 3, p. 11)

Extraneous thoughts must be driven away. Your prayer rule is good. Just try to always pray from your heart; for the heart, this is the law: God will not despise a contrite and humble heart (Ps. 50:19).

The integrity of your prayer is disrupted by your thoughts. Did you notice?! Now try to fix it. The first step towards this is – when starting to pray, arouse in yourself: the fear of God and reverence; then become attention in the heart and from there cry out to the Lord.

And extraneous thoughts will creep in; As soon as you notice, drive away. They will climb again, drive again. And so it is. Don’t let your tongue read the prayer, and don’t let your thoughts wander around, always drive them away and pray.

We must work and pray to the Lord to help us cope with our thoughts. Do you have a collection of fatherly lessons on prayer? 12 Read and delve into it, apply it to yourself. Work unceasingly on this, and God, seeing your work, will give you what you seek. Work hard, but don’t think of succeeding in anything without special help from God. Call on her more often.

(Letter 488. Issue 3, pp. 155–156,157)

About the same

When I pray, thoughts come up – I need to drive them away, they come up again – I need to drive them away again, and so on. Just don’t indulge him, but when you notice him, drive him away. This is the feat of sobriety. Work to ensure that your heart is in some kind of religious feeling: when the heart is in feeling, thoughts do not bother you and everything goes around feelings.

(Letter 489. Issue 3, p. 159)

Always try to pray well

That sometimes an unkind thought flies through your head is an arrow from the enemy. The enemy uses it when he wants to distract attention from prayer and occupy it with something undivine. If your attention stops over this thought, then the enemy will fly up and begin to build different stories in your head in order to desecrate the soul and kindle some bad, passionate feelings. There is only one law here – quickly turn your attention from the bad to the good and stop there.

Nothing is hidden from God, He sees everything. And he hears every prayer, but fulfills it not according to our desire, but as it saves us. Pray more and always try to pray well, and learn to pray.

(Letter 472. Issue 3, p. 116)

The mind should be kept in the heart

That the mind runs away is wrong. It should be held and agreed with the heart, or enclosed in the heart. Pay attention to this in your heart and, without starting from there, pray there to the Lord in whatever word you want, albeit without words, with one appeal to God – contrite and humble. So stay there without proceeding. When there is this movement in your heart and you are alone, leave everything and pray, sitting or standing, just pray intensely there in your heart. So until the feeling evaporates. This is what someone wrote, it seems, Climacus 13. And if this happens in front of others, then you still need to pray, but you shouldn’t show prayer.

Know that attention should never leave the heart. But sometimes a matter in the heart is only intelligent – done with the mind, and sometimes also heartfelt, that is, both begun and continued with a warm feeling. This is the law not of hermits alone, but of all who must stand before God with a pure heart and work before Him, that is, all Christians. The mind gets tired of saying the word of prayer. Then pray without words – thus throwing yourself before the Lord mentally in your heart and surrendering yourself to Him. This will be the prayer itself, the word is only its expression, and it is always weaker than the prayer itself before God.

(Letter 256. Issue 2, p. 92)

We need to return attention

Should I continue to say a prayer when my attention has moved away? – You need to turn your attention back – and continue with attention. There is no need to stop it. But the new rule will save you from distraction, because everything will provide a new prayer thought and maintain attention. If this doesn’t help, it will mean that you don’t want to save your soul at all and don’t want to force your soul to do anything. The Kingdom of God is received only by those who force themselves (cf. Matthew 11:12).

(Letter 967. Issue 6, p. 83)

Pay attention to the words of the prayer

To pray with the thought of what the words of the prayer say is still prayer, only while limping on one leg. Prayer ceases to be prayer when attention moves away from the words of the prayer. When there is consciousness during prayer, it is prayer, even if it is unsatisfactory. The feeling will come, but you also have to strain yourself for it. It is better to do this by thinking about the content of prayers not during prayer, and then stir your heart during prayer. It’s better to pray to God Himself for this, so that he always warms the heart.

Also do this: when the whole series of truths has passed, stop at the last point – the Court and the decision of the Court – waiting for the saying: “Come” or “Depart.” And in this situation cry out: “Lord, have mercy!” For as the Lord decides, there is no one to change him.

(Letter 615. Issue 4, p. 89)

Purpose of short prayers

If you don’t know how to cope with a short prayer, that’s okay. It will come with time. Your frequent appeals to God during the day, during every task and after work, are a very good thing. – This is part of the general rule – to walk with God. Short prayers have the same purpose. They express with the sacred word what you express with yours. – Another highest purpose of a short prayer is to deepen thoughts and feelings towards God. The fact that you have these appeals is scattered at the first impression; Moreover, despite the appeals, thoughts are milling around in my head like mosquitoes. To stop this crush, one must bind the mind with one thought, or the thought of the One. A guide to this is a short prayer. With its help the mind is simplified, unified and instills or develops a feeling for God.

When this feeling comes, the soul will be confirmed in consciousness in God and will begin to do everything in God’s way. With a short prayer, one must keep the thought of God and attention to Him. And limit yourself to just words – ringing brass (Cf.: 1 Cor. 13: 1).

(Letter 957. Issue 6, pp. 55–56)

About bowing and absent-mindedness

You have to work hard on the prayer rule. In the monastery of St. Sava14 for each Jesus prayer they bow from the waist, and after every ten – to the ground. You can do the same. But, it seems, it is possible to say a certain number of prayers while standing, without bowing. This is in the rule of Father Seraphim15. How, however, apply it.

You just need to bother yourself, at least in moderation. Otherwise, a small benefit will lead to a big one, and everything can be ruined. When you become a rule, but your head is scattered so that you can’t cope with it, you need to force it to order, first with some calming thoughts; for this means that fear has disappeared and the soul has become indomitable. If this does not help, take up reading some prayers and read with attention until your mind gathers itself. When he is in order, then begin bowing. He who bows with his head distracted is a cane shaken by the wind. However, this blessed work itself will teach you how to act in which case.

(Letter 729. Issue 4, pp. 216–217)

Never read prayers hastily

Are you going to read the rule? Good! When fulfilling your rule, have in mind not only to subtract everything that is required, but to arouse and strengthen the prayer movement in your soul. For this to work,

1) never read hastily, but read as if in a chant, almost like that. In ancient times, all prayers read were taken from the psalms. But nowhere do I see the word “read”, but everywhere: “sing”;

2) Delve into every word and not only reproduce the thought of what you read in your mind, but also arouse the corresponding feeling;

3) To trigger the urge to hastily read, do not “read this and that,” but stand for the reading prayer – a quarter of an hour, half an hour, an hour, as long as you usually stand, and then don’t worry about how many prayers you read – but how the time has come; if you don’t want to stand any further, stop reading;

4) Having put this on the clock, however, do not look, but stand in such a way that you can stand endlessly: your thought will not run ahead;

5) To promote the movement of prayerful feelings, in your free time, re-read and rethink all the prayers that are included in your rule – and feel them, so that when you begin to read them according to the rule, you will know in advance what feeling should be aroused in the heart;

6) Never read prayers without interruption, but always interrupt them with a personal prayer with bows, whether in the middle of the prayers or at the end. As soon as something comes to your heart, immediately stop reading and bow. This last rule is the most necessary and most necessary for cultivating the spirit of prayer. If sometimes some feeling becomes very overwhelming, you be with it and bow down, and stop reading – so until the very end of the allotted time.

Do not say prayers only in the morning and in the evening, but also during the day, often make several bows without setting hours.

Do what is indicated in points 5 and 6 in advance for morning and night prayers only. Perhaps there will be no need to read anything else anymore.

(Letter 773. Issue 5, pp. 31–33)

Say your prayers slowly

Never pronounce prayers hastily, but not in a hurry, with thoughts and feelings that are expressed in the prayers being read. Before starting prayer, always prepare a little, collecting your thoughts and trying to place your attention before the Lord, to whom you are beginning to pray. The main disposition is prayerful, let it be repentant, for we all sin a lot. The spirit is broken, God will not despise a contrite and humble heart (Cf.: Ps. 50:19). According to every rule, pray for your sins, in which you sin.

(Letter 377. Issue 3, p. 11)

Make it a law not to rush

Your conscience is disturbed by hasty prayers. And righteously. Why are you listening to the enemy? It is the enemy who is driving you: “Hurry, hurry.” As a result, you don’t feel any fruit from prayer. But make it a law not to rush, but to pronounce prayers in such a way that not a single word is pronounced without consciousness of meaning and, if possible, feeling. Take on this work with the determination of a commander-in-chief, so that no objections to this are generated at all. The enemy inspires: “We need this and we need something else,” and you answer: “I know without you, go away.” See how the prayer goes. Otherwise, you only have a prayer book, but no prayer. Prayer alone nourishes the soul. So you feel unsatisfied.

Check the clock to see how much time will pass if you don’t rush, and you will see that it’s a few minutes. And what is the damage from haste?!!

(Letter 763. Issue 5, p. 16)

Attention must go to the heart

How nice it was to read that the emptiness of your soul pulled you to prayer, and you turned to the best one – the Jesus Prayer, and began to do it with such success. May God bless you to succeed in it, and, moreover, in such a way that nothing can distract you from it.

You ask what you need. The way you create it is so good. Remember and do so. Let me remind you one thing: you need to pay attention to descend into your heart and stand there before the face of the Lord, who is omnipresent – both in you, and all-seeing – and you. This is how you thought: woe – to the Throne of God, and down – to yourself, a sinner.

Standing before the face of the Lord, do not allow other thoughts, but only contemplate the Lord with the feelings due to Him, what He sees, hears, is ready to heed and fulfill. Do not leave the word without thinking about the Lord and what He is for us, but have simple thoughts: that He is near, keeps, holds, teaches, guides.

When you start, then certain needs regarding this prayer will open up, and ask.

Look at the end of the matter. Thought and feeling will become so close to the Lord that they will become inseparable; there will be an inseparable feeling for the Lord – warm and sweet. Still, everything else will become outside, as if it were someone else’s.

When you are humble, the grace of God will soon bring this prayer into force.

Make sure everything comes from the heart. Don’t think about external situations.

What did you think at first: it seems to you that it was established, and then everything fell apart – this will often happen. So, as soon as such a thought is born, know in advance that it is lying – and do not dwell on it.

Strength will begin when a fire is formed in the heart.

(Letter 977. Issue 6, pp. 102–103)

About the fruits of prayer

When saying prayers, delve deeper into the meaning, applying it to yourself. The first fruit – you won’t notice how time passes. And you will see other fruits later.

(Letter 191. Issue 1, p. 234)

How to pray when there are many things to do

In the morning, pay attention to God

Try to do this. In the morning, during your prayer rule, try to establish your attention before God so that you can be before Him all day long, no matter what happens. If you settle down like this and stand with the prophet to see the Lord before you (Ps. 15:8) – with the corresponding feelings, of course, – then you will pray unceasingly. And then you won’t be bored.

Do not depart from the prayer-rule until contrition is reborn in your heart with devotion to God. You are a wife, mother, housewife. The responsibilities related here are your salvation.

(Letter 1220. Issue 8, p. 4)

On the unceasing mood of prayer

What does it mean to pray without ceasing? Be constantly in a prayerful mood. A prayerful mood is a thought about God and a feeling for God together. The thought of God is the thought of His omnipresence, that He is everywhere, sees everything and contains everything. Feelings for God – fear of God, love for God, a zealous desire to please Him alone by everyone, with the same desire to avoid everything that is displeasing to Him, and most importantly – surrendering oneself to His holy will unquestioningly and accepting everything that happens as if from His hands directly. A feeling for God can occur in all our deeds, activities and circumstances, if it is not only sought, but is already planted in the heart.

The thought may be distracted by various objects; but even here it is possible to learn not to deviate from God, but to do everything in the light of remembrance of God. It’s about these two – thoughts and feelings towards God – that we need to take all care. When they are there, there is prayer, although there are no prayer words.

(Letter 947. Issue 6, pp. 20–21)

We must always keep prayer

Question: “Should I, in many secular relationships, support prayer, or should I use it only during cell rule and in church, and the rest of the time, if not suppress it, then not support it?” We must always keep prayer. God is everywhere and sees everything, and His brightest eyes are brighter than the sun. The memory of this must be implanted in the heart, or merged with consciousness. When the soul keeps consciousness of this, it cannot help but have the fear of God and reverence for Him, with care to please Him with everything – in word, in thought, in movement, and in deed. With this mood, meet and see off others and do every business, whether you are alone or in front of people.

Convince yourself that God is testing you with every chance and, having established His eye on you, is waiting: what will you do? And act as the student answers in the exam, and, moreover, both externally and internally. This mood is prayerful, and can only be achieved through prayer. Prayer is a turning of the mind and heart to God. When this is there, that is prayer. Work hard. God will grant that you will accept everyone, and you will not retreat from Him with your mind. There is no division in this work. Only at the beginning of the experiments. Don’t forget that this is the main thing: the owner’s cordiality towards the visitor, and full attention, and cheerfulness, and at the same time the memory of God with fear and reverence.

If you became incapable of continuing to live in the world, the damage would be small. But prayer that follows the true path should not lead to this. It will only lead to glorifying God with your whole life, eliminating from it everything that is unnecessary, vain and feeding passions and making it a silent sermon about what is worthy; however, without repelling or cutting to the heart, but attracting everyone and with the aroma of her life, disposing everyone to imitate her. Take the trouble to think it over according to your circumstances and get better. A sullen, repulsive, or grumpy life is not God’s life. I hope that your prayer will not allow you to distort yourself in this way.

However, it is necessary to think about it, experiment and ask for God’s help. The root of everything is humility and warmth of heart towards everyone. God will give you a burning heart. Then whoever meets you will feel this warmth, and it will bind everyone to you and conquer everyone.

(Letter 256. Issue 2, pp. 89–90)

Prayer by deeds

You complain about the poverty of prayer. But you can pray without standing in prayer. Every lifting of the mind and heart to God is real prayer. If you do this between tasks, then pray. I remember that Basil the Great solves the question of how the apostles could pray unceasingly: in all their deeds they thought about God and lived in unceasing devotion to God. This mood of spirit was their unceasing prayer16. Here’s an example for you. I, it seems, have already written to you that you cannot demand the same from active people, to whom you belong, as from sedentary people. Their main concern should be not to allow wrong feelings when doing things and to try in every possible way to dedicate them all to God. This dedication will turn deeds into prayer. It is written that the blood of Abel cries out to God (See: Gen. 4:10). Likewise, deeds dedicated to God cry out to Him. One old man, when something edible was brought to him from someone, said: “It smells so bad,” but what was brought was very good in content. When they asked him: “How is this?”, he explained that it was not sent with good feelings and from bad things. Thus, every deed is anointed with the feelings with which it is done. And those who have purified feelings feel it. It turns out that just as good flowers emanate a good smell, so also from deeds done with good disposition, their incense emanates and grief rises, like incense from a censer. Here’s another prayer.

(Letter 555. Issue 4, pp. 8–9)

About prayer without words

You complain about chores that distract you and prevent you from remembering the Lord. Try to understand all your chores around the house and in other relationships, as if they were assigned to you directly from the Lord Himself; not only in general, but in particular, to understand every matter as such. Then, when starting a task and completing it, you can also keep in mind that you should complete it as it would be pleasing to the Lord. Through this, when doing it, the thought will be with the Lord. If at the end, recognizing God’s help, you thank the Lord, then here is the Lord at the end. If you then do the second, third, and so on in the same order until the end of the day, then you spend the whole day thinking about the Lord. And this is what is required, that is, to walk in the presence of God. From here there will be a feeling for the Lord, a feeling of fear, reverence, devotion, thanksgiving. Feelings are prayers without words.

(Letter 279. Issue 2, pp. 131–132)

Do not part with prayer in the midst of all your affairs

It is, of course, more difficult for you to pray now. Trouble!.. But since this is necessary, it is necessary in every possible way to arrange it in such a way that prayer does not allow itself to be removed from the circle of affairs. Blessed are the people who fall asleep and get up with prayer and, in the midst of all their work, do not part with it. Their life is hidden with Christ in God (Col. 3:3).

(Letter 278. Issue 2, p. 131)

Don’t be burdened by the worries of life

You write that the worries of life weigh you down to the point that they don’t even allow you to pray. This is an enemy’s obsession. As we need shelter, clothing, food and other things, we need to get them; That’s why you need to think about it and try. And there is nothing wrong with this. This is how God was pleased to arrange our lives. But the enemy, creeping up on this sinless person, instills a sinful thing, this is an incessant worry that weighs on both the head and the heart. All the Savior’s instructions about neglect are directed against this disease: Do not worry about the morning, for the morning takes care of itself and further (Cf.: Matt. 6:34). This does not mean doing nothing, but that, while doing everything, you should not be tormented by excessive care, which does not add anything, but only torments you. Over-concern is sinful in that it wants to arrange and obtain everything itself without God, because after that it teaches one to rely on hope in what has been obtained and in other ways of one’s own exclusively without God’s providence, and through both of these, it incites one to regard worldly blessings as the main goal and the present life as the ultimate one, without extending thoughts to the future life. See what a God-fighting spirit moves in this multi-concern! Take from this the motivation to fight this evil, as you would fight if the enemy approached and instilled murder in you. If you don’t fight, worry will completely eat you up, but if you fight, it will go away, like any other mental illness when you fight it. How to fight? Get started and learn. First of all, begin by praying to cleanse yourself of this worry, and then cleanse all your affairs, so that your affairs will go on as usual, and there will be no worry.

How can prayer be cleared of worries? As soon as worries come during prayer, drive them away; will come again, drive again. And so it always is. Never keep worries in prayer as soon as you realize that it has come. This is the struggle! And you will see the fruit. Even before prayer, decide not to succumb to worries if they come during prayer, and protect this, confirm this intention with various thoughts. You will see the fruit, just don’t give up, but fight!

I won’t say anything more, and there’s no need to. The case will teach you everything later.

(Letter 287. Issue 2, pp. 139–140)

How to establish home prayer

That there is sadness is due to lack of habit. Schedule your hours so that not a minute goes by without something urgent to do. Let reading with meditation, prayer with bows and some simple handicraft absorb all the time – and there will be no time to be bored and despondent. The fact that church services are rare is a great deprivation. But, God willing, home prayer will be established. Get used to doing this so that, if there is no activity, you can immediately take up the Jesus Prayer and begin to say it with attention, walking, sitting and – best of all – standing in front of the icons. You can designate special times for this. It will be better, and the habit of this prayer will take root more firmly. The thought of moving into eternity adapts well to your circumstances, but it always has its place in everything. Stick it to your mind and heart and look at everything else through it.

It is advisable for you to combine your mind with the thought of the Lord. The best way to do this is to practice the Jesus Prayer, as it is written ahead. Assign yourself three or four times a day to stand in front of the icons to create this prayer with reverence and contemplation of the Lord before you, and do it every time 100, 200, 300 times, as you can. Having set a deadline for this, do not cancel it. The thought will continue to see ahead all day: “Here, now, we must become.” And the Lord will be near.

(Letter 578. Issue 4, pp. 51–52)

When tired of communication

When you are tired of conversations with those who come, then after they leave, do not suddenly stand up for prayer, but calm down in spirit first, then fulfill your prayer. And drive away laziness – it is a bad guest, and one does not come.

(Letter 932. Issue 5, p. 221)

How to make a prayer rule

The first way to ascend in the heart to God

Prayer, or the aspiration of the heart to God, needs to be aroused and, once excited, strengthened, or – which is the same thing – you need to cultivate a prayerful spirit in yourself.

The first way to do this is by reading or listening to our prayers. Read or listen to the prayer book properly – and you will certainly arouse and strengthen the ascent in your heart to God, that is, you will enter the spirit of prayer. Great prayer power moves in the prayers of the holy fathers, and whoever penetrates them with all attention and zeal will, by virtue of the law of interaction, certainly taste the power of prayer as his mood approaches the content of the prayer.

(Letter 227. Issue 2, p. 34)

About prayer for beginners

My idea is that beginners must first be taught to pray properly with ready-made prayers, so that they can internalize the thoughts, feelings, and words of prayer. For the divine word must also be addressed to God. When the teacher notices that they have done enough in this, then let him tell them how to pray not in other people’s words, but in their own words – prayerfully lifting up their personal spiritual needs to God and asking Him to be merciful to them and help them. At the same time, you can invite them to pray with short prayers, indicating a sample of them in the 24 prayers of St. Chrysostom and allowing them to collect other similar prayers from the psalms, from church prayers and compose them themselves.

With these short prayers, they will become well accustomed to keeping their attention not distracted during prayer. Here, finally, you can teach them lessons about the Jesus Prayer, without surrounding it with any external techniques and only instilling one thing – to say this prayer from the heart.

Every prayer must come from the heart, and any other prayer is not a prayer. And prayers according to the prayer book, and your own prayers, and all short prayers – must come from the heart to the Lord, foreseeable before you. Moreover, this should be the Jesus Prayer.

(Letter 917. Issue 5, p. 198)

Beginners should pray according to the prayer book

Should young people – beginners – be prescribed smart prayer?

Prayer without an intelligent and heartfelt appeal to God is not prayer. This needs to be explained to the beginner. Let him perform the prayer according to the prayer book, trying in every possible way so that thoughts and feelings go with the words. With this difficulty, the beginner will become accustomed to prayerful speech patterns, and then he himself will begin to pray with his own speech when it moves from the heart. And the new leader should not be left without a prayer book, except in the case if he became familiar with the mental prayer to God before becoming a new leader.

(Letter 915. Issue 5, p. 196)

Without the rule of prayer, prayer is not complete

How you decided to act regarding prayer, good. Take care to get comfortable and get used to it. The rule of prayer is a safe fence of prayer. Prayer is an internal matter, and the rule of prayer is external.

But just as without a body a person is not a complete person, so without a rule of prayer, prayer is not complete. You must have both and perform them according to your strength. The urgent law is to pray internally, and to pray always and everywhere.

Prayer cannot be without a certain time, place and measure. The definition of these three constitutes the rule of prayer.

And here the leader is prudence; when, where, how long to stand in prayer and what kind of prayers to use – everyone can determine according to their own circumstances: increase, decrease, move time and place – everything is directed to ensure that internal prayer is performed properly. Regarding internal prayer, there is one rule: pray without ceasing (Cf.: 1 Thess. 5:17).

(Letter 947. Issue 6, p. 20)

Preparation for prayer

Whenever you begin to pray, wait a little, or sit, or walk – and at this time try to sober your thoughts, distracting them from all earthly affairs and objects. Then think about who is the One to whom you turn in prayer, and who you are who now has to begin this prayerful appeal to Him – and arouse in your soul the corresponding mood of self-abasement and imbued with reverent fear of standing before God in your heart. This is all a small, but not insignificant preparation – to stand reverently before God in the heart. Here is the beginning of prayer, and a good beginning is half the battle.

(Letter 227. Issue 2, pp. 34–35)

The act of praying itself

Having established yourself in this way internally, stand in front of the icons, cross yourself, bow and begin the usual prayer. Read slowly – delve into every word, bring the thought of every word to your heart, accompanying this with bows – with the sign of the cross. This is the whole point of pleasing to God and fruitful reading of prayer.

Dig into every word and bring the thought of the word to your heart, otherwise: understand what you read, and feel what you understand. If you read: “cleanse me from all defilement” – feel your defilement, desire purity and – with full hope ask it from the Lord. You read: “Thy will be done” – and in your heart you completely commit your fate to the Lord, with full readiness to graciously meet everything that the Lord sends you. You read: “and forgive us our debts, just as we forgive our debtors” – and in your soul, forgive everyone everything and, thus, ask yourself for forgiveness from the Lord. If you act this way with every verse of your prayer, then you will have proper prayer.

And in order for you to more successfully accomplish it in this way, here’s what you need to do. First, have a well-known prayer rule – a small one, so that, during your usual affairs, you can fulfill it slowly; second, in your free time, read the prayers of your rule, understand every word of the prayer and feel it, so that you know in advance what should be in your soul and heart with which word, so that – during prayer – it is easy for you to understand and feel. Third, if your flying thought during prayer runs off to other objects, strain to maintain attention and return your thought to the subject of prayer; runs away again – return again: repeat the reading until you read every word of the prayer with understanding and feeling. By this you will wean your thoughts from distraction in prayer. Fourth, if any word of prayer has a strong effect on the soul, stop there and do not read further: stand in this place with attention and feeling – saturate your soul with it. Or: with the thoughts that it will produce, do not ruin this state until it passes by itself. This is a sign that the spirit of prayer is beginning to take root in you, and this state is the most reliable means of cultivating and strengthening the spirit of prayer in us.

(Letter 227. Issue 2, pp. 35–36)

The content of prayers must be perceived with thought and heart

In order to make our prayer book an effective means of cultivating prayer, it is necessary to perform it in such a way that both the thought and the heart perceive the content of the prayers that make up the prayer book.

Here are the three simplest techniques for this: do not start praying without proper preparation, do not do it somehow, but with attention and feeling, and do not immediately after finishing your prayers proceed to your usual activities.

(Letter 227. Issue 2, p. 34)

Reading from a book greatly dissipates

Remember that the point is not in words and bows, but in lifting the mind and heart to God. You can say everything that you have written and put down all the indicated bows, but not remember about God at all, or somehow, with scattered thoughts and wandering of the mind. And, therefore, without praying to fulfill the prayer rule. If prayer fails, it is a sin before God. Deliver, Lord! We must do God’s work with fear and trembling; keep this in mind. Try in every possible way so that where there is a word, there is a mind, or, as Saint Climacus says, to enclose the mind in the words of prayer17. When starting to pray, one must establish one’s attention before God and not depart from Him.

Reading prayers from a book dispels a lot. It’s better to memorize them. Equally, turning the pages to find this or that ikos and kontakion should also distract attention. Try to do this: memorize the morning and evening prayers, understanding them and feeling what they say. Then read them as if they came from the heart. From the Psalter, also choose which psalms are understandable and closer to your heart, and memorize them. And read them too in memory prayer in a row. Read them this way – going where and doing what.

Read the day’s Gospel after prayer, with reflection and conclusions for yourself. Compose the memorial according to the printed model (in the Followed Psalter), according to your needs and circumstances, and say it from memory. Akathists turn everything into bows, do not read from a book, but mentally address those to whom you are supposed to, and bow. If you don’t read the words, add a fan.

The less you need a prayer book, the better. Learn, above all, to be in the memory of God and the memory of death. A sacrifice to God is a broken spirit (Ps. 50:19). Then consider that you have prayed well when you leave prayer with contrition and complete self-abasement. And during the day, instead of fingering the rosary, try to be smart before God, the Jesus Prayer. Just as the Angels are always before the face of God, so we must try. They offer the sacrifice of praise, and we offer the sacrifice of contrition.

(Letter 89. Issue 1, pp. 71–73)

Read less from prayer books

God bless your solitude. If you don’t go to church, don’t worry. For God, every prayer from the heart is equally valuable, no matter where it is offered. Only one habit makes a difference here. And you can get used to churchless prayer. Read less from prayer books. Pray more this way, on your own. And you can get by with just “Lord, have mercy.” Turn the services into bows and be satisfied through them. All hermits and solitaries did this. And it’s much better than reading. If you don’t read at all, you won’t get by. But some things are for memory, without a book.

(Letter 417. Issue 3, p. 61)

When to do the evening rule

It seems to me that you don’t give yourself enough sleep (from 10 to 1 o’clock at midnight). You could fulfill the night rule in the evening and then sleep until morning. But as you write that you are used to (getting up at 1 o’clock and doing the rule), then it is difficult for you to break the rules.

(Letter 2. Issue 1, p. 8)

What to do in between naps

When I wrote to you to pray more at night, I meant prayer before going to bed. And when you wake up and pray while lying down, this is not a bad thing, but a good substitute for empty dreams in the intervals of sleep. It is good to know a few psalms by heart so that you can read them at this time.

(Letter 1378. Issue 8, p. 124)

Are evening and morning prayers enough?

An elder or brother who told you: “Morning and evening prayers are enough.” Of course, this is a cell rule, with attendance at all services. Of course, that’s enough. It is only necessary that both church and home prayers be performed with attention and from the heart. Everything in between must be filled with the memory of God – with fear and contrition of heart. But with all this, one should remember or keep in mind the last goal – to receive that light that was given to Maxim Kapsokalivit.

(Letter 912. Issue 5, p. 191)

Do not consider the end of the prayer as the end of the prayer

It’s painful to think that not everything has been done for the purpose of prayer… This happens from the consciousness that it was not done properly: thoughts ran away, unnecessary feelings and worries about something came up. You must immediately repent of this, scold yourself and set the intention to be good.

We must try to acquire the skill of not considering the end of prayer as the end of prayer, but even after that consider it a duty to be in prayer. This is fulfilled by remembering the never-wasting God, with reverence and surrendering oneself to the will of God. Then you will feel in your soul that when you move away from prayer, you are not leaving prayer, but are only changing one form of it to another.

(Letter 198. Issue 1, p. 248)

What to do after prayer

When you finish your prayer, do not immediately move on to any activities, but also at least wait a little and think: what you have done and what it obliges you to, keeping after prayer especially what has had a strong effect on you. The very property of prayer is such that if you pray well, as you should, you will not want to quickly worry about business: whoever tastes sweet will not want bitter; and tasting this sweetness of prayer is the goal of prayer, and through this tasting the sweetness of prayer, a prayerful spirit is cultivated in prayer.

By following these few rules, you will soon see the fruits of your prayer work. Any prayer will leave a trace of prayer in the soul, its continuous continuation in the same order will root it, and patience in this work will instill a spirit of prayer.

Here is the first – initial – way to cultivate the spirit of prayer in us! This is the performance of our prayers in accordance with their purpose. But that’s not all; Here lies only the beginning of the science of prayer. We need to go further.

(Letter 227. Issue 2, pp. 36–37)

Is it possible to shorten the prayer rule

I still have one question left – about your prayer rule. Before you asked an hour earlier to finish the rule. Not seeing through the enemy’s cunning, I agreed to this. Now the enemy sat down with you and explained that you can shorten the prayer rule further by introducing handicrafts into it. So your usual prayers have completely collapsed. It’s not good. Try to restore it as it was in the beginning.

If it is more convenient for you to finish the rule an hour earlier, then start it earlier. Throw away the handicrafts completely. Where did you find such permission? No, no… You need to push yourself, not come up with benefits. This is the broad path – not kind.

(Letter 528. Issue 3, pp. 223–224)

When it is impossible to read the entire rule

In case it is not possible to read all the prayers in the morning or evening, choose from the prayers which are more meaningful and read, and most importantly, take more care to plant in your mind and heart the thought of God with the corresponding feeling.

(Letter 947. Issue 6, p. 22)

If we do not master the rules due to weakness

Yes, everything is going well for you. And I’m perplexed as to what to fix. I’m even perplexed where you got the idea from. Pull as you are accustomed to. If sometimes you are unable to achieve something (from the rule) due to the infirmity of old age, scold yourself a little, complain to the Lord, and calm down. If you do it again, do the same, and always do so.

(Letter 2. Issue 1, p. 8)

Never bind yourself to a rule

Bless, Lord, and continue prayer according to your rule. But never commit yourself to a rule and think that there is anything valuable in having such a rule or always following it. The whole price is in heartfelt surrender before God. The saints write that if someone does not leave prayer as a condemned man, worthy of all punishment from the Lord, then he leaves it as a Pharisee. Another said: “When standing in prayer, stand as if at the Last Judgment, when God’s decisive decree about you is ready to come: “Get away!” or “Come!””

(Letter 249. Issue 2, p. 77)

The one who set it can change the rule

As far as I could make out, it would be advisable for you to shorten your cell rule of four hours, replacing it with a shorter personal prayer. And you ask how to position yourself.

I can’t answer this question directly for you, not knowing how your life went, and where you got your rule, and what your inner prayer is, about which you are so jealous. If you have determined your cell rule for yourself, then it is in your power to change it in every possible way. But if it was given to those with whom you previously consulted in your affairs, then you need to talk to him about changing this rule. It is possible to change, but the order requires that you ask.

The rule is not an essential part of prayer, but is only its external side. The main thing is the prayer of the mind and heart to God, offered with praise, thanksgiving and petition and, finally, with surrendering oneself entirely to the Lord. When there are such movements in the heart, there is prayer there, and when not, there is no prayer, even if you stood on the rule for whole days. This is exactly what you are paying due attention to. So keep trying to get there. Seek and you will find (Matthew 7:7). The Lord is near (Cf.: Ps. 33:19; 144:18).

(Letter 515. Issue 3, p. 204)

About bows

Under bows there should be a prayer from the heart

I loved your bows… And kindness. But do not forget that under bows there must be prayer from the heart: to praise God from the heart, to thank God from the heart, to ask from the heart, whether in your own word – which is better – or memorized, just so that the heart is everywhere.

About bows – whether to bow from the waist or to the ground – what to interpret? But as good as you do: 10 belt and one ground. You can put it freely, sometimes in the belt, sometimes to the ground.

Bows with bows, and most importantly – life is good. A good life comes with fear and trembling, which does not depart from the memory of God and accompanies every step. Hence the sobriety. But above all is zeal for salvation, strong and merciless.

(Letter 908. Issue 5, p. 184)

About bows and fear of God

You bow a lot. This is good; but try to ensure that at the same time there is attention to the Lord and feeling. The most fitting feeling for us is contrition: the spirit is contrite, – God will not despise a contrite and humble heart (Ps. 50:19). – This happens from the fear of God, and the fear of God comes to life from the memory of death and the Judgment of God. – Every time you begin to pray, restore the fear of God and contrition in yourself and then pray, not allowing these feelings to weaken. The most comfortable place to be in the fear of God and contrition is in the church. Take care to always be in church with these feelings. “And then you’ll wear them at home.” And good for you!

(Letter 899. Issue 5, p. 170)

How many bows to make

Bows are optional. If you did not have this in the rule, then before the beginning of the morning and evening prayers put 50 bows from the waist, small, and 5 to the ground, on a large knot – a large bow on the rosary. The same is true at the end of the rule. When bowing, there are small prayers. The main one is Jesus. Then to the Mother of God, his saint and other revered ones. Decide how many bows to each face, so that the total number is 50. Approximately – 30 to the Savior, 15 to the Mother of God, 5 to other saints.

(Letter 487. Issue 3, p. 154)

About bows

Bowing must be done immediately during the Jesus Prayer, and the more, the better. If you are alone in your cell, then bow down more often and do them as much as you want with the Jesus Prayer. Put more of them in the morning and evening.

(Letter 241. Issue 2, p. 58)

About bows and the number of prayers

If your head prevents you from bowing, pray without bowing: bowing is an accessory to prayer that helps, and not the prayer itself. Prayer is what the mind and heart have towards God. Bow occasionally. When praying, stand on your feet, then on your knees. If you say the Jesus Prayer, then start not with 3000, but with 1000 and even 500, and then add. Don’t go beyond 3000. Will there be a need? But it’s better to do everything at once, and at night. During the day like this, alternately, it doesn’t count to often do the same prayer.

(Letter 1337. Issue 8, pp. 92–93)

How to move on to praying with your own prayers

Every rule is good

As for the rule, I think about it this way: whatever rule anyone chooses for himself, everything is good, as long as it keeps the soul in reverence before God. Also: read prayers and psalms until your soul stirs, and then pray yourself, outlining your needs, or without everything: “God, be merciful…” Also: sometimes all the time assigned for the rule can be spent reading one psalm for memory, making up your own prayer from each verse. Also, sometimes you can carry out the entire rule in the Jesus Prayer with bows. And then take a little from this, the other and the third. God needs a heart (see: Proverbs 23:26), and as long as it stands in reverence before Him, then that is enough. This is what unceasing prayer consists of: always standing reverently before God. And in this case, the rule is only heating, or adding firewood to the stove.

(Letter 2. Issue 1, pp. 8–9; Letter 509. Issue 3, p. 189)

About prayer according to the book

“I became worse at praying in prayer books.” This is not damage. At least never pick up a prayer book. Prayer books are the same as conversations, for example French ones. Until someone learns to express himself freely, he memorizes conversations, and when he learns to speak, conversations are forgotten. So are prayer books. They are needed until the soul begins to pray on its own, and when it is already praying, you can leave them. Only when your own prayer does not come, then, in order to stir it up, you need to start praying with printed prayers. And when your prayer begins to stir, leave them. This is what the great prayer books did. They read, some one psalm, some one “Glory,” and then, entering the spirit of prayer, they left the psalms. You need to know several prayers for memory, as well as several psalms. But always, just as prayer is in your heart, you can pray without a prayer book – by turning to God, with bows. If only there was no laziness or indulgence. For the enemy will immediately come up and, as if by the hand, begin to pull you away from prayer. Understand his deceptions.

(Letter 256. Issue 2, pp. 90–91)

The rule can be changed

The prayer rules for church services must be followed as they are. As for the prayer rule at home, it is not immutable, but can be changed in time, duration, and composition; One thing to keep in mind: that everything is done not to please laziness and that prayer comes from the soul. Whatever rule of prayer you have is good. You can add and change. Short prayers of St. Chrysostom are good – 12 for the night and 12 for the day. You can choose more impressionable verses from the psalms. Do everything with complete freedom. Sometimes and all the time of prayer, pray with your own prayers according to real needs; or insert such a prayer into your rule, at the beginning, middle and end; or without words, only holding a feeling for God with an invocation: “God, be merciful” or “In the image of fate, save.”

(Letter 516. Issue 3, p. 205)

About the rule of prayer and bowing

Take whatever prayer rule you want: for the morning, for the evening, and sometimes for the day. Lay it all down in bows, with personal prayer, that is, in your own simple words, express before God the needs of your heart. It is better not to determine the number of bows and the time. Pray, bowing down, as long as your heart requires it, and do not contradict it; for the enemy will approach, interpreting: “It will happen, I have already prayed a lot.”

Physical labor humbles, fills gaps, and does not allow thoughts to wander. Replacing it with bows is good – this is the best work. But is this always possible?

(Letter 291. Issue 2, pp. 146–147)

Don’t be a slave to the rules

You can work out the prayer rule yourself. Memorize the prayers you read and read them from memory with understanding and feeling. Insert your own prayer here and there; The less you depend on the book, the better. Memorize a few psalms, and when you go somewhere or do something else and your head is not busy, read them. This is a conversation with God. The rule must be in your free will. Don’t be his slave.

Save yourself!

(Letter 250. Issue 2, p. 79)

The rule must be handled freely

Formality and mechanism in prayer must be avoided in every possible way. Let this always be a matter of a deliberate, free decision, and make it with consciousness and feeling, and not somehow. In case you need to be able to shorten the rule. Are there a lot of coincidences in family life? You can, for example, in the morning and evening, when there is no time, read only the morning prayers and those for bedtime as a memory. You can not even read them all, but several at a time. You can not read anything at all, but make a few bows, but with true, heartfelt prayer. The rule must be handled with complete freedom. Be the mistress of the rule, not the slave. She is only a servant of God, obligated to devote all the minutes of her life to pleasing Him.

(Letter 249. Issue 2, p. 77)

External things in the rules can be changed

Let us bless the Lord for both dryness and consolation. Where exactly to live? Both in the middle and outside everything flows changeably. Stop, look and figure out how you should behave in everything. Reasoning for this is given to man.

May your prayer be answered! You change something in the rules: good. The painful turning to God in the heart and falling down only does not go away, but the external can be changed by applying it in the best way. Everything that tempts, hold on to what is good (cf. 1 Thessalonians 5:21).

(Letter 730. Issue 4, p. 217)

How to make your own rule

Start praying with your word

Having learned to pray according to ready-made prayers, you must begin to pray little by little in your own word, according to your needs – spiritual or external. Spiritual needs, as soon as they awaken, immediately direct to God. The urge to turn to God sometimes happens without a specific need, but simply because of a thirst for God. To whatever extent and in whatever form this urge manifests itself, one should never leave it unsatisfied, and pray in the position in which the urge is found: if while doing something, pray after it, if while reading, in the middle of it and pray, if while walking, walk and pray. But, of course, it is better and more fruitful to stand in a prayer place and take a prayer position, if possible.

The more diligently these appeals to God are fulfilled, the more often they will appear, the longer they will last and the deeper they will take root. Don’t forget this point. This technique is the best for improving prayer. Prayer is the main thing in our work. Spare no effort mainly on this. If during prayer this urge arises, stop reading the prayer and pray according to your urge, with or without your word. God will see how earnestly you desire and seek prayer, and will give you prayer that will not be stopped. Bless you, Lord, for this work!

(Letter 187. Issue 1, pp. 219–220)

Example of a prayer rule

Would you like to have a prayer rule? Good wish. And your previous rule is good; but once you’ve gotten out of the habit of it, here’s something new.

In the evening and morning, perform morning prayers and prayers for sleep. Attach short prayers to them – 24 of St. John Chrysostom, which are among the prayers for sleep, repeating each 5 times. Then call on all the saints: apostles, prophets, saints, martyrs and martyrs, reverend fathers and reverend mothers, and everyone who has pleased God in every way. This is in general, but by name: the Lord Jesus Christ, the Mother of God, the Guardian Angel, the saint whose name you bear, the saints of whom there are thrones in the monastery; saints, revered by you, according to your circumstances, such as St. Tikhon and others. Conclude by remembering the living and the dead for whom you pray.

(Letter 377. Issue 3, pp. 10–11)

How to make your own rule

You want rules. I wrote to you: take the small prayers of St. Chrysostom, 24. If it’s not enough, add verses from “Have mercy on me, O God” to “Give me the joy of salvation…” This is another 12-13. From the litany of petition, compose prayers – 6: “The day is complete… The angel is peaceful…” – You can compose it yourself. – Mytarev’s voice: “God, be merciful to me, a sinner.” The cry on the ship: “Lord, save us, we are perishing!”

Collect dozens of them, three, four, five. Repeat them 10 times, and this will be your rule – morning and evening.

Your prayers that you prescribed are very good, but long. They can be inserted between the small ones, but not necessarily, and when they arrive. But most importantly, turn to the Savior with every spiritual need. Restore faith that He is near and hears. And express your need to Him. Do this more often and it will come.

(Letter 191. Issue 1, p. 234)

How to compose your own prayer to the Lord

Learn a few psalms from memory, those that are more to your heart. And then, during bows, you can read them and from each verse make up your own prayer to the Lord. One person told me this who started from the beginning of Matins – “Have mercy on me, O God” – and did not have time to finish it until the end of Matins. This method, more than any other, develops the spirit of prayer.

(Letter 1458. Issue 8, p. 198)

Another example of a prayer rule

I know one who keeps the prayer rule in a special way, namely: he left reading the prayers that are in the prayer books, and chose for himself several short prayers from psalm verses and appeals on litanies, which are more suitable for his condition, arranged them in his own way and then, standing in prayer, repeats each verse several times with attention and feeling. When everything is spoken to the Lord, the rule is over. He assures that, as he began to do this, attention does not wander throughout the continuation of the rule and the feeling remains. But, of course, it is not mechanical repetition that produces this, but the power of thoughts in verse. He says: “I begin the rule, laying before me all my sins, the Judgment, shame and condemnation ready for them, and I cry out for mercy.” Apart from these verses, he no longer reads anything prayerful.

You have a home prayer rule for the whole family. This holy work does not need to be changed or cancelled. But then you can keep a special one – just a rule for yourself, if you want, according to the specified model.

And this is what I wanted to show you how things are going. If you decide, type some rhymes – and the rule is ready.

There are prayer books who pray the Jesus Prayer alone. But this is for the perfect; but for us, beginners, this unity of thought soon becomes boring. Therefore, this technique better diversifies the content of prayer by indicating different spiritual needs. Meanwhile, the prayers are all addressed to the Lord. Therefore, the Jesus Prayer is in the spirit here too.

(Letter 190. Issue 1, pp. 232–233)

About short prayers instead of reading from a prayer book

Due to weak eyesight, you can limit your prayer rule to time, and an hour, as you do, is enough for it. Instead of reading prayers in prayer books, you can pray with short prayers. This thing is as follows: choose for yourself short prayers, according to your spiritual needs, about three, four or five dozen, memorize them and repeat them on the rule 5 and 10 times each, as they do with the Jesus Prayer, trying in every possible way so that the thoughts and feelings expressed by the prayers go inseparably with the words of the prayer. Work like this for an hour, and that’s enough. The main thing is that every prayer spoken comes from the heart. To do this, when memorizing you need to think deeply about them.

The content of prayers should be: doxology, thanksgiving, petition and especially repentance. Such prayers need to be selected. Sit down, read the psalms, and whatever verse falls on your heart, write it down. Then take the Octoechos, which all consists of tender appeals to God, choose the appeals that suit you and write them down. The same can be gleaned from prayer books. There will be a lot. Choose from this the one that suits you best and pray these prayers.

An example of short prayers can be seen in the 24 prayers of St. Chrysostom, which are placed in a series of prayers for the future. You can now memorize them, think about them, feel them, and use them. It is clear that Chrysostom prayed with them.

Remake the petitionary litany into short prayers like this: “Give me a perfect day (or night, evening), holy, peaceful and sinless,” and the other 6 prayers.

Take from Have mercy on me, O God verses – until award me the joy of salvation… (Ps. 50). All these verses are deeply repentant.

Here’s the rule for the first time. Then you can select more prayers that suit your needs. Remember that it is not words that pray to God, but the mind and heart. Therefore, never pray with words alone.

(Letter 379. Issue 3, pp. 13–14)

About the prayers of St. John Chrysostom

How to read the prayers of St. Chrysostom? (24 in evening prayers for sleep.) Read them before the prayer book so that your attention is concentrated. But repeat mentally at all times. This is the best way to train yourself to remember God; and this remembrance is the basis of spiritual life. Bow down from the waist, and sometimes even to the ground.

(Letter 378. Issue 3, p. 12)

About short prayers

It’s not a matter of words, but a short prayer. This was not the only one in use. Saint Cassian writes that in Egypt they used the following prayer: “O God, attend to my help, Lord, strive for my help” (see: Ps. 69:1)18. “In other places, other prayers were in use, like: “The Father is my hope, the Son is my refuge, the Holy Spirit is my protection.” Also: “I, as a man who has sinned, You, as a generous God, have mercy on me, seeing the weakness of my soul.” – Between them is the Jesus Prayer. – But then – priority is given to the Jesus Prayer.

The purpose of short prayers is to promote the collection of thoughts and sobriety. Strength is not in words, but in feeling for God. It will soon be formed among those who work on prayer.

This is mental prayer. The mind, standing in the heart, sees God and intelligently confesses to Him by calling upon Him. Feeling for God is unceasing prayer without words.

(Letter 932. Issue 5, p. 221)

About the same

I regret that you are unable to make a short prayer. You choose one that is more commonly used: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” Keep repeating it and you’ll get used to it. Introduce it into your prayer rule – morning and evening. Repeat it several times before and after prayer. Repeat it 5–10 or more times. And then 33 times according to the number of years of the Lord Savior’s stay on earth. – But don’t forget that power is not in words, but in thoughts and feelings. A short prayer is a help, but the work is constant remembrance of the Lord, or walking in the feelings of His presence, with reverence. If this were always in us, then there would be no need for words. But since we are overwhelmed by overthinking and a lot of impressions, to clear them away, it is advisable to practice a short prayer. When the language gets used to it, it will all be read by itself and turn back wandering thoughts.

(Letter 956. Issue 6, pp. 51–52)

About the same

About the frustration of your prayer. I wrote to you about short prayers, and you replied that you typed them, as I indicated. So, please, morning and evening, pray only these prayers. In the morning, read with full attention: “Rising from sleep…” and other thanksgivings to the Holy Trinity. Then do those prayers, repeating each one at least three times (and if more, it doesn’t interfere) – slowly, all with thought and feeling. Conclude with appeals to all the saints whom you commemorate, and with the remembrance of your living and dead – and that’s enough. Do the same at night, and sometimes during the day read everything at once, especially when you go somewhere. Nothing contributes more to gathering attention before the face of God than these short prayers. Insert the Jesus Prayer into their midst as you find convenient – after three or five prayers.

(Letter 194. Issue 1, p. 239)

About the same

You remembered the short prayer… The priest of God told you kindly that you should not forget this. Try not to interrupt it, and it will become so established that it will repeat itself – and you will have a brook babbling, as Elder Parthenius of Kiev-Pechersk put it. And one of the ancients said: “Just as when thieves, approaching a house to sneak into it to steal, hear that someone is talking inside, they do not dare to crawl into it, so when our enemies creep up on a soul in order to rob it, and hear that a small prayer is murmuring there, they walk around, but are afraid to go into the middle.”19

To a small single prayer you can add 24 prayers that stand in a row of prayers for sleep, and having solidified them, often say them: they embrace the inner spiritual life in all its volume. We have a lot of short prayers scattered throughout our church services. Notice and confirm. And you will always carry a prayer book with you, which you can read in every place of the Lord’s dominion.

(Letter 979. Issue 6, pp. 105–106)

About the same

Have you tried praying short prayers?! The main one is the Jesus Prayer – “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” You can choose others according to your spiritual needs. For example, take the 24 prayers of St. Chrysostom that are found in prayers for sleep. Memorize them with understanding and feeling, and then insert them into your cell prayer and cry out to the Lord with them, saying three, five or more each time. – When you establish yourself in them, try to select others. Where and where to get it? Listen to church prokemenas and memorize them. Read the psalms and choose.

Praying in short prayers gathers attention and sorts out all spiritual needs.

Do not forget that the power of prayer is a broken spirit, a contrite and humble heart.

Put yourself into the hands of God, and He will not leave you.

(Letter 496. Issue 3, pp. 168–169)

About the same

You can use the prayers of St. Chrysostom instead of your home rule, which you keep in your cell, in the evening and in the morning. – Memorize them and think about them all. In them all spiritual life is commemorated. Determine how many times each one should be repeated so that you stand in prayer for the same amount of time as you usually stand in prayer. – You can add your own prayers to them, choose from the psalms: whichever poem suits your heart, write it down. Also, the words of the litany of petition, in which they sing: “Give, Lord!”, can be turned into prayers, only instead of: we ask… and give – say: “Grant to me, Lord.” For example, the litany says: we ask the Lord for forgiveness and forgiveness of sins and transgressions. Instead, say: “Grant me forgiveness and forgiveness of sins and transgressions, O Lord.” That’s all. By using these prayers as a rule with attention, you will soon become accustomed to standing in prayer without being distracted. Insert the Jesus Prayer into their midst. For example, having said ten times: “Lord, do not deprive me of Your heavenly blessings,” add: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.”

If you take this up, then all akathists, canons and prayers can be abandoned, excluding prayers that are very close to the heart. A commemoration of the same type with these prayers. You can read it.

(Letter 500. Issue 3, pp. 178–179)

About the same

How you decide to prepare for prayer is the real deal. The Athos people have three words about prayer. There, by the way, there is talk about what you have come up with for yourself. Memorize the 24 prayers of St. Chrysostom, and you can begin your prayers with them. And so – repeat them often throughout the day. They contain everything they need. Through them it is more convenient to move on to unceasing prayer with the Jesus Prayer. This is especially useful for beginners. – The whole point is to learn to keep your attention always on the Lord, who is omnipresent and all-seeing, and who desires to save everyone (See: 1 Tim. 2:4), and is ready to contribute to this.

This skill will not allow you to grieve – whether internal or external sorrow bothers you: for it gives the soul complete satisfaction, which, satiating the soul, will not give room to any feeling of poverty and insufficiency, plunging oneself and all one’s own into the hands of the Lord and generating a feeling of His constant intercession and help.

(Letter 916. Issue 5, p. 197)

About the same

I suggest that you do not just do one short prayer, but collect several of them, and then use them morning and evening, and sometimes during the day. – Put in the first place: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” – Then: 24 prayers of St. Chrysostom (in prayers for sleep); further: Have mercy on me, O God – before – reward me with the joy of salvation… (See: Ps. 50) – Finally, turn into prayers the proclamations of the petitionary litany: “This day (or evening, or night)… grant holy, peaceful and sinless, O Lord… A peaceful angel… Grant forgiveness and remission of sins, O Lord…” and so on – 6 prayers. If you feel like it, choose prayerful and repentant appeals from the psalms.

Learn all this with an understanding of the meaning and feeling. And then use them, limiting your prayer rule to them alone. In the morning, read the initial prayers to “Rising from sleep, I thank Thee, Holy Trinity” and so on to the end, and begin to say short prayers. In the evening, read “Eternal God…” and again the prayers. Conclude your prayer with appeals to the Lord about your real needs, internal and external.

When you say prayers, always keep both the thought and the feeling with the words. You can soon say your prayers, but be sure to repeat each one at least three times, or even 5–10, judging by your diligence.

This is your rule for life; If you do good, you will soon see the fruit. Bless, Lord! – Never rush!

(Letter 967. Issue 6, p. 82)

About the same

Do you want to learn mental prayer? You mean, of course, the Jesus Prayer. Good and great deed! But without the skill of concentrating in prayer, it is difficult to keep up with the Jesus Prayer. To get used to this kind of concentration, do this. From psalms and other prayer books, collect short prayer appeals that are closer to your inner structure, memorize them, feel them and pray with them, repeating each of them 3, 5 and 10 times to take up the allotted time, and in the middle of them insert the Jesus Prayer, and after all add the invocation of the Mother of God and the saints and the remembrance of your living and dead. You can also include reading printed prayers, for example: “Bless, my soul, the Lord and all that is within me…”, “Praise, my soul, the Lord”, “And at all times” and others.

For a sample, take this: 24 prayers of St. Chrysostom, which are included in prayers for the future to sleep.

Turn it into prayers and a petitionary litany – like this: “Give me a whole holy, peaceful and sinless day, Lord,” and so on. Take Psalm 50 from the beginning until you give us the joy of salvation… These verses combine all the repentant feelings. Memorize and pray them. This is how the entire prayer rule can be drawn up, in which neither books nor candles will be needed.

Each prayer will give you more than one spiritual contemplation, and these contemplations will produce or support spiritual feelings. So search and you will find prayer, which will then flow from your heart like a river. Bless, Lord!

(Letter 529. Issue 3, pp. 225–226)

About becoming lazy and cooling to prayer

Advice in case of coldness and insensibility

Here is the word of Saint Isaac the Syrian for you – in case of coldness and insensibility! “Do not be embarrassed by thoughts and do not give in to mental relaxation, but be patient, read the books of teachers, force yourself to pray, and wait for help. She will come soon, and you won’t know it.”20

(Letter 190. Issue 1, pp. 232–233)

Why there is a cooling towards prayer

The cooling off that you are talking about occurs either from mental fatigue, or because the soul has been fed too much of what is spiritual (see the book “What is Spiritual Life”18 about this), or because too much peace and all sorts of contentment has been given to the body, or from conceit and other passions that agitate and occupy the soul. All this is contrary to spiritual life, in which prayer is the queen, littering and blocking the prayer key. But it happens both by God’s permission and by the withdrawal of grace. When your soul burns with zeal, this is the action of grace, God’s touch on the soul. It happens that when it lasts for a long time, the soul begins to think what a master of prayer she is, forgetting that the liveliness of the prayer movement is not her business, but the work of God’s grace inherent in us. For such thinking, grace withdraws and leaves the soul alone, and it itself is motionless towards the spiritual – that’s the result of cooling and laziness.

How can this be? The main thing is to try to eliminate the causes of this condition. And then act as you act: fulfill the rule, despite the disintegration, trying to collect thoughts and reproduce feelings for God. For patience and humility, grace will return – and will immediately disperse laziness, like the wind dispels darkness.

(Letter 947. Issue 6, pp. 22–23)

It is necessary to kindle zeal

Everything that you wrote about the progress of your prayer work, fasts and other things, thank God, is good. I will note one thing: see that the work of prayer does not come to naught. The way you pray now is a direct matter of will. His soul is a zealous desire. This zeal should always warm one up before prayer; otherwise there will be no prayer. And you confess: “Sometimes I pray lazily, without desire.” This does not suit the nature of your prayer. Try not to allow this to happen. The matter is in your hands. Otherwise, this is what can happen: now you don’t feel like it, tomorrow you don’t feel like it… and then the prayer is completely over. Beware of this and force yourself to willingly pray.

(Letter 955. Issue 6, pp. 47–48)

Keep your attention on the Lord

I hasten to tell you a word or two. Scattered. This is the first enemy attack hostile to the internal structure. Take care to enter into relationships with others and to worry about business so that at the same time you remember the Lord, and do and speak everything with the consciousness that the Lord is near, and direct everything to please Him. To do this, when something comes up, first prepare to continue the matter not to depart from the Lord, but to be in His presence and pray to Him about it. You can get used to this, just make sure to always act like this from now on.

The second enemy of indwelling is attachment to something of the heart and captivity to something when impressed by the senses or when thinking about something. This one is meaner. You didn’t have this, and you soon returned to your old ways. If your heart were to rest on something, you would have to suffer for a long time. Then it would be necessary to first tear the heart away from what it is attached to and develop an aversion to it. Please keep this in mind and beware in every possible way of absent-mindedness, and even more so of captivity of the heart. There is only one way – not to deviate your attention from the Lord and from the consciousness of His presence.

Why do you feel sad after a long conversation with someone? Because during a conversation you turn your attention away from the Lord. This is unpleasant for the Lord, and He lets you know this with sadness. Please learn to constantly be with the Lord, no matter what you do, and to do everything for Him, trying to keep it in line with His commandments. And you will never be sad, for you will be aware of what His works did.

(Letter 518. Issue 3, pp. 208–209)

It is necessary to restore internal combustion

As soon as your inner burning diminishes, you immediately hasten to restore it in strength. The Lord is near. Turning to Him with condolences and fear, you will immediately receive.

This, in fact, is when the Jesus Prayer is useful: here it is in its true power; however, your state can still be there in its present form with just attention and feeling towards the Lord. Services in the temple of God are all about the Divine, and try to be there unforgettably. Above all, watch out for entertaining thoughts and breaking them up, and for passionate movements. Dispersion of thoughts and any carnality or rest with food and sleep are the first enemies, and irritation is always with them. Run away from the slightest movement of displeasure.

However, the very matter of storing this state will teach you the need to choose means and techniques for this. When the desire to read comes, read only about prayer in those books that you have. Choose articles like these.

(Letter 517. Issue 3, p. 207)

When scattered

First, you pretend to pray intelligently and with what feelings, and ask if this is possible? – I answer: it’s possible. May God bless you to always pray like this, if you remember what you wrote (“While in a church, cell, or wherever it happens, I try to gather my feelings and imagine the Lord before me in an unimaginable way, while my lips close, my tongue remains motionless, and I say the prayer only with my mind and heart; then all my bodily members come into order, a feeling of reverence for the Lord takes possession of me, and I clearly see my insignificance”). “Then you add: “I regret that I rarely pray such a prayer. The prayer fades away, and I am scattered again.”

It is very necessary to mourn this. But you shouldn’t blame anyone else: it’s your own fault. To strengthen yourself in such prayer, firstly, pray to the Lord, the Giver of every good thing, to grant you to pray like this, and, secondly, begin such prayer more often. The skill will come, by the grace of God.

“I’m scattering.” Who’s to blame? Don’t get distracted. And as soon as you notice that your thoughts have begun to wander, immediately turn them around again. Learn to be in the memory of God and the memory of death. There will be contrition and will not allow thoughts to dissipate. Following this, you ask: “Should I continue this prayer or should I go with my mind into my heart?” And this, what you said, where does it happen? There is nowhere for this to be but inside. Stand before the Lord, without images, in the presence of the Lord, and experience good feelings. What else? Everything is here. Are you the only one doing this in your head?! – No, you have to stand in your heart. But do not remember the heart, but only contemplate the Lord. Everything can be expressed this way: “Stand with your mind before the Lord in your heart and pray.”

(Letter 902. Issue 5, pp. 174–175)

When cooling down in the matter of prayer

Grant you, Lord, to conform to the rules of the Holy Church, not only in food and drink, but also in your spiritual structure.

You remind us of spiritual cooling in the matter of prayer. This is a lot of damage. Try to wake up. Household affairs can only excuse short standing in prayer, but they cannot excuse the impoverishment of inner prayer. The Lord desires little, but at least a little from the heart. Raise your mind to Him and say with contrition: “Lord, have mercy! God bless! Lord, help! – there is a prayer cry. And if a feeling for God is reborn and in the heart, then it will be unceasing prayer without words and without standing in prayer.

You, of course, have a book “On Sobriety and Prayer.” Collection… Start reading it little by little. Prayer will begin to move.

In your prayer rule, insert short prayers from St. Chrysostom: “Lord, do not deprive me of Your Heavenly blessings!” and others. You can skip any of the prescribed prayers, and say these 3, 5 and 10 times. How the soul lies. Sometimes they can replace the entire rule. It’s good to read them during the day between times. You need to think about them and feel them. And then they will be like a lever.

I am sending you the 3rd volume of the Philokalia. And here you will find something to read to warm up your prayer.

(Letter 293. Issue 2, pp. 150–151)

About laziness in prayer

In your letter on January 23, you wrote down what you read on your nightly rule. It seemed to me then that there was too much reading, and I intended to write to you so that you would shorten the reading and, in the intervals, insert a mental prayer, mentally raised from the heart to the Lord with petitions for your spiritual needs.

But in your letter of January 26, you say that you refuse to read in the evening due to eye disease. And you decide to study mental prayer and, in order not to doze off, knit a stocking. It seems that the reading of prayers is completely abandoned. This is possible, but you need to eliminate the knitting of the stocking, and instead, when you feel drowsy, walk around the room, or lift something heavy, or, what is much better, take a thicker rosary and blow yourself on the shoulders.

When I wrote to you not to shorten your prayer time, I wrote because, as I thought, you were becoming lazy in your prayers. This is what we mainly need to avoid. Corruption means weakening or suppression of spiritual movements, which is very regrettable. But since I see that your zeal for the work of prayer is alive, I believe that you will leave both the time and the rule of prayer to your discretion: arrange both as you find best and most convenient for yourself. Just have one thing that is urgent: that when you stand in prayer, the prayer comes from the heart and with feelings towards God – praise, gratitude and supplication with hope – and that no extraneous matter is mixed in with this.

(Letter 529. Issue 3, pp. 224–225)

Tips on the Jesus Prayer

Beginners do not need the rule of the Jesus Prayer

You asked very important questions. The first is about the Jesus Prayer. I think that the elders are doing well by not imposing this rule of prayer on the beginners. We must wait until the one who started the work labors in church and home prayer; and just instill in him to always pray from the heart with remembrance of the omnipresent God to whom he prays, and with an understanding of the words of prayer, believing that the Lord is nearby, listens to his prayer and is ready to fulfill his request if he prays properly. Keep it in this order for a long time. Then, when he gets used to praying attentively in this way, pass on the rule of the Jesus Prayer to him.

In creating this prayer, teach students not to limit themselves to memorizing words alone, but to always have the Lord before their mental eyes and, turning the words of the prayer to Him, behave as they would behave if they stood before the Emperor and asked him for something. Let the spirit be broken and the heart contrite and humble (Ps. 50:19).

(Letter 929. Issue 5, p. 215)

Try to get used to short prayer

Try to get used to the Jesus Prayer so that it speaks itself both on the go and while working. And other prayers can always be repeated: “God, cleanse me…”, “God, be merciful…”, “Instruct me, Lord God…” and the like.

(Letter 487. Issue 3, p. 154)

Jesus Prayer – flower and fruit

The Jesus Prayer, in its power, appears not at the beginning, but at the end of prosperity, like flower and fruit. It is preceded by an inward gravitational pull.

(Letter 894. Issue 5, p. 162)

Prelude to prayer

You have a good idea of ​​doing the Jesus Prayer properly. – Diligence and work will overcome everything. – Pray to the Lord to help you with this. “You yourself, through your own efforts, can only learn to constantly repeat this prayer.” And the Lord will introduce it into the very heart. This last is the main thing, and the first is only the threshold.

(Letter 1265. Issue 8, p. 35)

The Straight Path in Prayer

I said what I said about prayer because from the Jesus Prayer you don’t know what you did. They think that as soon as someone began to say this prayer, then by this alone they had already done everything. This prayer became like some kind of conspiracy among them: “Create it, adding to this those bodily positions that are spoken of elsewhere, and you will receive everything.” So they purr, but the heart remains empty, and thoughts wander, even shameful movements come, but they don’t care, as if everything is in the order of things. For others, a little warmth comes at this, and they shout: “Here is grace, here is grace!” – and they won’t remember what the experienced say: “Look, a slight warmth will come – don’t be surprised, it’s from nature, and not from grace.”

What are they looking for with the Jesus Prayer? – So that the fire of grace sank into the heart and unceasing prayer began, which determines the state of grace. It is fitting to know that the Jesus Prayer, when a spark of God falls into the heart, fans it into flame; but she herself does not give this spark, but only contributes to its acceptance. What does it contribute to? By gathering thoughts together and giving the soul the opportunity to stand before the Lord and walk in His presence. The main thing is to stand and walk before God crying out to Him from the heart. This is what Maxim Kapsokalivit did. Let all those who seek the Holy Fire do this, and do not worry about words and body postures. God looks at the heart (Cf.: 1 Samuel 16:7). What I say against this is that others completely forget about crying out from the heart. Their whole concern is about the words and the position of the body and, having read a certain number of Jesus prayers with bows in this position, they rest on this with a certain conceit and condemnation of those who go to church for the general statutory prayer. Others live like this all their lives and are empty of grace.

If someone asked me: “How should I carry out the matter of prayer?”, I would tell him: learn to walk in the presence of God, or keep the memory of God and be reverent; to maintain this memory, choose several short prayers, or directly take 24 prayers of Chrysostom and repeat them often with appropriate thoughts and feelings. As you become more proficient, your head will be enlightened by the memory of God and your heart will be warmed. In this situation, a spark of God finally sinks into the heart – a ray of grace. It cannot be produced by anything; it comes directly from God. Then you can stay with just the Jesus Prayer and use it to fan the prayer spark into a flame.

This is the straight path.

(Letter 911. Issue 5, pp. 189–190)

The Jesus Prayer is strong in the name of the Lord

The Jesus Prayer is like any other. It is stronger than all only by the omnipotent name of Jesus, the Lord, the Savior, when it is called upon with full, warm, unwavering faith – that He is nearby, sees and hears everything, and listens wholeheartedly to what is asked – and is ready to fulfill and grant what is asked. Such hope does not disgrace. If fulfillment sometimes slows down, it depends on the unwillingness of the person asking to accept what is asked.

(Letter 827. Issue 5, p. 113)

The essence of the Jesus Prayer is in the thought of God

Are you asking about the Jesus Prayer? Read in books. Everything is written. My thought about her is this.

The prayer “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me” is a verbal prayer, like any other. It has nothing special in itself, but takes all its power from the mood with which it is created.

All the techniques that are written about (sit down, bend over…), or the artistic creation of this prayer, are not suitable for everyone and are dangerous without a mentor. It’s better not to take on all that. One technique is generally obligatory: pay attention to the heart. Everything else is extraneous and not leading to the matter.

They say so much about the fruits of this prayer that there is nothing higher than this in the world. Illegal. The talisman has been found! Of the fruits, nothing belongs to the verbal composition of prayer and its speaking. All fruits can be obtained without this prayer, and even without any verbal prayer – through one aspiration to God of the mind and heart.

The essence of the matter is to establish yourself in the memory of God, or walk in the presence of God. You can say to everyone: “As you want, just achieve it. Whether it’s saying the Jesus Prayer, bowing down, or going to church—do whatever you want, just make sure you’re always in the memory of God.” I remember in Kyiv I met a man who said: “I didn’t use any techniques and didn’t know the Jesus Prayer, but everything that is written here was and is. But how, I don’t know myself. God gave!

This – what God has given or will give – must be kept in mind so as not to confuse self-made work with the gift of grace.

Artistically doing the Jesus Prayer, doing it simply with attention in the heart, or walking in the memory of God, is our work and in itself has its own natural, not grace-filled fruit. This fruit is: a collection of thoughts, reverence and fear of God, mortal memory, pacification of thoughts and some warmth of heart. All this is the natural fruit of inner prayer. You need to solidify this well so that you don’t trumpet yourself and don’t stand up to others.

As long as we have only natural fruits, we are not worth a penny both in the essence of the matter and in the judgment of God. The price is for us when grace comes. For when it comes, this will mean that God has looked upon us with a merciful eye. Until it comes, no matter what we do, no matter what feats we perform, it means that we are worthless individuals, whom God does not even want to look at.

In what exactly this action of grace is revealed, I cannot tell you; but it is certain that it cannot come before all the above-mentioned fruits of inner prayer appear.

The word inner prayer came to me by chance. But it expresses the matter very well. And it must be placed where they began to say: the Jesus Prayer. They say: “Acquire the Jesus Prayer,” that is, the internal prayer. The Jesus Prayer is a good means of internal prayer, but in itself it is not internal, but external prayer. Those who get used to it do it very well. But if they stop at one and don’t go further, then they stop halfway.

I read in the rules of Saint Anthony21 and in many others: “Memorize the psalms and, whether you go somewhere or sit at work, read them.” This means that back then they read psalms, reflected and developed inner prayer. Nowadays they say: “Whatever you do, say the Jesus Prayer – and you will achieve the same.” When praying for Jesus, thinking about God is still necessary: ​​otherwise it is dry food. It’s good for those who have the name of Jesus stuck on their tongue. But at the same time, you can not remember the Lord at all and even hold thoughts that are contrary to Him. Consequently, everything depends on a conscious and free turn to God and the work of maintaining oneself in this with reasoning.

(Letter 12. Issue 1, pp. 17–19)

The essence of prayer

Work hard. Good, good! Work hard and with humility. And the Lord will not abandon your labor. Do not forget that you should not limit yourself to mechanical repetition of the words of the Jesus Prayer. This will lead to nothing except the mechanical skill of repeating this prayer with your tongue, without even thinking about it. And this, of course, is not bad. But it constitutes the farthest outer outskirts of this matter.

The essence of the matter is conscious standing in the presence of the Lord with fear, faith and love. This mood is possible without words. It is necessary to restore it in the heart first of all. Words will then come in order to keep attention on this one thing and deepen those feelings and dispositions.

(Letter 321. Issue 2, pp. 194–195)

The purpose of prayer is to warm the heart with love for God

What should we try to achieve through prayer? So that the heart is warmed with love for God and the feeling for God does not go away. For this purpose the Jesus Prayer is prescribed: “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me, a sinner.” Repeat this prayer more often and get the hang of it so that your tongue repeats it on its own.

(Letter 377. Issue 3, p. 11)

About fervent prayer

There is no need to indulge laziness. Fervent prayer is never long, that is, it does not seem long.

It is possible to go through the Jesus Prayer with your mind in your heart, without moving your tongue. This is better than pagan prayer. Let someone who is lingual be a smart person. Sometimes pagan prayer is required for mental strength.

When, after praying with attention and feeling, the mind moves away from prayer and is entertained, one must return it to its place, scold oneself, lament before the Lord, and pray again with attention and feeling. Good prayer is always the mercy of God and the gift of grace. Don’t blow the trumpet and thank the Lord.

What is written by Saint Simeon the New Theologian about faulty prayer22 is absolutely correct. What should I do? – We must pray regularly, driving away inattention, indifference and carelessness: for it is in our hands. Seek and you will find (Matthew 7:7).

(Letter 907. Issue 5, p. 183)

Become attention in the heart

Seek and you will find, the Lord promised. You are looking, and be sure that you will find.

What should you look for? Living, tangible communication with the Lord. The grace of God gives this, but we need to work for it ourselves. Where should the labor be directed? To always remember the Lord, as if he is near and even in the heart. In order to succeed in this, it is advised to become accustomed to the Jesus Prayer: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me,” repeating it constantly with the thought of the Lord as existing in the heart or near the heart. Become attentive in your heart before the face of the Lord and say: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” – This is the whole point, and, in essence, nothing more is required.

Everything that is invented besides this is invented only as an aid to this main thing. The elders23 say: “Keep your attention in your heart or at the end of your tongue and keep your hand at your chest”; the old woman says: “Imagine the crucified Lord and, as to a living one, say your prayer to Him.” If it helps them, let them do it for themselves, just don’t consider it the main thing. Others did this: he sits on a small chair that is placed under his feet, presses his head to his chest, bends to his knees and breathes, saying one half of the prayer, inhaling air, and the other, exhaling. By working like this, they become accustomed to prayer, and then they advise others to do the same. And let them not think that this is the whole point.

But all this and the like is not business, but an addition. The point: to stand with your mind in your heart before the face of the Lord and say a prayer to Him. At the same time, know that mental prayer is standing with the mind before the Lord with sighs to Him, and the Jesus Prayer – “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me” – is a verbal, external prayer.

In this way, the memory of God will be established in the mind, and the face of God will be in the soul, like the sun. Put a cold thing in the sun and it will warm up. Thus the soul will also be warmed by the memory of the Lord, Who is the intelligent Sun. And what will happen next – you will see later.

The first task is the skill of constantly repeating the Jesus Prayer. And begin, repeat and repeat, but always with the thought of the Lord. And that’s it.

Where is the heart? – Where sadness, joy, anger, etc. responds and is felt, there is the heart. Stay there and pay attention. The bodily heart is a muscular serchak – meat, but it is not the meat that feels, but the soul, for the feeling of which the meat heart serves only as an instrument, just as the brain serves as an instrument for the mind.

Don’t judge the elders. That’s right, they start by keeping their attention at the end of the tongue, and then move to the heart. Well, let them; If only they would not consider this a smart activity, just like saying the Jesus Prayer. Both are external, bodily matters. The smart thing to do is one thing: to ascend to the Lord with your mind and heart.

Is the imagination of the crucified Lord an essential matter? No, and that too is helpful, not the main thing. The old woman says the truth that to keep the mind from wandering it is good to imagine the subject figuratively. This is possible. But there is no reason to become attached to this image.

The Lord is now in glory, sitting at the right hand – and all the saints are around Him. – And so you can imagine. But it’s better to do without images, because imagination is brute force. It is better to stand in faith alone, that the Lord is near, than to imagine. The old woman got used to it, and the image of the crucified Lord became her heartfelt prayer, which is what it’s all about. That the old woman goes deep into prayer until she forgets everything – this, truly, is the mercy of God for the sake of her humility, without which this would not have been possible. It is not in delusion, but in truth.

(Letter 896. Issue 5, pp. 164–166)

The words of prayer are not the main thing, but a tool

In your last letter you mentioned the effect of the Jesus Prayer in everything. May the Lord bless this good beginning! In the action of this prayer there should be no image intervening between the mind and the Lord, and the words spoken are not the main thing, but the mediating one. The main thing is to stand intelligently before the Lord in the heart. This is mental prayer, not words. The words here are the same as the words of any other prayer. The essence of mental prayer is walking before God; and walking before God is the conviction that does not depart from consciousness that God, just as he is everywhere, is also in you and sees everything inside of you – he sees even more than you yourself. This consciousness of the eye of God looking inside you should also not have an image, but everything should consist of one simple conviction or feeling. Anyone in a warm room feels how the warmth embraces and penetrates him. The same must happen in our spiritual man from the omnipresent and all-encompassing God, Who is fire (See: Deut. 4:24).

The words “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me,” although they are a tool, and not the essence of the matter, are still a very powerful and multi-effective tool; for the name of the Lord Jesus is terrible to the enemies of our salvation and a blessing to those who seek Him. Do not forget that this matter is simple and does not have any fancy features, and should not have them. Pray to the Lord, the Most Pure Lady and Guardian Angel for everything, and They will teach you everything either Themselves or through others.

(Letter 704. Issue 4, p. 171)

The power of prayer is not in words at all

Nowadays you don’t know how to handle the Jesus Prayer. How many jokes they came up with! “But they completely forget about the essence of the matter.” That is why it turns out that they stop at words alone, repeating: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me,” but without any thought or feeling. I call them whisperers, or whisperers. Others stop breathing through their nostrils and sniffle. These are sniffers. Some other people appeared who, as if unable to stop the internal movement, began to shout: “Jesus… Jesus… Ee… Ee…” These are hecklers.

But the point of this prayer is simple: stand with your mind in your heart before the face of the Lord and cry out: “Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me,” or only: “Lord, have mercy,” “Merciful Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner,” or in other words. Strength is not in words at all, but in thoughts and feelings. Stand there and reject all jokes – teach yourself and others.

(Letter 910. Issue 5, p. 188)

About the same

The novice who wrote the Jesus Prayer on his heart apparently placed all the power of the prayer in the words. Let him learn to walk in the presence of God and do every work of obedience in the best possible way, knowing that the Lord is looking at him and for good performance of obedience he is preparing a reward for him, and for careless obedience (“just get out of hand”) – either nothing or something punitive. In this way he will get used to praying intelligently and collectedly.

(Letter 929. Issue 5, pp. 215–216)

A good ending is from the grace of God

Strength is not in the words of the Jesus Prayer, but in the spiritual mood, the fear of God and devotion to God and in constant attention to God and His mental standing.

The Jesus Prayer is only a guide, and not the very essence of the matter. Commit yourself to live in the memory of God and walk in the presence of God, and this alone will lead you to a good end. All this is from the grace of God. Without the grace of God, nothing spiritual can be acquired in any other way. As soon as grace settles in the heart, then everything will go as it should.

We have the Lord the Savior, who wants to save everyone (1 Tim. 2:4), we need to bother Him, and He will do so. Accept a humble non-attribution to yourself, an awareness of only your shortcomings, sins and omissions, and painful cries from the heart: “God, be merciful to me, a sinner.” And the grace of God will never remove its shadow and cover from you.

(Letter 939. Issue 5, p. 231)

How to do a prayer lesson

Do you want to learn the Jesus Prayer according to the model prescribed in this book? (Athos manuscript: “Seeker of Unceasing Prayer.” There is also a printed book24.) Good! God bless!

The prayer lesson must be done immediately. Start with a smaller measure. For example: two or three days at 1000, then two or three days at 2000, then a week or more at 3000. You can stay at three thousand for a longer time. Then add 1000 if the time is convenient and other services allow it.

The wanderer (this is a pilgrim – a seeker of unceasing prayer, indicated in that manuscript) was not busy with anything and did not go to services (he reached from 6 to 12 thousand Jesus prayers per day).

It is better to say prayer while standing, as is the rule. If your legs get tired, you can kneel. You can put it this way so that you can perform the prescribed number of prayers, either standing or kneeling.

Say the entire prayer, then the first half, then the second: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner,” “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me, a sinner,” “Jesus, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” Just don’t change it quickly, but determine either a hundred for each, or something else, but not less than ten.

Keep your attention in the chest, slightly below the hollow under the throat. Because your heart aches. But it won’t happen like that. Then the warmth will respond in the heart without pinching. Speak the prayer words slowly, as if in a chant. Bows should be made arbitrarily. If things go better without them, it’s better not to put them in or only put them in occasionally.

When performing this prayer addressed to the Lord the Savior, one must not lose sight of the fact that He is One of the Most Holy Trinity, inseparable from the Father and the Holy Spirit. Why is it impossible to bring into consciousness with those words: the favor of the Father and the grace of the Spirit. You can do this on a large rosary.

There is no need to limit yourself to just words, but at the same time refresh the contemplation of God as omnipresent, all-containing, providing for everything, and so on. It is best to serve this lesson at night.

The fruit of prayer is concentration in the heart and warmth. This is a natural action. Anyone can achieve this. And this prayer should be performed by everyone, not only by monks, but also by laymen.

This is not some kind of lofty matter, 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 it can turn into smart and warm-hearted – all in a natural way. What is from grace must be expected, but it cannot be taken in any such way.

What they wrote to you, that you must first purify passions, refers to high contemplative prayer; and this is a simple prayer, which can, however, lead to high prayer.

In order for this activity to proceed successfully, each time you begin it, you must leave everything behind, so that your heart is completely free from everything, so that your attention does not stick out: not a person, not a deed, not a thing. Everything needs to be cleared out at this time. Having served this rule, there is no need to leave this prayer at any time, but as soon as freedom – immediately for it.

During the service, one must listen to the service, standing with attention in the same place where the Jesus Prayer is being said. And when they read and sing something inaudibly, then do this prayer.

External techniques (described in the 5th volume of the Philokalia) – sitting on a chair, bowing your head, constricting your breathing – can be left. Stop all effort on concentrating your attention in the said place.

You must always have the fear of God. Just as those closest to us are not so bold before the king, so much less are we, sinners, before the Lord. If you are friendly with God, then it’s bad, out of hand. You need to pray about fear, and God will give it.

(Letter 320. Issue 2, pp. 192–194)

How to learn the Jesus Prayer

The desire to learn the Jesus Prayer came. God bless! But doing the Jesus Prayer is not unceasing prayer, but only an aid to it. Continuous prayer is a gift of grace, and we must pray for this: “Lord, grant me to pray to You unceasingly!” This prayer does not consist of words, but in a feeling for God that never goes away. We must take care of this feeling and warm it up.

Of course, it happened to you that sometimes you want to pray to God uncontrollably. Remember what was in your soul at the same time, and try, every time you stand up for prayer, to reproduce that in your soul and thus pray to God with the Jesus Prayer. This reproduction will stimulate the Jesus Prayer, and this prayer will support that prayer structure. This is the whole secret of success in creating the Jesus Prayer. The power is not in words, but in this feeling.

To practice the Jesus Prayer, define a special time between morning and evening prayers. Stand up twice before lunch, twice after lunch, each time saying a hundred Jesus prayers with bows – from the waist for small knots and to the ground – for large ones. Having put it this way, do it urgently every day, without making any excuses.

When you begin to pray, immediately remember that the Lord is near – and sees, and hears, and wants to give you what is saving for you.

Consistency in execution is the main condition for success. Success will not suddenly appear. This will take months and years. Therefore, there is no need to despair of success when the fruits of labor do not appear soon.

There is no need to fill your stomach with food, let it feel empty there, and you should not indulge in sleep. Entertainment should not be allowed either – laughter or jokes. Always behave as if you were in the presence of a king.

If you do everything carefully, the task itself will teach you a lot.

(Letter 825. Issue 5, pp. 111–112)

About the Jesus Prayer in full and in parts

Say the Jesus Prayer in full: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner!”, and half: “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me!” “Jesus, Son of God, have mercy on me!” – This great prayer, the most important of the short ones, must be repeated more often, sometimes in full, sometimes in parts.

(Letter 378. Issue 3, p. 12)

About the number of prayers

The monk…does well by working in the Jesus Prayer. But doesn’t he forget that it’s not a matter of words or the number of Jesus prayers, but the skill of always being in memory of the Lord? It’s good to maintain the quantity so as not to become lazy, but the main thing is that your thoughts and feelings should be holy. The main fruit of prayer is not warmth and sweetness, but the fear of God and contrition. They must constantly be warmed up, and live with them, and breathe with them.

You say that you sometimes forget the count of your rosary prayers. The trouble is small. When there is a fall to the Lord, as if present, with fear and hope, this is better than any number of prayers.

(Letter 902. Issue 5, pp. 175–176)

About the number of bows

Bowing during the Jesus Prayer is left to arbitrariness and zeal. On small knots make a bow, and on large knots make a bow to the ground. How many? As much as your heart desires, however, having determined it once and for all. It is better to determine the time for this prayer: a quarter of an hour or more or less.

Night is the best time for prayer, especially midnight.

(Letter 113. Issue 1, p. 113)

About calls to prayer

The manifestation of a prayer attack is not the same for everyone. For you it’s like this: “Some kind of pulse is beating in the heart… there is a urge in the mind to say a prayer… there is a feeling of tightness in the throat… the mind soon runs away, but in the heart the matter continues.” Look: what is significant here and what is accidental? This pulse in the heart and tightness in the throat are nervous accidents, which in others manifest themselves differently, for example, by shaking, while in others they do not happen at all. And I think that those who have it may not give it a go, just as they can develop it to the extreme, as, for example, in Siberia someone fell into convulsions. All this is nervous and can and should be stopped. For “God’s present life expands and elevates our life,” without producing any discordance or unevenness. Follow this with attention. The essential thing here is: “The heart feels the call to pray.” There should be warmth here, and attention associated with warmth.

(Letter 256. Issue 2, pp. 91–92)

Should I say the Jesus Prayer in church?

You ask: “Should the mind be forced to say the Jesus Prayer in church, when the soul is peaceful, serene, and when the mind, in this silence, listens to what is being read and sung?” You should stand in the presence of God and in feeling for God, no matter what you do. So it is in the temple. In another letter you wrote: “In church, while listening to prayers, the Jesus Prayer works better for me.” This prayer revives and maintains attention to God with appropriate feelings.

(Letter 530. Issue 3, p. 227)

About the rosary

Wear your rosary as you wear it – it’s okay if you don’t have superstitious mysteries. Better yet, have them under the images for rule 25.

(Letter 487. Issue 3, pp. 154–155)

About the craving for solitude and silence

The urge for solitude and silence, and even the impulses you experience, are not of good quality. Therefore, it is better to drive them away, and put them in their place or create in the soul the desire to work – to overwork oneself. From time to time you have privacy – and that’s enough. At all other times, try to retire to your heart and there establish your consciousness before the face of God – which is walking before God.

(Letter 198. Issue 1, p. 248)

We must banish all images

You ask about prayer. I see the fathers saying that when praying, you need to expel all images from your head. I try to do just that, straining to stand in the conviction that God is everywhere, is here, where I am, where my thought and my feeling are. – I have not succeeded in completely freeing myself from images, but they are evaporating more and more. That’s right, there is a term26 for when they will completely disappear.

In ready-made prayers there are many images of representing God; Judging by this, we must assume that, having such ideas, we are not making a mistake. But it is better to strain yourself to think about God, closer to how He is. When the prayer of feeling appears, then the images disappear, and only one feeling is strong. Mental prayer has difficulty detaching itself from images and pictures. But work can overcome everything.

(Letter 1150. Issue 7, p. 153)

It is impossible to imagine God figuratively

Question “When I stand in the heart, is it necessary to depict any images there: the Trinity or something else?” – resolves itself. If you stand before the Lord without His image, then what other images are appropriate here? They cannot even appear: God the Trinity has no image. It is impossible and should not be represented figuratively. The Lord Savior, according to the incarnate economy, has the image of a man; but He must appear without an image, in the mere consciousness of His presence.

(Letter 902. Issue 5, p. 175)

You need to pray without images

What the old woman said about visible objects being necessary during prayer, I think you misunderstood. When thinking about God, we must try in every possible way to think about Him as the purest Spirit, having no form or image. But having such a thought gives only grace when a feeling for God is formed in the heart. Until then, our thoughts about God are imperfect, mixed with some form. For example, the prophet says: I will foresee the Lord before me, as he is at my right hand (Ps. 15:8). This is an image. Another similar one: Where shall I go from Thy Spirit? and will I flee from Thy presence? Even if I ascend to heaven, You are there; Even if I go to hell, there you are. If I take up my wings early and dwell in the last seas, then Thy hand will guide me, and Thy right hand will hold me (Ps. 139:7-10). And this is the image of the omnipresence of God. So it is with any other thought about God and Divine things.

The thought of the old woman is that it is difficult for us to free ourselves from images when thinking about God; but you understood that you must always have an image and that without such an image you cannot pray. It’s your fault, not the old woman’s. Please try in every possible way to pray without images of God. Stand in your heart with faith that God is right there, but how there is, don’t think about it.

Pray and seek so that the grace of God will finally give you a feeling for God.

(Letter 898. Issue 5, pp. 167–168)

You cannot build images on prayer

This monk sees the Holy Trinity figuratively in his heart. – The Holy Trinity, God, is invisible, hidden and has no image. We must stand in the consciousness of the omnipresence of God, but we must not build images. He says that he found the idea of ​​this from the fathers. Ask him which ones? I don’t remember any of them mentioning this. Those who construct their thoughts about spiritual matters in order to give them weight refer to the fathers. Without verification, one cannot accept such words as truth.

(Letter 902. Issue 5, p. 176)

Drive away all images

You are asking about the prayer of the worst prayer book.

How do I pray?! I try in every possible way during the hour of prayer to be in the conviction that God is omnipresent even here, where my consciousness is, and that He sees and hears not only the word – spoken or not – but also every movement of thought, and especially feeling. I avoid any image, no matter how difficult it is. When prayer comes with feeling, then there is no difficulty in keeping the ugliness in prayer. This makes it clear that ugliness in prayer is a real thing – and that to achieve this one must strive to achieve prayer from the heart – and, therefore, go from the head to the heart.

Also, you don’t need to imagine with your soul either the Mother of God, or saints, or Angels. And they should pray in the same conviction that they hear. How do they hear? Why talk about this? They hear, and that’s all.

Suppose there is such a difference that images are needed for mental work: they are in Scripture about God Himself and all Divine things. And imagination is a mental ability—a knowledgeable one. Imagination – the ability to form and retain images – is a laboring ability, the lowest! Therefore, it is not a good idea to allow him to appear with his images in the highest region, which is prayer. Contemplative activity is high, and spiritual activity, manifested in prayer, is even higher. Where can the imagination go there… Here’s where it’s decent: friend, how did you get in?!!27

So, when you get angry, imagine, and when you pray, drive away all images. If you allow images, then there is a danger of starting to pray to a dream. Can you say that the image you hold in your mind expresses the truth? So you can’t… therefore, you have to get used to ugliness. But there is only one way – heartfelt prayer. There can hardly be a mind without images.

I remember one legend about an old man who always figuratively represented God. When it was explained to him that this should not be the case, he said: “You took God away from me.” And it was not God that was taken away from him, but his dream.

(Letter 1063. Issue 7, pp. 24–25)

What images should you be afraid of

Are you afraid of images? One should not be afraid of all images, but only dreamy ones, and, moreover, those that relate to the Divine being, which is invisible and alien to all imagery. Everything related to creatures is figurative and can be imagined. And the Lord Savior, according to His human economy, can be imagined. It is also necessary during prayer not to keep images in the mind, but, mentally presenting ourselves to the invisible God, uttering a reverent word to Him. This we must seek, and it will be found (Matt. 7:7).

(Letter 907. Issue 5, p. 182)

About the beauty

The fear of seduction is also true. There is mental charm, this is conceit; Sometimes it’s external, these are lights, sounds, some figures. Never mind all this… There is the enemy. The demon appeared to one, and well, shout: “Christ is coming, Christ is coming!” He told him: “Get out, you evil bastard! Christ will not come to me: for I am an extreme sinner,” and the demon disappeared.

(Letter 256. Issue 2, p. 93)

About relaxation in the body from prayer

The fact that the action of internal prayer leaves your body relaxed, I attribute to what should not happen. During this time, as always, try to sober your heart with the fear of God, humility and contrition. Maybe this will stop. And together, pray to the Lord to stop.

(Letter 291. Issue 2, p. 148)

About the appearance of heaviness in the head

With the fact that my head is heavy from prayer with feeling, I don’t know what to do. Prayer of feeling is refreshing, and this is something special for you. It will pass. But the prayer of feeling is real prayer. God has a heart, according to His command: Son, give Me your heart! (Proverbs 23:26) The Lord gives everything we need. Pray to Him for guidance on how to deal with this or that. And He will give.

(Letter 1150. Issue 7, p. 153)

About irritability

Your irritability, sometimes capricious, will pass as soon as you get used to walking in the presence of God, under the all-seeing eye of God. She’s out of pride. Humility will drive it away – as well as the consciousness that one must spread goodness around oneself.

(Letter 198. Issue 1, p. 248)

About physical sensations during prayer

What you wrote about prayer is all good. And the fact that sometimes there are blood movements during prayer, this will pass. There is no need to strain your hearts too much, but act in simplicity. Then whatever feelings God sends will not produce anything like that. When this happens, pray to the Lord and Guardian Angel for this movement, to calm it down and, if the enemy is instigating, to drive it away.

There is nothing to be afraid of. It happens to those who are proud, who begin to think that once the warmth has gone into the heart, this is already the end of perfection. But this is just the beginning, and perhaps not a lasting one. For both warmth and tranquility of the heart are also natural – the fruit of concentration of attention. But we must work and work, wait and wait until the natural is replaced by grace. Anyway, it’s best to never consider yourself to have achieved anything, but to always see yourself: poor, naked, blind and worthless.

(Letter 322. Issue 2, pp. 195–196)

On artificial methods of prayer

Spiritual prayer does not depend on any physical tension, such as pressure on the heart or tightness of breathing and the like. It is created in a smart way. You must begin by placing yourself in the presence of the Lord and then, having devoted yourself entirely to the Lord and being inspired by faith and hope, turn your prayer to Him, simply, like a child. Feelings in this regard – whatever God sends, be content with those. The spiritual matter is not about delight: its best manifestation is a broken spirit, a contrite and humble heart (Ps. 50:19). As you wrote, when you imagine the Lord as present, it is better: always do this.

(Letter 906. Issue 5, p. 181)

On external methods of prayer

Who came up with this: keep attention on the lips or on the end of the tongue?! Bad idea; quit. Try to be attentive in your heart, and nowhere else.

That the mind, after several prayers, runs away from the heart and lags behind the memory of God is due to weakness of attention and indifference to prayer. The soul does not value prayer and is in a hurry to get rid of it as quickly as possible, muttering it somehow. – Seek the fear of God and with it begin to pray and pray, keeping your attention on the meaning of the words of prayer. Then short prayers and the Jesus Prayer are used to instill in the heart a feeling for God and thereby attract attention. But if we are careless about prayer, we will never succeed in it. Remember also that prayer alone is not perfect, but together with all the virtues. As virtues improve, prayer also improves. The most important essences are: fear of God, chastity, humility, contrition, mortification of the flesh, patience, love. When they are there, all the others will appear, and with them prayer.

(Letter 898. Issue 5, p. 168)

On mechanical methods of performing prayer

The nun’s question about N28 is resolved with the first words: “Pray sometimes with words, sometimes with the mind.” You just need to explain that you cannot pray with your mind without words, only these words are not heard, but inside, in the heart, they are spoken mentally. It’s better to say it this way: sometimes pray with sonorous words, and sometimes with silent, inaudible words. You only need to take care that both sonorous and silent prayer comes from the heart.

Other things added here are jokes, namely: “Closing your eyes, clenching your lips and teeth, pronounce the words of prayer without touching your tongue to your teeth… hold your breath… through nostril breathing it is even better”… These and similar applications are no good. When prayer comes from the heart, then everything is forgotten. And the inexperienced will read this and begin to do so and believe that this is real prayer.

The question, rightly, related to the Jesus Prayer. – How many jokes have you made about this holy prayer?!! But the point is simple: do you believe that the Lord Jesus Christ is your only Savior? If you believe, cry out to Him: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me.” But the wise men forgot about faith, and focused all their attention on words; here they started telling tales about the tongue, and about the lips, and about breathing, and about the head with a beard, and about sitting.

It is not just prayer that is needed, but also strong zeal for salvation. When this jealousy exists, it will already teach you how to be. And you must maintain a clear conscience: this is the main thing.

(Letter 908. Issue 5, pp. 185–186)

On techniques for prayer and the gift of grace

In the first letter you write well about prayer, namely: that techniques during prayer – how to keep attention and what position to give to the body and some of its members – are not an essential matter in prayer, but as for someone who is better, let him control himself.

The main concern about prayer is that it comes from the heart. True heartfelt prayer is a gift of grace given through the Sacraments of Confession or Communion. And after sending such a gift, it is fueled by the same Sacraments. A distinctive feature of this gift is continuity of prayer, which is expressed by feelings towards God, sometimes with words of prayer, and sometimes without words.

What grace gives, labor cannot give. He only prepares for the acceptance of the gift – and upon receiving it, he warms it up – along with the Sacraments.

(Letter 915. Issue 5, pp. 195–196)

About the artistic way of doing prayer

The artistic image of doing prayer is depicted by the fathers as an external aid and is subordinated to internal work. But now, for the most part, they only assimilate the external side, neglecting the internal side. – Just a little bit of a warm movement appears in the heart, they decide: “Here, God gave…” and indulge in daydreaming about themselves. Then they condemn everyone who does not adhere to the artistic image of prayer, and not only this, but also church prayers, and those who strictly adhere to it, trying not to lower it. – Because of this, their progress in internal prayer ceases, and they are left with only external work. – And spiritual life ceases.

Please pay more attention to internal prayer, diverting attention from the external.

Prayer work leads to receiving the gift of prayer.

(Letter 193. Issue 5, pp. 193–194)

On external techniques for performing the Jesus Prayer

I reviewed the letter of the elders and their answer to your question29. Did you respond to their response? If not, answer this way: “Since you could not justify your method of prayer with paternal instructions, then I refuse to follow you, fearing to fall on the wrong path: innovations are harmful. With them the enemy is digging a hole for us.”

Tell that young brother to whom you passed on the old man’s treatment to leave him. Let him arouse in himself a spirit of contrition and humility and with these feelings pray to the Lord, standing with attention in the heart and always walking in the presence of God and the memory of death. – Let him search and pray for what Maxim Kapsokalivit was looking for and what he found. This is the direct path. He did not seem to have any special techniques, but only a thirst for the good that he finally received. Fortunately, that is, spiritual light and warmth. But they are completely different [“goods”] from those that are generated by senile or other methods. – When the Lord gives that gift, then everything will go differently and the Jesus Prayer will sound differently.

(Letter 800. Issue 5, pp. 170–171)

Prayer is saving, art is harmful

The Jesus Prayer, done with faith in the simplicity of the heart, is always soul-saving. The art that is associated with it can be harmful. We need to be careful about this. You don’t have to suddenly lean into this prayer, but first let everyone get used to praying from the heart with the prescribed prayers and prayers in church. Then, when you notice that someone begins to go deeper into prayer, you can invite him to say the Jesus Prayer unceasingly and at the same time guard the memory of God with fear and reverence.

Prayer is the first thing. The main thing that is sought through prayer is receiving that light that was given to Maxim Kapsokalivit. This light is not attracted by any art, but is given freely by the grace of God. Why prayerful work is required, as St. Macarius writes. “If you want to acquire prayer,” he says, “work in prayer. God, seeing how diligently you seek prayer, will give prayer” (Homily 1, chapter 13)30. This is the path of Maxim Kapsokalivit. For two years he beat with his heart, seeking prayer, and received the gift of prayer. Teach this to everyone. But add that the house of prayer is a pure heart, and a calm conscience, and zeal for all virtues, and seeding them in the heart.

Madness from the Jesus Prayer can occur when, while doing this prayer, one does not lag behind any sins and habits of sinners, which the conscience condemns. At the same time, a deep discord occurs inside, driving away all peacefulness of the heart. From here the head may become clouded and concepts may become confused and confused.

(Letter 912. Issue 5, pp. 190–192)

It is not the Jesus Prayer that is dangerous, but art

Saying the Jesus Prayer, as we all learn to do, is a good deed. In monasteries this is assigned as a duty. Would they really lay it on if it were dangerous?! The art that was invented and adapted to this prayer is dangerous. It plunges some into dreamy delusion, and others, it’s amazing to say, into a constant lustful state. Therefore it must be both advised against and prohibited. And the sweetest name of the Lord in simplicity of heart must be instilled in everyone and everyone must be disposed to do so.

(Letter 1102. Issue 7, p. 87)

About the quirks of those who perform the Jesus Prayer

What you wrote about certain performers of the Jesus Prayer, who place their hand on the table and gather attention under their fingers, these are inappropriate quirks. Another quirk is that a certain person struck the palm of his left hand with the fingers of his right hand and thus collected his mind and prayed.

You invite me to 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!” – This will be a prayerful work. Depending on how hard someone works, the Lord, seeing the work, will give him spiritual prayer, which is the fruit of the grace of the Holy Spirit. That’s all that needs to be said and understood about the Jesus Prayer. Still, everything else that can be invented is not relevant. It is the enemy who distracts you from real prayer.

(Letter 922. Issue 5, p. 205)

About the same

Place a wet towel on the chest… – someone makes it from those currently struggling. And he wrote to me. This does not apply to the matter of prayer, but to those cases when the blood of the heart heats up during artificial prayer in order to diminish the heat of the blood. This heat is not a spiritual phenomenon, but a blood one and comes from the excessive use of artificial techniques during the Jesus Prayer. It also lies in the fact that they consider the artificial performance of the Jesus Prayer to be the main thing and the bloody warmth of the heart at the same time – the real spiritual Jesus Prayer. Anyone who thinks so is delusional.

(Letter 921. Issue 5, p. 204)

About spiritual and blood warmth

Some special movements in the body and spirit come from prayer, but not all prayer books are the same, and some have such movements, while others have different ones; therefore, there is no need to dwell on them.

Others have no special features at all, but pray quietly, even with all their might. And this is the best and safest destiny! What is prayer? Mentally standing before God in the heart with praise, thanksgiving, petition and contrite repentance. Everything here is spiritual. The root of everything is reverent fear of God, from which faith in God and in God, surrender to God, hope, clinging to God in a feeling of love with oblivion of all created things. When prayer is in force, all these feelings and spiritual movements are present in the heart in corresponding strength. Read the prayers of the saints that have come down to us, delve deeply and see that all this in them is an outpouring of their complete prayerful mood. I repeat again: everything here is spiritual, it comes from God and ascends to God.

How does this happen? The holy father enters the heart, deepens into the contemplation of the mysteries of faith – or all in general, or one particular delight – sets in motion the above-mentioned feelings and pours them out in prayer. We read these prayers, come to a mood similar to them, either partially or completely, and we are in the proper mood. Through frequent repetition of this, constant spiritual prayer is cultivated in us and a constant prayerful mood is established, which is unceasing prayer. Everything here is spiritual, intelligent and comes down from top to bottom.

How does the Jesus Prayer, which is a verbal prayer, relate to this? Just like the warmth that develops inside and around the heart from the action of this prayer.

The skill of prayer is not formed suddenly, but requires long work and dedication. It is in this work of developing the skill of prayer that the Jesus Prayer and the warmth that accompanies it help best. Note that they are means, and not the thing itself. Perhaps there is the Jesus Prayer, and there is warmth, but there is no real prayer. Strange as it may seem, this happens!

When we pray, we must stand with our minds before God and think about Him alone. Meanwhile, various thoughts are constantly buzzing around in the head and distracting the mind from God. In order to teach the mind to stand on one thing, the holy fathers used prayers and learned to pronounce them incessantly.

This constant repetition of prayer kept the mind thinking about God and dispersed all extraneous thoughts. These short prayers were different. Saint Cassian said that in Egypt everyone has this: “God, come to my help, Lord, strive for my help” (Ps. 69:1). Saint Ioannikios constantly wrote: “My hope is the Father, my refuge is the Son, my protection is the Holy Spirit, Holy Trinity, glory to Thee.” Someone else: “I, as a man, have sinned, but You, as a generous God, have mercy on me.” There is no doubt that other prayers were also used; Among us, the Jesus Prayer has especially become established and has become a common custom: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.”

So this is what the Jesus Prayer is. It is one of the short verbal prayers, like all other short prayers. It is prescribed to keep the mind on one thought about God.

One who has become accustomed to this prayer and acts by it properly is truly in the memory of God incessantly. Since the memory of God in a sincerely believing heart is naturally accompanied by religious feelings of reverence, hope, thanksgiving, devotion to the will of God and others, all of which are spiritual, we call the Jesus Prayer, which produces and preserves the memory of God, spiritual prayer. And this is true when she is surrounded by those spiritual feelings. But when it is not accompanied by such actions, it remains verbal, like any other similar one. This is how you should think about the Jesus Prayer.

Now, what does the warmth that accompanies the use of this prayer mean? In order for the mind to stay on one thing when using a short prayer, it is necessary to bring it together with attention in the heart; for, remaining in the head, where there is a crush of thoughts, he will not have time to concentrate on one thing. When attention descends into the heart, it will attract all the forces of soul and body there to one point. This concentration of all human life in one place immediately resonates there with a special sensation; This feeling is the beginning of future warmth.

This feeling, at first light, intensifies, becomes stronger, deepens and from the cold, as it is at first, turns into a warm feeling and holds attention to itself. And it happens in such a way that at first attention is held in the heart by tension of the will, [and] by its force attention generates warmth in the heart. This warmth then holds attention without much strain. They then support each other and must remain inseparable, because distraction of attention cools warmth, and diminishing warmth weakens attention.

Hence the law of spiritual life: keep your heart in feeling towards God – you will always be in the memory of God. It was expressed somewhere by Saint John Climacus31.

Now the question is – is this spiritual warmth? No – not spiritual! And ordinary, blood. But since it keeps the attention of the mind in the heart and through this contributes to the development there of the spiritual movements mentioned earlier, it is called spiritual, however, if it is not accompanied by lustful sweetness, even if it is light, but keeps the soul and body in a sober mood.

It follows from this: as soon as the warmth that accompanies the Jesus Prayer is not accompanied by spiritual feelings, then it should not be called spiritual, but simply blood warmth; and she, being such, is not bad if she is not in connection with lustful sweetness, although light; and if it is, then it is bad and must be expelled.

This wrongness happens when warmth goes below the heart. The second wrong is when, having fallen in love with this warmth, you limit everything to it alone, not caring about spiritual feelings and even about the memory of God, but only about the existence of this warmth; this wrongness is possible, although not for everyone and not always, but from time to time. This must be noticed and corrected, because in this case only blood warmth, animal warmth, will remain. This warmth should not be considered spiritual or gracious. This warmth can be called spiritual only when it is accompanied by spiritual, prayerful movements. Anyone who calls it spiritual without them is committing a mistake. Whoever calls her grace-filled is even more wrong.

There is a special warmth of grace, and it is, in fact, spiritual. It is detached from the flesh, and does not produce noticeable changes in the body, and is evidenced by a subtle sweet feeling. By these feelings, anyone can easily identify and distinguish warmth. Everyone should do this; there is no business or place for an outsider here.

If sometimes there are bodily movements or sensations of any kind during prayer and warmth, do not pay attention to them: they do not relate to the essence of the matter and vary from person to person. Still, pay attention to spiritual actions and feelings. They will pass through your soul and body, like a pleasant morning coolness.

(Letter 244. Issue 2, pp. 61–66)

Degrees of Prayer

Would you like to hear anything about prayer? What can I tell you that you don’t know? There is a prayer that a person himself says; and there is a prayer that God gives to the one who prays. The first one who didn’t know? You should also know the latter, at least in rudiments. First, when someone approaches the Lord, the first thing is prayer. He begins to go to church and pray at home, with or without prayer books. But my thoughts are all running away. There’s no way to deal with them. However, the more you work in prayer, the more your thoughts calm down and calm down, and your prayer becomes purer. However, the atmosphere of the soul is not purified until the spiritual flame in the soul is lit.

This light is a work of God’s grace, but not special, but common to all. It appears due to a certain measure of purity in the entire moral structure of the person seeking.

When this flame warms up, or a constant warmth is formed in the heart, then the seething of thoughts stops. What happens to a soul is that when it bleeds: its blood flows away (Luke 8:44). In this state, prayer, more or less, approaches incessant prayer. The Jesus Prayer serves as its mediator. And this is the limit to which a prayer performed by a person himself can reach! I think that all this is very clear to you.

Further, in this state, prayer is given that is found, and not done by the person himself. The spirit of prayer finds itself and draws it inside the heart – it’s all the same, as if someone took another by the hand and dragged him by force from one room to another. The soul here is bound by an outside force and willingly stays inside as long as there is a spirit that finds it above it. I know two degrees of this finding. In the first, the soul sees everything, is aware of itself and its external position, and can reason and govern itself, can even ruin this state of its own if it wants. And this should be clear to you.

The holy fathers, and especially Saint Isaac the Syrian, indicate another degree of given, or found, prayer32. Above the one shown is his prayer, which he called ecstasy or admiration. And here, too, the spirit of prayer finds itself; but the soul carried away by it enters into such contemplation that it forgets its external position, does not reason, but only contemplates, and does not have the power to rule itself or ruin its fortune. Remember, in the Fatherland books it is written that someone began to pray before his evening meal, but came to his senses in the morning33? This is prayer in admiration, or contemplative. In others, it was accompanied by a clearing of the face, light around; in others by lifting from the ground. The Holy Apostle Paul in this state was caught up into heaven (2 Cor. 12:2-4). And the holy prophets were in it when the Spirit took them.

Marvel at the great mercy of God towards us sinners. Few people work hard, and what are they rewarded with? We can confidently say to all working people: work; there is a reason!

(Letter 747. Issue 4, pp. 240–241)

More about the degrees of prayer

Prayer should always be an uplifting of the mind and heart to God. When, ascending to God, we glorify God, thank Him and pray to Him to grant us spiritual blessings, with the consciousness and feeling of His greatness, and His benefits, and His generous mercy, then we pray, or are in a state of prayer. All our prayers, which are part of prayer books and church books, contain everything that has been said; and if, when reading these prayers, we not only utter words, but also have the same thoughts and feelings, then this is real prayer. If you pray like that, then it’s good. If, praying in this way both in church and at home, after a long period of practicing your prayer in this way, you reach the point where your prayerful thoughts and feelings become akin to your mind and heart, so that whether you stand in prayer or not, those feelings and thoughts do not leave your attention and always keep it attached to God, then you have ascended to the highest level of prayer, which can rightly be called mind-heart prayer. It happens in the soul and without words, when talking with others and when doing something. This continuous attention to God, or walking before God, is unceasing prayer.

The Jesus Prayer is a great aid to this; it focuses the attention very strongly on God and makes it strong. From this you can see where the place of this prayer is and what is required for success in it. These are the degrees of prayer.

First. Getting used to regular prayers in church and at home.

Second. The affinity of prayerful thoughts and feelings with the mind and heart.

Third. Continuous prayer.

The Jesus Prayer can go towards all of these, but its real place is in unceasing prayer. The main condition for success in prayer is cleansing the heart from passions and any attachment to anything sensual. Without this, prayer will remain at the first level, or reading. As the heart is cleansed, reading prayer will turn into mental-heart prayer, and when it is completely cleansed, then unceasing prayer will begin.

How should you proceed? In church, follow the service and keep those thoughts and feelings that are suggested by the service. At home, arouse prayerful thoughts and feelings in yourself and keep them in your soul with the help of the Jesus Prayer. – God bless you!

(Letter 243. Issue 2, pp. 60–61)

About the Jesus Prayer, performed verbally, mentally and heartily

About oral prayer. In the abbreviated word it says this: “Lord, have mercy”; “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me, a sinner,” and in full – like this: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” At first, it is pronounced mostly forced and reluctantly, but as you practice and force yourself to it, if only there is a decisive intention through prayer with the help of God’s grace to diminish all-round passions, it will be made easier, more pleasant and more desirable from time to time by frequent exercise in it, as the passions are diminished.

When praying verbally, you should try your best to keep your mind in the words of the prayer, speak slowly, concentrating all your attention on the thoughts expressed in words, and when the mind gets carried away into extraneous thoughts, without embarrassment again “introduce it into the words of the prayer” (see: Ladder. Homily 28, 17). Distraction of the mind is not given quickly and not when we want, but when we humble ourselves and when God is favorable. This gift of God is not determined by time, nor by the number of prayers, but by heartfelt humility and Christ’s grace and by always compelling oneself to it. From oral, attentive prayer there is a transition to mental prayer, which is called so when we rush to God with one mind or see God.

About mental prayer. When praying mentally, you must keep your attention in your heart before the Lord. To the extent of our zeal and humble diligence in prayer, God grants the first gift to our mind – composure and concentration in prayer. When attention to the Lord becomes persistent, then it is grace-filled attention; and our own attention is always forced. From such mental prayer there is a transition to heartfelt inner prayer, if only there is an experienced teacher, very convenient and free. When we are with God through the feelings of the heart, and the heart fills with love for God, then such prayer is called heartfelt prayer.

About inner, heartfelt prayer. The Gospel says: If anyone wants to seek Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross (Matthew 16:24). If we apply these words to the matter of prayer, they will mean the following. Whoever wants to legitimately strive in the feat of prayer must first renounce his own will and his own understandings, and then bear the cross, that is, the mental and physical labor that is inevitable during this feat. Having devoted ourselves entirely to the vigilant care of God, we must humbly and complacently endure this work for the sake of true good, which is given to the zealous prayer book from God in his own time, when God, by His grace, sets limits to our mind and sets it motionless with the memory of God in the heart.

When such a state of mind becomes something natural and permanent, it is called by the fathers connection of the mind with the heart; with such a structure, the mind no longer has a desire to be outside the heart, on the contrary, if for some reason or by a lot of conversation it is retained out of the heart, then it has an uncontrollable desire to return inside itself again with some kind of spiritual thirst and with new zeal to begin again to create its inner home. With such a heart structure in a person, everything passes from the head into the heart, and then, as if some kind of intelligent light illuminates his entire inside, and whatever he does, says, or thinks, everything is done with full consciousness and attention. He can then clearly see what thoughts, intentions and desires come to him, and willingly compels his mind, heart and will to obey Christ, to fulfill every Divine and Fatherly commandment. Any deviation from them is smoothed over by a feeling of heartfelt repentance and contrition with unfeigned pity and with a painful, humble fall to God, asking and expecting help from above for one’s weakness. And God, looking at his humility, does not deprive him of His grace.

Let you know that mental-heart prayer comes to the heart of some quickly, and not so quickly of others. I know three people: one came as soon as it was said, at this very hour; to another it came after six months, to the third – after ten months; and to one great elder – in two years. And why this happens – only God knows.

Also know that before the destruction of passions there is a different prayer, and another after cleansing the heart from passions: the first is an assistant in cleansing the heart from passions, and the second is, as it were, a kind of spiritual guarantee of future bliss.

Do this: when you feel the entry of the mind into the heart and the impact of prayer, then give complete freedom to such prayer, removing everything unfavorable to it; and while it lasts, don’t do anything else. When you do not feel such an attraction, then pray a verbal prayer with bows, trying in every possible way to keep attention in your heart before the face of the Lord. This way of praying will also warm your heart.

Be sober and vigilant, especially during mental-heart prayer. No one is more pleasing to God than one who engages in correct mental-heart prayer. When it is inconvenient for you or there is no time to practice prayer, then in every way possible, keep the prayerful spirit in yourself in every activity, that is, keep God in mind and strain in every possible way with your intelligent eyes to see Him before you with fear and love, and, feeling Him existing before you, with reverent submission in all your deeds, surrender yourself to His omnipotence, omnipotence, omniscience and omniscience so that in all your God and His holy will were remembered in deed, word and thought. This is what the spirit of prayer consists of in short!

It is necessary for a lover of prayer to have this spirit, and, as far as possible, with constant heartfelt attention, bring his understanding under God’s understanding, and humbly and reverently submit to Him; also bring your wants and desires under God’s will and completely surrender yourself to God’s mind and God’s will. In every possible way we must stand against the spirit of arbitrariness, or the desire and urge to act without being embarrassed by anything. This spirit whispers: “I can’t do this, I don’t have enough time for this,” or: “It’s not time for me to take on this yet, I have to wait,” or: “The duties of obedience are an obstacle,” and much like that. Whoever listens to him will never learn to pray.

In collaboration with this spirit is the spirit of self-justification, which begins and begins to act after someone, carried away by the spirit of arbitrary self-indulgence, does something for which his conscience bothers him. Then the spirit of self-justification uses various twists and turns to deceive the conscience and present its wrongness as right. – May God protect you from these evil spirits.

(Letter 937. Issue 5, pp. 226–230)

Jesus Prayer, Smart Prayer and Smart Doing

We must put our heart into every undertaking, and a God-fearing heart. For the heart to be in a state of fear of God, it must be constantly overshadowed by the thought of God. Thinking about God will be the door through which the soul will enter active life. All work must now be directed toward constantly thinking about God, or walking in the presence of God (Seek God, seek His face without ceasing (Ps. 104:4.)). This is where sobriety and mental prayer come into play. God is everywhere: make sure that your thoughts are always with God.

How to do it? Thoughts hustle like mosquitoes in their columns, and above the thoughts are the feelings of the heart. In order to stick the thought to a single thing, the elders had the custom of habituating the continuous pronunciation of a short prayer; from practice and frequent repetition, this prayer was so imposed on the tongue that he repeated it on his own. Through this, thought was attached to prayer, and through it to the incessant thought of God. After the skill, prayer connected the memory of God, and the memory of God connected prayer; and they mutually supported themselves. This is walking with God.

Short prayers were used by different people, some “God, be merciful”, some “God, come to my help”, some “I am like a man who has sinned, but You, like God, have mercy on me.” But then everyone began to prefer one prayer to the Jesus: “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me, a sinner!” They learned to repeat it and to preserve the memory of God with it. Do you see now where the Jesus Prayer stands and what is its meaning? In itself, it is not mental, but verbal, external, like all other written prayers, and is a means to mental prayer, when someone, standing with it before the Lord, prays to Him. In the same way, it is not a mental activity, but the same activity as church or home prayer in a prayerful way. Mental prayer is when someone, having established attention in the heart, from there lifts up a prayer to God. Smart doing is when someone, standing with attention in the heart with the memory of the Lord, cuts off every other thought that tries to penetrate the heart.

Now, I think, you yourself will resolve many of your misunderstandings. By mental prayer you mean the Jesus Prayer: “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me.” But after these explanations, you see that this is not a mental prayer, but a verbal one, and you can learn it without fear, just as you memorized any other prayer. Whether you sit, walk or do anything else, repeat this prayer, and that’s it – you’ll get used to it, and it will begin to repeat itself with your tongue. No troubles are expected here.

Mental prayer is when you, standing in your heart with attention, cry out to the Lord, asking, or repenting, or thanking, or praising Him. There is also no danger in this action; such prayer serves as its own protection. For the Lord is here if you turn to Him in faith. Now you can actually try this.

Create, create, and not only when you are sitting alone in your cell, but everywhere: in church, at meals, and when you walk. Just make sure that there is also a memory of the Lord here, and not just words.

What Schemamonk Vasily said about putting aside singing for mental prayer applies to hermits and those individuals for whom mental prayer has developed and become incessant. These can do everything, instead of church services and cell rules. But what is meant here is not the repetition of the Jesus Prayer, but the constant ascent of prayerful appeals from the heart. I read how it is said about one elder that he could continue his prayer only until the first “Glory” (from the Psalter), and then he entered into heartfelt prayer and prayed without words. The reading of the prayer then stops by itself. Thus, the postponement of singing does not apply to you and me, we need to stand up for church services, and fulfill what is determined for cell prayer.

When unceasing heartfelt prayer is formed, then you will see what to do. You ask to bless your inner work. God bless! But understand for yourself what the matter is here, get used to saying the Jesus Prayer, so that it is imposed on your tongue, but always with the thought of the Lord. If at the same time you sigh from your heart to the Lord, this will be mental prayer, and not the words of the Jesus Prayer. If, having become attentive to the Lord in your heart and saying the Jesus Prayer, you drive away every other thought and feeling from your heart, this will be a smart act.

(Letter 240. Issue 2, pp. 55–58)

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Notes

Conceptions divide the Church Slavonic text of the New Testament into parts like chapters and also have their own numbering. During each service, certain beginnings are read, the numbers of which are indicated in the church calendar.

Thomas a Kempis is a Catholic author who wrote the then fashionable book “On the Imitation of Christ.”

Six Psalms – six psalms: 3, 37, 62, 87, 102 and 142, read at every evening service. It begins with the words: Lord, why have we multiplied the cold?

Those. Psalm 24 (I have lifted up my soul to You, O Lord) and Psalm 90 (I live in the help of the Most High).

We are talking about a book at. Nicodemus of the Svyatogorets “Invisible Warfare” (1st ed. M., 1886), translated from Greek by St. Theophan the Recluse. All books mentioned in this edition have now been reprinted.

Margarita is a pearl.

We are talking about a book at. Nicodemus of the Svyatogorets “Invisible Warfare”.

See: So, whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do everything to the glory of God (1 Cor. 10:31)

Wed: St. Macarius of Egypt. Spiritual conversations. Klin, 2001. Conversation 19, 3. P. 174.

Wed: From the life of our venerable father Maxim Kapsokalivit. About smart grace-filled prayer // Philokalia: In 5 volumes. M., 2003. (reprint). T. 5. P. 511. St. Theophan refers not to the Russian, but to the Slavic “Philokalia” for the reason that the 5th volume of the Russian “Philokalia” was published in 1889, and the letter 516 quoted here was written by him in 1888. The Russian five-volume “Philokalia” known to us is the fruit of the great ascetic labor of St. himself. Feofan.

To reject – to reject, to discard.

Most likely, St. Feofan is referring to the book “Patristic instructions on prayer and sobriety, or attention in the heart to God, and the interpretation of the Lord’s Prayer in the words of the holy fathers.” 1st ed. M., 1881; 2nd ed. M., 1889. The name of the compiler of this book is not indicated, but it is known that it was St. himself. Feofan. Nowadays, the book has been republished under the title “Holy Fathers on Prayer and Temperance.”

See: Rev. John, abbot of Mount Sinai. Ladder. Sergiev Posad, 1908. Word 28, 11, 49. P. 234, 239.

This means St. Savva the Sanctified († 532; commemorated December 5/18), who compiled the oldest of the liturgical charters – the Jerusalem one.

St. Seraphim of Sarov

See: St. Basil the Great instructions on prayer and sobriety // Patristic instructions on prayer and sobriety… M., 1889. P. 11.

See: Ladder. Sermon 28, 17. P. 235. See also: Sermon 4, 92; Word 19, 7; Word 25, 5.

See: Rev. John Cassian the Roman. Scriptures. M., 1892. Interview 10, ch. 10. pp. 356–361.

See: Memorable stories about the asceticism of the holy and blessed fathers. M., 1999. Abba John Kolov, 3. P. 202.

Compare: St. Isaac the Syrian. Ascetic instructions, 218 // Philokalia. T. 2. P. 775.

The book “What is spiritual life and how to tune in to it” (M., 1878) was written by St. himself. Feofan.

See: St. Anthony the Great. Charter of hermit life, 124,126 // Philokalia: In 5 vols. St. Petersburg, 1877. T. 1. P. 89.

Of course, not the ancient elders, but the new ones, who wrote instructions to the same monk from their own understanding. – Note. 1898 edition

See: Rev. Simeon the New Theologian. About three forms of attention and prayer // Philokalia. T. 5. P. 500–510.

The advice about rosaries concerns clergy. Worldly people, as a rule, are not blessed to pray the rosary.

Term – term, limit.

Friend! how did you come here?.. (Matthew 22:12)

We are talking about a postscript in which it was reported that a certain elder answered the nun’s question: “Which is better to pray – with the lips or with the mind?” – Note. 1898 edition

Question about external methods of performing the Jesus Prayer

Probably, we are talking about the book “Frank stories of a wanderer to his spiritual father.” The stories of the first part of the book were copied from the Athonite manuscript, which had the title “Seeker of Unceasing Prayer.” There are suggestions that its author is Archimandrite Mikhail (Kozlov, 1826–1884), who labored on Mount Athos for many years. In the early 1880s, the 1st edition of “Frank Stories of a Wanderer” was published in Kazan.

Perhaps St. Theophan has in mind the following words: “…Whoever in the feeling of his heart thinks that he stands before God will be like an immovable pillar in prayer” (Ladder. Homily 19, 4. p. 138).

See: St. Isaac the Syrian. Ascetic instructions, 45–49. pp. 706–709.

See: Memorable tales… Avva Arseny, 30. P. 44.