Preface on Prayer by Our Venerable Father Nilus the Faster
When the flame of unclean passions was burning me, you cooled my intellect — which was fainting under the most shameful thoughts — with the touch of your God-loving writings, blessedly imitating the great teacher and instructor. Nor is this surprising, for a portion was always appointed to you, as to the blessed Jacob. Well did you serve for Rachel’s sake and receive Leah, and so you strive to gain the beloved one, serving another seven years for her (Gen. 29:20, 28). As for me, I cannot but confess that I laboured all night and caught nothing; yet at your word I cast out the nets and caught a multitude of fish — I do not say that they are great fish, but there are one hundred and fifty-three of them (John 21:11). Sending them to you in the basket of love, I fulfil your command with this number of chapters. I marvel at you and greatly praise your particular desire, that you wish to see chapters on prayer — and not merely to have them written by hand in ink, but established in the intellect by love and by freedom from rancour. But since everything is twofold and one of the two is set over against the other, according to the word of the wise Sirach, receive these chapters in writing and understand in spirit that the intellect precedes all writing. Were it not so, there would be no writing at all. So too there is a twofold manner of prayer: the one active, the other contemplative. And so it is with numbers: the number itself is quantity, while what is signified by the number is quality. Having divided the Discourse on Prayer into one hundred and fifty-three chapters, we have sent you an evangelical offering, that you may find in it the sweetness of a symbolic number and the figure both triangular and hexagonal: the first is the reverent knowledge of the Trinity, and the second a description of this world. But the number one hundred is in itself square; the number fifty is thrice triangular and round; the number twenty-seven is triangular, and twenty-five is round, for five times five makes twenty-five. Thus you have a square pattern. Not only by the fourfold set of virtues is the wise knowledge of this age likened to the number twenty-five, but also through the roundness of the seasons. For week follows week, and month follows month, and from year to year the summer returns, and each season of the year comes after another; the movement of the sun and the moon brings the coming of spring and then of summer. And the triangular number may signify the knowledge of the Holy Trinity. To put it otherwise: if one takes several meanings of the number 153, know that it is triangular — that is, active, natural and theological. It may also signify faith, hope and love; gold, silver and precious stones. But such is this number; and do not despise the brevity of the chapters, as one who knows how to be filled and to lose, but rather as one who remembers Him who did not reject the widow’s two mites but accepted them before all the riches of others, and who therefore knows how to preserve the fruit of goodwill and of love for his brethren. Pray for the sick man, that he may recover and, taking up his bed, may walk by the grace of Christ. Amen.
1. If anyone wishes to prepare incense, let him take «stacte, onycha, galbanum and pure frankincense, all in equal parts» (Exod. 30:34). These are the four virtues; when they have reached their fullness and are equal in strength, the intellect will not be betrayed.
2. When the soul is purified by the fulfilment of the commandments, then it will establish the intellect in an unshakeable order, and the intellect will become capable of receiving the state it needs.
3. Prayer is the converse of the intellect with God. For prayer a certain state of the intellect is needed, so that it may go unswervingly to its Master and hold converse with Him without any intermediary.
4. If Moses could not draw near to the burning bush which was upon the earth until he had taken off his sandals (Exod. 3:5), why do you, wishing to see Him who is beyond all sense and thought and to become His companion in converse, not cast away from yourself every passionate thought?
5. Pray first to receive tears, that by weeping you may soften the hardness of your soul; and having confessed your iniquities to the Lord (Ps. 31:5), you will receive forgiveness from Him.
6. Shed tears when you ask for anything, for the Master rejoices greatly when you pray with tears.
7. If in your prayer you pour out a fountain of tears, do not be proud within yourself, as though you were greater than others. Your prayer has received help, that you might be able to confess your transgressions and appease the Master with tears. Do not turn your turning away from the passions into a passion, lest you anger yet more Him who gave you this grace.
8. Many weep for their sins, but forgetting the purpose of their tears they have become deranged and led astray.
9. Stand with endurance and pray firmly; turn away from cares and from the onslaught of thoughts. They trouble you and press upon you in order to weaken your firmness.
10. When the demons see that you are striving to pray fervently, then they put into you thoughts about certain needs, as though these were urgent; little by little they stir up the memory of them and prompt the intellect to seek them, and when it does not find them it grows very sad and dejected. And when the intellect stands at prayer, they remind it of what it sought and thought about, so that it may try to see these things and lose the fruit of prayer.
11. Strive so to order your intellect when you pray that it may be as one deaf and dumb — then you will be able to pray well.
12. If temptation meets you, or a contradiction irritates you, so that you grow angry with the one who contradicted you, or say some unkind word, then remember prayer, the judgement against an unkind word — and at once the disorderly turmoil within you will cease.
13. Everything you do in order to take revenge on a brother who has wronged you will lead you astray at the time of prayer.
14. Prayer is the shoot of gentleness and freedom from anger.
15. Prayer is the offering of joy and thanksgiving.
16. Prayer is the banishing of dejection and despondency.
17. «Go, sell what you have, give to the poor» (Matt. 19:21) — and taking up your cross, deny your very self, that you may pray without distraction.
18. If you wish to pray a praiseworthy prayer, deny your very self (Matt. 16:24), and enduring much evil during prayer, be wise in love of prayer.
19. If, while enduring afflictions, you practise the love of wisdom, you will find the fruit of your love of wisdom at the time of prayer.
20. If you wish to pray as you ought, do not grieve your soul, or else you labour in vain.
21. «Leave», it is said, «your gift there before the altar; go, first be reconciled with your brother, and then come» (Matt. 5:24) and you will pray without confusion. Rancour darkens the intellect of the one who prays and clouds his prayers.
22. He who gathers up dejection and rancour within himself is like a man who draws water and pours it into a leaking barrel.
23. If you are patient, you will always pray with joy.
24. When you pray as you ought, you may remember something that seems to deserve your anger. There is no righteous anger against a neighbour. If you search well, you will find that everything can be settled without anger. Strive with all your strength that anger may not rise in you.
25. Take care that you do not try to heal another while you yourself remain unhealed; this will be an obstacle to your prayer.
26. If you spare your wrath, you will find mercy for yourself, and you will show yourself wise, and you will be among those who pray.
27. He who arms himself against wrath will never suffer the assaults of desire. Desire becomes the cause of wrath, and wrath troubles the spiritual eye, damaging the order of prayer.
28. Do not pray only outwardly, but with great fear urge your intellect to feel spiritual prayer also.
29. Sometimes prayer goes well from the very beginning, and sometimes, though you labour much, you do not attain your purpose; and this is so that you may labour still more, and when at last you receive prayer, no one may take it from you.
30. When an angel draws near to us, all those who trouble us depart at once; the intellect then finds great relief and prays with a healthy prayer. Sometimes the intellect wrestles with an ordinary assault and cannot rise because of its many passions. Yet if it seeks for a long time, it will find; and if it knocks, it will be opened to it.
31. Do not pray that things may happen according to your wish, for your wishes are not always in accord with the wishes of God. Pray as you have been taught, saying: «Thy will be done in me». And in every matter ask that His will be done (Matt. 6:10). God desires what is good and profitable for your soul, but you do not always seek this.
32. Often I prayed and asked that things might be as seemed good to me, and I insisted on my request, foolishly forcing the will of God. And I did not trust God, that if He knows what is profitable He will do it for me. And when I received what I asked for, I suffered great affliction — all because I had not asked that it be done according to God’s will. For it turned out otherwise than I had thought.
33. What is good, if not God? Therefore let us give over to Him everything that troubles us, and it will be well with us. For He is good and the Giver of good gifts.
34. Do not be downcast when you do not at once receive from God what you ask. He wishes to grant you a greater grace when you labour longer in prayer. For what is higher than converse with God and union with Him?
35. Concentrated prayer is the highest understanding of the intellect.
36. Prayer is the ascent of the intellect to God.
37. If you desire prayer, leave all things, that you may inherit all things.
38. Pray first to be purified from the passions; secondly, to be freed from ignorance and forgetfulness; thirdly, not to be tempted and cast away.
39. Seek in your prayer only righteousness and the Kingdom, that is, virtue and knowledge, and all the rest will be added to you.
40. It is right to pray not only for your own purification, but for the purification of every person, that you may imitate the angels.
41. Consider whether you truly stand before God in your prayer, or whether perhaps the desire for human praise overcomes you and you seek it, covering yourself with lengthy prayer.
42. Whether you pray with the brethren or alone, strive not merely to pray out of habit, but to pray with feeling.
43. Proper to prayer with feeling are attentiveness and reverence, contrition and pain of soul, the confession of transgressions with hidden sighs.
44. When your intellect is stolen away during prayer, then it prays not in contemplation, like a monk, but like a layman who adorns the outer tabernacle.
45. When you pray, guard your memory with all your strength, that it may not thrust its own concerns upon you; rather urge yourself to a mindful standing before God. Very often the memory steals away the intellect during prayer.
46. The memory thrusts upon the one who prays either recollections of past deeds, or new cares, or the face of one who has wronged him.
47. The demon greatly envies the person who prays, and by all manner of wiles tries to hinder his purpose. He does not cease to slip recollections of things into the memory and to stir up all the passions through the body, only to hinder the person from moving and going towards God.
48. When the all-cunning demon has used many stratagems and has not managed to hinder the prayer of the righteous, then he slackens his attacks a little and afterwards takes revenge on him after the prayer. Either, kindling anger in him, he destroys the state which the man acquired at prayer; or, pushing him towards some irrational pleasure, he mocks the intellect.
49. When you have prayed as you ought, expect what you ought not to come; stand courageously and guard your fruit. For this you were appointed from the beginning: «to till and to keep» (Gen. 2:15). Therefore do not leave the fruits of your labour unguarded, for otherwise you will have no benefit from prayer.
50. Every struggle that goes on between us and the unclean spirits is for nothing else than for spiritual prayer. For it is greatly hostile and hateful to them, but to us saving and full of grace.
51. To what do the demons wish to lead us? To gluttony, unchastity, love of money, anger, rancour and the other passions, so that the intellect, hardened in them, may be unable to pray as it ought. The passions of the irrational part of the soul rule over it and do not let it act with understanding.
52. We pass through the virtues, according to the words of the ancient fathers, because we listen to the Word who took upon Himself our flesh, and the Word is manifested to us in the state of prayer.
53. The state of prayer is the habit of dispassion, which by the greatest love carries the wisdom-loving intellect up to the noetic height.
54. He who wishes to pray truly must master not only wrath and desire, but must also go beyond passionate thought.
55. He who loves God converses with Him always, as with a Father, turning away from every passionate thought.
56. Not everyone who has attained dispassion prays truly. He may still dwell among simple thoughts, reflecting upon them and being far from God.
57. When the intellect does not linger among simple thoughts about things, this does not yet mean that it has reached the place of prayer. It may contemplate these things and often reflect upon them. Though these are simple reflections, they imprint in the intellect the images of these things and lead it far from God.
58. If the intellect does not rise above the contemplation of bodily things, it has not yet seen the perfect place of God. It may be occupied with the knowledge of noetic realities and be filled with representations of them.
59. If you wish to pray, you need God, who gives prayer to the one who prays. Therefore call upon Him, saying: «Hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come» (Matt. 6:9-10) — that is, the Holy Spirit and Thine only-begotten Son. So the Lord Himself taught us, commanding us «to worship» the Father «in spirit and in truth» (John 4:24).
60. He who prays in spirit and in truth does not learn from creatures how to glorify the Creator, but learns from Him Himself how to sing His praises.
61. If you are a theologian, you will pray truly; and if you pray truly, you are a theologian.
62. When your intellect, longing greatly for God, gradually as it were withdraws from the body and from the thoughts that come from the senses or from the memory, and is filled with reverence and joy, then you may think that it has drawn near to the borders of prayer.
63. The Holy Spirit suffers with our weakness and comes to us even when we are still unclean; and when He sees that the intellect prays to Him alone with love of the truth, He descends upon it, drives away the hosts of thoughts and reasonings that surround the intellect, and moves it to love spiritual prayer.
64. The various spirits, acting upon the body, bring into the intellect thoughts, or reasonings, or visions. But the Lord does the opposite: He enters into the intellect itself, placing in it the knowledge He wishes, and through the intellect restrains the intemperance of the body.
65. Deserving of reproach is everyone who loves true prayer yet is angry or remembers a wrong. He is like a man who wants to see well and rubs his eyes.
66. If you wish to pray, do nothing that hinders prayer, so that God may draw near to you and be your companion.
67. Do not imagine the Godhead when you pray, and do not allow any image to be imprinted in your intellect; but approach the spiritual in a spiritual manner, and you will know Him.
68. Beware of the enemy’s snares. It happens that while you are praying purely and without confusion, some strange and alien image suddenly appears before you, in order to push you to the thought that the Godhead has appeared to you, and that you may think the Godhead has a certain appearance and occupies a certain place. But in reality the Godhead has neither place nor appearance.
69. When the envious demon cannot influence the memory, then he stirs up the humours of the body, in order to breathe into the intellect some fantasy alien to it and to fill it with images. And the intellect, being accustomed to dwell among thoughts, easily yields; and though it strives towards spiritual knowledge and towards what is without form, it is led astray and receives smoke instead of light.
70. Stand upon your watch and guard your intellect from thoughts during prayer, striving to remain in peace, so that He who can sympathise with the ignorant may come also to you. Then you will receive the blessed gift of prayer.
71. You will not be able to pray purely while you are entangled in earthly affairs and constantly shaken by cares. Prayer is the laying aside of all thoughts.
72. A man who is bound cannot run, and an intellect that serves passion cannot see the place of spiritual prayer. Passionate thought drags it about and carries it off, and it cannot stop and stand unmoved.
73. When the intellect already prays purely and dispassionately, then the demons come to it not from the left but from the right. They present to it what appears to be the glory of God and show it some visible image pleasing to the senses, so that it may think it has reached the highest degree of prayer. A certain discerning man said that this happens through the passion of vainglory and through a demon who touches a certain place in the brain.
74. I think that the demon, when he touches that place in the brain, alters the light that surrounds the intellect, and so stirs the passion of vainglory into movement, and through it the intellect begins to think that it has attained the contemplation of God and of created beings. He is not troubled by bodily and unclean passions; he seems pure to himself, and therefore does not think that anything hostile is at work in him. So he receives as from God that appearance which comes to him from the demon, who acts with great cunning, altering through the brain the light that surrounds the intellect, as we have said.
75. The angel of God, standing before us, drives away from us all hostile activity and moves the light of the intellect to act without the power of delusion.
76. It is said in the Revelation about the angel that «there was given to him much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all the saints» (Rev. 8:3). I think this signifies the grace that acts through the angel and teaches us to pray truly, so that the intellect at last stands outside all confusion, despondency and slothfulness.
77. The «golden bowls full of incense» are «the prayers of the saints», offered by the twenty-four elders (Rev. 5:8). The bowl signifies friendship with God, or complete and spiritual love, in which prayer is accomplished in spirit and in truth.
78. When you think that you have no need of tears in prayer for the forgiveness of sins, then consider how far you have gone from God, though you ought always to be in Him, and you will weep more fervently.
79. Truly knowing your own measure, you will weep sweetly, reproaching yourself as Isaiah did: «I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell among a people of unclean lips» (Isa. 6:5) — and yet I dare to stand before the Lord of Hosts.
80. When you pray truly, you will receive much assurance, and angels will come to you as they came to Daniel (Dan. 6:23), and will make known to you the causes of all that happens.
81. Know that the holy angels guide us to prayer and stand with us, rejoicing and praying for us. But when we neglect prayer and accept contrary thoughts, we greatly anger them, since they undertake so great a struggle for us while we do not even wish to appease God for ourselves, but, despising our service and abandoning our Master and God, hold converse with unclean demons.
82. Pray gently and without confusion; chant with understanding and in harmony — and you will be like an eaglet borne up on high.
83. Psalmody calms the passions and quiets the intemperance of the body, while prayer by its influence acts upon the intellect.
84. Prayer is the activity befitting the dignity of the intellect, or rather its true use.
85. Psalmody is the beginning of the knowledge of manifold wisdom, and prayer is the first beginning of spiritual and manifold knowledge.
86. Contemplation is the best of works; it assists prayer, urging the noetic power of the intellect towards the contemplation of divine visions.
87. If you have not yet received the gift of prayer or of psalmody, ask unceasingly — and you will receive.
88. «He told them a parable, to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart» (Luke 18:1). Therefore do not be downcast or grow weary because you have not received something; you will receive it later. The parable ends with the words: «Though I neither fear God nor respect man, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will vindicate her» (Luke 18:4-5). So too God will vindicate those who cry out to Him day and night. Be of good soul, enduring firmly in holy prayer.
89. Do not wish that things should be with you as you wish, but as is pleasing to God concerning you. And you will be undisturbed and thankful in your prayer.
90. When you think that you are with God, beware of the demon of unchastity. For he is a great deceiver and full of envy. He wishes to be stronger than your struggle and the sobriety of your intellect, in order to draw your intellect away from God when it stands before God with fear and reverence.
91. When you are fervent in prayer, prepare yourself to repel demonic assaults and to bear their blows patiently. They will come upon you like wild beasts and will wound your whole body.
92. Come to such a state as an experienced ascetic: do not doubt when you suddenly see some apparition — as it were a sword against you or a burning candle; do not be confused when some shameful and treacherous form appears to you, and do not lose heart. Stand confessing the good confession, and look fearlessly upon your enemies.
93. He who bears afflictions will taste joy; he who tastes sorrow will not lose delight.
94. Take care that the wicked demons do not lead you astray with any visions; be attentive, turn to prayer and call upon God, that if the thought comes from Him, He Himself may enlighten you; and if not, that He may at once drive the deceiver away from you. Be bold, and these dogs will not remain near you when you run fervently to God in prayer. The power of God will strike them invisibly and unseen and will drive them far away.
95. It is right that you should not see these stratagems, how the demons sometimes divide among themselves. And when you think to ask for help, others enter in the guise of angels and drive away the first, in order to lead you astray in your thoughts about them, so that you may take them for true angels.
96. Labour to attain humility of mind and courage, and no demonic provocation will touch your soul, and no wound will come near your body, «for He will command His angels concerning you, to guard you» (Ps. 90:11), and they will invisibly drive away from you every hostile action.
97. Noise, stamping, cries and blows will be heard from the demons by the one who strives for pure prayer; but he will not fall or betray his purpose, saying to God: «I will fear no evil, for Thou art with me» (Ps. 22:4).
98. When such temptations come, keep a short but unceasing prayer.
99. When the demons hinder you, appearing suddenly out of the air, terrifying you and troubling your intellect, do not fear them and do not be confused. They frighten you in order to test whether you still notice them, or whether you pay them no attention at all.
100. When you stand at prayer before God the Almighty, the Creator and Provider of the universe, why do you stand so foolishly that you abandon the invincible fear of God and are afraid of gnats and beetles? Have you not heard Him who says: «You shall fear the Lord your God» (Deut. 6:13)? And again: «Him do all things fear and tremble before the face of His power» (cf. the Prayer of Manasseh).
101. As bread is food for the body and virtue for the soul, so the food of the intellect is spiritual prayer.
102. Pray not like the Pharisee but like the publican in the sacred place of prayer, that the Lord may justify you also.
103. Take care that you do not curse anyone in your prayer, lest, making your prayer hateful, you destroy what you were building.
104. Learn from the man who owed ten thousand talents: if you do not forgive your debtor, neither will you yourself receive forgiveness. For it is said that «his master handed him over to the torturers» (Matt. 18:34).
105. When you stand at prayer, forget the needs of the body, lest you lose the great gain of your prayer because a flea, or a louse, or a gnat, or a fly has bitten you.
106. A tradition has come down to us that one of the saints was praying, and the evil one so warred against him that, whenever the saint lifted up his hands, the devil turned into a lion, stood on his hind legs, dug his claws into the ascetic’s thighs and would not let go until the man lowered his hands. Yet the saint did not lower his hands until he had finished his customary prayers.
107. We have seen the same in John the Little, who was a great monk keeping stillness in a pit. He held converse with God and remained unmoved, while the demon, turning into a serpent, coiled around him, devoured his flesh and spewed it into his face.
108. I have also read in the life of the monks of Scetis about Abba Theodore: when he was speaking the Word to the brethren, two snakes crept beneath his feet; and he, undisturbed, arched his feet like a vault, and they crawled under them. Only when he had finished the Word did he show them to the brethren and tell them about it.
109. We have read also of another spiritual brother who, while he was praying, was approached by a viper which touched his foot. But he did not lower his hands until he had finished his customary prayer, and suffering no harm at all, he loved God more than himself.
110. Let your eye be attentive when you pray, and having renounced your body and your soul, live according to the intellect.
111. A certain saint who prayed firmly and kept stillness in the desert was shaken by the demons for two weeks and tossed into the air on a mat; but they did not manage to draw his intellect away from most fervent prayer.
112. With another lover of God, who offered prayer in his thought, two angels walked through the desert, one on either side of him; yet he paid them no attention at all, lest he should lose the better part. He remembered the words of the Apostle, who says: «Neither angels, nor principalities… nor powers, will be able to separate us from the love of Christ» (Rom. 8:38-39).
113. In prayer the monk becomes equal to the angels, desiring to see the face of the Heavenly Father.
114. Do not expect to receive any image or form during prayer.
115. Do not desire to see with the eyes of sense either angels, or powers, or Christ, lest you lose your reason, taking the wolf for the Shepherd and worshipping hostile demons.
116. The beginning of the intellect’s deception is vainglory; it moves the intellect to describe the Godhead in images and forms.
117. I shall go on saying what I have said to the youngest: blessed is the intellect that at the time of prayer has attained complete freedom from images.
118. Blessed is the intellect that, praying in stillness, begins to desire God more and more.
119. Blessed is the intellect that during prayer remains spiritual and free from possessiveness.
120. Blessed is the intellect that at the time of prayer has gained blessed patience.
121. Blessed is the monk who, after God, looks upon every person as upon a god.
122. Blessed is the monk who looks with all joy upon the salvation and progress of all.
123. Blessed is the monk who considers himself as refuse.
124. A monk is one who has withdrawn from all and is joined to all.
125. A monk is one who sees himself as one with all, and himself in each one.
126. He accomplishes prayer who always brings his first thoughts to God.
127. Cast away all falsehood and every oath if you wish to pray as a monk; and if not, you consider yourself a monk in vain.
128. If you wish to pray in the spirit, take nothing from the body, and you will have no cloud over you to darken you during prayer.
129. Entrust the needs of the body to God, and you will be as one who entrusts to Him the needs of the spirit.
130. When you receive the promises, you will reign. Looking towards them, you will endure the present poverty with joy.
131. Do not refuse poverty and affliction; they will make your prayer free.
132. Let the bodily virtues be for you a pledge of those of the soul, and those of the soul a pledge of the spiritual, and the spiritual a pledge of spiritual and essential knowledge.
133. When you pray, watch where your thoughts come from, even when they have grown quiet, so that you may not suffer an unexpected assault, and be led astray, and betray your own self.
134. Sometimes the demons throw thoughts at you and themselves urge you to pray against them or to contradict them — and then they themselves depart from you, so that you may fall into delusion and think of yourself that you have already begun to conquer the thoughts and to frighten the demons.
135. When you pray against a passion or a demon that presses upon you, remember him who said: «I will pursue my enemies and overtake them, and I will not turn back until they perish. I will crush them, and they shall not be able to stand; they shall fall under my feet» (Ps. 17:38-39). If you say this in season, you will arm yourself with humility of mind against your adversaries.
136. Do not think that you have gained a virtue until you have struggled for it to the point of blood. It is fitting to withstand sin courageously and blamelessly unto death (Heb. 12:4), as the divine Apostle said.
137. It happens that, having done something useful for one person, you suffer harm from another. Then you may grow angry or do something unseemly — and this is what the demons want, that you may scatter all you have gathered. Therefore it is fitting for you to be watchful over yourself.
138. When the assaults of the demons come upon you, watch that you do not fall into slavery to them.
139. The wicked demons trouble the spiritual teacher by night of themselves, and by day through people, circumstances, slanders and misfortunes.
140. Do not reject these tanners, though they beat, and push, and stretch, and tear. After this your garment will become bright.
141. As long as you have not turned away from the passions, and your intellect opposes the virtues and the truth, you will not find the fragrance of incense within yourself.
142. Do you wish to pray? Withdraw from everything here and dwell always in the heavens — not merely in word, but by angelic action and divine contemplation.
143. If you remember the Judge only in times of trouble, that He is fearful and incorruptible, then you have not yet learned to serve the Lord with fear and to rejoice in Him with trembling (Ps. 2:11). For know that even in spiritual relaxations and feasts it is fitting to serve Him with fear and reverence.
144. Wise is the man who, until he attains complete repentance, remembers with sorrow his transgressions and the righteous punishment for them in the eternal fire.
145. He who is caught up in transgressions and in the burning of anger and yet dares irreverently to press on towards the knowledge of the most divine realities, or even to take up spiritual prayer, let him remember that the Apostle forbids praying «with the head uncovered» (1 Cor. 11:5). The Apostle says that such a soul «ought to have a sign of authority on her head, because of the angels» (1 Cor. 11:10), clothing herself in reverence and humility of mind.
146. For one whose eyes are diseased it is not profitable to look at the sun at noon, in the greatest heat. So too for a passionate and unclean intellect it is not profitable to conceive of that fearful and supernatural prayer in spirit and in truth. On the contrary, he calls down upon himself the anger of the Godhead.
147. If He who needs nothing and demands nothing does not accept the one who comes with his gift to the altar until he is reconciled with his neighbour (Matt. 5:23-24), then consider what discernment and watchfulness we need, in order to offer God a pleasing fragrance on the noetic altar.
148. Do not be a lover of words or a lover of glory. For if you are either the one or the other, then it is not upon your back but upon your face that sinners will build (cf. Ps. 128:3), and you will be a joy to them at the time of prayer, for they will drag you along and lead you astray with unseemly thoughts.
149. When attentiveness seeks prayer, it finds it. Nothing else follows attentiveness but prayer, and it is prayer above all that must be sought.
150. Sight is the best of all the senses; prayer is the most divine of all the virtues.
151. The praise of prayer lies not only in quantity but also in quality. Of this bear witness those who «went up into the temple to pray» (Luke 18:10). And again it is said: «And when you pray, do not heap up empty words» (Matt. 6:7).
152. When you strive to please the body and your intellect hastens after the beauties of this life, then you have not yet seen the place of prayer, and you have far to go along this blessed path.
153. When, standing at prayer, you feel yourself higher than every other joy, then you have truly found prayer.