The same author: On stillness and the two ways of prayer, in fifteen chapters
Chapter 1. The two ways of communion with God
There are two ways of communion with God, or two entrances into the state of prayer, which the Holy Spirit sets in motion in the heart. According to these ways, either the intellect goes first, cleaving in the heart to the Lord (cf. Ps. 72:28), as the Scriptures say, or the anticipatory action of the Holy Spirit, with its fiery delight, draws the intellect and binds it to the invocation of the Lord Jesus and to communion with Him. Although the Holy Spirit works in everyone «as He wills» (1 Cor. 12:11), as the Apostle says, it sometimes happens that one action of the Spirit precedes another, as was said of the ways mentioned above. Sometimes the action of the Spirit takes place in the heart — that is, when the passions are diminished through the frequent invocation of the name of the Lord Jesus, for then a divine warmth appears: «Our God is a consuming fire» (Heb. 12:29) that consumes the passions, as the Scripture says. And sometimes the Spirit draws the intellect to itself, plunging it into the depths of the heart and restraining its wandering. Then the intellect no longer goes as a captive from Jerusalem to Assyria, but moves from Babylon to Zion and says with the prophet: «A hymn befits Thee, O God, in Zion, and to Thee shall a prayer be offered» (Ps. 64:2) in Jerusalem. And again: «How comforted we were when the Lord brought back the captivity of Zion» (Ps. 125:1). And again: «Let Jacob rejoice and let Israel be glad» (Ps. 13:8) — that is, the intellect that is both active and contemplative, which by action, with God’s help, overcomes passion, and by vision beholds God as far as it can comprehend Him. Then the intellect, as though called to a rich banquet, rejoicing in divine food, sings: «Thou hast prepared a table before me in the sight of those who afflict me» (Ps. 22:5) — that is, of demons and passions.
Chapter 2. How one should pray
«In the morning», says Solomon, «sow your seed» — that is, prayer — «and in the evening do not let your hand rest» (Eccl. 11:6), so that through a break in prayer you may not miss the moment when it will be heard: «For you do not know», says Solomon, «which will prosper, this or that» (ibid.). In the morning, sitting on your stool, a cubit high, direct your intellect from your head into your heart and hold it there; bend forward, as though in pain, and, feeling pain in your shoulders and neck, cry out with your intellect or with your soul: «Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me!» And, through this constraint and through frequent labour, and as though in sorrow, use these three names continually, as though you were consuming food. «Those who eat me», says the Scripture, «will hunger for more» (Sir. 24:21). Then, turning your intellect to the second part of the prayer, say: «Son of God, have mercy on me!» And, repeating this part of the prayer many times, do not change it back to the first out of slothfulness, as men usually do, for trees do not take root when they are often transplanted. Moreover, breathe with restraint and not excessively, for loud sighs rising from the heart darken the intellect and scatter the thoughts. They force the intellect out of the heart, drive it into forgetfulness, or induce it to occupy itself with something else it has no need to know. When you see the foulness of the evil spirits — that is, thoughts arising or being transformed in your intellect — do not be afraid; and even when some good understanding of certain things appears in you, do not listen to it, but, holding your breath as far as you can and keeping the intellect in your heart, calling often and persistently upon the name of the Lord Jesus, you will soon crush and destroy them, striking them with the invisible divine name. The author of the Ladder says: «With the name of Jesus lash the warriors, for there is no stronger weapon either in heaven or on earth».
Chapter 3. On breathing
How the breath is to be restrained is explained by Isaiah the solitary and by many others. Isaiah says that the unrestrained intellect must be held in check; it cannot be stopped because it is scattered by the opposing power which, on account of a careless life after baptism, has returned with other very evil spirits into the slothful soul, as the Lord says: «And the last state of that man is worse than the first» (cf. Matt. 12:45). And another says that on certain days the remembrance of God should take the place of breathing. And yet another says that love for God must go before the breath. And Symeon the New Theologian says: «Draw in your breath slowly, so that your breathing is not unruly».
Note: this means to bridle the pride of the spirit, and moreover to unite it with the Spirit of God and not with anything belonging to the senses.
And the author of the Ladder says: «Let the remembrance of Jesus be joined to your breath; then you will understand the benefit of stillness». And the Apostle says: «It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me» (Gal. 2:20) — acting and breathing divine life. And the Lord says: «The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit» (John 3:8) — taking the breath of the wind as an example. Since we have been cleansed in baptism, and the Spirit has taught us to receive Christ, and we have received, as James the brother of the Lord says, «the implanted word» (Jas. 1:21), and have been joined in communion with the One who is beyond communion and beyond change, all this in some manner deifies us, filling us to overflowing by the goodness of God. But we have neglected the commandments that preserve grace in us; through our slothfulness we have fallen into the passions, and instead of the breath of the Holy Spirit we have been filled with the breath of the evil spirits. He who has acquired the Holy Spirit, and whom the Holy Spirit has cleansed and warmed and inspired with divine life, both speaks and understands and moves according to the words of the Lord: «For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you» (Matt. 10:20). And on the contrary: «He who has within himself the spirit of the adversary, and is ruled by it, does and says what is contrary».
Note: this concerns a supernatural gift of God, given to the holy apostles of Christ.
Chapter 4. How one should chant
«When you have laboured», says the author of the Ladder, «rise, pray, and sitting down again take up your work». He said this of the work of the intellect, that is, of what should be done by those who have learned to guard the heart; but the same may be said of those who perform the chanting of psalms. It is told that the great Barsanuphius was once asked how one should chant. The elder answered: «The hours and the hymns are a tradition of the Church, and it is good that they were given for the sake of concord. But those who live in the desert do not chant the hours and have no hymns, but only handiwork, meditation in solitude, and short prayers». When you stand at prayer, it is fitting for you to say the Trisagion and the Our Father. Pray to God also that you may put off the old man and not grow rigid in him, and therefore let your intellect be at prayer all day long. And the elder explained further that meditation in solitude is prayer of the heart, and that the short prayers are the standing with psalmody. John of the Ladder says the same: «Stillness, freedom from care about all things and fervent prayer — this is the standing, and the third is the unstealable activity of the heart. The heart is the dwelling place of prayer, that is, of stillness».
Chapter 5. On the difference between those who chant the psalms
What does it mean that some teach one to chant much, others little, and others teach one not to chant at all, but to say the prayer and to work — that is, to labour at some craft, or to make prostrations, or to do some other simple work? This may be explained as follows: those who have acquired grace through works and many labours over many years teach others as they themselves are accustomed. They do not approve of the other way and do not trust those who have attained grace in a short time by God’s mercy through fervent faith, according to the words of St. Isaac. That is why they persecute such people, being robbed by ignorance and pride, and teach others that the other way is delusion and a falling away from grace. And they do not know that, according to the Scriptures, «It is easy in the sight of the Lord suddenly to make a poor man rich» (Sir. 11:21). And the book of Proverbs says: «The beginning of wisdom: acquire wisdom» (Prov. 4:7) — that is, grace. And the Apostle rebukes the disciples of that time, saying: «Do you not know your own selves, that Jesus Christ dwells in you?» (2 Cor. 13:5) — because of your slothfulness you gain nothing. Therefore such people, out of unbelief and high-mindedness, do not recognise the special working of prayer, which is caused by the Holy Spirit.
Chapter 6. Objections against those who think in this way
Tell me, you who speak thus: when someone fasts, practises abstinence, keeps vigil, stands, makes prostrations, weeps and goes without — is this not action? Why do you say that without action, by chanting psalms alone, one cannot preserve prayer? Is not all this action too?
Answer: What use is it for someone to pray while his intellect wanders? When one builds and another tears down, there will be nothing but labour. For what a man does with his body, let him do with his intellect also, so that he may not be righteous only in his body while his heart is full of unbelief and impurity. The Apostle proclaims this, saying: «For if I pray in a tongue» — that is, with the mouth — «my spirit prays», or my voice, «but my mind is unfruitful. I will pray with the spirit, but I will pray with the mind also. In the Church I would rather speak five words with my mind, so as to teach others, than ten thousand words in a tongue» (1 Cor. 14:14-15, 19). And the Ladder confirms these words of the Apostle, saying in its Discourse on prayer: «The great doer of great and perfect prayer says this: I would rather speak five words with my mind, so as to teach others, than ten thousand words in a tongue». There are many kinds of activity, but they are partial, whereas prayer of the heart is a great and capacious activity, the source of the virtues. According to the words of the author of the Ladder, by prayer you may obtain every good thing. «There is no more fearful thought than the thought of death, and no more beautiful remembrance than the remembrance of God», says St. Maximus, thus showing the supremacy of the work of prayer. In our own time some do not even wish to hear that grace exists, being clouded by great insensibility, by misunderstanding and by little faith.
Chapter 7
I think that those who chant little, keeping to moderation, do well. Every measure is good, according to the words of the wise, so that not all the strength of the intellect is spent on outward actions and the intellect may be zealous in prayer and not grow weak in it. Therefore let those who chant little devote more time to prayer. It is right that, when he has wearied the intellect with regular and frequent invocation and persistent attentiveness, the one who keeps stillness should receive a little consolation and pass from the narrowness of stillness into the spaciousness of psalmody. This practice is very good, and this teaching is the wisdom of men.
Chapter 8
And those who do not chant at all also do well, if they are mature in spirit. They have no need to recite psalms, for they have stillness, unceasing prayer and contemplation. If you have matured in illumination unto communion with God, then let such people not tear their intellect away from this and not trouble it with other things. The author of the Ladder says that the downfall of a novice is his self-will, and for one who keeps stillness it is the abandonment of prayer (Step 27). The intellect of one who keeps stillness commits adultery when it departs from the remembrance of God, as from the remembrance of the Bridegroom, and willingly takes up matters of less importance. Not everyone can be taught this practice. It can be taught to simple and unlearned disciples, for through humility their obedience becomes a partaker of every virtue; but it is not given to the disobedient, lest they be led astray by their coarseness and their love of their own reasoning. «A self-willed man cannot avoid high-mindedness, and delusion follows after it», says St. Isaac. Some, without considering the future harm, teach the intellect to remember God so that it may love Him; they teach that this alone should be preserved, and this cannot be done, especially of one’s own will. Their intellect has not yet been cleansed — for it is cleansed by tears — because of carelessness and high-mindedness, and so it sees before it foul thoughts rather than prayer. And in the heart the unclean spirits are troubled, because they hear the name of God. They gnash their teeth a little, trying to kill the one who wounds them. Therefore, when a self-willed man hears about this practice, or learns of it and wishes to preserve it, he will suffer harm one way or the other: when he forces himself and is tempted, he will not preserve it; and if he is careless, he will have no spiritual growth in all his life.
Chapter 9
I shall speak as one who has some experience. When, by day or by night, you are keeping stillness, praying often to God in humility and without thoughts, and your intellect grows numb with calling, and your body aches, and your heart, because of the intense and frequent invocation of Jesus, feels neither warmth nor joy — from which watchfulness and endurance are born in an ascetic — then rise and chant psalms alone or with your disciple, or occupy yourself with learning some passage, or with the remembrance of death, or with handiwork, or with something else, or listen to a reading while standing, so as to give your body work. And when you chant alone, say the Trisagion, and then pray — with the intellect or with the soul, keeping attentiveness inwardly in your heart. And when despondency comes upon you, recite two or three psalms and troparia that lead to compunction, without chanting, for the author of the Ladder says that «those who keep stillness do not chant». «Sufficient for them is the pain of heart that comes from their reverence», says St. Mark, «and the warmth of the Spirit, which is given to them for gladness of joy». After each psalm say a prayer with the intellect or with the soul, without chanting, and the Alleluia. This is the order of the holy fathers Barsanuphius and Diadochus and others. Saint Basil advises changing the psalms every day, because this encourages zeal. And he does not say that in chanting the same thing the intellect feels no pleasure, but that it loves to give freedom to its state, so that it may be strengthened in zeal. When you stand chanting with a faithful disciple, let him recite the psalms while you secretly keep attentiveness in your heart and, praying, watch over yourself and with the help of prayer examine the thoughts that come from the heart, whether from the senses or from the mind. Stillness means to set aside for a time thoughts that do not come from the divine Spirit, so that, listening to them as if they were good, you may not lose something greater.
Chapter 10. On delusion
Watch carefully, labourer of God: when you are doing your work and see light or fire outside you or within you, or some apparition — that is, of Christ or of an angel or of someone else — do not accept it, so that you may not suffer harm and so that you yourself, having paid attention to it, may not allow your inner state to fashion something like it. Such things come out of season from outside to tempt the soul. The true beginning of prayer is the warmth of the heart, which burns up the passions and brings joy to the soul with love, and confirms the heart with an unmistakable assurance. Everything that comes to the soul, say the fathers, whether it belongs to the senses or to the mind, when the heart doubts it and does not accept it, has not come from God but from the enemy. And when you see that your intellect is being drawn by some invisible power to outward or to lofty things, do not believe it and do not allow your intellect to be dragged along, but make it return at once to its work. «What is sent to us from God», said St. Isaac, «comes of itself, unexpectedly». When the enemy transforms spiritual things among the natural workings, as he wishes, and instead of warmth instils his own disordered burning, then how hard it becomes for the soul to be in such delusion — when instead of spiritual gladness the enemy produces unreasoning joy and a sluggish sweetness, from which come high-mindedness and arrogance. The enemy hides his workings from the inexperienced and tries to present his delusion as the work of grace. Nevertheless, time, experience and feeling reveal him to those who suspect his tricks. According to the Scriptures, the palate discerns the taste of food — that is, the spiritual taste — and unerringly shows everything as it really is.
Chapter 11. On reading
«When you are in the active life», says the Ladder, «read those who write about action. When you fulfil their counsel, you will need no other reading». Read always about stillness and prayer in the Ladder, in St. Isaac, in St. Maximus, in Symeon the New Theologian and his disciple Stethatos, in Hesychius, in Philotheos of Sinai and others like them — whatever they write on this subject. And set all other books aside for a certain time, as unsuitable for you and as distracting your intellect from prayer. Do not be proud of your voice, nor fall into vainglory over your good pronunciation and fluency in reading. Do not imagine that you read in order to please anyone. Everything is good in moderation: not too fast, not carelessly and slothfully, but in a manner that is worthy, gentle, steady, understanding, kindly, and both with the senses and with the intellect — or aloud. The intellect, strengthened in this, gains strength through the habit of praying with zeal. Otherwise, as we said before, the intellect grows dizzy, weak and frantic, the head becomes unable to think, and it grows weak in prayer.
Chapter 12
Always pay attention to your inclination and to what it tends towards: whether you truly keep stillness for God’s sake and for the benefit of the soul, or whether you chant, or read, or pray, or practise some virtue — so that the enemy may not rob you without your noticing it, so that you may not be a doer only in appearance, serving not God but men. The tricks of the evil one are many, and he cunningly spies out what our intention is inclined to, which many do not know; and he always wants to rob us of our work, so that it is not done according to God. Although he fights unceasingly and advances shamelessly, yet if your intention is firm he will not be able to rob you often; and even if he causes your will to be stirred against your intent, you will be forgiven and praised by Him who knows the intentions and the heart. This passion, that is, vainglory, does not allow a monk to make progress in virtue, and in old age it proves fruitless in all three states: in the beginner, in the intermediate and in the perfect.
Having seen this from experience, I say that a monk will never succeed without such virtues as these: fasting, abstinence, courage, watchfulness, prayer, silence, weeping and humility. These are the virtues that produce and support one another. Frequent fasting produces abstinence; abstinence, watchfulness; watchfulness, patience; silence, prayer; stillness, weeping; and weeping, humility. Among the virtues there is no greater interdependence than this. And the same is true of the vices opposed to the virtues.
It is fitting here to speak also of labours and pains, so as to show how each action should be carried out, lest anyone, passing over our labour as he himself has heard of it, should not receive its fruit and should accuse us or someone else of it not being in reality as we said. Through the pain of the heart and the labour of the body the work of truth is accomplished, and through them is revealed the working of the Holy Spirit, which is given to every believer at baptism, and which, when the commandments are not fulfilled, is buried under the passions and awaits our repentance for the sake of God’s indescribable mercy. May we not hear at the end, on account of our barrenness, such words as: «Take the talent from him… take away even what he thinks he has» (cf. Matt. 25:28-29), and be sent to eternal torment, suffering pain in Gehenna as those who did not accept communion with God, or who, having accepted it, rejected it. Every action, whether of the body or of the soul, when it is without pain and labour, never bears fruit for the one who performs it, for «the Kingdom of Heaven is taken by force», says the Lord, «and the violent take it by force» (Matt. 11:12). Force here means the feeling of pain throughout the whole body. Although many have laboured, or labour for many years, yet do not feel pain, they do not perform their labour from a sincere heart, and they do not acquire purity and the Holy Spirit, because they have refused to endure pain. Someone may be careless and sluggish, so that it only seems that he works hard; but such a man will never reap fruit from his freedom from pain, for he feels no pain at all. A witness of this says: «Even if our life is a great feat, yet if the heart feels no pain, our efforts are unreal and useless».
Note: the attentive father, in speaking of force or of the feeling of pain that should be proper to an ascetic, does not teach that the Christian — who has not received the spirit of servile fear but the spirit of sonship, and who is free — should do violence to himself; rather he spiritually leads the soldier of Christ into the struggle, so that, armed with faith, patience, humility, all self-restraint and dispassion, and moreover with virtue and life in Christ, according to St. John Chrysostom, he may wage war and take the Kingdom of Heaven as a stronghold, though it may seem to us unattainable.
And it also happens that, though we go through pain, yet out of despair we resort to useless cares, and our soul is darkened, for it thinks that in such cares it will find relief; but this is impossible. Then we become as though bound with invisible fetters, unmoved and unfit for any work, for weakness has increased in us — especially if we are beginners; for the perfect, everything is useful in measure. The great Ephrem bears witness to this, saying: «When you labour, labour with effort, so as to avoid the exertion of futile labours». If our limbs do not grow dry from weakness, worn out by the labours of fasting, and if the pains of suffering do not begin, «as of a woman in travail» (Isa. 21:3), in the words of the prophet, then we shall not give birth to the spirit of salvation in the earth of the heart, as you have already heard. We shall only boast of our years, and of a desert that profits nothing, and of a feeble stillness, as though these were great feats. And when the soul goes out of the body, then without doubt we shall know all the fruits of our life.
Note: the author of the Ladder, from Step 7.
Chapter 15
It is impossible for a man to accustom himself to the practice of the virtues on his own, though some have relied on their own experience as on a teacher. He who acts from himself and not by the counsel of the perfect is either high-minded, or high-mindedness will be born in him. Even the Son does nothing of Himself, but does as the Father taught Him, and the Holy Spirit does not speak of Himself. Is there anyone who has attained such lofty virtue that he needs no one to lead him into the mysteries? He is deluded, and it seems that he has in him more pride than virtue. Therefore it is fitting to listen to those who know the labours of the active virtues, and to preserve the virtues as they teach: such fasting as makes you feel hunger, an abstinence that is unpleasant, patient vigil, weariness from prostrations, unmoving standing that wearies the body, unceasing prayer, unfeigned humility, constant prayer and sighing, silence in speech as though seasoned with salt, and patience towards all. It is not fitting always to remain at rest, or merely to sit, unless you are old or ill. «You shall eat the fruit of the labour of your hands» (Ps. 127:2), says the Scripture. And it is also said that «the Kingdom of Heaven is taken by force» (Matt. 11:12). And so strive every day to accomplish the aforementioned works with pain, that is, as an ascetic, and in due time you will gather the fruits with God.