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The beginning of traveling and the search for unceasing prayer

            I am a man by the grace of God, a Christian, a great sinner in deeds, a wandering pilgrim of the lowest order, wandering from place to place. My abode is this: a bag of biscuits on my back,  and a Bible in my bosom; that is all. On the twenty-fourth week after Troyitsy, I came to church for lunch to pray; the Apostle was reading from the letter to the Corinthians, the beginning 273, in which it is said: pray without ceasing . This expression came to me especially in mind, and I began to think how one can pray unceasingly, when one needs to take care of one’s life and other things as well. I carried the Bible with me, and there I saw with my own eyes what I heard – that we must pray unceasingly, pray with the spirit at all times, put on prayerful hands at every place. I thought and thought, and had no idea how to do it.

I wonder what I should do, thought I, where I could find someone to explain to me? I’ll go to the churches where good preachers are known, and perhaps I’ll hear something worth knowing. And so I went. I heard many great sermons about prayer. But none of them talked about how to achieve success in prayer. There was preaching about prayer in the spirit and about constant prayer; but no one said how to achieve such prayer. So listening to sermons did not lead me to the desired. Why, after listening to them and not gaining an understanding of how to pray constantly, did I stop listening to public sermons and decided to, with God’s help, seek out an experienced and knowledgeable companion who could explain to me about constant prayer, about the inexorable desire of my soul for this knowledge. For a long time I wandered from place to place, I read the Bible, and I asked whether there was no experienced spiritual teacher or pious experienced guide. At times I was told that a certain man had lived in this village for a long time; he had a church in his house, did not travel far away, and prayed to God constantly, and read spiritual books. Hearing this, I no longer walked, but ran to the village where he lived. I reached it and approached the landowner.

            Dear Father! – I said.

            Well, how can you be saved? Live by the commandments, and pray to God: that’s all there is to it! 

            I hear that we must pray incessantly, but I don’t know how to pray incessantly, and I can’t even understand what it means to pray incessantly. Please, Father, explain it to me.

            I don’t know, dear brother, how else to explain to you. E!  Wait, I have a book here, it’s all explained; and Saint Dimitri has a spiritual instruction for the inner man.  Read on this page. 

            I started reading the following: “The Apostolic sayings: pray incessantly – we must understand by this a prayer that is active in the mind: the mind can always be concentrated on God and incessantly pray to Him. 

            Explain to me how the mind can always be concentrated in God, not distracted, and pray incessantly. 

            This is very strange, only God Himself can give it to someone, said the abbot.  And he did not explain. 

            After resting in him, and on the morning after thanking him for his kind hospitality, I set out on my way again, not knowing where I was going.  I was burning with my lack of understanding, and for consolation, I read the Holy Bible.  I walked on for many days on a great road;  at last, in the evening, a certain old man caught up with me, who looked as if he belonged to the spiritual life. 

            When I asked him, he said that he was a skhi-ereemona (an anchorite), from a desert about 10 versts away from the great road, and invited me to join him in their desert.  In their place, he said, they welcome pilgrims, comfort and feed them together with the monastic brethren in a hostel. 

            I did not really want to go there, and I answered his invitation thus: “My peace does not depend on my lodging, but on my spiritual disposition; I don’t care about food either, I have plenty of bread in my bag.”

            What kind of advice are you looking for, and what are you amazed about?  Come, come, dear brother, to us; we have experienced elders who can give us spiritual sustenance and guide us on the right path, in the light of God’s word and the rulings of the holy fathers. 

Meeting with the Elder and the first lessons of prayer

            Well, Father, about a year ago, as I was at the breakfast table, I heard in the chapel such a commandment: “Pray continually.” Not understanding this, I began reading the Bible. And in many places there I found God’s command that we should pray continuously, always, at any time, in any place, not only in our activities: not only in the hours of fire, but even in our sleep. “I sleep, and my heart watches” (Psalm 121:4). This greatly amazed me, and I could not understand how it could be done and what methods were involved; it aroused a keen desire and interest in me, and day and night my mind could not find any means of carrying it out. So I began to go to the churches, to listen to sermons on prayer; but however many of them I listened to, I did not receive any instructions on how to pray continuously; everything was merely stated about the preparation for prayer or its fruits, and so on, without teaching how one should pray continuously and what such prayer is. I often read the Bible and checked what I had heard with it; but in doing so, I did not find the desired knowledge. And so I remained in wonder and perplexity.

The elder crossed himself and began to speak: Thank God, dear brother, for this discovery. In you there is an invincible desire for knowing the unceasing inner prayer. Recognize in this a gift of God and be at peace, certain that until this time you have been tested to see if your will conforms to the voice of God, and you have been instructed to understand that it is not by the wisdom of this world, nor by external curiosity, that one attains heavenly light, unceasing inner prayer, but rather by the simplicity of the heart. And therefore, it is not surprising that you could not hear about the essential matter of prayer and learn the science of how to attain its unceasing effect. And to be honest, although many preach about prayer, and there are many treatises on it by various writers, yet since all their reasoning is based mostly on speculation, on the reasoning of natural reason, and not on active experience, they teach about the obligation of prayer more than about its essence. One perfectly reasons about the necessity of prayer; another about its power and goodness; a third about the means to perfection of prayer, that is, about the fact that for prayer, diligence, attention, warmth of heart, purity of thought, reconciliation with enemies, humility, sorrow, and so on, are necessary. And what then is prayer? how can one learn to pray?  about these, although they are the first and most necessary questions, we seldom find detailed explanations from preachers of our time; therefore their reasoning on all these is more difficult to understand and requires a mysterious course of study, rather than only a school science. And what is yet more regrettable is that futile, spontaneous wisdom leads us to measure the divine by the human. Many people think of the matter of prayer in a completely different way, believing that preparatory means and ascetic practices produce prayer, and not prayer that produces ascetic practices and all virtues. In this case, they wrongly take the fruits or consequences of prayer for the means and methods to it, and thus depreciate the power of prayer. And this is highly objectionable to sacred Scripture: for the Apostle Paul gives instruction on prayer in such words: “I pray, first of all, to create prayers.”  Here the first instruction in the Apostle’s expression on prayer is that he entrusts the matter of prayer to the first place: “I pray, first of all, to create prayers.” Many good works are required of a Christian, but the matter of prayer must be first, because without it, no other good deed can take place. One cannot find the way to the Lord without prayer, understand the truth, free the flesh from passions and desires, enlighten the heart with the light of Christ, and be saved by grace and grace without prior, frequent prayer. I speak of frequent prayer, because both the perfection and correctness of prayer are left to our opportunity, as the Apostle Paul says: we shall pray with fasting, as we ought, not knowing how. Therefore, only frequency, constancy has been left to our ability as a means to achieve the purity of prayer that is the mother of every spiritual good. Hold fast to this mother, and it will give you offspring, says St. Isaac the Syrian, learn to acquire the first prayer and you will easily perform all the virtues.

            In this conversation, we have unobtrusively come close to the desert itself. In order not to lose this wise old man, but rather to obtain permission for my wish, I hurried to say to him: do me the grace, honorable father, explain to me what continuous interior prayer means and how to learn it: I see that you know this in detail and have experience of it.

– Among the God-given gifts, I long for to receive that of receiving the Blessed Mother. What shall I do in order to receive it?

            The old man accepted my request with love and called me to him: come to me now, and I will give you the book of the holy fathers, from whom you can clearly and in detail understand and learn prayer with the help of God. We entered the cell, and the old man began to say the following: continuous interior Jesus prayer is a continuous, never ceasing, invocation of the divine name of Jesus Christ through the mouth, mind and heart, with the vision of His constant presence, and the petition for His forgiveness, in all occupations of every occupation. It manifests itself in the words: Lord, Jesus Christ, have mercy on me! And if one habituates to this invocation, he will experience great solace, and the need to do this prayer always in such a way that he can no longer live without it, and it will flow out of him on its own.

Now do you understand what is unceasing prayer? – Very well, my father! In the name of God, teach me how to achieve it! – I exclaimed with joy.

Reading “The Book of Purity of Heart” and spiritual progress

How to learn prayer, we will read about in this book. This book is called The Book of Purity of Heart. It contains a complete and detailed doctrine of continuous interior prayer, set out by twenty-nine holy fathers, and it is so high and useful that it is considered the principal and primary teacher in contemplative spiritual life, and, as Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker declares, “without labor and effort it introduces into salvation” (his Synaxarion).

            – Is it higher and more holy than the Bible? – I asked.

– No, it is not higher and more holy than the Bible, but it contains light explanations of what is hidden in the Bible, hidden from the limited human mind as the sun is to its light. I can give you one example: the sun is the greatest, most brilliant, and most wonderful of the lights; but it is not possible for an unshielded eye to behold and contemplate it. A certain artificial glass is needed, though millions of times inferior and dull to the sun, through which one could observe this magnificent king of lights, feast one’s eyes on its rays, and admire its shining beauty. Thus, the Holy Scriptures are the brilliant sun, and the Book of Purity of Heart is the glass through which one can contemplate this wonderful light by the light of Christ, receive His warmth, light, and embrace it in the power of awakened faith.

Now listen— I will read how to learn unceasing inner prayer. – The Elder opened the Book of Love and Brotherly Communion, found the instruction of Saint Symeon the New Theologian, and began: “Sit without speaking and alone, bow your head, close your eyes; breathe quietly, look with your imagination into the heart, shut the mind, that is, the thought from the head into the heart. When breathing, say: ‘Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me. Expel thoughts, be patient, and repeat this exercise more often.’

Then the Elder explained all this to me, showed me an example of it, and we also read from the Book of Love and Brotherly Communion of St. Gregory the Sinaiite, and St. Kalist and Ignatius. The Elder explained to me everything we read in The Book of Love and Brotherly Communion, and also in his own words. I listened with great interest, absorbed it all, and tried to memorize it as best I could. So we sat up all night and, not having slept, went to the morning hours.

          When he dismissed me, he blessed me and told me to go to him with a sincere confession and revelation, because it is inconvenient and unproductive to engage in inner work without the guidance of a confessor.

Still standing in the church, I felt a burning determination to study uninterrupted inner prayer even more intensely and asked God to help me. Then I thought about how to go to the Elder for counsel or to confess; after all, one is not allowed to stay at the hostel longer than three days, and there are no apartments near the desert. After all, I heard that 4 versts are 3 miles. So I went there to look for a place to stay for the summer. And to my joy, God showed me a convenient place. I hired a man to guard the garden there for the whole summer, so that I could live alone in a cottage on the garden itself. Thank God! I found a peaceful place. And so I began to live and learn how to pray uninterruptedly, and to go to the Elder.

         For a week I diligently studied how to learn uninterrupted prayer, exactly as the Elder had explained to me. At first, it seemed to be going well. But then I felt a heavy burden, laziness, boredom, overpowering sleep, and various thoughts were crowding me. With sorrow, I went to the Elder and told him about my situation. He, receiving me affectionately, began to say: “This, dear brother, is a struggle against the dark world, for nothing is more terrible for us than heart prayer, and therefore it is doing everything possible to prevent you from it, and to distract you from learning prayer. However, the enemy acts not otherwise than by the will of God and by His grace, as much as is necessary for us. Clearly, you still need to be tested for humility; and therefore it is too early for you to engage with the highest entrance of the heart with excessive zeal, so as not to fall into materialistic piety.”

Here I will read you about this practice from the “Love of Servants” [Dobrotolubye]. The elder found a teaching by the monk Nikhifor, and he began to read: “If you have labored a little and have not been able to enter the country of the heart as you were told, do, as I say, and with God’s help you will find what you seek. You know that the faculty of the heart is in everyone’s throat. If you wish) and allow it to speak continuously this: “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me!”

I used to follow this pattern until the day I heard of the Master being close by. I began to visit him secretly and told him about my life. He then sent me a message, saying: “From tomorrow, keep very closely to your devotions and recite twelve thousand prayers day and night.

            Then he went to the elder for enlightenment and told him in detail. He, after listening, began to say: glory to God that such a hunting spirit and a lightness of prayer have been revealed in you. This is a natural thing that comes from frequent exercise and asceticism, like a machine that is given a push or a force to its main wheel that has been operating for a long time by itself; and in order to keep it going, this wheel needs to be oiled and pushed. Do you see, what wonderful abilities the loving God bestowed on the sensual nature of man, which can be felt outside of grace and not in a purified sensuality and in a sinful soul, as you yourself have already experienced? And how wonderfully, wonderfully and delightfully it is when the Lord graciously opens the gift of spontaneous spiritual prayer and cleanses the soul from passions? This state is not portrayed, and the discovery of this prayerful mystery is a foretaste of the sweetness of heaven on earth. The Lord’s humble heart will love this! Now I allow you: make your prayer as much as you want, most of the time try to dedicate it to prayer and without hesitation call on the name of Jesus Christ, humbly surrendering yourself to the will of God and expecting help from Him: I believe that He will not leave you and will guide your path.

            Having accepted this instruction, I spent the entire summer in constant oral prayer to Jesus, and I was very peaceful. In my sleep I often dreamed that I was making a prayer. And on the day when I happened to meet someone, all those people appeared to me as beloved ones, even though I did not do anything with them. All thoughts completely ceased, and I did not think about anything except prayer, to which I began to incline my mind, and my heart itself began to feel warmth and a certain pleasure. When it happened to come to church, the long empty service seemed short, and it was no longer tiring for the soul, as it had been before. My isolated chapel seemed to me a wonderful temple, and I did not know how to thank God for sending such a pitiful and sinful old man and a teacher to me.

The death of the elder and the beginning of an independent path

            But I did not enjoy the instructions of my beloved and wise elder for long; at the end of summer he died. I, with tears, took leave of him, thanking him for his parental teaching of me, the wretched sinner, and asked for a prayer cord after him as a blessing. So I was left alone. Finally, the summer ended, and the city was cleaned up. I had nowhere to live. My man calculated me, gave me two tsilkovs for watch and heaped a bag of cabbage rolls on the road, and I once again set out to wander about in various places; but I no longer walked as I did before, with necessity; the call of the name of Jesus Christ cheered me on the way, and all the people seemed to be nicer to me, it seemed as if everyone loved me.

Once I began to think about where I should spend the money I had been given to keep the town safe, and what I should do with it. E! Come on! There is no Old Man to teach me now, so I will buy myself Brotolubie and learn to pray on my own. I crossed myself and set out on my way, praying. I came to a provincial town and began to ask around for Brotolubie. I found one book, but they wanted three ruble coins for it, and I had only two. I traded, bargained, but the merchant wasn’t willing to give in. In the end, he said: “Go to this church and ask the rector. He has an old book that he might give you for two ruble coins.” So I went and bought Brotolubie for two ruble coins, all torn and worn out; I was thrilled. I taped it, wrapped it in cloth, and put it into my Bible.I journeyed to many places with the prayerful accompaniment of Jesus that encouraged and comforted me in all ways, in all places of encounter and in all circumstances. At last I had the feeling that it would be better to stop somewhere, not just for quiet seclusion but also for the purpose of studying the Book of Charity, which I had been reading bit by bit during my overnight stops or in my daytime halt; however, I had a strong desire to immerse myself completely in it and to draw from it a real orientation towards the salvation of the soul through heartfelt prayer. But according to this desire, I could not find anywhere a permanent rest or a job to do, due to the fact that my left hand had not functioned since childhood; therefore, being in such impossibilities as to have a permanent place to rest, I went into the Siberian lands, to the Saint Innocent of Irkutsk, hoping that I would be able to wander through the forests and steppes undisturbed and thus be able to engage in prayer and study more conveniently. So I went, and I constantly prayed in silence. After a short time I felt that prayer itself began to become somehow internal to my heart, that is, the heart began to “say” its prayerful words within itself with its beating, for example: 1) Lord, 2) Jesus, 3) Christ, and so on. I ceased to say the prayer with my lips, and began to listen carefully to what the heart speaks; I remembered how the late elder had described it as pleasant. Then I began to feel a delicate pain in the heart, and in my thoughts I experienced such a love for Jesus Christ that it seemed as if I would run to His feet and not let go of them, caressing them with tears, but thanks to the fact that He bestows such satisfaction for His name, He provides grace.

Further, a kind of beneficial warming up in the heart began to manifest itself, and this warmth stretched throughout the breast. This drew me in particular to a diligent reading of the Book of Charity, in order to trust my feelings as well as to study further in the practice of inner heart prayer, for I feared that without this trust I might fall into a spiritual ecstasy or accept natural actions as miraculous, thereby recording a rapid acquisition of prayer, as I heard from the late elder. Therefore, I walked more at night and spent most of my days reading the Book of Charity, sitting in the forest under the trees. Oh, how much new, how much wise and hitherto unknown is revealed in reading! By practicing in it, I gained such pleasure that I had not been able to imagine before. Although some passages were incomprehensible when reading to my foolish mind, the results, that come from heart prayer, made my misunderstanding clear; moreover, I sometimes saw the late elder in a dream, who interpreted many things for me, and increasingly inclined my foolish soul towards humility. For two summer months I enjoyed it so much. I travelled more through forests and pathways: if I came to a village, I would ask for a sack of wheat, a handful of salt, and a bag of burak water, and then I would again take a hundred step.

From my sins, or the fallenness of my soul, or my need for spiritual life, or from a better instruction and experience, at the end of summer, temptations began to appear. In particular, I went out on a long road, in the twilight, two men, who looked like soldiers’ heads, came to me and demanded money. When I said that I had no penny, they did not believe me and shouted insolently: “You are a liar! Wanderers make a lot of money!” One of them said: “What good is it to talk to him,” and hit me with his staff on the head so that I fell unconscious. I do not know how long I lay unconscious; but when I woke up, I saw that I was lying next to the forest on the road, all stricken and my bag was missing; only the ropes were cut, on which it was carried. Thank God that they did not take my passport, which was lying in my old hat, in case they demanded proof immediately. When I got up, I cried bitterly, not so much from the headache as from the fact that they took away my books, the Bible and the Dobrotolyubstvo, which were in the bag. I did not stop sighing or crying either day or night. Where is my Bible, which I have read since childhood and always had with me? Where is my Dobrotolyubstvo, from which I received both instruction and comfort. I have lost my first and last treasure in my life without having tasted it yet. It would be better for me to be killed than to live without this spiritual food! I can no longer buy it again!

Suddenly, on the way, I saw a stage with lockers led by a convoy. Comparing them to myself, I saw two men who had robbed me, and since they were walking on the edge of the others, I fell at their feet and begged them to tell me where my books were. At first, they did not pay attention to me, and then one of them began to say: If you give us something, we will tell you where your books are. Give us everything. I promised that I would give it, no matter what, even for the sake of Christ, and I offered them my passport as a pledge. They replied that my books were being transported in the convoy, along with other items stolen from them. How can I get them? Ask the captain who is escorting us. I rushed to the captain and explained everything to him in detail. By the way, he asked me: Do you know how to read the Bible? Not only can I read everything, I answered, but I can also write; you can see on the Bible that it is my own. And my passport also states the same name and surname. The captain began to say: These are fugitive soldiers who are robbers. They were living in a foxhole and robbed many people. They were caught the day before yesterday by a clever landsman who they wanted to cheat of three marks. Apparently, I will give you your books when they are here, but please come with us for the night; it is not far away, four versts away, and the stage and convoy will not stop for you. I happily walked alongside the superior captain’s horse, talking to him. I noticed that he was a good and honest man who was not young anymore. He asked me who I was, where I was going, and where I was going. I answered all of these questions honestly, and so we reached the barracks of the night stage. He found my books and gave them to me, and said: Where do you have to go at night, stay with me in the hallway. I stayed there.

We sat down at the table, the captain began telling: “From a young age, I had served in the army, not in a garrison; I knew the rank and enjoyed the respect of my superiors as an officer. But the years were young, so were my friends; by misfortune and habit, I became an alcoholic, and in the end, I developed a terrible illness; when I wasn’t drinking, I was a worthy officer, but when I smoked, I was in bed for six weeks. They tolerated me for a long time, but at the end, due to the harshness of my supervisor, which was expressed in all kinds of ways, they dismissed me as a soldier for three years, with a transfer to the garrison; and if I didn’t improve and did not stop drinking, they threatened me with the most severe punishment. In this unfortunate state, I tried hard to hold my foot, and no matter how much I tried, I could not leave my addiction, and that is why they wanted to transfer me to the detention ranks. When I heard this, I didn’t know what to do.

Having listened to this, I told him: “What can I do to help your Gospel, when all my efforts and neither medical aids could keep me?” I said this because I had never read the Gospels. Don’t say that, the monk objected, I assure you it will be of benefit. The next day the monk brought me this Gospel. I opened it, looked at it, read it, and said: “I won’t take it; you won’t understand anything here; and I don’t know how to read the Church seal.” The monk kept insisting that there is a powerful grace in the words of the Gospel; for it contains what God himself has said. It is not necessary to have an understanding; just read it carefully. One saint said that if you don’t understand the Word of God, the demons understand what you’re reading, and they tremble; for the passion of drunkenness must incite the demons to act. But let me tell you this: John Chrysostom says that even the church in which the Gospel is kept frightens the demons with its smell, and is vulnerable to their trickery. I don’t remember – I gave something to the monk, took the Gospel and put it in a chest with all my other belongings, and I forgot about it. After some time came the moment when I wanted to ask for a death warrant, and I opened the chest rather carelessly to get some money and dash off to the inn. I saw the Gospel first, and I quickly recalled all that the monk had said to me, and opened it, and began reading Matthew’s Chapter 1. After reading it to the end, I didn’t understand anything; and I remembered that the monk had said: “There is no need to misunderstand; just read carefully.” Let’s say, I read the second chapter; as soon as I started it, there was a bell ringing in the barracks: “To the bunk.” So it was not possible to go out through the gate, and I stayed there.Listen, since I was cured from drunkenness, I have made a vow to read the Gospel every day for the rest of my life, every day for an entire Evangelist; despite any obstacles. I now do this. If there is too much work, and I get very tired, then in the evening, lying down, I force my wife or my son to read the entire Evangelist to me, so I consistently keep this rule. For the sake of God’s glory, I’ve turned this Gospel into pure silver and always wear it on my breast.

After passing a span of 50 versts along a large road, I decided to turn off into a clearing for greater solitude and convenience in reading. I walked among the forests for a long time, where villages would occasionally appear. Sometimes I spent the entire day in the forest, diligently reading Love of Goodness. I gained many significant insights from this book. My heart was filled with zeal for union with God through inner prayer, which I set out to learn, with the guidance and verification of Love of Goodness; at the same time, I lamented not finding a haven where I could calmly immerse myself in reading.

At the same time, I also studied my Bible and felt that I was beginning to understand it more clearly, not as I had before, when so much seemed incomprehensible to me and I often found myself surprised. The holy fathers are right to say that Love of Goodness is the key to opening up the mysteries of holy scripture. By means of this, I have begun to understand the secret meaning of God’s Word; I have come to perceive what the inner, secret heart of man is, what true prayer is, what worship in the Spirit, what the kingdom within us is, what is the incomprehensible sigh of the Holy Spirit, “Be in me,” “Grant me your heart,” “Clothe yourself in Christ,” “Bind the Spirit in our hearts,” “Come”, etc. These reveal the sacred silence of our hearts: “Our Father,” “and let your kingdom come,” “and your will be done.” As I began to pray with my heart, everything around me began to appear in a wondrous light: trees, grass, birds, earth, air, light—all seemed to speak to me, showing that they are there for man, proclaiming God’s love to man, and all were praying in praise of God. And from this, I understood what is known in Love of Goodness as “leading the creatures into speech,” and I saw how to speak to God’s creatures.

Many times I wandered around like this. Finally I came to such a deserted place that for three days there wasn’t a single village. All my bread was gone, and I was greatly distressed that I might not die of hunger. When I began to pray with my heart, despair passed, and I laid myself at God’s mercy, and I became cheerful and calm. As we continued along the path that lay beside a huge forest, I saw a dog that had come out of that forest; I beckoned to it, and it, coming up to me, began to lick my face; I rejoiced, and thought “This is God’s grace!” — certainly in that forest there are flocks, and surely some shepherd’s or hunter’s dog is walking about in the woods; whether it is the one or the other, but at least I can beg some bread, since I have not eaten for several days, or I can inquire where the nearest village is. Turning back towards me, and seeing that I have nothing to offer, the dog again ran back into the forest along the narrow path by which it had come out onto the road. I followed it; after walking for two hundred steps, I saw, among the trees, that the dog had entered a hole, from which it began to bark.

Here, through a thick tree, a man, thin, pale, of middle years, came out. He asked me how I had come here, and I asked him why he was there. And we talked together kindly. The man invited me into his shack and told me that he was a forester and guarded this forest, which had been sold for felling. He offered me some bread and salt and we began to talk. Dear me, I told him, how is it that you can live so comfortably alone, unlike me, who wander from place to place, and scratch my way through all kinds of people? If there is hunting, he said, it seems that you could live here too, there is an old hut, the former watchman’s, though it has fallen into ruin, but in the summer it is still possible to live there. You have your passport. We shall have bread from our village at least once a week, and our stream never dries up. I myself, brother, have been living on just one loaf of bread and water for the past ten years, and have never had anything else. That’s the point, said he, in the autumn, when the peasants have finished their work, some two hundred workers come here, and this forest will be cut down, and then neither I nor you shall be able to live here. Hearing this, I was so delighted that I might have fallen at his feet. I had no idea how to thank God for this kindness. What I had longed for and desired, I now unexpectedly obtain. There are only four months until the depth of autumn, and therefore I have the opportunity now of making use of the silence and peace so favourable for attentive study of Dobrotolyubye pereklad s matiyash zmist knygy and achieving in my heart the unceasing prayer. I was therefore glad to stay until the time came to live in the shack indicated to me.

Together with this simple brother, we talked much more; he began to tell me about his life and his thoughts.

“I used to be, he said, the last man in my village, I had a skill, I painted baskets, and I dyed the blueberry, yet I lived in abundance, though not without sins: I deceived myself in trade, made false promises, swore a lot, got drunk, and fought. There was an old man in our village who had an old, ancient book about a terrible judgment. He used to go around the churches and read, and for that he was given money; he even came to me. Sometimes I would give him ten kopecks, and he’d get as much as fifty. So I would listen, sitting at work, while he read about the torments that await us in hell, how the living will change, and the dead will be resurrected, how God will come to judge, how the angels will sound their trumpets, and what kind of fire, pitch, and pain will await sinners. One time, as I was listening to this, I became scared; I thought, I cannot escape punishment! I will hasten to save my soul, perhaps God will forgive my sins. I thought about it and threw my craft aside, sold the house, and being alone, I joined the forest workers so that the world could give me bread, clothes, and candles for my soul.”

Listening to that, I felt sorry for him and thought to myself: they say that some learned and wise men are freethinkers and believe in nothing, and our brothers are poor peasants who are planning to lose faith! Apparently, evil spirits have been allowed access to everyone, and the weak may attack them more easily. As much as possible, one should try to strengthen oneself against the enemy through the Words of God. Therefore, in order to help the believers in this brotherhood as much as possible and to support their faith, I took out from my bag the book “Bountiful Love”, found the chapter by St. Isaac the Syrian, read it and began to explain to him that self-restraint from sins, fear of suffering because of them, is not successful and does not bear fruit, and it is impossible to free the soul from imaginary sins nor to be protected from mental sins. Therefore, this is achieved by inner prayer, and not only (I added) through fear of hellish suffering, but also through a desire for the kingdom of heaven. If anyone really makes saving acts, the holy fathers call this mercenary work. They say that fear of suffering is the path of a slave, and desire for a reward in the kingdom is the path of a mercenary. And God wants us to follow H’is path, that is, to behave honorably with love and diligence towards Him, and to enjoy the saving communion with Him in the soul and the heart.

         Despite all these efforts, how many physical labors and what kinds of efforts you would like to do; but if you do not always have God in your mind and the constant Jesus Prayer in your heart, then you will never be at peace with your thoughts, and you will always be prone to sin, even in the slightest of cases. Accept, brother, to perform the Jesus Prayer continuously; since it is convenient and easy for you in this solitude; you will soon see the benefits. There will be no sinful thoughts coming; your faith and love for Jesus Christ will be revealed; you will learn how the dead will rise up, and the dreadful judgment day will seem to you as it really will be. And there will be such lightness and joy in your heart from the prayer that you will be surprised and will no longer feel bored or disturbed by your saving life.

          Further, as much as I could, I explained to him how to begin and how to continue the Jesus Prayer continuously and how the Word of God commands it and how the Holy Fathers teach it. He must have shown some approval of this and become calmer. After that, I left him and locked myself in the old cellar they had shown me.

Practice of the Jesus Prayer in solitude

My God, what joy, peace and delight I felt as soon as I entered this cave, or, rather, tomb; it seemed to me a magnificent royal palace, full of every kind of delight and pleasure. With joyful tears I thanked God, and reflected: now, in this peace and quiet, one should attentively take up one’s business and ask the Lord for enlightenment. So I began, first of all, to read The Joyful Abode, in the right order, beginning at the beginning until the end, with great care. I read everything in a short time, and saw what wisdom, holiness and depth it contained. But since it contains a variety of subjects and various instructions of the holy fathers, I could not understand everything and bring it all together in one place, especially in regard to the inner prayer, in order to learn the method of studying continuous automatic prayer in the heart. And this was exactly what I wanted, according to the divine command through an Apostle: Desire to have great gifts (and also: Do not burden your spirit (.).

1) First, read the book “Nikiforos” of monasticism (in 2 parts); then 2) the whole book by Gregory Sinai, except for the short sections; 3) “Symeon the New Theologian” on the three images of prayer and the word about faith; and after that 4) “Kallistos” and Ignatius. These fathers contain a complete explanation and teaching on the inner prayer of the heart, which is understandable to everyone.

And if you wish to see a clearer teaching on prayer, then find the prayer form of St. “Kallistos” of Constantinople at 4 o’clock. I, as if holding the Dobrotolybstvo in my hands, began to search for the instruction that had been said, but I could not find it soon. The old man himself, turning several sheets, said: “Here it is! I will rub it out for you,” and by raising some charcoal from the ground, he highlighted the text in the book opposite the one found. Everything that the old man said, I listened carefully and tried to remember as clearly and in as much detail as possible.

I woke up and, as it was not yet light, I lay down and kept repeating in my memory everything I had seen in my dream and what the old man had told me. In the end, I began to wonder: God knows whether the soul of the deceased old man is with me, or whether my own thoughts are being adapted like this, because I often think about the Dobrotolyubstvo and about the old man? With this surprise, I got up, it was already beginning to lighten. And what do I see on the stone, which was in place of the table in my earthen hut, the Dobrotolyubstvo is unrolled at the very place that the old man had pointed out to me, and highlighted with charcoal, just as I had seen in my dream, even the charcoal was lying on the book. This surprised me, because I clearly remember that there was no book here in the evening; it was folded and lay in my head, and I also clearly know that there was no note at the place indicated earlier. This case convinced me of the truth of the dream and of the God-pleasing memory of my old man. Here I began to read the Dobrotolyubstvo, in the same order that the old man had indicated to me. I read it once, I read it again, and this reading aroused my passion and diligence to try everything I had read in practice. It became clear to me and I clearly saw what inner prayer means, what means to achieve it, what results it produces, and how it delights the soul and the heart, and how to recognize this delight, whether it is from God, or from the senses, or from beauty.

So, first of all, I began by finding a heartfelt place, following the instruction of St. Simeon the New Theologian. Closing my eyes, I looked with the mind, that is, with the imagination, to the heart, wishing to imagine it as it is in the left half of my chest, and listened carefully to its beating. Thus I first engaged in it for half an hour, several times a day; at first, I did not notice anything except darkness; then, soon, the heart began to appear and to indicate movement within it; later, I began to introduce and extract the Lord’s prayer along with breathing into the heart, according to the instructions of St Gregory of Sinai, St Callist, and Ignatius, that is, by breathing in the air, with mental contemplation of the heart, I imagined and said, Lord Jesus Christ, and by expelling the air from myself, Grant me mercy. At first, I occupied myself with this for an hour, and then two; then, the more I did it, the more often I began to practice it, and eventually I spent almost the whole day engaged in this practice. When some burden, laziness, or hesitation set in, I immediately began to read in the Book of Job the passages that instruct about heartfelt actions, and again I began to be encouraged and diligently pray. After three weeks, I began to feel pain in my heart, and then some pleasant warmth in it, consolation and peace. This excited and encouraged me even more and more diligently to practice prayer, so that all my thoughts were engaged in this, and I felt great joy. Since that time, I began to feel different moods in my heart and mind. Sometimes it seemed that there was some joyful boiling in my heart, there was such ease, freedom, and delight that I changed my whole self and was in ecstasy. Sometimes there was a flaming love for Jesus Christ and for all of God’s creation. Sometimes tears of gratitude to the Lord, who had graced me, a wretched sinner, flowed by themselves. Sometimes my former frivolous notion became so clear that I could easily understand and reflect on what I had previously not been able to even imagine. Sometimes the warm sweetness of my heart spilled over into my whole being, and I could touchingly feel the presence of God everywhere. Sometimes I felt the greatest joy at the invocation of the name of Jesus Christ, and I realized what He meant when He said, The kingdom of God is within you. Months passed, and I spent hours alone in this prayerful occupation, and I was so accustomed to heartfelt prayer that I practiced it continuously, and finally felt that prayer was being produced and uttered in my mind and heart, not in my mind; yet even in my sleep it followed the same pattern, and was not interrupted by anything I did. My soul thanked God, and my heart was in constant joy. The time came for the forest to be cut down, people began to leave, and I had to leave my silent home. Thanking the foreman, I prayed, kissed the piece of land where God had graced me with His mercy, put my bag of books on, and went out. I wandered around in various places for a very long time until I reached Irkutsk. Heartfelt, spontaneous prayer was a comfort and consolation on the whole journey, at all the meetings, it never ceased to delight me, even if in varying degrees, wherever I was, whatever I was doing, whatever I was engaged in, it did not interfere with anything and was not diminished by anything. If I am working, and the prayer is there in my heart and the work goes faster; if I am listening carefully or reading, but the prayer does not stop, and I simultaneously feel both and the other, as if I were two souls in one body. God, my God, how mysterious this person is!

        “May your works, Lord, be brought to light; your wisdom has created all things!”

I have come across many wonderful events and cases on my way. If I were to tell you about them all, it would take a day. But, for example: one winter evening, a man was walking through a forest to spend the night in a village that was already about two hours away. Suddenly a large wolf attacked and charged towards him. I had pride cords in my hands (I always kept them with me). I hit the wolf with the pride cords. And what happened? The pride cords fell from my hands and wrapped around the wolf’s chest. The wolf turned away from me and, jumping over a rowan bush, got caught up in some bushes with his hind legs, and the tips of the pride cords caught on a dry tree trunk. He began to struggle; but it was difficult for him to break free, because the pride cords had tightened his neck. I crossed myself with faith and went away with the intention of setting the wolf free; and moreover, I thought that if it cut the pride cords and fled with them, my precious pride cords would be lost. As soon as I approached and took hold of the pride cords, indeed the wolf cut them and fled silently. That’s how I safely reached the village; I came to a busy courtyard and asked to spend the night there. I entered the house. Two men were sitting at the table in the front room, one a grandfather and the other a middle-aged, thick person who seemed not ordinary to me. They were eating tea. I asked the man who was next to their horse who they were. He told me that the grandfather was a teacher in the People’s School, and the other was a clerk in the county court: both noble. I was taking them to the fair, about twenty versts from here. After sitting there for a while, I asked the old woman for a needle with thread, went to the candle and began to sew my pride cords. The clerk looked at me and said: “Apparently you beat your knees so hard that you broke the pride cords?” It was not I who broke them, but the wolf… Is it true that wolves pray? asked the clerk, laughing. “I told them in detail how it happened and how valuable these pride cords are to me. The clerk laughed again and began to say: “There are always miracles with you, foolish crows!” What is there sacred? I told him everything about my grandfather, and how he appeared to me in a dream, how he taught me and how he emphasized Dobrotolyubiye, the song of love. The teacher listened carefully. And the clerk, lying on the bench, grumbled: “They say the truth that with wisdom, one can go mad and delve into the Bible. That is it! It is so it is! What kind of forest-god will you draw for me in books at night? Just throw your book on the floor, and smudge it with soot… Here is your miracle! Oh, it will pass quickly!” Once this was said, the clerk turned to the wall and fell asleep. I, hearing this, turned to the teacher and said: “If you please, I will show you the same book on which the sacred is correctly underlined, and not smeared with soot.” I took out Dobrotolyubiye from my bag and showed it to him, saying: I am amazed at this wisdom, how did the immaterial soul manage to pick up coal and write? The teacher looked at the note and began to talk: and this is the mystery of the spirits. I will explain it to you; here you see: when the spirits are in a living person’s physical form, they take and put together a tangible body from the air and light matter, and when they make their appearance, they return to the realms from which their body was drawn. And since the air has a springy, compressive and tensile force, the soul dressed in it can take, act and write anything.

“What do you have here? Let me see! He folded it and Dobrotolyubiye was opened, the word and speech of Simeon the New Theologian. “Ah! This must be a book of theology. I have never seen it… This book, Father, is almost entirely composed of the teaching of the inner heart prayer in the name of Jesus Christ; it is revealed here in detail in twenty-nine of the sacred fathers. “I know the inner prayer,” said the teacher… I bowed to him at his feet and asked him to tell me something about the inner prayer. And here is what is said in the opening part of the new book, that the spirit of the whole creation, as well as every creature, attends and obeys the will and everything naturally sighs, strives and desires to enter the freedom of the children of God; and this mysterious sighing of creatures and innate longing of souls is the inner prayer. It has nothing to learn; it is in everyone and everything! … And how can we find, discover and feel it in our hearts, understand and accept it with our will, achieve that it would act clearly, enjoy, enlighten and save us? asked I. I do not remember whether it is written anywhere about this in theological treatises, answered the teacher. Here it is – here everything is written and said, indicated I… The teacher took a pencil, wrote down the title of Dobrotolyubiye, and said: I will definitely transcribe this book from Tobolsk and study it. And that is how we parted.

As I left, I thanked God for the conversation with the teacher, and I prayed to the scribe, that the Lord would somehow arrange for him to read The Philokalia, at least once, and teach him the path of salvation.

A meeting with a pious priest

One spring, when I was travelling to a village, I had to stay at a priest’s house. He was a good man and a lonely soul: I spent three days there with him. After studying me, he began to speak to me: stay with me. I will give you a good salary; I need a reliable man; you have seen that we are building a new stone church instead of the old one made of wood. I cannot find a trustworthy man to monitor the workmen and sit in the chapel to collect alms for church building; and I see that you would be able to do this, and for your own sake it would be beneficial to live. You could sit alone in the chapel and pray to God there, there is a separate room for a guard – please stay with me, even if only for the summer, until autumn when the church is finished. Even though I refused, I had to agree to his persuasive request. So I stayed here for the summer until autumn. That is how I began to live in the chapel. At first it was peaceful and comfortable for me to practice prayer, although a lot of people came to the chapel, especially on festive days, some to pray, some to talk, and others to get something from the collection tray. And as I sometimes read the Bible, then The Philokalia, some of those who came used to ask me to read something to them.

             After a while I noticed that a certain peasant girl often went to the chapel and prayed to God for a long time. Listening to her muttering, I found out that she was reading some strange prayers and others were completely distorted. I asked her: who taught her all this? She said that her mother, who was a churchgoer, and her father was a heathen anti-priest. Sympathizing with her, I advised her to read the prayers correctly, according to the transmission of the holy church, and I therefore explained to her: Our Father, and the Virgin Mary, Rejoice. And finally, I said: make them more frequently and more often. The Lord’s Prayer is more profitable than all prayers to God, and you will receive salvation of your soul through it. The girl took my advice carefully, and began to do so in simplicity. What happened? Soon she told me that she had become accustomed to the Lord’s Prayer, that she felt a constant attraction, if only she could deal with it when she prayed, she felt pleasure and, after completing it, she also felt joy and longing to pray again. I was glad about this and advised her to continue praying in the name of Jesus Christ.

            The summer was drawing to a close; many of those who came to the chapel began to come to me, not only for readings and advice, but also with various worldly sorrows, and even for help in identifying lost and missing things; it was clear that others considered me a fortune-teller. Finally, the girl in question came for advice about what to do. Her father had planned to marry her to a recluse, also childless, and would make the wedding in a hurry. What is this lawful marriage? said she, it’s indifferent! I want to run away where I can look. I told her, where are you going to run away to? Nowadays, you can’t hide without being discovered. At present, they find you everywhere. It is better to pray harder about this so that God can change your father’s plans and save your soul from sin and heresy. This would be safer than running away.

            Time went on, and I was becoming more and more restless and seductive. At last, the summer ended, and I decided to leave the chapel and continue my journey as before. I went to see the priest and began to speak to him: You, Father, are familiar with my way of life. I need silence for prayer, and here it is very distracting and harmful. Since I finished this service for you, I have spent the summer here: now throw me out and bless me on the separate path. The priest did not want to let me go, and he began to persuade me: What is preventing you from praying here? After all, you have no business here, except to sit in the chapel, and bread is ready for you. Apparently, there you pray day and night; live, then, with God! You are capable and useful for this place, you do not trifle with the little things that come here, but you bring the Church of God to profit and collect, rightly. This is better before God than your separate prayer. What do you have to do alone, it is more fun to pray with the people. God has created man not for him to know only himself, but for people to help each other, to lead each other to salvation, whoever can. Look at the saints and the all-worldly teachers; they worked and cared for the church day and night, and preached everywhere, and did not sit alone and hide from people.

            Each person has his own God, Father; many many prophets, so many hermits. Whoever found what he was inclined to do, did so and believed that it was God who pointed out to him the path of salvation. But how should you judge this, Father? That many of the saints left the episcopal and the superintendental and priestly office and hid in secluded deserts so as not to be ashamed among the people? So Saint Isaac the Syrian fled from his flock of bishops; so the Reverend Athanasius of Athos threw his numerous monastery; and precisely because these places were tempting to them, and because they truly believed the voice of Jesus Christ:  What good does it do a man if he gains the whole world, and his soul is lost?..

            Well, they were saints, said the priest. If they were saints, I replied, they were careful not to get involved with people, so what should be done to an impotent sinner? Finally, I said goodbye to this kind priest, and he led me out with love.

A story about a saved girl

While walking for ten versts, I stopped to spend the night in a village. On this night I saw a desperately sick man, and advised the ones with him to administer the holy sacraments of Christ. They agreed, and before dawn they sent a priest to their parish village. I stayed to wait to worship the holy gifts and pray for this great sacrament. I went outside, sat on the steps, and waited to meet the priest. Suddenly, a girl who had been praying in the chapel came running toward me from the back alley.

            How did you get here, I asked.

            We were going to be mistaken for beggars, and I went with them. As I bowed down to me, she began to say: “Do you with mercy, take me with you and take me to a girls’ monastery; I do not want to marry, I will live in a monastery, so as to perform the Lord’s prayer. They will listen to you and accept me.”

            Have mercy, I said, where do you want me to take you? I simply do not know any girl’s monastery in the region, and how can I take you with me, if you don’t have a passport? Either way, you will not be accepted anywhere; and even if you wanted to hide, there is nowhere to hide now in this time, and they will put you in handcuffs and send you back to your place and punish you for vagrancy. Go home and pray to God, and if you don’t want to marry, try some kind of hardship. That is what Saint Clement’s Mother and Saint Marina did, and many others did as well.

            At the same time that we were sitting and discussing this, we saw four men driving a cart along the road, and they immediately jumped on us. They grabbed the girl, put her in the carriage, and with one man they departed; and the other three tied my arms and drove me back into the village where I had stayed in the summer. To all my pleas, they just shouted, “We’ll teach you how to seduce girls!” In the evening, they brought me to the village authorities, tied my legs with iron and locked me up in custody until morning, until the trial was held. When the priest learned that I was in custody, he came to visit me; he brought me something to eat, comforted me, and said, as the spiritual father said, that I am not under the same authority as they think. After being with me, he left.

            Later in the evening, when an official was passing through the village, he stopped at the election headquarters and was told about what had happened. He ordered a meeting to be called, and me to be brought to the judge’s house. We entered, stood and waited. The official came over in a brave mood, sat down at the table in his toga and shouted: Hey, Epiphanus! What did the girl, your daughter, do wrong? Nothing, Father! Nothing! With this rascal, we have not uncovered any bad deeds? No, Father! That is how we will judge the matter and decide: you settle it with your daughter yourself; and we will interrogate the young man tomorrow and thoroughly settle this, and order him not to show up here anymore. That’s all! Having said this, the official got up from the table and went to his place to sleep; and I was again put in the jail. Early in the morning, two men came, a village officer and a corporal, took me and released me; and I went, thanking God that He had allowed me to suffer for His name. This consoled me and still more warmed my constant heartfelt prayer.

            All these events did not offend me at all, as if they had happened to someone else and I had only witnessed them; even when I was whipped, it was also bearable; the prayer that delighted my heart did not allow anything to be heard.

            Four days passed, and I met the mother of the girl, who was coming from a fair with purchases. She saw me and said: Our fiancé has refused; he is angry at Aculka because she ran away from him. Then she gave me bread and pie, and I went on my way.

The weather was dry, and I did not want to spend the night in any village; but seeing two fenced sheds of haywood in the forest in the evening, I settled down underneath to spend the night. When I fell asleep, I dreamed that I was walking and reading the heads of St. Anthony the Great from the Filokalia of Anthony the Great of the Charity of Mary the sister of Moses. Suddenly, an old man ran up to me and said: Do not read here, here is where you should read, and he pointed to the 35th chapter of St. John of Cyprus, in which it is written: Sometimes the one who teaches becomes desecrated and suffers the temptations of those who benefited from him spiritually. And he also pointed to the 41st section of the same St. John, which says: Those who employ prayer more zealously are pledged to the most dreadful and violent temptations.

Then he began to say: Watch with determination and do no worry! Remember what the Apostle said: “There is more of you than there is in the world.” Now you have learned firsthand that no temptation is beyond human power; but “with temptation God also works, and His trying grace.” Faith in this Divine help strengthened and guided the zeal and diligence of the holy prayer fighters, who not only spent their lives in unceasing prayer, but also, out of love, taught and opened this to others on occasion and time. St. Gregory the Theologian speaks of this as follows: “It is not only our own duty that is ordained by God to pray continually in the name of Christ, but we must teach and open this to all the monks, to the laity, to the wise, to the simple, to men, to women and to children, and to stimulate everyone to effort. Similarly, the Holy Great Elder Callistus speaks: “Neither mental activity about the Lord (ie inner prayer) nor contemplative knowledge, nor the ways of the climb of the soul, should be confined to one’s own mind alone, but should be written down, disclosed in writings and put forth for the common good. And the Word of God also speaks that “let us help one another with brotherly love, for a city has strong and high walls.”

            In order to spend this day in peace, without any obstacles to spiritual joy, I asked the church watchman to let me stay in the church until the next day. All day long I was in indescribable joy and heartfelt sweetness; I lay on the ground in this unheated watchtower as if resting on the bosom of Abraham. Prayer was very powerful. Love for Jesus Christ and the Mother of God, like sweet waves, gathered in my heart and seemed to immerse my soul in a delightful exaltation. By night, I suddenly felt a severe weakness in my legs, and I remembered that they were wet. Ignoring this, I began to listen more carefully to my heart with prayer and no longer felt any pain. In the morning, I wanted to get up, but I saw that I could not move my legs at all; they were completely relaxed, like dead bodies; the watchman barely dragged me off the hayloft. So I lay on the church gable for two more days.

Here is what he started to cure me with: he gathered together four different kinds of leprous bones from the fields, courtyards and cesspits, and of every kind: he washed them and crushed them with stones and put them in a large hearth; he covered the hearth with a lid that had a hole in it, and then threw them into a hollow cistern dug into the earth, and thickly smeared the hearth with clay on top, and, placing a fire of wood around it, burned all day and all night, saying, “Here is the resin from the bones.” On the next day he dug up the cistern from the earth and within it flowed through the hole in the lid a thick liquid, red, oily and fragrant, like a living raw flesh. The bones in the hearth then became white, clean, transparent, like mother-of-pearl or pearls. With this liquid I rubbed my feet nine times a day. And what do you think? The next day I could move my toes; on the third day I could bend and straighten my legs, and on the fifth day I stood on them and walked about the yard with a stick. In short, in a week my feet were as strong as before. I thanked this God, and kept thinking in my heart: what a great wisdom of God in animals! The dry bones, which were rotting, had almost entirely returned to the earth, yet they retain in themselves the life-force, color, fragrance and activity of living bodies, and as it were convey life to dead bodies. This is the pledge of the future resurrection of bodies. O if only I could show this to the landlord in whose house I was living, and with whose doubts about the general resurrection of the dead I had been in agreement!Do not think about this holy book, my father, as if ordinary Greek monks had written it. It was written by the ancient great and holy men whom your church also venerates, in the way described by Anthony the Great, Macarius the Great, Mark the Ascetic, John the Golden-Mouthed, and others. The Indian and Bukharian monks, too, adopted the heartfelt way of inner prayer from them, but they distorted and distorted it, as the elder told me. And in the Book of Virtue, all the precepts about the inner prayer are taken from the Word of God, from the Holy Bible, in which the same Jesus Christ, who commanded us to recite “Our Father,” also ordained unceasing heartfelt prayer, saying: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your mind. Keep watch, watch and pray. Stay close to me, and I to you.” And the holy fathers, quoting the words of King David from the Psalter: “Taste and see how kind the Lord is,” interpret them in a way that Christians should strive in every way to seek and attain sweetness in prayer, and not merely read the “Our Father” once a day. Here I will read to you how these saints condemn those who do not strive to attain and study sweet heartfelt prayer. They write that such people sin in that: 1) they regard the Holy Scriptures as contradictory, 2) that they do not allow the highest and most perfect state for the soul, but rather are content with external virtues, predisposition and thirst for truth, so that they cannot have bliss and joy in the Lord’s virtues, and often fall into vanity or pride and thus deviate from them. This is something valuable for us worldly people to pursue, he said to the manager; where are we to go after this! Here I will read something simpler to you, and about how good people taught unceasing prayer even in the worldly way of life. I found a passage by Symeon the New Theologian in The Book of Virtue about the young man George and began to read. The manager liked this, and he said to me, “Give me some time to read this book, when I have the time. Perhaps I can give it to you tomorrow, but I cannot do it anymore, because I read it every day, and I cannot do without it.” But at least copy down what you have read now; I will pay you. Financial compensation is not necessary for me, and I will gladly do this, so that God may give you diligence to prayer. I immediately copied down what I had read. The manager read it to his wife, and they both liked it. Sometimes they began to send for me. I went to them with the Book of Virtue; I read there, and they sat over their tea, listening. Once they left me to have dinner. The manager’s wife, a kindly old lady, sat with us and ate fried fish. Once, through carelessness, she choked on a bone; having no one to help her, the servants could not extract it, and she felt severe pain in her throat for two hours, and she fell. They sent for a doctor from 30 kilometers away, but I, feeling sorry, went home in the evening.

In the night I heard the voice of my old man in thin snow, and I saw no one; the voice said to me: Behold, your master has healed you, and you will not help the caretaker? God has commanded to sympathize with one’s neighbor. With pleasure I would have helped her and with what? I do not know any means. And here is what you must do: she has had a dislike to tree oil since the beginning of her life, and not only does she not consume it, but she cannot bear its smell without boredom; therefore, give her a spoonful of tree oil to drink, and her womb will come out, her bone will be torn out, and the wound in her throat, which was scratched by the bone, will be greased with oil, and she will recover. So, how will I give it to her when she has a dislike – she will not drink it? You have persuaded the master to hold her by the head, and suddenly, even if forced, he poured it into her mouth. I woke up and immediately went to the master, and told him about it in detail. He says, now what will you do with your oil? Here she is sneezing and drooling, and her whole neck is swollen. In any case, we will try it out; the oil is harmless, although it will not do any good. He poured tree oil into a glass and we gave her to swallow a little. Immediately there was a strong vomiting and soon the bone came out with blood; she felt easier and fell soundly asleep.

In the morning I came to see her, and I saw her sitting over tea peacefully, and along with her husband they were surprised at the cure, and moreover, as I was told in a dream, that she does not like tree oil, because no one, except them, both of them knew this. Here the doctor arrived, the caretaker told what had happened to her, and I told her; how her husband had cured my legs. The doctor, having listened, said: neither the one nor the other case is strange; in both of them, the power of nature was at work, but for memory I will write it down; he took out a pencil and wrote it down in a memorandum book.

Soon afterwards, word spread throughout the neighborhood that I was both a soothsayer and a doctor and a healer; from all sides, without ceasing, people began to come to me with their various affairs and cases, brought me gifts and began to praise and ask me. Having looked at this for a week, I was afraid not to fall into superstition and not to cause harm by dispersion, and I left secretly at night.

Having prayed again, I left my separate path and felt such ease, as if a mountain had fallen from my shoulders. Prayer comforted me more and more, so that at times my heart would boil with the boundless love for Jesus Christ, and from this sweet boil, as if consoling streams, would pour through all my joints. The thought of Jesus Christ was deeply etched in my mind so that contemplating the gospel events, I would seem to see them before my eyes, feel humble and joyfully weep, and sometimes in my heart feel joy which I cannot even express. It used to happen that sometimes for days on end I would not enter the villages of people, and with delight I would feel like the sole sinner on earth before the merciful and kind God. All this would console me, and my devotion and prayer would be all the more enjoyable and pleasing to me than for a layman.

Finally, I reached Irkutsk. Kneeling before the holy relics of Saint Innocent, I began to think to myself:where shall I go next? And I did not want to stay in the city for long, for it was crowded to the brim. I roamed around the town, and met a merchant from here. He stopped me and said:are you a wanderer? Would you like to come to my house? We went inside his large house. He asked me who I was, and I told him my story. After hearing this, he began to say to me:let me tell you something. You must visit old Jerusalem. There is a holy place that has no equal anywhere! I said I would like to go, but I don’t have the money to go by land. It is possible to walk to the sea, but I don’t have the money to cross it; it would cost a lot. Do you want, he said, to provide me with a transportation? He continued:Listen, this year I sent an old man from our town already. I bowed down to him and he began to say:Listen, I will give you a letter to my elder son, who lives in Odessa. He has business connections with Constantinople, and his ships travel there, and he will be happy to take you to Constantinople, where he will task his servants to book you a place on a ship to Jerusalem, and will pay you. It won’t cost much. When I heard this, I was overjoyed, thanked this benefactor for his kindness, and thanked God even more for his parental love and care for a miserable sinner who does no good to himself or to others, and who is thieving away other people’s bread with idleness. I spent three days with this generous merchant. He wrote me a letter to his son, to Odessa, on his behalf. And so I am going to Odessa now, with the intention of reaching the holy city of Jerusalem, but I do not know if the Lord will allow me to worship his most precious Body and Blood.

Narrative Three

            Before leaving Irkutsk, I went to see the spiritual father with whom I had been having conversations, and I said to him: Here I am now on my way to Jerusalem; let me say goodbye and thank him for his Christian love for me, an unworthy traveler. He said to me: May God bless your journey. But why have you not told me anything about yourself, who you are and where you come from? I have heard a lot from you about your travels; it would be interesting to find out about your origins and life before your wanderings.

            Well, I said, I will gladly tell all this too. This is not a long story.

Biography of a pilgrim and his old life

            I was born in a village in the Orlov region. After my father and mother, there were only two of us, my brother and I. He was ten years old, and I was two – the third. So my grandfather took us in to educate; he was an old, wealthy and honest man, who kept a busy inn on the main road, and thanks to his generosity many travelers stayed with him. We began to live with him; my brother was lively, and he was always running around the village, while I was mostly hanging around with my grandfather. We went to church with him on holidays, and at home he would often read the Bible, the same one that I have here. My brother grew up and became corrupted, – he got into the habit of drinking. I was already seven years old; once I was lying with my brother on the stove, and he pushed me off it, and injured my left hand. Since then, I have not been able to use it, – it has been dry.

Dadde, seeing that I would not be able to do farm work, began to teach me how to read and write, and since we had no ABC, he taught me from the Bible, somehow: showing the letters, he would make me spell words and pay attention to the letters. I do not really understand how he was able to teach me to read, little by little, by instilling the letters in me. At last, when Dadde began to see badly, he often made me read the Bible, while he listened and corrected me. We often had a land clerk in our house who could write very well, I would look at him and enjoy how he wrote. So I began to learn to write by following his example. Dadde was pleased with that and used to say: Now God has granted you the gift of literacy, so be a man worthy of that. Read the Bible as often as possible. So we used to go to church for every service, and at home we often prayed, and I was told to read: “Have mercy on me, O God.” Dadde and Grandma would stand in reverence. Finally, when I was seventeen years old, Grandma died. Dadde began to say to me: Now we don’t have a mistress in the house, but you know, what’s a woman good for? Your older brother has got into trouble, so now I’m going to marry you off. I was very self-conscious, thinking of my disability, but Dadde insisted, and I was married. We chose a healthy, pretty girl of twenty years old. A year passed, and Dadde became ill at death. Before he died, he called me to his side and said: Here is your house and your inheritance. Live honorably and don’t cheat anyone. Above all, pray to God; do not trust in anything else but He. Walk to church, read the Bible, and remember us with your grandmother. Here is a thousand rubles for you, keep them safe. Do not waste them, but also do not hoard them, give to the needy and the churches of God.”There remained only my nakedness and my bare feet; my wife and I did evil things, and we sold our little house for a small loan, and we began to live in misery. My wife was a weaving craftswoman: she wove, wove, sewed, and did various kinds of work for people, and she worked day and night, and she provided for me. I, with my arms bound, could not even make a garter. She often wove, and I sat beside her and read the Bible, and she listened, and sometimes she cried. When I asked her, “Why are you crying? Thanks be to God, we are alive.” Then she replied, “I am so touched that the Bible is so beautifully written.” We also remembered our grandfather’s commandment, and we often fasted, we read the akathist of the Theotokos every morning, and we performed a thousand kephalos prayers at night, in order not to commit sin. We lived in peace for two years. But what was strange is that although we had no idea of inner prayer, which takes place in the heart, and we had never heard about it, we merely prayed in words, and it was easy for us to perform kephalos without any understanding. Perhaps an instructor was telling me the truth: that there is a secret prayer within a person, which he does not even know how it is done, and that it awakens the desire to pray.

A fair Russian saying is: man supposes, but God has, I said, coming even to my spiritual father. I thought that today I would go and go on my way to the holy hill of Jerusalem, but it turned out differently; quite an unexpected case left me here for three more days. And I could not stand it not to come to you, to report about this and take counsel in my determination in this case, which came suddenly in this way.

Having said goodbye to everyone, I set out on my journey with God’s help and was only about to leave the farm when, at the gate of the last house, I saw a familiar person who, once upon a time, had been a wanderer like me, and whom I had not seen in three years. We greeted each other and he asked where I was going. I replied: I would like, if God so wills, to go to the old Jerusalem. Thank God! he exclaimed; here you have a good companion. God be with you and with him, I said, do you not know that, by my nature, I never go with companions, but always prefer to travel alone? Well, listen then: I know that this companion will be to your liking; as he is with you, so you will be well with him. Here you see, the master of this house, in which I am employed as an employee, is also going to the old Jerusalem, and you will get along well with him. He is a local townsman; he is old and good, and he is completely deaf, so he cannot hear anything unless you write to him on a piece of paper, and then he will respond. Therefore, he will not get on your nerves in the journey, he will say nothing to you, he will be silent even at home; and for him you will be necessary in the journey. His son gives him a horse and a visa to Odessa in order to sell him there. Although the old man wishes to go on foot, his luggage and some parcels for the tomb of the Lord will go with him in the horse; that is, you can put your bag right away. Now think how you can let an old and deaf man leave with one horse, on such a long journey? They searched and searched for a guide, but everyone asks very dearly and it is dangerous to let him go with an unknown person, because he has money and things. Agree, brother, it will be right. Think for the glory of God and for the love of your neighbor. And I assure the owners about you, and they will be very happy about this; they are good people and very love me; here I have been employed with them for two years. Having spoken like this near the gate, he brought me into the house to the master, and I found that there would be a decent family, so I agreed to their proposal. Now, on the third day of Christmas, if God wills, after the Divine Liturgy, we will set off on our journey.

An austere, gentle man, his fatherly elder replied: ‘I am very happy, dear brother, that the Lord has miraculously arranged for you to meet me in a few days. And since you are now free, I will gladly keep you here longer, and you will tell me more of your instructive encounters in your long journey.’ I am willing to do that, I replied, and began to speak.

During my travels through my Tobolsk province I had to pass through a certain town. I had very little rye left, so I went into a house to ask for bread. The host said: thank God, you have come at the right time, my wife has just taken the bread out of the oven, here you have a warm blanket, pray to God for us. I thanked them and started to put the bread in my bag, and the mistress, seeing this, said: what a skinny sack, all worn out, I will change it for you, and gave me a good, hard sack. I thanked them from my heart, and went on. At the exit, in a small grocery shop, I asked for a little salt, and the grocer poured some into my bag. I thanked God with my soul, for He shows me such kind people. Now I will be able to live for a week without worrying about food, I will sleep and be content. May the Lord bless your souls!

            So I stood up and said, “I apologize, mother, it is time for me to leave.” May the Lord Jesus Christ be with you and your dear children. Oh no! God forbid that you leave; I will not let you go. Here it is late afternoon, and my husband will be arriving from the city, where he serves as a judge in the county court for the elections. How happy he will be to see you! He considers every traveller an envoy of God. And if you leave, he will be very sad at not seeing you; besides, it is Sunday tomorrow, you will pray with us at lunchtime, and you will eat with us whatever God has sent us; we always have thirty or forty beggars as guests, brothers of Christ. But why have you left me no word about yourself, where you come from and where you are going? Talk to me; I love to listen to spiritual conversations with godly people. Children, children! take the traveler’s bag and take it to the image room, where he will stay the night. Listening to these words of hers, I was stunned and thought: am I talking to a human being or some kind of apparition?

            I had nothing to do, and we left. Entering the garden, to make it more convenient for me to keep silence and not talk, I knelt before the lady and said, “Please, mother, in the name of God, tell me, how long have you been living a godly life and how have you attained this goodness?” I want to tell you all about it. See, my great-granddaughter is the saint Joasaph, whose relics rest in Belgorod. We had a large house in the city, the wing of which was rented by a poor nobleman. He eventually died, and his wife remained pregnant, gave birth, and died after giving birth. The child remained a poor orphan; my mother took him in, took care of him for a year, and then I was born. We grew up together, studied at the same teachers and teachers, and were used to considering each other as brother and sister. After some time, my father died, and my mother, having left the city life, moved here to this village with us. When we came of age, my mother married off one of her protégés, gave us this village, and built a cell for herself. After giving us her blessing, she made the following will, urging us to live the Christian life, pray earnestly to God, and try as much as possible to observe the main commandment of God, namely, to love our neighbor, to live and help the poor brethren of Christ, in simplicity and humility, and to raise children. That is how we have been living alone here for ten years, trying to fulfill as much as possible the will of our mother. We also have a beggar who is now home to more than ten people with disabilities and illnesses; we will probably go to them tomorrow.

            Do you not have any book by a writer about prayer? I love to read about prayer. There is a new book on prayer, written by a priest from St. Petersburg. The master explained the Lord’s Prayer: Our Father and we gladly began reading it. A little later, a lady came to us, brought tea, and the kids presented a whole donut, all silver, kind of like cakes that I had never eaten. The master took the book from me, gave it to the lady, and said, “Here, we’ll get her to read it. She reads well, and we’ll treat ourselves. The lady began reading, and we began listening. While listening to the reading, I also listened to the prayer that was being said, deep inside my heart; the further away the reading went, the more the prayer developed and made me happy. Suddenly, I saw someone quickly passing before my eyes, as if in the air, like my deceased old man. I jumped up, but to hide it, I said, “Sorry, I dozed off a bit.” Here I felt as if the spirit of the old man had entered my spirit, or had lit it up, I felt some light in my mind and a lot of thoughts about prayer. As soon as I crossed myself and tried to dismiss these thoughts, the lady read the entire book, and the master asked, “Did you like this work?” I replied, “It really pleased me, but the Lord’s Prayer Our Father is higher and more precious than all the written prayers we Christians have, because it is explained by the Lord Jesus Christ himself, and the interpretation quoted by this very good woman is mostly oriented toward the activity of Christians, but I had to read in the Holy Fathers a contemplative, secret explanation of it. 

In which book did you read this? Well, for example, in the Clerk of the bride’s confession, and in the Good Shepherd by Peter Damaśkin. Please, do you remember anything else, tell us! Please. The beginning of the prayer: “Our Father who are in heaven …” In the book being read, it is explained that under these words one should understand instilling brotherly love for one’s neighbor, as children of the one Father. This is very fair, but the holy fathers explain it further and more spiritually, namely, they say that in this expression one should direct one’s mind to heaven, to the heavenly Father, and remember our obligation to be present in the presence of God and to walk before God. The words: “May your name be sanctified,” the book explains meticulously, so as not to pronounce the holy name of God without reverence, or in an unfair oath, in other words, to pronounce the holy name of God with sanctity and not to use it in vain; and the secret interpreters see here a direct request for inner heart prayer, that is, so that the holiest name of God is printed within the heart and self-direct prayer sanctifies and purifies all the feelings and spiritual powers of the soul. The words: “May your kingdom come” are interpreted by the secret interpreters as follows: may the inner world, peace and spiritual joy come to our hearts. The book explains that under the words: “Our daily bread” one should understand a request for the necessary needs of bodily life, not superfluous, but only necessary and sufficient help to one’s neighbor. And Maxim the Confessor, under the name of daily bread, understands the nourishment of the soul with heavenly bread, that is, the Word of God, and the union of the soul with God, through the divine reflection and continuous inner prayer of the heart.Oh! this is a great matter, and almost impossible for the people of the world to attain inner prayer, exclaimed the gentleman; although the Lord helps them to send it out without reluctance. Do not think so, father, he continued; if it were impossible and extremely difficult, God would not have commanded it to everyone. His strength is in weakness; and the experienced holy fathers offer ways to make it easier to attain heart prayer. Of course, for the ascetics of the world they indicate particular and higher methods, but they also instruct the lay people of how to come to inner prayer in an easy and efficient way. I have never come across a detailed discussion of this matter, he said. Please, please, I will read you in the book The Pursuit of Virtue. I brought my Пursuit of Virtue, found the article by Peter Damaskin in Part 3 on page 48, and began to read the following: “one must learn to call on the name of God more than to breathe, at any time and place and affair. The apostle says: In supplication constantly let your hearts be full; that is, he teaches that if you do anything, you must keep the Creator of things in mind; he is the reason to keep mind and glorify God and here you are constantly praying, and so your soul will always rejoice.”

They liked it very much. The gentleman hugged me passionately, thanked me, looked at my The Pursuit of Virtue, and said: I will definitely buy such a book for myself; I will soon get it from St. Petersburg; and, for the sake of memory, I will transcribe this article that you read, tell me. And then he quickly wrote it down beautifully. Then he exclaimed: My God! because I have a picture of St. Damaskin (it was probably a picture of John Damaskin). He took a frame, inserted a written sheet under the glass, and hung it under the icon, saying: “Here the living word of a godly man, under his image, will often remind me to carry out this saving advice in his activities.”

After this, we went to dinner. As usual, men and women sat at the table with us. What a reverential silence and tranquility at the table! After dinner, we all, men and women, and children prayed for a long time. I was forced to read the akathist to Jesus the More Loving.After their servants had retired, we three remained in the room. And here the lady brought me a white shirt and stockings – I bowed my head in gratitude, saying, ‘I won’t take my mother’s stockings, I don’t know how to sew them; we’re used to always walking in sneakers.’ She went back again and brought her old shawl, made of thin yellow cloth, ripped it in two, and then the gentleman said, ‘Here’s a poor one’s and his footwear almost fall apart,” and brought his new boots, which he puts on top of his boots, and then said to me, ‘go into that room.’ I went, changed my clothes, then went back to them. They made me sit on a stool, and began to put on my boots, the gentleman began to wrap my legs in the plaids, and the lady began to put on my boots. At first, I didn’t let myself be buckled, but they told me to sit and to be silent, that Christ had washed his disciples’ feet. I had nothing to do, and I began to cry, and they cried too.

The story of his conversion and the life of the landowner

Forgive me, dear brother, I asked you not out of mere curiosity, but out of kindness and Christian compassion, and also because a little over two years ago I saw an example that gave rise to my question to you. Look, a mendicant came to us with a passport from a retired soldier, an old man, extremely poor, practically naked and barefoot, speaking little and simply, almost like a steppe peasant. We took him to a poor hut; after ten days he became very ill, so we moved him to this gazebo, reassured him, and began to go to him with my wife and look after him. Finally, he was probably near death; we prepared him, calling our priest to confess him, reconcile him, and administer the sacraments. On the eve of his death, he got up, asked me for a sheet of paper and a pen, and asked that I lock the door and not let anyone in until he had written his will to his son, whom he asked to be sent by sea to St. Petersburg to the address he had given. I was surprised to see how he wrote not only with a fine, highly educated handwriting, but also that his writing was excellent, accurate, and very affectionate. I will read his will to you tomorrow; I have a copy of it.

     I am in such a painful state, I have realized my injustices, repented, confessed, freed all the people around me who served, and vowed to torture myself with all kinds of labors and to hide in a wretched form, so that for my injustices I might be the last servant of the lowest class of people. As soon as I firmly decided on this, the visions that had been bothering me immediately ended. I felt such relief and pleasure from being reconciled with God that I can’t quite describe it. Here I also learned firsthand what paradise means, and how the kingdom of God is revealed within our hearts. Soon I recovered, fulfilled my intentions, and secretly left my homeland with a retired soldier’s passport. And now, for 15 years, I have been wandering throughout Siberia. Sometimes I was hired by peasants for hard work, and sometimes I made a living by the name of Christ. Oh, in all these tribulations, what a bliss, happiness, and peace of conscience I enjoyed! Only he who has been transferred from the painful inferno to the heavenly kingdom by the mercy of the Advocate can truly experience all this. Having told this, he handed me a will to be sent to his son, and on the second day he died. But here is a list of his will, now in my pocket, placed in my Bible. If you like, I will read it now. Please be kind.

     I unfurled it and read it out loud: In the name of God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, blessed in the Trinity.

     Dear son of mine!

     It has been 15 years since you haven’t seen your father, but he is lost in an unknown place, occasionally letting you know about him, and nursing the parental love that compels me to send these final lines to you as a lesson for you in life.

     You know how I suffered for my negligence and careless life; but you do not know how I have been blessed in the unknown of my wanderings, enjoying the fruits of repentance.

     I am calmly dying in my good and in the same benefactor of yours, for the benefits poured on the father should be bestowed on the merciful son. Pay him my gratitude, as much as you can.

     Leaving you my fatherly blessing, I beseech you to remember God, keep your conscience, be careful, kind, and prudent, treat your subordinates as kindly and lovingly as possible, and do not despise beggars and the curious, remembering that the dying father of yours too was tormented by misery and misery of his soul.

Calling upon the grace of God, I calmly closed my eyes in the hope of eternal life, with the mercy of the Lord Jesus Christ.After the Lord’s service, the priest, the servants and all the beggars went together to the dining table, and there were around forty beggars; there were crippled people, those with illnesses, and young boys. They all sat down at the table. What a silence and stillness reigned! I took courage and said to the master, ‘In monasteries, the lives of the saints are read at dinner time; why don’t you do the same here, since you have a regular round of shifts.’ The master turned to the lady and said, ‘Indeed, Masha, let’s establish such an order. This would be irreverent.’ ‘Well,’ I said, ‘I’ll read first, then you, and then the priest, and then the brothers, one after the other, whoever knows how.’ The priest, eating, began to say, ‘I like to listen, but it is the humble servant who should read, for I don’t have the time.’ Once you come home, you don’t know how to cope with all the chores and worries; you have to do this and that; you have young boys, and plenty of cattle, and you’re always in a state of confusion, with no time to read or teach. After hearing this, I shuddered, and the lady, sitting next to me, grabbed my hand and began to say, ‘The priest says this out of humility, he always demeans himself, and he is the kindest and most god-fearing person. He has been widowed for twenty years and raises an entire family of grandchildren, and he also frequently serves.’ These words came to mind the following saying of Mykyti of Styfat in The Tale of Dobrotolub: ‘The inward aspect of the soul measures the nature of things, namely, whoever we are, we tend to judge others on that basis.’ And he continues: ‘Whoever has reached a true prayer and love, is without a clear distinction between things, he does not distinguish between the righteous and the sinner, but loves them all equally and does not condemn them as God does.’ Like the sun shines and sheds rain on the righteous and on the wicked alike. The quietness began once more. Opposite me sat a completely blind beggar. The master fed him, cut up the fish, and gave him a spoonful of food, and poured him a drink of wine. Looking closely, I noticed that this beggar’s mouth was wide open, his tongue constantly fluttering, as if trembling; I thought that he might be a worshiper, and began to pay more attention. Just as the lunch was finished, an elderly woman felt ill and incoherently screamed. The master and his wife took her to their bedroom and put her on the bed; the lady stayed with her; the priest ran for extra holy gifts, just in case; and the master had a carriage brought and drove off to consult a doctor in the city. Everyone went off.

            I felt an inner thirst, there was a strong need for prayer, and solitude and silence were no longer there the next day. I felt in my heart as if something was flooding and wanted to break out and flow into every part, but the more I restrained it, the stronger the pain in my heart became; it was a consoling pain that demanded silent tranquility and nourishment through prayer. Here I realized why true prayer creators, self-motivated in them, evaded people and hid themselves in obscurity, and I also understood why Elder Isikhiy and even a spiritual and useful conversation, but excessive, called it chattering; as the holy Ephrem the Syrian says: good speech is silver, and silence is pure gold. Reflecting on all this, I went to the poor; there everyone took a break after lunch. I went up to the attic, calmed down, took a rest, and prayed. When the beggars stood up, I found the blind man and guided him out of the yard; we sat alone and began to talk.

Conversation with a blind companion and his prayer path

            Tell me, for the sake of your soul, do you perform the Jesus Prayer? I have been doing it continuously for a long time. What do you feel from this? Just that I cannot be without prayer day or night. How did God open this occupation to you? Tell me, dear brother, in detail. Here you see, I am a kind of worker here, I earned my bread by doing a blacksmith’s job, walked around other provinces, in villages, and sewed peasant clothes.

            In one village, I had to stay with a man to finish his family’s clothes. On a solemn day, I took three books to church and asked, ‘Who is reading here?’ No one answered me. These books belonged to our uncle, he was a scholar. I took one book and opened it wherever I pleased, and read such words as I now remember: ‘The prayer is uninterrupted, that one should call upon the Lord always, whether talking, sitting, walking, doing, eating, or doing anything else.’

After I had read this, I began to think that this was very convenient for me, and I began to whisper a prayer over my sewing, and I liked it. Those who lived with me in the hut noticed this and began to laugh at me; am I a sorcerer or a magician, always whispering? or what are we saying? I stopped moving my lips to conceal this and began to make my prayer in a single language. Finally, I got so used to praying that the language itself, day and night, recites it, and I like it.

We went with the blind man, and although we walked slowly, we covered ten or twelve miles a day, and spent the rest of the time in secluded places, reading The Good-Lover. I read to him about the heart prayer according to the order given to me by my deceased elder, that is, starting from the book by Nikon Chrysostomos, Gregory Sinaitis, and so on. With what eagerness and attention he listened to all this, and how much he liked and enjoyed it! Then he began to ask me such questions about prayer that I did not have enough understanding to answer them.

After reading the appropriate part of The Good-Lover, he began to ask me earnestly to show him practically how to find the heart with the mind, and how to bring into it the divine name of Jesus Christ, and how to pray with joy from within the heart. I began to tell him: here you see nothing, but you can imagine and imagine with your mind what you have seen before, that is, a person, or a thing, or your own part, for example, a hand or a foot, you can imagine it as vividly as if you were looking at it, and you can aim it and direct it even if you are blind? I can, the blind man replied. So you can imagine your heart, focus your eyes, as if you were looking at it through your chest, and as quickly as possible imagine it, and listen carefully with your ears how it beats occasionally. When you get used to this, then start adapting the prayer words to each beat of the heart, looking at it. In this way, with the first beat say or think “Lord”, with the second “Jesus”, with the third “Christ”, with the fourth “have mercy”, and with the fifth “me”, and repeat this many times. This is convenient for you, because the beginning and preparation for heart prayer are already in you. When you get used to this, start injecting and withdrawing the whole Jesus prayer into the heart together with the breath, as the fathers teach, that is, sucking in the air, say, imagine: “Lord Jesus Christ”, and when you breathe out, say, “have mercy on me”! Engage in this more often and more, and soon you will feel a subtle and pleasant pain in the heart, then there will be warmth and dilation in it. Thus, with God’s help, you will achieve your own inner joyous prayer of the heart. But at the same time, be very careful about the images in your mind, and of any kind. Do not accept any images; for the holy fathers strictly forbid, during inner prayer, to keep the gaze without looking, so as not to fall into vanity.

The blind man, having listened attentively, began to act as instructed, and at night, when we were resting for the night, he spent a long time doing this. After five days, he began to feel a great warmth and an indescribable pleasure in his heart, and on top of that, he felt an overwhelming desire to continue practising this prayer, which opened up in him a love for Jesus Christ. Sometimes he began to see light, although he did not notice any objects or things in it; sometimes it seemed to him, as he entered his heart, that a powerful flame of a lit candle was burning inside his heart and, bursting out through his throat, was illuminating it; and with this flame he could even see distant things, as happened one day. We were walking in the forest and he was absorbed in prayer without speaking. Suddenly he said to me: «How unfortunate! The church is already on fire, look, the bell-tower has fallen down.» I said to him: «Stop imagining the empty, it is a temptation for you; you need to reject all your dreams more quickly. How can you see what is happening in the city? We are still 12 versts away from it.» He listened to me, continued his prayer and fell silent. By evening we had reached the city, and I actually saw a few burnt houses and a bell-tower that had fallen down, which had been built on wooden stakes, and people who were gathered around it, wondering how the bell-tower that had fallen had not crushed anyone. In my opinion, all this misfortune happened at the same time as he was telling me about it. Here he began to tell me: «You said that my vision was empty, and it is so. How can we not thank and love the Lord Jesus Christ who opens up his grace for sinful people, and for the blind, and for the senseless! Thank you also for teaching me the practice of the heart.»

I told him: ”Love Jesus Christ, and give thanks; but beware of accepting visions as immediate revelations of the grace of God, for this can often happen and, of course, in order of things. The human soul is relatively unrelated to place and matter. It can see in darkness and see very distant things, as well as what is happening nearby. We simply do not give strength and scope to this spiritual ability, and we repress it either through the inertia of our body or through the confusing multiplicity of our thoughts and scattered imaginations. And when we concentrate on ourselves, distract ourselves from everything around us and becomes more refined in our senses, then the soul enters its purpose and functions to the utmost, since this is a natural matter. I heard from my deceased mentor that not even praying people are capable of what is needed, whether they are in pain or not, in a dark room seeing light as it comes out of all things, distinguishing objects, feeling their double and penetrating into the thoughts of others. And when it comes directly from the grace of God through heartfelt prayer, it is so delightful that no word can speak about it, and it cannot be applied to anything material or compared to anything; all sensual things are low compared to the sweet sensations of grace in the heart. My blind brother listened to this with diligence, and he became even more humble; his prayer in the heart developed more and more, and it delighted him even more. I rejoiced at this from my heart and thanked God that He had allowed me to see such a blessed servant of His.”

            Finally, we reached Tobolsk, I brought him to the convalescent home, left him there, and, with a loving farewell, left further away.

            For a month I went quietly and deeply felt how instructive and encouraging good living examples are; I often read Dobrotolyubvo (Dobrotolubie Prakado) and believed everything I had told the blind prayer-maker. His exemplary example rekindled jealousy, gratitude, and love for the Lord in me, my heart’s prayer so greatly delighted me that I did not think there was anyone happier on earth than me and was amazed at what could be a greater and more delightful pleasure in the kingdom of heaven. Not only did I feel all this within my soul, but everything outside also appeared to me in a wonderful form, and everything inspired love and gratitude to God; people, trees, plants, animals, everything was dear to me, and I saw the image of the name of Jesus Christ in everything. Sometimes I felt such lightness as if I had no body and was not walking, but rather floating joyfully in the air; sometimes I went into myself and clearly saw all my thoughts, marveling at the wise structure of the human body; sometimes I felt such joy as if I were made a king and wished, as in all ways, that God would soon allow me to die and pour out thanks at His feet in the world of spirits.

Trial on the road and the story of the old soldier

It seems I was overly enjoying these sensations, perhaps because of God’s will, but after a while I felt some trembling and fear in my heart. I thought, what if something bad or misfortune would happen to me again, just like for that girl I taught the Jesus Prayer in the chapel. Thoughts began to come to me in a cloud, and in doing so I remembered the words of St. John of Karphagias, who says that one who often teaches is subject to disgrace and suffers hardships and temptations for those who have benefited from him spiritually. Overcoming these thoughts, I intensified my prayer, which drove them away altogether, and I reassured myself: Let it be God’s will! I am ready to endure whatever Jesus Christ does not send me for my wickedness and pride. And those with whom I had recently shared the secret of the inner doorway and the secret prayer were also especially prepared for our meeting by the direct revelation of God. Reassured by this, I went away again with joy and prayer, and I enjoyed my former life. For two days it was raining, and the road was so dirty that it was difficult to pull my feet out of the mud, so I walked through the steppe, and I did not meet any settlements for miles.

In the late afternoon, I saw a yard near the road, and I was glad and thought: here I will ask to rest and spend the night, and tomorrow, if God wills, maybe the weather will be better. When I approached, I saw an old man wearing a soldier’s uniform sitting by one of the courtyards on a railing, and I bowed to him and said: can I ask to spend the night here? Who can accommodate me except me? shouted the old man, I am the postmaster here! So please, Father, let me spend the night with you! And do you have a passport? Give me your identity document. I gave him my passport, and he held it in his hands, but then he asked again: where is the passport? In your hands, I replied. Well, let’s go into the house. The watchman put on his glasses, read it, and said: it seems to be legal, you can spend the night; I am a good man; here, I’ll bring you a glass of vodka. I don’t drink today, I replied. Well, then, never mind, at least, have dinner with us. We sat down at the table, he and the cook, and the young grandmother, who had also had plenty to drink, sat with us. Throughout the dinner, they scolded each other, cursed each other, and at the end they even got into a fight. The watchman went to sleep in the attic, and the cook started cleaning up, putting the glasses and spoons away, and scolding her old man.

After sitting there a while, I thought that she would not calm down for a long time, and I said to her: “Mother, where can I find a place to sleep? I am tired from the journey. Here, Mother, is a bed, and by placing a bench near the front window, I laid out the bedding and put a pillow on it. I lay down, closed my eyes, as if I were asleep. The cook kept stirring around for a long time; at last, she went away, put out the fire, and came to me. Suddenly, the entire window, with its frame, glass, and fragments of the lintel, crashed with a terrible crash, the whole house shook, and from outside there was a pained howl, screaming, and breaking. The lady blushed in terror, jumped to the middle of the room, and collapsed on the floor. I reeled away, unsteady on my feet, thinking that the ground had given way under me. Behold, I saw two Peter carts brought into the house bearing a man covered in blood, so that not even his face was visible. This frightened me even more. It was the postman, who had been riding here to change horses. The Peter cart driver had missed the gate turn, and by knocking the window in, the cart had tumbled over, and the postman, falling down, had hit his head so hard on the sharp hook, which held the ramp, that it had cut deeply into his skull. The postman was moaning and asking for water and wine to wash his wound, to smear it with wine, and drink a glass, and then shouted: “The horses!” I stood by him, saying, “How are you, father, to ride in such pain?” “I have been ill in the past,” he replied, and quickly rode away. The guards took the lady to the furnace corner, without consciousness, and covered her with a blanket, saying: “It was only fright that caused this to happen to her; she will soon come to herself.” The watchman got drunk again and went back to bed.

I was left alone.

In the morning, after bidding the guard farewell, I started off, walked on in prayer, sending my prayers in faith, hope, and gratitude to the Father of all good gifts and every comfort, who had freed me from a near disaster.

            Six years after this incident, while passing by a female monastery, I went into the church to pray. A strange abbess took me to her after lunch and commanded me to serve tea. Suddenly, unexpected guests arrived; she went out to them, and I was left with the nuns, her cellmates. The humble nun who was serving tea broke my curiosity by asking: Haven’t you been in this monastery for a long time, Mother? Eight years, she replied; I was brought here by a madman, and God has shown mercy here. Here the abbess left me in the cell and took my vows. What madness overcame you? I asked. Because of shock. I was ordered to such a station, and during the night, while I was sleeping, the horses broke a window, and, frightened, I went mad. My relatives took me to holy places for a whole year, and here I have just healed. Upon hearing this, I rejoiced in my soul and glorified God, mindlessly all for the benefit of those who build.

The priest called me to himself and invited me to lunch. At the table, I said to him: How piously and for so long you have been serving! “Yes,” he replied, “although it is not pleasing to the parishioners, and they complain, but there is nothing to be done about it; for I love every prayerful word before I reflect on it and enjoy it, and then I utter it out loud, and without inner feeling and compassion, every word uttered will be in vain for myself and for others. The whole point is in inner life and attentive prayer!” And how little, he said, people are engaged in inner work! This is because they do not want to, do not care about interior spiritual education, the priest said. I asked again: how can it be achieved? It seems very difficult. A lot of work is needed to become a spiritually enlightened and attentive person; one should take a text from the Holy Scripture and keep it quietly to oneself, focusing on it for as long as possible, and the light of understanding will appear. The same must be done during prayer: if you want it to be pure, correct, and exhilarating, you must choose a short prayer made up of a few strong words, repeat it many times and for a long time, and then you will sense the taste for prayer. I was very pleased with this lesson of the priest, as it is practical and simple, but profound and wise at the same time! I thanked God mentally that he has shown me such a true pastor of his church.

After lunch, the priest said to me: you can take a nap after lunch, and I will read the Word of God and prepare for tomorrow’s sermon. So I went into the kitchen; there was no one there, only an old woman was sitting hunched in a corner, coughing. I sat down by the window, took my Dobrotolyubiye out of my bag, and began to read quietly about myself; finally, I listened to the fact that the old woman sitting in the corner was constantly whispering the prayer of Jesus; I was surprised to hear the Lord’s Most Holy Name, which is frequently uttered, and I began to tell her: “How good that you are doing this prayer!” This is the most Christian salvation act. “Yes, Father,” she replied, “in my old age, the only joy I have is that the Lord forgives me! Have you been used to praying like this for a long time?” Since childhood, Father; this is the only thing that can not be done without it, for the Lord’s prayer delivered me from death and death. How is that? Please tell me, for the glory of God and to glorify the grace of the Lord’s prayer. I put the book back in my bag, sat down closer to her, and she began to tell me:

            I was a young and beautiful girl; my parents arranged a marriage for me: in order to have a wedding tomorrow, the groom came to us, and suddenly, without taking ten steps, he fell down and died, without taking a breath! I was so afraid of this that I refused to marry and decided to live in virginity and go to holy places to pray to God. However, I was afraid to set out on the road, in case people would abuse me in my youth. Well, an old woman I knew taught me that, wherever I went, I must constantly pray the Lord’s Prayer, and she firmly assured me that nothing bad could happen on the road while I was praying. I believed her, and I went about safely, including in remote holy places; my parents gave me money for this.

            In my old age, I fell ill, and here, by the mercy of God, this priest keeps me and feeds me.

            Listening to this with pleasure, I did not know how to thank God for the day he opened such instructive examples for me. Then, asking the blessing of a good and pious priest, I went on my way, rejoicing.

The Conversion of an Old Kazan Servant

            Not long ago, while I was walking through the Kazan Province, I had to learn how the power of prayer in the name of Jesus Christ is clearly and vividly opened even to those who are unconsciously engaged in it, and how the frequency and duration of prayer is the sure and shortest way to achieving good. I happened to stay overnight in a Tatar village. I entered the village, saw a cart and a Russian driver standing by the door of one of the houses; the horses were feeding near the cart. Pleased by this, I thought to ask to spend the night right away, thinking that at least I would stay with Christians. I approached the driver and asked who was traveling? He answered that Mr. was traveling from Kazan to the Crimea. While we were talking with the driver, the gentleman, pulling off his skin, looked out of the cart, looked at me, and said, “I’m staying here for the night, but I did not go into the house, because it’s very bad in the Tatars, and I was brave enough to stay in the cart for the night. Then the gentleman went for a walk, and it was a good evening, and we talked.

            Among many inquiries, he told me the following about himself: until the age of sixty-five, I served in the fleet as a captain of the first rank; in old age, an incurable disease struck me – gout, and I, having retired, lived in the Crimea on my wife’s estate, almost constantly ill. My wife was a bizarre, scattered character, and a great gambler. She got bored living with me the sick, and she left me, taking my sons with her, to Kazan to our daughter, who was transferred there on duty as a clerk; she got rid of me, even taking with her the housemen, and leaving only an eight-year-old boy, my godson.

And so I lived alone for three years. The boy who served me was clever and quickly did all my housework, cleaned my room, stoked the stove, boiled me porridge, made the samovar for me. But at the same time he was an extremely lively and restless layabout, always running, knocking, shouting, fooling around, and that greatly disturbed me; and I, because of my illness and boredom, always liked to read spiritual books. I had a wonderful book by Gregory Palamas about the Jesus Prayer: I almost constantly read it, and I also slowly composed the prayer. My boy disturbed me, and no threats or punishments stopped him from making mischief. That’s how I came up with a solution: I began to sit him on a chair in the room, ordering him to keep saying the Jesus Prayer. At first he did not like it at all, and he evaded it in every way and frequently muttered. I wanted to make him obey my order, so I kept a knife nearby. When he was praying, I would calmly read a book or listen to him say the prayer; but as soon as he stopped, I showed him the knife, and he would be afraid and say the prayer again; this calmed me down, because there was silence in my home. After a while, I noticed that I no longer needed the knife, the boy began to do my order more willingly and skillfully; later, I saw a complete change in his lively character, he became quiet and silent, and he did the household work more successfully. This consoled me, and I began to grant him more freedom. In the end, what happened? He got so used to praying that he almost always did it without any of my urging. When I asked him about it, he replied that he felt an irresistible urge to pray constantly. What do you feel during that time? Nothing, I just feel good when I say the prayer. How do you mean, good? I don’t know how to say. Fun, or what? Yes, fun.He was already 12 years old when the war began in the Crimea, and I went to my daughter to Kazan, and he accompanied me. He was put in the kitchen with other people, and he mourned very much over this and complained to me that people, playing and chatting among themselves, were harassing him as well, laughing at him and thereby preventing him from praying. Finally, in three months he came to me and said: I shall go home; I am too bored here, speaking loudly. I told him: How can you go all this way by yourself, and in winter? Wait until I go, and I will take you with me. The next day my boy disappeared. Everyone was sent looking for him, but nowhere was he found. Finally, I received a letter from people who remained in our village in the Crimea, telling me that my boy had been found dead in my empty house on April 4, the second day of Easter. He was lying on the floor in my room, his hands folded on his chest, his cap under his head, and wearing the same cold burda as when he left with me. And he was buried in my garden. Upon receiving this information, I was very surprised at how quickly my boy had made his way to the village. He left on February 26, and on April 4 he was found. In one month he had to cover about three thousand versts, God willing, and on horses. After all, he would have to walk a hundred versts a day. And in cold clothes, without a passport and without a single coin. Suppose someone might have driven him on the road, but this is all without special Providence and God’s care for him. My boy, said the priest at last, has tasted the fruit of prayer, and I have not yet come to his measure even in my old age.

            After I finished these accounts, I said to my spiritual father: Forgive me, for God’s sake, I have already talked too much, and the holy fathers call such a conversation, even if it is spiritual, but it is excessive, “menslavia”. I must go to visit my fellow traveler in Jerusalem. Pray for me, wretched sinner, so that the Lord, out of His great mercy, may arrange my path for me.

            May God give you every blessing, dear brother in Christ, he replied, and the all-pervasive grace of God illuminate your path and accompany you, as the angel Raphael accompanied you!

Three keys to the inner treasury of prayer

Found in the spiritual riches of the Saints

      In my heart is the secret of Your words (Psalm 119:11).

      Let the mind run its course, trying to defile itself with every deceit (The Book of the Hymn 19).

            If everyone has their own distinctive characteristics, inclinations, and abilities, then the achievement of the same goal is achieved in different ways, in different ways, by those guided by it. Similarly, the achievement of the goal of inner prayerful actions is by means of many ways, as we read in the comments of the holy fathers.

        One of these methods is common both for success in prayer and for success in the Christian life, as the following:   unconditional obedience , as Simeon the New Theologian proclaims;   the works of charity and asceticism, as the Church sings in her hymns:   God-given good deeds, shining forth in visions from the east (Hymn of the sacred liturgy);   external prayer for inner prayer: Lord, teach us to pray ;   special graces, such as: Capso Calivite once pressed her cheek against the icon of the Blessed Virgin, after two years of unflinching prayer, suddenly felt sweetness and warmth falling into her heart;   the young George, in a simple prayer, suddenly saw an inner light and accepted a constantly automatic prayer, etc.

        There are other essential means of inner prayer that seem directly related to it. We find three such in the Church Fathers.

         1)  Invocation of the name of Jesus Christ ;

        2)  Attention to this invocation; and

        3)  Penetration into ourselves, or, as the Church Fathers say, entering the mind into the heart.

        Since these methods open to us the kingdom of God principally quickly and conveniently and reveal the treasure of inner spiritual prayer in our hearts, it is only appropriate to call them the keys to this sacred ark.

The first key: Invocation of the name of Jesus Christ

            If quantity leads to quality, then frequent, almost continuous invocation of the name of Jesus Christ, even if it is at first scattered, can produce attention and warmth of the heart. Since the human nature is capable of acquiring a certain mood through frequent use and habituation, one spiritual writer has said: To learn to do something well, one must do it much more often. And St. Isaac says that frequency brings about habit and draws the nature from the outside to the inside (chapter 7). As can be seen from the observations of experienced people, this is how it is with reference to interior prayer: the person who wishes to achieve interior prayer strives to call on God’s name frequently, almost continuously, namely, verbally uttering the Jesus Prayer: Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner. Sometimes it is shortened, that is, Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me, as St. Gregory of Sinai teaches. He adds that a shortened invocation is more convenient for the beginners, but he does not rule out either one or the other and advises only not to change prayer verbs too often, so that it is easier to get used to the invocation. And in order to further stimulate the continuous creation of prayer, the student considers setting a rule, in which time he sees to repeat a certain number of times the invocation, that is, to recite a certain number of hundreds or thousands of prayers with crosses each day and night, not in haste, but saying it, straining the mouth and lips. After a certain time, the mouth and the speech of the trained person acquire such an instinct and as a self-movement, they move themselves with the expression of the divine name, even without a voice. At the end, the reason hears this movement of speech and gradually becomes purified from distraction and comes to the attention of prayer. Finally, one cannot fail to follow the nothingness of reason in the heart, as the fathers say, that is, the reason, turning back into the heart, heats it with the warmth of divine love, and the heart itself moves without coercion, freely, with indescribable joy in invoking the name of Jesus Christ and pouring out with an entreaty, “My heart watches.” St. Isaac expressed the fruitfulness of frequent intelligent invocation of the name of Jesus Christ beautifully: like the rain that falls a large amount on the earth, it fertilizes the earth, so that the earth of our hearts is made rejoice and glad as the name of Christ is invoked from us. 

            Although the method described on the basis of the experiences and observations of the holy fathers is sufficient for convenient guidance to achieve the desired goal of interior prayer, there are still higher methods, namely: attention to the mind in the heart. This first method belongs mainly to those who have not yet been accustomed to attention and are not yet able to work successfully on the heart, or it can be an introduction and assumption to the following methods. However, according to the differences in properties and abilities, everyone chooses what is more convenient for him, as St. Nichophilus the monk says. 

Avoiding detailed reasoning, let us present the images and teachings of the Holy Fathers about self-concentration and entering into the heart, according to the ways they have experienced, as faithful guides to true spiritual interior prayer. We will present the Holy Fathers’ instructions on this subject in their own words, dividing them for convenience into three lines and arranging them in the following order:

The first row includes the Fathers who have left us a complete instruction on the Lord’s Prayer, such as: 1) Symeon the New Theologian, 2) Gregory Sinaites, 3) Niphon the Monk, and 4) the monks Kallistos and Ignatios of Xanthopouli.

  The second row contains the Fathers who have left us brief statements about interior prayer, such as: 1) Stephen the Philosopher, 2) the monk Cal–plystos, an illustrious she­pher of St Sera­pion’s in Jerusalem, 3) Isaac the Syrian, 4) Shen­on­­thora’s explanatory homilies, 5) the Awakening Prayers, 6) Paul the Hesychas­the­tian, 7) Theodore of Mopsuestia, 8) Sergius of Radoneşti: As for the third row, the Fathers who have written about interior prayer, have added their own thoughts regarding the full, complete contemplative concentration in the presence of the Lord: 1) The Megaporticon Prayer, 2) the stepping-up prayer by the monk Symeon Dolino (Phra­sy­pos), 3) the prayer of Nicholas Cabasilas, 4) the prayer by the Elder Benedict Hyr­y­di­as, and 5) as a conclusion the prayer of Basil the Great, contained in the Letter to Maximus Dar­santas, addressing the topic of loving God as one’s whole soul in the presence of the Lord Jesus.

Third Key: Quiet Breathing and Rhythm

            The third key is entry into one’s self or the heart. Without elaborating on this subject, we will present here the images and teachings of the Holy Fathers on self-concentration and entry into the heart, by the ways that they have experienced, as faithful guides to true spiritual interior prayer. We will present the Holy Fathers’ instructions on this subject in their own words, dividing them for ease of understanding into three rows and arranging them in the following order.

The first row comprises the Fathers who have left us a complete instruction on the Lord’s Prayer, as follows: 1) Symeon the New Theologian, 2) Gregory Sinaites, 3) Niphon the Monk, and 4) the monks Kallistos and Ignatios of Xanthopouli.

Схід за волями Господніми зібирається, щоб плод (В. 5:12).
Коли сонце дістае полум’я, (В. 6:25).
Бути до вас блаженним запросто (В. 1:16, 5:11, 8:26, 12:5).
Покажи нам свого щедраго Небесного Отця (В. 1:13, 8:45).
Скажи нам, добрий Боже, о тебе ми підемо! (Златн. З. 5:14, 11:9, 12:29, 13:14, 29:19).
Спасими нашому Богу подаруй чесноту та кошти довання (Мк 6:23, Мф 8:19, Цикл 2:47).
Вода му хильше свята, ніж вода: хліб будіть кремля… (Цикл 10:37, Калл. 2:14).
Право, заличина, благодать, засвічення, не вмрімають майна істатного (Деяние 14:18).
Добрий Боже, сила почуває насреч цари Милості Власноми… (Калл. 4:22).
Помимо, Боже, бо ти, Господи, красивий, ти показені, ти великій слави за свої дії (Цикл 27:22, Цеф. 3:14)

1) Isaiyas, the Eastern Priest of Jerusalem, 2) Philo of Sinai, 3) Feolibus, Metropolitan, and 4) Varsanofius and Ioan Stogastes.

            Thirdly, we should mention the saving story of Abba Filimon. He makes frequent reference to it throughout his biography.

Instructions of the Holy Fathers on inner heart prayer

1st group of instructions

1) Instructions of St. Symeon the New Theologian

St. Symeon the New Theologian gives the method of entering the heart in the description of the 3rd form of prayer, in the 68th word (p. 163, in the Russian translation of the second edition):

            The third form of prayer is truly wonderful and incomparable, and for those who have not experienced it, not only is it inconvenient, but it even seems incredible. And indeed, in our time, this form of prayer is encountered by very few, while they are destroyed by the tricks and cunning that the demons use to distract the minds of many and various. For then the mind, being free from everything, has the opportunity, without any obstacle, to investigate the thoughts that are instilled by the demons, and with great ease to repel them and to offer pure prayers to God with a pure heart.

            After then describing the conditions for success in this form of prayer, namely: complete obedience, and keeping one’s conscience pure, both towards God and towards people, and towards things, and always doing everything as if one were before God, he continues:

 And thus, doing this, you will straighten out for yourself a true and unerring way to the third form of prayer, which is as follows: Let the mind keep the heart while it is praying, and let it turn within itself incessantly, and from within the heart let it send prayers to God.

 That is all: work like this until you get to taste the Lord. When, finally, the mind is there, within the heart, tastes and with its heart feels that it is the good Lord; then it will not want to move away from the heart’s place; then it will say, like St. Peter: “It is good for us to be here, and we will always watch in this way.”

 For those of you who have no idea about this matter and do not know it, it seems mostly to be hard and oppressive. But those who have tasted the sweetness it has, and have enjoyed it in the depth of their heart, these cry along with St. Paul and say: “Who can separate me from the love of Christ?” (Rom 8:38).  In this way, they are gathered together in the love of Christ. “ (Gal 5:17).

 Mastering without confusion means perfecting. All those who hear the Lord saying that “out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, adultery, theft, false swearing, slander, and that this is the essence of a wicked man” (Mat 15:19), and who also hear that in another passage of the Gospel we are commanded to clean the inner vessel, so that the outer might be clean (Matt 5:27), left aside every other spiritual undertaking and dedicated themselves entirely to this one alone, being convinced that by completing this work we will naturally acquire all virtues and that without it we will not be able to make any progress at all. They practiced this above all and wrote about it. Whoever wishes may read their writings. Let him read what Markus the ascetic wrote about this, let him read what John of the Cross said, St. Isaiah, St. Mosecus, the scribe, St. Simon the Theologian, the heavenly Isaias, Varusonferos the Great, and others.

 If you would train yourself in how to do this (i.e. how to enter the heart and stay there), I will tell you how it is done. There are inner parts of the heart, in which evil passions are going around: you must be aware of these. Aim them by loving God and, if you do so, the same loving God will help you to cope with them. With God’s help, keep on thinking towards the true god, the one Who dwells in the highest part of the heart. Hear and understand what He says and then, one day, you will become one with Him. Only then will you be saved.”

            There are three things that we should observe first of all: taking care of everything, even the blessed, and not only the unblessed and worldly, or otherwise becoming numb to everything, a pure conscience in everything so that it does not betray us in anything, and perfect impartiality so that our mind does not linger towards anything. Then sit in a special quiet place by yourself, close the doors, turn your mind away from any temporary and worldly thing, kneel down to your breast with your head, and thus keep your attention inside yourself (not in your head, but in your heart), turning your mind and sensitive eyes there and observing. Having your mind there, trying in every way to find it, where the heart is so that, having found it, your mind is already completely present there. At first, you will find there a darkness of some kind, and stiffness; but later, if you continue this work of attention relentlessly day and night, you will achieve a constant joy. The mind, by exercising in this, will enter the place of the heart, and then immediately will see there, inside, things that it has never seen or known. From this moment on, from whichever side some thought arises and appears, before it enters and thinks, or makes itself appear, the mind immediately drives it away and destroys it by the name of Jesus, that is, Lord, Jesus Christ, have mercy on me. From that moment on, the mind will begin to hate demons, to chase them away and to strike them. The other thing that usually follows this practice, with God’s help, you will learn by experience yourself, by keeping attention and holding on to Jesus, that is, his prayer: Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me!

2) Instructions of St Grigory the Theologian

St. Grigory the Theologian sets out the doctrine about inner prayer in the heart and the method of practicing it in his three articles on silence and prayer, placed in the book titled The Lower Demons (Pomādokotmēņos), Part 1, page 112-119. Here is a shortened excerpt from them:

            We should take up the spirit of the life in Christ Jesus with a pure prayer of the heart, speaking to the Lord like Cherubic ones. But we do not understand the grandeur, honor, and glory of the grace of the resurrection, and do not bother to grow spiritually through the performance of commandments and rise into a state of clear perception. As a result, we indulge in indolence, as a result of which we fall into prurient habits and sink into a stupor of senselessness and darkness. It happens sometimes that we hardly realize that there is a God, and we do not know what we are to be like, as children of God through grace. We believe, but not in an active, concrete faith, and after being brought to life by the Spirit in baptism, we do not cease to live in carnal sin. If we sometimes begin to perform commandments after repenting, we do so only outwardly, and not spiritually, and even turn away from the spiritual life to the point that what it shows in others seems to us excessive and wrong. So we spend the rest of our lives as dead in spirit, living and acting not for Christ, and not responding to the definition that the one born of the Spirit must be spiritual.

Meanwhile, the truth of our Holy Baptism in Christ Jesus cannot be made void, but only concealed, like a treasure hidden in the earth. And prudence and thankfulness require us to see to its opening and putting in evidence. How can that be done? Two methods lead to this: first, our gift is revealed by devoutly fulfilling the commandments, so that as we perform them, it displays more clearly its light and glory; secondly, it comes to light and is made manifest by the constant invocation of the Lord Jesus or, what comes to the same thing, by the continuous remembrance of God. The first is powerful; but the second is more powerful, so that the first receives its full strength from it. Therefore, if we truly wish to make manifest the seed of grace hidden in us, let us get busy at once with the latter spiritual exercise and be constantly occupied with this one business of prayer, without any pretense or lack of sincerity, until our heart is warmed up and inflamed to an ineffable love of the Lord.

       When the mind is weary from such activity, and the body and heart become sick from the constant call of the Lord Jesus, then rise up and sing, or reflect upon some passage of Scripture, or meditate upon death, or read, or do needlework, or something else.

When you take up this work of prayer, then it is proper to read only books that expound the teachings on inner life, on sobriety and prayer, especially The Ladder, the words of Isaac the Syrian, the ascetic writings of Maximus The Confessor, “Symeon the New Theologian”, , Elijah, Philo the Cilician, and others. Leave books of another nature for a time, not because they are bad, but because it is unfit for you to engage in them in your present mood and aspiration: they can distract your mind from prayer. Read little, but with depth and comprehension.

           And do not leave prayer. Others keep a strict prayer rule, others abandon the prayer book altogether, praying to the Lord with a single, sensible prayer. You should choose a way in between: do not take on a lot of prayers, because this gives rise to discouragement, but do not leave them either, in case of illness and relaxation. If you see that prayer acts in you and does not stop moving in your heart, do not leave it and do not take up the prayer book. This would mean abandoning God within, moving out and outwardly extending a conversation to Him. For those who do not yet have the power of prayer, it is necessary to pray a great deal, and even without restraint, in order to continuously be involved in this many-faceted and varied prayer, until the heart is warmed by such painful work of prayer and prayer action begins in it. The one who has finally tasted this grace should pray in moderation, and devote himself even more to intelligent prayer, as the Fathers have commanded. In case of inner relaxation, you should pray or read the writings of the Fathers. Using burdensome weights is superfluous, when the wind fills the sails: they are needed when the wind dies down and the boat stops.

            Nikhifor the monk expounds his teaching on entering the heart in his article on sobriety and the preservation of the heart (part 2 of the Good Words, pp. 36-43).

            You who wish to receive the fire of the heavenly heart in your feelings and to experience it, come; I will tell you the secret of heavenly life, or rather the art that effortlessly and laboriously introduces its maker into the shelter of impartiality. Through the fall, we have gone out of ourselves; return to ourselves, turning away from the outer. Reconciliation and kinship with God is impossible for us unless we return to ourselves first and enter within. Only inner life is a truly Christian life. All the fathers testify this.

            Thus, a brother asked Avva Agathon: What is more important, bodily labor or the preservation of the heart? The elder replied: Man is like a tree; bodily labor is the leaves, and the preservation of the heart is the fruit. Since according to Scripture, every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire, it is evident that you should direct all your attention to the fruit, that is, to the preservation of the heart. But for us we need a leafy attire, that is, bodily labor.

            Saint Lyssius says: Close the doors of the cell for the body, the doors of the mouth for the tongue, and the inner doors for evil spirits. Sitting on the height (that is, by fixing the mind on the heart), observe, if you are competent, what and in what number approach the father to enter the vineyard of your heart and improve its grapevines. Exerting yourself, the overseer (that is, hears the heart), stands up to pray, then sits down again and bravely takes up the same task (that is, the attention of the heart and prayer).

            Saint Makarios the Great teaches: The main point of the ascetic is to enter his heart, to create a struggle with Satan and resist his thoughts, to struggle against him.

            Saint Isaac the Syrian writes: You must enter your inner treasure, and you will see a heavenly treasure. The secret of the heavenly kingdom is hidden in your inner self, that is, in your heart. Therefore, wash yourself from sin, and gather yourself in your heart: there you will find the degrees by which you can ascend to the heavenly heights.

            Here is a saying of Carpiace: Much effort and labor are needed in prayer to find an undistracted state of thoughts, which is another heavenly state of the heart in which Christ lives, as the apostle says: Do you not know that Christ lives in you?

Here are the words of St. Simeon the New Theologian:) From the very moment a person is expelled from paradise and turns away from God, the devil and his demons gain freedom to invisibly sway the imaginary power of every person, day and night. The only way to protect ourselves from this mind is to remember God constantly. Whoever lets God’s memory dissolve in their heart can keep their mental strength from wandering. So all the Holy Fathers teach this. It is the most work of all that almost everyone acquires through teaching. Very rarely do people get it directly from God because of the warmth of their faith. Therefore, we must seek a guide who knows the matter. If there is no such guide, then, calling upon God for help in the humiliation of the heart and in tears, do as I tell you.

            Along with such a rich and joyful infusion into the heart and worthiness of attention, all the faces of virtues will come to you: love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, and more.

4) Admonitions of Callist Kallist and Ignatiy Ksanthopoulis

            Iconokos Callist and Ignatiy Ksanthopoulis depict their teachings about the inner cultivation of the heart in the 100 chapters contained in the Dobrotoliubiyi (Part 2, pp. 56-131). Here are the main ones for us:

            The beginning of life according to God is zeal and all diligent efforts to live according to the saving commandments of Christ. The end is the manifestation of what was given to us by divine grace at the time of baptism, or what amounts to the same thing:  “to put aside the old man with his works and desires, and to be clothed in a new spiritual one” – as the divine Paul says:  “my child, for now, also as long as you may have this sickness.”

            When we are baptized, St. Zlatousta says, our soul shines brighter than the sun, is purified by the Holy Spirit. Like pure silver, lying against the sun’s rays, it itself reflects the rays; not because of its nature, but through being illuminated by the sun; likewise, the soul that is cleansed in baptism receives rays of the glory of the Spirit, and is itself internally glorious. Unfortunately, however! This glory, indescribable and terrible, only remains with us for one or two days, but then we hide it, giving rise to a storm of life’s concerns and passionate affairs.

            In the divine lavrushena, that is, in the holy bath, the tunic, we receive the complete divine grace. If we then hide it under the mud of life’s concerns and passions, we can restore it again, by repentance and by fulfilling the divine commandments, and see its natural radiance. This happens to the extent of each person’s faith and the ardor of diligence to live by faith, especially with the blessing of the Lord Jesus Christ. St. Mark says: “Christ, the perfect God, gave perfect grace to those who were baptized, the grace of the Holy Spirit, which requires no program from us; it opens up to us and is clearly manifested in the degree of fulfillment of the commandments, until we reach the degree of Christ’s fulfillment according to our age.”

            Therefore, since the beginning and the source of salvific action is to live according to the commandments of the Lord, and the end and the fruit is to restore the perfect grace of the Spirit, which is given to us first through baptism, but which is buried in passions, and which is once again revealed by the fulfillment of God’s commandments: it is right for us to announce this gift. Romanian the Lord, John, says that he who keeps the commandments of the Lord with the Lord is with him. The Lord Himself expresses this even more fully by saying: Whoever has My commandments and observes them, that person loves Me; and whoever loves Me, I will love him; and I will show myself to him and will take up my residence with him.

            All the Holy Fathers taught this. St. John Chrysostom says: I beg you, brethren, to never stop reciting this prayer. Elsewhere: everyone who eats, drinks, sits, serves, travels, or does anything else must constantly call: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me.” And with the recitation of the Lord’s name, get down to the depths of the heart, and the demons will be silenced. Stop constantly calling on the Name of Our Lord Jesus, that the Lord may be brought into the heart, and think of nothing else than that Christ may be enlarged in you. St. Levison says: May the remembrance of Jesus become united with your breath. And St. Isaac says: If you want to cover the thoughts of others with shame and remain constantly sober in heart, the prayer to our Lord Jesus may be joined to your breath, and in a few days you will see your desires fulfilled.

            It should be known that if we teach our mind to go down into the heart together with the breath, we will also notice that when it goes there, it is one and naked, holding a single thought and an invocation of our Lord Jesus Christ; on the contrary, when it comes out and reaches external objects, it willingly divides into many ideas and recollections. In order to preserve the simplicity and unity of the mind, it was prescribed by the experienced fathers in this matter to stay in a silent and dark place, especially at the beginning of this good exercise. For the sight of external objects naturally causes the scattering of thoughts. When a silent and dark cellar hides them from us, the mind ceases to wander and becomes more easily collected in itself, as Basil the Great says: “The mind, which is not dispersed by the senses to the world, returns to itself.”

            Pay close attention to the fact that the essence of this exercise consists in a single-minded, heartfelt, pure, and not broad invocation with faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, and not only in this one going down to the heart through the breath and sitting in a silent and dark place. All this and similar were invented by the fathers not for any other purpose than that in this they saw a means of gathering thoughts and returning them to themselves from the usual dispersion. But the habit of being collected and listening to themselves thereby gives birth to a pure and unobtrusive habit of praying with the mind in the heart.

            You also know that all such corporal adaptations are ordered, defined by detailed rules, and considered necessary until pure and prayerful devotion to the heart is restored. When, by the grace and favour of our Lord Jesus Christ, you reach this, having left many and various actions, you will be more deeply united with the One Lord, in a pure and unspiritual heart prayer, and no longer need such3) Images of sobriety: the first is to look at life not from the perspective of dreams or imitation; the second is always to have a heart that is deeply silent and untroubled by any thought; the third is to constantly call upon the Lord Jesus Christ for help in humility; the fourth is to keep constant remembrance of death in the heart; the fifth is the most effective of all – to always look to Heaven and not blame the world for anything (Chapters 14-18).

4) For anyone who labors within, there are four actions to be performed at all times: humility, utmost attention, contradiction of thoughts, and prayer. Humility – so that, since the battle within is waged against the proud demons who are his adversaries, he may always have the help of Christ at the ready; for the Lord hates the proud. The attention to be paid to always keep the heart free of thought, even if it appears to be good. Contradiction – so that as soon as the clear mind realizes who has come in, he may at once repel the schemer with anger, as the saying goes: I answer evil with good, lest my soul be innocent before God (Ch. 20). Prayer – to immediately cry out to Christ from the depths of the heart, with an inarticulate sigh. Then the person who is engaged in the struggle will see how the enemy, with all his schemes, is driven away as if by wind or disappears as if by smoke (Ch. 20).

            8)  The devil walks like a roaring lion with his armies calling out those he would swallow up. Let us never stop paying attentive attention, staying sober, speaking reasoned thoughts, and praying to Jesus Christ, our God. For there is no help like that of Jesus to be found in all our lives, because He alone, as the Lord and God, knows the schemes, devices, and guile of demons (chapter 39).

            9) Just as salt makes bread and every kind of food tasty, and keeps meat from rotting and preserves it for a long time, so too do verses 87 and 88 of this chapter teach us about the wise preservation of imaginary enjoyment and the marvelous deeds of the heart. For it supernaturally delights both the inner and the outer man, banishes the foul stench of poor thoughts, and keeps us steadfast in good works. 

            10) The more you listen to reason, the more eagerly you will pray to Jesus; and the less attentively you watch over your reason, the farther you will get from Jesus. And since reason itself illuminates the air of the mind, then inattention to sobriety and the sweet calling of Jesus usually destroys it altogether (chapter 90). 

            11) The continual, warm desire, filled with delights and joy, which accompanies the calling of Jesus, causes the spirit of the heart to be filled with consoling silence. The cause for this complete purification of the heart is Jesus Christ, the Son of God and God Almighty and the One Sovereign of all goodness. For the very Jesus Christ Himself says:  I am the God who forms the world (chapter 91).

            12) A divine state is born out of constant remembrance and calling upon our Lord Jesus Christ, if we do not neglect to engage in constant prayer and constant sobriety to Him, as the single necessary thing. Surely, we must always have one and the same thing to do–the calling upon Jesus Christ, our Lord. With a burning heart crying to Him for mercy, may He give us to partake of and taste the name of His name. For familiarity is the mother of both virtue and vice; and this then rules as a habit, as does a nature. Having come to that state, the mind is already searching out its enemies like a wild dog among thickets; one the seeker to devour, and one to attack and dispel (chapter 97).

            13) The experienced and great David tells the Lord: I will keep my kingdom with you. So the preservation of our inner and mental state of tranquility, from which all virtues are born, depends on the assistance of the Lord who has given us commandments, and destroys unnecessary forgetfulness, which often destroys inner tranquility, like water burning fire. Therefore, do not fall asleep from carelessness to ruin yourself, but by the name of Jesus, punish your enemies. This is the sweetest name and breath to your soul; and then you will recognize the benefits of tranquility (Ch. 100).

             14) When we are unworthy, we shall be terrified and with fear partake of the divine and immaculate sacraments of Christ, our God and King, then we shall show the greatest sobriety, the preservation of reason and watchfulness, and also the fire of this divine body, that is, the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, requires sin after sin. For having entered into us, He immediately chases away the evil spirits of anger from our hearts, and forgives us our former sins; our reason then remains free from the restless troubles of evil thoughts. If we then guard our reason carefully, when we once more partake of the holy sacraments, the divine body will more and more shine on our mind, making it as bright as a star (Ch. 101).

             15) We must do all we can to preserve what is precious; but what is really precious for us is only what preserves us from all evil, both sensual and mental. Such is the preservation of the mind with the call of Jesus Christ, so that we must always look deep into our hearts and never stop speaking thoughts, or even, as I say, be empty of thoughts that seem true, and try to be empty of all thoughts, so that no evil suggestions hide themselves under them (Ch. 103).

             16) We must always surround our heart with the name of Jesus Christ, as lightning surrounds the space of the air before it rains. This is well known to those who have spiritual experience in the inner struggle. This inner struggle should be conducted as one conducts a regular war. First, attention; then, when we notice that an enemy thought has approached, cast on it the words of curses from the heart; then, when we see that it has turned away, pray against it, turning the heart to the call of Jesus Christ, may this demonic illusion be immediately dispersed, so that otherwise the mind does not follow the trail of this dream, like a child that is seduced by some masterful magician (Ch. 105).

17) Here is a marvelous fruit for the mind from silence, wherein sins, striking first on the mind only with thoughts, that if they are received by the heart, become then gross sins of the senses, all are excluded by the interior virtue of sobriety in our interior man, which does not allow them to enter and enter within, and yet enter within and into Jesus Christ (chapter 111).21) In the business of constant sobriety, spiritually beneficial and fruitful, one can immediately see the delusive thoughts that arise in the mind. The business of conversation is to expose and expose the thought that has tried to enter the air of our reason by means of an imaginary sensual object. What immediately dispels and disperses any adversary’s plan, every word, every dream, every idol and every pillar of evil, is the Lord’s call. And we ourselves see how greatly he attacks them, our great God, and how he protects us, the humble, the poor and the unfit (chap. 153).

2) Verses by Theophylact of Sinai

            1) A speech dedicated to God’s glory acquires such a language, and a purpose to pursue the mind, that, like a delicate flower or a precious stone, it can perfectly quieten the heart with a memory of God. It helps to leave everything behind, even the body, and to neglect one’s own life, in order to gain God the One alone in one’s heart (chap. 1).

            2) From the morning, one must stand vigilantly and steadfastly at the door of the heart, with a strong memory of God and with unceasing Jesus Christ’s prayer stamped in the soul, and with this thought killing all sinners on earth, that is, with a faithful, persistent, and inexplicably tempting memory of God, sown (Chap. 2).

            3) Sobriety is rightly called a “way,” because it leads to the kingdom, and into the interior of us, and into the future, and to a “wise Creator” because it produces and polishes spiritual habits and subtly transforms passions into impassivity. It is also like a window of light through which God may come into our minds (Chap. 3).

            4) Where humility, memory of God with sobriety and attention, and frequent prayers directed against enemies reign, there is God’s place, or the heavenly heart, in which the multitude of demons is afraid to stay because God lives there (Chap. 4).

            5) The first gates that enter the immaterial Jerusalem, into the mind, are the reasonable silence of the lips, even when the mind is not yet silent; the second, moderate moderation in food, drink, and sleep; the third, which cleanses the mind and the body, unremitting memory and contemplation of death (Chap. 6).

            6) Sweet memory of God, that is, of Jesus Christ, with deep passion and the healing enmity to everything sinful, commonly destroys the charms of thoughts, various seductions, words, and dreams, shameful images, and, in short, all that is hostile to our souls. Jesus, being called upon, easily burns everything. For there is no salvation in anyone else but in Jesus Christ. This is what the Savior himself said, saying: Without Me you can do nothing (Chap. 22).

  7) In every hour and every moment, we will keep our hearts pure from evil thoughts that darken the soul’s mirror, in which we should impress and record only Jesus Christ, who is the wisdom and power of God the Father. We will constantly seek the kingdom of heaven within our hearts; and, naturally, we will find there the mystery of the seed, the pearl, the leaven, and all the other things, if we purify the eye of our minds. For this reason, our Lord Jesus Christ said: The Kingdom of God is within you, meaning the Divinity that dwells within the heart (Chapter 23).

  8) In the exercise of inner watchfulness, do this: by combining sobriety with prayer, sobriety will strengthen prayer, and prayer sobriety. Sobriety, constantly watching everything within, notices how the enemies try to enter, and, by repelling their entrance with its own power, calls upon the help of the Lord Jesus Christ to drive out these evil soldiers. In this attentiveness, entry is threatened in the form of contradiction; and Jesus, who is called, drives out these wicked soldiers, together with their dreams (Chapter 25).

  9) With utmost concentration, guard your mind. As soon as you notice an evil thought, immediately refute it, but at the same time, hastily call upon the Lord Jesus Christ for vengeance. The most delightful Jesus, while you speak, will say, Behold, I am with you, to give you help in time of need. But even after your prayer, and all these enemies have been subdued, continue to listen diligently to the mind. Again, waves of thoughts multiply as before, and one after another, they will rush upon you, so that the soul seems to sink into the abyss and is ready to perish. But Jesus, aroused by His disciples, again, as God, forbids the evil winds of thoughts, and they subside. But you, having found freedom from the enemy’s attacks, for an hour or minute, praise Him Who has saved you, and immerse yourself in thoughts about death (Chapter 26).

  10) With every attentive thought in the spiritual sense, you will carry out your way of attention and prayer, as they are combined together each day, they do something similar to the fiery chariot of Elijah, raising to heavenly heights the one connected to them. And what am I saying? In one who has established himself in sobriety, a pure heart becomes a virtual sky, with its sun, moon, and stars, being the abode of the incomprehensible God through a mysterious vision and descent (delight in the mind – the movie) (Chapter 27).

3) Words of Feölitp, Metropolitan of Filadelfia

1) The sunset makes it night; and when Christ departs from the soul, then darkness of passions and animal thoughts begin to torment it. The sun of the senses has risen, and the beasts have retired to their dens. Christ illumines the mind that prays; and each world of that order passes away, and the reason goes out to its own work, that is, to divine instruction until evening (Letter 45).

            8) Believe me, I tell you the truth, that if you in every good deed of yours have the mother of all goodness – prayer – permanently with you, then she does not cease until she illuminates the horizon, introduces you within, and accomplishes inexpressible glory and rejoicing. She, having removed all obstacles, smoothes the path of virtue and makes it convenient for him who seeks (letter 48).

            9) While thinking, read the verbs of prayer, and speak to the Lord continually, crying out and not moaning; constantly praying, imitating the perseverance of this widow who pleaded to the unruly judge. Then (this will mean that) you walk in spirit, do not listen to carnal desires, and do not break the continuity of prayer with worldly thoughts, but you are a temple of God in which the invisible God is silently sung. So by praying mentally, you will finally be able to attain the unceasing desire for God, to see into the unattainable innermost parts of the mind, to see the invisible in mysterious contemplations, serving God alone to the One Who Is Alone, and to pour out love in your single and wise heart (letter 48 обор.).

4) Quotes from Varso­nos­pho­ro­sus the Great and Ioan the Pro­ph­et­or

            1) Enemies are made faint by the call of God’s name. Knowing this, we will not cease to call on God’s name for help. This is prayer, and Scripture says: Continue to pray (Epistle 422).

            2) Remember that God is a healer, He looks upon the heart, and call Him into your heart. This is what is said in Scripture: Shut your doors and pray to your Father who is in secret. Let us shut our mouths and pray to Him in our hearts; for whoever shuts his mouth and prays to God, or prays to Him in his heart, he fulfils the commandment given (Epistle 427).

            3) Your work of the heart must consist in ceaselessly praying to God. Do you wish to succeed in this, begin and seek diligently, expecting, and God will bless you with success (Epistle 26).

            4) Constant invocation of God’s name is a medicine that kills not only passions, but the very action of them. Just as a physician searches out a proper remedy or patch for the wound of a sufferer, and they act, while the patient does not know how it is done: so also the name of God, when it is invoked, kills all passions, although we do not know how this happens (Epistle 421).

            5) The Lord said: “Ask and it will be given to you”. Pray to the All-blessed God; let Him send you the Holy Spirit of Consolation, and he who has come will teach you everything and reveal to you all the ceremonies. Find Him in a guidebook; He will not allow carnal pleasure or dispersion in your heart, will not allow thought of neglect, desolation or carelessness; He will illuminate your eyes, establish your heart, uplift your mind. Hold on to Him, believe in Him, love Him (Rep. 136).

            6) When you see that the union of the enemy takes away your ability to pray, do not argue with them, but try to invoke the name of God; and God will help you and put an end to the schemes of your enemies (Rep. 424).

            7) Perfect prayer consists in talking to God, not dispersing your thoughts, focusing all your thoughts and feelings on Him. A person reaches such a state that he dies for all people, the world, and everything that is in it. During prayer, he has no thoughts in mind, other than waiting for God to speak to him (Rep. 79).

Useful words about the Avva Filimon

            1) They said that Abba Filimon lived in an underground cave, not far from the Lavra, called Romieu, and devoted himself to ascetic struggles, repeating to himself the same thing that, as they say, the Great Arsenius said to himself: “Filimon, for what reason? The time of pleasantness was in this cave. His business was to weave strings and knit baskets, which he gave to the economy, and received small loaves of bread in return, which he ate. He did not eat anything except bread with salt, and not every day. He did not take care of his body, but, practicing contemplation, he was in divine enlightenment, and, being content with this ineffable secret, he was in spiritual education. When he went to church on Saturdays and Sundays, he always walked alone, immersed in himself, not allowing anyone to get near him, so that his mind would not be alienated from its work. In the church, he stood in a corner, bending down with his face, shedding streams of tears, continuously making complaints and turning the hearts and images of the holy fathers, especially Arsenius the Great, in whose footsteps he tried in every way to follow.

           2) When there was deceit in Alexandria and its surroundings, he left and moved to the Lavra of St. Nikanor. Receiving him, the pious Pavich gave him his separate place and set him apart to live in silence. He did not let anyone see him for a whole year, and he himself hardly bothered him, except for the time when he brought the necessary bread. The Holy Resurrection of Christ came. When they started talking to each other, and the conversation touched on the ascetic life, then Filimon realized that his brother Pavich, who was also pious, had a wonderful intention (to live as a hermit), that he taught him many ascetic precepts, both written and unwritten, showing everyone that without complete solitude it is impossible to please God, as nowhere does virtuous conduct and Moses’s feat bring on lamentation, and from that lamentation follows fear, from fear comes humility, and from humility comes insight, which in turn gives rise to love, and love makes the soul healthy and free of all feelings, and then one knows that one is not far from God.

3) He [Filimon] said to him: it is right for you, with the help of silence, to purify your mind completely and give it unceasing spiritual activity. As the eye, by turning to the sensible, is amazed by the visible, so does a pure mind, by turning to thought, become absorbed in the spiritually contemplated, so much so that you cannot turn it away from it. And as it is purified by silence from passions and is cleansed, so does its conduct (the spirit) also become pleasing. The perfect mind is then when it tastes the essence of being and is united with God. Then, having the dignity of a king, it no longer feels poverty and is not carried away by earthly desires, even if you offer it all the kingdoms. Therefore, if you wish to attain such virtues, flee from the world and with diligence follow the path of the saints, cast aside cares about your outward appearance, wear simple clothing and a humble outward appearance. Keep modesty in your dealings, speech simple, behavior indecent, voice defective. Love to live in poverty and be neglected by all. Most of all, be careful about preserving your mind and sobriety, be patient in all hardships, and keep the spiritual blessings already obtained intact and firm. Take care of yourself carefully and do not accept any of the passions that creep in secretly. For though silence controls the passions of the soul, if we allow them to flare up and grow, they will usually become even more inflamed, and those who allow this will cause the sin even more forcefully. Likewise, bodily wounds that are rubbed and torn can be incurable. Perhaps one word can distance the mind from the memory of God, when the demons feel like it, and the senses agree with them. The great feat and fear is to preserve the soul. Therefore, it is right for you to completely withdraw from the world and, having detached the soul from all sensibility to the body, to become homeless, destitute, propertyless, penniless, selfless, carefree, unencumbered, ignorant of human affairs, humble, compassionate, pious, gentle, peaceful, and quiet. For it is impossible to write on wax without first erasing the letters carved on it, as the Great Basil teaches us. Such was the image of the saints who, completely withdrawing from all worldly customs and preserving their heart unruffled by the heavenly wise counsel, were illuminated by divine laws and shone with godly deeds and words, dying to the things on earth by restraint, the fear of God, and love. For unceasing prayer and instruction in the divine scriptures open the spiritual eyes of the heart and see the Ruler of the powers, and there is great joy, and a divine desire for inextinguishable activity breaks out in the heart, while the flesh is preserved there by the action of the Spirit, and man becomes wholly spiritual. Such are the desires of the creators of blessed silence and the most rigorous ascetic life, who, having extricated themselves from all human comforts, talk incessantly with the only one occupying the heavens.4) Listening to this, the pious brother, struck with the love of God, leaves his place and together with [Phylimon] reaches the retreat where the greatest of the fathers carried out the path of sanctity. They settled there in the Lavra of St. John the Colovite, entrusting the care of themselves to the laurel economy, since they wanted to be in silence. And they stayed there by the grace of God in complete silence, celebrating Mass together on the Sabbaths and solemn feasts, and spending the rest of the days in their own companies; each one performed his prayer and service in particular.9) A certain brother, named Ivan, from a neighbouring church, rushed up to this holy and great father, Filimon, and, embracing his feet, said to him: What shall I do, father, that I may be saved? For my mind is unsettled and wandering here and there, where it ought not to be. And he, after a short silence, said: This disease (of the soul) is inherent in those who are external, and it is in them. And it is in you, because you have not yet received love for God, the warmth of love and knowledge of Him has not yet come to you. The brother says to the elder: What then must I do, father? He said to him: Go, take a secret instruction within your heart, and it will clear your mind of this. The brother, not being initiated in what was given to him in signs, says to the elder: What is this secret instruction, father? And he said to him: Go, be sober in your heart, and in your thoughts, soberly, with fear and trembling, say: Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me! Thus the illustrious Diakos explains to his beginners.11) A brother asked him: I see many foolish dreams in my sleep. The elder said to him: Do not become lazy or discouraged; but before you fall asleep, perform many prayers in your heart and resist the thoughts and movements of the devil to lead you after his will, may God receive you. Whatever your strength may be, take care to fall asleep with psalms on your lips and wise instruction, and in no way allow your mind to accept the thoughts of others, but with what thoughts you prayed, you will be inclined to and on a bed so that when you sleep, they stay within you, and when they stay in you, they will be on your mind. Also, recite the holy symbol of the Orthodox faith before falling asleep, for the Orthodox faith about God is the source and protection of all blessings.

            Then he said to him, “Think about vain things that occur in the heart, for they are the corruption of an unblemished soul that has fallen into carelessness. That is why we, according to the Scripture, should observe the keeping of our mind, sing with intelligence without distraction, and pray with a pure mind. So, brother, God wants us to show Him our diligence first through works (virtue and good deeds), then by love and constant prayer, and He will give us the way of salvation. It is obvious that there is no other way that leads to heaven except complete separation from all evil, the acquisition of all good, perfect love for God, and being with Him in holiness and righteousness, so that when one has this, he will soon grasp the heavenly joy. But at the same time, anyone who wishes to ascend must immediately destroy the earthly possessions. For when our soul delights in the sight of true good, it no longer returns to any of the passions aroused by sweet sinful pleasure; but having turned away from any bodily vanity, it receives the revelation of God with a pure and stainless thought. Therefore, we need great self-preservation, many bodily works and purification of the soul, and it is necessary to give God to our hearts so that we may act without sin in accordance with His divine commandments, and that He Himself may teach us to observe His laws, radiating His actions upon us through the grace of the Spirit. By works and temptations, we must purify the image by which we were created as rational beings capable of understanding and becoming like God, bearing sensations pure from all defilement through their refusion in the furnace of temptations, and being transfigured into royal dignity. God and the human race created it to be partaker of any good that can be contemplated in mind the joy of the angels of glory, sovereignty, power, beginning, rule, an unapproachable light, and unspeakable glory. But when you correct a virtue, do not let your thought rise above your brother, for you have corrected it, and he has hatched a hate for it, for this is the beginning of pride. When you struggle with a passion, do not be sad or despondent because the adversity is standing firm; but rise up, turn yourself before God, and say from the heart with the prophet: “Lord, judge those who hurt me,” because I am not strong against them. And when He sees your humility, He will soon send you His help.

            With these and many other words the elder dismissed him.

13) After a while, he came again and, beginning to speak, asked me: What should I do, Father? During my night service, sleep weighs me down and does not allow me to pray soberly and to increase the number of my prayers; and I want to take up a work when I am singing. The elder said: If you can pray soberly, do not touch any work; if you are engaged in drowsiness, then, leaning slightly toward your thoughts, draw your hand away from them, and touch the work. He asked me again: Do you yourself not become weighed down by sleep during your service, Father? The elder said: Not so easily; but when drowsiness attacks, I lean slightly, but begin to read from the beginning of the Gospel of John, turning my mind to God, and it immediately disappears. I do something like this with my thoughts, especially when one of them is found, I meet it as if it were fire with tears, and it disappears. You, however, are not yet able to equip yourself against them; but more so, keep the secret teaching and strive to observe the prayers established by the holy fathers, such as the morning, middle, sixth, ninth, and evening prayer, and the night services. And with all your might, try not to do anything for the sake of the world, and be careful not to have any enmity with anyone in the brotherhood, so as not to separate yourself from God. Also, try to preserve your mind, well-attuned to inner thoughts. When you are in church, if you wish to receive the Holy Mysteries of Christ, do not leave it until you receive the full chastity. Standing in one place, do not move from it until the dismissal. Keep thinking that you are in heaven, and with the holy angels you are waiting for God to come into your heart. Prepare for this with fear and trembling, so that you are worthy of being a member of the holy powers.

  Having thus well equipped his brother, and turning his face toward God and to the grace of His Spirit, the elder dismissed him.”

14) My brother, who lived with me, once said: “Forgive me, brother, if God lets evil temptations come upon you, such as I experienced while living in the desert. I am seventy years old, or more, and have endured many temptations during my long years of complete silence in various deserts. I have experienced and endured a great deal from these demons, and it is not fitting for me to relate the pain of it to those who have not yet been tempted by silence. In such temptations I have always acted thus: I placed all my hope in God, to whom I made vows of abstinence, and he soon delivered me from every need. I no longer make any plans of my own, but knowing that he cares for me, I easily endure the temptations that come upon me. And I bring him only this to present to him, namely, constant prayer. And great help is given by the assurance that the more sorrows and hardships come upon us, the greater are the crowns of patience prepared for the patient: for before the righteous Judge, the one and the other are balanced against each other. Knowing this, my brother, do not become discouraged. Having entered into the midst of the battle, you must fight, and fight, being encouraged by the fact that he who fights against the enemy of our race is very numerous, more numerous than the enemy’s hosts. And how could one dare to confront such a terrible adversary of our race if God’s sovereign rule did not embrace us, do not enclose us, and do not cover us? How could the human race endure his snares? For as Job says, “Who will loose the secret bands of his garment? Whose face will he come to? From his mouth come burning lamps, and they are like sparks of fire. From his nostrils goes the smoke of a burning pillar, which is burning in fire. His soul is like firewood, and like the flame, it comes out of his mouth. Strength dwells upon his neck, and destruction flows before him. His heart hardens like stone, and stands firm like an anvil. He burns up the abyss like a bronze furnace, and likens the sea to a tranquil pond; and the bottom of the abyss, as to a strong man; all the high look up to the Lord, and all things living in the waters.”15) One brother told me that Montefilimon had another virtue, namely this: he could not bear to hear mere words, and if anyone, in his forgetfulness, said something that was not relevant to the welfare of the soul, he did not pay any attention to it. Also, when I went on any business, he did not ask why I was going, and when I returned, he did not say, “Where were you? or what and how did you do?” Like this, one time I went to Alexandria on a necessary errand and from there to Caesarea for a church matter, without informing the servant of God; then, having stayed there for a sufficient time, visiting the devout brothers there, I finally returned to the hermitage. Seeing me, the hermit was overcome with joy, and, with the customary greeting, he composed a prayer and sat down; but he did not ask me about anything at all, but was occupied with his habitual thoughtful activity.18) He then added the story of a recluse, saying that he had already attained impartiality and that he received bread from the hand of an angel by day, but that through distraction he had lost this honor. For when the soul lessens its concentrated and attentive attention, then it is overcome by darkness, and the soul is no longer able to contemplate the one God or tremble with His Word. “God is near,” says the Lord, “and not God from afar; or does a man hide himself in secret places, and will I not see him? Do not I fill the heavens and the earth?” and of many others like the afflicted he recounted. He also brought up the fall of Solomon, who, he said, thus acquired wisdom and was all-envied, for like the morning star, whom people saw in the early dawn, the full light of wisdom shone upon them; but through a little ingratitude he lost all this fame. Therefore, it is frightful to be indulgent to sloth; but we must constantly pray so that another counsel might not find us, and instead of God, might place some other thing in our minds. Only a pure heart, being the abode of the Holy Spirit, clearly sees God in all his glory as in a mirror.

            Who, at the beginning of repentance, does not become possessed by tears of heart, nor by spiritual tears, nor by the memory of infinite sufferings, nor by true silence, nor by unceasing prayer, nor by psalmodies and teaching in the divine Scriptures, who does not turn that into a habit so that, through continuity, he becomes, due to incessancy, off the mind, and the fear of God does not rule in his soul. For he still rests on the fellowship of the world, and cannot have a pure mind in prayer; because only piety and the fear of God purify the soul from passions and, by making the mind free, draw it into the proper viewing of things, and enable it to touch the theology which he receives in the image of bliss (the blessed minds shy in the sight of God*), that which has not yet grown firm.

            For those who live a life worthy of imitation and eagerly seeks to draw closer to God, it is necessary to have a pure heart and clean lips, so that the words coming out of these lips will be pure, and can glorify God properly, because the soul that is attached to God constantly communicates with Him. We, brothers, wish to attain such a height of virtues and cease to wander on the earth, attached to our passions. He who is lifted up and reaches nearness to God has tasted the holy light of His glory and has become inflamed with love for Him, and enjoys some unseen spiritual joy, as the divine psalm says: Delight thyself in the Lord, and He will give thee that desire of thine heart: yea he will satisfy thy soul with good things. And what love is stronger and more inexorable than that which is poured into the soul that has been cleansed of all evil? Such a soul, from the true intention of the heart, says: I am inflamed by love. The splendor of the divine beauty is inexplicable and inexpressible! No word can describe it, nor can the ear contain it! Can you describe the splendor of the sun or the brightness of the moon, or the light of the sun? Yet all this is unimportant compared to that glory, and more insignificant before the face of the true light than a deep night or a gloomy dawn! So wrote to us Basil the Wonderworker, knowing this by experience and learning it.

20. This and more was narrated by the brother who lived with Ephrem. But who can fail to be amazed by the following example of his great humility? Having been honored with the priesthood long ago, and having touched the heavens and life by both his mind and his life, he avoided divine rites, treating them as a burden, so that for many years of his asceticism he was very seldom willing to partake of the Holy Communion (for a divine rite). But even of the divine sacraments, he refused to partake, despite such a constantly dangerous life, when he was in the company of people and conversing with them, although he said nothing to them of earthly things, but only something useful for those who sought conversation with him. And when he had desired to partake of the divine sacraments, he prayed long before God, making Him merciful with his prayers, psalm-singing, and confessions. He dreaded the priest’s voice, who utters the following words: Holy, holy, holy are the Lord, God. For at that time, he said, the whole Church is overflowing with holy angels, and the Lord of hosts Himself, secretly performing a divine rite, and turning the bread and wine into His body and blood, is infused into our hearts through the holy Eucharist. Why, then, should we, with unconditional and pure hearts and lips, contemplate the holy Divine Sacraments with no hesitation or hesitation, so as to become participants in the enlightenment that came from them? Many of the Fathers of the Church saw holy angels who cherished them (from everything that was unlike them): why did they themselves conduct themselves in deep silence, not speaking to anyone.

21) And what else did this brother say: when it was necessary for him to sell his own handicrafts, so that there would be no deception, or theft, or superfluous words, or any other kind of sin, in order to talk and make a bargain, he pretended to be a hermit; and whoever wanted to buy his handicrafts, took them from him and paid for them. He worked small baskets, and he received them gratefully, without saying a word, this poor man.

Summary of the fathers’ teachings

Finally, we offer a summary of the parental lessons given in this book.

Here is what the fathers told us as a way of praying and the conditions for success in it:

Repetition: that is, the frequent repetition of the Lord’s Prayer.

Attention, or the immersion of the mind in Jesus Christ, with the elimination of other thoughts.

Change: that is, the pronouncing of the Lord’s Prayer, sometimes complete, sometimes shortened.

Regularity: that is, the alternation of prayer, psalms, sitting, standing with outstretched arms, the Lord’s Prayer again, and afternoon readings of the fathers.

Walking before God: that is, always feeling God’s presence and remembering God at every action.

Abandoning the world: when mention is made of death and the joy of prayer.

Constant invocation of the name of Jesus Christ: in every case and time, if alone, orally, and in public only by thought.

            2) Before you begin, bend your knees a few times and do not let go of the members.

            3) Find the place of the heart under the left palm and establish your attention there.

            4) Bring your mind from the head to the heart and say: “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me, ” silently, with your lips, or with one mind, as you prefer, speak slowly with reverent fear.

            5) Try to maintain your attention as much as possible and do not take into account any thoughts, neither bad nor good.

            6) Have patient patience and stay still for a long time, forgetting everything.

            7) Maintain moderate modesty and humility as much as possible.

            8) Keep silence.

            9) After lunch, read the Gospel and those fathers who reflect on inner action and prayer.

            10) Sleep 5 or 6 hours a day.

            11) Sometimes, indirectly, ask for the actions of the internal with external prayer.

            12) Do not touch crafts that distract.

            13) Most often, trust your experiences and the instructions of your parents.

            ” Lord! go away with the strength of my will,“ Saint Prophet David used to shout. Shout, my soul: Lord, go away with the firm determination of my devotion to attention! For with you there is everything to want and to do; may you help me and assist me in purifying the mind and the heart through attention, so that I may prepare them for Your home, the Trinity!

THE SECOND MEETING: A TRAVELER’S NARRATIVE

    It has been a year since our last meeting with the traveler as the quiet tap of the door and the prayerful voice greeted his arrival with heartfelt joy. 

    – Come, dear brother! Let us give thanks together to the Almighty Father for all that He does not approve of, but which is always beneficial for us, pilgrims and strangers on the blissful soil “! Here I am, sinner, after having been separated from you last year, and again, by the grace of God, I am happily able to see and hear your gracious greeting. And of course you are expecting a detailed account of God’s holy city, Jerusalem, to which my soul was drawn and my course led, but not everything which we desire is thenceforth accomplished. This has also happened to me, and it is not strange, when one considers that God granted me, a poor sinner, to set my foot on the holy soil where the divine feet of Our Lord Jesus Christ were imprinted.

            You see, Beta, remember that last year I left here with a deaf old man, having a letter from the Irkutsk merchant’s son to his son in Odessa, to send me to Jerusalem. So we arrived safely in Odessa in a short time. My companion immediately took a place on the ship to Constantinople and departed, and I, having stayed behind, went in search of the letter of the merchant’s son from Irkutsk. Soon after finding his apartment, to my great surprise and regret, I did not find this my benefactor alive: it was three weeks since his short-term illness had passed away and he had been buried. This greatly saddened me, but I surrendered myself to the will of God. All the household were in misery, the deceased’s widow, having three small children, mourned endlessly, crying many times a day, and suffering greatly; it seemed that she also had not long to live because of such a profound sorrow. However, she welcomed me kindly; since their circumstances did not allow her to send me to Jerusalem, she allowed me to stay with her for two weeks, until the deceased’s father arrived here to Odessa to take care of, account for, and arrange for the affairs of the bereaved family. So I was left there. 

            I lived a week, a month, and another. But instead of the merchant’s arrival, he sent a letter informing me that he could not come to them under the circumstances, and advised me to make an account for the agents and to immediately depart to Irkutsk. The work of compiling and working began, and, as I noticed that they no longer cared about me, I thanked them for their compassionate welcome and said goodbye to them, and set out again to travel through Russia… 

            I thought and thought: where should I go now? And, finally, basing myself on the thought that I should first go to Kiev, where I had not been for many years, I set out… 

            Of course, although I first fretted about the failure of my wish to be in Jerusalem, but it was not without God’s providence, I reasoned, and I calmed myself with the hope that the merciful Lord would accept my intention as a deed, and would not leave my wretched destiny without a name… 

            It turned out just this way, because I met people who opened many things to me that were unknown to me, and broadened my dark soul to salvation… If I had not been pushed onto this path by necessity, I would not have met these spiritual benefactors of mine. 

Therefore, in the day I went with prayer, and in the evening, resting for the night, I read my “The Heavenly Love” to strengthen and encourage my soul in the struggle with the invisible enemies of salvation. 

Finally, after leaving Odessa 70 stades, I came across a wonderful sight: a large convoy of goods – 30 carts – was passing by, and I caught up with them. One wagon driver, as the lead driver, was walking alongside his horse, and the others, having gathered together, were walking behind. We had to pass by a pond, where the broken-up spring ice was rotating and melting water, making a terrible noise. Suddenly, the leading young driver stopped his horse, and the whole convoy stopped. The drivers gathered around him and saw that he was undressing. They asked him why he was undressing. He replied that he was very keen to take a bath in the pond. The drivers were surprised – some began to mock him, others scolded him, calling him deranged, and the driver’s older brother began to prevent him from quitting and shove him aside. The driver defended himself and refused to listen. Some of the younger drivers began to use buckets, from which they drew water to splash the bather – one on his head, another on his neck, saying, “Here we are buying you.” As soon as the water touched his body, he screamed, “Ah, how good!” and fell to the ground, where he was still being splashed; then he soon lay down and peacefully died. Everyone was frightened, not understanding why this happened. The elders were concerned and said that this should be reported to the court, while others insisted that such a fate was already written for him at birth.

  After staying next to them for an hour, I continued on. After passing fifteen stades, I came upon a village on the main road and, entering it, met an old priest who was walking along the street. I was tempted to tell him about the apparent event and hear his opinion on it…

            — I cannot say anything specific about this to you, my dear brother, except that there is many a wonderful and incomprehensible thing in nature. I think this is precisely what God has arranged in order to make the laws of nature better understood in His providence, by making them violate their laws in ways that are unnatural and without any apparent cause.

After traveling for several days and becoming quite tired, I came to a large trading town called ‘White Church’. It was already getting late, so I began to look for somewhere to stay. On the market square I met a man who looked like a traveler too, asking around in the stalls where the house of a local resident, Y. E. Y. E., was located. On seeing me, he came up and said: ”‘You seem to be a traveler too. Let’s go together and find this Y. E. Y. E. He is a good Christian, he keeps a wealthy inn, and he likes to welcome travelers. Here is the note I have about him’.” I was happy to agree and we soon found him. Although we did not find the owner of the house himself, his wife, a kind old woman, welcomed us kindly and took us to a special light room on the loft. We settled there and had a little rest; the master came and invited us to have dinner with him. After dinner, we talked about who was who, and somehow the conversation came around to why he was called Y. E. Y. E. He answered: ”I will tell you a wonderful story about this.” And he began his story. “Look, my father was a Jew, a native of Shklova, and he was a bitter enemy of Christians. From his earliest years he prepared to be a rabbi and studied diligently all the Jewish slanders to refute Christianity. One day, as he was passing through the Christian cemetery, he saw a man with a shovel digging a grave; he had it dug up and placed a cross on it. Suddenly, an unknown man appeared before him and blamed him, saying: “How dare you mock the dusty remains of my bones! I am a Christian, and you are an enemy of Christ!” He had this vision several times a night and it deprived him of sleep and peace. People read prayers and incantations over him, but the visions not only did not dispel him, but became more frequent and more insistent. At first he would have preferred anything to be done to get rid of the painful and unbearable vision, but he made the following response: ”I would be happy to do whatever you want to do, to get rid of the painful and unbearable vision.” After signing this request, the vision ceased and never troubled him again. He went to live in this place, married my mother here, a good Christian, and lived a pious life in prosperity.

            After the dinner, thanking God and the host, we went to our room to rest. We still didn’t feel like sleeping, and we talked with our companion. He told me that he was a Moghilev merchant, who had lived for two years in Bessarabia as a servant in one of the monasteries there, but only with a temporary passport, and now he was going back to his homeland to receive a permanent exemption from the merchant society to become a monk. He praised the monasteries there, their statutes and rules, and the strict life of many pious elders who lived there, and assured us that the Bessarabian monasteries were opposed to the Russians, like heaven to earth. He persuaded me to go there. At the time we were having these conversations, they brought a third lodger to us, an under-officer who had been discharged from the army for a while and was going on home leave. We saw that he was very tired from the journey. After we prayed to God together, we went to bed. Getting up early in the morning, we began gathering our things for the road. And as soon as we wanted to thank the host, we suddenly heard a midnight bell. The merchant and I began to think: how are we to go, hearing the bell and not having stayed in God’s church? It would be better for us to wait until morning, praying in the holy temple, and then going would be more pleasant. So we decided, and we took the under-officer with us. And he said to us: “Here, on the way, what kind of leave can we have, and what profit is there for God for us to have been in church? Once we get home, we will pray up there! If you want to go now, and I want to come home: ” God grant that you should go on ahead!”

            So we went to church, and the under-officer went on the road. After we had the morning service (there was also the morning one), we returned to our room and began to pack our bags. We looked at it: the hostess brought us a samovar, and said: “Where are you going? Here, have a cup of tea, and have breakfast with us; will we let you go hungry?” It wasn’t half an hour since we sat by the samovar, when our under-officer ran to us, panting.

            – I came to you with bitterness and joy.

            – What is it? we asked him.

            – And look! As I said goodbye to you and went, I wanted to go into the tavern to change my assignation money for smaller coins and have a drink to make it easier for me to go. I entered and exchanged money, and then flew away like an eagle on my way. Having gone three versts, I wanted to count my money and see if I had given it all to the tavernkeeper. I sat down to the side, took out my wallet, looked at it, and it was all still there. Suddenly I took my passport, which was lying right there, and it wasn’t there at all; only notes and money. So I was scared as if I had lost my head. And I realized: of course, I had defended it when I was settling up in the tavern. I need to run back. I run, run, and it does me no good: how can it not be there! I will have a hard time! When I arrived, I asked the tavern owner, and he said: “I didn’t see it.” I was overcome with sadness again. I need to search and wander around the places where I stood and walked. And what? Thankfully, I found my passport, as it was rolled up, lying between the straw and the dirt on the floor, all covered with mud. Thank God! I was happy; it was like a mountain had fallen from my shoulders! Even though they ban the dirty and the dirty from eating, but that’s nothing, at least I can come home and back with my eyes. And I came to you to tell you about this and also, in my fear, I slid my leg so hard against the mud that it’s impossible to walk, and that’s why I ask for salt to bind to the wound.

            – То от і є, брате! За це, що не послухувався и не пішов з нами помолитись, — почав говорити купець. – Ось ти хотів далеко вперед нас піти, а навпроти до нас повернувся, та ще й окульгав. Я тобі кажею, що не загадуй уперед, ото воно так і вийшло! Та мало того, що не пішов до церкви, а ще говорив такі слова: „що за користь Богу, що ми молитимемося“. Це, брате, недобре… Очевидно, Бог не потребує нашої грішної молитви, проте, за любов’ю Свою до нас, любить, коли ми молимося. І не тільки священна молитва, яку Сам Боголюбний Дух сприяє приносити і збуджує в нас, Йому приємна, бо Він цього від нас вимагає, заповідаючи: „Будьте в Мені і Аз у вас“, але цінна перед Ним навіть кожна, мабуть, мала справа, для Нього зроблена, кожен намір до спасіння, спонукання нашому. За все це велике милосердя Боже нагороджує щедро. Божа любов дає благодіяннями тисячі разів більше, ніж це гідне діяння людське; якщо ти зробиш для Бога на незначний внесок, то Він віддасть тобі златом. Якщо ти тільки збираєшся піти до Батька, то Він вже виходить до тебе назустріч. Ти коротким і сухим словом скажеш: „прийми мене! помилуй мене!“, а Він уже обіймає шею твою і грає тобі на лоб. Ось яка любов Небесного Батька до нас негідна! І з цієї лише любові Він радіє і про кожен і найменший рятівний рух наш. Тобі видається: яка слава з того Господа і для тебе користь, якщо ти трохи помолишся, а потім знову розважишся, або хоч і зробиш якусь маловажну добру справу, наприклад, прочитаєш якусь молитву, покладеш п’ять чи десять поклонів; зітхнеш від серця і покличеш імя Ісуса Христа, або помітиш якусь добру думку, або вирішиш прочитати щось спасенне, або утримаєшся від їжі, або перенесеш малу образу в мовчанні… Все це видається тобі недостатнім до досконалого твоєго спасіння і як би безплідним. Ні! кожне з цих малих справ не пропадає в туні, все буде вираховано всевидячим Оком Божим і отримає сторичну нагороду не тільки в вічності, але і в цьому житті. Це стверджує і св. Іоанн Золотоустий. „Ніяке добро, каже він, як би маловажно не було, не буде зневажене Суддю праведним. Якщо гріхи досліджуються з такою подробицею, що ми даємо відповідь за слова, за бажання і за помисли, то якомога добріші справи, хоч би якими вони мали не були, облічені будуть з особливою подробицею і в.”

I will give you an example myself, which I experienced last year. There was an old monk in Bessarabia who led a good life. One day, he had a temptation, he was very fond of dried fish. Since it was not possible to obtain it in the monastery at that time, he wanted to go to the market and buy it. He struggled long with this thought and reasoned that a monk should be content with communal meals and avoid luxury as much as possible. He also did not want to walk around the market among the crowd of people. Finally, the evil suggestion took the upper hand over his reasoning, and he, succumbing to his own evil, decided to go for the fish. As he stepped out of the monastery on a city street, he noticed that he did not have a broom in his hands, and he began to wonder: “How can I go as a warrior without a sword? This is unseemly, and when people meet on the street, they will judge me and tempt me to sin, seeing a monk without a broom. Would I ever return and take it? He looked in his pockets and found them there. He took them out, crossed himself, put his hand on them, and walked calmly. As he approached the market, he saw a horse with a great wagon of huge barrels standing next to the stall. Suddenly, the horse, frightened by something, ran away at full speed and began to kick its heels. It ran over the stall, grabbed him by the shoulder, threw him on the ground, but did not really hit him. Soon after that, the wagon, two steps behind him, tipped over and the barrels flew apart. As he stood up, he was of course frightened, but he was also surprised that God kept him from death, because if the wagon had fallen just a little later, he himself would have been broken into pieces, and the wagon, as well. Without thinking about it any further, he bought the fish, returned, ate, and, after praying, lay down to sleep. In a dark dream, an unknown but noble old man appeared before him and said: “Listen, I am the protector of this monastery and I want to enlighten you so that you can understand and remember the lesson that the struggle against sensual pleasures and laziness leads to self-awakening and self-devotion. Thus, the enemy had an opportunity to attack you and he had prepared this miserable incident for you that burst before your eyes. If you had not listened to my advice and expressed it in reality, it was precisely this that saved you from death.” The old man who had appeared quickly left the cell, and the monk bowed down to him and woke up, feeling as if he was not on the bed, but with his hands fondly reaching the doorstep. He immediately told this vision to many for the sake of their own souls, among them also to me.Indeed, God’s infinite love for us, sinners! How strange it is that for such a small matter, for taking out a money coin and putting it in his hand and calling upon God, for this small act, a person is given life! And on the scales of human destiny, one short moment of Jesus’ call outweighed many wasted hours of idleness… Indeed, a little gold piece is given here in return for a little effort… Do you see, brother, how strong a prayer is, and how powerful the name of Jesus, which we invoke! St. John of Carpasia in his book entitled “Charity” says that when we invoke the name of Jesus in prayer and say: “God, have mercy on me, the sinner,” there is a secret voice of God that answers every such request: “Child, your sins are forgiven, by the hours of your life.” Prayer is not distinguished from the saints, the venerable, nor the martyrs, because, as St. Chrysostom says, “a prayer, even if spoken by us, sinners, is immediately cleansed” (or. 2). God is so full of mercy toward us, and we, sinners and careless, do not want to give even a single hour to Him in thanksgiving and we exchange the time for prayer, which is most important, for everyday worries and concerns, forgetting God and our obligation! Therefore, we often fall into misfortune and hardship, but this, until we understand and turn to God, defines God’s merciful providence.

              When the merchant finished his conversation with the unceremonious man, I said to him: “Well, dear, how you have comforted and my sinful soul, so I have bowed down before you. Upon hearing this, he began to talk to me. “Are you a wise man to religious tales? Hold on, I’ll read to you something similar to what I was talking about. Here, I have a travel book called “Agapios” or “The Sinner’s Salvation.” It has many wonderful events.”

He took out a book from his pocket and began to read a wonderful story about a pious man called Agaphonikos, who from childhood had been accustomed by his pious parents to read daily before an icon of the Blessed Virgin the prayer ‘Hail Mary, full of grace’ and other prayers. He performed this regularly. Then, having come of age, he began to live on his own and, engrossed in his cares and affairs, he rarely read the prayer he had learned, and eventually abandoned it entirely. One evening he took in a traveler who told him that he was a hermit from Phıvaydia and that he had had a vision urging him to go to Agaphonikos and rebuke him for abandoning the prayer to the Blessed Virgin. Agaphonikos gave the reason for his abandonment as being that he had read this prayer many times and had seen no benefit from it. Then the hermit said to him: ‘Remember, blind and ungrateful one, how many times has this prayer helped you and saved you from adversity? What about that friend who fell out of the carriage with you? He broke his leg, and you were not harmed. And there are many more such incidents which the hermit went on to mention. Finally, he said to Agaphonikos: ‘Recall that all such incidents were diverted from you by the intercession of the Blessed Virgin because of the short prayer with which you used to purify your soul and bring it closer to communion with God… Listen, continue in the future and do not abandon the prayer which this pious virgin has left you unanswered.’

I walked for another five days, enjoying the memories of the stories I had heard from the pious merchant from the White City; then I began to approach Kiev, when suddenly for no reason at all I felt a weight, a feeling of numbness and gloomy thoughts; prayer was difficult, and I felt a certain distraction. So, in order to rest, when I saw a wood and a thick bush on the side of the road, I went there to sit in a secluded nook and read The Book of Good Love to strengthen my weakened soul and calm my cowardice. Having found a silent village, I began to read St. Cassian of Rome, in volume four of The Book of Good Love, about eight thoughts. With delight, I read for half an hour, then I suddenly saw a man standing motionless behind me, about fifty yards away, deep in the woods. I was thrilled by this, thinking that he must be praying to God, and I began to read again. After reading for an hour or more, I looked at this man again, and he was still standing motionless on his knees. This became very touching to me, and I thought, “Here are the pious servants of God.” As I was thinking about this, suddenly this man fell to the ground and lay in humble submission. This surprised me, and since I couldn’t see his face, because he was standing on crutches to me, I became curious to go and see what kind of person it was. Approaching, I found him in a thin sleep. It was a peasant boy of twenty-five years of age, clean in features and noble, but pale as to his body, wearing a peasant jacket, belted with a cord, and there was nothing else with him – no bag or even a stick. Hearing the rustling of my approach, he woke up and got up. I asked him who he was. He told me that he was a state peasant from the Smolensk region, coming from Kiev.

            – Look, – he replied, – I have been pasturing sheep in our village since childhood, and for ten years everything was peaceful. Finally, one day, after driving the flock home, I didn’t realize that our best female sheep was missing. And our elder was a cruel and cruel man. When he came home in the evening and saw that his sheep were missing, he came to me, started scolding me and threatened to beat me to death, break my arms and legs. Knowing that he was so angry, I went in search of his sheep in the places where the flock grazed during the day. I searched, searched, searched beyond midnight, but I didn’t hear anything. It was such a dark night, because it was autumn. As I entered the depths of the forest, which is impassable in our province, a storm suddenly rose. It was as if the trees were all falling! Wolves howled in the distance and I was overcome with such fear that my hair stood up; the further I went, the worse it got, and I was about to fall from fear and fear. I fell to my knees, crossed myself, and with all my might said: “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me.”
As soon as I said this, suddenly it became easy for me, as if there had been no grief, and all the fear passed, and I felt so good in my heart as if I had flown to heaven … I was amazed at this, and I kept saying this prayer continuously. And I don’t remember how long the storm lasted, and how the night passed, and I look – it’s already daylight, and I’m standing in one place on my knees. I got up calmly and saw that I couldn’t find the sheep, so I went home, and I felt good on my heart and wanted to keep saying the prayer. As soon as I came to the village, the elder, seeing that I hadn’t brought the sheep, beat me to death; that’s when he dislocated his leg. So I lay almost motionless for six weeks after these beatings, only knowing that I was doing a prayer, and it comforted me. Then I gradually recovered, but when it began to seem boring to me to be constantly pushing and shoving among the people, and there was so much sin, I decided to wander around the world wandering around holy places and the forests. That’s how I’ve been wandering the world for a year now.

            Listening to this, I rejoiced in my soul at the thought that the Lord had let me see such a gracious person and asked him, “Do you often practice this prayer now?”

            – No, it’s impossible without it, he replied, when I just remember how good I felt in the forest then, as if someone pushed me onto my knees, and I will pray … I don’t know whether my sinful prayer will be agreed with, because while praying, I sometimes feel great joy and, I don’t know why, ease, relief, sadness; but at the same time I always want to pray to death.

            Do not worry, beloved brother: everything is acceptable to God, and everything is salvific, no matter what there is during prayer, the fathers teach; whether it is lightness or heaviness – everything is good; no prayer, neither good nor bad, is lost before God. Lightness, warmth, and delight indicate that God rewards and consoles for this feat, and burden, gloominess, and dryness mean that God purifies and strengthens the soul and thereby saves it, preparing it with humility for the future gracious joy. 

            I found this article here and read it to him. He listened to it with attention and pleasure and thanked me very much for it. So we said goodbye. He went quite into the depths of the forest, and I, upon reaching the road, continued my journey, thanks to God who has granted me, the sinner, such an instruction.

            The next day, with God’s help, I arrived in Kiev. My first and main desire was to talk, confess, and partake of the Holy Mysteries in this gracious place, and therefore I stayed closer to the God-pleasing ascetics, in order to make it more convenient to go to the Holy Temple. I was received into the house of a good old Cossack, and, since he lived alone, it was calm and quiet for me in his house. Throughout the week in which I was preparing for confession, it occurred to me to confess as completely as possible. I began to remember and review all my sins from my youth in the very details, so that I would not forget them; I began to write down everything I could remember, down to the very details, and wrote a large sheet. I perceived that seven versts from Kiev, in the Kytaevskaya Steppe, there is a cleric who leads a life of great ascetic hardship and is very wise and discerning; whoever does not visit him from the spiritual point of view, feels exhilaration and returns with salutary admonition and ease in his soul. This consoled me greatly, and I immediately went to him. After consulting and talking, I gave him my leaflet for consideration. After reading this, he said to me: “Dear friend, you have written a lot of empty things. Listen: 1) it is not necessary to confess those sins in which you previously repented and were pardoned and did not repeat them, otherwise this would be an inoperative attitude toward the power of penance; 3) the holy fathers forbid confessing sins with all their circumstances, but rather to confess them in general, so that by the private discussion of them one would not wake up temptations within oneself and in the spiritual director; you have read everything, and the most important thing has been left out of account – you have not declared the most heinous sins, nor have you recognized and recorded that you do not love God, hate your neighbor, do not believe the word of God, and are filled with pride and ambition in all sins. 

            — Sadly, dear one, you have understood little of what I have explained to you. In order to teach you more quickly, here is a list by which I myself have always confesses. Read it, and you will clearly see the exact proofs of what I have just been telling you.

1. I do not love God. If I loved Him, I would think about Him with heartfelt joy; every thought of God would give me contentment. On the contrary, I think about worldly things much more often and with greater zeal. Thought of God causes me work and dryness. If I loved Him, communion with Him through prayer would nourish and delight me and draw me to constant communication with Him; but, on the contrary, I not only don’t enjoy prayer, but even when occupied with it I feel work, struggle, relaxation, and am ready to engage in something unimportant, just to reduce or stop praying. While busy with unimportant pursuits, the hours pass without my noticing; but when I am engaged in God, when I set myself in His presence, each hour seems to me a year. Whoever loves a friend engages in him constantly, imagines him, worries about him, and His beloved friend never leaves his mind, even while he is engaged in other things; but I hardly set aside an hour during the day to delve deeply into thoughts about God and be engulfed in His love, while it is at the expense of my passionate idols for twenty-three hours! I am dry, anxious, and lazy. If I am attracted to another to engage in divine conversation, I enthusiastically turn to the conversation that pleases my passions. I am enthusiastically interested in political appointments, public policies, and other political events; eagerly seek pleasure for my curiosity in secular studies, arts, and acquisitions, while teachings in the Lord’s Law, knowledge of God, and religion have no effect on my soul and I consider it not only a negligible occupation for a Christian, but an idle and only an idle pastime. In short, if the love of God is evidenced by obedience to His commandments: ‘If you love Me, keep My commandments,’ says the Lord Jesus Christ, and I not only do not keep His commandments, but even put little effort into it, it can only be seen as certain that I do not love God. This is ‘the proof that a person does not love God and His Christ, is the fact that he does not keep His commandments’ (Titus 3). 2. I have no love for my neighbor. For I not only cannot risk my life for his good (according to the Gospel), but I will not even sacrifice my honor, good, and peace for his good. If I loved him, as I love myself, according to the Gospel commandment, his misfortune would affect me and his good fortune would attract me. Instead, I listen more eagerly to sad stories about my neighbor, I am indifferent or, worse, find some satisfaction in it and cover my brother’s evil deeds with love, but chastise them with condemnation. His well-being, honor, and happiness do not excite me as my own, but quite the opposite, do not cause me joyful feelings, but even subtly arouse in me either envy or contempt.3) I do not believe in anything religious. Not in immortality, neither in the Gospels. If I were firmly convinced and absolutely certain that there is life after death and a reward for one’s earthly deeds, then I would always be thinking about this; the very thought of immortality would terrify me, and I would regard this life as a stranger preparing to enter his native land. On the contrary, I do not even think about eternity and consider the end of this life to be the border of my existence. A secret thought dwells in me: who knows what will be after death? If I say that I believe in immortality, then I speak only from reason, and my heart is far from a firm conviction in it, as my actions and my constant concern for the well-being of sensual life openly testify. If the Holy Gospel, as the word of God, were received with faith in my heart, then I would always study it, delight in it, and with deep reverence even look at it. Wisdom, goodness, and love, hidden within it, would cause me to be fascinated, I would delight in the teachings of the Law of God day and night, nourish myself with it as daily food, and eagerly long to fulfill its rules. Nothing earthly would strongly distract me from this. On the contrary, if I rarely read or listen to the word of God, then it is either out of necessity or curiosity, paying little attention to it, feeling dryness, barrenness, and, like everyday reading, leaving without any fruit, and being willing to exchange it for reading more worldly topics.Read this sentence to me when confessing, and I was terrified and thought to myself: “My God, what terrible sins are hidden in me, and I have not noticed them yet!” Therefore, the desire to purify them led me to ask for instructions from this great spiritual father, by whatever means, by knowing the causes of all evils, to find a way to correct them. And so he began to explain to me.

            After listening to all this with respect, I asked this holy father to baptize me and grant me the holy sacraments. So, the next morning, having received communion, I wanted to return to Kiev with this blessed consecration, but this kind father, intending to go to the Lavra, left me in his hermit cell for a time so that I could freely pray in this silence. Indeed, during all these days, I was as if in heaven: listening to the prayers of my elder, I, the unworthy, enjoyed a perfect calm. Prayer flowed so easily and calmly into my heart that I seemed to have forgotten everything and myself, thinking only about the one Jesus Christ!

            Finally, the spiritual father returned, and I asked him for instruction and advice on where to continue my travels. He blessed me thus: “Go to Pochaiv, bow to the Holy Icon of the Blessed Mother of God, and she will direct your path to the path of peace.” So I, with confidence, accepted his advice and, three days later, set out for Pochaiv.

            Not without boredom, I walked for 200 versts, because the road passed through taverns and Jewish hamlets, and there were few Christian dwellings. In one hamlet, I saw a Russian Christian inn and, having aroused his interest, entered it to spend the night and ask for bread for the road, because my biscuits were almost over. Here I saw the owner – an old man, probably wealthy, and heard that he was from the same province as me. When I entered the parlour, his first question was: “What faith do you profess?”

            I answered that I was an Orthodox Christian.

             – What is an Orthodoxy? – he laughed, “ in their country, the Orthodoxy is only on the language, and in deeds, it is a Bashkir belief. I know your faith, brother! A learned clergyman once seduced me and led me into temptation, and I came to their church, so, after living there for half a year, I returned. Going to Church or to the market, women simply mumble and everyone is given passes and is only confused where to go. And the singing in the villages is no better than in the taverns; and for the service of God, this is one big sin! Come, don’t cut off, where you came from: to Church or to the square.

            Listening to this, I understood that this old man was an Old Believer; but as he spoke so correctly, I could not argue with him and convert him, but only thought to myself that it is impossible to convert Old Believers to the true church until our church service is corrected and sets an example in particular for the clergy. Old Believers do not know anything about the interior, they rely on appearances, and in us they neglect it.

So I wanted to leave there and was already in the yard when I suddenly saw a man standing at an open door in a special alcove, who looked non-Russian and was lying on a bed and reading a book. He invited me to himself and asked who I was. I told him. And he began to say: “Listen, my dear, would you not agree to serve me, knowing that I am sick, at least for a week, until I recover with God’s help? Do not refuse, God’s servant!”

                If you want, he told me, then I will tell you (and somehow recounted it in an academic manner, for he said that he had studied at the Academy of Athens) about the intonation of the Lord’s Prayer. 

            Now look: one and the same prayer; Orthodox Christians hold the same religion; everyone is equally aware of the common concept that this most important and highest of all prayers contains two objects – the Lord Jesus and His mercy. Why, then, do not all express it in the same intonation, that is, in the pronunciation? Why does not everyone equally express it in an especially moving and tense tone in each of the places that is known to each? Many people could say that this is due to habit or the example taken from others, or to the concept corresponding to each person’s different view, or, finally, to whoever finds it easier and more convenient to pronounce according to the state of his ability to speak … Yet I think differently about this. I would like to look for something higher here, something that is not only unknown to the uninformed, but even to that person who is praying: does not there exist a mysterious movement of the Holy Spirit that “groans with unspeakable sighs,” in the unknowing: how and about what to pray? And if everyone prays in the name of Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit, according to the revelation of the Apostle, then the secretly acting Descended Spirit, “pray for the one who prays,” along with this can unknowingly bestow a gracious gift of His own upon each man: one receives a pious fear of God, another receives love and another firmness. And therefore he who has received the gift reveals a special feeling and a sense of admiration in his prayer when he utters the word “Lord” with a special feeling and admiration, in which he refers to the majesty and power of the Creator of the world. He who has received the mysterious outpouring of love in his heart is most fascinated and consumed with delight in the exclamation, “Jesus Christ,” similar to that of an old man who, without a special feeling of love and happiness, could not even hear the name “Jesus” spoken in simple conversation. He who firmly believes in the divinity of Jesus Christ, the One-Subsistent with God the Father, shines and is even more firm in faith when he says the words, “Son of God.” He who has a gift of humility and deeply realizes his own powerlessness at the words “have mercy upon me,” repents, becomes humble, and is even more overcome by a sense of pleasure when he says the last words of the prayer to Jesus. He nourishes hope of the mercy of God and grieves over his own fallings. These are the reasons, as I believe, for the difference in intonation when pronouncing the prayer in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ! … And from this reflection we can, by feeling, understand (to God’s glory and for our own guidance) who will particularly touch the feelings of whom and who has what spiritual gift. Some people said to me: “Why won’t all these signs of the mysterious spiritual gifts be revealed at once, in a single group? Then not one word of the prayer, but every word, would be imbued with the same passionate intonation of the person praying.” I replied to this as follows: “For the grace of God distributes the gifts of the Divine Scripture, so who can experience this and enter into the domain of grace with a limited mind?

Five days I spent with this elder, and gradually he began to heal himself. This time was instructive for me, as I did not notice how quickly it passed, because in this hut, as if we were locked up in silence, we did no other work except to pray in secret to the name of Jesus Christ, or to talk about only one subject – how we best enjoyed God’s grace. At one point an unsuspecting godly man walked in and raged, grumbled and cursed the Jews, whom he had been walking through settlements and suffering from their deceptions and tricks. In fact, he was so angry with them that he cursed them and even claimed they did not deserve to live on earth because of their obstinacy and their distrust. Finally, he said that he had a true and irrefutable dislike for them. When he had heard this, this older man began to teach him:

“Why, my friend,” he said, “you keep cursing the Jews so. But they are also the creatures of God as well as we, and we should mourn over them and pray for them, not curse them. Believe me that your hatred of them stems from the fact that you are not baptized in God’s love and do not have an interior prayer, and you do not have an interior prayer. Let me read you some passages from the Holy Fathers. Listen: “The soul that is united inwardly with God, because of the immense joy, is like a forgiving and gentile child who judges no one, not Greek or non-Jew, nor Jew or non-Jew, but loves all equally and lives on earth so as to bear it in peace, acknowledging only Heaven, and wishing all good for all the world, and allHere I began to approach Pohajew. When I was not a hundred paces away, I was overtaken by a soldier. I asked him where he was going; he told me that he was going home to the Kam’janets-Podolsk region. In silent conversation, after passing him for ten paces, I noticed that he was sighing heavily, as if he was saddened by something, and very gloomy. I asked him: “Why are you so sad?” And he began to cling to me and said: “Good man! If you have already noticed my sadness, then take a firm stand and swear that you will not tell anyone, and I will tell you everything about myself, because death is coming to me, and there is no one to advise me.””And do you see?” he said, “I was sent into the army by the princes’ peasants. After serving for five years, it became unbearably difficult for me, and I was often beaten for misconduct and for drinking. I decided to run away. Now, for the twelfth year, I have been on the run. For six years I hid and hid here and there; I stole horses, broke benches and sold the spoils to various swindlers. I met a soldier who had left the army with a clean discharge and was going home to a distant province. My soldier died and all his savings went to him. He went boldly to the remote Astrakhan province. There I became sober and started taking odd jobs. He and his wife lived for a year, spending everything left from the old days. One day I was in a bad spell and sold my old horse for half a ruble to the horse-dealer. I went into the forest to wait for midnight. After lying down, I slept soundly. My head and hands remained outside. Then this wicked cloud seemed to descend to the ground, and my old grandfather, who had died twenty years before, emerged from it. Several bags of things that I had stolen at different times. I became even more frightened. Squeeze him harder!” And the earth began to press and compress me from all sides with such a strong power that I could not bear the pain, suffocation and exhaustion, and I cried out: “Have mercy!” And this old man brought me closer to the horse I had stolen the day before, and cried out: “What’s this!” And the earth pressed me so fiercely from all sides that I cannot describe the pain and suffocation with any suffering on this earth. Finally, this grandfather of mine brought me close to the horse I had stolen yesterday, and cried out: “Squeeze him as hard as you can!” And the weight of the earth pressed me on all sides so painfully and violently that I could not stand it and had to fall unconscious, as if something was pulling my life out of me and squeezing me to death with terrible pain and suffering; it was as if my body and soul were being torn from me with horrible pain. I was overcome with trembling terror. Finally, this old man’s hands approached me, and squeezed me even harder. Suddenly, the earth began to sag with the weight and the pressure of all four sides, so that it was not possible to stand there, and my pain was so great that I just wanted to fall down without a body. All I could say was, “Oh, God!”. I was so exhausted and weak that I couldn’t even talk. In this terrible state, I fell to the ground and began to cry. “Let him come back. Bring water.”

             – It is empty, brother, the devil puts these thoughts into your head. God is infinitely merciful and has compassion on sinners and forgives those who repent soon. After all, you know the Jesus prayer, that is, “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me, a sinner.” Here it is, repeat it incessantly.

             – But how could I not know this prayer! I used to steal, and sometimes I read it, so I would be bolder.

             – So look now: God did not twist you, even when you were going astray and saying this prayer. And will He cast you away if you pray in the way of repentance? Now you see that your thoughts are hostile! . . . Believe me, if you repeat this prayer, despite what may go through your mind, soon you will find relief, all your fear and burden will pass, and you will be a calm and reverent person in the end. I assure you of this, because I have seen many such cases in practice.

            In doing so, I told him several cases where the Jesus prayer had miraculous power over sinners. Finally, I began to persuade him to come with me to the Mother of God in Pochaev, a refuge for sinners, to confess and receive communion. All this, my soldier listened with great attention and, as was evident, with pleasure. Therefore, he agreed to everything. We set off for Pochaev together, on the condition that he would not say anything to anyone, but would constantly recite the Jesus prayer. With such silence we walked for a whole day. On the third day we arrived in Pochaev, and I again assured him that the most holy name of Jesus is unbearable to His enemies, and can greatly save him, and read to him the prayer from the Dobrotolubie, especially with particular diligence when preparing for the sacraments of the Holy Mysteries of Christ. He did so, and immediately confessed and communed. Although his thoughts often still attacked him, they were quickly chased away by the Jesus prayer. On Sunday, in order to make it easier to get up in time, he went to bed earlier in the evening and kept praying incessantly for the Jesus prayer, and I was still sitting in a corner, reading my Dobrotolubiye (The Good Spouse). It was an hour before he fell asleep, and I began praying. Suddenly, within twenty minutes, he snorted in his sleep and, waking up, he quickly got up, came to me in tears, and with great joy exclaimed, “Oh, Brother, what I have seen now! How easy and joyful it is for me! I believe that God does not torment sinners, but delights in them. Glory to You, O Lord, glory to You!”.

            I, surprised and comforted by this, asked him to tell me in detail what had happened to him. 

            – Here is what happened: as soon as I fell asleep, I found myself on the same pasture where I was being tortured. I was initially frightened, but I saw that instead of a cloud, the sun was coming out, a wonderful light illuminated the whole meadow, and I saw red flowers and grasses on it. Suddenly, my grandfather approached me, so handsome that he was a delight to look at, and he spoke to me quietly and warmly: “Go to Zhytomyr to the Church of St. George the Victorious; there they will take you as a Church guard; live here until the end of your life and pray constantly; God will have mercy on you!&8221; Having said this, he crossed me and in that moment he disappeared. I felt such a joy that it is impossible to say, as if something had fallen from me and I had flown to heaven… With this, I suddenly woke up, feeling that I was light, and my heart did not know what to do with joy. Now what should I do? I will immediately go to Zhytomyr, as my grandfather told me to do. For me it will be easy to go with prayer!&8221;

            – Forgive me, dear brother, where are you going in the middle of the night? Pray at least the morning prayer, so pray and be with God. After this conversation, we went to the church. He prayed diligently with tears for the whole morning and said that it was very easy and pleasant for him, and the Iusov prayer was brought about with pleasure. Then, at lunch, he communed and, after lunch, I led him to the Zhytomyr road, where we said goodbye with tears and joy. 

            After this, I began to reflect on myself and thought where I should go now. Finally, I decided to return to Kiev. I was also drawn towards this by the wise instructions of my clergyman there and the fact that living with him, he would perhaps find some Christ-loving benefactors to send me to Jerusalem or at least to the Mount Athos. So, having lived another week in Pochaiv, spending time in remembrance of those teaching meetings I had seen on my journey, and writing down some instructive subjects, I started my journey, put on a backpack, and went to church to bow to the Mother of God for blessing and to pray for lunch. 

I stood behind the church. And suddenly a person came out, though not very well dressed, but she looked aristocratic, and she asked me where the candles were sold. I pointed out. She walked away, and I remained to pray before the feet of the Mother of God. I prayed, and went on my way. After walking for a while on the street, I saw a window in one house, and behind it stood a gentleman reading a book. I could not pass that window, and I saw that it was the same person who had asked me about the candles in the church. As I passed, I took off my hat, and he waved me over to him and asked: “Are you a traveler?” and, inviting me over, asked who I was and where I was going; then he brought me a cup of tea and said: “Listen, my child! I too am going on a journey, and I am walking on foot, following the promise.”

            I liked his reasoning and his desire to pray, and I asked him: ″From which particular Gospel teaching do you draw your doctrine of prayer?″

            —From all four of the Gospels, he replied, word for word, reading them in order. While reading and studying it, it was revealed to me the progressiveness and the correct sequence of the doctrine of prayer throughout the Gospel, beginning with the first Evangelist and proceeding in orderly succession (in a system). For example: at the very beginning, the requisites for prayer are given, then its form, or the outward expression in words, then the condition required for prayer, the means or technique to perform it, and then examples. Finally, it is clearly shown the most secret, that is, the inner, spiritual, incessant prayer in the name of Jesus Christ, which is superior to (or better than) praying in words; then its necessity, virtues, and so on. In short, a full understanding of the doctrine of prayer is complete and in an orderly sequence, from beginning to end, as set forth in the Gospel.

            Heard this, I began to ask him to show me the whole thing in detail, and I said to him: ″Since I love to listen to and to talk about prayer the most, I really want to see this secret connection within the doctrine of prayer in full detail. Show me, then, according to the Bible itself.″

He readily agreed and said to me: “Read your Gospel, look into it, and mark what I will say” (he gave me a pencil). Please look at these notes. “Find,” he began, “first, in the Gospel According to St. Matthew, chapter six, and read from verse eight to the ninth (Mt. VI, 5-9). Do you see here the preparation for prayer, or the introduction, which teaches us not to begin praying out of vain praise and in a noisy manner, but in a separate place and in peace, to pray only for the forgiveness of our sins and for union with God, and not to invent many and unnecessary requests for various needs of life? Then read further the same section from verse nine to the fourteen (Mt. VI, 9-14). Here is presented the form of prayer, that is, what words are used in it. In it, wisdom combines everything necessary and required for our life. Then continue reading verses fourteen and fifteen of the same section and you will see the condition that must be preserved in order for prayer to be effective, for without forgiveness of those who offend us, the Lord will not forgive our sins. Crossing to section seven, you will find (from the seventh to the twelfth verse) the keys to success in prayer and the acceptance of hope: “Ask, seek, knock.” This emphasis describes the frequency of prayer and the priority of practice in it so that prayer is not only accompanied during all activities, but even exceeds them in time. This is the most important attribute of prayer… For an example of this frequency of prayer, you can see in the fourteenth chapter of the Gospel according to St. Mark from verses thirty-two to forty, where Jesus Christ repeats the same prayer phrase many times. A similar example of frequency of prayer is presented in the parable of the persistent prayer of the friend by St. Luke (Luke XI, 5-14), as well as in the many times repetitive solicitation of the widow before the judge (Luke XVIII, 1-15), describing the commands of Jesus Christ, which should always, at any rate. not be abandoned.After this thorough grounding, the teaching of the secret inner prayer of the heart is further revealed in the Gospel of John, first in the wise story of Jesus’ conversation with the Samaritan woman, where the inner worship of God in spirit and truth that God desires, which is continuous and unceasing, is opened up (John 4:5-25). Then in chapter 15, verses 4-8, the power, effectiveness, and necessity of inner prayer, that is, the state of the soul in Christ, in perpetual remembrance of God, is further illustrated. Finally, read chapter 16 of the same Gospel, verses 23-25. Notice the mystery that is revealed there! Do you see that the prayer in the name of Jesus Christ, or the so-called Jesus prayer, that is, “Our Father, who art in heaven”, when often and repeatedly uttered, has great power and facilitates the opening of the heart and the sanctification? This can certainly be seen by example. The Apostles, who had been disciples of the Lord Jesus for many years and had already been taught by Him the prayer of the Lord, that is, the “Our Father” prayer, which is well known to us, were nevertheless taught by Jesus Christ at the end of His earthly life a mystery that they lacked in their prayer in order that their prayer might be effective. He said to them, “Ask and you will receive, that your joy may be full.” This was indeed the case, for after this, when they had learned to pray in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, how many wonderful miracles they accomplished and how abundantly they themselves were enlightened! Now do you see the connection and completeness of the teaching on prayer, so wisely presented in the Holy Gospels? If you then continue to read the Acts of the Apostles, you will find that there too there is a consistent teaching on prayer.So, by studying it thoroughly and attentively, one can discover many more secrets of hidden knowledge hidden in the Word of God that escape from a casual or hurried reading of it. From what I have just pointed out, do you notice how wisely and consistently God’s Gospel, in its secret systematic order, reveals its teachings on this subject that we have now traced? In what amazing sequence of coherence is it arranged by all four evangelists? Here is an example: in St. Matthew we see the beginning or introduction to prayer, its form, conditions, etc.; proceeding further, in St. Mark we find examples; in St. Luke we find parables, and in St. John mysterious exercises in inner prayer, though in all the evangelists (shorter or longer) all this is found. In Acts, the practice and consequences of prayer are depicted; in the Apostolic Letters, as well as in the Apocalypse, many accessories are inextricably connected with the matter of prayer! That is why I am content with only one Gospel in my study of all the ways of salvation.

A brother helps a brother because
the city is strong and high: it is fortified
as a kingdom built upon the rock.
(Psalm XVIII, 19).

            – Here, by word and promise, and having appeared to you yesterday, I invited also with me this worthy companion, who helped on the way by spiritual salvation, and whom you were anxious to see.

            – It is very pleasing to me, I hope also for my guests, to see both of you and hear your instructive word. Here he is: the venerable hermit, and here is the revered priest. So as two or three are gathered in the name of Jesus Christ, He will be called present among them; and as we are already three in the name of Him, God’s grace will also be the more abundant upon us!

            Yesterday, your companion’s account of your great devotion to the Holy Gospel was very wonderful and instructive. I am surprised to hear how this great piety was revealed to you, beloved brother?

             – The Lord, who desires the salvation of all and who wants to attain the knowledge of truth, revealed to me, with His great mercy, this understanding in a miraculous way, without any human mediation. For five years I was a professor at the Lyceum, wandering along the gloomy paths of dissipation, indulging in the vain philosophy of the world’s paths, and not for Christ, and I might have perished, had I not been sustained by something that I lived with my pious mother and my native sister, in the boulevard. There I met and became acquainted with a wonderful young man who declared himself to be a French graduate student who had recently arrived from Paris and was seeking a place to work as a tutor. His wonderful erudition greatly pleased me, and I invited him to stay with me as a traveler, and we became intimate. For two months he often visited me, and together we sometimes went for walks, talked, and went out to company, of course, the most moral ones. Finally, he appeared before me with an invitation to one of the aforementioned companies and, in order to convince me faster, began to praise the particular cheerfulness and pleasantness of the place to which he was inviting me. After saying a few words about this, he suddenly asked me to leave the study room in which we were sitting, and sit in the living room. This seemed strange to me, and I, having already noticed several times that he was reluctant to be in my study room, asked him what the reason was. And the longer I kept him there, the more because the living room was next to my mother’s and sister’s room, and therefore it would have been indecent to talk about empty subjects there. He maintained his desire by various pretexts, finally saying to me quite frankly, “Here on this shelf between the books there is an Gospel; I have such a high regard for this book that it is difficult for me to be in the presence of this conversation about our scattered subjects.” I, in my sincerity, smiled at these words and said, “Dearly would you have told me this!” And, handing it to him, I said, “Put it in that room now!”. As soon as I touched the Gospel, he immediately turned pale and disappeared. This surprised me so much that I fell unconscious on the floor. Hearing the knock, my household came in and couldn’t bring me to myself for half an hour. Finally, I felt a strong fear, trembling, restlessness and complete numbness of my hands and feet so that I could not move them. A doctor was called and he diagnosed the disease as paralysis, due to some strong shock or fright. For a whole year after this incident, under the careful treatment of many doctors, I lay and received no relief from the disease, which later indicated the necessity of retiring from my teaching service. My old mother had just died, and my sister had settled on devoting herself to a monastery life. So all this only further burdened my illness. The only consolation I had during this painful time was in reading the Gospel, which had not left my hands since the beginning of my illness, as a guarantor of a miraculous event with me.

                  One day, a strange hermit came to me unexpectedly. He told me that I should not rely only on medicine, which is not able to help without God’s help, but should ask God and pray diligently about it, because “prayer is the most powerful means for healing all kinds of illnesses, both physical and spiritual.” “How can I pray in this state when I am not able to bow down or raise my hands for the sign of the cross?” I objected to him, showing my carelessness. He told me: “Pray something.” And he could not explain to me how to pray very much.                 After this visitor left, I began to think about prayer and its power and effect, recalling the theological lectures I had heard in my school days when I was a student. This greatly occupied me, revived the light religious knowledge in my memory, warmed my soul, and I immediately began to feel some relief from my painful attacks. Since the Bible was always with me, I considered it the best way to learn Christian prayer and virtue. Reading this, I drew from it, as from a rich spring, a complete system of saving life and true inner prayer. With reverence, noting all the passages and texts on this subject, I have since been trying to study these divine precepts and apply them to practice as far as possible, although it is difficult. In this pursuit, my illness gradually eased and, as you can see, I have completely recovered. Being alone, out of gratitude to God for His paternal graces and healing and enlightenment, I decided, following the example of my sister and the urging of my soul, to devote myself to the hermit’s life so as to be able to fully comprehend and assimilate the sweet verities of eternal life given to me in the Word.

       SCHEMATIC.  – With such a binding condition of special and mysterious grace of God, and with your scientific education, it is unforgivable, not only to fall into sorrow, but even to allow the faintest shadow of doubt about God’s intercession and His help to enter into your soul! Do you know what the Scripture-Savvy Golden-Mouthed says about this? He says, “No one should grieve (he reproves) and imagine that the Gospel commandments are impossible or inconvenient! God, by assigning salvation to man, of course did not impose these commandments on him in order to make him a sinner through their inconvenience. No! eternity!”

Of course, the regular and unflagging fulfillment of God’s commands seems extremely difficult for our nature, and therefore salvation is inconvenient: but the same word of God, which initiated the commandments, contains not only the means for their convenient fulfillment, but even the comfort of their fulfillment. If this is at first glance veiled by a veil of mystery, then undoubtedly to bring the exerciser to greater humility and to bring him closer to union with God through the instruction of direct touch in prayer and the request for His fatherly help. This is the mystery of salvation, and not to hope on one’s own efforts.

BUILDER.  – How I wish I could know this secret, the impotent and powerless, to somehow correct my lazy life for God’s glory and my salvation!

SCHEMATIC.  – This secret is known to you, my beloved brother, from your book, “Love to Goodness.” It consists in incessant prayer, which you have so firmly learned and for which you have so diligently practiced and have found comfort.

BUILDER.  – I will fall at your feet, venerable father! God forbid, grant me from your mouth to hear a useful secret of salvation and about a sacred prayer about which I most desire to hear and love to read to uplift and comfort my sinful soul.

SCHEMATIC.  – Although I am unable to satisfy your wish with my own reasoning on this noble occupation, because I am still inexperienced in this matter, but I have a very clear notebook of one spiritual writer, especially on this subject. If our interlocutors wish, I will immediately bring it and, if you wish, I can read it before you. Thank you!

ALL.  – Please do, venerable father! Do not deprive us of such a saving knowledge.

The secret of salvation through incessant prayer

This pious Christian question naturally arises in the mind of every person, as a result of his sense of wounded and relaxed nature and the remnant of the primordial desire for truth and righteousness. Everyone, even if he has a little faith in immortality and the reward of eternal life, is inevitably confronted with the thought of how to save himself when he turns his gaze to heaven… Hardened by the difficulty of solving this problem, he asks the wise and knowledgeable for their advice, then he reads the works of spiritual writers on this subject, who reveal the truths and rules that seem to be necessary conditions for salvation: a pious life, struggles and efforts to achieve self-denial, leading to the creation of good deeds, to the constant fulfillment of all of God’s commandments, which attest to the firmness and steadfastness of faith. Perform them with deep obedience and together, because as all the virtues depend on each other, they must support and improve each other and inspire one another, just as the rays of the sun only reveal their power and produce flames when they are concentrated through the glass at one point. Otherwise, the apostle says, “Wicked men and wicked women there are many,”

            Thus, the person seeking salvation with all his joy begins to follow the instructions and add to his studies everything he can hear and read. But, unfortunately, at the very first step of his endeavor, he finds no opportunity to achieve his goal, realizing and even feeling that his corrupted and weakened nature will prevail over the reasonings of the mind; that his free will is bound, his inclination corrupted, and the strength of the spirit weakened. With this experiential self-awareness of his powerlessness, he naturally moves to the thought that there are no means that facilitate the fulfillment of what the Law of God commands, what Christian piety demands, and what all those who have been blessed to receive salvation and holiness have done. As a result, in order to reconcile the demands of reason and conscience with the inability of the executive forces, he turns to the preachers of salvation with the question: how can I be saved? How can I justify the conditions of salvation that are inaccessible to me? And can the preacher himself consistently fulfill what he teaches? “Pray to God, pray to God, that He might help you!” Would it not have been more fruitful to learn to pray earlier or always, and in all of this, to study prayer as the source of all that Christian piety requires and by which salvation is obtained? The questioner concludes and, along with this, begins to study prayer, read it, reflect on it, understand the teachings of those who have written on this subject. Indeed, he finds many bright thoughts, deep knowledge, and expressions among them. One magnifies beautifully the need for prayer; another – about its power, its beneficence, about the obligation to pray, about what is necessary for prayer – perseverance, attention, warmth of spirit, purity of thought, reconciliation with enemies, humility, sorrow, and so on, which should be present in prayer…

This is a general concept of prayer for those who are unfamiliar with the scriptures on inner prayer and the meditative works of the Holy Fathers. Finally, a seeker comes across a book called The Love of Goodness, in which twenty-nine Holy Fathers have clearly depicted the science of true and essential heart prayer. Here the mystery of salvation and prayer begins to unfold before him, and he sees that to truly pray means to direct the mind and memory to the unceasing remembrance of God, to walk in His divine presence, to bring oneself into His love through God-pondering and to unite the name of God with the breath and movement of the heart, the rule of Jesus Christ, or the making of the prayer of Jesus at any time and place, and in every occupation, continuously.

            Though these luminous truths, shining upon the seeker’s knowledge and opening up to him the path to the study and attainment of prayer, and persuading him to begin at once to follow the wise instructions, yet he will not remain without difficulties in his discoveries, working at periodic intervals, until an experienced guide brings him into full possession of the secret that only the “frequency” or uninterruptedness of prayer (no matter how it is uttered at first) is the sole potent means to the perfection of inner prayer and the salvation of the soul. Part of the prayer is the foundation or pillar that supports the entire range of saving activities, as St. Simeon the New Theologian confirms: “He who constantly prays, in this alone has acquired all things well.”

            To present this truth in its fullness, then, the guide develops it in the following parable:

            For the salvation of the soul, first of all, true faith is necessary. Scripture says: “Without faith it is impossible to please God” (Heb. XI, 6).

            Yet from this same Holy Scripture it is evident that a person cannot by himself reproduce in himself even a grain of faith; that faith is not of us, for it is a gift of God; that faith, as a spiritual gift, is given by the Holy Spirit.

            What then shall we do? How shall we reconcile a person’s need of faith with the impossibility of reproducing faith on his own part? In the same Holy Scripture the means is revealed for this and examples are shown: “Ask, and it will be given to you.” The Apostles could not by themselves awaken in themselves the perfection of faith, but they prayed to Jesus Christ: “Lord, give us faith.” Here is an example of acquiring faith. From this it is evident that faith is acquired by prayer.

      For the salvation of the soul, true faith requires good deeds – virtues, because faith without works is dead, because good deeds verify a person, not faith alone, and if you wish to enter into the womb, keep the commandments: you will never kill, you will never commit adultery, you will never love your mother dearly, and you will love your true women, because you yourself. All of these commandments must be observed together. “If the whole law is kept, even in one sin you will be guilty of all.” This is how St. James teaches. 

      St. Paul, realizing the weakness of man, says that “by works of the law not all flesh shall be justified.” For I know that the law is spiritual, but I am the same. I am sold under sin . weak, I have no ability to justify myself before the commandments. 

      I have no ability only as long as I do not ask for it, as long as I do not pray for it. ” Ask in vain, do not ask.  “, St. Paul gives the reason. And Jesus Christ himself says: Without me, you can do nothing.  And how to do this, he teaches as follows: If you remain in me, many will bear fruit.  ”  If anyone is in me, he will bear much fruit.  ” He is in me means constantly feeling his presence, constantly asking in his name: What you ask in my name, I will do.  So, the ability to perform good works is obtained by prayer! An example of this is seen in the Apostle Paul himself, who repeatedly prayed for the overcoming of temptations, bowed his knees before God the Father, so that he would grant certainty in the person’s inner self, and finally commanded first of all to make prayers and to constantly pray for everything. From all of the above, it follows that all of a person’s spiritual salvation depends on prayer, and therefore it is necessary, first of all, because it revives faith, and through it all the virtues are performed. In short, with prayer, everything can succeed, and without it, no Christian godly deed can take place.

   and conduct of good works is exclusively and exclusively represented by prayer; each virtue has its own time, but in prayer it is commanded to be practiced continuously, constantly pray. It is enough to pray constantly, to pray at all times, in all places.

            True prayer requires certain conditions: it must be offered with purity of thought and heart, with fervent effort, with firm attention, with trembling reverence, and with deep humility. But who, in a sincere conscience, will not agree that he is far from the conditions above for true prayer, that he offers his prayer more out of necessity, more out of obligation to himself than out of passion, out of enjoyment of prayer, out of love for prayer? This is confirmed by Holy Scripture, which says that man is unable to keep his mind pure from contrary thoughts: “Is it human to think evil from one’s youth?” In which the One God gives us a heart and a new spirit that gives us life, “what we wish and what we do is the will of God.” And the Apostle Paul himself said: “My spirit (that is, my voice) prays, but my mind is without fruit.” And “I do not know how we pray at the altar” – he affirms this. From this it follows that we are not able to manifest the essential properties of our prayer!

            What, then, is the remaining power of each person in terms of his will and strength to save his soul? He cannot acquire faith without prayer, neither good deeds. Finally, he is not able to truly pray. What, then, remains for his share, represented by his will and strength, so as not to perish but to be saved?

            Since in every matter there is a quality, the Lord has presented it by His will and gift. And in order to make more clear the dependence of man on God’s will and to immerse him more deeply in the wisdom of humility, God has left a certain quantity of prayer to man’s will and powers, commanding him to pray at any time, in any place. And by this, a mysterious way to achieve true prayer, along with faith, the fulfillment of commandments, and salvation, for man at his disposal has a quantity. The part of prayer is given to his will… This is precisely how the Fathers of the Church teach. St. Macarius the Great says: “To some extent, prayer (but often) is in our power, but to pray truly is a gift of grace.” Vyk. Isaac says that the frequency of prayer takes up a habit and turns to nature; that without frequent calling on the name of Jesus Christ, it is impossible to purify the heart.

The Holy Fathers Calistus and Ignatius advise above all to begin one’s virtues and deeds by praying frequently to the name of Jesus Christ, constantly and without interruption, for often, even impure prayer can be brought to purity. Blessed Diogenes affirms that if one prays frequently, one will not fall into sin. What practical instructions from experienced, wise and near-to-heart Bishops! Their teachings reveal through their simplicity the means and methods for the perfection of the soul. How much they contrast to the moral instructions of theoretical reason! Reason assures us: do this and that well, equip yourself with courage, use your willpower, see the good results of virtue, for example, cleanse your mind and heart of vain thoughts, fill the space with instructive reflections, do good, and you will be respected and at peace, live in accordance with what reason requires, and – with all your efforts – this will not reach its goal without frequent prayer, without enlisting the help of God. Let us now consider further counsel from the Fathers, and take a look at, for example, how they teach us about the purification of the soul. St. Basil writes: “When the soul is darkened by unclean thoughts, overcome its adversaries with the name of Jesus Christ, frequently repeating this. Stronger and more successful weapons than this you will not find either in the sky or on earth.” St. Gregory of Sinai instructs: “Know that no one can master his own mind; therefore, in the case of unclean thoughts, call upon the name of Jesus Christ more frequently and repeatedly, and the thoughts will die away on their own.” What simple and convenient, but also experienced method is this, and how it is opposed to the counsel of theoretical reason, which strives to achieve purity by its own self-activity! Having understood these experienced instructions of the Holy Fathers, we come to the true conclusion that the main, the only and the most convenient way to achieve salvation and spiritual perfection is through being a part of, being continuous in, one’s prayer, no matter how weak it may be.

            Christian soul! If you do not find the strength within yourself to worship God in spirit and truth; if your heart does not yet feel the warmth and sweetness of rational and inner prayer, then sacrifice what you can, what lies within your will, which is proportionate to your strength. Let the lower organs of your mouth resemble the first with an unwavering prayerful invocation; let them constantly and continuously call upon the mighty name of Jesus Christ. This is not great effort, and it is within everyone’s reach. In doing so, this is required by the experienced commandment of Saint. The Apostle states: “Let us offer sacrifice to God at all times, or the fruit of our lips proclaiming His name.” The part of prayer will certainly become a habit and become rooted in the nature, and bring one’s mind and heart into the right state over time. Imagine that if a person had unwaveringly fulfilled this commandment of God about unceasing prayer, he would have fulfilled all the commandments, for if he had constantly recited prayer, secretly invoking the divine name of Jesus Christ, even at first only in spirit, then he would no longer have time for sinful pleasures. Every sinful thought would have met an obstacle in its spread, and every sinful deed would not have been considered as consciously as in a vacant mind: many words and vain communication would have been shortened or even destroyed, and every guilt would have been swiftly cleansed by the gracious power of God’s name. Regular practice in prayer would often have distracted the soul from sinful deeds and would have led it to a more profound knowledge of them, to unity with God! Now you see how important and necessary a quantity in prayer is! The part in prayer is the only way to acquire a pure and true prayer, it is the best and most effective preparation for prayer and the surest way to achieve the purpose of prayer and salvation!

            To further convince you of the need and fruitfulness of frequent prayer, pay close attention to the following: 1) that every stimulation, every thought about prayer, is an act of the Holy Spirit and the voice of an angel who is your keeper; 2) that the name of Jesus Christ, which is invoked in prayer, contains in itself a self-sufficient and self-giving beneficial power, and therefore 3) do not be dismayed by the impurity or dryness of your prayer and patiently wait for the fruits of frequent invocation of the divine name. Do not listen to the inexperienced, foolish suggestion of the trivial world, that even if an unceasing, but cold, invocation is a vain repetition of words… No! The power of the divine name and the frequency of invocation bring forth their fruit in time.

            A spiritual writer comments wisely on this. “I know, he says, that for many pseudo-spiritual weak-willed philosophers who seek everywhere false greatness and noble pretense in the eyes of reason and pride — simple and spoken and a single, but frequent practice in prayer appears to be a minor and somewhat insignificant occupation, or a low occupation. They forget the instructions of Jesus Christ: ‘Unless you become like little children, you will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven.’ They draw up some doctrine for prayer on the subtle premises of natural reason. ” Do not such frequent prayers extol our Divine Master Himself? In half the world, there is no need! It is only necessary to continue it, not to be distracted, and not to worry: it will purify itself by itself.”

Professor: And I have listened with great respect and pleasure to your lecture, reverend father! All the proofs are, according to the most rigorous logic, true, are marvellous to me; but at the same time, it seems to me, the possibility of continuous prayer is mainly conditioned by favourable circumstances and complete solitude. For I agree that frequent or constant prayer is a powerful and sole means of obtaining the grace of assistance in all matters of piety and the sanctification of the soul, and it is available to human beings’ powers, but this method can be used only when one enjoys the possibility of solitude and peace: when one is removed from occupations, concerns, and distractions; then one has only to contend with sloth or the boredom of thoughts; but if one is bound by a position, bound by continuous tasks, and must inevitably remain in the noisy company of people, and earnestly desires to pray often, one cannot fulfil this because of the inevitable dispersion. Therefore, the only method of frequent praying, under favourable circumstances alone, is not available to everyone and belongs to not everyone.

SYNOTHESES. – In vain do you make such an arrangement! Not to mention how the heart, trained in inner prayer, can always, in all occupations (both physical and mental), and in any noise, without hindrance, pray and call on the divine name (the leader knows this firsthand, and the uninterested person needs to be gradually trained in this), we can confidently say that no outward distraction can hinder prayer. For the secret thought of man is not subject to any external influence, and is quite free within itself; it can at any time be felt and turned into prayer, even the language can secretly, without external sound, express prayer in the presence of many, and in the midst of external occupations; yet, even though our occupations are not so important, and our conversations are not so interesting, it is possible to find a convenient opportunity, while engaged in them, to frequently call upon the name of Jesus Christ, even if the mind has not yet been accustom to continuous prayer; although, of course, solitude and distraction are the main condition for attentive and uninterrupted prayer; however, in the absence of this, one should not forgive oneself for being careless in prayer, since the number of opportunities available to each person – both the healthy and the sick – depends on his will. Examples to this end are those who were burdened with duties, distracting positions, cares, worries, and work, not only always called on the divine name of Jesus Christ, but also through this learned and attained to continuous interior prayer of the heart. Thus Patriarch Photius, elevated from the senatorial rank to the patriarchal rank, while managing the great congregation in Constantinople, always remained in a state of calling on God’s name, and even through this attained to self-directed, heartfelt prayer. Thus Kalist in the holy Athonite Mountain, while performing laborious duties as a cook, learned to practice continuous prayer. Thus the simple-hearted Lazarus, burdened with incessant ministry to the brethren, prayed the Lord’s Prayer continuously, amidst all the noisy activities, and found comfort. And many others who practiced similarly in incessant invocation of God’s name. If it were impossible to pray in the midst of distracting activities or in the presence of people, it would, of course, not be commanded to be impossible. St. John Chrysostom, in his sermon on prayer, says the following: “No one should consider it impossible to always pray while engaged in life’s cares, or to be able to be in church. Everywhere where you are not, you can place an altar to God in your mind through prayer.” It is possible to pray anywhere. And indeed, if a person pays careful attention to himself, he will find a convenient place for prayer, provided he is convinced that prayer should be the main occupation before all his obligations, multiplicity of words, and lack of excessive fussing over the cares, in order to acquire more time for quiet prayer through all this. All human possibilities are presented, and that at any time, situation, and place, prayer can be carried out, and it is convenient to move from frequent oral prayer to rational prayer, and from this to heartfelt prayer that opens the kingdom of God within us.”

      PROFESSOR. – I agree that all mechanical occupations can, and indeed are convenient, to be performed with frequent, or even continuous prayer, for mechanical pursuits do not require intense concentration, and much reflection, and therefore the mind can while engaged in them immerse itself in unceasing prayer and the lips follow the same. But when I have to occupy myself with something purely intellectual, such as attentive reading, or the contemplation of some deep subject, or a work, how can I at the same time pray with the mind and the lips? And since prayer is essentially a matter of the mind, how can I at the same time give different occupations to different minds?

      SCHEMNICH. – The solution of this problem of yours is very easy, if we take into consideration the fact that all prayers are divided into three classes: 1) beginners, 2) people who are able and 3) those who have mastered prayer. And therefore, beginners can have frequent recitation of the mind and heart in the presence of God and the pronunciation of a short oral prayer; and those who are able or have come to a constant state of mind can occupy themselves with meditation or work in the continuous presence of God, as the basis of prayer. This can be expressed by an example. Imagine that a strict and demanding King has ordered you to prepare an argument on a profound theme – in his presence – at the foot of his throne; no matter how fully you are engaged in your subject, the presence of the King, in whose hand your life is, having taken possession of you, does not allow you for a moment to forget that you are thinking, understanding, and making your argument, not alone, but in a place that requires a special sense of awe, respect, and propriety. This sensation, this living sense of the near presence of the King, clearly expresses the possibility of engaging in continuous inner prayer and in intellectual exercises.

          As for those who, by long practice or the grace of God, have gone from intellectual prayer to heart prayer, they not only during deep thought, but even in their sleep do not cease from continuous prayer, as the Wise One says: “As I sleep, my heart wakes.” Oh, my God, who, by awakening himself to prayer, engages the mind and the whole soul in a continuous prayerful flow in which the one who prays is not found, and whatever abstract and intellectual occupation he engaged in.

Paragraph. – Allow me, Reverend Father, to express myself in turn. In the article you read, it is expressed very clearly that the only way to salvation and perfection – “whatever its form” – is to pray. For me this is incomprehensible, and so it seems to me: what good will it do if I continue to pray and call out solely in the language Im JoHe Bode, but not in that? It will only be an empty gesture! The result will be that the tongue becomes dull, but the mind, which prevents this in its contemplation, also suffers damage to its ability to function. God does not require words, but an attentive mind and a purified heart. Is it not better, even if rarely, or at the designated time, to perform even a short prayer with attention, diligence, warmth of heart, and proper understanding? Otherwise, even if you repeat a prayer day and night, but have neither purity of heart nor deeds of piety, you will gain nothing that is of any use. If you persist in this fruitless exercise, then you will eventually become so tired and bored that you will come to the conclusion that, by cooling your faith in prayer, you will altogether abandon this useless practice. Furthermore, the worthlessness of verbal prayer can be seen in the reproaches presented in Holy Scripture, such as: “Those people worship Me with their lips; but their hearts are far removed from Me”; “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven”; “I desire to say with the wise who are in my heart far more than with the fools who are in the lips of mankind” and so on. All this expresses the lack of attention in external prayer.

      CONCLUSION.  – The conclusion you have drawn could have had some basis, were it not linked to the advice of the oral prayer, namely, its continuity or perseverance; were the prayer in the name of Jesus Christ not of its own force, and did not it gain the attention and earnestness of recital through the gradualness of practice? But since here it is a question of the frequency, duration, and perseverance of prayer (even if it is accompanied at first by negligence or dryness), let us examine this more closely. One spiritual writer, while convincing us of the greatest benefit and fruitfulness of frequent prayer, expressed in monotonous words, concludes by saying: “Although many people who are not yet well educated consider this oral and frequent repetition of the same prayer to be futile and even absurd, calling it mechanical and senseless; they do not know the secret that gradually emerges from this mechanical exercise, as the oral, but frequent utterance of this inarticulate becomes a real cry of the heart, penetrates into its depths, becomes pleasant, becomes almost natural to the soul, enlightens it, nourishes it, and leads to union with God. children who have been instructed in the alphabet and reading; the tedious exercise of teaching them letters and reading was a great mystery for them. to purify the soul, first you purify the body: you impose a fast on yourself, depriving your body of nourishing and irritating food? pious, so conveniently forgotten by you… And you experience firsthand that through the outward fast of your body you acquire the inner refinement of your mind, the calmness of your heart, the weapon to tame your passions, and the reminder of spiritual practice. prayer, which, by its long-term development, develops the inner prayer of the heart: it kindles and promotes intellectual union with God. which is the case: whoever has ventured to call on the name of Jesus Christ continually, or, what is the same, to repeat the Lord’s Prayer incessantly, generally first feels the work and struggles with laziness, but the longer and more he practices it, the more insensitive he becomes to this occupation, so that in the end they move without effort and the prayers of his lips are pronounced without a voice. incline and listen to this silent action of the lips, being thus aroused to attention, which is, in the end, the source of the sweetness of the heart and of true prayer. the premises of your rebuttal, this is explained by the proper consideration of them. they did not recognize it with their hearts. This is what is said to them and does not apply to the reading of a prayer, of which Jesus Christ expressly and positively, or certainly commanded so: ‘Pray always and do not strike’ (just as one does not wring one’s hands). speaking senselessly or in an unfamiliar language in church, understanding this to be public teaching, not the prayer itself, of which he says affirmatively: ‘I wish they would always make a prayer in every place’ he generally advises: ‘Always pray’ is the correct understanding of Scripture?

      BUDИВЕЛЬНИК. Indeed, a sincere priest! I have seen many who, without any enlightenment, and without knowing what attention is, spontaneously uttering a continuous prayer to Jesus, have done what neither their lips nor their tongue could restrain from saying the prayer that later so delighted and enlightened them, and who were weak and unwise.

      SCHYMNYK. Yes! Prayer seems to transform a person. Its power is so powerful that no force of passion can resist it. If you wish, I will read you, brothers, a short but interesting article that I have brought with me.

      ALL. We will listen with reverence and pleasure!

      SCHYMNYK.

Confession of the power and action of prayer

            Prayer is so powerful and mighty that you can pray and do whatever you want, and prayer will lead you to the right and righteous act.

            For sanctification, nothing else is needed than to love, – love and do whatever you want, says Blessed Augustine: for he who truly loves cannot and does not want to do anything displeasing to his beloved. – Since prayer is the consequence and action of love, the same can truly be said about it: do whatever you want, and you will achieve the purpose of prayer, you will attain sanctification!

            In order to develop this subject more thoroughly, we will explain it with examples:

1) Pray, and think as you will, and your mind will be purified by prayer. Prayer will give you the enlightenment of the mind, calming and removing all inappropriate thoughts. – This is what St. Gregory of Sinai says: “If you want to drive away thoughts and purify your mind, drive them away with prayer, because, apart from prayer, there is no way to restrain thoughts.” Similarly, St. John the Ladder also says: “With the Name of Jesus, you can drive away imaginary enemies, and there is no other weapon that can defeat them.”

            2) Pray, and do whatever you want, and your deeds will be pleasing to God, and useful and life-saving for you.

Frequent prayer, whatever it is, will not remain without fruit (Mark the Ascetic) because it itself contains the power of grace. “The Lord’s name is holy, and everyone who calls on the name of the Lord Jesus shall be saved.” For example, someone who prayed without success in ungodliness in this prayer received a visitation and a call to repentance. A lustful maiden prayed at her return and the prayer showed her the path to a chaste life and to listening to the instructions of Jesus Christ.

            3) Pray and do not work much with your own power to overcome your passions. Prayer destroys them in you: “What is in you is what is in the world,” says the Holy Scripture. And St. John the Carpathian teaches that if you do not have the gift of temperance, do not be distressed; but know that God requires you to make an effort in prayer, and prayer will save you.

            The description of the old hermit, who “struggled with victories,” that is, having fallen into sin, was not distressed, but turned to prayer and through it was wise, serves as a convincing example.

            4) Pray and do not fear anything, do not fear poverty, do not be afraid of adversity, prayer will protect you, avert it. Remember the drowned unbelieving Peter; Paul, who prayed in prison; the monk who was saved from temptation through prayer; the girl who was rescued from a suspicious soldier through prayer, and similar cases: this confirms the power, strength and universality of prayer in the name of Jesus Christ.

5) Pray as you can, always, and do not be ashamed of anything; be spiritually cheerful and calm: prayer will arrange everything and teach you. Remember that the saints, John the Golden-mouthed and Mark the Ascetic, speak of the power of prayer: the former asserts that “prayer, even if it is offered by us, who are full of sins, immediately purifies”… The latter says: “To pray somehow is our power; but to pray purely is the gift of grace.” Therefore, whatever is within your power, offer it to God; even if the quantity is beyond your capacity, offer it first as a sacrifice to Him, and God’s power will descend on your powerless power; and a dry and scattered prayer, but frequent, once having acquired the habit, and having turned into a habit, will become a pure, bright, fiery prayer worthy of it.

            6) Finally, if your days of inaction are accompanied by prayer, it is natural that there will be no time not only for sinful actions, but even for thoughts about them.

            Now you can see how many profound thoughts are concentrated in this wise saying: “Love, and do what you want. Pray, and do what you want!” How joyful and uplifting it is for a sinner burdened with weaknesses, for one who is weighed down by warring passions!  

            Prayer – here is everything! Dear one, as an all-encompassing means of salvation and perfection of the soul … Yes, but with the name of prayer is closely connected here its condition: “Pray continually,” the word of Bomian commands. Therefore, prayer will show its all-powerful strength and fruit when it is performed often, continuously, for frequent prayer is clearly within our power: just as purity, diligence and perfection of prayer are a gift of grace.

            Therefore, let us pray as often as possible, let us devote our entire life to prayer, though initially disorganized! The frequent practice will teach us attention, quantity will inevitably lead to quality.

      Professor. Indeed, great is the work of prayer! And zeal for its frequency is the key to opening its beneficial treasures. But how often do I find in myself the struggle between zeal and sloth! How desirable it would be to find a means and help for victory, and to convince and excite oneself to constant devotion to prayer!

      Schimnik. Many spiritual writers offer various means based on a healthy understanding – to excite the diligence of prayer: for example:

            1) They advise us to delve into reflections on the necessity, advantage and fruitfulness of prayer for the salvation of the soul. 

            2) Convince yourself firmly that God, undoubtedly, requires us to pray, and His Word constantly preaches this. 

            3) Constantly remember that, through laziness and negligence in prayer, one cannot keep up with the works of virtue and acquire peace and salvation; and therefore one will inevitably meet this as a punishment both on earth and torment in eternal life. 

            4) Inspire determination by the examples of God’s Saints, all of whom by means of constant prayer attained sanctification and salvation, etc.

Although all these means have their own value and result from a true understanding, but the sickly careless soul, receiving and using them, rarely sees their fruitfulness, because these medicinal substances are bitter to its pampered taste and weak to its deeply afflicted nature. For some Christians do not know that one should pray often and earnestly; that this is what God demands; that we shall suffer punishment for laziness in prayer; that all the saints prayed diligently and incessantly; yet this knowledge seldom has a beneficial effect! Each observer sees in himself that he does not fulfill the duty of these suggestions for the reasoning of his mind and conscience, and in the frequent reminder of this he lives just as badly and lazily …P. clear example of this method, as a powerful means, is seen in many places in the detailed accounts of prayerful enjoyments; it is in the struggle with sickness, sloth or dryness during prayer that it is most often necessary to read, while considering oneself unworthy of these enjoyments and humbly reproaching oneself for negligence in prayer.

   IERRHAIRE.  Should not this pondering take an inexperienced person towards spiritual emotions, as the theologians call that aspiration of the soul which longs for excessive joys and attachments to grace, not being content to do the work of virtue by duty and necessity, and without dreaming of a reward?

   PROFESSOR.  I think the theologians, in this case, warn against excessive or covetous enjoyment of spiritual pleasures, and do not completely reject pleasure and delight in the virtues: for, if it is desirable to have a reward, God does not forbid a person to think of a reward and delight, and even Himself to keep the commandments until he arrives at perfection. – “Honor your father and your mother,” this is a commandment! And here follows a reward which encourages its performance: “May you prosper.” “If you wish to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor,” this is a requirement of perfection. And immediately after this, a reward which encourages the attainment of perfection: “Your treasury will be in heaven” (Matt. XIX, 27).

   “On that day, when people hate you and will spread your name as if it were an evil, because of the Son of Man,” this is a great requirement for the feat, for which an extraordinary strength of soul and unshakable patience is needed. This is where the great reward and delight are, which can break the extraordinary strength of soul and sustain it: “for your sins are many in heaven” (Mt. VI, 18:19).

      The most lucid word in this matter belongs to one of the great theologians, St. Macarius of Egypt, who says: “Just as diligence and labor are needed to plant a vine in order to gather its fruits, and if the fruits are not harvested, all our labor will be in vain; so too, in prayer, if we desire the spiritual fruits, that is, love, peace, joy, and so on, or else the fruits of hope, that is, the enjoyment of the sweet in our hearts, we must perform them” (sl. 3, ch. 5). Do you see how clearly this holy father explained the need for enjoyment in prayer?! <…> However, something else came to mind to me recently, having read a passage that is the main cause of craving for wine; and therefore the exploration of this nature can also be a powerful means of stimulating diligence in prayer, which means the professor has been searching for. As Scripture says, “There can be no action without a cause, and by descending the scale of perceptible things from the lowest to the highest, we eventually reach the main cause of God. Therefore, there has never been, and there is not now, any nation or tribe of savages without a perception of God. In the absence of the fundamental need, something pushes towards something unknown. For this reason, all natural religions exist, with the remarkable fact that the essence or soul of every religion is a secret prayer, which manifests itself in some kind of movement and the sensual concept of the pagans! <…> How surprising this phenomenon is to the mind, and the more it demands that he reveal the secret cause of this strange phenomenon, which is expressed by the innate desire for prayer.

           Oh, if only a person would not spoil this talent and keep it in superiority over his spiritual nature! Then he would have a strong encouragement and a means on the path to moral perfection. But, unfortunately! How often this noble ability becomes a ridiculous passion of self-love, when it is turned into an instrument of the bestiality of his nature!

            I thank you from the bottom of my heart, my dear visitors! Your soul-saving conversation pleased me very much and taught me a lot of instructive. May the Lord bestow His grace on your instructive love.

            Everyone said goodbye.

SEVENTH CONVERSATION: Spiritual Conversations

“Pray for each other, and healing will come” (Jac. V, 16).

   BUILDER.
We, with a pious companion, a professor, could not overcome our common desire to set out on the road and not go to you in the end to say goodbye and ask for your prayers for us. 

    PROFESSOR.  Yes, your sincerity and the saving conversations we enjoyed with you among your friends are preserved in our souls as a promise of communion and Christian love and in the distant country to which we are striving. 

   Thank you for your mutual remembrance and love, and meantime, how convenient your visit! I have arrested two travelers: a Moldavian monk and a hermit who had lived for twenty years in the forest without speaking. They want to see you, I will call them now. /…/ 

   Here they are! 

   BUILDER.  Oh, what a blessed life in the desert! And convenient for the unobstructed bringing of the soul to unity with God! The silent forest, like the Garden of Eden, in which the sweet tree of life grows in the prayerful heart of the hermit. If I had any means of food, I would, I think, not have parted with the hermit’s life. 

   PROFESSOR.  Everything in general seems to be especially good from afar, and from experience everyone is assured that every place, having its own conveniences, has its own drawbacks too. Of course, for those who have a melancholic temperament and a desire for silence, a solitary life is comforting, but how much there is and there are dangers on this path! An ascetic history presents many examples in which it is seen how many hermits and hermits have completely deprived themselves of communication with people, fallen into self-deception and deep depravity. 

      The Hermit. — I am amazed how often, in Russia, not only in monastic monasteries, but even among some God-fearing laity, we hear that many who are inclined to a life of solitude or to inner prayer are prevented from following this impulse by a fear of being deceived. Insisting on this, they give examples to support their views; thus, as they themselves avoid inner life, they keep others away from it. I think this comes from two sources: either from a lack of understanding of the matter and of spiritual knowledge, or from their own laziness to undertake the practice of contemplation and from envy, so that others, who stand at a lower level compared to them, do not outdo them in this higher knowledge.   The thoughts of the holy Fathers on this subject are direct and decisive. They teach explicitly that one must not fear or doubt, calling upon God. If some persons have fallen into delusion or madness, it has happened to them because of pride, lack of a spiritual instructor, and acceptance of visions and dreams as truth. If such a delusion were to occur (they continue), it would be transformed into conviction and union; for prompt divine help intervenes in this permissiveness.   Dare! I am with you, do not be afraid! says Jesus Christ. (Cf. St. Daniel the Stylite, l. 4.) From this it follows that it is in vain to fear and be threatened by inner life, on the pretext of delusion: for, having an humble awareness of one’s sins, an openness of the soul to an instructor, and a ‘lack of regard’ during prayer, there is a firm and secure protection against temptation, which many fear so much and yet are so afraid of, and therefore so many are deceived, as the words of St. Philotheus of Sinai testify clearly: ‘Many monks do not know the temptation of the mind, which they experience from demons; that is, they are only diligent in one way of conduct (in external virtues), but they do not care about the mind, that is, about inner contemplation, they do not care, they do not care’ (St. Philotheus of Sinai, P. Gr., Psychology, VI). If they even hear of others who have been inwardly touched by grace, they consider this to be envy (cf. St. John of Damascus, On the Soul, 9).

      Ascetic. — Although the guidance of an experienced and knowledgeable spiritual guide, or elder, to whom one can freely and with profit open one’s soul, thoughts, and encounters on the path of inner study, and who constitutes the main condition for practicing heart prayer in silence, parents who recommend this are an exception. The Monk Nikon teaches clearly about this as follows: “In the practice of inner heart action, one needs a genuine and knowledgeable guide. If there is none, then one should make a sincere effort to search for it. If you cannot find it, weep in your heart and ask God to help you obtain direction and guidance in the teachings of Holy Scripture.” At the same time, one should also take into account the fact that a true diligent seeker can hear a useful and instructive word from ordinary people, for the Holy Fathers also assure us that if we ask a simple person with faith and righteous intention, he too can give us a word of instruction; if, however, we demand guidance from a prophet without faith and a righteous purpose, he will not satisfy us…This example is seen in the Great Egyptian Makarios, to whom once a simple peasant made an understanding and so ended his passion. As for “beholding without seeing,” that is, not to imagine or accept any vision of either light, angel, Christ, or any saint, and to turn away from any dreams whatsoever; this is recommended by the experienced Holy Fathers, naturally, for the reason that the imagination can easily embody or bring to life an imaginal vision; therefore, the inexperienced can easily get carried away by these dreams, become devoted to them as if they were divinely manifested visions, and fall into self-deception, while at the same time, as the Holy Scriptures depict it, the “evil one” transforms himself into an angel of light. And that the mind can naturally be in “beholding without seeing” and maintain it even in the presence of God is seen from the fact that the power of imagination can faithfully manifest something in “beholding without seeing” and maintain an imaginal vision in consideration of objects that do not fall under the senses, that is, objects that have no form, do not lie outside. For example, the visualization and self-perception of our soul—air, heat, cold; while being cold, one can quickly visualize heat in the hand, even though it has no form, is not visible, is not measurable by touch of an object on the cold! Similarly, the presence of the spiritual and inscrutable divine essence can be visualized in the hand, recognized in the heart in “beholding without seeing.”

Builder. – I had the opportunity to hear from devout and pious people in my travels that they are afraid, under the impression of temptation, to touch the inner workings. Some of them, I found, looked with benefit to the instruction of St. Gregory of Sinai (in his ‘Conversation with Martha about the Mystical Life’), who says: ‘Inner work cannot be enchanting (not in the way that the mind is), for if the enemy wanted to turn the warmth of the heart into its own chaotic burning, or to substitute the joy of the heart with moist enjoyment: but time, experience, and feelings will by themselves distort these deceptions, even for those who are not very ^…’

      The Hermit.  — I think it is true that melancholy and doubtful thoughts are most easily aroused by dispersion of the mind, and not by keeping silent and looking at oneself. The ancient sage fathers won over despair by gaining inner illumination and strength in the hope of God, in the calm silence and solitude; and they gave us a useful and wise advice in this matter: “Sit quietly in your cell, and it will teach you everything.”

      The Professor.  — According to my goodwill, I would very much like to hear your critical analysis of my thoughts concerning the glorified silence and the beneficial usefulness of solitude, which the hermits so love to keep. Here is how I judge this matter: since all people are by nature under the law of nature, commanded by the Creator, they are in a necessary dependence on each other; and therefore they are obliged to help each other in life, to work and be useful to each other. It is by this fellowship that the welfare of the human race is founded, and love for one’s neighbor. And what can the silent hermit, who has withdrawn from communion with people, do in his inactivity to benefit his neighbor, and what use is he to the welfare of human society? He absolutely destroys the law of the Creator regarding the union of love for one’s neighbor and the beneficial influence on one’s fellow man! ..

      The Hermit.  — Since your view of silence is not correct, then the conclusion is not correct; let us examine it in detail:

            1. The isolated silent man is not only not in an idle and empty state, but he is mostly active and even more so than one who takes part in social life. He tirelessly acts with the highest rational nature: he observes, understands, watches the state and the course of his moral being. This is the true purpose of silence! And this how useful it is for one’s own improvement, so much for the benefit of others, deprived of the possibility of immersing themselves in themselves, for the development of moral life, because the watchful silent man, communicating his inner experiences, either orally (in exceptional cases), or by writing them down, helps more and higher than public and private benefactors, because the private, sensual beneficence of worldly people is always limited to a small number of benefactors; and the benefactor, by gaining convictions and experienced ways of improving spiritual life, becomes a benefactor of entire nations; his experiences and sciences are transmitted from generation to generation, as we see and use since ancient times. And what is not different from the generous charity of Christ for the sake of Christian love, but even surpasses it in its results.

2. The beneficial and beneficial influence of silence on neighbors is revealed not only in the revelations of its instructive observations on inner life, but even the example of its detached life is of use to the attentive layman, bringing him to self-consciousness and leading him to a sense of reverence… inspiring a devout life, reminding him of what a person can be on earth, and how easily it is to restore the person to his original contemplative state, in which he came out of the hands of the Creators. The solitary hermit of silence teaches, and by his life he uses, explains and persuades to the quest for God… 3. The benefit shown comes from the silence of the true, enlightened and grace-filled. But if the hermit did not have these gracious gifts to be a light to the world, if he entered the path of silence with the sole purpose of hiding himself from his fellow men, because of his laziness and carelessness and his bad and seductive example, then he would still have done great good, and would have had a beneficial influence on society, and would have had a beneficial influence on society, dry and barren branches that cut off harmful plants to allow better and more productive ones to grow. And that is already a lot, and that is already a social good, since the hermit, by his solitude, takes away the temptation that would inevitably stem from his seductive life among men, and would damage the morality of his neighbors.BUILDER. – It seems that no one has assessed the advantages of silence as clearly as St. John the Ladder: “Silence, he says, is the mother of prayer, a return from the enslavement of sin, an insistent success in virtues, and a constant ascent to heaven.” And Jesus Christ Himself, in order to show us the usefulness and necessity of solitary silence, often, leaving the public preaching, went to silent places for prayer and tranquility.

The contemplative silent monks are like pillars that support the holiness of the Church with their ceaseless prayers: it is evident even in the most ancient times that many godly laymen, even the kings and their nobles, went to visit hermits and silent ascetics to ask their prayers for help and salvation. Therefore, the solitary hermit can also serve his neighbors, and contribute to the benefit and good of society through his solitary prayers.

PROFESSOR. – Here is another idea that is inconvenient to me: we all Christians have a common custom of asking for prayers from one another; we wish another to pray for us, especially a member of the Church whom we trust. Is this not simply a selfish need, or is it not only the habit of speaking as heard from others, as wishfully embraced by the mind without any further reasoning? Already God demands human intercession, foreseeing everything and making Provision by His omniscience, not by our desire; knowing and determining everything before our prayer, as the holy Gospel says? Can the prayers of many be stronger than one’s prayers? Would God be sincere? Can the prayer of another save me when someone from their own affairs, or is glorified, or shamed? And therefore the demand for the prayer of another and is (as I think) only a pious fruit of spiritual teaching, which supplies the appearance of humility and a desire to please one another with an advantage, no more!

MONK. – On the surface, and by mere natural philosophy, this may appear to be so, but the spiritual intellect, illuminated by the light of religion and

            So they began to study together, passing on to each other what they had understood; the subject of instruction was the same. And what happened after a few days? The indolent became diligent, he loved the teaching, and his neglect turned into diligence and intelligence, which had a beneficial effect on his character and morality. And his diligent companion became even more capable and hardworking. They benefited from each other’s actions … This is natural, for a human being is born into a society of people, develops rational concepts through people; the customs of life, the moods of feelings, the aspirations of desires, in short, everything he learns by taking an example from those around him. And since the lives of people are in the closest relationship and powerful influence on each other, whoever lives among people of this kind becomes accustomed to customs, actions and customs. So a cold one can be warmed, an imbecile can be sharpened, a lazy one can be aroused to activity by an energetic person similar to himself. The spirit of the spirit can transmit itself, can act beneficially on one another: draw him to prayer, to attention, encourage him in despair, dissuade him from sin, and excite him to a godly life. One helps the other, can become more pious, more active, and more godly. One pours out prayers for the other!

            From this, we can see that God is not satisfied with many requests and supplications (as is the case in strong countries), but the spirit and power of prayer purifies and excites the soul for whom they are prayed, and represents it as capable of union with God.

            If such a fruitful mutual prayer is made by those living on earth, it is obvious that the prayer for those who have died is likewise mutually beneficial due to the closest bond between the worldly and the heavenly. In the same way, it can draw the souls of the militant Church into communion with those of the victorious Church; or, to put it another way, with those who have passed away.

            Although what I say is a psychological judgment, we will convince ourselves of its truth by the Scriptures! .. 1) Thus says Jesus Christ to the Apostle Peter: “Pray for you, so that your faith will not waver.” Here is the power of Christ’s prayer to strengthen Peter’s spirit and to encourage him against faith. 2) When the Apostle Peter was in prison, the prayer was diligent in the church for him. Here is the help of fraternal prayer in the hard circumstances of life … 3) But the clearest commandment on prayer for others is expressed by the holy Apostle James as follows: “Confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, so that you may be healed. For much is gained by the prayer of the righteous, which hastens to come.” Here is a clear confirmation of the above psychological conclusion …

Professor: The sense and arguments of your answer are most admirable and correct, but I should like to hear, if possible, what is the exact form of prayer for one’s neighbour. For I am convinced that if the fruitfulness and effect of a prayer depends upon the lively participation in the needs of one’s neighbour, and in particular upon the constant influence of the soul that prays upon the soul in need of suasion, then prayer can have no saving power except when one places oneself in the unshakable presence of God and pours out one’s soul before God in a true state of need. If, therefore, one only mentions one’s neighbour, for example, once or twice a day, with participation and supplication for his assistance, then will this suffice for the effect of the soul that prays? In short, I would like to know what is the way, or form, of praying for one’s neighbour?

             These words are usually repeated during the movements of the soul, or in reciting the rosary to this prayer. I have seen from experience how beneficial such prayers are for the person for whom they are recited.