Orthodox understanding of prayer
Since the creation of the world, man has needed communication with God. What is prayer? How to pray correctly? Are prayer and magic spell the same thing? We'll talk about this in today's article.
Prayer is a conversation between a person and God, the Mother of God or the saints. This is a verbal expression of innermost feelings, hopes, gratitude, requests. Moreover, it is the cumulative living experience of many generations of Christians in communication with God.
Orthodox church - place of prayer
Saint Ignatius (Brianchaninov) speaks about prayer like this:
“Prayer is the mother and head of all virtues, as a means and state of communication between a person and God. She borrows virtues from the source of blessings - God, and assimilates them to the person who, through prayer, tries to remain in communion with God. The path to God is prayer.”
No. 41 (554) / November 1 '09
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Advice from Saint Ignatius (Brianchaninov)
The life of a Christian is unthinkable without prayer. We turn to prayer in a variety of circumstances in life - both sorrowful and joyful. The very growth of a Christian in spiritual life presupposes his growth and strengthening precisely in prayer. What is prayer? What should it be like? How to learn to pray correctly? Saint Ignatius (Brianchaninov), whose life was spent in unceasing prayer and whose creations are imbued with the patristic experience of prayer, will help us understand this.
According to the works of the saint, prayer is “the offering of our petitions to God”, “the greatest virtue, a means of uniting man with God”, “communion of life”, “the door to all spiritual gifts”, “the highest exercise for the mind”, “the head, the source, mother of all virtues"; it is “food”, “book”, “science”, “life” of all Christians, and especially the holy desert dwellers.
What is the need for prayer? The fact is that we have fallen away from God, have lost bliss, eternal joy, but we strive to find what we have lost and therefore we pray. Thus, prayer is “the turning of a fallen and repentant person to God. Prayer is the cry of a fallen and repentant person before God. Prayer is the outpouring of the heart’s desires, petitions, sighs of a fallen man killed by sin before God.” And prayer itself, to some extent, is already the return of what was lost, since our bliss lies in the lost communion with God; in prayer we find it again, since in prayer we ascend to communion with God. “We need prayer: it assimilates a person to God. Without it, a person is a stranger to God, and the more he practices prayer, the closer he gets to God.” This is the principle of spiritual life that St. John Climacus pointed out: “After remaining in prayer for a long time and not seeing fruit, do not say: I have not acquired anything. For the very stay in prayer is already an acquisition; and what good is greater than this - to cleave to the Lord and remain unceasingly in union with Him.”
It is worth remembering that in the Fall, man inherited not only physical, but also spiritual death, since he lost communion with the Holy Spirit. In carelessness, we also lose the grace of baptism that regenerates us. But in prayer we are reborn again through the communion of our soul with the Spirit of God. “What air is to the life of the body, the Holy Spirit is to the life of the soul. The soul, through prayer, breathes this holy, mysterious air.” And prayer “from the union of the human spirit with the Spirit of the Lord” gives birth to spiritual virtues, “it borrows virtues from the source of goods - God, and assimilates them to the person who through prayer tries to remain in communion with God.”
Regarding the performance of prayer, Saint Ignatius pointed out two main points: correctness and constancy.
To achieve success in prayer, it is necessary to do it correctly, then it will lead us to the desired goal - communication with God. Correct prayer is taught by those who have already performed it correctly, who have achieved communion with God - the holy fathers, and this means that it is necessary to get acquainted with their writings. But it is important to pay attention to the fact that “of true prayer, the true Teacher - God alone, the holy teachers - men - give only the initial concepts of prayer, indicate the correct mood in which the grace-filled teaching about prayer can be communicated by delivering supernatural, spiritual thoughts and sensations . These thoughts and sensations come from the Holy Spirit and are communicated by the Holy Spirit.” Hence, correct prayer can only be learned through experience, in personal prayerful appeal to God. Prayer cannot be learned from the words of others; only the Lord gives us the correct prayer when we try to find it and constantly remain in it.
However, Saint Ignatius, who himself has experienced all the stages of prayer, suggests what correct prayer should be, or rather, what the inner mood of a praying person should be.
We all, of course, know that prayer is inspired by our personal, sincere faith in God, trust in His Providence and care for us. Saint Ignatius confirms this: “Faith is the basis of prayer. Whoever believes in God, as he should believe, will certainly turn to God in prayer and will not deviate from prayer until he receives the promises of God, until he becomes assimilated to God and unites with God.” Prayer is inspired by faith in order to ascend to the very throne of God, and faith is the soul of prayer. Faith makes the mind and heart constantly strive for God, it is faith that introduces into the soul the conviction that we are under the constant gaze of God, and this conviction teaches us to constantly walk before God with reverence, being in His sacred fear (that is, the fear of sinning even in thought, How can one lose communion with God?)
At the same time, few people know that faith is a natural property of the soul, planted in us by God, and therefore it often flares up or goes out from the action of our own will. What does the power of faith depend on? According to the saint, it depends on the degree of our rejection of sin, and where there is living faith in God, there is living prayer to God; only through the power of living faith is the unlimited power of God embraced; the prayer of such a person elevates his created spirit to unity with the uncreated Spirit of God.
In prayer, we submit ourselves to the will of God, we ask for God’s will, and for this we reject in ourselves that which opposes God’s will. And this means that in prayer it is important to show self-sacrifice. “Carnal feelings,” writes the saint, “flowing from carnal kinship, prevent the assimilation of spiritual feelings and the very activity according to the spiritual law, which requires crucifixion for carnal wisdom. You must seek spiritual success in cutting off your will. This work mortifies passions and removes, as if from hell, from carnal wisdom. In one who cuts off his own will, the effect of prayer appears by itself when he exercises attentive prayer with the conclusion of the mind in the words of prayer. If a person is not first purified by cutting off his will, then true prayerful action will never be revealed in him. When the prayer action is revealed, then it will become clear that it is nothing more than a complete rejection of one’s will for the sake of the will of God.”
Now let’s pay attention to what is overlooked by so many. Often we wish that through prayer we would achieve self-improvement, spiritual strength, and perhaps even special gifts of grace. However, such a mood presupposes a certain self-interest, which may be followed by a deceptive impression of what has been achieved, that is, charm. Saint Ignatius warned: “Do not seek prematurely high spiritual states and prayerful delights.” “Do not look for pleasures in prayer: they are by no means characteristic of a sinner. The desire of a sinner to feel pleasure is already self-delusion. Seek for your dead, petrified heart to come to life, so that it opens to the feeling of its sinfulness, its fall, its insignificance, so that it sees them, confesses to them with selflessness.”
Of course, prayer leads to spiritual perfection and introduces us to the gracious power of God, but this should not be considered as a special goal, but is presented only as a consequence of unity with God. Otherwise, self-interest lurks in the soul, an attempt to satisfy the desire of one’s separate “I,” separate precisely from God. In this case, the thought of St. Nicodemus the Holy Mountain is similar to the teaching of St. Ignatius: for us, the true and correct spiritual life consists in doing everything only for the sake of pleasing God and precisely because He Himself wants it that way. In other words, we begin to pray because it pleases God so much that we have moved away from Him, and in Him lies our whole life, all our good, and therefore we need to constantly lift our minds and hearts to Him.
According to Saint Ignatius, we must be unselfish even in relation to acquiring the grace of the Holy Spirit. “Many, having received grace, have become careless, arrogant and presumptuous; The grace given to them served, due to their foolishness, only to their greater condemnation.” We should not deliberately wait for the coming of grace, since this implies the idea that we are already worthy of grace. “God comes of its own accord - at a time when we do not expect it and do not hope to receive it. But in order for God’s favor to follow us, we must first purify ourselves by repentance. In repentance all the commandments of God are combined. By repentance a Christian is led first into the fear of God, then into Divine love.” “Let us engage in the Jesus Prayer unselfishly,” calls St. Ignatius, “with simplicity and directness of intention, with the goal of repentance, with faith in God, with complete devotion to the will of God, with trust in the wisdom, goodness, and omnipotence of this holy will.”
So, it is repentance that is the spirit that should fill our prayer. “True prayer is the voice of true repentance. When prayer is not animated by repentance, then it does not fulfill its purpose, then God is not pleased with it.” The first thing St. Ignatius draws attention to regarding repentance is seeing one’s sin. Without seeing our shortcomings, we will not be able to get rid of them, we will not feel that we generally need to pray before the Lord. “The more a person looks into his sin, the more he goes into crying about himself, the more pleasant he is, the more accessible he is to the Holy Spirit, Who, like a doctor, approaches only those who recognize themselves as sick; on the contrary, he turns away from those who are rich with their vain self-conceit.” He who seeks to reveal his sinfulness casts himself in contrition of heart before God; not even a shadow of an opinion about himself will arise in him. He is alien to any falsehood, unnaturalness, self-deception. The vision of one’s weaknesses and insignificance prompts one to rush to God in pure prayer. “All the hope of such a soul is concentrated in God, and therefore there is no reason for it to be entertained during prayer; she prays, combining her strength into one and rushing to God with all her being; she resorts to prayer as often as possible, she prays unceasingly.” “Through attentive prayer, let us seek to turn the eyes of the mind on ourselves in order to discover our sinfulness within ourselves. When we open it, let us stand mentally before our Lord Jesus Christ in the face of the lepers, the blind, the deaf, the lame, the paralytic, the demoniac; Let us begin before Him from the poverty of our spirit, from a heart crushed by illness over our sinfulness, a lamentable cry of prayer.” And therefore, the second thing the saint teaches about repentance is the cry of the heart, the cry of the human spirit about itself, about its distance from God, born from the sight of one’s sin. “Whoever combines crying with prayer strives according to the direction of God Himself, struggles correctly and legally. In due time he will reap abundant fruit: the joy of certain salvation. He who has eliminated crying from prayer is working contrary to God’s establishment and will not reap any fruit. Not only that, but he will reap the thorns of conceit, self-delusion, and destruction.” At the same time, it is important to know that crying does not necessarily mean tears - tearfulness in itself is not a virtue; rather, on the contrary, it is cowardice. By crying, Saint Ignatius understands a special type of humility, consisting in a heartfelt feeling of repentance, in the sorrow of the heart for our fall, in deep sadness for the sinfulness and weakness of man.
True prayer is not compatible with artistry. It should not be pronounced as if for show, in an emphatically eloquent manner, with passion, or in emotional excitement. From this, one’s “I” comes to life, arrogance enters the soul. Prayer must be imbued with simplicity, artlessness, then only it is capable of embracing the whole soul, then only we feel like a creature standing before the Almighty and All-Good God. “The robe of your soul should shine with the whiteness of simplicity. Nothing should be complicated here! Evil thoughts and feelings of vanity, hypocrisy, pretense, man-pleasing, arrogance, voluptuousness should not be mixed in - these dark and fetid stains with which the spiritual clothing of praying Pharisees can be spotted.” Simplicity is alien to any insincerity, falsehood, unnaturalness, artificiality; it does not need a guise. A soul filled with simplicity does not compare itself with anyone, sees everyone better than itself, it does not imagine itself, but puts itself before God as it really is, because it completely surrenders itself to God. This should be the spirit of real prayer.
In this regard, Saint Ignatius does not advise composing his multi-verbal and eloquent prayers, since the writer is carried away by the elegance of his own expressions, and will consider delighting in the orbit of his fallen mind as a consolation of conscience or even as an act of grace, through which he will lose true prayer during the very utterance of the words of the prayer. For the Lord, more pleasant is the infantile babbling of a soul diminished by the sight of its many infirmities. “Bring to the Lord in your prayers the babbling of a child, a simple childish thought - not eloquence, not reason. If you do not convert - as if from paganism and Mohammedanism, from your complexity and duplicity - and you will not, said the Lord, like children, you will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven (Matthew 18: 3).” We must open ourselves completely before God, open before Him all the secrets of our hearts, and our prayer to Him must be a pure and sincere sigh of the soul. “If you have acquired the work of repentance, cry like a child before God. Don’t ask if you can ask nothing from God; surrender yourself with selflessness to His will. Understand, feel that you are a creature, and God is the Creator. Surrender yourself unconsciously to the will of the Creator, bring Him one baby’s cry, bring Him a silent heart, ready to follow His will and be imprinted by His will.”
As for the very method of correctly performing prayer, Saint Ignatius saw it as enclosing the mind in the words of prayer, so that all the attention of the soul would be concentrated in the words of prayer. “The soul of prayer is attention. Just as a body without a soul is dead, so prayer without attention is dead. A prayer pronounced without attention turns into idle talk, and the one praying is thus counted among those who take the name of God in vain.” With the attention of the mind, the soul is imbued with prayer, prayer becomes the inalienable property of the one praying. At the same time, all thoughts, dreams, reflections, especially emerging images, must be rejected. The mind must be kept dreamless, ugly, so that it is able to ascend into the immaterial land of the Holy Spirit. Attentive prayer expresses the self-sacrifice of the soul, which seeks not self-delight with the images that arise and the thoughts brought to it by fallen spirits, but fidelity to God.
When the mind pays attention to prayer, the heart begins to listen to it; the heart is imbued with the spirit of prayer, the spirit of repentance, tenderness, and blessed sadness for sins. The feelings allowed to the heart in prayer are feelings of sacred fear and reverence before God, consciousness of the presence of God and one’s deepest unworthiness before Him. There should be no enthusiasm, no heat or emotional excitement in the heart; it should be filled with prayer of silence, peace, and rest in God. And it is the attention of the mind to the words of prayer that elevates the soul to all this. “Attentive prayer, free from distraction and daydreaming, is a vision of the invisible God, drawing to itself the vision of the mind and the desire of the heart. Then the mind sees without form and completely satisfies itself with non-seeing, which surpasses all vision. The reason for this blissful invisibility is the infinite subtlety and incomprehensibility of the Object to which vision is directed. The invisible Sun of Truth - God also emits rays that are invisible, but cognizable by the clear sensation of the soul: they fill the heart with wonderful calmness, faith, courage, meekness, mercy, love for neighbors and God. By these actions, visible in the inner heart cell, a person undoubtedly recognizes that his prayer is accepted by God, begins to believe with living faith and firmly trust in the Lover and the Beloved. This is the beginning of the revival of the soul for God and blissful eternity.”
And when our personal life is included in prayer, then it, prayer, becomes a mirror of our spiritual success. By the state of our prayer we will be able to judge the strength of our love for God, the depth of our repentance and how captive we are to earthly addictions. After all, as much as a person desires eternal salvation, he pays attention to prayer to God, and someone who is immersed in earthly things has no time to pray all the time.
Having learned to pray correctly, we must pray constantly, “prayer is always necessary and useful for a person: it keeps him in communion with God and under the protection of God.” Almost all the holy fathers teach about the need for unceasing prayer. And some advise praying as often as we breathe. Since we are too easily inclined towards all evil, open to the temptations of the surrounding world and the influence of fallen angels, we need constant communication with God, His protection and help, and therefore our prayer must be constant.
In order to get used to praying as often as possible, there are prayer rules. “The soul that begins the path of God is immersed in deep ignorance of everything Divine and spiritual, even if it were rich in the wisdom of this world. Because of this ignorance, she does not know how and how much she should pray. To help the infant soul, the Holy Church established prayer rules. A prayer rule is a collection of several prayers composed by the divinely inspired holy fathers, adapted to a certain circumstance and time. The purpose of the rule is to provide the soul with the amount of prayerful thoughts and feelings it lacks, moreover, thoughts and feelings that are correct, holy, and indeed, pleasing to God. The grace-filled prayers of the holy fathers are filled with such thoughts and feelings.” The rule includes daily morning and evening prayers, canons, akathists, and Saint Ignatius pointed to the akathist to the Sweetest Jesus as an excellent preparation for practicing the Jesus Prayer: “The akathist shows what thoughts can be accompanied by the Jesus Prayer, which seems extremely dry for beginners. Throughout its entire space, it depicts one sinner’s petition for mercy by the Lord Jesus Christ, but this petition is given various forms, in accordance with the infancy of the minds of the beginners.”
The saint of God advises beginners to read more akathists and canons, and the Psalter after some success. The rule may also include bowing with the Jesus Prayer, as well as reading the New Testament combined with prayer; Among monks, the daily prayer rule is more complete and lengthy than among the laity. It is necessary that the chosen rule be consistent with our mental and physical strength, then only it will spiritually warm us. “It is not man for the rule, but the rule for man,” St. Ignatius often reminds; It is precisely the feasible rule that easily turns into a skill and is performed constantly, which is the key to spiritual success. Saint Ignatius draws attention to the fact that even the great holy fathers, who achieved unceasing prayer, did not abandon their rule, such was the benefit for their spiritual activity from the daily prayer rule, which turned into a habit; It will also be beneficial for us: “The one who has acquired this blessed skill barely approaches the usual place of performing the rules, when his soul is already filled with a prayerful mood: he has not yet had time to utter a single word of the prayers he reads, and already tenderness flows from his heart, and his mind has deepened completely into the inner cage."
Particular attention should be paid to short prayer, in particular the Jesus Prayer. Saint Ignatius makes a significant remark that “the holy fathers actually call prayer the Jesus Prayer, which is pronounced like this: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner,” and “also the prayer of the publican and other very short prayers.”
Following the spirit of the ancient holy fathers, Saint Ignatius noted the special importance of short prayer before more complete and lengthy prayers. The latter, although they have spiritually rich content, but the variety of thoughts they contain distract the mind from focusing on itself and give the mind some entertainment. A short prayer collects the mind and does not allow its attention to wander; one thought of a short prayer embraces the mind, so that the whole soul is clothed in this prayer. The Monk John Climacus wrote beautifully about this: “Do not try to be verbose when conversing with God, so that your mind is not wasted in searching for words... Verbosity during prayer often entertains the mind and fills it with dreams, but unanimity usually collects it.” Learning short prayer allows you to pray at any time, in any place, and the acquired skill of such prayer makes it natural to the soul.
It must be said that Saint Ignatius, with all the power of conviction, asserted that the Jesus Prayer is a Divine institution, that it is commanded by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself: “After the Last Supper, among other sublime final commandments and testaments, the Lord Jesus Christ established prayer in His name, gave this method of prayer like a new, unusual gift, a gift of immeasurable value.” In the following words of the Lord, the holy saint sees the establishment of the Jesus Prayer: “Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in My name, He will give it to you” (John 16:23); “And if you ask the Father anything in My name, I will do it, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in My name, I will do it” (John 14:13-14); “Until now you have asked nothing in My name; ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be complete” (John 16:24).
You can remember that the holy apostles performed all miracles in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, they called upon His name in prayers, in His name they saw the salvation of people (there are many such examples in the book of Acts). Saint Ignatius finds glorification of the name of the Savior and prayer in this name among the earliest saints: Ignatius the God-Bearer, Hermias, and the martyr Callistratus. He considers the Jesus Prayer to be well known in the first centuries of Christianity. Thus, the legend about the martyrdom of Saint Ignatius the God-Bearer tells that when he was led to be devoured by wild beasts, he constantly called on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. The torturers asked why he was doing this, and Saint Ignatius replied that “he has the name of Jesus Christ inscribed in his heart and confesses with his lips the One Whom he always carries in his heart.” It is reported about the martyr Callistratus that, while in the army, he prayed at night, often calling on the name of Jesus Christ.
The saint calls to approach prayer in the name of the Savior with childlike simplicity and faith, to perform the Jesus Prayer with reverence and fear of God. “In the name of the Lord Jesus, revival is given to the soul killed by sin. The Lord Jesus Christ is Life (see: John 11:25), and His name is living: it gives life to those who cry to him to the Source of life, the Lord Jesus Christ.” The Jesus Prayer protects a person from the temptations of the world around him, delivers him from the influence of fallen spirits, it introduces him to the Spirit of Christ, and leads him to deification. “The name of the Lord is more than any name: it is a source of delight, a source of joy, a source of life; it is Spirit; it gives life, changes, melts, idolizes.”
At the same time, it is important to know that it is impossible to immediately ascend to the heights of prayer. There is a certain sequence in performing the Jesus Prayer, certain steps in the prayerful ascent to God. According to the teachings of St. Ignatius, these are such steps as oral prayer, mental prayer, heartfelt prayer, spiritual prayer. Moreover, in the description of all types of prayer actions, the same principle is proposed, which will protect against possible mistakes. This principle is as follows: “Saint John Climacus advises to enclose the mind in the words of prayer and, no matter how many times it withdraws from the words, to introduce it again. This mechanism is especially useful and especially convenient. When the mind is thus attentive, then the heart will enter into sympathy with the mind with tenderness - prayer will be performed jointly with the mind and heart.” When following this principle, a step-by-step passage of prayer steps is proposed as follows.
The first type of performing the Jesus Prayer is performing it orally, publicly, verbally. It consists of verbally pronouncing the words of the Jesus Prayer while paying attention to them with the mind. “Let us first learn to pray attentively, verbally and publicly, then we will conveniently learn to pray with our mind alone in the silence of our inner cell.”
Of course, oral prayer, since it is pronounced with the tongue, is also a manifestation of the external, and not the internal, feat of a Christian. However, oral prayer already exists together with mental prayer when it is accompanied by the attention of the mind. “Oral, public prayer, like any other, must certainly be accompanied by attention. With attention, the benefits of verbal prayer are innumerable. The ascetic must begin with it.” “It is essential for each and every person to begin learning to pray in the name of the Lord Jesus by performing the Jesus Prayer orally while enclosing the mind in the words of the prayer. By enclosing the mind in the words of prayer, the strictest attention to these words is depicted, without which prayer is like a body without a soul.” In the attention of the mind to the words of prayer - the method of St. John of the Climacus - lies the entire connection between oral prayer and mental activity; without this, oral prayer cannot benefit the soul. And therefore it is necessary to say the prayer slowly, quietly, calmly, with tenderness of the heart, to say it a little out loud, in order to drive away all the enemy thoughts that come, to collect the mind, to enclose it in the spoken words.
Verbal prayer, when undistracted attention is acquired and maintained in it, over time turns into mental and heartfelt prayer. Because “attentive vocal prayer is both mental and heartfelt.” From frequent practice in vocal prayer, the lips and tongue are sanctified, made incapable of serving sin, and sanctification cannot but be imparted to the soul. Therefore, Saint Ignatius cites as an example the Monks Sergius of Radonezh, Hilarion of Suzdal, Seraphim of Sarov and some other saints who did not give up oral and vocal prayer throughout their lives and were honored with the grace-filled gifts of the Holy Spirit. These saints “had their mind, heart, whole soul and whole body united with their voice and lips; they said the prayer with all their souls, with all their strength, with all their being, with all their being.”
To engage in mental and then heartfelt prayer, spiritual maturity is already required. Prayer is called “clever when pronounced with the mind with deep attention, with the sympathy of the heart.” Here the method of St. John the Climacus is already bearing some fruit: the mind gets used to being enclosed in the words of prayer, the attention of the mind becomes deeper, and at the same time the heart cannot help but sympathize with the mind. The heart here participates in prayer with feelings of contrition, repentance, crying, and tenderness. St. Neil of Sinai also reports similar feelings: self-absorption, reverence, tenderness and mental pain over sins. But you still need to constantly force yourself to perform prayer correctly, since the nature has not yet been transformed and prayer is plundered by alien thoughts. Having not completely freed itself from attachments, impressions, and worries, the mind still indulges in daydreaming.
Saint Ignatius repeatedly said that in order to achieve the grace-filled non-vapority of the mind, it is necessary to demonstrate one’s own effort, keeping the mind in the words of prayer, constantly returning it from mental wanderings to prayer. Such a feat over time can lead to grace-filled, unsquandered attention, but first “it is left to the one praying to pray with his own effort; The grace of God undoubtedly assists the one who prays with good intentions, but it does not reveal its presence. At this time, the passions hidden in the heart come into motion and elevate the worker of prayer to a martyrdom, in which conquests and victories constantly replace each other, in which the free will of man and his weakness are expressed with clarity.” Often, forcing oneself to pray lasts a lifetime, because prayer kills the old man, and as long as he is present in us, he resists prayer. Fallen spirits also resist it and try to desecrate prayer, inclining us to absent-mindedness and to accepting the thoughts and dreams they bring. But often forcing oneself is crowned with grace-filled consolation in prayer, which can encourage further work.
If it is the will of God, then “the grace of God palpably reveals its presence and action, connecting the mind with the heart, making it possible to pray without steam or, what is the same, without entertainment, with heartfelt crying and warmth; at the same time, sinful thoughts lose their violent power over the mind.” According to Saints Hesychius of Jerusalem and John Climacus, prayer united with the heart blots out sinful thoughts and images in the soul and drives away demons. And such a prayer is called “heartfelt when it is pronounced with the mind and heart united, and the mind, as it were, descends into the heart and sends up a prayer from the depths of the heart.” Now that there has been liberation from the plunder and captivity of the soul by the thoughts inflicted by the enemy, the ascetic is allowed before the invisible face of God, standing before Him in his heart and offering up deep, pure prayer. The saint’s reasoning on this topic is insightful: “He who prays unclean prayer has a dead concept of God, as of an unknown and invisible God. When, having freed himself from plunder and captivity by thoughts, he is admitted before the invisible face of God, then he comes to know God with a living, experienced knowledge. He knows God as God. Then a person, turning his mind’s gaze to himself, sees himself as a creature, and not as an original being, as people deceptively imagine themselves to be, being in darkness and self-delusion; then he sets himself in the attitude towards God in which His creation should be, recognizing himself as obligated to reverently submit to the will of God and diligently fulfill it.”
And then prayer becomes “spiritual when it is done with the whole soul, with the participation of the body itself, when it is done from the whole being, and the whole being becomes, as it were, one mouth saying a prayer.” St. Neil of Sinai explains it this way: “There is the highest prayer of the perfect, a certain admiration of the mind, its complete detachment from the sensual, when with unutterable sighs of the spirit it approaches God, Who sees the disposition of the heart, open, like a written book, and expressing its will in silent images " Spiritual prayer is characterized by a gracious spiritual feeling of fear of God, reverence and tenderness, which turns into love. Here the ascetic experiences spiritual pleasure in standing before the face of God, his prayer becomes self-motivated, unceasing.
The saint describes this final stage of prayerful ascent to God in the following way: “When, by the ineffable mercy of God, the mind begins to unite in prayer with the heart and soul, then the soul, first little by little, and then the whole will begin to rush together with the mind into prayer. Finally, our most perishable body, created with the lust of God, and from the fall infected with bestial lust, will rush into prayer. Then the bodily senses remain inactive: the eyes look and do not see; ears hear and yet do not hear. Then the whole person is enveloped in prayer: his very hands, feet and fingers, unspeakably, but quite clearly and tangibly, participate in prayer and are filled with power inexplicable in words.”
The entire life of Saint Ignatius himself passed in prayer to the Lord, he experienced its beneficial effect, through it he entered into the peace of the Heavenly City, and he also called all Christians to it: “Do not waste precious time and strength of the soul on acquiring knowledge delivered by human sciences. Use both strength and time to acquire prayer, performed sacredly in the inner cell. There, within yourself, prayer will reveal a spectacle that will attract all your attention: it will give you knowledge that the world cannot contain, the existence of which it has no idea.”
Valery Dukhanin, teacher at Nikolo-Ugreshsky Theological Seminary
Pravoslavie.ru
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In other rooms:
Are prayer and spell the same thing?
Many unchurched people consider prayer a verbal formula that in itself gets rid of troubles. However, this opinion is incorrect. It is necessary to distinguish between Christian prayer and various kinds of magical spells.
Spells are, first of all, an installation, the purpose of which is to obtain a specific result (recovery, love, well-being, etc.). With the help of spells, a person tries in any way to get what he wants, which he clearly imagines. For a spell, the words and their sequence are important in themselves.
Orthodoxy puts a completely different meaning into the concept of prayer. The purpose of prayer is the joy of communion with the Creator and his saints. The prayers that we see in prayer books are an example of how the saints prayed.
Is it possible to kiss
Many doubt whether it is possible to kiss icons in church. This is how the church answers this question. In everyday life, people express their love and trust with a kiss. It's the same with icons. When a believer kisses it, he thereby expresses reverence for the image depicted on it.
However, more and more often, people who are far from Orthodoxy are trying to teach others how to behave correctly in church, and are proving that icons cannot be kissed. As an argument, they describe the results of experiments in which fingerprints were taken from icons. Scientists discovered many dangerous bacteria in them, which remained after numerous applications to the icon. However, the priests convince that a believer should not be afraid of this. The Lord protects the parishioners. But as an alternative, it is proposed to simply place your forehead on the edge of the icon as a sign of veneration and reverence for the holy image.
What should prayer be like?
The Lord Jesus Christ gave us a sample prayer:
“And when you pray, do not say too much, like the pagans, for they think that for their many words they will be heard; be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him. Pray like this: Our Father who art in heaven! Hallowed be Thy name; Thy kingdom come; Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven; Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen" (Matt. 6:7-13).
This prayer is called the Lord's Prayer.
Archimandrite Sophrony (Sakharov), discussing prayer, wrote:
“Prayer is endless creativity, higher than any other art or science. Through prayer we enter into communion with the Beginningless Being.”
Saint Paisius the Svyatogorets, who lived in the last century, said:
“Prayer is a conversation with God. I sometimes envy people who lived during the time of Christ. After all, they saw Him with their own eyes and heard with their ears, they could even talk to Him. But I think that we are in a better position compared to them. Because they could not often bother Him with their needs, but we can constantly communicate with Christ in prayer.”
Which icons are approached first?
As soon as believers enter the main part of the temple, a lectern with an icon of the Saint whose feast day is celebrated appears before them. Next to the Holy Image there is a cross. In front of a high quadrangular table with a sloping top, you should cross yourself twice with a bow from the waist, and then venerate the icon and the cross itself.
Which icons should you approach first after the lectern? Here the choice depends on the wishes of the parishioner. For example, you can put a candle for health in front of him. It would not be a mistake if a believer approaches the image of a particular Saint with a request for health and lights a candle there. It is better to find out from the priest which saints help with what, and then approach a specific icon with prayer.
For example, in front of the icon “The Inexhaustible Chalice” they ask for deliverance from drunkenness. Prayer in front of the image of the Healer Panteleimon helps get rid of serious ailments.
You need to remember the dead in front of a special icon. This place is called eve. It is located on the left side of the temple and is a table of 40 candles. You are allowed to remember the dead when leaving the church. One candle is enough for this.
Christian teaching on prayer
Prayer is an integral part of the life of a Christian. Thanks to communication with God, a person can understand the correctness of his actions. Prayer is the Christian's compass.
Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeev) writes:
“To hear God, to feel the Father in Him, to feel His presence in one’s life—this is the true purpose of prayer. God's answer to prayer can come in many different forms. But a Christian’s sincere and heartfelt prayer never remains unanswered.”
Many saints in all eras of Christianity speak about the meaning of prayer, its purpose and significance. How should you pray? With attention, intelligence, analyzing your life - this is how the Monk Paisius the Svyatogorets teaches:
“- Geronda, Saint John Climacus says that prayer is “judgment before judgment.”
- This is true. When a person prays correctly, then prayer is “judgment before judgment.” Anyone who is spiritually healthy, if, starting to pray, feels petrification in his heart, he will begin to look for the cause in order to eliminate it. “Why do I feel this way,” he will ask himself. “Maybe I judged someone or accepted the thought of condemnation and didn’t notice it myself?”
– Geronda, what helps us to be in constant communication with God?
– Inner mental peace helps a lot. When the soul is in order, prayer itself moves. Therefore, do not hold any grudge against anyone. If you have a wrong thought against someone, confess it to the abbess. Drive away also every other wrong thought, bringing good thoughts instead. With good thoughts the path is cleared and prayer comes easily.”
What clothes to choose for the temple
Previously, men came to services in formal suits, and women in long dresses. Now, more and more often, parishioners come to the House of God in informal clothing, for example, men allow themselves to wear shorts, and women wear short skirts and trousers.
Modern youth believes that the main thing is not appearance, but what is inside a person.
How to dress for church? How does God want us to be in his home? The first pages of the Bible say that clothing should cover a person's nakedness. The Holy Scriptures teach people to dress godly. If parishioners come to the service in open clothes, they thereby show their disrespect for the shrine. It distracts from prayer. People just start looking at each other's bodies. Provocative and bright things are also unacceptable for the church, as they distract parishioners from worship. Clive Lewis wrote that fashion diverts a person's attention from true values. Even these words are enough to understand that you need to dress modestly in church. Congregants' bodies should be covered, and women should avoid wearing trousers during the service.
Types of prayers
The rich experience of Christian life, expressed in the teachings of the Holy Fathers, allows us to distinguish several types of prayer.
Prayer of Praise
Saint Basil the Great teaches us, before asking the Lord for anything, to turn to the Creator with words of glorification:
“When you pray, do not suddenly start asking... Begin by praising Him who created everything.”
Jesus Christ began his prayers to the Father by glorifying the Name of the Heavenly Father:
“At that hour Jesus rejoiced in spirit and said: I praise You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and have revealed them to babes. Hey, Father! For such was Your good pleasure” (Luke 10:21).
Imitating His Teacher, the Apostle Paul calls us to pray “with one mind and one mouth to glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom. 15:6).
During the service, the 103rd Psalm of King David is read, which is one of the examples of prayer of praise. It praises the Lord as the All-Wise Creator and Creator.
Bread texts – akathists – are widespread in the Church. These are chants that glorify the Lord, the Mother of God or the saints.
Petitionary prayer
Petitionary prayer is an appeal to the Lord with one’s requests and needs. We can ask for mental and physical health.
“Whoever never brings petitions to God has little faith in His grace and power, or does not believe at all,” says Saint Philaret (Drozdov).
Why ask the Lord for something, since He already knows what we need? Having created us free, the Lord awaits our free turn to Him. According to the saints, “although God created us without us, he cannot save us without us.”
Archbishop Averky (Taushev), interpreting the Gospel words “Ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find, press and it will be opened to you” (Matthew: 7: 7-7), says:
“The Lord teaches constancy, patience and diligence in prayer. A true Christian who remembers the Lord’s instruction “Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness” will not strive to receive anything vain that is harmful to the salvation of the soul. Therefore, he can be sure that through his prayer what will be given and will be opened to him. As the Lord promises to those who pray earnestly.”
In the New Testament we see what Jesus Christ Himself asked of His Heavenly Father. Let us recall the episode of prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane:
“And going away a little, he fell on his face, prayed and said: My Father! if possible, let this cup pass from Me; however, not as I will, but as You will” (Matthew 26:39).
In church services we encounter many petitionary prayers: litanies, prayers (“Save, O God, Thy people..”).
Prayer of repentance
Every person makes mistakes and breaks the commandments. In order to regain spiritual purity, repentant crying for one’s sins is necessary. After all, sins are the main obstacle to holiness.
Outwardly, a prayer of repentance is similar to a petition. However, their semantic content still differs. If in a petition we seek earthly blessings, then in a penance we ask for forgiveness of sins.
Repentance is the main theme in the sermons of John the Baptist. It is with the words “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 4:17) that the sermon of Jesus Christ begins.
“I exhort, ask and beg you to confess before God more often,” says St. Ephraim the Syrian. “I am not bringing you out to disgrace before slaves like you, nor am I forcing you to reveal your sins to men.” Open your conscience before God, show Him your wounds, ask Him for healing, show yourself not to the one who reproaches, but to the one who heals.”
A large number of prayers of repentance are contained in the Canon of Repentance, the Follow-up to Holy Communion, prayers before Confession, as well as the Canon of Repentance of St. Andrew of Crete.
Prayer of thanksgiving
The Lord is the source of our blessings. It is through His Grace that we receive everything we need. The natural consequence of man's love for God is gratitude.
“Whoever does not give thanks,” says St. Philaret of Moscow, “does such injustice to the heavenly Giver of all blessings that even among people in relation to earthly benefactors is condemned and punished with general contempt.”
What should we thank the Lord for? The Church teaches us to give thanks not only for what we have and received through prayer. But even for what is not given to us, I believe that everything happens according to the Will of God for our good.
The most important service of the Orthodox Church, the Eucharist, is translated as “thanksgiving.” Thanks to God is found in the sequence of the Thanksgiving Moleben, prayers after communion of the Holy Mysteries of Christ.
Intercessory Prayer
The Lord calls us to ask not only for ourselves, but also for our neighbors. Therefore, we can and should pray for our family, friends and even enemies. The Church especially calls us to pray for earthly rulers.
This church tradition is based on the call of the Apostle Paul:
“Therefore, first of all, I urge that prayers, petitions, supplications, and thanksgivings be made for all men, for kings and for all those in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceful life in all godliness and purity...” (1 Tim. 2:1-2).
Icons in the house
Even in ancient times, people had a tradition of bringing icons into their homes, usually two - the image of the Most Holy Theotokos and Jesus Christ. They were often supplemented with icons of saints whose names were borne by the owners of the house.
In the modern world, this custom has been preserved. Priests recommend setting up a prayer corner at home. There you can place icons and a small lamp in front of them. It is not advisable to purchase many icons, because these are not paintings and each image will have to be prayed for. If a home icon has faded, it must be set on fire. The holy image to which one prays must always be clear. Therefore, you cannot pray to icons distorted by age.
How to venerate an icon at home correctly, and is it necessary to do so? Here the actions of the believer are similar to church rules. This is how we express respect for the Saint whose image is depicted. Therefore, after prayer you can kiss the icon. It is recommended to have icons in the house with holy images of the Most Holy Theotokos, Nicholas the Wonderworker, martyrs Guria, Samon and Aviv, prayer to which helps to find family well-being.
How to Pray to God Correctly
Prayer to God is the most important conversation in our lives. Accordingly, we must have an idea of how to do this correctly. It is very important to watch your soul, not to be distracted, to put your body, soul and spirit in order.
Archpriest Andrei Tkachev recommends remembering the following before starting prayer:
“You need to read texts from the Prayer Book, penetrate their meaning, but from time to time move on to personal prayer. Accelerate along the runway - warm up using the Prayer Book - and then take off on your own - from time to time putting the Prayer Book aside and trying to pray in your own words. But then be sure to return to the Prayer Book again, and not throw it away forever. Both prayer in the words of the holy fathers and prayer from oneself, from one’s heart are very important.
It is dangerous to pray only in your own words, but only according to the Prayer Book - it will become too familiar, it will “overwhelm” your consciousness. We must also pray on our own.”
Saint Paisius the Svyatogorets teaches us a simple simple prayer:
“Speak to Christ, the Mother of God, angels and saints simply and without thinking, anywhere, and ask for whatever you want. Say: “Lord, or Mother of God, You know my mood. Help me!" So simply and humbly talk to Them about what worries you, and only then say the prayer: “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me.”
Rules for applying to icons
When reading a prayer in front of an icon, Orthodox Christians believe that it will be heard by the Saint immortalized on it. And indeed it is.
How to venerate an icon correctly? First, you need to cross yourself twice, then lightly touch the edge of the icon with your lips, and then your forehead. Then move away and cross yourself again. Women must learn one rule: before approaching the icon, you need to remove the lipstick from your lips.
You should not kiss the holy image several times and along the entire perimeter of the glass. Under no circumstances should you kiss the face of a saint. If the icon is “waist-length,” you need to venerate the blessing hand. When painting a full-length painting, you should touch your feet. If a believer doubts where to kiss the icon, it is better to kiss its edge.
In the icon of the miraculous image of the Savior Jesus Christ, the image of His hair should be venerated. When venerating the cross, you need to venerate the Savior’s feet.
On the correctness of prayer
How to learn to pray? - one of the most frequent questions addressed to clergy. There cannot be a universal answer to it; each person has a different spiritual state. Therefore, the order of prayer, its volume and content is individually discussed with the priest to whom the person is confessing.
Holy Righteous John of Kronstadt taught us to pray constantly, that is, to make our whole life a prayer to God, with all our hearts desiring to unite with Him:
“God is Truth: and my prayer must be true, like life. He is light: and my prayer must be offered in the light of the mind and heart. God is fire: and my prayer, like my life, must be fiery. God is all-free: and my prayer must be a free outpouring of the heart. What a wealth of the human spirit: just think heartily about God, just desire heartfelt union with God, and He is with you now and neither the walls of the house, nor the rivets of the dungeons, nor the mountains, nor the abysses will prevent this.”
Rules of conduct during worship
How to behave correctly in church? During the service, believers must stand quietly and listen to the prayer or read it together with the priest. You cannot walk around the temple, walk between the royal doors and the lectern.
How do newcomers behave in church when the service has already begun? If a believer enters a church during a service, it is better to take part in it and then light candles for the Saints. Let’s say that a parishioner does not have such an opportunity, which means that he must move around the church very carefully so as not to distract others from prayer. At the end of the service, believers leave the temple, crossing themselves 3 times with a bow from the waist.
Prayer in the temple
The Holy Church pays special attention to prayer in church or church prayer. The Lord Jesus Christ teaches us congregational prayer, saying “Where there are two or three in My name, there I am among them” (Matthew 18:20).
During church prayer, called worship, the Sacraments are performed. So, for example, during the Divine Liturgy the Sacrament of the Eucharist occurs. Church Sacraments can only be performed by a clergyman.
The beauty of common prayer also lies in the fact that people pray together to God for one thing, and each for each other, thereby uniting into the Church of Christ.
Archimandrite Melchizedek (Artyukhin) writes: “There should certainly be both home and church prayer in the church. Saint Theophan the Recluse says that external prayer accustoms one to internal prayer. First leaves, then fruits, that is, a person learns to be in an atmosphere of worship.”
History of icons
Church traditions say that the first icon was painted by the apostle and evangelist Luke. He depicted on the board from the dining table the image of the Blessed Virgin Mary with a baby in her arms. When the Mother of God saw the creation, she said that the grace of Her Son would always be with this icon. The physician and artist Luke is considered the first icon painter. With his light hand, holy images of the Mother of God, God's saints and martyrs began to be depicted everywhere. The main church holidays were also depicted on the icons. However, with the advent of the first paintings depicting saints, people still did not know how to venerate the icon correctly. Rules for the behavior of believers in front of holy images were established later.
How to pray correctly: the main Orthodox prayers
The Holy Reverend Seraphim of Sarov said that every person needs to read in the morning, at lunch and before bed:
- the Lord’s Prayer “Our Father” three times, in honor of the Holy Trinity;
- hymn to “Virgin Mother of God,” rejoice also three times;
- “Creed” once.
During the day, the saint recommends praying the words of the Jesus Prayer: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.”
“By adhering to this rule,” says Father Seraphim, “one can achieve a measure of Christian perfection, for the above three prayers are the foundation of Christianity: the first, as a prayer given by the Lord Himself, is a model of all prayers; the second was brought from heaven by the Archangel in greeting to the Virgin Mary, Mother of the Lord; The symbol briefly contains the saving dogmas of the Christian faith.”
Read carefully
Ignatius Brianchaninov teaches us that prayer is considered correct only when it is performed with reverent attention. If you turn to God while thinking about another person, this is an insult to our Lord. There is no need to jabber about prayer. When reading, attention and repentance are required. Where these three components are absent, there can be no benefit, there is only harm. You don't even talk to a person like that.
God doesn't just listen to words. He understands the thoughts of those who turn to him. There is no need to try to hide anything from Him. You cannot stage some kind of theatrical performance (screaming, crying). God will hear a quiet, sincere prayer.
People who tried to portray repentance and humility, which they did not experience, then fell into pride and vanity.
There is an amazing incident that happened to the schema-monk of the Glinsk Hermitage, Seraphim. One day a monk he knew came to him and said: “Father, I have an unceasing prayer.” To this Father Seraphim replied: “You should remember that you don’t have any prayer. You just get used to certain words, like others get used to swearing.”
Canons and creativity
The morning and evening prayer rule that we have came to us from the Middle Ages. In those distant times, it was composed by ascetic monks. It includes texts of appeals to God from various collections. Previously, monks woke up at midnight to pray. It was called the Midnight Office. Now it's morning.
The proposed Orthodox collection of morning and evening prayers is very successful, but you need to understand that it is only recommended and not mandatory. Repeating the same sentences can get boring if you do it day after day, year after year. Then the person will stop making sincere appeals to God. To prevent this from happening, the rule can be diluted a little.
To answer the question of how to pray to God at home, I would like to add that many reverend fathers suggested a creative approach to this action. Prayer is not just reading some church rules. This is a conversation with God. This is how we should approach it. Then no one will say: “I pray to God to help me, but He doesn’t hear me.”
When is prayer still in vain?
Photo: Pixabay.com
Perhaps every pilgrim has had personal experience with the fact that the Lord did not always rush to fulfill what was asked in prayer. Some even after this stopped asking God for anything and even lost faith. Why is this happening?
Important: The Apostle James wrote about this that a person may not receive what he asks for because his requests are not for the good, but for the sake of satisfying his lusts.
You cannot approach God with human logic - He is infinitely higher and wiser than it. He does not act according to human whims like a genie. He knows the past, present, future, and thoughts of every person. Thus, the guile of a person will not hide from Him if he asks for something, but at the same time harbors unrighteous plans.
Sample
The Lord asks us to be laconic in our prayer requests: “Do not say too much when you pray...” (Matthew chapter 6)
When the apostles asked Christ to teach them the correct prayer, He gave them the “Our Father.” Despite all its simplicity and brevity, it contains everything that needs to be asked of God. In the lines “our daily bread” one should understand food in general, in “deliver from the evil one” - a request to preserve from all evil, conflicts, quarrels, attacks and temptations.
St. John Chrysostom argued that the “Our Father” is a model of prayer and that God is pleased not with an abundance of words, but with the vigilance of the soul. Based on this prayer, it is not forbidden to pray in your own words. As St. said Basil the Great, the order of prayers should be as follows:
- Glorifying God;
- Thanksgiving for all God's blessings;
- Confession of your sins;
- Asking for what is good for oneself, but most of all what is necessary for the salvation of the soul.
