Source: Orthodox Teaching of the Elders
August 30, 2019
Fr. Aimilianos of Simonopetra (+2019) talks about the power of Jesus Prayer in the Orthodox spiritual life. He also gives us clear instructions about our daily divine reading.
Fr. Aimilianos:
One hundred thousand words of read prayer do not replace the few words of prayer: “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me!”
Look, five little words!
We should read one of the Fathers of the Church! Ten minutes are enough, but even five minutes if you want! And read another five or ten minutes from the Holy Scriptures!
From the Old Testament first… Because the Old Testament is the foundation… It is the support, the foundation of the Church and of our lives. And our peace! If we don’t know the Old Testament, we will never understand God. Because God revealed Himself there. And then He revealed to us saying: “I am what I say there, in the Old Testament.” “And here I write about that.” If we do not identify these places, we will not be able to understand them.
If you tell me the words “foreign occupation”, and if I know nothing about this, I saw no war at all, I am a king in my house… How shall I understand it? But when I cross the border and I see the church that they have locked and destroyed, and they burned its tiles and everything, and it’s now a ruin… And I see the houses there, deserted, with the windows open, fallen to the ground, damaged… Then I understand what “foreign occupation” means…
I need to make the connection: “Oh, that’s the meaning of this, isn’t it?” So that’s what happens with the Old Testament! God revealed many things there. And the correspondents are in the New Testament and in the lives of the saints of our Church.
Let us read a little bit and learn to say the Prayer. One hundred thousand words of read prayer do not replace the few words of prayer: “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me!” Look, five little words!
This is doxology, thanksgiving, supplication, confession, theology, witness. This prayer encompasses everything.
God understands even if we do not understand it.
I can say unceasingly: “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me” and I may not understand anything, but God understands.
God understands…
And the important part is that He understands!
So we should say the prayer!
It’s a very easy thing, my beloved! If we take care of it, you will see, in a month, no doubt, that, as I told you, your heart will rejoice! There is no man who asked something from God and didn’t receive. Otherwise, He wouldn’t be God!
So when we say to him: “Give me, Lord, the prayer!” “Put it in my heart!” Will He not do it?
He will give us happiness.
He will give us peace.
He will give us festive joy.
He will give us tears.
Everything.
Whatever you want to acquire through these words, from heaven and from earth, you will see, it will be so for you.
Whether it be a hidden thing or a visible one, you will receive it, God will give it to you!
