- Part 1: On Faith in the Life of a Christian
- Part 2: On Battling Pride
- Part 3: The Spirit, and Spirits
- Part 4: The Role of Christian Women
- Part 5: On Seeking the Kingdom of God
- Part 6: On Love of God and Love of the World
- Part 7: Merciful Is the Man Who Does Good to the Unworthy
The prayer of a humble man
The image of the Savior, the only hope, the only Truth, the only love, rises before a humble man, and then he says: “Thou Thyself, Father, know and see that I am weak and powerless, that I hate my passions and sins, that I sincerely want to conquer myself, that I weep and still offend Thee with my impurity and incorrigibility!”
“How many times I have resolved not to repeat a sin for Thy sake, Thy love, Thine unspeakable love for me!
“How many times I withheld myself for a time and then have fallen as if with even greater strength and passion. All my tears, entreaties, fears for the future life, fear of punishment and sickness—it was all in vain, for sin has defeated me!
“Do not abandon me, Thy creation, Thy child! Thou art able in an instant to make me strong, loving, and righteous!”
Oh, if only we all prayed like this, with tears and sincere repentance, then great would be the joy of the holy angels in Heaven!
A prayerful spirit
In order for prayer to become our necessity, our joy, a vital need for our life, and the most precious gift for us, we must cultivate a prayerful spirit.
Metropolitan St. Philaret of Moscow explains the movement of a prayerful spirit like this: “A soul immersed in sensuality, scattered throughout the world, darkened by sin, doesn’t feel that its origin is as a breath from the mouth of God, but the power of this feeling arises from the depths without its knowledge and moves the heart to God.”
In ancient times, when the Holy Fathers would meet, they would always ask each other about how their prayer was going. The effect of prayer was for them a sign of spiritual life, but they didn’t see every time of prayer as true prayer.
Thus, they considered prostrations before icons and reading from books, reciting prayers from memory and listening to somebody else read as only an accessory to prayer. Prayer itself, according to their definition, is the emergence of the feelings of self-abasement, devotion, gratitude, praise, forgiveness, contrition, submission to the will of God, and so on, in the heart.
How easy it is to make prostrations and read prayers; how difficult it is to ascend to God with the heart.
The ability to pray is necessary first of all to cultivate a prayerful spirit within ourselves, and it consists of a certain order of thoughts during prayer.
The beginning of prayer should consist of praising God, thanking Him for His countless benefactions. Then we have to bring God a sincere confession of our sins in contrition of heart, and in conclusion, we can express our petitions for our spiritual and bodily needs with great humility, piously turning the fulfillment or non-fulfillment of these petitions over to His will.
Every such recitation of prayer will leave a trace of prayer in the soul, and continuing to do so daily will give root to prayer. And patience, without which nothing can be achieved in life, will undoubtedly instill a prayerful spirit.
Prayers to the saints
The Church directly addresses the saints as living and blessed, and we, realizing their nearness to the Lord and to us, involuntarily feel their joy and therefore cry out: “Rejoice! That is, you have achieved the crown of glory; you are great and powerful in the Kingdom of Christ; you’re our intercessor. Rejoice!”
Some saints left us their prayers and as we read them, we continue to talk with them; we learn and are edified by them.
Christ is our sole intercessor by nature as the Son of God, and the saints are our intercessors by the grace of the Son of God; not by themselves, but by the power of Him with Whom they have as close a connection as the members of one Body.
The Fathers of the Church say that the saints stood firm against temptation with faith and love for God and His law and with hope in His gracious help, which they truly received.
They zealously and constantly practiced virtue and truly received the help of God’s grace to perform ascetic feats.
They courageously resolved to rather suffer and die than to betray truth and righteousness and truly received grace-filled help to victoriously pass through the arena of innocent suffering.
Therefore, the saints can help others too, because the power of Christ has entered into them. Having experienced temptations and spiritual struggles, the saints all the more deeply sympathize and empathize with others and more zealously seek help for them, with great boldness and intercession before God.
The saints know our prayers, our repentance, our heartfelt feelings and entreaties. The hymns of our Orthodox Church especially reassure those praying that the saints of God live, pray, and rejoice in Heaven.
If our requests to people aren’t convincing and effective when we ask with doubt and indecision, then even less will such prayers be heard and fulfilled by the saints. Therefore, before turning to the saints with prayer, we need to cleanse our heart’s vision and strengthen our faith.
True Christians are always quickly heard by the saints because they are of the same spirit. “It is good to rely on the prayers of the saints,” teaches St. John Chrysostom, “but only when we’re also laboring ourselves. If we are careless ourselves, no one will be able to help us by their prayers.”
To be continued…