ORTHODOX SPIRITUALITY AND WHAT PRAYER IS

My beloved brothers and sisters in Christ Our Only True Lord, God, and Savior,

CHRIST IS IN OUR MIDST! HE WAS, IS, AND EVER SHALL BE.

ORTHODOX SPIRITUALITY AND WHAT PRAYER IS

According to Saint John Climacus "prayer is by nature A DIALOG and A UNION with God. Its effect is to hold the world together. It achieves A RECONCILIATION WITH GOD.
Prayer is the mother and daughter of tears. It is an explanation of sin, a bridge across temptation, a bulwark against affliction. It wipes out conflict, is the work of Angels, and IS THE NOURISHMENT OF ALL BODILESS BEINGS. Prayer is future gladness, action without end, wellspring of virtues, source of grace, hidden progress, food of the soul, enlightenment of the mind, an axe against despair, hope demonstrated, sorrow done away with. It is wealth for monks, treasure of hermits, anger diminished. It is a mirror of progress, a demonstration of success, evidence of one’s condition, the future revealed, a sign of glory. For the man who really prays IT IS THE COURT, THE JUDGMENT HALL, THE TRIBUNAL OF THE LORD–AND THIS PRIOR TO THE JUDGMENT THAT IS TO COME.

"Let us arise and pay heed to what that holy queen of the virtues cries out to us in a loud voice, saying: "COME TO ME, ALL OF YOU WHO LABOR AND ARE WEIGHED DOWN, AND I WILL GIVE YOU REST. TAKE UPON YOURSELVES MY YOKE, AND YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS" (Matthew 11:28-29), and a balm for the blows that fall on you. "FOR MY YOKE IS EASY" (Matthew 11:30), and IS REMEDY FOR GREAT SINS."

"Those of us wishing to stand before our King and God and TO SPEAK TO HIM should not rush into this without some PREPARATION, LEST IT SHOULD HAPPEN THAT–SEEING US FROM AFAR WITHOUT ARMS AND WITHOUT THE DRESS APPROPRIATE IN THOSE WHO APPEAR BEFORE THE KING–HE SHOULD COMMAND HIS SERVANTS AND HIS SLAVES TO LAY HOLD OF US, TO DRIVE US OUT OF HIS SIGHT, TO TEAR UP OUR PETITIONS AND TO THROW THEM IN OUR FACES.

"When you set out to appear before the Lord, LET THE GARMENT OF YOUR SOUL BE WOVEN THROUGHOUT WITH THE THREAD OF WRONGS NO LONGER REMEMBERED. OTHERWISE, PRAYER WILL BE USELESS TO YOU.

"PRAYER IS ALL SIMPLICITY. The publican and the prodigal son were reconciled to God by a single utternanc,
The ATTITUDE OF PRAYER is the same for all, but there ARE MANY KINDS AND MANY DIFFERENT PRAYERS. Some talk and deal with God as with a friend and master, lifting their praises and their requests to Him not for themselves but for others. Some look for greater spiritual treasures and glory and for greater assurance in their prayers. Some beg to be freed entirely from their adversary. Some look for rank and others for relief from all their debts. Some seek freedom from gaol or for charges against them to be dropped.

"But heartfelt thanksgiving should have first place in our book of prayer. Next should be confession and genuine contrition of soul. After that should come our request to the Universal King. This method of prayer is best, as one of the brothers was told by an Angel of the Lord.
If you ever found yourself having to appear before a human judge, you may use that as an example of how to conduct yourself to prayer. Perhaps you have never stood before a judge nor witnessed a cross-examination. In that case, take your cue from the wya patients appeal to surgeons prior to an operation or a cautery.

"In your prayers there is no need for high-flown words, for it is the simple and unsophisticated babblings of children that have more often won the heart of the Father in heaven. Try not to talk excessively in your prayers, in case you mind is distracted by the search for words. One word from the publican sufficed to placate God, and a single utterance saved the thief. Talkative prayer frequently distracts the mind and deludes it, whereas brevity makes for concentration.

"If it happens that, as you pray, some word evokes delight or remorse within you, linger over it; for at that moment our Guardian Angel is praying with us. However, pure you may be, do not be forward in our dealings with God. .APPROACH HIM RATHER WITH HUMILITY, AND YOU WILL BE GIVING STILL MORE BOLDNESS. And even if you climbed the whole ladder of the virtues, PRAY STILL FOR THE FORGIVENESS OF SINS. Heed Saint Paul’s cry regarding sinners "OF WHOM I AM THE FIRST" (I Timothy 1:15)

"Oil and salt are the condiments of food, CHASTITY and TEARS give flight to prayer. If you are clothed in gentleness and in freedom from anger, you will find it no trouble to free your mind from captivity. Until we have acquired TRUE PRAYER, we are like those w ho introduce children to walking. Make every effort to raise up, or rather to enclose your mind within the words of your prayer; and if, like a child, it get tired and falters, raise it up again. The mind, after all, is naturally unstable, but the God Who can do everything can also give it firm endurance. Persevere in this, therefore,and do not grow weary; and Hei Who sets a boundary to the sea of the mind will come to you too during your prayer and will say, "Thus far you shall come, and no farther" (Job 38:11). Spirit cannot be bound, but where He is found everything yields to the Creator of spirit…

"The beginning of prayer is the expulsion of distractions from the very start by a single thought, the middle stage is the concentration on what is being said or thought; its conclusion is rapture in the Lord." [Resource: The Ladder of Divine Ascent]

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"Glory Be To GOD
For
All Things!"
+ Saint John Chrysostomos

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With sincere agape in Christ’s Divine and Glorious Diakonia (Ministry),
The sinner and unworthy servant of God
+ Father George


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