Spiritual Counsels From Elder Cleopas Ilie of Sihastria Monastery.

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—What kind of words are the most potent to benefit others?

The most powerful word for edifying others is practical—the example of our lives. St. Isaac the Syrian says the same: “The speech of works is one thing; beautiful words without deeds, another.” Afterwards he adds: “Many words without works are like an artist who paints pictures of water on the wall but is not able to quench his thirst.’’

 —Another man asked Fr. Cleopas: “Father Cleopas, can a virtuous Christian save his family and his village by the holiness of his life?”

How can he not? The more virtuous Christians there are in the world, in a country, in a community, the more that country or community will be preserved from dangers, wars, disturbances, famines, and all kinds of evil. On the other hand, the fewer elect of God there are, the more severe will be God’s chastising blow. Someone asked a certain Saint: ‘’Can one man save a city?’’ ‘’He can,’’ the Saint answered. ‘’The Prophet King David is an example. Listen to what God said: For the sake of David My servant, I will not abandon the city of Jerusalem.’’

—A visiting layman asked him: “Father Cleopas, I quarreled with someone and have asked his forgiveness many times, but he doesn’t want to forgive me. What can I do to be reconciled with him?”

Do not say anything more to him, nor speak evil of him to others, but pray to God for him and forgive him from your heart. In time the anger will be extinguished, like a fire that is starved of wood.

—How should Christians stand in church during services, how should they pray, and what duties do they have when they go to church?

Christians should stand in church with faith, fear of God, and attention. They should force themselves as much as possible to pray without distraction and with feeling of heart. Also, Christians have the following duties: to go regularly to church, for whoever often misses the services, except for the sick, are barred from the Holy Mysteries; to be reconciled with all men and to ask forgiveness of anyone they have hurt; to preserve their purity at least two days before going to church and at least one day after; to come early to the divine services in order to have time to venerate in peace and hear Matins. Every Christian should offer some gift to the Lord according to his ability, even if it is very small, as a sacrifice from the work of his hands. They should give names for commemoration, and ask the priest to take out parts [from the prosphora] for the living and dead members of their families. Christians should stand in church modestly and in good order, the men on the right and the women on the left. They should wear clean and modest clothes, and women should have scarves on their heads. It is forbidden to talk during services without great need. After Divine Liturgy starts, everyone should remain in his place and not move about to venerate the icons. They should follow the Liturgy with pious attention, and listen to the prayers and singing of the choir, the Epistle and Gospel readings, and the sermon. No one should leave the church before the end of the Liturgy without great need. Those who have confessed and prepared for Holy Communion should read the appropriate prayers before Communion in advance, and before they approach the Holy Gifts they should ask forgiveness of all the faithful. After the Liturgy, those who received Communion should read the prayers of thanksgiving, spending that day in spiritual joy and guarding themselves from all temptations. Parents should bring their children to church regularly, taking care that they receive communion of the Body and Blood of Christ. After the end of the divine services, Christians should reverently return to their homes, spending the rest of the day thinking of holy things, reading spiritual books, and visiting the sick. They are also obligated to tell those at home who didn’t come to church about what they heard and learned in church from the troparia, readings, and the sermon. These are the most important duties of Christians when they go to church on Sundays and feast days.

—What is prayer, and what kinds of prayer exist, according to the Holy Fathers?

Evagrius of Pontus says: ‘’Prayer is the converse of the mind with God. Prayer is an offshoot of meekness and angerlessness.” “Prayer is a fruit of joy and gratitude. It is the banishing of sadness and despair,’’ according to Evagrius of Pontus. And the Fathers say it is the union and joining of man with God, the strength of the world, reconciliation with God, the mother and daughter of tears. Prayer is the key of the kingdom of heaven, and according to Theophan the Recluse, it is the ascent of the mind and thoughts to God. Prayer has three degrees: first, spoken or read prayer, performed by the body; second, prayer of the thoughts, or mental prayer; and third, prayer of the feelings, or of the heart.

—Generally our people pray little, but with much humility. Can they hope for salvation through their small quantity of prayer? And how should the sick or those who can’t read pray?

Our Savior Jesus Christ said: When you pray, do not use vain repetition like the gentiles, for they think they will be heard for their much speaking. Do not be like them; for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him (Matt. 6:7-8). Then He taught us the ‘’Our Father.’’ Therefore, our Savior Himself taught us brief prayer. Anyone who says short prayers, but with humility and tender feeling, will be saved. Let us remember the holy elder who prayed for forty years with the same prayer: “Lord, I as a man have sinned; do Thou as God forgive me.”

—How can people fulfill the Apostle Paul’s command, “Pray without ceasing?”

Anyone can pray without ceasing if he always walks before God with his mind and heart. He can work with his hands while his mind and heart are raised to God. The only thing I have to add is that the most important thing in spiritual prayer is that our mind and heart are inseparable from God, regardless of what time and place we are in. We must always be aware of the presence of God. “This work applies to all kinds of prayer, and is considered an uninterrupted prayer,” says St. Theophan the Recluse. This is the feeling and spiritual contemplation of God that the blessed Prophet David had when he said: “I beheld the Lord always before me, for He is at my right hand, that I might not be shaken...” (Ps. 15:8). So we must understand that a faithful man’s life is a ceaseless prayer if his mind is always with God.

 
—When we do good works, is that also a kind of prayer to God?
 
Yes, it is. The Apostle Paul tells us this when he says: Whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by Him (Col. 3:17). Whenever one does a good deed for the glory of God, or speaks for the benefit of others for the glory of God, he has the prayer of works. Therefore St. Theodore the Studite, counselling his disciples, said to them: “He who does good deeds and obeys with humility and without protest, performs liturgy and priesthood”

  Taken from Spiritual Conversations with Romanian Elders by Fr. Ioanichie Balan.

Source: http://tokandylaki.blogspot.gr

The Meeting of Holy Elders Paisios and Cleopa

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Elder Ioanichie Balan of Sihastria 1930-2007

On the way toward Karyes we made a short stop at the cell of the renowned hesychast, Paisios the Athonite, a great holy man, honored and sought out in the whole of Greece, who amazed us with his holiness and humility.

The cell of Fr. Paisios in Capsala is surrounded by grape vineyards. We knocked at the gate and waited. A monk small of stature, thin, modestly clothed, about seventy-five years of age, but luminous of face and full of humility, came and opened the gate for us. It was the Elder!

“Bless us, Fr. Paisios! We are pilgrims from Romania.”

“The Lord bless us all!”

He invited us into a small chapel next to the cell, where we venerated and sang the Axion to the Mother of God. Then he invited us into his cell for guests, about eight by twelve feet. We sat down. There were about ten of us in all. Fr. Paisios served us, according to the custom of Athonite monks, with sweets and cold water. Then he sat on a small chair on the threshold of the door.

“Fr. Paisios, we come from far away. Please – give us a profitable word.”

“Forgive me, please. I am not hieromonk and I do not dare to give a profitable word to priests,” answered the Elder.

“Nevertheless, find for us a profitable word.”

“Fathers, I have not yet finished the school of monasticism and I don’t know many words.”

Seeing his humility, Archimandrite Cleopa asked him, “Fr. Paisios, which prayer is more beneficial for a monk: to read the Psalter or to say the Jesus Prayer?”

“Both are good,” he answered, “only say them from the heart, with faith and with tears.”

“Which monastic ascetical labor is better? Common life or that of the wilderness [desert-dwelling]?”

“If you have humility,” the Elder said, “in either you can be saved. He who wants to be sure of salvation enters into a community under obedience; and he who loves stillness and prayer withdraws in solitude.”

“How can we help in the salvation of others?”

“Through prayer. The monk is first of all a man of prayer and a candle on the candlestand for everyone. Only in this way can we help and spiritually build up people. First is prayer, then the example of our life, then the word of instruction.”

“How can we obtain the gift of tears?”

“If we have the humility of the saints, we will obtain both the Prayer of the Heart and the gift of tears. I haven’t been able to obtain this gift, which is received from God by great labor.”

“What opinion do you have of Athonite monasticism today?”

“I don’t have any opinion. But I know that all came to the Holy Mountain to glorify God and to be saved. Thus all force themselves, according to their zeal and their strength, in prayer, in obedience, in fasting, in nightly vigils, and in all good works. All humble themselves, have hope, and labor and follow Christ. Who, however, will lay hold of the crown of salvation, no one knows except God alone.”

“What books must monastics read?”

“First of all the Holy Scriptures. Then the Lives of the Saints and the Patristic writings. We do not have to read or speak a lot, but we must do a lot!”

“Fr. Paisios, how many times must we partake of Holy Communion per year?”

“The promptings of the heart and our spiritual father indicate to us how many times. Some more often, others less often. But if monastics can commune once a week, it is very good. Lay people – less frequently and in accordance with what their spiritual fathers decide.”

“What other counsel can you give us?”

“Let us always be ready for death because we know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of Man cometh (Mat. 25:13)”

“Fr Paisios, how many hours must a monk sleep at night?”

“If I added up how many hours I sleep lying down on a bed and how many I sleep on my feet, you would see that I sleep all day long, because I don’t keep watch with my mind in prayer!”

And we benefiting greatly from the humility and wisdom of Fr. Paisios, thanked him for receiving us and for the counsel given, asked for his blessing, and continued on our way.

(Shepherd of Souls: The Life of Elder Cleopa, Chap. 56 The Pilgrimage to Mount Athos pp. 146-149).

Source: http://classicalchristianity.com/category/bysaint/blessedeldercleopaofilie19121998/

St. Nikolai Velimirovic - How God can be inside man

From here.
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St. Nikolai Velimirovic

Letter # - How God can be inside man
To a soldier of a student's brigade who asks how God can be inside man

You asked somebody, "where is God?" And you got an answer that God is inside you. And you marvel at this answer. How can that be?

Kind of like light in a room, or like fire in a stove. When you are able to feel God within you, you will feel and know that He is inside you, but you will not be able to explain it to someone else. But you will look for images in nature and then you will speak to the other person as I speak to you: God is within me like light in a room, or a like fire in a stove, or like air in the lungs, or like life in every creature, or like force and love and thought inside of man. Of course, these are just images and likenesses, and they cannot express what a man feels when God dwells within him in His fullness. God's apostle, our spiritual father Paul, wishes for the faithful to be filled with all fullness in God (Eph. 3, 19). God works from within a man in two ways -- by helping and by governing.

When helping, God works within a man of medium or weak faith, who only occasionally remembers God and only keeps His Commandments partially. God does not abandon him because he also does not completely abandon God. However, God acts through governing in a man of great faith, who has opened wide the doors of his soul to his Creator. And it is written, "He who opens the door I will enter to him" (Rev. 3, 20). Such a man does not rely on himself at all but only on the Almighty. He feels the presence and the working of the Spirit of God within himself and has great love toward his Lord. And Christ has promised to the one who loves God that God will come and dwell within him. "He who loves me will keep my word and my Father will love him. And we will come to him and will make our abode within him." You will not be able to understand this. If you forget that God is a Spirit, who can enter everything and be everywhere, according to his power, and will. He is high above all matter, like the Sun is high above the earth but its light can enter every open thing. As the apostle says: "One God and the Father of all who is above all and through all, and in us all" (Eph. 4, 6). He writes this about the holy and the faithful.

But when someone rejects God, starts thinking ugly thoughts and speaking against God, God also leads him. It is the same as if somebody would close off the windows of a room and prevent the light from coming in and illuminating everything. For God's prophet Samuel said to the self-willed King Saul, "You have rejected the word of the Lord and for this the Lord has rejected you... and the spirit of the Lord abandoned Saul." But even once God abandons the soul of a stubborn man, He does not stop working on him from without, the way he works on water and stone and wood. But if a man remains stubborn and resists God until the end and refuses to repent, then God allows an evil spirit to enter in. Like it is written about Saul when the Spirit of the Lord abandoned him, "and an evil spirit disturbed him from the Lord". Or as it is written, even worse, about Judas the betrayer, "Satan entered into him".

Such people, who rise against God, of course, can never feel God within themselves or say, "God is inside of us." And those who love God, and desire Him, and see Him, and entreat Him to come they feel God within themselves and they can say, "God is within us by His Holy Spirit." Blessed are such bright souls, for they will always reign in the kingdom of Christ. As the Lord has promised to those who love Him saying, "I will take you to myself so that you may be where I am."

Source: http://stjohndfw.info/letter-how-god-can-be-inside-man.html

Many are the called but....

The Church of Christ is not composed of the many, but of those who keep the correct and saving confession of faith, even if they are few.

-St. Theodore Studite

Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos answering a question on recent troubles regarding Mount Athos

The Holy Mountain is a great treasure, a contemporary bright beacon. It is a brilliant piece of Romania-Byzantium retained in our day. It preserves the empirical theology, the requirements of Orthodox doctrine, the great cultural heritage. They are fooled whoever thinks that a few errors or omissions affected Mount Athos, and are as mindless as one who believes that the sun can be extinguished with their saliva. Mount Athos, like the Orthodox Church, is a strong body which digests the toughest foods.

-Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos

H/T Mystogogy

HOLD ON TO OUR FAITH WHICH IS ETERNAL AND DEFINITE

Saint Luke Archbishop of Crimea

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HOLD ON TO OUR FAITH WHICH IS ETERNAL AND DEFINITE

* ...the spiritual world cannot be investigated using the same methods as the material world. Those methods are completely unsuitable for investigating the spiritual world... There are phenomena that science will never be able to explain because it does not use the appropriate methods...

Can scientific study tell us how the great prophet Isaiah foretold the most important events in Christ's life 700 years before His birth? Can it explain the saints' gift of clairvoyance and tell us through which natural methods they acquired this grace and how they were able, as soon as they saw someone, to understand their heart and read their mind? Without waiting for a question from their visitor, they would give them an answer to what was troubling them. Let them explain to us how the saints foretold great historical events that later took place exactly the way they had prophesied...

...Do not be scandalized when you hear what is said against our faith, since the ones that say these things do not comprehend its essence... Always remember the fundamental principle that the first Christians knew well. They considered miserable the man who had knowledge of all the sciences but had no knowledge of God. Contrarily, they considered the one who knew God blessed, even if he knew nothing of what pertains to man.

Guard over this truth as if it were the greatest of your heart's treasures. Proceed forward and do not look to the right or to the left. Let not what is heard against our faith make us lose our way. Let us keep our faith which is an eternal and definite truth. Amen.

Teachings of Saint Luke of Crimea
Edition 'Orthodoxos Kypseli'
Thessaloniki

Melancholy, sadness, anxiety

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Sometimes, and perhaps more often, I have found it is so beneficial to read something like the following by Elder Porphyrios, rather than theological and philosophical treatises.  A bit long but well worth the read.

Melancholy, sadness, anxiety

by Elder Porphyrios

The crucial thing is to enter the Church – to unite with our fellow beings, with everyone's joys and sorrows, to feel them as our own, to pray for all, to ache for their salvation, to forget about ourselves, to do everything for others, like Christ did for us. In the Church we become one with every sorrowful, aching and sinful person. Nobody should want to be saved alone, without the salvation of others. It is wrong for one to pray for himself to be saved. We must love others and pray that no one be lost; that everyone enters the Church. This is what matters. And it’s with this desire that one should leave the world to go to the monastery or the desert.


In the Church, which has the mysteries that save, there is no desperation. We may be extremely sinful. However, we confess, the priest reads the prayer over us and so we are forgiven and we move towards immortality, without any anxiety, without any fear.


Whoever lives in Christ, becomes one with Him, with His Church. He lives something crazy! This life is different to human life. It's joy, light, gladness, an uplift. This is the Church's life, the Gospel's life, God's Kingdom. “The Kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:21). Christ comes in us and we are in Him. And just like a piece of iron placed in fire becomes fire and light; outside the fire, again it turns to dark iron, darkness.

The ones blaming the Church for its representatives' mistakes, aiming supposedly at helping in its correction, are greatly mistaken. They don't love the Church. Nor, Christ to be sure. We love the Church; when in prayer we embrace every part of it and we do as Christ does. We sacrifice ourselves, remain alert, do everything, just like Him, the One “who, when He was reviled, did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten” (1 Peter 2:23).


We need to pay attention to the basic part too. We need to live the mysteries, especially the mystery of Holy Communion. It’s in these that Orthodoxy is found. Christ is offered to the Church through the mysteries and primarily through Holy Communion.


For many, however, our religion is a struggle, agony and anxiety. For this reason many “religious” people are considered unhappy, because others see their bad state. Indeed, if one is unable to see the depth of the religion and does not live it, the religion ends up a sickness and a terrible one. So terrible, that one loses control over his actions, becomes weak-willed and powerless, is in agony and under stress and behaves under the influence of an evil spirit (meaning demonic energy). He does prostrations, cries, shouts, is supposedly humble, and all this humility is a satanic act. For some of these people the religion is like a type of hell. In church they do prostrations, make the sign of the cross, they say “we are sinners, unworthy,” and as soon as they get out, start blaspheming all things holy when someone annoys them just a little. It is obvious that there is a demon in the middle.


In reality, Christianity transforms a person and heals him. The most important prerequisite, however, for someone to perceive and distinguish truth is humility. Egoism darkens one's mind, confuses him, leads him into deception, into heresy. It is very important for one to comprehend the truth.


All the confused are going to the heretical groups – confused children of confused parents.


Often, neither toil, nor repentance, nor the sign of the cross attract grace. There are secrets. The most important one is to avoid forms and go to the substance. Everything that happens must happen with love.


When you don't live with Christ, you live in melancholy, in sadness, in stress, in grief. You don't live correctly. So then many anomalies appear also in the body. The body gets affected, the endocrinous glands, the liver, the spleen, the pancreas, the stomach. You are told: “In order to be healthy, you must have some milk in the morning, an egg, butter and a couple of rusks.” And yet, if you live correctly, if you love Christ, you are just fine with an apple and an orange. The greatest of all medicine is to offer oneself in devotion to Christ. Everything gets healed. Everything functions properly. God's love transforms all; it alters, it sanctifies, it corrects, it changes, it modifies everything.


Love for Christ is unlike anything else. It doesn't end, you can't have enough of it. It transmits life, gives strength, grants health, it keeps giving...and the more it gives, the more one wishes to fall in love. Whilst human love may wear one out, drive him crazy. When we love Christ, all other loves recede. Other loves have a saturation point...Love for Christ doesn't have one. Carnal love has a saturation point. Jealousy, complaining or even murder may follow. It may convert to hate. Love in Christ does not deteriorate. Worldly love can be maintained for a little while and then it slowly fades, whereas divine love keeps growing and deepening. Any other love may bring a person to despair. Yet divine love, raises us to God's domain, gives us serenity, joy, completion. Other pleasures tire while this one you can't have enough of. It's an insatiable pleasure, that no one ever gets tired of. It's the utmost of goods.


When you love Christ, despite all your weaknesses and their conscious acknowledgment, you still have the certainty that you have overcome death, because you reside in the communion Christ's love.


We need to feel Christ as our friend. He is our friend. He confirms this Himself when He says: “You are my friends...” (John 15:14). We need to look at Him and approach Him as a friend. Do we fall? Do we sin? We should run to Him with feelings of familiarity, in love and trust; not in fear of punishment but in courage granted by the sense of friendship. And say to Him: “Lord, I did it, I fell, forgive me”. But at the same time we need to feel He loves us, and tenderly accepts us with love and forgives us. We need not be separated by sin from Christ. When we believe that He loves us and we love Him, we will not feel estranged and divided, even when we sin. We have secured His love and no matter how we may behave, He loves us.


The Gospel surely states symbolically that the unjust will be found where there is “crying and gnashing of teeth”; this is what it’s like away from God. And from the neptic Fathers of our Church many speak of fear of death and hell. They say: “always bear death in mind”. If we examine those words deeply, they create a fear of hell. As man tries to avoid sin, he brings those thoughts to mind so that his soul gets overrun by the fear of death, hell and the devil.


They all have their meaning, time and occasion. Fear, as a concept, is good during the first stages. It is for beginners, for the those in whom their old self still lives. The beginner, not having been refined yet is retained from evil by fear. And fear is necessary while we are still material and succumbed. But this is a stage, a low degree of relationship with the divine. We take it in as a transaction so that we can win Paradise or escape hell. If we cross examine it, it indicates self-interest, benefit. I don't like this way. When man advances and enters into God's love, what need is there for fear? Whatever he does, he does so from love, and this is of so much more value. Becoming good due to fearing God and not out of love is of little value.


Whoever wants to become a Christian must first become a poet. If the soul gets crushed and becomes unworthy of Christ's love, Christ ceases relations, because Christ doesn't want 'unrefined' souls next to Him.


Let nobody see you, nobody understand your gestures of devotion towards the divine. Do everything in private, in secrecy, like the ascetics. Remember what I told you about the nightingale? It chirps in the woods. In silence. As if someone is listening, praising? What beautiful chirping in the wilderness! Have you seen the way their larynx puffs up? That's what happens to him who falls in love with Christ. If they love, “their throat puffs up, they are taken up, their tongue can't stop”. They go into a cave, a dale and live God in secret, “silent sighing”.


Scorn passions, do not preoccupy yourselves with the devil. Turn to Christ.


Divine grace teaches us our duty. To attract it, we need love, yearning. God's grace needs divine love. Love is enough, to get us into the right 'shape' for prayer. Christ will by himself pore over our heart, as long as He can find some things that please Him: good intention, humility and love. Without these we cannot say, “Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on me”.


Even the smallest grumbling against your neighbor negatively affects your soul and you are unable to pray. When the Holy Spirit finds the soul in this state, it does not dare approach.


We need to ask that God's will is done; this is the most beneficial, the safest for us and for those we pray for. Christ will grant us everything abundantly. When there is even just a little egoism, nothing happens.


When God won't give us what we persistently ask for, He has His reason. God has His secrets too.


If you aren’t obedient (to a spiritual father) and have no humility, the prayer (that is, Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on me) won't take effect and there is even the fear of delusion.


Let not the prayer (Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on me) become tedious work. Pressure may bring about a reaction internally, may do harm. Many people have gotten sick through the prayer because they pressed themselves. Certainly, you can do it, when it becomes tedious work, but it's not healthy.


It's not necessary to particularly focus to say the prayer. You don't need to put effort into it when you have divine love. Wherever you are, on a stool, on a chair, in a car, anywhere, in the street, at school, in the office, at work you can say the prayer, “Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on me”, softly, without pressure, without strain.


What’s important in prayer is not the duration but the intensity. Pray even just for five minutes, but given to God with love and yearning. Someone may pray all night, yet this 5 minutes of prayer be superior. It's a mystery, but that's the way it is.


A person of Christ makes prayer out of everything. He turns difficulty and sorrow into a prayer. Whatever happens to him, he immediately says: “Lord Jesus Christ...”. Prayer benefits in all, even the simplest things. For example, do you suffer insomnia; do not think of sleep. Get up, go outside, come back into the room, fall back into your bed as if for the first time, without thinking if you will sleep or not. Concentrate, say the doxology and then three times “Lord Jesus Christ...” and in this way you will fall asleep.


Everything is inside us, instincts and all, and are asking for fulfillment. If we don't fulfill them they will take their revenge, unless we redirect them elsewhere, towards the higher, towards God.


You don’t become holy hunting down evil. Forget about evil. Look towards Christ and He will save you. Instead of standing outside the door to drive away the enemy, ignore him. Is evil coming this way? Gently let yourself go the other way. Meaning, is evil coming to attack you, give your internal strength to the good, to Christ. Plead: “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me”. He knows how to have mercy on you, in what way. And when you are filled with good, you won't turn to evil anymore. You will become good by yourself, with God's grace. How can evil find any ground anymore? It disappears!


Does a phobia or disappointment get a hold of you? Turn to Christ. Love him in simplicity, with humility, without demands and He will free you.


Do not choose negative ways to correct yourselves. You don't need to be afraid of the devil, or hell, or anything. They create a reaction. I too have a little experience in those things. The point is not to sit, to beat or strain yourselves to improve. The point is to live, to study, to pray, to advance in love, in Christ's love, in the Church's love.

Leave all your weaknesses so that the opposing spirit (the devil) won't become aware of it and immerse you and hold you down in grief. Do not make any effort to free yourselves from them. Strive in gentleness and simplicity, without strain and anxiety. Do not say to yourselves: “Now I will strain myself, I will pray to obtain love, to become good, etc”. It's not good to strain and beat yourself in order to become good. In this way you will only react more. Everything must happen in a soft way, freely and with no rush. Neither should you say: “God free me from it,” for example, from anger, or sadness. It's not good to think and/or pray about a particular passion. Something takes place in our soul and we get more tangled up. Dash yourself to overcome the passion and you will see that it will entwine you, grasp you and you won't be able to do anything.

Freedom cannot be won, if we do not free ourselves internally from confusion and the passions.

This is what our Church is, this is our joy, this is everything for us. And this is what man today is looking for. And he takes poison and drugs so that he can enter joyous worlds, but fake joy. He feels something at that particular moment but the next day he feels torn. One thing scrapes him, eats him up, smashes him, burns him. While the other, that is being given to Christ, enlivens him, gives him joy, makes him enjoy life, feel strong, magnificence.


The ability to sanctify your soul is a great art. One can become holy anywhere. Even in Omonia (the main square in Athens) one can be sanctified, if he wants. You can become saints at work, no matter what it is – in calmness, patience and love. Each day make a new beginning, a new mood, enthusiastically and with love, prayer and silence – not with stress and a heavy heart.


Work vigilantly, simply, gently, without anxiety, joyfully and gladly, in a good mood. Then divine grace comes.


All unpleasant things, that remain in your soul and make you stressed, can become a reason for worshipping God and so stop hurting you. Trust in God.


There is no need in trying hard and strain yourselves. All your effort should be focused on gazing at the light, attaining the light. In this way, instead of turning to grief which is not of God's Spirit, you should turn yourselves to praising God.


Grief shows that we don't entrust our life to Christ.


When communication with Christ takes place simply, softly, under no pressure, it causes the devil to flee. Satan won't flee from pressure, strain. He distances himself from calmness and prayer. He retreats when he sees the soul ignore him and turn to Christ with love. He cannot take disregard because he is arrogant. But the evil spirit understands it when you push yourselves, and it fights you. Don't bother with the devil, don't even ask that he flee. The more you ask that he flee, the more he will entangle you. Ignore the devil. Do not fight him directly. When you stubbornly fight against the devil, he attacks you back like a tiger, a wildcat. When you shoot bullets at him, he throws back a grenade. When you throw a bomb at him he shoots back a missile. Don't look at evil. Look into God's arms, fall into His arms and move on.


A humble person is conscious of his inner state, and no matter how ugly it is, he does not lose his personality. He does not lose his balance. The opposite happens with the egoist, the one who has feelings of inferiority. In the beginning he resembles a humble person. But if one tempts him just a little, he loses his peace, gets irritated, gets upset.


When a person lives without God, without peace, without trust, in anxiety, depression, hopelessness, he develops physical and psychological illnesses. Psychological illness, neurological illness, discord are demonic states. It is also demonic to speak as though humble. It is called a feeling of inferiority. Real humility does not speak out, does not pretend to be humble, that is to say: “I'm a sinner, unworthy, the least of all...”. A humble person is afraid that they may fall into vainglory. God's grace does not draw near that. In contrast, God's grace can be found where there is real humility, divine humility, perfect trust in God, dependence on Him.


The vainglorious person alienates his soul from eternal life. Ultimately, egoism is complete foolishness! Vainglory makes us hollow. When we engage in showing off, we end up completely empty. We must do whatever we do to please God; selflessly, without vainglory, without pride, without ego, without, without...


Our soul must not rebel and say: “why did God do this thing, why did He do the other thing that way, couldn't He have done it differently?” All this indicates internal small-heartedness and reaction. It shows the big opinion we have of ourselves, our pride and our great ego. Those “whys” greatly torture a person, create what people call “complexes”. For example, “why should I be so tall?” or – the opposite – “very short?”. It remains inside. And one may pray and stay awake (to do so), but get the opposite result. And he may suffer and exasperate himself pointlessly. Whilst with Christ, with grace, it all disappears. There remains this “something” deep down, meaning “why,” but God's grace overshadows man and while the root may be a complex, a rosebush grows over it with beautiful roses, and the more one waters it through faith, love, patience and humility, the more evil loses its power and ceases to exist; that is, it doesn't disappear, but it withers. The more the rosebush isn't watered, the more it withers, dries up, disappears and thorns grow out of it instead.


We tempt God when we ask something of Him, but our life is far from God. We tempt Him when we ask for something but our life is not in accordance with His will – that is, (we ask for) things against God: stress and anxiety on one hand, but on the other we entreat Him.


Your spiritual father may tell you: “How I would have liked to be in a quiet place, free from all other affairs and to hear about your life right from the beginning, from when you felt yourself; all the things you can remember and the way you dealt with them, not only the unpleasant but also the pleasant, not only your sins but also the good. Successes and failures. Everything, everything that is part of your life”.


I've applied this type of general confession many times and have seen miracles happen. During the time you speak to the confessor, divine grace comes to relieve you from all your ordeals and wounds and psychological traumas and guilt; because, as you are speaking your confessor sincerely prays for your deliverance.


Let us not go back to the sins that we have confessed. The remembrance of sins wounds. Did we ask for forgiveness? It's over. God forgives everything through confession. I also believe that I sin. I'm not in the right path. But whatever bothers me I pray about; I don't keep it inside me. I go to my spiritual father. I confess it, it's over! Let us not turn back and talk about what we did not do. The important thing is what we will do now, from this moment on.


Desperation and disappointment is the most terrible thing. It's Satan's trap, to make a person lose his eagerness for spiritual things and bring him to desperation.


Almost all disease is due to the lack of trust in God and this causes stress. Stress is caused by the abolishment of religious feelings. If you don't feel love for Christ, if you don't occupy yourselves with holy matters, you will surely fill up with melancholy and evil.


Something that can also help the depressed is an occupation, interest for life. The garden, plants, flowers, trees, the country, a walk outdoors, a hike, all this can bring a person out of idleness and create other interests for him. They act like medicine. Occupying oneself with art, music, etc is very beneficial. But I attach the greatest value to the Church, to studying the Holy Scripture, to the services. By studying God's word, one is healed without being aware of it.


Let us not lose hope, or be in a rush, nor judge according to superficial or external things. If, for example, you see a nude or lewdly dressed woman, don't remain on the external image, but enter deep, into her soul. She may be a very good soul that has existential questions, that she may be manifesting through her extreme appearance. She has internal strength, the strength of projection, she wants people to look at her. However, in ignorance, she has twisted things. Imagine if she were to meet Christ. She would believe, and turn all this ardour to Christ. She would do everything to attract God's grace. She would become a saint.


Often, through our anxiety and fears and poor spiritual state, without knowing or wanting, we can hurt other people, even if we love them very much, like a mother her child for example. A mother can transmit to a child all her stress regarding his life, his health, his progress, even without talking to him directly or showing what she feels. This love, this natural love may hurt him at some point. This does not happen, however, with Christ's love, which is connected to prayer and the holiness of someone’s life. This love sanctifies a person, pacifies him, because God is love.

Source (greek):

Life and Words, pub. Holy Monastery of Chrisopigi of Chania

2003

Elder Porphyrios

Translate by: Holy Monastery of Pantokrator

On not following the thought processes of a mature Orthodox thinker

-all this has largely gone over the heads of a younger generation (whether Russian, Greek, or convert) that too often seeks easy answers to over-simplified questions; that is so easily scandalized by slight flaws that it misses the whole point of a profoundly Orthodox life's work; whose spiritual immaturity and lack of intellectual culture simply cannot follow the thought-processes of a mature Orthodox thinker-

Photo from here

Father Seraphim Rose did the Introduction for the book "Orthodox Apologetic Theology".  God willing, I am planning on doing a review on this wonderful book but in the meantime, the above quote in it has been making its way to the forefront of my mind.

Father Seraphim, writing about the book's author, I.M. Andreyev, laments how Andreyev was under appreciated by the world at large but as well by so many Orthodox Christians.


In Andreyev Father Seraphim saw a man of such  profundity that his thought was dismissed  because it could not be grasped precisely because it was moored very deep within the Orthodox Church.  I.M. Andreyev as well was possessed of a keen and cultured intellect which he had steered toward the acquisition and expounding of Truth.

The following is the entire paragraph where the above quote is to be found:

Unfortunately, owing precisly to the lack of depth and refinement among Orthodox Christians in general today, and also to the ingrained modesty and humility of these superb products of genuine Orthodox tradition, these Orthodox thinkers, Andreyev among them, have seldom been appreciated at their full value, and even those who have lived and studied in their midst have too seldom realized what treasures they could have mined from their wealth of Orthodox knowledge and experience. Their spiritual and intellectual maturity, their old-world refinement, their subtle art of understatement, the complexity yet wholeness of their Orthodox world-view—all this has largely gone over the heads of a younger generation (whether Russian, Greek, or convert) that too often seeks easy answers to over-simplified questions; that is so easily scandalized by slight flaws that it misses the whole point of a profoundly Orthodox life's work; whose spiritual immaturity and lack of intellectual culture simply cannot follow the thought-processes of a mature Orthodox thinker; whose lack of artistic and literary sensitivity can lead to false spirituality, making one unaware of the elements of the lower part of "soul" which can usurp the higher place of the "spirit" if one is not trained to distinguish them; whose deficiency in Orthodox feeling renders it blind to the Orthodox giants in its midst. We all suffer from this. All the more, then, must we strive to understand these giants who have now all but departed, leaving all would-be defenders of Orthodoxy in a very precarious position against the increasingly subtle temptations of an anti-Christian age.

There is a difference between sin and heresy

 by Sophocles Frangakis

Ecumenism as a heresy is today known by many as the "Pan Heresy" of our day.

There is a difference between sin and heresy.

Sin is the missing of an established bar whether willfully or through negligence, sloth, ignorance and for any other reason.  Yet, in the missing of this mark, or not measuring to the bar, the sinner yet acknowledges that the bar exists in place as a way to measure oneself accurately.  In other words, the sinner recognizes the bar as "fixed" in place by God.  When he falls, the sinner strives to hit the bar.  He says to himself, "I was not able to attain to the measure of the bar established by God.  God is not at fault for this, I am.  I must struggle more diligently to not miss the mark."

A heresy is altogether different, even though it is also a sin, but of a different nature.  A heretic looks at the established bar and says within himself, "This is not the bar.  This is the bar",  establishing according to himself the criteria of what merits the bar.  It is arbitrary in nature and has no real existence but a shadowy one.  It is not of God, not of the truth.  Further, when the bar is moved from its proper place, sinners do not have the proper measure of a bar to repent to.  This is very dangerous, this obscuring or diverting the sinner from the proper repentance.  This is why heresy must be fought against vigorously.

The following story of Abba Agathon tells the story of the difference between sin and heresy very well.

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It was said concerning Abba Agathon that some monks came to find him having heard tell of his great discernment. Wanting to see if he would lose his temper they said to him,

''Aren't you that Agathon who is said to be a fornicator and a proud man?"

"'Yes, it is very true," he answered.

They resumed, "Aren't you that Agathon who is always talking nonsense?"

"'I am."

Again they said, "Aren't you Agathon the heretic?"

But at that he replied, "I am not a heretic."

So they asked him, "Tell us why you accepted everything we cast you, but repudiated this last insult."

He replied, "The first accusations I take to myself for that is good for my soul. But heresy is separation from God. Now I have no wish to be separated from God."

At this saying they were astonished at his discernment and returned, edified.

On Prayer - Saint Nilus the ascetic.

From here.
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On Prayer - Saint Nilus the ascetic.

Prologue

 

 Do we contemporary Christians perhaps know what a true prayer is, what its characteristics are and what its fruits are?

 

 The Saints of our Church, who were the par excellence praying people, have passed on to us their sacred experience in an expressive and categorical manner.  Prayer, they tell us, is the elevation of the mind towards God and conversation with Him. Prayer is the union of man with God, the work of the angels, the key to Paradise; illumination of the soul, forgiveness of sins and the mother of virtues. Prayer is an invincible weapon, an unspent treasure, a bridge that saves from temptations and a wall that protects from sorrows. Prayer is a mirror of man's spiritual life and a never-ending labour.

 

 One can therefore easily understand that prayer does not constitute a mere "religious duty" or an emotional relief. It is the atmosphere in which the soul lives. It is man's total about-face and offering of himself to God. An offering which, when accompanied by the struggle to uphold the commandments of Christ, attracts divine grace. And this in turn cleanses the heart, illumines the mind, transforms the whole man and "Christifies" him.

 

 That is why the Christian who does not pray, is not a true Christian. And a person who does not know how to pray is not a fulfilled person.

"Just as the body" says the blessed Chrysostom, "without the soul, is dead, likewise the soul without prayer is dead".

 

 In the pages that follow is selectively offered, in a modern, free rendition, a classic work of Patristic literature: "A Word on Prayer" which is recorded in the Philokalia texts and attributed to the Sinaite Saint Nilus the ascetic (5^th century).

 

 The entire work consists of 153 small but comprehensive "chapters" that securely guide along the road to spiritual prayer whoever desires to read them, not hastily, but to study them carefully and assimilate them. For it is true that for today's man, the message of Saint Nilus is solid sustenance. It is a powerful antidote to the spiritual famine of our time, where the "mystery of lawlessness" is being carried out at a very speedy pace.

 

  During the oncoming temptations, only the "in spirit and in truth" communion with the truly Existing God, the Almighty Lord, will nurture us and support us. Today, His word sounds even more arousing and salvific than ever before: "Watch and be vigilant and pray..... that you may become worthy of escaping all that is to happen and to stand before the Son of Man (Mark 13:33 and Luke 21:36).

 

Prayer.

 

 Prayer is the ascent of the mind towards God. It is a spiritual labour that befits the human mind more than any other preoccupation.

 

 Prayer is born from meekness and the lack of anger that brings to the soul joy and pleasure; it protects man from sorrow and depression.

 

 Just as bread is food for the body and virtue is food for the soul, so the food for the mind (nous) is spiritual prayer. 

 Just as vision is superior to all the other senses, so is prayer more divine and sacred than all virtues.

 

 He who loves God, always converses with Him like son to father and is averse to every impassioned thought. 

 Since prayer is an association of the mind with God, then in what state must the mind possibly be, in order to be able, without turning elsewhere, to approach its Lord and converse with Him without the mediation of something else?

 

 If Moses in his attempt to approach the burning bush was hindered until he had removed the sandals from his feet, then shouldn't you who desires to see God and converse with Him, remove and cast out of you every sinful thought?

 

 The entire war between us and the unclean demons does not occur for any other reason but for spiritual prayer, because prayer is extremely hostile and obtrusive to them, whereas for us it is a cause for our salvation, enjoyable and pleasant.

 

 What do demons seek to arouse inside us? Gluttony, prostitution, avarice, anger, resentfulness and all the other passions that fatten the mind so that it will be unable to pray properly; because when irrational passions prevail, they do not allow the mind to move logically.

 

 Do not think that you have acquired virtue if you have not previously struggled for it, even unto blood. Because, according to the apostle Paul (Eph 6:11) we must resist sin to the death, with a fighting spirit and an irreproachable manner.

 

 A bound person cannot run. Nor can the mind, which works like a slave for a certain passion, be able to offer a true prayer, because it is dragged around and wanders here and there on account of impassioned thoughts and cannot remain undisturbed.

 

 You will not be able to pray clearly if you are preoccupied with material things and are agitated by incessant cares, because prayer implies riddance of every care.

If you wish to pray, you are in need of God, Who grants true prayer to whoever persists tirelessly in the struggle of prayer. Invoke Him therefore by saying: "Blessed be Thy Name, Thy Kingdom come" (Matt 6:9); in other words, may the Holy Spirit and Your only begotten Son come, because this is what Christ taught us, when telling us that we must adore and worship God the Father "with the power of the Spirit, Who reveals the Truth" (John 4:24). 

 First of all, pray to acquire tears, in order to soften with mourning the savageness of your soul. You will then easily confess with honesty before the Lord all the sins that you have committed and you shall receive forgiveness from Him.

 

 Use your tears to succeed in every request of yours. For the Lord is greatly pleased when you pray with tears.

 

 If during your prayer you shed fountains of tears, do not pride yourself that you are above many others. This is not your accomplishment; it is assistance for your prayer from the Lord, so that you will be able to thus confess your sins willingly and appease Him.

 

 When you believe that you do not need tears in your prayer for your sins, consider how far you have drifted away from God, when "you should constantly be near Him" and then you will weep more fervently.

 

 Indeed, if you have an awareness of your condition, you will mourn gladly, deploring yourself and saying like the prophet Isaiah "How is it that while I am unclean and full of passions, I dare to appear before the Almighty Lord? (Isaiah 6:5).

 

 If you wish to pray in praiseworthy way, deny yourself at every moment; and if you suffer many hardships, reflect on the relief you will find when you take refuge in prayer.

 

 If you long to pray as you should, do not sorrow any person. Otherwise your prayer is futile.

 

 Whatever you do against your brother who has wronged you, will all become obstacles during your prayer.

 

"Leave your offering" says Christ, "in front of the altar and go first and be reconciled with your brother and then come to pray without any agitation" (Matt 5:24), because resentfulness dulls the logic of man who prays and darkens his prayers.

 

 Those who pray but accumulate sorrows and grudges inside them are likened to people who draw water from the well and empty it into a leaking container.

 

 Do not be fond of chattering and human glory. Otherwise, the demons will conspire against you, not behind your back, but in front of your very eyes and they will rejoice with you during prayer time, as they will easily distract you and entice you with uncanny thoughts.

 

 If you wish to pray clearly, do not give in to any carnal demands and you will not have any cloud overshadowing you during prayer. 

 Do not avoid poverty and sorrow, because they make prayer seem lighter.

 

 Be careful! Are you truly standing before God during the time of prayer, or are you perhaps conquered by human praise and you seek it, by saying many and lengthy prayers? 

 Do not pray like the Pharisee but rather like the tax collector, so that you too may be vindicated by the Lord.

 

 The praiseworthiness of prayer does not lie in its quantity but its quality. This becomes apparent in the parable of the Tax Collector and the Pharisee and the words of Christ: "When you pray, do not ramble like the idolaters; for they think that with their chatter they will be hearkened" (Matt 6:7).

 

 Do not pray only with external gestures; instead exhort your mind to be aware of the task of prayer with immense fear.

 

 Whether praying alone or together with your brothers, struggle to pray, not out of habit but with awareness.

 

 Awareness of prayer means the gathering of the mind (Nous) with piety, with devout concentration, with secret sighs and the soul's pain that accompanies the confession of our sins.

 

 You should remain standing and endure the exertion, praying with intensity and perseverance and scorn the cares and the thoughts that come to you. For they agitate and upset you, in order to paralyze your strength and intensity.

 

 If you are patient, you will always pray with joy.

 

Strive to keep your mind deaf and mute during the hour of prayer. Only thus will you be able to pray.

 

 Chanting quells the passions and pacifies the disorderly movements of your body. Therefore chant with awareness and seemliness and you will thus resemble an eaglet soaring high.

 

 If you have not yet received the gift of prayer or chanting, ask for it persistently and you shall receive it.

 

 The devil greatly envies the person who prays, and he uses every possible trick with the intent to hinder his purpose. Thus, when demons see that you are willing to pray sincerely, they will intentionally remind you of certain supposedly necessary things. Soon after, however, they make you forget them, then they force you to look for them. And because you do not remember them, you become worried and sad.  When you resume your prayer, they again remind you of the things you were looking for, so that your mind turns back to those things again, and eventually lose that fruitful prayer.

 

 During prayer, your memory will bring you either fantasies of past things or recent cares or the face of the one who had grieved you. Therefore, guard your memory well, so that it does not present you with its own cares.  And continuously urge yourself to remain aware in Whose presence it is standing, because it is very natural for the mind to be easily carried away by memory during the time of prayer.

 

 The attention paid by the mind that seeks prayer will find prayer, because prayer follows attention more than anything else. Let us therefore ensure that we willingly strive to acquire attention. 

 At times, by remaining standing during prayer, you can immediately concentrate and pray well; at other times, you may strive very hard, but not achieve your purpose. This occurs, so that you may ask for prayer with greater zeal; and after acquiring it, to have it as your inalienable achievement. 

 Know that the holy angels prompt us to pray and stand alongside us and rejoice and pray for us. If we therefore become negligent and accept the thoughts that the demons subject us to, we greatly dismay the angels, because, while they strive so much for our sake, we do not want to beseech God - not even for our own sake; instead, by ignoring their services and abandoning their Lord and God, we converse with unclean demons.

 

 A true prayer is said by the one who always offers his first thought as a sacrifice to God.

 

 Do not pray for your desires to be realized, because they certainly do not agree with the will of God; but rather, as you were taught, say in your prayer: "Let Your Will be done" (Matt 6:10), and for every single thing, you should likewise ask God that His Will be done, because He wants whatever is best and beneficial for your soul.

 

 I have often asked God through prayer for something I thought to be good. And I insisted illogically on asking for it, thus violating the divine will. I would not let God provide whatever He knew would be to my benefit. And so, having received what I had asked for, I afterwards felt very sorry that I had not asked that His Will be done, because things did not turn out as I had thought they would.

 

 What is benevolent, if not God? Let us therefore entrust all our needs with Him and everything will go well, as the benevolent One definitely also bestows beneficial gifts.

 

 In your prayer, ask only for the justice and the Kingdom of God - in other words, virtue and divine knowledge - and all the rest will then be added to you.

 

 Entrust the needs of your body to God, and that will reveal to Him that you also entrust the needs of your spirit.

 

 Strive in your prayer to never seek any evil to befall anyone, so that you do not destroy whatever you have built by making your prayer abhorrent.

 

 Let the debtor of the ten thousand talents in the Gospel be an example to you. If you do not forgive the person who has harmed you, neither will you attain the absolution of your sins; because the Gospel says of the debtor of the ten thousand talents who did not forgive his debtor, that "he was delivered to his torturers" (Matt 18:24-35).

 

 It is appropriate that you do not pray only for yourself, but also for every fellow-man, so that in this way, you will be emulating the angelic manner of praying.

 

 Do not be sorrowed if you do not immediately receive from God that which you asked for, because He desires to benefit you even more, through your patient perseverance in prayer. What is there indeed more superior to associating with God and conversing with Him?

 

 In wishing to teach His disciples that they must always pray and not be discouraged, the Lord narrated an appropriate parable (Luke 18:1-8). In this parable a certain unfair judge said the following about a widow who was persistently demanding to be vindicated: "Even if I neither fear God nor feel any shame before people, however, because this woman continuously bothers me and demands to be vindicated, I shall do so". And the Lord then concluded: "So also shall God soon fulfill the wish of those who beseech Him day and night".  That is therefore why you should not be discouraged or worried because you did not receive it, because you will receive it later. Be happy and persist, enduring the toil of holy prayer. 

 Overlook the needs of the body when you pray, so that you do not lose the greater gain of your prayer from the sting of a mosquito or the buzzing of a fly.

 

 If you have diligence in prayer, be prepared for attacks by demons and endure their blows with bravery, because they shall charge at you like wild beasts, to torment you.

 

 He who suffers sorrowful things, will also attain joyful ones. He who perseveres during unpleasant things, will also enjoy pleasant ones.

 

 Do not imagine any form for God when you pray, or allow any shape to imprint itself in your mind; only approach in an incorporeal manner the incorporeal God.

 

 Do not desire to see with your bodily eyes the angels or powers or Christ, in case you might lose your mind completely and thus accept a wolf instead of a shepherd and worship the demon enemies.

 

 Guard yourself from the traps of the demons. For it happens that as you pray in peace and quiet, they may suddenly present you with a strange form, in order to lead you to pride, as you might suppose that it where the divine is. But the divine is incorporeal and without form.

 

 Take care to have plenty of humility and bravery, and no demonic influence will touch your soul. The angels will invisibly drive away the entire influence of the demons.

 

 When the cunning demon uses numerous means and cannot hinder the prayer of the righteous, he withdraws for a while. But then he revenges him later, by pushing him to anger, in order to disperse the exceptional inner state that was created through prayer, or by arousing him with carnal desires in order to pollute his soul.

 

 When you pray the way you should, expect temptations. Stand therefore courageously, to preserve the fruit of your prayer. Because from the very beginning that is what you committed yourself to - working the prayer and guarding its fruits. (Gen 2:15). Having worked therefore, do not leave unguarded what you earned, otherwise you will not have benefited at all from your prayer.

 

 If you pray in a God pleasing way, you will meet such trials, that you will think it is only fair that you become angry. However, no anger against your neighbour is justified. If you study the situation carefully, you will find that it is also possible to resolve the case without anger. Resort therefore to every means, so that you do not become angered.

 

 By co-suffering with our ailment, the Holy Spirit comes to us even though we are unclean because of passions and sins. And if He finds the mind praying sincerely only to Him, He will prevail over him, scatter all the legions of evil thoughts and reflections that surround him and exhorts him towards the love of spiritual prayer.

 

 Do you have a passion for praying?  Make yourself dead to this earth. Always have Heaven as your homeland - not with words, but with an angelic life and divine knowledge. Forsake all things, so that you may inherit everything.

 

 If you are a true theologian, you will pray truly. And if you pray truly, you are a true theologian.

 

 Blessed is the mind that during prayer does not form any shape whatsoever inside it. Blessed is the mind that prays without being distracted and continuously acquires an increased desire for God. Blessed is the mind which during the time of prayer becomes incorporeal and free from everything. Blessed is the mind which during the time of prayer remains uninfluenced by anything.

 

If during prayer you feel greater joy than any other joy, then you have indeed found the true prayer.

The Voice of the Fathers.
"Prayer"
Saint Nilus the ascetic
Holy Monastery of Parakletou
Oropos, Attica 2009.