HAVE YOUR MIND
ON GOD AND YOUR HEART WILL LEAP FOR JOY SPONTANEOUSLY
Source: “Wounded by Love:
The Life and Wisdom of Elder Porphyrios, ”
published by
Denise Harvey, Limni, Evia, Greece (2005), pp. 122-126.
Listen and I’ll
tell you about something that happened to me a few days ago. A monk who
practices the Jesus Prayer came here from the Holy Mountain and he asked me:
—How do you say
the Jesus Prayer? Do you sit on a low stool? Do you lower your head and
concentrate?
— No, I
replied. I say, Lord Jesus Christ... clearly in my mind, giving attention to
the words. LordJesus Christ, have mercy on me... Lord Jesus... That’s how I do it in my
mind and pay attention only to the words.
—That’s not
right at all, Elder, he said. The way you describe it is quite erroneous, not
to say deluded. The mind needs to be in the heart. That’s why it’s called
“prayer of the heart.”
—I’ll tell you
something else, I said to him. Sometimes when I would be facing some
temptation, I would bring into my mind the image of Christ on the cross with
his transfixed hands and feet dripping blood and with the crown of thorns piercing
his brow and with myself kneeling before him and saying to Him, Lord Jesus
Christ, have mercy on me.
—-And you
didn’t bring your mind into your heart?’ he interrupted.
—No, I replied.
— You are
deluded, he said to me. The mind must be in the heart. Again, that’s why it’s
called “prayer of the heart.” Delusion!
He got up to
leave.
—Elder! I said
to him. Listen and I’ll tell you something. When I am repeating the prayer in
my mind, sometimes my joy becomes more and more intense. Moreover, when my joy
becomes ever stronger with the words, Lord Jesus Christ..., I feel my mind leaping
within me along with my heart. That is, I feel my mind plummeting into my heart
and there I experience all this joy as I say the prayer.
I begin with
the mind and then my mind moves on its own when joy comes.
—So that’s how
you pray! That indeed is the way!’ he said to me. Forgive me for accusing you
of “delusion.”
It is the mind
that thinks. The heart does not think. Have your mind on God and your heart
will leap for joy spontaneously. It will feel compunction. For Christ to enter
your heart you must love Him. In order to love Him, He must first love you. God
must first know you and then you Him. He will stoop to you, if you first seek
Him. In order for Him to love you, you must be worthy. In order to be worthy,
you must prepare yourself.
First, you must
shun all self-interest. Prayer must be entirely selfless. Everything must happen
mystically and without self- interest. That is, do not think that if you
concentrate with your mind then grace will come into your heart also and you will
experience that leap of joy. Do not pray with that motive, but with simplicity
and humility. Aspire always to the glory
of God. What did I tell you
about the nightingale? It sings without anyone seeing. Be like that—selfless. Give
yourself over to the worship of God in secret.
However, be
careful! As we said, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is
doing.
(Mt 6:3). Do
not let your malicious self know what is going on. Live in Paradise and do not
let your evil self know and envy it. Do not forget
that there
exists the envy of the evil one.
Preparation is
also to learn to keep the commandments of God. To expel the passions—condemnation,
anger, etc.—in a subtle way.
That is, do not
strike at the evil directly, but, disdaining the passion, turn with love to God.
Occupy yourself with singing hymns, the triumphant hymns of the saints and martyrs
and the Psalms of David. Study Holy Scripture and the Church Fathers. In this
way your soul will be softened, sanctified and assimilated to God. It will be
ready to hear the disclosures of God. ‘
Gradually grace will visit
you. You will enter into joy. You will begin to live in peace and then you will
become stronger by virtue of the divine grace. You will not become angry, or irritated,
you will not be offended, you will not judge others, but rather receive
everyone with love. You will have that which
Saint Paul
describes: Love does not boast... it does not behave in an unseemly manner...
it does not rejoice in injustice, but rejoices in truth; it covers and protects
all things, it believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love
never fails, (Cor 13:4-8). The prayer purifies the soul and keeps the mind in
check. The most perfect work is done in the depths of the human soul, which is
hermetically sealed and known only to God. And so we witness something
extraordinary: people who are transformed into children of God, even though
they had reached the very depths of their self-destructiveness.
And I, too,
wretched and crocked-up fellow that I am, make this effort. I do not give myself
over openly in prayer, but secretly I pray. Do you understand? The grace of God
comes and overshadows you too. It brings a freshness and joy to youalso as we
live together, eat together, talk and pray and simply keep company with one
another. Do you understand?
Only someone who is thoughtless, someone who is
“thick-skinned” and cannot be moved by prayer, remains a stranger to grace.
Pray for God to
reveal to you the unseen things. There is much that we do not know. Say to
Christ, “Whatever You want.Whatever Your love desires.” He will lead you. Look
to Him.Prayer of the Heart Is Impossible Without a Spiritual Guide
If you are
going to occupy yourself with prayer of the heart exclusively you must have the
guidance of a spiritual father. Prayer of the heart is impossible without a
spiritual guide.
There is a
danger of the soul being deluded. Care is needed. Your spiritual guide will teach
you how to get into the right order for prayer, because if you do not get into
the right order, there is a danger of your seeing the luciferic light, of
living in delusion and being plunged into darkness, and then one becomes aggressive
and changes character and so on. This is the splitting of the personality.
Do you see how
delusion is created? If, however, you progress in prayer with the counsels of a
spiritual father, you will see the true light.
The spiritual
guide must be experienced in prayer of the
heart. If he prays mechanically and has not experienced prayer with the
grace of God, he is unable to tell someone else how to pray. Certainly, he will
be able to say what he has read in books and what the Fathers say. Whole books
have been written which talk about prayer. And so many people read them and
none knows how to pray. “But,” you will object, “we read these books, we learn
the method of prayer, we prepare ourselves and God gives His blessing and sends
us His grace and we understand them.” That is all very well, but it is a
mystery. Prayer is a mystery, and above all prayer of the heart is a mystery.
The most
dreadful delusion can be created by spiritual prayer. Other prayers are prayed
to a large extent by our mind. We simply say them and our ears hear them. They
aresaid in a different way. But spiritual prayer is something else.
And if in this
spiritual dimension desire is enkindled, not by your good self, but by the
other self, the egotistical self, then undoubtedly you will begin to see
lights, but not the light of Christ, and undoubtedly you will begin to
experience a pseudo-joy. But in your outward life, in your relations with other
people, you will be ever more aggressive and irascible, more quick-tempered and
fretful. These are the signs of the person who is deluded. The person who is
deluded does not accept that he is suffering from delusion. He is fanatical and
does harm. This is what happens with zealots, those who act with a zeal that is
not tempered by divine knowledge. Listen to an example of this: Saint Makarios,
the famous Desert Father, had decided to go to a church festival along with the
monk who was sub- servient to him. The young monk had gone on ahead. He was a
beginner and had a beginner’s zeal. As he was walking along he met an idolater,
a priest of a pagan temple. He spoke harshly to him and said:
—Where are you
off to, you deluded soul?
The priest was
enraged and attacked the novice, leaving him virtually unconscious.
A short time
later the priest met the elder. When Abba Makarios, blessed as he was by divine
grace, saw the man in a state of shock and aggravation, he said to him:
—Good man of
God, where are you going to?
As soon as the
priest heard these words his heart softened, he stopped in his tracks, and
said:
—Your words
have calmed me down.
—Yes, said Abba
Makarios. I see you’re in a hurry, only you don’t know where you’re hurrying
to.
But he said it
in a humble and brotherly tone of love.
—When you
speak, said the idolater, your words open my heart, but a short time ago another
monk spoke to me in a very different way and I gave him a good beating. Abba
Makarios spoke to him in such an inspired way, that the idolater gradually changed
his beliefs, became a monk and was saved. With his good words and manners he com-
municated the good spirit. He communicated the uncreated energy and entered the
soul of the idolater. The novice, on the contrary, communicated a spirit of
anger and aggression from the spirit he had within him.
Do you see what
delusion means? When you have a spiritual guide you are not in danger of
delusion. When you have a good, God-inspired elder you learn the secrets of
prayer.
You pray with
your elder and you gradually begin to enter into the spiritual life and to learn
how the elder prays. He is not able to tell you, “Do this or do that.” But you
do what you see him do. When you go to your elder, certainly, he tells you
about the prayer of the heart. You need to know, however, that if he does not
experience the prayer of the heart himself, he will not be able to communicate
anything.
But when the
elder has experienced (and continues to experience) the prayer of the heart,
something mysterious takes place. The mystery is that the novice hears his
words, but more importantly, he sees the way his heart opens and how he speaks
to God in his heart. His soul watches him. And not only this, but soul
communicates with soul and the one soul senses the other. The novice feels how
the whole “frame of mind’ is created, how this state is created through divine
grace.
This is not a
simple matter. This is the teaching. We say that prayer cannot be taught, but
in point of fact it can be taught when you live with someone who truly prays. When
you take a book about prayer and read it, it may be that you do not understand
anything. However, when you have an elder next to you who prays, whatever he
tells you about prayer you understand and take to heart. You enter into his
prayer, and you pray too without realizing it. You communicate. It’s not the book
or the knowledge, it’s the sensation, it’s the manner, it’s the opening of the
heart, it’s the embrace of prayer.
And is not what
we are doing now as I am speaking to you, is this too not a prayer? Am I not
speaking from my heart and do we not feel that leaping sensation of joy and
impellent desire? If this is not prayer, how can it be explained that we have
such a sense of strong desire?
It is a great
art to succeed in having your soul sanctified. A person can become a saint
anywhere. He can become a saint in Omonia Square (the commercial center of Athens,
also synonymous with vice and corruption), if he wants. At your work, whatever
it may be, you can become a saint through meekness, patience, and love. Make a
new start every day, with new resolution, with enthusiasm and love, prayer and
silence — not with anxiety so that you get a pain in the chest.
Our religion is
perfectly and profoundly conceived. What is simple is also what is most
precious. Accordingly, in your spiritual life engage in your daily contest
simply, easily, and without force. The soul is sanctified and purified through
the study of the Fathers, through the memorization of the psalms and of
portions of Scripture, through the singing of hymns and through the repetition
of the Jesus Prayer. Devote your efforts, therefore, to these spiritual things
and ignore all the other things.
St. Porphyrios the Kapsokalivite (+1991) Orthodox
Heritage Vol. 15, Issue 07-08
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