Elder Aimilianos

It seems to me, my fathers and brothers, that we do not really pray, or if we do, we don’t pray enough. And even the little that we do pray is without skill, without strength, without inspiration, and, above all, without Spirit. Because it is only when the Spirit “prays within us” (Rom 8.26) that it is possible for our prayer to rise up to heaven. Because prayer is “in the Spirit” (Jn 4.24), and the Spirit comprehends spirit, and unites itself with spirit, and not with flesh. But our prayer does not have the strength and the presence of the Spirit. Instead, our souls are more often attracted by, or preoccupied with, other things, which are of more importance to us today, and in the end we forget that to be a monk means to be a man at prayer.

Elder Aimilianos