All the virtues prepare us for union
with God. This is the goal of our lives—union with God, or theosis as
theologians express it. All the virtues… However, something miraculous happens
with prayer! Prayer unites us with God, not simply preparing us for union with
Him. Therefore, we must prepare ourselves to meet God, paying heed to how we
will appear before God. This is important. It’s not nothing.
We’re not saying that prayer is a
purely spiritual activity, relating only to the soul. No! An educated man once
told me:
“What difference does it make how I
stand at prayer? What matters is how my soul appears.”
Yes, but there’s something neither he
nor I knew, and this is a very important truth that a saint of the Church
discovered: The soul simulates the body. The soul assumes the pose of the body.
We can’t sit in the lotus position as the Hindus do and say: “Lord, Jesus
Christ, have mercy on me.” No. Let us stand arms crossed, and let us sign
ourselves with the sign of the holy Cross and pray.
The body must also learn to pray, not
just the soul. Let us keep this in mind, to put it into practice. For example,
we don’t always feel well, we don’t always want to pray: Perhaps we’re tired,
or indifference to prayer has washed over us, or perhaps it’s a temptation from
the devil, who brings us to a state of misery, sadness, and spiritual dryness.
What should we do then if we don’t want to pray?
Then we cross ourselves and say:
“Lord, Jesus Christ, have mercy on me.” We prostrate to the ground and rise
again: “Lord, Jesus Christ, have mercy on me!”—a prostration, and again we rise
up. “Lord, Jesus Christ, have mercy on me!”—and again we prostrate and again we
get up. And the body pulls the soul along with it. The soul will also begin to
make prostrations. The soul will also begin drop down and rise up together with
the body. We thereby prepare ourselves to stand properly in prayer. That’s the
first thing. Now let’s turn to the second.
Before we begin to pray, let us
forget all the evil we’ve endured from others. If we remember about someone
offending us during prayer, our prayer will be in vain. Let us not remember
evil! Let us fight for this every day, our whole life, and especially during
prayer. Do you know what the Fathers say? He who remembers evil commits
suicide—he kills himself. Therefore, let us forget any evil that has been done
to us.
One Church Father says that he who
prays and remembers evil is like the man who sows on a rocky place. As many
roots as will grow from a seed sown among rocks, so much fruit will the prayer
of a man who remembers evil bring.
What do we say in the Lord’s Prayer?
“And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.” Do we understand what
we’re saying? We pray to God to forgive us to the extent that we ourselves
forgive, that He would forgive us as we forgive. Think about what we’re saying!
We pray to Him to forgive us and to do so to the extent that we ourselves
forgive. Woe to us!
That’s why what I said to you is so
important: That we stand up properly (the first stage of preparation) and
forget any evil that others have done to us (the second stage). Then we will
begin to pray. Let us ever be attentive to these points.
And what do we begin our prayer with?
Let us always start with thanksgiving. Above all, let us thank God! Before we
do or say anything, let us give thanks to God first of all.
What should we thank Him for? With
everything that’s going on around us, with everything we endure, with all the
diseases we have? What for? Think about it! Do we have any reason to be
grateful to Him? We usually look at what we’re lacking. And we do well to fight
for it, to achieve it. But have we ever thought about how much we already have?
For example, why did God give us these eyes? What, did He owe us something?
Have we ever thanked God that we can see? And why do we need to see? Couldn’t
we have been born blind? What did we do to receive this gift? Absolutely
nothing! We were born with sight. We didn’t even begin to do anything to
deserve this gift of sight. Have we ever thanked God that we can see?
The holy Apostle Paul says we should
thank God for everything (cf. 1 Thess. 5:18). He is referring here also to the
unpleasant things that happen to us. Thank God for everything! We have reached
such ungodliness that we don’t even thank God for His gifts. And we still think
we’re good Christians! So let us see what we lack; let us pray to God to
fulfill our desires. But let us thank Him for what we have already received.
God draws the grateful to Himself
with love—those who have learned to say: “Glory to Thee, O Lord!”—and
immediately fulfills their requests. God quickly grants the petitions of the
grateful, because He knows that they will not separate themselves from Him. But
God is slow to fulfill the desires of the ungrateful who haven’t learned to
say: “Glory to Thee, O Lord!”, who don’t thank God for His gifts. The
ungrateful ones, who haven’t learned to say: “Glory to Thee, O Lord!”, pray and
pray, but God is slow to respond to their petitions. And He does it
intentionally, to keep them in prayer as long as possible, to keep them close
to Him as long as possible.
So, do we want God to hear us? Then
let us begin with: “Glory to Thee, O Lord! I thank Thee, O Lord, that I can see
and hear, that I have a home, I have clothes to wear, I have a bed to sleep on,
that I have friends, that I can talk, and hear!” Then we will move on to the
second stage of prayer—confession. We confess our sins before God—God knows
them, but that we might realize them ourselves, because we love to forget what
we’ve done. And we always see ourselves as better than we are. That’s why we
don’t accept criticism from others.
Thanksgiving is followed by
confession, and then petitions: “Lord, I want this, I want that. Help me
succeed here. Help me achieve this.” And let us not forget that Christ Himself
admonishes us: Ask, and it shall be given you (Mt. 7:7).
Igumen Nikon (Lazaru)
Translation by Jesse Dominick
Pravoslavie.ru
4/21/2021
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