On constant prayer

 Pray without ceasing(1 Thessalonians 5:17)

As our very main goal and the pinnacle of perfection, we should set constant prayer, which relies on peace of soul and purity of heart. For their sake, we should endure the suffering of the body and keep humility (contrition) in the heart. The connection between all these efforts and prayer is inseparable and mutual. For just as the assembly of these virtues leads to perfection in prayer, so prayer, as their completion and crown, makes them firm andconstant. Just as constant, pure, and unclouded prayer cannot be acquired and perfected without virtue, so the virtues, which go before in the ordering of life according to God, cannot reach perfection without constant prayer. For this reason, we cannot immediately enter into reasoning about the power of prayer (which completes the edifice of all virtues), unless we first mark out and consider in order everything that we need to cut off or prepare for the purpose of acquiring it, or unless, according to the meaning of the Gospel story (Luke 14:28-30), we first calculate and gather everything that is necessary for the erection of that most sublime spiritual pillar. But we will not be able to properly use what has been prepared, nor build upon it the final peaks of perfection, unless first, after removing all the impurity of vice and throwing out the ruins and dead dung of passion, we first lay the firmest foundation of simplicity and humility on the living and hard earth of our heart, as on that evangelical stone (Luke 6:48).

Only on it can this pillar be erected through the laying down of spiritual virtues. And it will stand fearlessly and raise its top to the highest heights of heaven, hoping in its firmness. Having established itself on such a foundation, it will withstand the downpour of passion and the rivers of persecution which, like machines for breaking stones, strongly attack that fierce storm of hostile spirits. And it will not only not be destroyed by the collapse, but will not even feel their attacks.Therefore, in order that prayer may be raised with the necessary fervor and purity, it is necessary to take care of the following: first, we must completely cut off all care for bodily things; second, we must not allow not only care for some work or event, but even the memory of them; third, we must cut off distraction, empty words, talkativeness and jokes; fourth, above all, we must completely overcome the confusion of anger or grief; fifth, we must root out the destructive impulses of carnal lust and the temptation of avarice. After the perfect expulsion and cutting off of these and similar vices, visible even to human sight, and after a preventive cleansing from everything that finds its end in purity and innocence, we must further lay the fearless foundation of deep humility, which will be strong to support the pillar that is to penetrate to heaven itself. Then, on this foundation, we should build a structure of spiritual virtues, while we should restrain our spirit from all wandering and unsteady hesitation, so that the spiritual gaze, little by little, may begin to approach the contemplation of God. For during prayer, what our soul received into itself before the time of prayer will necessarily come to our mind, brought to us by the hand of memory. Therefore, before the time of prayer, we should prepare ourselves to be what we want to be during prayer. In addition, let us hasten to expel from the secret places of our hearts before prayer what we do not want to see oppressing us during prayer.

In this way, we will be able to fulfill the apostle's command: Pray without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5:17).Our mind, not without reason, is compared to an extremely light feather or down which, free from the moisture of a foreign liquid, usually, due to its lightness, flies to a great height at the slightest blow of wind. If it is burdened with some liquid, instead of rising through the air, it will fall down due to the weight of the moisture and cling to the ground. And our mind, if it is not burdened by new passions, worldly cares and if it is not injured by the moisture of destructive lust, as light and naturally pure, will ascend upwards at the slightest stirring of spiritual thought, and leaving behind what is below and earthly, it will rise to the heavenly and invisible. This is precisely what the Lord's command advises us: But take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down with surfeiting and drunkenness and the worries of this life (Luke 21:34). Therefore, if we want our prayers to reach not only to heaven, but also beyond heaven, let us take care to direct our mind to its natural lightness, purifying it from all earthly vices and from all the dampness of worldly passions. In this way, unburdened by any extraneous burden, its prayer will easily fly to God.Pay attention to the causes that weigh down our minds according to the Lord's words. He did not point to adultery, fornication, murder, blasphemy, theft (all of which are considered mortal sins and worthy of condemnation), but to overeating, drunkenness, and the cares of this life, from which no worldly person avoids and which he does not consider shameful. On the contrary, it is shameful to say that even some of those who have renounced the world allow themselves the same indulgences, seeing in them neither harm nor misery for themselves. Besides, these three irregularities that oppress the soul and separate it from God and cling to the earth are not at all difficult to avoid, especially for us who are so far removed from all connection with the world and who have absolutely no opportunity to get involved in visible cares, drunkenness, and overeating. However, there is another spiritual overeating and drunkenness that is more difficult to avoid, and there is a certain care and sorrow of this world, which also overwhelm us after our perfect renunciation of all acquisitions, with all our abstinence from wine and all overeating, and during our stay in the desert solitude. I am thinking of indulgences of the flesh, of attachments and passions. And unless we cleanse ourselves of them, our heart will be burdened with even more harmful drunkenness and overeating, even without intoxication with wine and without an abundance of food. For only he whose mind, freed from all passions, is deeply calmed and whose heart clings with the strongest effort to God, as to the highest good, can fully fulfill the commandment of the Apostle Paul: Pray without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5:17).I think that without sincere contrition of heart, purity of soul and enlightenment by the Holy Spirit it is not possible to encompass all forms of prayer. There are as many of them as there are various states and moods that can arise in one soul, or in all souls. Everyone's prayer is transformed according to the measure of the progress of the mind in purity and the nature of the state into which it is introduced either by chance or due to its internal actions. Therefore it is obvious that no one can always offer the same prayers. A person prays differently when he is in joy, differently when he is burdened with sadness or despair, differently when he is flourishing in spiritual successes, differently when he is oppressed by the multitude of enemy attacks, differently when he prays for the forgiveness of sins, differently when he prays for an increase in grace or the acquisition of some virtue or the extinguishing of some passion, differently when he is overcome by fear at the thought of hell and the future Judgment, differently when he is inflamed with hope and desire for future blessings, differently when he is in troubles and dangers, differently when he delights in security and peace, differently when he devotes himself to discovering the secrets of heaven, differently when he grieves over the barrenness of virtues and the dryness of feelings.

With regard to the subject, the apostle Paul distinguishes four forms of prayer: Therefore, I urge, first of all, that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made (1 Tim 2:1). Intercession is a supplication or entreaty for sins. By it, a person, having come to humility (contrition) because of sins committed, whether present or past, asks for forgiveness; prayer is offered when we offer something or promise God, saying: "I will do this and that, only have mercy, Lord"; intercession is made when, being in the warmth of the spirit, we offer prayers for others, for those we love, or for the peace of the whole world; thanksgiving is made when the mind offers thanks and praise to God, remembering His past good deeds, or seeing His present ones, or knowing those He has prepared in the future for those who love Him.These four forms of prayer are followed by a most sublime state of prayer, which consists in contemplating the one God and in ardent love for Him. In it, our mind, absorbed and imbued with this love, speaks to God in a most intimate way and with special sincerity.

The Lord's Prayer: Our Father (Mt 6:9-13) tells us that we should pray for this state with fervor.We say: "Our Father", confessing God, the ruler of the universe, as our Father. At the same time we confess that we have been delivered from a state of slavery and adopted to God as adopted children. By adding: "Who art in heaven", we declare our readiness to turn away completely from attachment to the present earthly life, which is something foreign, which distances us far from our Father, and to strive with the greatest desire towards the realm in which our Father lives, not allowing ourselves anything that would make us unworthy of the high adoption, and that would deprive us, as illegitimate children, of the inheritance of the Father and subject us to all the severity of the righteous judgment of God.Having reached such a high degree of sons of God, we should burn with filial love for God. We no longer seek our own benefit, but with all our hearts we desire the glory of our Father, saying: "Hallowed be thy name." We thereby testify that all our desire and joy is the glory of our Father, that is, that His most glorious name be glorified, devoutly honored and adored.The second prayer of the purified mind is the petition: "Thy kingdom come," or the kingdom in which Christ reigns in the saints. In it, after the devil has been deprived of his power over us and the passions have been driven out of our hearts, God begins to reign through the fragrance of virtue. It is promised at a certain time to all the perfect and children of God, to whom Christ says: Come, you blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world (Mt 25:34).The third petition is peculiar to the sons: "Thy will be done, as in heaven, so also on earth." This means: that men may be like the angels. Just as the angels do the will of God in heaven, so may all who live on earth do His will, and not their own. This also means: that everything in our lives be according to Your will. We entrust our portion to You, believing that You arrange everything, both pleasant and unpleasant, for our good, and that You care more about our salvation than we do ourselves.Then: "Give us this day our daily bread." Daily bread is supernatural, above all essences (such as only bread that came down from heaven can be). When it is said: today, it is emphasized that yesterday's tasting is not enough. It must be given to us now. And since there is no day on which the heart of our inner man should not be nourished by receiving and tasting this bread, it is necessary that we pour out prayer for it at all times."And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors." The merciful Lord promises us the forgiveness of sins if we ourselves set an example of forgiveness for our brothers: "Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors." It is obvious that, in the hope of this prayer, only he who has forgiven his debtors can boldly ask for forgiveness of his sins. He who has not forgiven his brother who has sinned against him with all his heart will say this prayer to his own condemnation, not to mercy. For if his prayer is heard, what else can be expected but, in accordance with his example, merciless wrath and unconditional punishment.

For judgment will be without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy (James 2:13)."And lead us not into temptation." Recalling the words of the apostle James: Blessed is the man who endures temptation (James 1:12), we should not understand the words of the prayer in the sense of: "Do not let us ever be tempted," but: "Do not let us be overcome by temptation." Job was also tempted, but he was not led into temptation.

For, with God's help, he did not speak foolishly against God (Job 1:22). He did not defile his mouth with blasphemous murmuring, to which his tempter, that is, the devil, wanted to lead him. Abraham was also tempted, Joseph was also tempted, but neither of them was led into temptation. For neither of them fulfilled the will of the tempter."But deliver us from evil," that is, do not allow us to be tempted by the devil beyond our strength, but make an end of temptations, so that we may be able to endure them (1 Cor 10:13).Although the above prayer, uttered by the Lord Himself, contains in itself all the fullness of prayerful perfection, yet the Lord leads His intimates even further towards some most sublime state, to that fiery, I would even say, ineffable prayer, which very few have understood and examined. Surpassing all human understanding, it is not marked by the sound of the voice, nor the movement of the tongue, nor the utterance of any words. Illuminated by the outpouring of that heavenly light, the mind does not express it with feeble human words, but, gathering its feelings, as from some most abundant source, it pours them out irresistibly, and somehow ineffably raises them up to the Lord. In that brief moment of time it expresses what, having withdrawn into itself, it is unable either to express in words or to comprehend in thought.This form of prayerful state is a gift from God. Usually, on the other hand, a gracious prayer mood is characterized by affection. The mind affected by its visitation is moved to pure and fervent prayer. This affection appears in various cases, as experience has shown. Sometimes, during the singing of the Psalms, the words of a verse gave rise to fervent prayer, and sometimes the melodious melody of a brother's voice moved the souls of the amazed to quite serious prayer. We also know that sometimes careful and devout singing instilled much fervor in those who listened, and often the advice of a perfect husband (elder) and spiritual conversation in those present, at the time of their kneeling, stirred the feelings to a plentiful outpouring of prayer. It happened that we were strongly moved to complete affection by the death of a brother or some dear person. Also, the memory of our coldness and laziness sometimes prompted us to a saving spiritual fervor. And in general, there are countless cases in which the grace of God awakened our souls from insensitivity and drowsiness.Affection is found in various cases. It is also expressed in various ways. Sometimes it is shown in some inexpressible spiritual joy, sometimes it plunges into deep silence all the forces and movements of the soul, sometimes it brings more or less abundant tears. Tears or some kind of tearful mood is its most common expression. They appear either because the heart is wounded by the consciousness of one's own sins, or because of the contemplation of eternal goods, or because of the desire for eternal glory, or because of the knowledge of God's great benefices towards us, when feeling our own worthlessness and unworthiness, or because of the feeling of our painful life on earth.What is the sign that prayer has been answered? We do not doubt that our prayer has been truly answered: when no doubt confuses us, when nothing casts the hope of our petition into despair, when in the very outpouring of prayer we feel that we have received what we pray for.

For the supplicant will be worthy of being heard and will receive what he asks for in accordance with his faith that God sees him and is able to fulfill his request.

For the saying of our Lord is unchangeable: Whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it; and it will be yours (Mk 11:24). In addition, the Word of God indicates sufficient means that help to ensure that prayer is answered. Prayer is answered when two agree in prayer (Mt 18:19), or when it is accompanied by faith, even if it were as small as a mustard seed (Mt 17:20), or when it is constant (Lk 11:8), or when it is united with almsgiving (Sir 29:15), and other works of mercy (Is 58:6-9). See in how many ways the grace of hearing prayer is acquired. Therefore, no one should despair when asking for the goods that save them. For, suppose you lack that for which prayer is answered. Yet, can you not be persistent in prayer? It is in the hands of everyone who wants it. For this reason alone the Lord has promised to give everything we pray for. Therefore, we should not be hindered by unbelief. Let us be persistent and we will receive what we ask. Thus the Lord has promised: Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you (Luke 11:9-10). However, everyone who prays should know that they will certainly not be heard if they doubt that their prayer will be answered.Above all, in connection with prayer, we should fulfill the evangelical commandment, namely, that, having entered our cell and closed the door, we pray to the heavenly Father. This should be done both literally and even more spiritually. We pray in our inner cell when we completely remove our heart from all thoughts and worries and when we offer our prayers to the Lord in a secret way and with boldness. We pray with closed doors when we pray with our mouths closed and in silence to Him who searches the heart, not words. We pray in a hidden place when we offer our petitions to the one God with only our heart and attentive mind, so that even the opposing forces themselves do not know what we are praying about. Therefore, we should pray in deep silence, not only so that we do not distract the brothers present from prayer by our whispering or speaking and disturb their prayerful feelings, but also so that we hide the object of our prayer even from the enemies themselves, who attack us especially when we pray.Our prayer will reach its proper perfection when what the Lord prayed to His Father happens in us: That the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them (John 17:26), and again: As You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be one in Us (John 17:21). This will happen: when all our love, all our desires, all our zeal, all our striving, all our thoughts, all we see, all we speak of, all we hope for is God, and when the unity that is in the Father with the Son, and in the Son with the Father, is poured into our hearts and minds. Then we too will be united with Him by pure and undivided love, just as He sincerely loves us with pure and undivided love. He who has achieved this enters into a state in which constant prayer burns in his heart. Then every movement of his life, and every effort of his heart, will be a constant prayer, a foretaste and pledge of an eternally blessed life.To attain the ultimate perfection in prayer, it is necessary to establish ourselves in the constant remembrance of God. The best means for this is a short, often repeated prayer. Our Fathers found that he who strives for the constant remembrance of God should acquire the habit of constantly repeating the prayer: O God, come to my aid, O Lord, make haste to help me (Ps 69:2). This verse was not chosen without reason from the whole of Holy Scripture, for it expresses all the dispositions required in prayer, and meets all the needs of the supplicant. It contains a humble confession of one's own helplessness, a confession of God as the only helper who is always ready to help, and faith and hope that He will help us and deliver us from all misery. He who constantly calls upon God with these words, sees with his mind and feels with his heart God present within himself. He addresses Him as a Father with filial love in his heart, and thereby draws upon himself God's covering, protection, and hedge. In this way, this short prayer becomes an unbreakable rock against the attacks of demons, a persecutor of restless thoughts, a banisher of bad thoughts, a tamer of passionate movements, and a teacher of all good movements in the heart. The Fathers commanded us that in the event of an attack of the passion of indulging the stomach in its various manifestations, we pray: God, come to my aid, Lord, hasten to help me ; that in the event of a feeling of the need for a strict fast for the sake of taming the body and the lack of hope that we will succeed on our own, we pray: God, come to my aid ... etc.; that in the event that we are tormented by the spirit of spiritual laziness and are tormented by sadness or discouragement, separating us from every necessary work, we say: God, come to my aid, Lord, hasten to help me ; that in the event that some spiritual joy visits our soul and we wish to preserve and increase it, we also say the words: God, come to my aid, Lord, hasten to help me ; that in case the tickling of the body with its deceptive sweetness rises upon us, and we fear that this fire will scorch the fragrant flower of innocence or chastity, we also pray: God, come to my aid ... etc.; that in case tranquility and freshness have entered our limbs, and we wish that the good state may be prolonged, or that it may always abide in us, we constantly say: God, come to my aid ... etc. So also in every spiritual need we constantly say this short prayer. And, it will be your deliverance from all evil and the guardian of all good. Therefore, let it constantly revolve in your chest. In every work and service, on the road and at the table, when going to bed and after rising from sleep, constantly sing this verse and instruct yourself in it until, through constant practice, you become accustomed to singing it even in your sleep.The first fruit of this will be the rejection of all the multitude of thoughts and the retention of one verse. You will increasingly acquire the habit of concentrating your mind on the thought of the one Helper. You will notice that He is always present within you, that He sees everything and sustains everything. Starting from this, you will ascend to the most lively communion with God, and you will begin to be saturated with ever more sublime mysteries, immersing yourself in God, dwelling with Him alone, and being fulfilled only with Him. Thus, in the end, you will also reach the aforementioned pure prayer. It no longer takes into account any form, nor does it manifest itself in the sound of the voice, or in the utterance of any words. On the contrary, it bursts forth from the heart with irresistible force. In the inexpressibly rapturous fiery orientation of the mind to God, it pours out in inexplicable sighs and lamentations. Amen!