Prayer
The Pharisee prayed at length, while the 
The Parable of the Publican and the PhariseeThese, then, are the two different states – on the one hand, there is the prayer beginning with thanksgiving: God, I thank thee that I am not as other men are. This is seemingly an invocation of God, but in actual fact it is a confirmation of his ”ego”, for the core of pride, according to Venerable John Climacus, is ”the shameless parade of our labours”.
“>publican said only a few words: “O God! Be merciful to me, a sinner!” but it was he who left the Temple more justified. This means that true prayer is not in verbosity, in kneeling, in raising your hands, and many prostrations. True prayer involves, first of all, exploring yourself and your spiritual state, when the thoughts and mind of the one praying are directed into his soul, and sensing and deeply experiencing his unworthiness and sinfulness, he turns to God for help.
Secondly, true On PrayerWhat should someone do who doesn’t know any prayers, but desires to pray, to save his soul?
“>prayer is the movement of a man’s soul to the Heavenly Father, when his soul nearly leaves the body and rushes towards the Kingdom of God. In these moments, a man feels not only closeness to God but also unity with Him. When the fervent desire and grace of true prayer awaken in the soul, it greedily reaches out to the Lord like a hungry man for food and drink. During true prayer, a man is deaf to everything and his body doesn’t feel anything. He stands before the throne of God and, feeling his wretchedness, and senses the boundless mercy of God.
Thirdly, true prayer warms the human heart and directs it to good deeds. It awakens good intentions and aspirations in the human heart and destroys base desires and thoughts. Prayer makes a man glorify the Lord with his deeds, with his whole life. If a man’s external life is expressed in thoughts and actions, then his spiritual life consists of prayer and deeds. Prayer that doesn’t translate into concrete action isn’t true prayer. Likewise, every good deed we do is the same prayer, since it’s the fruit of the latter. In prayer, a man’s soul must be humble; we have to expose and accuse ourselves, regret and repent of our sins, begging God for mercy.
Before prayer, we have to prepare our soul and heart for it. When approaching the first prayer directly, attune yourself well to it, and don’t be like those who test the Lord. Show modesty and meekness and think about how you’re a pitiful, weak, and sinful creature, devoid of all spiritual merits. Remember that during prayer, you stand before the Lord, before Whom angels and all the Heavenly powers tremble, but at the same time before the Most Merciful Father, Who sees through our hearts and waits for what spiritual gift we’ll present to him. During prayer, we need to have our feelings, intentions, and soul align with the words we utter. After prayer, we have to look for the possibility of realizing everything we entreated the Lord for in prayer, and translating it into concrete deeds. We live poorly when we pray poorly, and we pray poorly when we live poorly. The true man of prayer is the one who involuntarily sheds tears during prayer.
Being a Christian
If you carefully observe today’s Christians and imagine their spiritual state, you’ll notice that they don’t think at all about how important and difficult it is to be a Christian, about how much labor and attention is needed to fulfill spiritual duties. They indulge in earthly vanity from morning till evening, never once turning their hearts to the Lord. Even the smallest danger and obstacle can shake their longing for the Lord and their love for Him, can shake their faith. The Apostle Paul testifies to how difficult and important the Christian life is. Inner strengthening, firmness, and durability, that is, a full-fledged spiritual life, requires great vitality and energy, and we mustn’t rely solely on our own strength, rather we need the power and help of the Savior.
Being a Christian means waging a relentless struggle against the evil powers and spirits that rule in the world. Therefore, a Christian must always be armed with spiritual weapons, for his spiritual enemies are ever at the ready to devour him. Let us add to this the need to fight with visible enemies—evil people, with our own passions and wicked inclinations that always seduce and alienate us from the Lord. But if we always and everywhere observe our great Christian faith and are strengthened by Divine grace, we can easily prevent any danger and successfully continue our spiritual ascent, overcoming our enemies and temptations. The Apostle Paul also teaches how a Christian can be strengthened. Inasmuch as this world is a sea of lies and injustice, you’ll inevitably drown in it if you don’t adorn yourself with truth and righteousness. In his earthly life, a Christian must preserve in his heart that peace and tranquility that is given us by the grace of the Gospel. Faith should be a Christian’s shield, and the word of God a spear in his hand. Only the Christian thus armed will be able to defeat spiritual and bodily enemies and pass through numerous dangers unharmed, to establish himself in the Kingdom of God.
Sin
The Savior healed a man who was seriously ill for thirty-eight years and told him not to sin anymore lest he bring even greater trouble upon himself. From this it follows that the cause of the man’s protracted illness was sin. Every sin causes a man either bodily or spiritual harm. A great sin brings great harm, and a small sin less harm. The first and most terrible fruit of sin is that through sin man is deprived of God’s grace and thereby destroys his soul. Sin is the source of many of man’s bodily torments. For example, gluttony causes many sicknesses; a man whose heart and soul are full of envy becomes restless, withers, wastes away physically—in a word, he falls into a miserable state. And of course, Fight Laziness… If You Aren’t Too LazyThere are several ways to overcome laziness, both psychological and spiritual.
“>laziness and idleness are bad for the body and cause sicknesses, because the human body is designed for labor and movement.
A man who sins not only plunges himself into sickness and misfortune, but also prepares ailments and trials for his offspring, for his bodily or spiritual properties pass on to his children and to all his descendants. This is evidenced by the question put to the Savior by His disciples concerning the man born blind: Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind? (Jn. 9:2). Every sin is a seed that will surely bear bitter fruit in due time. Moreover, those who sin set a very bad example for their family members and others. Such a man passes on a heavy legacy to his descendants, who become unwitting heirs of his sins. The Lord intentionally links any misfortune with a specific sin, so that man, who naturally has a great predisposition to sin, would be fearful and wary. The opposites of sin are grace and virtue, which in this earthly life are the source of comfort and happiness for man.
The temptations of the devil
Don’t give the devil, that is, the tempter, any occasion or opportunity that he can use to approach you and destroy your soul. Our fierce spiritual enemy, the devil, entices and tempts us exactly to the degree that we ourselves provide the occasion for. The cause and occasion are always our evil inclinations, wicked passions, and negligence. Some people, out of stupidity or Pharisaism, attribute all their sins to the devil: “The devil tempted me; the enemy seduced me…” But let us recall the words of the Apostle Paul: Neither give place to the devil (Eph. 4:27), which makes clear that we ourselves give the devil the opportunity to tempt us. Remember, the devil constantly watches and tests you: What weaknesses, vulnerable spots, bad character traits, and tendencies reside within you? If he discovers that you’re greedy and self-serving, he’ll use this to plunge you into many sins; if he notices your hot temper and impetuousness, he’ll use them for your destruction. But most often, a man gives the devil a place in his heart when he’s lazy, idle, and spends his days doing nothing.
Virtue
It’s not enough for a Christian to avoid sin—he must also cultivate the On the Importance of the Virtues for Attaining Salvation, Part 1The general Patristic approach to battling with specific sinful passions includes not only the desire to cut off the occasions for a passion to emerge, but also forcing oneself to plant the opposing virtue in his soul.
“>virtues. To save our soul, it’s not enough to not be a predator; we have to be merciful. It’s not enough to not love lies—we have to selflessly defend the truth; we shouldn’t only not be adulterers—we also have to reject unclean thoughts.
Candles
A lighted candle teaches how our heart and soul should burn with a bright flame before the Lord, with prayer, faithfulness, and love.
Integrity
One of the Church’s main tasks is to take care of man’s integrity. The Lord Jesus Christ demands from us such moral integrity, self-confidence and conviction in our righteousness that we would naturally inspire trust and respect from those around us, that we wouldn’t need to swear to be believed, but that our word would be as firm as our deeds: Yes means yes, and no means no—and no swearing is needed. But only such people act this way, and others believe only those whose integrity and honesty are known to all. Some people constantly swear various oaths to strengthen their words and arguments, but no one believes them nevertheless, because others know quite well that these people are lacking in integrity and honesty.
What is this integrity? Integrity is when a man always speaks the truth and is sincere, always faithfully fulfills all his promises and the commandments, is afraid and ashamed of lies and unrighteous and cunning actions; he doesn’t insist on what he’s not firmly convinced of and doesn’t promise to do what he can’t do. In short, integrity is when a man’s words and deeds are united. What should awaken and strengthen integrity in a man’s heart? The consciousness that his honor was given to him by the Lord; and he must always remember, cherish, and preserve his honor, as well as the height and glory of human nature in general. Human nature possesses such honor that can’t be overestimated, for the Creator Himself didn’t spare even His own Son for its salvation and enlightenment.
Nothing so diminishes and debases the height of human nature as lying and cunning. We have to remember that without integrity, a man can be neither a good Christian nor a good citizen. Christianity is the fulfillment of the promise that we gave the Lord at our holy Baptism, in particular that we would be pure and honest, with love for God and man. Those who are lacking in integrity won’t be able to fulfill this vow. It is a poor and careless Christian who doesn’t remember this promise.
In this earthly world, our lives, private and civil, depend entirely on integrity. There’s no man who isn’t bound to someone by some condition or obligation. Our duty is to fulfill these obligations, namely: to be loving parents, to keep a sense of brotherhood, to respect relatives, to be loyal friends, to have proper relationships between elders and juniors, to be honest in business… All the numerous and multifaceted relationships are built on certain conditions, obligations, and their fulfillment. In society, where orderliness reigns, they revere and respect each other’s honor and dignity, for all members of society, and every endeavor succeeds; but where this is not the case, life is difficult.
Integrity is the adornment of a cleric. His first quality should be integrity. If a pastor is lacking in this quality, it’s an unspeakable disaster for the flock. His deceit and unrighteousness poison the flock.
Integrity is necessary for people of any profession, be it a government official, a merchant, or a housewife. Unfortunately, many today think that you can’t achieve or gain anything by integrity and that integrity leads a man to many troubles and sorrows. Such views are widespread and prevail where ignorance and immorality reign. Let’s imagine for a minute that all this is true and that a man can get rich at the price of the loss of his integrity and honor! Under no circumstance does a man have the right to compromise with his conscience; he mustn’t sell his honor and dignity for money. In such a situation, a man, if he’s a Christian, must recall the Gospel words: For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? (Mk. 8:36-37).
We often forget how a man should protect and defend his honor and dignity. We must know that every lie, every vileness, every cunning, every base act deprives us of our honor and dignity. If you respect yourself and want to earn the respect of others, then first of all, you must watch out for your integrity. For a Christian, the most valuable treasures are his honor and dignity, and losing them is like death. If you want to be called a man, keep your honor and dignity by acting with integrity.
Source: Orthodox Christianity
