On RepentanceFather Kyrik was an experienced practitioner of the prayer of the heart and edified his spiritual children primarily through his own example.
“>Part 1
On ConfessionWe must firmly believe in our Lord Jesus Christ’s labor on the Cross before His Heavenly Father, and that He tore up our sins on the Cross and gave us great mercy—which we don’t deserve.
“>Part 2
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But since the On the Sign of the CrossWhat is the significance of the sign of the Cross? Why is it performed when it is? When is it preformed besides after a prayer? Fr. John Whiteford answers these questions on his blog.
“>Sign of the Cross is inextricably bound up with prayer, the following must be said about it: Crossing yourself and bowing are two separate acts. We must make the Sign of the Cross with faith and love for the Lord Who was crucified for us, with a vivid awareness of the meaning of the Cross; that is, Who died on the Cross and for whom. We must cross ourselves reverently—first make the Sign of the Cross on yourself, then bow only when the right hand falls from the left shoulder, and not simultaneously with making the cross, and not with the back alone, but also with the head, even with your thought or spirit, whether making bows from the waist or prostrations. God doesn’t need our bodily worship, but mainly our living faith, feeling and spirit, or thoughts. God is a Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth (Jn. 4:24). Truth is the understanding that we bow to the essential Truth—God, and to bow in spirit means also in thought and living consciousness. But since as the body humbles itself, so does the soul that lives in the body, and for this reason we also bow with the body.
Now let us speak about What is Prayer?A great prayerful power is at work in the prayers of the Holy Fathers, and whoever enters into them with all his attention and zeal will certainly taste of this prayerful power to the extent that his state of mind converges with the content of the prayer.
“>prayer itself. Prayer is needed or necessary mainly so that a man might know his dependence on God. Church prayer is higher than home prayer. However, the former doesn’t exclude the latter (home prayer). 100 prostrations made at home can’t compare with one word in the Church: “Lord, have mercy!” And to keep the mind from dispersing, standing during church prayer, we must mentally repeat what is being sung or read there and not just listen with our ears, enjoying the singing. But we must understand what they sing. And if you can’t hear the reading, say to yourself the short prayer, “Lord, have mercy!” Therefore, knowing the importance of church prayer, every (Orthodox) Christian soul, if it can’t be in the holy church during the celebration of a service, and especially the Holy Liturgy, should at the hour it’s being served stand for a short prayer with vivid awareness of what is being celebrated in the holy church at that moment in the presence of the faithful children of God—of which you are one. Sigh to God and thank Him for the salvation of all mankind, and in particular for the salvation of yourself—unworthy of His great and rich mercy as you are.
After prayer, don’t immediately turn to your usual work or occupations, but nourish yourself for at least a few minutes with the feeling and awareness that just occupied your soul, which was elevated to your Creator through the mind and feelings of the heart. Since this prayerful approach constitutes the fruit of prayer, without it the enemy of our salvation steals the seed of prayer from our hearts and we’re left without fruit. It’s like the Savior’s parable about the sower of wheat, whose grains fell by the roadside. These seeds weren’t hidden in the depths of the soil of our heart with great diligence. Instead, they remained on the surface due to our carelessness and excessive fuss, to the point of forgetting God, Who is the Sower of the word of our salvation. Then our enemy the devil, using the birds that exist within us, steals the seeds of the Holy Sower. As a result, we’re left without the fruit of salvation. How simply and imperceptibly for us the devil defeats us with our own weapons! Protect, O Lord, Your sinful servants, from such insensibility and inattention to our own salvation!
Before prayer, we have to attune ourselves for piety, that is, to think about who we are and Who is He with Whom we want to talk? We’re dust and ashes, and He’s the Creator of the heavens and the earth, before Whom Cherubim and Seraphim tremble… Such a comparison will cause a feeling of contrition of spirit; then cry out to the Lord: “Woe is me, a sinner!” And then say to yourself: “Lord, bless me to offer You prayer and supplications to Your compassion for my insignificance.” Then pronounce every word of prayer separately, as if syllable by syllable, pronouncing the words as if listening to yourself, and pronounce the words of prayer in a plaintive tone, like beggars ask for alms… and don’t think that we’re somehow doing God a favor with our prayer, but recognize that this is our obligation as creatures to the Creator. Whoever doesn’t pray with a contrite heart is humbled by God, but a heart that is broken and humbled God will not despise (Ps. 50:19); that is, He won’t leave you without the help of grace.
However, due to the weakness of our nature, there are inevitably temptations from demons, brought into our thoughts, as well as distraction of the mind to the point of forgetting what you’re saying, as your mind wanders away from prayer to memories of places you’ve been, things you’ve seen, things you’ve heard, and so on. But in order to fix such weakness, you have to go back to the place in your prayers where you noticed your mind was scattered, and reread what you read inattentively, and you must repent, saying: “Lord, forgive me and help me!” Because without grace-filled help from the Holy Spirit, we can do nothing good or even think about and correct ourselves. If the Lord doesn’t build a house (our spiritual home), we labor in vain, says the Church hymn. There are people who, when they notice that their mind is scattered during prayer, try to restrain it and their thoughts by focusing on some sacred topic—for example a holy icon—or they imagine Heaven opened and those who live there: the Savior or the Mother of God, or the angels.
This kind of prayer with the imagination is improper, because demons, as incorporeal beings, easily approach our soul and spirit, taking the forms of our thoughts and imaginations and acting through them according to their evil will for the destruction of our soul. During prayer, it’s inappropriate to imagine God according to His human nature, that is, how He lived on earth and suffered and died on the Cross, for (now) His Body, transfigured by His Divinity, is beyond reason and understanding—not only human, but also angelic, and therefore beyond our imagination. During prayer, we need to have a vivid conviction that we’re praying to the Omnipresent God, Who is before us and within us, and therefore knows before we ask what we need and what we want and ask for at the moment. But when reading Holy Scripture—about His life, sufferings, and death for us sinners on the Cross—we can and should picture Him according to His humanity and sympathize with His sufferings for the sake of our salvation. In this case, picturing Him in human flesh is useful and salvific. When praying, we shouldn’t think that we’re doing God a favor, that He’ll reward us for our prayer; but we should realize that praying to Him is our duty as His creatures…
For the Lord said: So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants (Lk. 17:10).
When you pray, you must give unflagging attention to who you are and with Whom you’re speaking! For the Holy Scripture says: Take heed to yourselves (Lk. 17:3). Our attention should be connected to and inseparable from prayer, just as the body is connected to and inseparable from the soul. Attention should go before and guard against mental enemies at work in our members, and let prayer follow after attention, immediately destroying all those evil thoughts that attention initially battled. Upon this battle (with the thoughts) of attention and prayer hang the life and death of the soul. If the attention keeps prayer pure, then the soul succeeds, but if we don’t pay attention, but leave it unguarded and it’s defiled by evil thoughts, then it becomes useless and ineffective. When a man raises his hands, eyes, and mind to Heaven during prayer while holding divine thoughts, envisioning Heavenly blessings, ranks of angels, and the abodes of the saints, he stirs his soul toward longing and love for God—sometimes even to tears. However, there’s also a great danger here.
But if one should stop with this way of prayer, little by little he begins to boast in his heart without realizing it: He thinks that what he does is from the grace of God for his consolation. And this is a sign of demonic pride. Such a man is in extreme danger and he will lose his mind. Those on this path, who see light with their bodily eyes, smell sweet scents, and hear voices with their ears, etc., are deceived. Some of them have gone mad and wander from place to place in a frenzy. And others were like them deceived by accepting the devil who was transformed and appeared to them in the form of an angel of light; and yet others have taken their own lives in various ways and forms, about which it’s frightening even to speak. And who can recount the various charms and machinations of the devil! From what’s been said, it’s clear that any reasonable man can understand what harm comes from the method of prayer described here.
There’s another type of prayer, when a man brings his mind within himself, drawing it away from all things sensory, guards his senses, gathers all his thoughts so they don’t wander around the vain things of this world, but delves into the words of the prayer he’s saying. The distinctive feature of this prayer is that it occurs only in the head, while thoughts battle thoughts. Such a man is like one fighting his enemies at night in the dark. He can’t see them clearly because he’s in his head, while evil thoughts come from the heart. He doesn’t see these enemies because he isn’t attentive to his heart. In his pride, such a man despises others and condemns them, but praises himself, dreaming that he’s worthy to lead others.
There’s another means of being attentive in prayer, which is wonderful and inexplicable for those who don’t know it experientially. This supreme prayer is experienced only by those who have an experienced guide, to whom those desiring this highest prayer must submit as iron to a blacksmith—for such devotion and humility causes all of the devil’s machinations to vanish like smoke. Such a disciple is overshadowed by the Holy Spirit, by Whom every soul (of the humble) lives and is exalted by purity, illuminated by the Triune Unity in a sacred mystery. In general, those who aren’t attentive to themselves and don’t guard their minds can’t become pure in heart to be vouchsafed to see God, and can’t be poor in spirit. You think to be heard by God, yet you don’t feel or hear yourself: Know yourself and then you’ll know God.
So, in order to rise above the earth and ascend to Heaven, we must first pray to God for prayer itself; that He might teach us how to pray to Him. And blessed is he who prays to God with feeling in his heart (this method of prayer is the best)—this is the highest sign of prayer. But in order to achieve such prayer, we must first pray for the abatement of the passions—that is, the vain thoughts and feelings that overwhelm us—and then practice prayer orally or vocally, then in a whisper, and then with the mind or thoughts. But we mustn’t pray with the mind until the Holy Spirit has prepared a place for Himself in our hearts. This requires strict consistency in the labor of prayer, otherwise you’ll stray from the path of true prayer and remain outside the saving ark!
There are such people of God who, having read ascetical books, immediately want to imitate the ascetics whose prayerful feats are described in the books, and therefore the readers of these books keep their attention on the sensory heart, desiring to unite their mind with their heart—the highest acheivment of prayer. However, no one should take up such an ascetic feat without an experienced guide, because first of all the sensory heart itself will ache to the point of sharp colic, and the entire chest will ache, and then out of necessity you will abandon all prayer, even prayers from a book, let alone the prayer of the mind and heart… Others, during prayer, direct their thoughts to the heights of Heaven and imagine Divine things and objects, unaware that demons have a habit of inhabiting our imagination and seducing those who pray this way. First, such men of prayer come to self-deception, then to demonic delusion, and then to madness and to the utter destruction of the soul.
There is, therefore, self-deception and delusion first of the mind, and then of the heart. The first two types of delusion can be healed with the help of an experienced spiritual father, provided that the deluded one will be in perfect submission to him and fulfill his instructions down to the smallest details. And in the third case, that is, delusion of the heart, no one, not even the saints, can correct the deluded man but God alone. Usually such unfortunate people perish irrevocably forever!… This last delusion manifests itself in blasphemy against God, and the first two phenomena—the types of delusion—are manifest in self-satisfaction, vanity, and spiritual pride; that is, the man is convinced that he does good deeds by his own strength and careful diligence, without the help of God, without the grace of the Holy Spirit, which is blasphemy against Him.
Thus, the Lord God not only doesn’t accept the prayers of those who pray to Him with the imagination of their mind, but turns away from such men in anger, and consequently, since the grace of the Holy Spirit departs from us, demons come to our soul and even fight over it amongst themselves, as if defending it from the attack of a demon like themselves; in reality, they all seek our destruction. Oh, how numerous are the devil’s machinations! But God will not despise the contrite of spirit and humble of heart, but will hear their prayers, have mercy upon them, and save them.
To be continued…
Source: Orthodox Christianity
