prayer

The Battle of Hours

ImageI’m fascinated by how no matter how something is phrased, it can be right there in front of you, simple and plain as day, but that doesn’t mean you’ll hear it. I’m not talking about some ‘self-annointed’ gnostic’s personal interpretation of a religious text – I mean something that’s dyed in the wool tradition but still, somehow, eludes the grasp. When people ask, “Why didn’t Christ tell everyone what was coming and what to do about it?” the answer is ‘He did, but that doesn’t mean “everyone” or even many people have heard him.

I seem to have stumbled upon something effective for overcoming sin. I know our fathers have told me this. I can go to my library and come out with armloads of books that will tell me this. I know that it has passed through my ears. But I know I haven’t heard it. Or I’ve forgotten it, which happens too.

 

It seems counterintuitive (and almost cowardly) not to fight sin head on. Not to attack it where it is, or defend against it where it comes. The fathers have told me this lacks humility, that I am already beginning from Death, “in sin did my mother conceive me” – the very context of that fight and defense has itself been corrupted – how then do I presume that I can make a stand? But I have heard them and thought ‘what else can I do?’ I didn’t hear the rest of what they were saying. And I know something about synergy. I am not mystified as to what’s me and what’s God, as though I have not learned the Orthodox thinking in this matter. I don’t presume either to struggle alone, or to wait for God to come and save me. There is no struggle and no salvation that is not both of us fully engaged together – my will, my mind, my emotions, my body, and God’s energies as well.

But the other part of it – I didn’t realize is so effective. Fighting and defending *indirectly*. As I say, it’s counterintuitive (to a man infected with Death). But it seems that praying the hours, that pushing through to sing the liturgical prayers of our people, helps overcome sin, helps not only drive away the evil one, but make a mind for overcoming the world, and also a disposition to overcome the passions. It makes a self less inclined to sin in the body, which is somehow raised through prayer, as though less corruptible, and it makes a soul less inclined to interest in sin, as though the fullness of prayer has filled an aching void that sin always promises to fill but never does, require addict-like returning to the needle of passions.

Now the fathers have said again and again, “pray so that you might not fall into temptation”. They have bled their voice onto the ground before me with admonition and encouragement, and I have not heard them. And I have been proud. I have thought to fight and to defend, to take sin on head on. But this is arrogance, not bravery. And this “indirect”, “counterintuitive” fighting and defense – I think this is what they meant. I think they meant I’m incapable of winning, but if I turn to God not to fight for me, but to fix me, to fix the broken, damaged, savaged by Death corruption in soul and body that has eaten me away, then I will be raised to taste incorruptible life, and Death won’t succeed in owning me, forcing me back to the ‘needle’ of passion-addicted slavery.

I walk away from the Hours, and I don’t care about the ‘needle’. I walk away and am happier, and it lasts, and I want to return to the Hours. And I think that, if I don’t, I will be overcome again. The passions – pride, anger, rage, envy, fear, lust, vengeance – these will come for me and find me broken for them, open for them, unclothed, needing, agonizing, incomplete, with a void they crawl into like roaches into a gap in the wall. The prayers, said with every attempt at fitting attention and devotion, with persistence and sincerity, they place the house on a high rock.

It’s not like the noon witching hour on “church day” when drivers roar out of parking lots and onto roadways with their “how dare you get in front of me, I am important and not to be trifled with!”, and the restaurants and buffets are packed with “I demand service. I will be catered to. How dare you fail me in any way!” No, that would be stupid. I don’t mean walking away feeling so good about yourself that you won’t do bad things – won’t kill someone, but will burn in the acid bath of pride. I mean that if the prayers are fitting and devoted, it seems like God does what he promises, fills up the gap between the man standing saying them in his Death with unworthy lips and the goal to which he aspires. As C.S. Lewis said, God “directs our arrows to himself”, apart from which they could never hit anything except an idol of our deluded imaginations. And God saves through prayer, deifies one a little more, heals a little more the disease, and abides with one a little more when in the dark cave surrounded by the slaver and the enemy and the dire wolf. And it’s stronger. The center is more well, and it holds more easily, to cite Yeats.

For me, it is the ‘discipline’ to say the words in private, to stand in the icon corner and sing the hour without help, without others, without anyone but me and God and the Saints knowing I am there. Which is really not ‘discipline’, but it is discovering and ever rediscovering that comfort is there, healing is there, health and wellness are there, that God abides especially there, in those prayers said “fittingly and with devotion”. The synergy is in going out to meet him. “Keep me this night without sin.” It’s amazing that one could say these words many times and not realize that they are exactly what is happening – I am saying the words, for my part, fittingly and with devotion – and God is keeping me this night without sin. This is the simple prescription. This is what I must do. Not dig in, stand, and fight, which it is my inclination to do at the first sign of trouble. But flee to the ‘altar’, choose good ground there, and call upon the host of Heaven to come to my aid, trusting not even the words of my own imagination, but the time-honoured implements of holy men who have withstood flame and sword and tooth and claw, and are there in prayer with those who honour them.

Lord have mercy on my blindness. Pray for me those who see.

Welcome is not a Slip of Paper

Welcome is PrayerWelcome is Prayer.

The other night I went to hear a speaker at a local church, and they had me fill out a “visitor’s slip” for their database, and they expressed welcome both personally and corporately. They served an excellent meal. They had a renowned speaker. The priest introduced himself and took an interest. They seemed to go out of their way to make me feel welcome. But I didn’t feel welcome.

I felt like an outsider – somehow fundamentally outside the community. I felt like an outsider when prior to the lecture, they introduced the speaker, but there was no prayer. How does one share in listening, perhaps learning, without invoking the One it’s all for, and without whom it’s all vain? The speaker finished, and we were invited to eat, but there was no blessing of the food. Again, I felt outside – an outsider who had to say his prayers privately, as I do when I’m among the heterodox. Indeed, it felt a little like either I was heterodox, or they were. What had I done? Then the Q&A session began, again without prayer, so that we’re into a third hour without ever asking God’s help, his protection against passions, his guidance for our minds and ears, his strength against pride. And it quickly became an occasion for very uncomfortable comments that certainly were not fitting the piety of Holy Orthodoxy.

One can only hope that it ended with prayer; …

A Portable Altar

“No matter where we happen to be, by prayer we can set up an altar to God in our hearts.” – St. John Chrysostom

I die daily

Our heart daily dies spiritually. Only ardent, tearful prayer quickens it, and makes it begin to breathe again. – St. John of Kronstadt

Ensure an immediate Hearing

“Do you wish God to hear your prayer immediately, brother? When you lift your hands up to heaven, pray first of all, with your heart, for your enemies and God will grant you speedily whatever else you request.” – Abba Zenon

Praying for Enemies and Self Control

“Prayer for our enemies is the very highest summit of self-control.” – St John Chrysostom, Homily 18 on the Gospel of St Matthew

“Praying against one’s personal enemies is a transgression of law.” – St John Chrysostom, Homily against Publishing the Errors of the Brethren

Compelling ourselves to love our Enemies

“When our hearts are reluctant we often have to compel ourselves to pray for our enemies, to pour out prayer for those who are against us. Would that our hearts were filled with love! How frequently we offer a prayer for our enemies, but do it because we are commanded to, not out of love for them. We ask the gift of life for them even while we are afraid that our prayer may be heard. The judge of our soul considers our hearts rather than our words. Those who do not pray for their enemies out of love are not asking anything for their benefit.” – St. Gregory the Great, “Be Friends of God”

Our prayers, lives and intentions.

“If in order to put an end to public wars, and tumults, and battles, the Priest is exhorted to offer prayers for kings and governors, much more ought private individuals to do it.” – St John Chrysostom, Homily 7 on 1 Tim 2:2-4

Feeling Coldness

“God is fire that warms and kindles the heart and inward parts. And so, if we feel in our hearts coldness, which is from the devil — for the devil is cold — then let us call upon the Lord and He will come and warm our hearts with perfect love not only for Him but for our neighbor as well.” – Saint Seraphim of Sarov

Bound by Our Prayers

“Jesus, our advocate, has composed a prayer for our case. And our advocate is also our judge. He has inserted a condition in the prayer that reads: Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. Sometimes we say these words without carrying them out. Thus our words bind us more tightly.” – St. Gregory the Great, “Be Friends of God”

Reading without prayer is like communion without fasting

“Here is a rule for reading: Before reading you should empty your soul of everything. Arouse the desire to know about what is being read. Turn prayerfully to God. Follow what you are reading with attention and place everything in your open heart.” – St. Theophan the Recluse

An Academic on Theology

“The true Orthodox theologian is the one who has direct knowledge of some of God’s energies through illumination or knows them more through vision. Or he knows them indirectly through prophets, apostles and saints or through scripture, the writings of the Fathers and the decisions and acts of their Ecumenical and Local Councils.

…Theology is not abstract knowedge or practice, like logic, mathematics, astronomy and chemistry, but on the contrary, it has a poemical character like logistics and medicine. The former is concerned with matters of defense and attack through bodily drill and strategies for the deployment of weapons, fortifications and defensive and offensive schemes, while the latter is fighting against mental and physical illnesses for the sake of health and the means of restoring health.” – Fr. John Romanides in Theology as a Therapeutic Science

Better to do nothing, than anything without Prayer.

Comment: Just as before work of any kind, it is always and ever the Orthodox praxis to pray before reading the scriptures, before reading anything, including and especially the Fathers, or hearing any kind of presentation or discussion. This is to avoid self-deception, the delusions into which listeners and speakers and readers are drawn, which are wrought by pride, the other passions, and the Evil One. As with eating, it is better not to read than to read and not pray – better not to listen to any discussions or speakers than to listen without praying. God forbid we should ever begin to read the fathers or discuss anything we’ve read without a prayerful beginning, seeking humility, peace, concord, and deliverance from every vanity. This is the advice of all fathers who have written on the subject, is the most ancient practice of all Orthodox, Christ being the prime example. It is likewise appropriate to pray at the conclusion of anything. [See also the previous posts on the Celts, by whom we see that to do anything without the Holy Trinity, is folly.] – (from a recent discussion)

Some prayers Orthodox Christians have found useful:

Before Lessons: Most gracious Lord! Send down upon us the grace of Thy Holy Spirit to grant us intelligence and strengthen the powers of our soul, that we may attend to the instruction given us, and grow up to glorify Thee, our Creator, to gladden our parents, and to serve the Church and our people. In the Name of the Father… — (from the old Jordanville Prayer Book) …

Comfort for those Far from Church

“The Inward Temple. There is no need to weep much over the destruction of a church; after all, each of us, according to God’s mercy, has or should have his own church—the heart; go in there and pray, as much as you have strength and time. If this church is not well made and is abandoned (without inward prayer), then the visible church will be of little benefit.” — Archbishop Barlaam to Abbess M., Russia’s Catacomb Saints, p. 281

Comment: Also the Orthodox call the home and family “the little church”. This is a useful analogy and type when we are thinking about everything from the ordering of our ikon corner, which every home should have, to the order of our family enterprise, to the way in which we continually pray and study, corporately and in secret. -DD

Secret Prayers vs. PA (Public Address System)

“I would like people not to forget this: why is it forbidden to read the secret prayers aloud? Why is it very harmful for the priest and the bishop to start reading the secret prayers aloud. The question why the Holy Fathers forbade reading them aloud must be explained…it is completely unOrthodox and it must be feared.”

“If the secret prayers are read aloud, then we will see renovationism: old grannies and all sorts of youths will know the secret prayers. And there will be blasphemy. And then he who is serving the liturgy and declaiming the secret prayers will forget that is standing before God. He will admire himself, he is emptied. The mystery is performed, of course, but he will go away, darkened in mind, with heaviness.”

“For example, this is what I have seen with Bishop …, who should be avoided. Here he is reading away with his emotions, haughtily declaiming the secret prayers, admiring himself and using his nervous system to influence those around him. And apart from heaviness and emptiness, no-one gets anything out of it. This is why St Seraphim of Sarov never dared to read the secret prayers aloud. He would have robbed himself, wouldn’t he? And this is what they don’t understand…”

— Fr. Sampson (Life of Fr Sampson -’Talks and Teachings of the Elder Hieroschemamonk Sampson’, source: [Orthodox England])

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