Saint Nilus of Sinai
“The angels stir up in us the thirst for prayer, and stand with us in prayer, filled with joy and praying for us”
It is impossible to pray purely if your mind is grown together with worldly cares, because prayer is the laying aside of all earthly thoughts. One who is bound cannot run; so too the mind held by passion — it no longer finds a place for spiritual prayer; passionate thoughts no longer let it stand in prayer.
But if the mind has overcome temptation and begun to pray, the demons now attack it in another way. This time they lead people astray with visions, show the one praying “the glory of God” and suggest to him that he has already reached the very goal of prayer. Father Evagrius says that this delusion comes as a result of the passion of vainglory, and that the demons bring it about by acting on a certain place in the human brain. I think that the demon acts on the material light that is near the mind; as a result, vainglory turns into a thought, and the mind frivolously ascribes to itself that it has contained the perception and knowledge of the very essence of the Godhead. And since a person in this state is not weighed down by foul carnal passions and offers holy prayer, it is unthinkable to him that the vision may be conjured up by evil spirits. Reasoning in this way, the person becomes convinced that the vision is from the Lord. In reality, it is precisely the demon who turns created light into a vision by acting on the human brain.
The appearance of a holy angel instantly cuts off the influence of the demons in a person and frees the light of the mind from delusion.
In the Apocalypse it is said of the angel that he brings incense and gives it to the prayers of the saints: “And there was given unto him much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints…” (Rev. 8:3). I think that this place in Holy Scripture points to the grace in which we share through the angel and which gives us the ability to pray spiritually. Then the mind gives itself to untroubled prayer and is freed from despondency and faint-heartedness.
The censer with incense, in the text of the “Revelation,” represents the prayer of the saints: the censer is union with the Lord and perfect spiritual love for Him, and the incense is prayer “in spirit and in truth.”
If during prayer you think that there is no need to lament over your sins, realise how far you stand from the Lord, when you ought to be with Him — reflecting on this will give you warm tears.
Truly it is so: awareness of your own measure, the sense of your own poverty and wretchedness, will become for you a source of warm and sweet tears, and like the holy Isaiah you will begin to reproach yourself: “…Woe is me! for I am undone… for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!” (Isa. 6:5). But if your prayer is true and spiritual, you will receive many confirmations of it: angels will gather around you, as around the prophet Daniel, and will enlighten you with knowledge of the reasons for what happens and why. Know that the angels stir up in us the thirst for prayer, and stand with us in prayer, filled with joy and praying for us. But if we give ourselves to negligence and entertain evil thoughts, we greatly anger the angels, because while they do so much good for us, we do nothing for ourselves, and by this we disregard the service of the Lord, abandon the Lord, and in our thoughts strike up a conversation with evil spirits.
Pray gently and calmly, sing with understanding and good disposition — then you will be like an eaglet that little by little takes the heights.
The singing of psalms calms the passions and binds the incontinence of the flesh, while prayer brings the mind into the prudent wisdom proper to it.
Prayer is a labour befitting the dignity of the mind, or more precisely, the true use of the mind.
The singing of psalms is a showing forth of the manifold wisdom, while prayer is the beginning of spiritual contemplation.
Spiritual contemplation helps prayer; it raises the thinking power of the mind to the contemplation of divine vision.
If you have not yet received from the Lord the gift of prayer and psalmody, ask unceasingly, and it will certainly be given you.
“…men ought always to pray, and not to faint” (Luke 18:1). Do not lose heart or give yourselves to despair because you do not have the grace of a prayerful disposition, for if you ask, it will certainly be given you. In the same parable it is said: “Though I fear not God, nor regard man; yet because this widow troubleth me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me… And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them?” (Luke 18:5, 7) Therefore stand in prayer with diligence and patience!
Do not wish to arrange your life as seems best to you, but let it be as God wills. If you do this, you will be thankful and able to pray untroubled!
