Saint Theophan the Recluse
In the previous talks I spoke to you briefly about two kinds, or degrees, of prayer: namely, prayer by reading, when we offer others' prayers before God, and our own prayer, when we rise up to God with the mind by means of the contemplation of God, the dedication of everything to God and frequent prayerful turnings to Him.
But this is not yet everything. There is also a third kind, or degree, of prayer, and it is this that is real prayer, while the first two are in essence preparatory steps towards it — this is the unceasing turning of heart and mind to God, accompanied by an inner warmth, or burning, of the spirit. This is the limit to which prayer must come, and the goal towards which everyone who prays must strive, so that his labour in the work of prayer may not prove useless.
Recall what the word of God says about prayer: “Watch and pray,” says the Lord (Matt. 26:41). “Be sober, be vigilant,” teaches the apostle Peter (1 Pet. 5:8). “Continue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving” (Col. 4:2), “Pray without ceasing” (1 Thess. 5:17), “Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit” (Eph. 6:18), commands the apostle Paul, and in another place he explains the reason why we should act so: “Set your affection on things above… For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God” (Col. 3:3); because “the Spirit of God dwelleth in you” (1 Cor. 3:16), cry out to Him: Abba, Father!
It is impossible not to see from these commandments that prayer is not some single, intermittent act, but a state of the spirit — constant and unbroken, as breathing and the beating of the heart are constant and unbroken in the body. I will try to explain all this to you by an example: it is known that the sun stands at the centre and the planets move around it, all of them strive towards it and are constantly turned towards it with one side or another. What the sun is in the material world, that — like it, and more — God is in the spiritual: rise up with your mind to heaven. What will you see there? Angels, who with reverence behold the face of their heavenly Father. In heaven the bodiless spirits and the saints direct their spiritual gaze towards God and do not wish to take their eyes off Him, because of the inexpressible blessedness they receive from beholding God face to face. And what the angels and saints do in heaven, we must learn to do here on earth; we must gradually accustom ourselves to an angel-like unceasing standing in prayer before God in our own heart. Only when someone attains this will he become a true man of prayer. How are we to acquire so great a grace?!
I can answer you briefly thus: we must labour in prayer tirelessly, zealously and with hope, and, with wakeful attention to God, reach the burning of the spirit as a promised land. Labour in prayer; in prayer, before all else, ask for this limit of perfect prayer, and you will certainly receive help. St Macarius of Egypt teaches: “If you do not have prayer,” he says, “labour, and the Lord, seeing your patient labour and how zealously you desire to receive this grace, will grant it to you” (Homily 19). But we must labour only until this limit is reached; afterwards, when the fire blazes up — the fire of which the Lord said: “I am come to send fire on the earth; and what will I, if it be already kindled?” — the labour stops, and the outpouring of light, free prayer begins.
Do not think that something very high is meant here, a state out of reach in everyday life. Yes, it really is an exalted state, but at the same time one within everyone's reach. Who has not sometimes felt during prayer a surge of warmth and heartfelt attention, when the soul, torn away from everything, goes deep into itself and prays fervently to God? It is precisely this periodic surge of the spirit of prayer that we must turn into its constant state — and the limit of prayer will be reached.
The means to this, as I have told you, is labour in prayer. When wood is rubbed against wood, it grows hot and gives fire. So too, when the spirit toils in the labour of prayer, it finally turns into the fire of prayer. And the labour of prayer consists in carrying out as they should be carried out those two kinds of prayer I have already spoken to you about: namely, performing our daily prayers reverently, with attention and feeling, and then teaching the spirit to rise often to God by means of the contemplation of God, doing everything for the glory of God, and frequent prayerful turnings to God rising from the heart. We pray in the morning and in the evening — the distance is great. If we turn to God only in these stretches of time, then even if we pray from the heart, all the feelings will scatter again in the course of the day and night, and by the time of prayer the soul will prove to be cold and empty as before. And even if we pray diligently and attentively, if we grow cold and scattered again, what is the use? It means building and pulling down, building and pulling down again. But if we make the effort, and not only pray morning and evening with attention and feeling, but also practise daily the contemplation of God, doing every work for the glory of God and turning to God with short prayers, then we shall fill that long interval from morning prayer to evening prayer and back again with frequent acts of prayer. And though this will not be unceasing prayer, but only frequently repeated prayer, the more often it is repeated, the nearer it will come to unceasing prayer. And all this labour serves precisely the ascent to this last step.
Suppose you labour like this every day, without missing, tirelessly — see what may happen in your soul:
The contemplation of God gives birth to the fear of God, which is in itself the grasping, through reverent thoughts, and the sensing of the infinite divine perfections and acts; doing all our works for the glory of God brings forth the remembrance of God, that is, walking before Him, which means that whatever you do, you always remember that you are in God's presence; and finally, frequent turning to God, or to put it another way, frequent outpouring of reverent feelings towards God from the heart, gives birth to a constantly warm and love-filled calling upon the name of God. When these three come to the soul — the fear of God, the remembrance of Him and the love-filled turning of the heart to God — there at once blazes up in it that spiritual fire of which I spoke to you at the beginning, bringing with it deep peace, unceasing sobriety and life-giving wakefulness. And then a person reaches that state higher than which he has no need to be in this world, and which is precisely the true beginning of that blessed state that awaits all of us in the future. Here what the apostle spoke of is already fulfilled in deed: “Your life is hid with Christ in God” (Col. 3:3).
Try to reach this goal precisely in your labour of prayer. Know that it is the reward of this labour and at the same time the key to the longed-for temple of the heavenly Kingdom. With it they open the door, enter this temple and are brought to the footstool of God's throne; through it they are counted worthy of a word of approval from the heavenly Father and feel such sweetness that all their bones cry out: “O Lord, O Lord! Who is like unto Thee?” Pray for this and labour for it in your labour of prayer, and cry out with all your being: “When shall I come and appear before Thy face, O Lord?”
To whoever wishes to know by what way to bring about these three things in himself — the fear of God, the remembrance of Him and the unceasing, loving calling upon the name of God — I will answer briefly: begin to seek, and the work itself will teach you how to find. Only keep one thing firmly: turn away from everything that will hinder you in this seeking, and carry out wholeheartedly everything that will act favourably on it. The work will teach you to discern this too. I will point out to you only the following:
When you are like a body enveloped in warmth on every side, or when you bear yourself as before a great person — with fear and attention, so that, despite the right given you to walk and act freely, you may somehow not offend him in anything; or when you feel towards the Lord what a bride feels towards her beloved bridegroom — then know that the longed-for Guest of your soul is near, at the doors, and will certainly come in and visit you.
I think these few directions will be enough as a guide for zealous seekers. And all this has been said so that those who struggle wholeheartedly in prayer may know the final limit of prayer, and, if they labour a little and attain a little, may not think they have attained everything, may not slacken their labour or set a limit to further ascent on the ladder of prayer. As on the great roads posts are set up so that travellers may know how far they have come and how much is left to go, so in our spiritual life too there are signs of a kind that mark the degree of perfection of our life, so that those who strive for perfection may know how far they have come and how much is still left for them to go, may not stop halfway and so lose the fruit of their labour, which may be right there, two or three steps away.
I will end my word with a heartfelt prayer: may the Lord grant you understanding, that you may attain perfection. Amen.
29 November 1864
