9. Orthodox
Prayer.
The goal of the
Christian's life on earth is salvation in our Lord Jesus Christ and, at the
same time, communion with God. The means for this communion is prayer, and
through his prayer the Christian is joined in one spirit with the Lord (I Cor. 6:17).
Prayer is the focal point and foundation of spiritual life and the source of
salvation. Without prayer, as St. John Chrysostom says, there is no life in the
spirit. Without prayer man is deprived of communion with God and can be
compared to a dry and barren tree, which is cut down and thrown into the fire
(Matt. 7:19).
In prayer, the Christian
concentrates together all his spiritual acts. Prayer draws down to him the
grace of God and is an invaluable instrument of spiritual defense in the
Christian's struggles against the sinful passions and vices. By prayer our
thoughts, desires and deeds are sanctified, for he who prays receives the
blessing of the Lord on his deeds, for, as Holy Scripture tells us, unless the
Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain (Ps. 127:1). Nothing so
helps us to grow in virtue as our pure and pious prayers to God. Thus it was
the shared opinion of all the Holy Fathers that prayer is the mother of
virtues. By repeated and fervent prayer, man is made more worthy of God's mercy
and more capable of receiving the gifts of grace which God, by reason of His
infinite goodness, is already to bestow on us out of His immeasurable bounties.
In prayer, the Christian prays not
only for himself, but for all men, for we all are the children of God. We must
pray for the salvation of our neighbor just as we pray for our own salvation,
and the best means of correcting our neighbor is to pray for him, because
prayer for our neighbor has far greater effect than denunciation of his sins.
In addition, we pray not only for the living, but also for the departed, that
God may forgive them their sins and grant them repose in the heavenly mansions
of the righteous.
As with any spiritual endeavor,
however, the Christian must learn how to pray properly. As St. Tikhon of
Zadonsk cautions us: “Of no value is that prayer in which the tongue prays but
the mind is empty; the tongue speaks, but the mind lies silent; the tongue
calls God, but the mind wanders amongst created things.” We must, therefore,
pray in fear and trembling and try in every way to ensure that our minds are
with our words, or, as St. John of the Ladder tells us, “to enclose our mind in the words of our
prayer, [so that] the heart may respond to the words of the prayers.”
The reading of prayers and
prostrations are essential, of course, but these only express the state of
prayer, while the prayer itself should come from the heart. And it is only such
prayer, from the bottom of the heart and of the soul, that is the life of the
spirit. True prayer, however, is a gift of God, and this gift is not granted to
us without diligence and struggle. Therefore it is necessary for us to pray
that the Lord should deem us worthy of this gift and grant us the grace to
offer up to Him our sincere, pure and heartfelt prayer, for we are only able to
pray when strengthened by the Holy Spirit. Therefore we must be mindful that
the Holy Spirit is drawn to a soul cleansed of the stain of sin and worldly
passions, and only in such a soul will He abide.
Our prayers will gradually grow more
perfect as we improve the manner of our lives and cleanse our hearts of sinful
passion. This banishment of sinful ways from our lives brings as its reward our
success in prayer. At the same time, we must say that prayer cannot achieve
perfection in isolation, but must be accompanied by all the virtues, for as we
grow in virtue, so does our prayer grow ever more perfect.
Therefore we say that a Christian
does not achieve true prayer at once, but only gradually, through various
exertions and labor. All of life's deeds require toil and patience, but nowhere
more than in the striving after the supreme virtue — prayer.