Письмо 5
The Foundation of Prayer
Prayer is the essential source of all spiritual progress and the means by which we walk before the Lord.
The Lord alone conquers all our weaknesses, and we can only receive His strength through prayer. It's the source of everything and of all spiritual progress.1 Through it, walking before the Lord is also sought and obtained.✦2
The Practice of Standing Before God
Walking before God requires a simple, focused mind, a clean conscience, and a disciplined life of prayer.
This work is very simple. To stand with the mind before God, as one stands before a sovereign, in reverent fear, never taking the eyes of the mind off Him—that is everything.3 A clean conscience before the Lord and before others is the condition for it.✦ You also need to arrange your outer life so that there are no distractions.4 Go to God's church; read the writings of the Fathers on attention and sober watchfulness; flee bodily ease; weary the flesh a little—but for the Lord's sake.5 And above all, Pray to the Lord that He would grant this strength. As you develop the habit of walking before God, your heart, feelings, desires, and thoughts will begin to be cleansed—but until then, there’s great turmoil in the soul. . . Have you ever experienced a heartfelt prayer where everything else faded from your attention, leaving only the Lord—and a cry to Him from your heart? . . If you have, then that state is the constant state of those who walk before God.
Zeal and Perseverance in the Spiritual Path
Spiritual growth is a gradual process that demands persistent zeal and a rejection of worldly vanity.
They get there little by little, by degrees. . . Those degrees have no end, but those who are zealous for spiritual progress do arrive. You just need to take it up with zeal. Work hard and don't grow slack; and what good is it to throw yourself into vanity! What good is it to build with one hand and tear down with the other? It's all just labor—and it's useless.6 May the Lord give you understanding—pray!
Read the original Russian
Один Господь есть победитель всех наших немощей, а восприять Его силу можно только молитвою. Она есть источник всего и всякаго преуспеяния. Ею испрашивается и приобретается и хождение пред Господом.
Действие сие очень просто. Стоять умно пред Богом, как стоят пред Государем, в благоговейном страхе, не отрывая от Него очей ума, – в этом все. Совесть чистая пред Господом и людьми есть условие к тому. И внешний порядок жизни надобно приспособить, чтоб не было развлечений. В церковь Божию ходить; читать писания отцев о внимании и трезвении; бегать покоя телеснаго; утрудить немного плоть, но Господа ради. Паче же всего
Господа молить, чтоб даровал сию силу. С навыком ходить пред Богом, начнется перечистка сердца, чувств, желаний, помышлений, а до того времени в душе великая сумятица. . . Бывала ли у вас молитва теплая, при коей все убегало из внимания, а оставался только Господь и вопль к Нему из сердца? . . Если бывала, то это состояние есть непрестанное состояние ходящих пред Богом.
Понемногу и степенями доходят. . . и степеням тем конца нет; но доходят ревнующие о преуспеянии духовном. Только с ревностию взяться надобно. Трудитесь и не ослабевайте; а в суету, что пользы пускаться! Одною рукою строить, а другою разорять, что пользы? Один труд, – и не в прок.
Господь, да вразумит вас, молитесь!
Scripture echoes
- ↩Gen.17.1;1Kgs.2.4;Ps.56.13 — When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to Abram and said to him, 'I am God Almighty; walk before me and be blameless.' 1Kgs.2.4 — so that the LORD may establish his word that he spoke concerning me, saying, 'If your sons keep their ways, walking before me in truth with all their heart and with all their soul, there will never be cut off for you a man from the throne of Israel.' Ps.56.13 — For you have delivered my soul from death—yes, my feet from stumbling—that I may walk before God in the light of the living.
- ↩Acts.24.16 — And in this I also strive to have a conscience without offense toward God and toward people at all times.
Notes
- 1 ↩«Она» refers to prayer (молитва) from the previous sentence; «преуспеяние» is spiritual progress/advancement, not worldly success.
- 2 ↩«Хождение пред Господом» is rendered as the biblical-ascetical phrase “walking before the Lord” (living in God’s presence), not mere physical walking.
- 3 ↩Russian «умно» here is the ascetical sense: with the intellect/noetic attention, not merely 'intelligently' or 'wisely'.
- 4 ↩«Развлечения» is rendered as spiritual distractions (scatterings of attention), not modern entertainment.
- 5 ↩«Трезвение» is the patristic term nēpsis: sober interior watchfulness, not mere abstinence from drink.
- 6 ↩не в прок = not to advantage / not profitable; rendered as 'of no use' for natural contemporary force without losing the sense of wasted effort.
Letters on the Christian Life companion
Rule yourself daily, not just on retreat
Chosen Portion turns the mirror into a daily practice — a short reading and examining question each morning before you lead anyone.
Chosen Portion makes the mirror daily: the ruler-formation questions this collection preserves become a two-minute morning examination in the app.
- A daily formation reading drawn from centuries of counsel to those in authority
- One pointed examination question a day — two minutes, before the meetings start
- Track your practice over weeks and watch the examined life become a habit