Письмо 6
The Essence of Prayer
True prayer is not about the multiplication of words, but a humble turning of the heart toward God's mercy.
Glory to You, Lord! How glad I was at your anxiety about prayer. It was your Guardian Angel who stirred you, so you would learn that you need to pray even while you're reading. After all, our prayers aren't just an empty multiplication of words. Everything written there amounts to one thing: Lord, have mercy—just expressed in different ways, for the sake of our weakness. How far we fall short of Macarius of Egypt! In the states of grace he describes from his own experience, he wouldn't even look at the light of day; he would hide himself away in some corner and melt there with tender devotion in God's fire and light.1 Only love for the brethren would draw him out, so he could instruct one person and comfort another.
The Discipline of Prayer
Short prayer is a fruit of spiritual maturity, not a shortcut to avoid the labor of standing before God.
So how did he arrive at that? Did he really start using the short prayer right away? No; prayer doesn't come free. God's saints certainly did pray with a short prayer—or, more accurately, with prayer that had no words. But that wasn't because they didn't want to read prayers; it was because the inner power of prayer bound their tongue, and they stood before God, and stood for a long time, night and day, without leaving their place, without tiring, and without feeling any need of sleep or food.2 If we try to imitate them by following their rule—not saying much in prayer—then we must also imitate their example: standing for a long time with a short prayer. But how are we supposed to manage standing like that? When we have many prayers to read, we can manage to stand for a while; but as soon as there's no prayer book in our hands—one bow, another, and that's it.3
The Transition to Heartfelt Prayer
The Church provides set prayers to lead us toward the true beginning of prayer: the warming of the heart.
So as to draw us into prayer and keep us at it, our caring mother, the Church, has also set for us the practice of reading various prayers with attention and compunction. But she also has a rule for those advancing in the spiritual life: as soon as the heart warms in prayer and no longer wants words, stop reading and pray with the heart. And this is the true beginning of prayer.4
Standing Before the Judge
True prayer requires the soul to recognize its own wretchedness and stand before God as a sinner before a Judge.
When the Lord sends you this kind of prayer, treasure it and stop your reading. Just remember that this silence of the tongue must come from within—not to cut your prayer short, but so you can simply pray to God with deep, focused warmth, falling before Him in compunction and humility, and sighing over your own wretchedness.5 Right now, we still act in our prayer almost as if we're doing God a favor. We need to reach the point where it knows itself as worthless, then as sinful; then, in prayer, to be sinners ourselves and stand at it as at a judgment.6 God is always our Judge, but the soul doesn't really grasp this, and it gives itself permission to appear before Him as if it were righteous. The Lord is merciful—He endures it; if only the soul would come, even like that.7
Read the original Russian
Слава тебе Господи! Как я обрадовался вашей тревоге из-за молитвы. Это Ангел Хранитель ваш вас растревожил, чтоб вы узнали, что надобно молиться и читаючи. Ведь в молитвах наших нет многоглаголания. Там все одно пишется: Господи помилуй, только в разных оборотах, немощи ради нашей. Куда нам за Макарием Египетским! В благодатных состояниях, какия он, с собственнаго опыта, изображает, и на свет бы не взглянул, забился бы куда-нибудь в угол и млел там от умиления в огне Божием и в свете. Только любовь к братиям вызывала его, чтоб одного вразумить, другаго утешить.
Как же он дошел до этаго? Ужели взялся прямо за краткую молитву? Нет; не достается даром молитва. Святые Божии точно краткою молитвою молились, а, лучше сказать, молитвою без слов. Но это не потому, чтоб не хотели читать молитв, а потому что внутренняя сила молитвы связывала язык, и они стояли пред Богом, и стояли по долгу, по ночам и по дням, не сходя с места, не утомляясь и не чувствуя потребностей сна и пищи. Если, подражая им, станем держаться их правила: не говорить много (в молитве), то должны подражать и примеру их – стоять долго с краткою молитвою. Где же нам простоять? Когда есть много молитв, еще таки постоим; коль же скоро молитвенника нет в руках, то поклон, другой, да и довольно.
Чтоб заманить и продержать нас на молитве, попечительная о нас, матерь наша, Церковь и установила нам, прочитывать со вниманием и сокрушением разные молитвы. Но у ней же для преуспевающих в духовной жизни есть правило, что коль скоро в молитве сердце согреется и не захочет слов, прекращать чтение и молиться сердцем. Это и есть зачало молитвы.
Когда Господь пошлет и вам такую молитву, дорожите ею, и прекращайте чтение, только заметьте, что связание языка должно идти изнутри, не за тем, чтоб прекратить молитву, а чтоб только молиться с глубокою собранною теплотою Богу, сокрушенно и смиренно припадая и воздыхая о своем всеокаянстве. Мы теперь молитвою своею еще как бы одолжение делаем Богу. Надобно добиться, чтоб она сознавалась ничтожною, потом грешною; потом на молитве, самим быть грешными и стоять на ней, как на суде. Бог ведь всегда есть Судия наш; но душа не хорошо сознает это, и смелость себе дает являться пред Него праведною. Господь милосерд, – терпит; только бы, хоть такою, да приходила.
Notes
- 1 ↩умиление rendered as 'tender devotion': Orthodox heart-softening before God, close to compunction but with a sweet melting quality rather than only sorrow for sin.
- 2 ↩«по долгу» read as duration (подолгу, 'for a long time'), not 'by duty'; fits the parallel with «по ночам и по дням» and the following inability of ordinary people to stand long.
- 3 ↩«поклон» rendered as 'bow' in the Orthodox sense (prostration/bow before God), not a mere social nod.
- 4 ↩Russian «зачало» is an older/churchly word for beginning/inception; rendered as 'true beginning' to carry the emphatic force of «и есть» without archaic diction.
- 5 ↩«Связание языка» rendered as “binding of the tongue”: speech ceases from within when the heart warms, not by deliberate muting. «Всеокаянство» kept as “utter wretchedness” (total spiritual misery before God).
- 6 ↩«Она» is feminine and continues «молитва» (prayer) from the preceding sentence: prayer itself must come to be felt as nothing, then as sinful, before the person stands in prayer as at judgment.
- 7 ↩Feminine «такою / приходила» continues «душа» from the previous sentence: God bears with the soul’s still-unworthy approach, provided she comes.
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