Prayer in the Early Church: Lecture 1 Handout St Theophan the Recluse (in The Art of Prayer by Higumen Chariton

of Valamo) Prayer is the test of everything; prayer is also the source of everything; prayer is the driving force of everything; prayer is also the director of everything. If prayer is right, everything is right. For prayer will not allow anything to go wrong. The raising of the mind and heart to God in praise and thanksgiving to Him and in supplication for the good things that we need, both spiritual and physical. The essence of prayer is therefore the spiritual lifting of the heart towards God. The mind in the heart stands consciously before the face of God, filled with due reverence, and begins to pour itself out before Him. This is spiritual prayer, and all prayer should be of this nature. External prayer, whether at home or in church, is only prayers verbal expression and shape; the essence or the soul of prayer is within a mans mind and heart. Archimandrite Sophrony (in On Prayer) Prayer is infinite creation, far superior to any form of art or science. Through prayer we enter into communion with Him that was before all worlds. Or, to put it another way, the life of the Self-existing God flows into us through the channel of prayer. Prayer is an act of supreme wisdom, of all-surpassing beauty and virtue. Prayer is delight for the spirit. But the circumstances accompanying this creative work are complex. [] Macarius It happens sometimes that even the saints of the Lord attend the theatre and look on the deceptions of the world. In the inner man they converse with God while outwardly they seem to men to be regarding the goings-on of this world. (Homily 15:8). The Christian should always have the remembrance of God [...], so that he might love God not only when he enters the place of prayer (ektrion), but also have the remembrance of God and love and affection for him whether walking, talking or eating. (Homily 43.3). The heart governs and rules the whole bodily organ; and when grace takes hold of the pastures of the heart, it rules over all the members and the thoughts. For there is the intellect, and all the thoughts of the soul and its expectation, thus [through the heart] grace penetrates to all the members of the body. (Homily 15.20). The heart has infinite depth. In it are dining rooms and bedchambers, doors and porches, many service rooms and passageways. In it is the workshop of righteousness and that of unrighteousness, death and life, good commerce and the contrary. (Homily 15:32) Although the heart is a small vessel, it contains dragons and lions, venomous beasts and all the stockpiles of evil, rough and uneven paths and chasms. Likewise God and the angels are there, as are life and the Kingdom, light and the apostles, the heavenly cities and the treasuries of grace. All things are there. (Homily 43.7)

There are times when, simply after kneeling down, a man finds his heart filled with divine energy and his soul delights in the Lord as a bride with the bridegroom [...] A man may be occupied throughout the day, and devote himself to prayer for but a single hour, and be carried away by it in the inner man, entering into the infinite depths of the other world. He experiences then an intense delight; his intellect is wholly removed from all that might disturb it, carried away such that it forgets all earthly thoughts, its thoughts filled with and captivated by divine and heavenly things, by boundless and incomprehensible realities, by marvels which cannot be uttered by the mouth of man. In that hour he prays saying, would that my soul be taken up with my prayer (Logos I.4.8). Evagrius: On Prayer (tr. Dysinger, lightly adapted) 3. Prayer is the conversation of the intellect with God. So then, what stable state must the intellect possess to be able to stretch out unalterably toward its own Master and converse with him without any intermediary? 16. Prayer is an antidote to sadness and despondency. 28. Do not pray solely with external postures, but instead direct your intellect towards a sensitivity to spiritual prayer with profound awe. 29. On certain occasions when you stand for prayer you instantly pray well, while at other times, even after hard work you not achieve your purpose. This is so you will seek even more, and upon receiving it keep your success secure. 32. I have often prayed, requesting that something I thought was good for me be done for me, insisting on my request, and irrationally attempting to force Gods will. And I did not leave it to him who knows what is most expedient (cf. 1Cor 10:23). And when I eventually received what I asked for, I was very sorry I had asked for my own choice; for the matter did not turn out as I had imagined. 35. Undistracted prayer is the highest noetic activity of the intellect 36. Prayer is the ascent of the intellect to God. 50. The whole war between us and the unclean demons concerns nothing other than spiritual prayer, because it is very hostile and burdensome to them, while it is salvific and very soothing for us. 53. The state of prayer is a habitual condition free from passion that elevates to the highest rapture of loving (eros) the carefully studious and spiritual intellect. 61. If you are a theologian, you pray truly; and if you pray truly, you are a theologian. 67. Do not give any shape to the Divine in yourself when you pray, nor should you permit any form to stamp an impression on your intellect: instead, approach immaterially what is immaterial; and you will understand 83. Psalmody calms the passions and puts to rest the bodys disharmony; Prayer arouses the intellect to activate its own proper activity. 114. Do not in any way seek to receive any form or shape or colour in the time of prayer. 115. Do not desire to see angels or powers or Christ visibly, in case you become completely mad, accepting a wolf instead of a shepherd and worshipping your enemies, the demons. 153. When you find more enjoyment in performing your service of prayer than in anything else, then you have truly found prayer