A Prayer Rule - St. Theophan the Recluse

[The following is from the book, "The Spiritual Life and How to Be Attuned to It" (St. Herman of Alaska Brotherhood, 1996, Ch. 47)  I cannot recommend this book highly enough.  If you've not read it, acquire it and give it a place of honor in your library.  FrB]

You ask about a prayer rule. Yes, it is good to have a prayer rule on account of our weakness so that on the one hand we do not give in to laziness, and on the other hand we restrain our enthusiasm to its proper measure. The greatest practitioners of prayer kept a prayer rule. They would always begin with established prayers, and if during the course of these a prayer started on its own, they would put aside the others and pray that prayer. If this is what the great practitioners of prayer did, all the more reason for us to do so. Without established prayers, we would not know how to pray at all. Without them, we would be left entirely without prayer.

However, one does not have to do many prayers. It is better to perform a small number of prayers properly than to hurry through a large number of prayers, because it is difficult to maintain the heat of prayerful zeal when they are performed to excess.

I would consider the morning and evening prayers as set out in the prayer books to be entirely sufficient for you. Just try each time to carry them out with full attention and corresponding feelings. To be more successful at this, spend a little of your free time at reading over all the prayers separately. Think them over and feel them, so that when you recite them at your prayer rule, you will know the holy thoughts and feelings that are contained in them. Prayer does not mean that we just recite prayers, but that we assimilate their content within ourselves, and pronounce them as if they came from our minds and hearts.

After you have considered and felt the prayers, work at memorizing them. Then you will not have to fumble about for your prayer book and light when it is time to pray; neither will you be distracted by anything you see while you are performing your prayers, but can more easily maintain thoughtful petition toward God. You will see for yourself what a great help this is. The fact that you will have your prayer book with you at all times and in all places is of great significance.

Being thus prepared, when you stand at prayer be careful to keep your mind from drifting and your feeling from coldness and indifference, exerting yourself in every way to keep your attention and to spark warmth of feeling. After you have recited each prayer, make prostrations, as many as you like, accompanied by a prayer for any necessity that you feel, or by the usual short prayer. This will lengthen your prayer time a little, but its power will be increased. You should pray a little longer on your own especially at the end of your prayers, asking forgiveness for unintentional straying of the mind, and placing yourself in God's hands for the entire day.

You must also maintain prayerful attention toward God throughout the day. For this, as we have already mentioned more than once, there is remembrance of God; and for remembrance of God, there are short prayers. It is good, very good, to memorize several psalms and recite them while you are working or between tasks, doing this instead of short prayers sometimes, with concentration. This is one of the most ancient Christian customs, mentioned by and included in the rules of St. Pachomius and St. Anthony.

After spending the day in this manner, you must pray more diligently and with more concentration in the evening. Increase your prostrations and petitions to God, and after you have placed yourself in Divine hands once again, go to bed with a short prayer on your lips and fall asleep with it or recite some psalm.

Which psalms should you memorize? Memorize the ones that strike your heart as you are reading them. Each person will find different psalms to be more effective for himself. Begin with Have mercy on me, O God (Psalm 50); then Bless the Lord, O my soul (Psalm 102); and Praise the Lord, O my Soul (Psalm 145). These latter two are the antiphon hymns in the Liturgy. There are also the psalms in the Canon for Divine Communion: The Lord is my shepherd (Psalm 22); The earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof (Psalm 23); I believed, wherefore I spake (Psalm 115); and the first psalm of the evening vigil, O God, be attentive unto helping me (Psalm 69). There are the psalms of the hours, and the like. Read the Psalter and select.

After you have memorized all of these, you will always be fully armed with prayer. When some disturbing thought occurs, rush to fall down before the Lord with either a short prayer or one of the psalms, especially O God, be attentive unto helping me, and the disturbing cloud will immediately disperse.

There you are; everything on the subject of a prayer rule. I will, however, mention once again that you should remember that all these are aids, and the most important thing is standing before God with the mind in the heart with devotion and heartfelt prostration to Him.

I thought of something else to tell you! You may limit the entire prayer rule just to prostrations with short prayers and prayer in your own words. Stand and make prostrations, saying Lord have mercy, or some other prayer, expressing your need or giving praise and thanks to God. You should establish either a number of prayers, or a time-limit for prayer, or do both, so that you do not become lazy.

This is necessary, because there is a certain incomprehensible peculiarity about us. When, for example, we go about some outward activity, hours pass as if they were a minute. When we stand at prayer, however, hardly have a few minutes gone by, and it seems that we have been praying for an extremely long time. This thought does not cause harm when we perform prayer according to an established rule; but when somebody prays and is just making prostrations with short prayers, it presents a great temptation. This can put a halt to prayer that has barely begun, leaving the false assurance that it has been done properly. Thus, the good practitioners of prayer came up with prayer ropes so that they would not be subject to this self-deception. Prayer ropes are suggested for use by those who desire to pray using their own prayers, not prayers from a prayer book. They are used as follows: Say Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me a sinner, and move one bead between your fingers. Repeat the prayer again and move another bead, and so on. Make a prostration during each repetition of the prayer, either a partial one from the waist or a full one to the ground, as you prefer; or, for small beads, make a prostration from the waist, and for large ones, a full one to the ground. The rule in all of this consists in having a definite number of prayer repetitions with prostrations to which are added other prayers in your own words. When deciding on the number of prostrations and prayers, establish a time limit, so that you do not deceive yourself as to haste when you perform them. If haste creeps in, you can fill up the time by making more prostrations.

How many prostrations should be done for each prayer is set down at the end of the Psalter with sequences in two categories, one for diligent people and the other for lazy or busy people. The elders now living among us in sketes or special kellia in places such as Valaam or Solovki serve the entire service according to this. If you would like to, now or some other time, you can perform your own prayer rule in this manner. Before you do this, however, get used to performing it in the manner prescribed for you. Perhaps you will not need a new rule. In any case, I am sending you a prayer rope. Try it! Note how much time you spend at morning and evening prayer, then sit down and say your short prayers with the prayer rope, and see how many times you go around the rope during the time usually required for your prayer. Let this quantity be the measure of your rule. Do this not during your usual prayer time, but at some other time, although do it with the same sort of attentiveness. The prayer rule, then, is carried out in this way, standing and making bows.

After reading this, do not think I am driving you into a monastery. I first heard about praying with a prayer rope from a lay person, not a monk. Many lay people and monastics pray in this way. It should be suitable for you, too. When you are praying with prayers that you have memorized and they do not move you, you may pray that day using the prayer rope, and do the memorized prayers another day. Thus, things will go better.

I will repeat once again that the essence of prayer is the lifting of the mind and heart to God; these little rules are an aid. We cannot get by without them because of our weakness. May the Lord bless you!

Unless....

 The words uttered by St. Thomas in today’s Gospel form a substantial absolute.  His denial is at many levels.  The first level is his lack of belief in the testimony of his 10 closest friends, people with whom he is cloistered for fear of both the Jews and the Romans.  While depending on these 10 friends for his own safety and peace of mind, he denies what they, to a man, explain to him to be their “witness”.  “We have seen Him.  You weren’t here.”  St. Thomas could have responded to their testimony by changing the tone of his response.  “If I were to see then I would believe.”  But that’s NOT his perspective.  His words are clear.  “Unless I see I will NOT believe!”

One of the elements of this account over which I personally ponder is, “Why does the Lord wait for a full week to return and show Himself—yes, to Thomas, but also to His other Apostles?  What is accomplished by this passage of time?

You see, St. Thomas’ rejection of the testimony of his friends is a perspective based on senses.  “Unless I see…”  “Unless I touch…”  “Unless I thrust….”  St. Thomas is basing his faith on his physical nature!  This week of “fasting” from spiritual revelation permits the saint to ponder his connection to the physical, and to come to a realization that he could be wrong in his stubborn perspective.

Our Lord’s waiting for eight more days gives the saint the opportunity to take his intellect from “Unless…” to “Maybe…”

We must take careful note of what transpires when that eighth day comes.  As our Lord once again enters the room, the doors being closed, and He blesses the eleven with the words, Peace be with you!, His first action is to invite (He NEVER coerces!) Thomas, Reach your finger here, and look at My hands; and reach your hand here, and put it into My side. Do not be unbelieving, but believing.  In response, St. John doesn’t record that Thomas goes and physically completes the touch or the thrust.  Instead, St. John records only the words uttered by St. Thomas: My Lord and my God!  Faith has finally come to the blessed saint as he no doubt (no pun intended) looks back on his obstinance in repentance.  This is in a way Thomas’ restoration to his apostleship no less than Peter’s triple, You know I love You, Lord was for him.

But the Lord wasn’t through.  He leaves the conversation with another blessing, not for His Apostles—they now finally fully believe.  No, the Lord’s blessing is for countless others, hopefully you and me are numbered in that group, as He offers the words, Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.

Clearly we who live 2000 years after the fact have not “seen” what those eleven men were blessed to see between our Lord’s Resurrection and His Ascension.

But I submit to all, our eyes have not seen, but surely our hearts have.  Our minds have not seen, but surely our spirits have.  If we do not categorize ourselves with those “who have seen” then why do we come to church?  Why do we seek the Holy Eucharist?  Where is our hope for eternal life?

No, my brothers and sisters in Christ.  Thomas’ “Unless….” has taken from us any need to disbelieve.  It is present in the hymnology of the Church for this festal day, O, how beautiful the unbelief of Thomas!  His lack of belief gives to us the firm footing on knowing the certainty of our Lord’s Resurrection.  And so we can say with full hearts and all conviction:  I BELIEVE!  

CHRIST IS RISEN!

"By Raising Lazarus From the Dead Before Your Passion..."

 These words form the Troparion for both the Liturgy of Lazarus Saturday and also for Palm Sunday, the Lord’s Triumphal Entry Into Jerusalem.  And so we find the week of our Lord’s Passion beginning with as well as ending with resurrection!

Liturgical texts describe the feasts of Lazarus Saturday and Palm Sunday as “the beginning of the Cross.”  And so it is important for us to understand this joint Feast as it relates to Holy Week.  The words that follow on from the title of this piece say, You confirmed the universal Resurrection, O Christ our God.  As difficult as we find the darkness of Holy Week, the fact remains that the week begins filled with Light, and ends with the most brilliant Light of all time!  The Light of the Resurrection has the ability to dispel every darkness.

On Lazarus Saturday we find something that is peculiar in Orthodox worship.  Saturdays throughout the year are reserved for the commemoration of the departed.  But on this day, the focal point of “the departed” returns!  And so the nature of Saturday’s Divine Liturgy is not on the departed but rather it itself is Resurrectional!  The joy that permeates this Liturgy focuses us beyond the restoration of life to the Lord’s friend.  Jesus shows His authority over death by raising Lazarus.  Those who were witnesses could not deny what had happened before their very eyes.  But there was no frame of reference for that same crowd to project this authority to apply to the Lord’s own life.  We know that is coming, and so we see in Lazarus Saturday the Lord’s ultimate victory not just for Lazarus, not even ‘only’ for Himself, but as the Troparion says, for the universal resurrection—a resurrection of every soul that ever lived, a resurrection that leads to ultimate judgment and the separation of the sheep from the goats.

With Lazarus’ resurrection, death itself and Hades in particular begin to fear their own end.  The final ‘duel’ between Life and death is before us, and in that duel we find the meaning of Pascha. 

One week from Lazarus Saturday, as we stand and sing the hymns of Holy Saturday, we find the first announcements of our Lord’s own Resurrection.  The Stichera on Lord I Call resound with the words, Today Hell cries out groaning…. to begin the Vesperal Liturgy.  And the Holy Saturday Liturgy proceeds with additional announcements of what lay ahead, Arise, O God, judge the earth, for to You belong all the nations.  We stand in prayer as with one voice as we emulate the awe-filled angels of Heaven and sing, Let all mortal flesh keep silent, and in fear and trembling stand, pondering nothing earthly minded, for the King of kings and the Lord of lords comes to be slain, to give Himself as food to the faithful.  We produce in our own minds images of these angels standing before the Cross, marveling how it is that God in the flesh is giving His body over to death!  And in response, we find ourselves in tears standing beside and with these same angels.

Saturday’s raising of Lazarus begins our walk with our Lord to Gethsemane, to the Sanhedrin, to Pilate, to Golgotha, and to the tomb.  May all of our walks in the coming week find us seeking only our Lord’s will, and may He find us to be worthy of seeking to be witnesses of all that He comes to Jerusalem to endure for our salvation.

Glory to Jesus Christ!

We Sold Out

 In today’s Gospel, our Lord gets very matter-of-fact with His Apostles.  St. Mark records that they were amazed.  At this point of the Lord’s ministry, after witnessing so many healings, raisings from the dead, expulsions of demons, what is left that could amaze them?  But even more to the point, St. Mark records not only their perplexity, but he says they were afraid.  When you find yourself standing beside the One Who worked all these miraculous deeds, what could bring you fear?

To understand, perhaps we should again go backward in the scripture a few verses to where we find our Lord in His encounter with the rich young ruler.  What shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?  We can imagine that the Apostles had pondered this same question.  In our Lord’s answer, He leads the man to the place where He points to that which has anchored him tightly to this earth, so tightly that consideration of the heavenly isn’t possible.  Sell what you have, give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then take up the cross and follow Me.

When the young man leaves the Lord troubled by His words, the Apostles remain confused.  Who then can be saved?  Do we all see their focus on eternal life even at this juncture? 

It is Peter who speaks for the group.  We have left all and followed You.  He is asking, “Are WE to find a place in heaven?

It is in response to this verbal exchange that the Lord again explains to them what lay ahead—His arrest and execution, but also His Resurrection.

One would think at these words from Jesus the Apostles amazement would be multiplied.  But it is the sons of Zebedee who ignore the implications of the Lord’s prophetic view of the next several days and instead ask boldly for their own places within His kingdom.

Jesus admonishes their selfish request gently, explaining that He as God came not to be served, but to serve, and this is “the way” for any who choose to follow where He has led us as His sheep.

Jesus ends this exchange with these words related to His coming as a Servant, stating finally that He came to give His life a ransom for many.

Ransom.  At first encounter, perhaps we find this a strange word for the Lord to use.  But the Word of God uses words that are in every case selected to be proper to teach us about our salvation.  This is no different!

Ransom—noun.  A price paid or demanded for release of a captive.  That’s us, my friends.  We’re held captive.  We’ve “sold out” via our sins and are held in captivity with no hope for release.

Except for One.  There IS One Hope that we have.  Our Lord’s words in today’s Gospel say that He has come to give His life a ransom for many.  We know that “many” includes only one group—those who choose to follow the commandments of our Savior.  To accept baptism.  To partake in His precious Body and Blood.  To serve the least of His brethren.  To give to the poor.  To heal and visit the sick and imprisoned.  To be reflections of our Savior while we remain in this world.  He came into this world to redeem those of us who have "sold out", to save all who seek Him in faith and love.  By His death and Resurrection, He has paid our ransom in His love for us!