April 22, 2001
"How
to Pray Without Ceasing"
-- St. Gregory Palamas
With Great Lent and Pascha behind us, now is a
good time to look at the whole issue of prayer and, most particularly,
"prayer without ceasing" as described by the Apostle Paul. As
we begin a new study of the life of prayer in the Spirit, let's consider
this admonition of the Apostle and ask ourselves whether he truly meant
this literally and whether it applies to each of us, especially those of
us who are not monks.
Today's text is from St. Gregory Palamas who was
Archbishop of Thessalonica from about 1296 to 1359. While not a
"Desert Father" in the strict sense of his time and place, St.
Gregory is nonetheless a teacher of the Desert way of life and prayer
and one of the greatest teachers and practitioners of unceasing prayer.
The text we will study today is the concluding text to both the Greek
and Russian versions of the Philokalia and is one we should each read
carefully. After all, dear pilgrims, it tells us why the Apostle's
command applies to each and every one of us, monk or not.
HOW ALL CHRISTIANS IN GENERAL MUST
PRAY WITHOUT CEASING
BEGIN: Let no one think, my brother Christians,
that it is the duty only of priests and monks to pray without ceasing,
and not of laymen. No, no; it is the duty of all of us Christians to
remain always in prayer. For look what the most holy Patriarch of
Constantinople, Philotheus, writes in his life of St. Gregory of
Thessalonica. This saint had a beloved friend by the name of Job, a very
simple but most virtuous man. Once, while conversing with him, His
Eminence said of prayer that every Christian in general should strive to
pray always, and to pray without ceasing, as Apostle Paul commands all
Christians, "Pray without ceasing" (I Thessalonians 5:17), and
as the prophet David says of himself, although he was a king and had to
concern himself with his whole kingdom: "I foresaw the Lord always
before my face" (Psalms 15:8), that is, in my prayer I always
mentally see the Lord before me. Gregory the Theologian also teaches all
Christians to say God's name in prayer more often than to breathe. . . .
.
So, my Christian brethren, I too implore you,
together also with St. Chrysostom, for the sake of saving your souls, do
not neglect the practice of this prayer. Imitate those I have mentioned
and follow in their footsteps as far as you can. At first it may appear
very difficult to you, but be assured, as it were from Almighty God,
that this very name of our Lord Jesus Christ, constantly invoked by you,
will help you to overcome all difficulties, and in the course of time
you will become used to this practice and will taste how sweet is the
name of the Lord. Then you will learn by experience that this practice
is not impossible and not difficult, but both possible and easy. This is
why St. Paul, who knew better than we the great good which such prayer
would bring, commanded us to pray without ceasing. He would not have
imposed this obligation upon us if it were extremely difficult and
impossible, for he knew beforehand that in such case, having no
possibility of fulfilling it, we would inevitably prove to be
disobedient and would transgress his commandment, thus incurring blame
and condemnation. The Apostle could have had no such intention.
Moreover, bear in mind the method of prayer --
how it is possible to pray without ceasing, namely by praying in the
mind. And this we can always do if we so wish. For when we sit down to
work with our hands, when we walk, when we eat, when we drink we can
always pray mentally and practice this mental prayer -- the true prayer
pleasing to God. Let us work with the body and pray with the soul. Let
our outer man perform his bodily tasks, and let the inner man be
entirely dedicated to the service of God, never abandoning this
spiritual practice of mental prayer, as Jesus, God and Man, commanded
us, saying: "But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet,
and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in
secret" (Matthew 6:6). The closet of the soul is the body; our
doors are the five bodily senses. The soul enters its closet when the
mind does not wander hither and thither, roaming among things and
affairs of the world, but stays within, in our heart. Our senses become
closed and remain closed when we do not let them be attached to external
sensory things, and in this way our mind remains free from every worldly
attachment, and by secret mental prayer unites with God its Father.
"And thy Father which seeth in secret shall
reward thee openly," adds the Lord. God who knows all secret things
sees mental prayer and rewards it openly with great gifts. For that
prayer is true and perfect which fills the soul with Divine grace and
spiritual gifts. As chrism perfumes the jar the more strongly the
tighter it is closed, so prayer, the more fast it is imprisoned in the
heart, abounds the more in Divine grace.
Blessed are those who acquire the habit of this
heavenly practice, for by it they overcome every temptation of the evil
demons, as David overcame the proud Goliath. It extinguishes the unruly
lusts of the flesh, as the three men extinguished the flames of the
furnace. This practice of inner prayer tames passions as Daniel tamed
the wild beasts. By it the dew of the Holy Spirit is brought down upon
the heart, as Elijah brought down rain on Mount Carmel. This mental
prayer reaches to the very throne of God and is preserved in golden
vials, sending forth their odors before the Lord, as John the Divine saw
in the Revelation, "Four and twenty elders fell down before the
Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden vials full of odors,
which are the prayers of the saints" (Revelation 5:8). This mental
prayer is the light which illumines man's soul and inflames his heart
with the fire of love of God. It is the chain linking God with man and
man with God. Oh the incomparable blessing of mental prayer! It allows a
man constantly to converse with God. Oh truly wonderful and more than
wonderful -- to be with one's body among men while in one's mind
conversing with God.
Angels have no physical voice, but mentally never
cease to sing glory to God. This is their sole occupation and all their
life is dedicated to this. So, brother, when you enter your closet and
close your door, that is, when your mind is not darting hither and
thither but enters within your heart, and your senses are confined and
barred against things of this world, and when you pray thus always, you
too are then like the holy angels, and your Father, Who sees your prayer
in secret, which you bring Him in the hidden depths of your heart, will
reward you openly by great spiritual gifts.
But what other and greater rewards can you wish
from this when, as I said, you are mentally always before the face of
God and are constantly conversing with Him -- conversing with God,
without Whom no man can ever be blessed either here or in another life?
Finally, my brother, whoever you may be, when you
take up this book and, having read it, wish to test in practice the
profit which mental prayer brings to the soul, I beg you, when you begin
to pray thus, pray God with one invocation, "Lord have mercy,"
for the soul of him who has worked on compiling this book and of him who
helped to give it to the public. For they have great need of your prayer
to receive God's mercy for their soul, as you for yours. May it be so!
May it be so! END
from E. Kadloubovsky and G. E. H. Palmer, "Early
Fathers from the Philokalia," (London: Faber and Faber, 1981),
pp. 412 - 415
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