How should we
pray? Should we pray? Are we worthy to pray? These are some of the many
questions I hear asked by many people today. However, reading the Church
Fathers and the sayings of Saints, we can find many answers to our modern questions,
showing how the questions and answers given are diachronical and not ephemera.
Here, St. Makarii of Optino explains:
“Pray simply.
Do not expect to find in your heart any remarkable gift of prayer. Consider
yourself unworthy of it. Then you will find peace. Use the empty, cold dryness
of your prayer as food for your humility. Repeat constantly: I am not worthy,
Lord, I am not worthy! But say it calmly, without agitation. This humble prayer
will be acceptable to God.
When practicing
the Jesus Prayer, remember that the most important thing of all is humility;
then the ability-not the decision only-always to maintain a keen sense of
responsibility towards God, towards one’s spiritual director, men, and even
things. Remember, too, that Isaac the Syrian warns us that God’s wrath visits
all who refuse the bitter cross of agony, the cross of active suffering, and
who, striving after visions and special graces of prayer, waywardly seek to
appropriate the glories of the Cross. He also says, ‘God’s grace comes to
itself, suddenly, without our seeing it approach. It comes when the place is
clean’. Therefore, carefully, diligently, constantly clean the place; sweep it
with the broom of humility”[1].
[1]
St. Makarii of Optino, in Iulia de Beausobre, Macarius, Starets of Optino: Russian Letters of Direction 1834-1860, (London,
Dacre Press, 1944), p. 87, 89
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