How to Pray

Letters of the Valaam Elder Schema-hegumen John (Alexeev).

Schema-hegumen John (Alexeev)

01.07.1954

It is very sad to hear that the priests teach their spiritual children to imagine the Saviour, or the Mother of God, or some Saint in the mind while praying.

This method of prayer is wrong, even harmful. I know that the ones who prayed so, became of unsound mind and went to the doctors to be treated.

I'll tell you briefly how to pray according to divinely wise Holy Fathers. The mind must be enclosed in the words of the prayer and attention should be kept in the top of the chest, for attention is a soul of the prayer. You should not push the heart with attention, since if there is attention in the chest, the heart will sympathize. When tenderness and warmth of heart appear, do not think that you have received something great. It happens naturally because of concentration, but it is not delusion. Yet God gives some consolation to the praying person by the grace.

By all means try not to judge anyone for anything. What you do not want for yourself, do not do to others, and nor bear hatred, or the prayer will not become establish in the heart.

http://oprelesti.ru/index.php/what-is-spiritual-delusion/413-how-to-pray

Pride after Praying - a Sign of Help from the Demons

Saints Barsanuphius and John. "Guidance Toward Spiritual Life: Answers to the Questions of Disciples.".

Letter 421.

Question: "When I am afflicted in regard to something and am praying, if the ineffable goodness of God assists me, my thought is elated as having been heard. So what should I do?"

Response. When you have been praying and feel that your prayer has been heard, if indeed you are elated, it is clear that you have neither prayed according to God nor have you received the help of God, but rather the feeling that worked in you was from the demons so that your heart might be elated. For whenever assistance comes from God, the soul is never elated; instead, it is always humbled.

The soul will be amazed at how the great mercy of God condescends to show mercy on sinners, who are unworthy and who always irritate him. And that soul offers exceeding thanks to his glorious and ineffable goodness; for he has not handed us what accords with our sins, but rather, in his great forbearance, he shows long-suffering and mercy. And so the soul is no longer elated, but [only trembles] and gives glory.

http://oprelesti.ru/index.php/kinds-of-spiritual-delusion/136-healing-ability-from-demons/382-pride-after-praying-a-sign-of-help-from-the-demons

Delusive Visions Due to the Wrong Way of Prayer

The Letters of Saint Ambrose of Optina.

On the harmful effects of improper prayer, and that the inconceivable Divinity should not be imagined.

Venerable in the Lord Brother D.

I have received your letter. You suffered the described infirmities of mind and body because you, for inexperience, used the wrong way of prayer, rising with the nous to the throne of the Holy Trinity and contemplating the inconceivable Divinity under the human representation, in the image and likeness, what by the words of St. Gregory of Sinai and Symeon the New Theologian, leads the inexperienced ones to delusion. The method of the prayer, with the vision and elevation of the mind to Heaven, can only be used by the passionless ones, who have cleansed themselves from the admixture of passions by means of deeds for a long time and especially through humility and with God's help; but it is dangerous for the inexperienced and infirm, it leads to demonic delusion when people undergo improper infirmities and passions, as the Saint Apostle explains this: “And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient”(Romans 1: 28).

Noetic Prayer Is Incompatible with Concealment of Thoughts

Elder Joseph the Hesychast. "Monastic Wisdom". From Letter 55.

Elder Joseph the Hesychast

Heart prayer is not susceptible to delusion, unless one is passionate and already deluded.  With heart prayer, as soon as the nous enters the heart, immediately its darkness is cleared and straightaway it becomes peaceful and calm.  It rejoices, is sweetened, rests, and is cleansed.  It rejoices and becomes like a small child free from passions.  Bodily members which used to tempt him become peaceful and humble, just like the hand, the nose, and the rest of the members of the body.

 

Therefore, whoever wants to, let him taste this honey, and it will become a fountain of joy and happiness within him, unless one is cunning, hypocritical, envious, miserly, sensual, vainglorious, or in general passionate; if one wants to say the prayer while voluntarily remaining with his passions, unrepentant, incorrigible.  Such a person obviously disdains the action of the prayer and the mercy of the Lord.  The prayer helps everyone, but each person must struggle in accordance with his own strength.  God gives His grace according to one’s intention.  If anyone says the prayer without repenting, either the prayer will cease, or he will fall into delusion.

 

Women in particular make progress in the prayer more easily because of the self-denial and obedience they have to their spiritual guide.  However, the faster they make progress, the more easily they fall into delusion, if they proceed thoughtlessly without caution.

 

It is not just a matter of saying the prayer, but it is also a matter of being attentive.  You must be vigilant with your thoughts, masterfully controlling them.  Otherwise, they will take control of you and in the end you will become the laughing-stock of the demons.  I have never seen a soul make progress in the prayer without frankly confessing secret thoughts.

 

My child, do you want to crush the head of the serpent?  Openly reveal your thoughts in confession.  The strength of the Devil lies in cunning thoughts.  Do you hold on to them?  He remains hidden.  Do you bring them to the light?  He disappears.  And then Christ rejoices, the prayer progresses, and the light of grace heals and brings peace to your nous and heart.

http://oprelesti.ru/index.php/concealment-of-sins-in-confession/309-noetic-prayer-is-incompatible-with-concealment-of-thoughts

The Man Who Engages in Prayer without Spiritual Director or Who Does not Trust His Confessor, Falls into Delusion

Archimandrite Sofronii. "Saint Silouan the Athonite".

On Prayer

He who loves the Lord is ever mindful of Him, and the thought of God begets prayer. If you are forgetful of the Lord, you will not pray, and without prayer the soul will not dwell in the love of God, for the grace of the Holy Spirit comes through prayer. Prayer preserves a man from sin, for the prayerful mind stays intent on God, and in humbleness of spirit stands before the Face of the Lord. Whom the soul of him who prays knoweth.

But the novice naturally needs a guide, for until the advent of the grace of the Holy Spirit the soul is involved in fierce struggle against her foes, and is unable to disentangle herself if the enemy offer her his delights. Only the man with experience of the grace of the Holy Spirit can understand this. He who has savoured the Holy Spirit recognises the taste of grace.

The man who sets out without guidance to engage in prayer (imagining in his arrogance that he can learn to pray from books), and will not go to a spiritual director, is already half beguiled. But the Lord succours the man who is humble, and if there be no experienced guide and he turns to any confessor he finds, the Lord will watch over him for his humility.

Think in this wise: the Holy Spirit dwells in your confessor, and he will tell you what is right. But if you say to yourself that your confessor lives a careless life, how can the Holy Spirit dwell in him, you will suffer mightily for such thoughts, and the Lord will bring you low, and you are sure to fall into delusion.

***

Some there are who say that prayer beguiles. This is not so. A man is beguiled by listening to his own self, not by prayer. All the Saints lived in prayer, and they call others to prayer. Prayer is the best of all activities for the soul. Prayer is the pith to God. Through prayer we obtain humility, patience and every good gift. The man who speaks against prayer has manifestly never tasted of the goodness of the Lord, and how greatly He loves us. No evil ever comes from God. All the Saints prayed without ceasing: they filled every moment with prayer.

http://oprelesti.ru/index.php/how-to-avoid-or-get-rid-of-spiritual-delusion/349-the-man-who-engages-in-prayer-without-spiritual-director-or-who-does-not-trust-his-confessor-falls-into-delusion

Wrong and Correct Ways of the Prayer

Saint Symeon the New Theologian. "The Three Ways of Attention and Prayer".

Translated from Greek by Demetrios S. Skagias, 11/96

Translator's note

Saint Symeon the New Theologian

Though of unknown author, the following text was perhaps understandably attributed to St. Symeon the New Theologian (+1022). The date of authorship has been established around the early Paleologian period, whilst its importance and popularity made it an obvious choice for the standard anthology of Orthodox mysticism, called the 'Philokalia'. [The whole five-volume work of the Philokalia is available in an English translation by bishop Kallistos of Diokleia.]

[Introduction]

There are three ways of attention and prayer, by which the soul can be lifted and become spiritually exhaulted, or crumble and perish. If these three ways are used appropriately and at the right time, the soul will be lifted, whilst if they are used unreasonably and at the wrong time, the soul will perish. Attention therefore should be tied and inseparable to prayer, in the way that the body is tied and inseparable to the soul. Attention should have the lead and mind for enemies as a guard, and fight sin, and resist evil thoughts of the soul. It should be then succeeded by prayer, which will destroy all those evil thoughts which attention fought against earlier, since attention alone is not able to do this.

It is this war of attention and prayer on which both life and death of the soul depend. By attention that we keep our prayer safe and therefore we progress: if we do not have attention to keep it clear and we leave it unguarded, then it is inflected by evil thoughts and we become wicked and hopeless. Hence, the ways of attention and prayer are three, we ought to explain the features of each one and leave the choice to whoever may wish to find salvation.

[The first way of attention and prayer.]

The features of the first way are these: one stands to pray by raising his hands towards the sky together with his eyes and mind. He imagines divine concepts, the good things of Heaven, the armies of the holy angels, the residences of the saints and, in short, he gathers in his mind all that he has heard from the Holy Scriptures. He recalls them in the time of his prayer looking at the sky, and he exhorts his soul to what seems to be love and eros of God. Sometimes he even has tears and cries. In this way his soul gradually becomes proud without realising it, thinking that what he does is by the grace of God's compassion for him. Hence he pleads God to always grant him worthy of such deeds which are, however, signs of error.

Danger of Delusion when Practicing the Jesus Prayer

Hieromonk Adrian (Pashin). “The Way of a Pilgrim” and Bishop Ignatius (Brianchaninov’s) Teaching on Prayer".

Basing himself on the legacy of St Ignatius of the Caucasus, Alexey Ilyich Osipov, the well-known Professor of the Moscow Theological Academy, reflects on the issues of spiritual practices in Eastern and Western Christian traditions, as well as the place of the book The Way of a Pilgrim in Christian spiritual life.

Hieromonk Adrian (Pashin): Alexey Ilyich, your booklet on the Jesus Prayer was published recently. What prompted you to tackle this exclusively (as it might seem) monastic subject?

Alexey Ilyich Osipov: The thing is that I was invited to give a lecture in Italy, at the famous Bose monastery, where they hold conferences on various topics every year. Representatives of different Churches are invited – not only from the Catholic Church, but from the Orthodox and even the Protestant Churches as well. That was in September 2004. The topic of the conference was prayer and, I think, even the Jesus Prayer, but I don’t remember for sure. How did the theme for my talk come up? The Chancellor of one of the Pontifical Institutes in Rome visited our Academy about twenty years ago. During his talk in the conference hall he said, in particular, that Catholic monastics are currently very interested in Hindu meditation practices and The Way of a Pilgrim, where a quite peculiar teaching on the Jesus Prayer is expounded. That is why I decided to write a talk on the subject of “The Teaching on the Jesus Prayer according to Bishop Ignatius (Brianchaninov) and The Way of a Pilgrim”. I thought that the subject would be of interest both to Catholics and to me because I had read The Way when I was 16 or 17 and it had made a very inspirational impression on me back then. I remember trying to practice the Jesus Prayer for a day or two, using the Pilgrim’s method – I could not do it for much longer; later, when I took up work on my talk, I understood that that had been fortunate. I gave my talk at the conference. The Orthodox showed interest while the Catholic audience received it in silence. However, one of the famous (I am not going to name him) secular scholars from St Petersburg (not a theologian), a regular participant at all the Bose conferences, expressed his displeasure at my talk. The talk was then translated into Italian and published both in Italy and Russia. Such is its background.

During the Prayer We Should Keep Our Intellect Free from Anything Besides the Words of the Prayer

Saint Peter of Damaskos. "Book 1. A Treasury of Divine Knowledge." From Philokalia, Vol. 3.

In addition, when the devil saw Christ descending in His extreme goodness to the holy martyrs and revered fathers, appearing either in Himself or through angels or in some other ineffable form, he began to fabricate numerous delusions in order to destroy people. It is on account of this that the fathers, in their discrimination, wrote that one should not pay any attention to such diabolic manifestations, whether they come through images, or light, or fire, or some other deceptive form.’ For the devil can deceive even in sleep or through the senses. If we accept such delusions, he makes the intellect, in its utter ignorance and self-conceit, depict various shapes or colors so that we think that this is a manifestation of God or of an angel. Often in sleep, or to our senses when awake, he shows us demons that are apparently defeated. In short, he does all he can to destroy us by making us succumb to these delusions.

In spite of all this, the devil will fail in his purpose if we apply the counsel of the holy fathers: that during the time of prayer we should keep our intellect free from form, shape, and colour, and not give access to anything at all, whether light, fire or anything else; and that we should do all we can to confine our mind solely to the words we are saying, since he who prays only with his mouth prays to the wind and not to God. For, unlike men, God is attentive to the intellect and not to the words spoken. We must worship, it is said, ‘in spirit and in truth’ (John 4:24); and again, ‘I had rather speak five words whose meaning I understand than ten thousand words in a strange tongue’ (1 Cor. 14:19).

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