Can't pray what to do. Motivated Prayer, or Why We Don't Want to Pray? Prayer before the icon "Joy of All Who Sorrow"
This article contains: why prayer does not go - the information is taken from all corners of the world, the electronic network and spiritual people.
Hello. There are days when prayers are read automatically, especially in the evening, fatigue overcomes. I understand that sincere prayer is a gift from God. But is it possible to do something ourselves so that prayers become more conscious? Is it possible to diversify the morning and evening rule, to read something else instead, or is it not worth it? If possible, please tell me the prayers. Save you Lord!
Magazine number: Golden issue of "Slavyanka"
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Why is prayer not coming
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What causes mental fatigue? Can a soul be empty?
Why can't it? If there is no prayer, it will be both empty and tired. The Holy Fathers do the following. A person is tired, he has no strength to pray, he says to himself: “Maybe your fatigue is from demons”, gets up and prays. And the man has strength. So the Lord did. In order for the soul not to be empty and to have strength, one must accustom oneself to the Jesus Prayer - “Lord, Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner (or a sinner).”
How to spend a day like God?
In the morning, when we are still resting, they are already standing near our bed - an angel on the right side, and a demon on the left. They are waiting for whom we will begin to serve on this day. And this is how you start the day. Waking up, immediately protect yourself with the sign of the cross and jump out of bed so that laziness remains under the covers, and we find ourselves in a holy corner. Then make three prostrations and turn to the Lord with these words: “Lord, I thank You for the past night, bless me for the coming day, bless me and bless this day, and help me spend it in prayer, in good deeds, and save me from all enemies, visible and invisible." And then we begin to read the Jesus Prayer. Having washed and dressed, we will stand in a holy corner, collect our thoughts, concentrate so that nothing distracts us and begin morning prayers. Having finished them, let's read a chapter from the Gospel. And then let's estimate what a good deed we can do today to our neighbor. It's time to go to work. Here, too, you need to pray: before you go out the door, say the following words of St. John Chrysostom: “I deny you, Satan, your pride and service to you and unite with you, Christ, in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen." Fall yourself with the sign of the cross, and when you leave the house, quietly cross the road. On the way to work, and for any business, you need to read the Jesus Prayer and “Virgin Mother of God, rejoice. “If we do household chores, before preparing food, we will sprinkle all the food with holy water, and light the stove with a candle, which we will light from the lamp. Then the food will not harm us, but will benefit us, in strengthening not only bodily, but also spiritual strength, especially if we cook, constantly reciting the Jesus Prayer.
After morning or evening prayers, there is not always a feeling of grace. Sometimes drowsiness interferes with prayer. How to avoid it?
Demons do not like prayer, as soon as a person begins prayer, drowsiness and absent-mindedness also attack. You must try to delve into the words of the prayer, and then you will feel it. But the Lord does not always comfort the soul. The most valuable prayer is when a person does not want to pray, but he forces himself. A small child is not yet able to stand and walk. But his parents take him, put him on his feet, support him, and he feels help, stands firmly. And when his parents let him go, he immediately falls down and cries. So we, when the Lord - our Heavenly Father - supports us with His grace, we can do everything, we are ready to move mountains and we pray well and easily. But as soon as grace departs from us, we immediately fall down – we don’t really know how to walk spiritually. And here we must humble ourselves and say: “Lord, I am nothing without You.” And when a person understands this, the mercy of God will help him. And we often rely only on ourselves: I am strong, I can stand, I can go. Here, the Lord takes grace away, therefore we fall, suffer and suffer - from our pride, we rely on ourselves a lot.
How to become attentive in prayer?
In order for prayer to pass through our attention, we do not need to clatter, do proofreading; rammed - and calmed down, Prayer Book postponed. At first they delve into every word; slowly, calmly, evenly, you need to set yourself up for prayer. We begin to gradually enter into it, there you can read quickly, anyway, every word will enter into the soul. It is necessary for a prayer so that it does not pass by. And then we fill the air with sound, but the heart remains empty.
I don't have the Jesus Prayer. What do you recommend?
If prayer does not go, then sins interfere. As we repent, we must try to read this prayer as often as possible: “Lord, Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner! (or sinful) ”And while reading, make a blow on the last word. In order to constantly read this prayer, you need to lead a special spiritual life, and most importantly, find humility. We must consider ourselves worse than everyone, worse than any creature, endure reproach, insults, do not grumble and do not blame anyone. Then the prayer will go. You have to start praying in the morning. How is the mill? That he fell asleep in the morning, he will pray all day. As soon as we woke up, immediately: “In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit! Lord, thank you for last night, bless me for today. Mother of God, thank you for the past night, bless me for today. Lord, strengthen my faith, send me the grace of the Holy Spirit! Give me a Christian death, shameless and kind answer on the day of the Last Judgment. My Guardian Angel, thank you for the past night, bless me today, save me from all enemies visible and invisible. Lord Jesus Christ the Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner!” So just read and read. We dress with prayer, we wash ourselves. We read the morning prayers, again 500 times the Jesus Prayer. This is a charge for the whole day. It gives a person energy, strength, expels darkness and emptiness from the soul. A person will no longer walk and be indignant at something, make noise, get annoyed. When a person constantly reads the Jesus Prayer, the Lord will reward him for his labors, this prayer begins to be created in the mind. A person concentrates all his attention in the words of prayer. But one can only pray with a repentant feeling. As soon as the thought comes: “I am a saint,” know that this is a pernicious path, this thought is from the devil.
The confessor said, “to begin with, read at least 500 Jesus prayers.” It's like in a mill - that they fell asleep in the morning, then it grinds all day. But if the confessor said “only 500 prayers,” then you don’t need to read more than 500. Why? Because everything is given according to one's strength, according to the spiritual level of each person. Otherwise, you can easily fall into delusion, and then you will not approach such a “saint”. In the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, one elder had a novice. This elder lived in the monastery for 50 years, and the novice had just come from the world. And he decided to move on. Without the elder's blessing, he would stand the early liturgy, and set the later one, a big rule for himself and read everything, constantly remained in prayer. After 2 years, he reached a great "perfection". “Angels” began to appear to him (only they covered their horns and tails). He was seduced by this, came to the elder and said: “You lived here for 50 years and did not learn how to pray, but in two years I reached heights - Angels already appear to me. I am all in grace .. There is no place on earth for people like you, I will strangle you. Well, the elder managed to knock on the neighboring cell; another monk came, this “saint” was tied up. And in the morning they were sent to the cowshed, and they were allowed to attend the liturgy only once a month: and they forbade praying (until they reconciled). In Russia, we are very fond of prayer books, ascetics, but true ascetics will never expose themselves. Holiness is measured not by prayers, not by deeds, but by humility, obedience. Only he has achieved something who considers himself the most sinful of all, worse than any cattle.
How to learn to pray purely, unabashedly?
We must start in the morning. The Holy Fathers advise that it is good to pray before we eat. But as soon as the food is tasted, it immediately becomes difficult to pray. If a person prays absent-mindedly, it means that he prays little and infrequently. The one who constantly abides in prayer has a living, unscattered prayer.
Prayer loves a pure life, without sins burdening the soul. For example, we have a telephone in our apartment. The kids were naughty and cut the wire with scissors. No matter how many numbers we dial, we will never get through. We need to reconnect the wires, restore the interrupted connection. In the same way, if we want to turn to God and be heard, we must establish our connection with Him - repent of sins, cleanse our conscience. Unrepentant sins are like a blank wall, through which prayer does not reach God.
I shared with a woman close to me, saying that you gave me the Mother of God rule. But I don't do it. I don't always follow the secret rule either. What should I do?
When you are given a separate rule, don't tell anyone about it. Demons will hear and will surely steal your exploits. I know hundreds of people who had a prayer, from morning to evening they read the Jesus Prayer, akathists, canons - their whole soul was blissful. As soon as they shared with someone, they boasted about the prayer, everything disappeared. And they have neither prayers nor bows.
I am often distracted during prayer or business. What to do - continue to pray or pay attention to the visitor?
Well, since we have in the first place the commandment of God to love our neighbor, then we must put everything aside and pay attention to the guest. One holy elder was praying in his cell and saw through the window that his brother was coming towards him. So the elder, in order not to show that he was a prayer book, lay down in bed and lies. He read a prayer near the door: “Through the prayers of our holy fathers, Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy on us.” And the old man from the bed and says: "Amen." His brother came to him, he received him with love, treated him to tea - that is, he showed love for him. And this is the most important thing!
Often this happens in our life: we read evening prayers, and suddenly a call (on the phone or at the door). How can we be? Of course, we must immediately answer the call, leaving the prayer. We found out everything with the person and again we continue the prayer from the place where we finished. True, we also have such visitors who come not to talk about God, not about the salvation of the soul, but to idle talk, but to condemn someone. And we should already know such friends; when they come to us, invite them to read together an akathist prepared in advance for such an occasion, or the Gospel, or a holy book. Tell them: "My joy, let's pray, read the akathist." If they come to you with a sincere feeling of friendship, they will read. And if not, they will find a thousand reasons, immediately remember urgent matters and run away. If you agree to chat with them, then both the “unfed husband at home” and the “untidy apartment” are not a hindrance to your friend. Once in Siberia I saw an interesting scene. One comes from the pumping station, there are two buckets on the yoke, the second one comes from the store, in the hands of full bags. We met and had a conversation with each other. And I watch them. Their conversation is something like this: “Well, how is your daughter-in-law? And the son? And the gossip begins. Those poor women! One shifts the yoke from shoulder to shoulder, the other hand pulls the bag. And all it took was a few words to exchange. Moreover, the dirt - do not put the bags. And they stand not two, but ten, and twenty, and thirty minutes. And they don’t think about gravity, the most important thing is that they learned the news, they satiated the soul, they amused the evil spirit. And if they call to the church, they say: “It’s hard for us to stand, our legs hurt, our back hurts.” And with buckets and bags, nothing hurts to stand! The main thing is that the tongue does not hurt! I don’t feel like praying, but I have the strength to chat, and the tongue is well suspended: “We’ll sort through everyone, we’ll find out about everything.”
The best thing is to wake up, wash your face and start the day with morning prayers. After that, you need to read the Jesus Prayer with attention. This is a huge charge for our soul. And with such a “recharge” we will have this prayer in our thoughts throughout the day. Many say that when they stand up for prayer, they are distracted. You can believe it, because if you read a little in the morning, and a little in the evening, nothing will be in your heart. Let us always pray, and repentance will live in our hearts. After the morning - "Jesus" prayer as a continuation, and after the day - evening prayers as a continuation of the day. And so we will be constantly in prayer and will not be scattered. Don't think it's very hard, very hard, to pray. It is necessary to make an effort, to overcome oneself, to ask the Lord, the Mother of God, and grace will act in us. We will be given the desire to pray at all times.
And when prayer enters the soul, the heart, then these people try to move away from everyone, hide in secluded places. They can even climb into the cellar, if only to stay with the Lord, in prayer. The soul melts in Divine Love.
In order to achieve such a state of mind, you need to work a lot on yourself, on your “I”.
When do you need to pray in your own words, and when according to the Prayer Book?
When you feel like praying, pray to the Lord at that time; “out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks” (Mt. 12:34).
Prayer is especially useful for the soul of a person when there is a need for it. Let's say a mother's daughter or son is lost. Or they took their son to jail. Here you will not pray according to the Prayer Book. A believing mother will immediately kneel down and from the abundance of her heart speak to the Lord. Prayer comes from the heart. So you can pray to God anywhere; Wherever we are, God hears our prayers. He knows the secrets of our heart. We don't even know what's in our hearts. And God is the Creator, He knows everything. So you can pray in transport, at any place, in any society. So Christ says: “But when you pray, go into your room (that is, inside yourself) and, having shut your door, pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father, who sees in secret, will reward you openly” (Matthew 6:6). When we do good, when we give alms, then we must do it in such a way that no one knows about it. Christ says: “When you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your alms may be in secret” (Matthew 6:3-4). That is, not literally, as grandmothers understand - they serve only with the right hand. And if a person does not have a right hand? What if both hands are missing? Good can be done without hands. The main thing is that no one sees it. Good must be done in a secret way. All the boastful, proud, self-loving ones do a good deed in order to receive praise, earthly glory from it. They will say to her: “How good, how kind! Helps everyone, gives to everyone.”
I often wake up at night, always at the same time. Does it mean anything?
If we woke up at night, then there is an opportunity to pray. Prayed - go back to sleep. But, if this happens often, you need to take a blessing from the confessor.
I was talking to one person once. He says:
- Father Ambrose, tell me, have you ever seen demons with your own eyes?
- Demons are spirits, they cannot be seen with simple eyes. But they can materialize, taking the form of an old man, a young man, a girl, an animal, they can take on any image. A non-church person cannot understand this. Even believers fall for his tricks. Do you want to see? Here, I have a woman I know in Sergiev Posad, her confessor gave her a rule - to read the Psalter in a day. It is necessary to constantly burn candles, not rushing to read - it will take 8 hours. In addition, in the rule it is necessary to read the canons, akathists, the Jesus Prayer, and eat only fast food once a day. When she began to pray (and this had to be done for 40 days) with the blessing of her confessor, he warned her: “If you pray, if there are any temptations, then do not pay attention, continue to pray.” She accepted it. On the 20th day of strict fasting and almost unceasing prayer (she had to sleep sitting for 3-4 hours), she heard the locked door open and footsteps were heard, heavy - the floor was cracking. This is the 3rd floor. Someone came up behind her and began to breathe near her ear; breathe so deeply! At this time, from head to toe, she was covered with cold and trembling. I wanted to turn around, but remembered the warning and thought: “If I turn around, I won’t stay alive.” So I prayed to the end.
Then I looked - everything is in place: the door is locked, everything is fine. Further, on the 30th day, a new temptation. I was reading the Psalter and heard how, from the back of the windows, the cats began to meow, scratch, climb out the window. They scratch - and that's it! And she survived it. Someone from the street threw a stone - the glass was shattered, stone and fragments were lying on the floor. Can't turn around! The cold went through the window, but I read everything to the end. And when she finished reading, she looks - the window is whole, there is no stone. This is the demonic forces attacking a person.
The Monk Silouan of Athos, when he prayed, slept for two hours sitting. His spiritual eyes were opened and he began to see evil spirits. I saw them firsthand. They have horns, ugly faces, hooves on their feet, with tails.
The person with whom I spoke is very obese - more than 100 kg, loves to eat deliciously - and eats meat, and everything in a row. I say: “Here, you will start fasting and praying, then you will see everything, you will hear everything, you will feel everything.”
How to thank the Lord correctly - in your own words or is there any special prayer?
We must thank the Lord with all our lives. There is a prayer of thanksgiving in the prayer book, but it is very valuable to pray in your own words. The Monk Benjamin lived in one monastery. The Lord allowed him a disease - dropsy. He became huge, the little finger could only be clasped with two hands. They made a huge chair for him. When the brethren came to him, he showed his joy in every possible way, saying: “Dear brethren, rejoice with me. The Lord has mercy on me, the Lord has forgiven me.” The Lord gave him such an illness, but he did not grumble, did not despair, rejoiced at the forgiveness of sins and the salvation of his soul, and thanked the Lord. No matter how many years we live, the main thing is to remain faithful to God in everything. For five years I carried in the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, a difficult obedience - I confessed day and night. There was no strength left, he could not stand even for 10 minutes - his legs could not hold. And then the Lord granted polyarthritis - 6 months lay, acute pain in the joints. As soon as the inflammation passed, he began to walk around the room with a stick. Then he began to go outside: 100 meters, 200, 500. Each time more and more. And then, in the evenings, when there were few people, he began to walk 5 kilometers; left the wand. In the spring, the Lord gave - and stopped limping. To this day, the Lord keeps. He knows who needs what. Therefore, thank the Lord for everything.
You need to pray everywhere and always: at home, at work, and in transport. If the legs are strong, it is better to pray standing up, and if the legs are sick, then, as the elders say, it is better to think about God during prayer than about sick legs.
Is it okay to cry while praying?
Can. Tears of repentance are not tears of evil and resentment, they wash our souls from sins. The more we cry, the better. It is very valuable to cry during prayer. When we pray - we read prayers - and at that time our mind lingered on some words (they penetrated our soul), we should not skip them, speed up the prayer; return to these words, and read until the soul dissolves in feeling and begins to cry. The soul prays at this time. When the soul is in prayer, and even with tears, the Guardian Angel is next to her; he prays next to us. Any sincerely believing person from practice knows that the Lord hears his prayer. We turn the words of prayer to God, and He returns them by grace to our hearts, and the heart of the believer feels that the Lord accepts his prayer.
When I read prayers, I often get distracted. Shouldn't you stop praying?
No. Read the prayer anyway. It is very useful, when you go out into the street, to walk and read the Jesus Prayer. It can be read in any position: standing, sitting, lying down. Prayer is a conversation with God. Here, we can tell our neighbor everything - both sorrows and joys. But the Lord is closer than any neighbor. He knows all our thoughts, the secrets of the heart. He hears all our prayers, but sometimes he hesitates to fulfill them, which means that what we ask is not for the benefit of our soul (or not for the benefit of our neighbor). Any prayer should end with the words: “Lord, Thy will be done. Not as I want, but as You.”
What is the daily prayer rule for an Orthodox layperson?
There is a rule and it is obligatory for everyone. These are morning and evening prayers, one chapter from the Gospel, two chapters from the epistles, one kathisma, three canons, an akathist, 500 Jesus prayers, 50 prostrations (and more with blessing).
I once asked one person:
Should I have lunch and dinner every day?
- It is necessary, - he answers, - but besides this, I can also intercept something, drink some tea.
- What about praying? If our body requires food, is it not more than that - the soul? We feed the body so that the soul can be kept in the body and cleansed, sanctified, freed from sin, so that the Holy Spirit abides in us. She needs to be united with God already here. And the body is the clothes of the soul, which grows old, dies and crumbles into the dust of the earth. And we pay special attention to this temporary, perishable. We take care of him so much! And we feed, and give water, and paint, and dress in fashionable rags, and give peace - we pay a lot of attention. And for the soul, sometimes our care is not left. Have you read the morning prayers?
“So you can’t even have breakfast (i.e., lunch, Christians never have breakfast). And if you're not going to read evening books, then you can't even have dinner. And you can't drink tea.
“I will die of hunger!”
So your soul is dying of hunger! Now, when a person makes this rule the norm of his life, then he has peace, peace and quiet in his soul. The Lord sends grace, and the Mother of God and the Angel of the Lord pray. In addition, Christians still pray to the saints, read other akathists, the soul is fed like that, contented and glad, peaceful, a person is saved. But it is not necessary to read like some, to do proofreading. They read it, rattled it - through the air, but it didn’t hit the soul. Just touch this - it flared up! But he considers himself a great prayer book - he “prays” very well. The Apostle Paul says: “It is better to speak five words with my mind, in order to instruct others, than the darkness of words in an unknown tongue” (1 Cor.
You can read akathists at least every day. I knew one woman (her name was Pelagia), she read 15 akathists every day. The Lord gave her special grace. Some Orthodox sometimes have many akathists collected - both 200 and 500. They usually read a certain akathist every holiday celebrated by the Church. For example, tomorrow is the feast of the Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God. People who have an akathist to this holiday will read it.
Akathists are good to read with fresh memory, i.e. in the morning, when the mind is not burdened with worldly affairs. In general, it is very good to pray from morning to dinner, until the body is burdened with food. Then there is an opportunity to feel every word from akathists, canons.
All prayers and akathists are best read aloud. Why? Because words enter the soul through hearing and are better remembered. I constantly hear: “We cannot learn prayers. ” And they don’t need to be taught - they just need to be read constantly, every day - in the morning and in the evening, and they are remembered by themselves. If “Our Father” is not remembered, then it is necessary to attach a piece of paper with this prayer where our dining table is.
Many refer to a bad memory due to old age, and when you start asking them, asking various everyday questions, everyone remembers. They remember who was born when, in what year, everyone remembers birthdays. They know how much what is now in the store and on the market - and yet the prices are constantly changing! They know how much bread, salt, butter cost. Everyone remembers well. You ask: “Which street do you live on?” - everyone will say. Very good memory. But they can't remember prayers. And this is because we have flesh in the first place. And we care so much about the flesh, we all remember what it needs. But we don’t care about the soul, that’s why our memory is bad for everything good. We are masters of bad things.
The holy fathers say that those who daily read the canons to the Savior, the Mother of God, the Guardian Angel, the saints, are especially protected by the Lord from all demonic misfortunes and evil people.
If you come to any boss for an appointment, you will see a sign on his door “Reception hours from. before. “You can turn to God at any time. Night prayer is especially valuable. When a person prays at night, then, as the holy fathers say, this prayer is, as it were, paid for with gold. But in order to pray at night, one must take a blessing from the priest, because there is a danger: a person may become proud that he prays at night and fall into delusion, or demons will especially attack him. Through the blessing, the Lord will protect this person.
Sitting or standing? If the legs do not hold, then you can kneel down and read. If your knees are tired, you can read while sitting. It is better to sit and think about God than to think about your feet while standing. And one more thing: prayer without prostrations is a premature fetus. Fans are a must.
Now many are talking about the benefits of the revival of paganism in Russia. Maybe, indeed, paganism is not so bad?
In ancient Rome, gladiatorial fights were held in circuses. One hundred thousand people gathered for this spectacle, filling the pews through the many entrances in ten minutes. And everyone was out for blood! Craving a spectacle! Two gladiators fought. In the struggle, one of them could fall, and then the second put his foot on his chest, raised his sword over the prostrate and watched what sign the patricians would give him. If the fingers are raised up, then you can leave the opponent to live, if down, it was necessary to take his life. Most often they demanded death. And the people triumphed, seeing the shed blood. Such was pagan fun.
In our Russia, about forty years ago, one acrobat walked along a cable high under the dome of the circus. Stumbling, she fell. Below was a mesh. She did not crash, but something else is important. All the spectators as one stood up and hummed: “Is she alive? Faster than the doctor!” What does it say? The fact that they did not want death, but worried about the gymnast. The spirit of love was alive in the minds of people.
Otherwise, they are now educating the younger generation. On the TV screen there are action movies with murders, blood, pornography, horrors, space wars, aliens - demonic forces. People from an early age get used to scenes of violence. What is left for the child? Having seen enough of these pictures, he gets weapons and shoots his classmates, who, in turn, mocked him. How many such cases there are in America! God forbid this will happen to us.
It used to happen that contract killings were committed in Moscow before. And now the scale of crime, mortality at the hands of killers has gone up sharply. Three to four people are killed a day. And the Lord said: “Thou shalt not kill!” (Ex. 20:13); “. those who do so will not inherit the kingdom of God” (Gal. 5:21), all of them will go into the fire of hell.
I often have to go to prisons, confess prisoners. Confess and suicide bombers. They repent of the murders: some in contract, and someone killed in Afghanistan, Chechnya. Two hundred seventy, three hundred people were killed. They counted themselves. These are terrible sins! War is one thing, and another is to order to deprive a person of a life that you did not give him.
When you confess about ten murderers and get out of prison, then just wait: the demons will definitely arrange intrigues, there will be some kind of trouble.
Every priest knows how evil spirits take revenge for helping people to be freed from sins. One mother came to the Monk Seraphim of Sarov:
- Father, pray: my son died without repentance. Out of modesty, at first he refused, humbled himself, and then yielded to the request, began to pray. And the woman saw that, praying, he rose above the floor. The old man said:
“Mother, your son is saved. Go, pray yourself, thank God.
She left. And before his death, the Monk Seraphim showed his cell-attendant the body, from where the demons pulled out a piece:
“This is how demons avenge every soul!”
It is not so easy to pray for the salvation of people.
Orthodox Russia has received the Spirit of Christ, but the pagan West wants to kill her for this, thirsts for blood.
The Orthodox faith is the most impartial for a person. It obliges to a strict life on earth. And Catholics promise the soul a purgatory after death, where you can repent and be saved.
In the Orthodox Church there is no such concept of "purgatory". According to the teachings of the Orthodox Church, if a person lived righteously and passed into the other world, then he is rewarded with eternal joy, such a person can receive retribution for his good deeds, living on earth, in the form of peace, joy, peace of mind.
If a person lived uncleanly, did not repent and moved to the other world, then he falls into the clutches of demons. Before death, such people are usually sad, desperate, graceless, joyless. Their souls after death, languishing in torment, await the prayers of their relatives, the prayers of the Church. When an intensified prayer goes for the departed, the Lord frees their souls from hellish torments.
Church prayer also helps the righteous, those who have not yet received the fullness of grace during earthly life. The fullness of grace and joy is possible only after this soul is determined to Paradise at the Last Judgment. It is impossible to feel their fullness on earth. Only the chosen saints merged here with the Lord in such a way that they were raptured by the Spirit into the Kingdom of God.
Orthodoxy is often called the “religion of fear”: “there will be a second coming, everyone will be punished, eternal torment. “But the Protestants are talking about something else. So will there be punishment for unrepentant sinners, or will the love of the Lord cover everything?
Atheists have long deceived us by talking about the origin of religion. It was said that people could not explain this or that phenomenon of nature and began to deify it, to enter into religious contact with it. Sometimes, thunder rumbles, people hide underground, in the basement, they sit there, they are afraid. They think that their pagan god is angry and will now punish or a tornado will fly in, or a solar eclipse will begin.
This is pagan fear. The Christian God is Love. And we should be afraid of God not because He will punish us, we should be afraid to offend Him with our sins. And if we have apostatized from God and brought trouble on ourselves, we do not hide underground from the wrath of God, we do not wait for the wrath of God to pass by. On the contrary, we go to confession, turn to God with a prayer of repentance, ask God for mercy, and pray. Christians do not hide from God, on the contrary, they themselves strive for Him for permission from sins. And God gives the penitent a helping hand, covers with His grace.
And the Church warns that there will be a Second Coming, the Last Judgment, not to intimidate. If you are walking along the road, there is a pit ahead and they say to you: “Be careful, do not fall, do not stumble”, are you being intimidated? They warn you, help you avoid danger. So the Church says: “Do not sin, do no harm to your neighbor, all this will turn against you.”
It is not necessary to present God as a villain because He does not accept sinners into Paradise. Unrepentant souls will not be able to live in Paradise, they will not be able to endure the light and purity that is there, just as sick eyes cannot endure bright light.
Everything depends on ourselves, on our behavior, prayers.
The Lord can change everything through prayer. One woman came to us from Krasnodar. Her son was imprisoned. There was an investigation. She came to one judge, he said to her: "Your son is eight years old." He had a big temptation. She came to me, weeping, sobbing: “Father, pray, what should I do? The judge asks for five thousand dollars, and I don’t have that kind of money.” I say: “You know, mother, you will pray, the Lord will not leave you! What is his name? She said his name, we prayed. And in the morning she comes:
- Father, I'm going there now. The question is being decided whether they will imprison or let them go.
The Lord put it on her heart to say to her:
If you pray, God will arrange everything.
“I prayed all night. She came back after dinner and said:
They released my son. They acquitted him. Understood and released. Everything is fine.
This mother had so much joy, so much faith that the Lord heard her. And the son was not to blame, he was simply set up in business.
The son is completely out of hand, does not speak, does not obey. He is seventeen. How can I pray for him?
It is necessary to read the prayer “Theotokos, Virgin, rejoice” 150 times. The Monk Seraphim of Sarov said that one who walks in Diveevo along the groove of the Mother of God and reads “Hail Virgin Mother of God” a hundred and fifty times is under the special protection of the Mother of God. The Holy Fathers constantly talked about the veneration of the Mother of God, about praying to Her for help. The prayer of the Mother of God has great power. Through the prayers of the Most Holy Theotokos, the grace of God will descend on both the mother and the child. Righteous John of Kronstadt says: “If all the angels, saints, all people living on earth gather together and pray, the prayer of the Mother of God surpasses all their prayers in power.
I remember one family. This was while we were serving in the parish. One mother, Natalia, had two girls - Lisa and Katya. Lisa was thirteen or fourteen years old, she was capricious, self-willed. And although she went to church with her mother, she remained very restless. I marveled at my mother's patience. Every morning he gets up and says to his daughter:
Liza, let's pray!
- That's it, Mom, I read prayers!
Read fast, read slow!
Mom did not pull her up, patiently fulfilled all her requests. At this time, it was useless to beat and beat the daughter. Mother endured. Time passed, my daughter grew up, became calmer. Prayer together did her good.
There is no need to be afraid of temptations. The Lord will keep this family. Prayer has never harmed anyone. It only benefits our soul. Bragging harms us: “I read the Psalter for the deceased.” We boast, and this is a sin.
It is customary to read the Psalter at the head of the deceased. Reading the Psalter is very useful for the soul of that person who constantly went to church and with repentance passed into that world. The Holy Fathers say: when we read the Psalter over the deceased, for example, for forty days, then the sins fly off the deceased soul, like autumn leaves from a tree.
How to pray for the living or the dead, is it possible to imagine a person while doing this?
The mind must be pure. When we pray, we should not represent God, the Mother of God, the holy saint: neither Their faces, nor their position. The mind must be free from images. Moreover, when we pray for a person, we just need to remember that such a person exists. And if you imagine images, you can damage your mind. The Holy Fathers forbid it.
I'm twenty-four years old. As a child, I laughed at my grandfather who talked to himself. Now that he is dead, I myself began to talk to myself. An inner voice tells me that if I pray for him, then this vice will slowly leave me. Do I need to pray for him?
Everyone needs to know: if we condemn a person for some vice, we will definitely fall into it ourselves. Therefore, the Lord said: “Judge not, and you will not be judged. With what judgment you judge, you will be judged.”
You need to pray for your grandfather. Serve at mass, memorial notes for a memorial service, commemorate in the morning and evening in home prayers. It will be a great benefit to his soul and to us.
Is it necessary to cover your head with a scarf during home prayer?
“Every woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered puts her head to shame, for it is the same as if she were shaved,” says the Apostle Paul (1 Cor. 11:5). Orthodox Christian women, not only in the church, but also at home, cover their heads with a scarf: “A wife must have on her head the sign of the authority over her of angels” (1 Cor. 11:10).
Civil authorities organize additional bus routes to cemeteries on Easter. Is it correct? It seems to me that on this day the main thing is to be in the temple and commemorate the dead there.
For the dead there is a special day of remembrance - "Radonitsa". It happens on Tuesday in the second week after Easter. On this day, all Orthodox Christians go to congratulate their dead on the universal holiday of Easter, the Resurrection of Christ. And on the very day of Easter, believers should pray in the temple.
Routes organized by the city authorities for those people who do not go to church. Let them at least go there, at least in this way they will remember death and the finiteness of earthly existence.
Is it possible to watch live broadcasts from services from temples and pray? Often there is not enough health and strength to be present in the temple, but one wants to touch the Divine with one's soul.
The Lord vouchsafed me to visit a holy place, at the Holy Sepulcher. We had a video camera with us, and we filmed the holy place. Then they showed the footage to a priest. He saw footage of the Holy Sepulcher and said: "Stop this shot." He bowed to the ground and said: “I have never been at the Holy Sepulcher.” And directly kissed the image of the Holy Sepulcher.
Of course, the image on the TV cannot be worshiped, we have icons. The case I described is an exception to the rule. The priest did this in simplicity of heart, out of a sense of reverence for the depicted shrine.
On holidays, all Orthodox should strive to be in the temple. And if you don’t have health, strength to move, watch the broadcast, stay with the Lord with your soul. Let our soul, together with the Lord, participate in His feast.
Can I wear the Living Aid belt?
One person came to me. I ask him:
What prayers do you know?
– Of course, I even carry “Living Aids” with me.
He took out the documents, and there he had the 90th psalm “Alive in the help of Vyshnyago” rewritten. The man says: “My mother wrote to me, gave it to me, now I always carry it with me. Can?" “Of course, it’s good that you wear this prayer, but if you don’t read it, what’s the point? It is equivalent to when you are hungry you carry bread and food with you, but do not eat. You are weak, you can die. In the same way, “Living Helps” was written not to be carried in your pocket or on your belt, but so that you could pull it out every day, read it, and pray to the Lord. If you don't pray, you can die. That's when you, hungry, got some bread, ate, strengthened your strength and can calmly work in the sweat of your brow. So having prayed, you will give food for the soul and you will receive protection for the body.
Why is it so hard to start praying and follow the same prayer rule over and over? Why do some extraordinary events often become the reason for our prayerful aspiration to God? Indeed, very often it is a sharp change in the smooth flow of life that moves us to prayer and to reflection on why this happened and how I can continue to live.
Look for the answer to the question: "Why did this happen?" - needed only in prayer. St. John of the Ladder says: “Prayer, in its quality, is a stay and union of a person with God… reconciliation with God… a source of virtues… an indication of hope, annihilation of sorrow… a mirror of spiritual growth.” But often people perceive prayer in a difficult situation as a spell that must be pronounced so that everything becomes good. That is the way we want.
Probably, many Orthodox Christians had to answer the question: “We ordered a magpie, a prayer service, but it didn’t get better. Why didn't God help? And it is difficult to answer it, because the interlocutor, in principle, does not really understand - what is prayer?
Yes, and we ourselves sometimes forget that prayer is not only a verbal appeal to God for an urgent solution to our problems. First of all, it is hard, painstaking and long-term work. The Monk Barsanuphius of Optina writes: “The most difficult thing is prayer. Any virtue from exercise turns into a habit, and prayer until death requires motivation, therefore, a feat. Prayer is difficult because our old man opposes it, but it is also difficult because the enemy rises with all his might against the one who prays. Even the saints, it seems, should only console themselves with prayer, but at times it is difficult even for them.
Prayer work requires from us not only striving and time, but above all the concentration of all our forces. Prayer for a neighbor should actually become the work that we could do for the good of our neighbor. Sometimes, in order to help a loved one, we must, as it were, live part of his life, while remaining ourselves. All our strength, all our aspiration should be directed to a loved one.
How often do we order a prayer service in some difficult situation, put candles, send notes on a pilgrimage trip, send an SMS message asking us to pray, and we ourselves pray in the church for 10-15 minutes. But this, one might say, is the beginning of the prayerful work about which the holy fathers speak. And then in our prayer, motivation, achievement, labor should be manifested. No wonder the Monk Silouan of Athos said: "Praying for people is shedding blood." And the words of the Apostle Paul, pray without ceasing (1 Thess. 5:17) became an edification for all Christians and a model of prayer for many holy fathers, who persistently recommended constant prayer. For example, the Optina Elders advised to say the Jesus Prayer as often as possible, but not to look for any special pleasant feelings, spiritual consolations and pleasures.
Every day it is possible and necessary to reflect on what our prayer is, how much motivation, achievement and work are present in it. Reflecting on this, one can be convinced that instead of motivation, habit or simply the fear of not subtracting the prayer rule can lead us; instead of a feat - a search for easy conditions for prayer, and instead of a deep conscious labor - subtraction of the words of a prayer.
In fulfilling the rule of prayer, we must first of all turn all our attention to the mind. Saint Ignatius (Bryanchaninov) in his Fatherland gives the following example:
A certain disciple told about his father: “Once we made a rule. I was reading the psalms and missed one word without paying attention to it. When we finished the service, the elder said to me: “While performing my service, I imagine that a fire is burning in front of me, therefore my mind cannot deviate to the right or to the left. Where was your mind when you missed the word of the psalm? Don't you know that when you pray, you stand before God and speak to God?"
Perhaps, because prayer ceases to be a real work for each individual, it does not bear fruit and remains "unheeded." We completely forget how much the holy fathers devoted their time and energy to prayer. St. Mary of Egypt lived in the desert for almost 50 years, and prayer was her only deed. The Monk Seraphim of Sarov spent 1000 days and nights in prayerful standing on a stone, descending from it only for a short rest and refreshment with meager food. Saint Righteous John of Kronstadt served the Divine Liturgy every day for 50 years. There are many examples of selfless prayerful achievement.
When prayer is filled with motivation, achievement and labor, then it is filled with meaning and power. And resentment and misunderstanding (I prayed, but they didn’t hear me) - this is an occasion to take a closer look at yourself. With all strictness to yourself, start looking for mistakes and carefully follow any movement of your heart. And when motivation, achievement, labor in the fullness of these words begin to appear in our prayer, then we will begin, at least a little, but to find answers to our questions. And at least to a small extent, we will begin to see the will of God in our lives and we will be able to understand why this particular event happened to us.
Priest Stachy Sakharov
They say: if you don't want to, don't pray. Crafty carnal wisdom; if you don’t just start praying, you will completely lag behind prayer; the flesh wants it. The kingdom of heaven is taken by force(Matthew 11:12); without self-compulsion to do good, you will not be saved.
Do not believe your flesh, which threatens you with failure during prayer: it is lying. If you begin to pray, you will see that the flesh has become your obedient slave. Prayer will revive her.
Holy Righteous John of Kronstadt (1829-1908).
The business of our life goes like this: someone brings the labor of will from himself into the work and receives what is necessary for him from grace ... Prayer with self-compulsion and patience gives birth to prayer easy, pure and sweet. And that one, which occurs with self-compulsion, is a matter of will, and this one, performed with delight, is a matter of grace.
Saint Zosimas of Palestine (+ c.560).
Praying with self-compulsion is in our will; but to pray with compunction depends on God.
Rev. Joseph of Optina (1837-1911).
Prayer to the last breath is associated with the labor of a hard struggle.
Venerable Agathon the Egyptian(Vv.).
If this is a home prayer, then you can postpone it a little, for a few minutes ... Ifand after that it won’t come... force yourself to fulfill the prayer rule by force, straining and understanding what is being said, and feeling... Just like when a child does not want to bend down, they take him by the forelock and bend him down... Otherwise, this is what can happen: now there is reluctance - Tomorrow there will be reluctance, and then the end of prayer altogether.
Saint Theophan, the recluse Vyshensky (1815-1894).
He inspires various thoughts in the rag to embarrass the unreasonable, saying that prayer requires concentration, tenderness, etc., and if this is not the case, then it only angers God; some listen to these arguments and throw a prayer to the joy of the enemy ... One should not heed tempting thoughts, one must drive them away from oneself and, without embarrassment, continue prayer work. May the imperceptible fruit of this labor, may a person not experience spiritual delights, tenderness, etc. Still, prayer cannot remain inactive. She silently does her work.
Venerable Barsanuphius of Optina(1845-1913).
We, sinners, cannot constantly be on fire, in a fiery desire to be with God. Don't be embarrassed by this. Remember the widow who gave two mites. This is so little that we, in a worldly way, would throw these two mites: what are they for? Others gave much, but Christ said that the widow's small gift was greater than all, for she gave everything she had (see Mark 12:42-44). That's whydon't be embarrassed that you don't feel like praying, that you don't have repentance.
Do, do the outer, for the outer depends on you, the inner does not depend on you. But for the external, the Lord will give you the internal.
Hieromartyr Sergius Mechev(1892-1941).
Do not give up prayers when the enemy makes you feel insensible; whoever forces himself to prayer when his soul is dry is higher than the one who prays with tears.
Shiigumen Savva of Pskov-Pechersk(1898-1980).
In a state of complete cooling and darkening of the soul, it is imperative to follow the rule, despite coldness, distraction, and so on. "Give the blood and receive the Spirit."
Hegumen Nikon (Vorobiev) (1894-1963).
What to do if you do not want to pray or repent? Sometimes there are such states that there is no strength even to force oneself to pray. And if I still get up to pray, I don’t feel anything at the same time: my lips pronounce texts, but my mind is far away, not with God. And at confession, I sometimes do not feel any sense of repentance, but simply list the sins. I'm embarrassed by this kind of heartbreak. What does it mean? And can you fight it? Elena
Archpriest Alexy POTOKIN, Assistant Rector of the Church of the Icon of the Mother of God "Life-Giving Spring" in Tsaritsyn, answers:
Dear Elena! The Lord said: “... those who are not healthy do not need a doctor, but the sick, go and learn what it means: I want mercy, and not sacrifice? For I have come to call not the righteous, but sinners to repentance” (Matthew 9:12-13). The Lord came into the world, endured suffering, died on the Cross and rose from the dead for the sake of us - those who do not know how to pray, repent, love God and neighbor. It was for us that He created His Church with its saving sacraments. Re-read the Gospel carefully - it's all about this: about the poor in spirit, about the blind, about the paralytic, about the prodigal son. Every parable of Christ, every line of the Gospel reminds us of our spiritual state. Healthy people have never experienced such experiences as you, always praying, were confident in their righteousness - remember the parable of the publican and the Pharisee. And in the end, they not only did not accept Christ, but crucified Him. This is the kind of spiritual tragedy that leads to unwillingness to honestly look into your heart, to find out the truth about yourself, about your spiritual state.
Christ calls us to know ourselves, our inner world. And this inner world just opens up to us during prayer. When we communicate with people and become irritated with them, under the influence of emotions we often do not notice our irritability. And in prayer we strive for goodness, goodness - and then we notice coldness of heart, and lack of concentration, and chaos of thoughts and feelings. But it is already worth a lot if a person forces himself to come to church, to utter words of repentance, even if the heart is silent. It is we, the weak, the cold, who need the Law of God, the observance of church rules. When a person recovers (for real, not in a Pharisaic way), he prays and repents continuously, in any place where he is. Hermits and hermits sometimes did not resort to the sacraments of the Church for many years, but their hearts were completely given to God, they prayed unceasingly - not always with words, genuine prayer can also be silent.
But we sick people cannot pray without words, we need rules. As in everyday life, we need rules of politeness. Almost every person can remember moments of melancholy, despondency, when he was not happy to meet friends, acquaintances, they began to annoy him. But elementary secular ethics help not to break completely, to survive this period, to recover. The saint does not need this courtesy. One look from him will tell us much more than "hello" or "good morning." But since we are not saints, we need to remember the elementary courtesy. And church rules are spiritual courtesy. The heart is far from God, we do not strive to meet Him, but, understanding the abnormality, painfulness of this state, we come, as the Holy Church teaches us, to confession and pronounce words of repentance. This is hard work, slavish, but not useless. Saint Isaac the Syrian said that a person will never become a son of God if he has not been a slave and a hired hand. By forcing ourselves to repentance, we crush the stony ground. We cannot wait for a reward, we do not know when we will come to life and turn to God with sincere, heartfelt repentance. But if we sincerely ask God to forgive us our coldness, to revive our heart (“Create a pure heart in me,” we read every morning in the 50th psalm), a sincere repentant feeling will return sooner or later. In such "automatic" repentance, we still receive God's grace, which will certainly bear fruit. Just don't despair. Spiritual life is a path, not a pedestal. And there is no path without obstacles.
The problem when a person seems to be living a church life, but internally filling it with nothing, not feeling it, is relevant and concerns very many of us. Especially those who have been in the Church for a long time.
Archpriest Kirill Kaleda
As one modern church thinker said, special grace is given to those who just come to the Church, and to those who have labored in it for a very long time. Perhaps this is most clearly manifested in the grace that is given to the clergy.
Special grace is given to young priests who have just received the gift of the priesthood, they literally burn with their ministry. On the other hand, those priests who have served not even ten or twenty years, but dozens of years, have special grace. They acquire it in old age, which gives the people of God the right to call them elders.
That is, initially, when people just come to the Church, they experience a special state, and this is really a gift from God, which is given so that people feel the closeness of God, understand how good it is to be with God.
And then the Lord, as it were, retreats. He gives the members of the Church who believe in Him the opportunity to work. And only at the end of life does that special grace descend - for the fruits of many years of activity, many years of work.
St. Theophan the Recluse says that such spiritual fruits are still a gift from God and are given for a charitable life for decades. These “decades of years” can be quite long.
The life of a Christian can be compared to the life of an athlete. A sprint distance is probably much easier than a marathon, because to be able to distribute physical strength over fifty or more kilometers, not to use it at the very beginning, so that it lasts until the very end, to the finish line, is really a great art.
That's a big part of our life - this tiring, long stage of running between the first meters from the start, when everything is so good, and the time when we come to the finish line and see that the end is already near, before which we also experience a kind of spiritual climb.
And in most of life, unfortunately, there are often temptations when we are seized by everyday life, earthly vanity, earthly cares. Moreover, they can sometimes even be quite pious: you need to take care of your loved ones, elderly parents, and children. There are many problems that need to be solved, although some of them sometimes seem trifling. And it all sucks us in, takes away attention and strength.
The only way to deal with this is our fellowship with God, which primarily consists in prayer.
We must try to strictly fulfill the rule of prayer. Let it be difficult, and not even because we have a busy rhythm of life, not because we are busy in the family, at work. It is inwardly difficult for us to fulfill the rule of prayer, which is precisely the thread that does not allow us to break away from the Church, from God. And, of course, in such a situation, participation in church life, regular confession and communion is important.
Look at the holy martyrs
Yes, it happens during this main long period that a person does not feel anything, prays automatically, does not even pray, but reads. In such cases, one must turn to church experience, read the lives of the saints.
And it seems to me that the lives of the New Martyrs, who lived in conditions similar to ours, are very instructive in this regard. Not in the sense of persecution, which now, thank God, is not, but in the sense of the similarity of everyday concerns. Many of them had families, the need to organize a purely earthly life of their loved ones, to solve some domestic issues. Their experience shows that only unceasing prayer saved them. Although there is evidence from their lives that sometimes it was extremely, extremely difficult for them to pray.
I recall a case described by the writer Oleg Volkov in his autobiographical book Plunging into Darkness. He was arrested for his noble origin, several times. So he spent a lot of time in prisons and camps.
The most difficult was the last term in the forties. Oleg Volkov explains why. He always clearly understood that prayer saves him in difficult conditions of imprisonment. And suddenly, during his last term, he saw that he had lost the ability to pray. The heart turned to stone. At the same time, he knew that this was the only thread that led him, could save him. And this thread of salvation is torn.
He literally squeezed out some kind of prayer, some kind of appeal to God when they were driven to work. The Lord, seeing his efforts, perhaps even efforts out of despair, saved and preserved him. Oleg Volkov was released and, thank God, even managed to write several books, including about his experiences, about his life in the difficult conditions of camp and prison life.
When I was a young man, I had to communicate a lot with those people who went through trials in the camps. They also confirmed that only prayer kept them, and gave examples of how older fellow prisoners (I talked with those who were relatively young in the 30s), bishops, clergy, prayed in their cells. This prayer strengthened in faith both those who prayed and those who were near. These people, despite the experience, a really very hard life, were very bright.
So never give up. You should not be afraid to come and tell the priest about your state of mind at confession: the priest can suggest something at some right moment, say some kind of encouraging word.
Although I can tell from my priestly experience that it is very difficult to accept such a confession. It is much easier to confess a person who has just come to the Church and saw that he did not live a pious life at all and wants to change this life, and then he really changes this life. And now he sincerely repents of his sins: sometimes serious, sometimes not very serious. He feels the burning, the desire to be with God.
Another thing is when a person comes to confession and says: “I seem to be doing or trying to do everything that is supposed to be done, but somehow everything is between my fingers, and nothing happens. Inside - longing, it's hard and something is wrong in the family, not everything suits the way we would like. Children run in different directions. Love is not enough and strength is not enough to collect it all.
We must hope that the Lord sees our labors and at the right time He will strengthen. The most important thing is not to leave the "distance", to try to come to the sacraments more often. First of all, to the sacrament of the Eucharist.
Thank God that now in our Church, special attention and understanding of the importance of this sacrament is clearly visible, as evidenced by the recently adopted by our Church document "". It is important to draw strength from worship and participation in this sacrament. Even if it seems that you “stand up” the service, and you “read” the prayers. All the same, we must try, concentrating to the best of our ability, not to let go of the thread that we are holding on to. It is very easy to break...
Confession
Many people remember the feeling of the first confessions, when a person sincerely ardently repents, and then it is easy for him, as if he had thrown off a heavy burden. It is much easier to pick up a stone and move it out of the way than to mess around with small pebbles and even dust particles. It happens that you sweep them away with a broom, and they return to their place again from the breath of the wind. But if you do not try to clean up, you can drown in the garbage.
It is no coincidence that the Lord gave most of us several decades of life. It means that He provides that during these few decades we should somehow work spiritually and grow spiritually. And cut off those parts. Prayer. Irritated, I read the Jesus Prayer. I got irritated twice, I read the Jesus Prayer twice.
Here, I repeat again, it is important not to forget about confession, even if it sounds like the same thing again and again. We regularly sweep our house, and the dust again flies through the window. But anyway, we again try to clean the house for the holiday, wipe the dust, put the red corner in order, and so on. Let's clean up, spread a beautiful tablecloth and we have a sense of celebration. It's the same here.
If the feeling of a holiday does not arise, if at each confession and after it there is insensibility, then you need to talk with the priest, with the confessor, so that he gives, maybe some kind of penance, maybe an additional rule.
Sometimes it is useful to add some new prayers to the evening rule, some kind of akathist, some kind of canon in order to enliven, so as not just to glide over the already familiar words of the prayer, almost automatically repeating them. In order to force, among other things, both your mind and your lips to think about some new content. It happens to be useful.
Must wait
If we have ceased to feel the meaning of fasting, it seems to us that we are fasting purely automatically, it is still important to remember that we are working for the Lord.
It’s probably good when a person has a skill, and then something unpleasant happened in life, and instead of panicking, and maybe even mentally cursing, he begins to make even the simplest prayer: “Lord, have mercy.” Even if it's automatic. It means that this person has risen to some certain level. You have to constantly work on yourself, take care of yourself. Try to use some new spiritual techniques, including prayer ones.
I repeat that turning to the experience of the Church helps a lot. To how our predecessors, who reached the Kingdom of Heaven, did it. Now, thank God, access to such literature is open and wide. Even on the phone - I opened the Internet and, while riding in transport, I took it and read some relevant short story, instead of staring at who knows where.
If it seems to a person that his church life has no meaning, that there is no Christ in it, he must wait. After all, when we run a marathon, we can run for some time through a deserted unpleasant place, and then run out onto a beautiful road, along the edges of which there are gardens.
Naturally, there are such states when the Lord, as it were, departs. But this does not mean that He leaves us. He is watching us closely. And at some moments in life, if we really try to follow His commandments, He saves us.
I think that each of us can testify that there were such moments in life that seemed to be a combination of some circumstances, but we understand that, by and large, this was a manifestation of the will of God. Even at that moment when we were completely far from Him and, perhaps, did not even think about Him at all.
If we talk about the fear of burnout, it is very important to acquire humility here. Humility and patience. Because the one who assumes a lot about himself, that is, roughly speaking, is proud, burns out. Then he sees that he does not correspond to what he thought about himself, thought up. And because of this despair leaves the stage.
And, to our great regret, there are cases in our lives when even priests say: “I can’t do it anymore, that’s it, I was able to do it, now I’m leaving the race and stop serving.” But, this is really due to the fact that at some point a person became proud and thought a lot about himself.
If we humble ourselves and bear our cross with patience, then all will be well. “He who endures to the end will be saved” (Matthew 10:22) – they refer not only to the martyrs who suffered for the faith, but also to us. We need to patiently bear those hardships of life and those life circumstances, that cross that is given to everyone in order to carry it to the end. Indifference, cooling is one of the parts of life, a test that the Lord allows.
At the end of our conversation, I would like to recall the words of St. Peter of Damascus: Those who have already received the betrothal of eternal life here need patience in order to receive in the future the perfect reward for their deeds.».
And also remember St. Theophan the Recluse, who said: “ Patience in life is a gift of God and is given to those who seek and even through the strength of the straining to hold on to embarrassment, turmoil, malfunctions».
