1. Father Veniamin, let us continue our conversation, recognising that prayer not only brings a person closer to God, but unites them with God. There is no doubt whatsoever that man has a need for prayer…
From a spiritual perspective, man’s need for prayer is above all other needs. Indeed, man cannot live without prayer; the stronger the faith in his soul, the deeper his thirst for prayer.
A person who succeeds in strengthening their faith and prayer through personal motivation can themselves become a source of inspiration for the strengthening of faith and the renewal of prayer within their social circle, for we are all called to a holy life, without, however, making the attainment of holiness an end in itself. In this way, they can help society move away from a superficial way of life. Prayer is, therefore, a factor in the spiritual healing and strengthening of the individual, but also in the healing and strengthening of social cohesion on a deeper level.
Bearing in mind that, through prayer, a person steps before God to speak to Him about their soul, their perfection and their salvation, prayer remains our supreme duty, that of all Christians, as we see and recognise from what has been stated here its importance and relevance, being the same yesterday, today and for ever; it is the sign of moral and spiritual supremacy in the world. If, hypothetically, prayer were to cease on earth at some point, innocence would be left defenceless, sin without forgiveness, virtue without the possibility of perfection, and the world would plunge into the darkness of corruption and death, leading to the eternal night of hell, and the existence of the Saints as living vessels of the Church, in whom we discover the work of the Holy Spirit, or the contemporary commemoration of Saint Nicodemus, would have no meaning, no purpose!…
Therefore, prayer is a miracle that works miracles: it brings God down and lifts the soul up to Him; it is a miracle which we can perform and in which we can partake daily, bowing the knees of the body but, above all, of the soul, and lifting our minds towards the Lord and towards ‘His household’.
All good deeds draw a person closer to God, but prayer does more: ‘It unites them’, being recognised as the mother and queen of all good deeds. This is what all the great spiritual fathers teach us.
Prayer is man’s relationship with God, communion and union with Him. It is not a magical practice, but an act of freedom. Whilst magical practices are performed to satisfy human will, prayer is performed through man’s free surrender to the will of God. When prayer is not offered under these conditions, but seeks to fulfil man’s own will, it is in fact a magical practice.
Prayer… is not a magical practice, but an act of freedom. Whilst magical practice is carried out to satisfy human will, prayer is carried out through man’s free surrender to God’s will.
In the patristic tradition, as Father Sophrony observed, three modes of prayer are distinguished. The first is characterised by the imagination, the second by intellectual understanding, and the third by the contemplation of God. The third form is considered the correct one, but the first two are also useful for a certain period of time, owing to man’s inability to attain such perfect prayer from the outset. In particular, the first mode – which keeps a person in the realm of fantasy or imagination – if it becomes entrenched and is not overcome, keeps a person in spiritual barrenness and may cause unhealthy states. But neither does the second, which is evidently superior to the first, lead to freedom from the passions and, consequently, to the vision of God. The third way, the perfect one, is that through which the human mind unites with the heart and draws near to God through purity, without images or forms.
We would also point out the following: ‘The inner chamber of the mind is the heart’. The Gospel exhorts: ‘When you pray, go into your inner room’ (Matthew 6:6); this refers to the mind entering the heart, for Christ has been there since Baptism; there the bride dwells with the bridegroom and is united with him; that is to say, our soul is united with Christ in the heart.
2. We are caught up in a great many daily activities, beset by endless crises – economic, social, political – in which we are required to adapt our lives to an environment that is ‘weak’ in faith, and at times even hostile. We need ever more ‘motivation’ to find the right moment for prayer. When is the best time for prayer?
Many consider prayer to be superfluous or unsuitable for the emancipated person of our time. Some ask: What can prayer possibly offer? Or how can you still feel emancipated and dignified, given that you resort to prayer? In reality, however, these questions must be turned on their head: How can a person live without prayer? Or how can one feel fulfilment and freedom if one does not nourish oneself with prayer? Prayer is an ontological necessity of human nature. Just as an icon exists and retains its value only in relation to the One it represents, so too does man, as a being ‘in the image of God’, exists, retains his value and finds fulfilment only in relation to the One whose image or icon he is.
It is well known that every age has had, and continues to have, its own specific daily concerns. To draw near to God, man must set aside all worldly cares, detach his mind from created things and lift it up to their Maker. And to achieve this, he needs to put his attention or mindfulness into action.
To the question: ‘What is the most suitable time for prayer?’, the most appropriate answer is: ‘A person’s entire life’; for this is what Christ the Saviour Himself demands, saying: ‘Be watchful, therefore, at all times, praying’ (Luke 21:36). A life lived in a truly Christian manner fulfils this exhortation; for everything we think, say and do with a mind enlightened by righteousness and animated by love is itself prayer, as Blessed Augustine says: ‘Through faith, hope and love, with unceasing desire, we pray without ceasing’.
Man needs God’s help at all times; therefore, let him pray to Him always. The Holy Church has ordained that he should pray especially in the morning, at midday and in the evening, before and after meals, and when he hears the toaca and the church bells ringing.
Apart from these times, when else should a Christian pray?
He ought to pray also in times of trouble, during trials, before any important undertaking, and when he feels particularly drawn by the spirit of prayer. God urges us to pray when we are in need: ‘Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify Me’ (Psalm LXIX:16); The Apostles prayed in the ship whilst threatened by a storm, and the Christians prayed for Saint Peter the Apostle whilst he was in prison (Acts of the Apostles 12:5). The Saviour commands us to pray when we are beset by temptations: ‘Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation’ (Matthew 26:41).
Likewise, when a person has important matters to attend to, they should begin with prayer. Tobit says: ‘Ask the Lord to guide your ways’ (Tobit 4:20). Christ the Saviour prayed both before and after choosing His Apostles (Luke 6:12), before the raising of Lazarus (John 11:41) and before His Holy Passion, in the Garden of Gethsemane (Luke 22:41–42). The Holy Apostles prayed before the election of Matthias (Acts I, 24) and Saint Peter the Apostle prayed before raising Tabitha from the dead (Acts IX, 40). Blessed Jerome goes even further, saying: ‘When we leave the house, let us arm ourselves with prayer, and when we return, let us pray before sitting down’.
3. Ideally, we should ask in prayer for the attainment of heavenly blessings; yet we most often pray to obtain things of which we have an immediate need, in particular. Should we invoke a God who grants every request, or a God who perfects?
Man, as a psycho-physical being, has the right to ask for both spiritual and physical blessings in his prayers. When they pray, they may receive any good thing, and God answers the believer’s prayers more swiftly when they are accompanied by good deeds and fasting; when they call upon the intercession of the Saints; and when they are offered by several people together.
What is the most perfect model of prayer?
The most perfect model of prayer is the ‘Lord’s Prayer’ or ‘Our Father’, composed by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, at the request of one of the Apostles: ‘Lord, teach us to pray’ (Luke 11:1). Then the Saviour taught them the ‘Lord’s Prayer’ (Matthew 6:9–13). Therefore, whoever recites this prayer utters the very words of our Saviour and truly prays in His name; that is why it is called the ‘Lord’s Prayer’.
4. What happens to those who do not pray?
In today’s society, there is a noticeable weakening of faith. Consequently, there is also a kind of indifference towards prayer. Perhaps the notion of a secularised society does not, however, indicate a society that is entirely unbelieving, but rather one in which the majority of members no longer practise prayer except very rarely, on exceptional occasions, having lost the strength needed to relate to the Holy Fathers of the Church – who ought to be their examples.
In this regard, the great theologian, Father Dumitru Stăniloae, in his work The Jesus Prayer and the Experience of the Holy Spirit, states that: ‘For those who wish to maintain the vigour of their faith through prayer, today, a twofold problem: that of defending one’s faith against the harmful influences of an environment weakened in faith, and that of defending the practice of prayer within a society that has largely lost the habit of it. Whilst people of the past found in their social environment a factor through which to strengthen their faith and the practice of prayer, today this environment is a factor leading to spiritual apathy, a factor against which those who wish to maintain their faith and prayer must defend themselves”.
Unfortunately, there are many people in the world who never pray; they regard this practice of Christian and human life as utterly useless.
This naturally raises the question: What happens to those who do not pray? The answer is clear: a person who does not pray has no strength in their struggle against life’s temptations. Referring to this category of people, the great theologian and profound expert on the Christian life, Saint John Chrysostom, says: ‘Those who do not pray are very easily led astray and fall into temptation and sin, having no connection with God. He who does not pray has no strength in the struggle against life’s temptations. He is like a soldier without a weapon, like a bird without wings, like a reed swaying whichever way the wind blows; yet he does not turn to God to ask Him or to serve Him. He is like a fish out of water’. He is, therefore, utterly powerless. He receives no help from God, from whom all grace comes. Furthermore, Saint Ambrose of Milan states that: ‘He who does not pray lies in the realm of matter; he is not written in the Book of Life in heaven and has no place in the Kingdom of God’. At the Last Judgement, no one will escape, but they will be told: ‘I do not know you!’ And woe betide the one who receives this reply!
To the question: ‘What happens to those who do not pray?’, the answer is very simple: those who do not pray easily fall into sin and cannot be saved. Those who do not pray have no strength in the struggle against temptation. If the Saviour spent whole nights in prayer, ‘what must we do to be saved?’, asks Saint Ambrose of Milan. The Saviour Himself tells us what to do: ‘Watch and pray’ (Matthew 26:41).
He who does not pray easily falls into sin and cannot be saved. He who does not pray has no strength in the struggle against temptation.
The Orthodox missionary Father Alphonse Rachel Goettman, born in France, speaking about ‘The Jesus Prayer, the Prayer of the Heart’, states that: ‘This union is as intimate and fruitful as that between the vine and its branch. It is wrought by the Word of God! It is permanently rooted in and supported by the objective gift of Holy Tradition, from which it draws both its validation and its criteria.”
5. The Church has never been indifferent to the requests of the faithful. We see this in the canons of prayer as well as in the litany of petitions, where we find numerous references to earthly life. But what should we ask of God in prayer?
In this world, there are many people who say they do not know how to pray. Those in such a situation must know that even a single thought raised to Him with devotion is enough for God. God does not need elaborate phrases. He desires prayer to spring from the believer’s heart and for them to have faith that He can fulfil all their requests.
Naturally, the question arises: What should we ask of God in our prayers?
In our prayers to God, we must first ask for those things which bring glory to His majesty and aid in the salvation of our souls.
But do people know how to pray? Do they know how much and how to ask, and above all, how to give thanks for what they receive? A series of teachings from the great theologians instructs us on how to pray and how to experience that uplifting moment when we speak with God.
The Venerable Porphyrios Kavsokalivitis (1906–1991) teaches us that it would be preferable not to ask, when we pray, for things such as deliverance from illness or the resolution of our problems, but rather, we should ask Christ for His help and the strength to cope with the troubles and trials we face in this life. It is natural to ask God for what we desire, but let us not forget that this is, after all, a selfish thing. Do we know what God wants?
Speaking of prayer, the great theologian Origen says: ‘And the earthly and small things you need for the needs of the body, the Father will give you in addition, in the measure required’.
The French scholar Blaise Pascal admirably captured, in a few words, the greatness of the one who prays: ‘When is man the greatest being in the world? When he kneels and prays to his Creator; then he surpasses the whole universe.’
Let the Christian ask in his prayers for those things which increase the glory of God and aid the salvation of his soul, as our Saviour Christ urges us when He says: ‘Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things (that is, food, drink and clothing) will be added to you’ (Matthew 6:33), or, in other words: ‘Ask in your prayers for heavenly and imperishable things, so that by receiving them as such you may inherit the Kingdom of Heaven and enjoy the greatest of all blessings’. He who seeks heavenly blessings also gains earthly ones. King Solomon asked for wisdom, so that he might govern the people of Israel well, and God gave him not only wisdom, but also an abundance of earthly blessings (1 Kings 3:11–13).
Let the Christian ask in his prayers for those things which increase the glory of God and aid the salvation of his soul, as our Saviour Christ exhorts us when He says: ‘Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things (that is, food, drink and clothing) will be added unto you’.
St John Chrysostom teaches that ‘we must pray for the necessities of life, both for ourselves and for others, but we must take care not to ask for things that pander to our evil inclinations, for God does not heed such prayers (James 4:3). Whoever asks God for wealth, positions of power, vain glory or other such things does not seek the glory of God, but fleeting things; such a person reduces God, the Lord and Master, to the status of a servant of his own desires, his greed, and his dissolute life. How could God possibly hear him?’.
Evagrius the Monk teaches us very wisely when he says: ‘Let us not ask God for what we want, but for what He wants’.
6. We also need immediate confirmation, certainties… We even come across recommendations regarding certain ‘powerful’ prayers, which are spread all too readily through mass media as well as social media. Many of these have pious content, without the source being identified, but they do not always uphold the true faith. It is also fitting to speak of our discipline regarding the content of the prayers we recite.
Indeed, the media and social media promote ‘powerful, miracle-working prayers, recited at critical moments’. They help the believer to navigate life’s difficulties more easily and to hope for a swift resolution to the problems they face. We find such prayers addressed to God, to the Mother of God and to a number of saints.
For our prayer to become an effective means of bearing fruit within us, we must offer it in such a way that both our mind and our heart receive its meaning. In this regard, the great masters of prayer recommend three very simple methods: do not begin prayer without preparing yourself for it, even for a short while; do not offer it haphazardly, but with attention and feeling; and after finishing your prayer, do not immediately return to your usual activities.
To penetrate to the heart of every word and to take its meaning to heart means to understand what you are saying and to feel what you understand. No other rules are needed. These two principles – understanding and feeling – if properly fulfilled, fully adorn any prayer and endow it with all its fruitful work.
These two principles – understanding and feeling – if properly fulfilled, fully adorn any prayer and share in all its fruitful work.
7. How many kinds of prayer are there?
Numerous saints, renowned for their virtue in this field and who devoted themselves entirely to the practice of prayer, have spoken of the different kinds of prayer.
Thus, Saint John Climacus (579–649), in his work The Ladder, says: ‘To stand before God is common to all who pray; but prayer is characterised by great variety and diversity’, listing the different attitudes that can be observed amongst the monks present in the church. Thus, he writes that prayer, for the one who prays, is of four kinds: defiled prayer, stolen prayer, lost prayer and pure prayer. Impure or defiled prayer is found in all those who harbour in their minds the evils and defilements they have once witnessed and which resurface at the time of prayer. Especially today, when wickedness is so widespread, when people look at so many abominations that appear before them—which people seek out and find on television, on video, in indecent films, and imprint them on their souls, from where they often cannot be removed. When they begin to pray, they pray with good thoughts, and then immediately they stray from those good thoughts towards evil ones, and the defiled thoughts that a person carries within their soul take hold. It then becomes a stolen prayer, as if someone were taking it from you. You read some prayers and find that your mind isn’t on them, as if someone were stealing your good thoughts, even though you have them; you start out with them. Then there is the lost prayer, a prayer for which you no longer feel any affection. But there are also people who have a pure prayer, because they also have a pure life. Whoever has a pure life also has a pure prayer. Whoever has a defiled life also has a defiled prayer. Whoever is indifferent ends up with interruptions in prayer, with deviations from prayer.
Furthermore, regarding the different kinds of prayer, Bishop Sahdona, also known by the Greek name Martyrios or the Latin name Martyrius, was a religious writer who lived at the beginning of the 7th century; he lists numerous aspects, such as: ‘Attending the services, the hymns of praise, the mind’s soaring towards God, sighs before Him, kneeling, supplications, the spiritual leaping of the heart, the outpouring of tears, being set ablaze in the spirit, the flame of love, the zeal of thought, undistracted contemplation of God’.
The very fact that such diverse terms are used indicates an effort at classification; certain terms have thus gradually acquired specific meanings: vocal, mental and affective prayer, meditation, contemplation, etc. The authors who use them spontaneously seek to arrange them in a particular order. The problem lies in finding a suitable criterion.
All spiritual guides tailor their teaching to the progress of their disciples. They seek to determine which type of prayer is suitable for beginners, for those making progress, and for the perfected. Thus, for example, John the Solitary describes the prayers suitable for people who are ‘somatic, psychic and pneumatic: bodily, psychological and spiritual’. All address their requests to God. However, according to Abba Evagrius, the petitions made by those who labour in ‘action’ differ from those made by those who aspire to ‘vision’.
Saint Symeon the New Theologian (949–1022), speaking of ‘The Method of Holy Prayer and Mindfulness’, says that ‘there are three kinds of prayer and mindfulness through which the soul either ascends or descends. It is lifted up if it employs them at the right time, or it is brought down if it employs them thoughtlessly at the wrong time. And vigilance and prayer are linked to one another like the soul and the body: if one is lacking, the other cannot endure. Their union takes place in this way: first, vigilance opposes sin like a watchman and forerunner; following in its wake, prayer immediately dispels and erases the evil thoughts that have been thwarted by the sentinel, for vigilance alone cannot accomplish this. These, then, are the gate of life and death: vigilance and prayer. If we purify it through vigilance, we improve ourselves; but if we defile it through a lack of vigilance, we harden our hearts.
Since we have said, then, that vigilance and prayer are of three kinds, we must describe the nature of each, so that he who wishes to attain life andperfect it, may choose from these three distinct kinds the best one, lest, by ignorance, he should choose the worst and thus be deprived of what is best.
The characteristics of the first kind of prayer are as follows: when one offers this prayer, one lifts one’s hands and eyes, together with one’s mind, towards heaven, and the mind forms divine thoughts and imagines heavenly beauties, hierarchies of angels and the tents of the righteous; and, simply put, everything they have heard from the Scriptures they gather in their mind during prayer; in this way he stirs his soul to divine love by gazing at the heavens, and sometimes even shedding tears from his eyes. In doing so, his heart swells with sweet pride, and he considers what is happening to him to be a divine consolation. For this reason, he prays that he may always remain engaged in such an occupation.
But these are signs of delusion. For good is not good when it is not done well. One such as this, even if he devotes himself to a life of the utmost tranquillity, cannot help but lose his mind. And even if he does not fall into such a passion, he still cannot attain the virtues and a state of dispassion. It is through this sort of delusion that those who see lights with their senses, smell pleasant fragrances, and hear voices—and many other such things—have been deceived. Some of them have fallen completely under the power of demons, being carried from place to place and from country to country. Others, not recognising the one who disguises himself as an angel of light and therefore welcoming him, have been deceived by him and have remained unrepentant to the end, accepting no counsel from men.
Often, four fundamental forms of prayer have been identified, based on an analysis of the four terms mentioned by Saint Paul the Apostle in his First Epistle to Timothy: ‘petitions, prayers, intercessions and thanksgivings’ (1 Timothy 2:1).
The anthropological nature of Eastern spirituality justifies the division proposed by Saint Theophan the Recluse (1815–1891) as the most appropriate for classifying the various stages corresponding to the composite structure of the human being. The proposed formulation indicates the predominant element: bodily or vocal prayer; mental prayer; prayer of the mind and heart, or of the heart alone; prayer of feeling; spiritual prayer; or contemplation. The aspect of the will seems to be missing from this scheme. However, Saint Theophan is well aware of and explains the role of the will in prayer when he speaks of ‘laborious prayer’. He knows that the term ‘mental prayer’ can also be applied to the three stages that follow vocal prayer. Undoubtedly, the distinction between private and communal prayer should be added. This final division does not fit within the framework of spiritual progress according to the dynamics of the human ‘trichotomy’.
According to the Orthodox Catechism, in terms of its scope or content, prayer is of three kinds: prayer of praise to God; prayer of thanksgiving; and prayer of supplication, all in accordance with His will: ‘We praise You; we bless You; we give thanks to You, O Lord, and we pray to You, our God’, according to the Divine Liturgy of St John Chrysostom.
1. The prayer of glorification or praise. Through this kind of prayer, the Christian’s overflowing love and admiration for God, because of His perfection, are expressed. Enraptured by the beauty of divine perfection, the soul raises hymns of praise to this perfection. This prayer is the most complete, for it is a pure offering of the soul to God for God’s sake, and it unites the believer fully with God. It is the prayer of eternity. It is the song of the angels and the righteous in heaven; it is the song of all creation. For all living things praise the Lord: creation through its very order, and the faithful, consciously and of their own free will. And the whole life of the believer must be a hymn of praise to God.
Through the prayer of praise, we bless and praise God for His immeasurable greatness and for His eternal glory, as the Psalmist says: ‘I will bless You every day and praise Your name for ever and ever. Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised, and His greatness has no end’ (Psalm 144:2). The traveller marvels at and praises the enchanting places he encounters along his way, but what a difference there is between the beauty of the world and the radiance of God! The angels, beholding directly the infinite divine glory, praise and bless Him, singing: ‘Holy, Holy, Holy!’ (Isaiah 6:3), just as they sang praises to the newborn Child Jesus in Bethlehem (Luke 2:14). The angels gaze upon God ‘face to face’, filled with wonder, and their prayers are transformed into an unceasing song of praise. Singing praises to God is the occupation of the inhabitants of heaven (Revelation 4:8–11); but we too on earth, knowing the glory of God through creation and through Revelation, are bound first and foremost to praise God in our prayers. For this reason, the Church ceaselessly praises God. Her hymns: the Trisagion…, ‘Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of Hosts…’, the Great and Lesser Doxologies…, ‘We praise Thee…’, as well as other Doxologies chanted on various occasions, are full of praise offered to God. The hymn to the Mother of God is also a hymn of praise: ‘My soul magnifies the Lord…’ (Luke 1:46).
2. The prayer of thanksgiving. This type of prayer expresses the believer’s gratitude for God’s providence. It is said ‘for God’s providence’, because the true Christian gives thanks to God not only for the spiritual or material blessings He pours out upon his life, but also for the sufferings and misfortunes that befall him, being convinced that even when the Father’s hand strikes, it is still a gift of His boundless love and wisdom. You do not need to understand every event in your life; it is enough to believe that the Father watches over this life, so that you may give thanks to Him for everything, just as Saint Paul the Apostle exhorts the Christians of Ephesus: ‘I give thanks always for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ’ (Ephesians 5:20). And not only for what concerns us, but also for what concerns the Church and other believers. And since God’s care surrounds us on all sides and unceasingly, thanksgiving must always rise up to God from all our hearts.
The prayer of thanksgiving is the means by which we show that we remember, with gratitude and love, all the blessings received from God. That God asks us to be grateful to Him for all His goodness is evident from these words of Saint Paul the Apostle: ‘Pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you’ (1 Thessalonians 5:18). Noah’s prayer upon leaving the ark was one of thanksgiving (Genesis 8:19); likewise that of the people of Israel upon leaving Egypt (Exodus 15:1–21). God, however, often withholds His blessings from those who do not know how to value them and never give Him thanks. For this reason, instead of blessings, troubles come upon them.
3. The prayer of petition. When we ask God for everything we need for our lives, this is a prayer of petition, or the prayer through which we beseech Him: ‘May He forgive our sins, so that He may deliver us from punishment and pour out His holy grace upon our souls and bodies’. God Himself desires that we ask Him for everything we need; for without asking, He gives nothing (James 4:2). God wants us to pray to Him earnestly; He wishes not only that we should pray to Him, but even that we should press Him, says Saint Gregory the Dialogist. Undoubtedly, God knows all our needs (Matthew 6:32) and could fulfil them without our asking; but He wishes us to pray to Him, lest we regard His goodness as something He owes us; rather, as blessings for which we should be grateful from the heart, with humility and love. The Saviour’s prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane and on the Cross; that of Saint Stephen, the Archdeacon and Martyr, at the moment he was stoned to death (Acts of the Apostles 7:59); of the Christians who prayed for the release of Saint Peter the Apostle from prison (Acts of the Apostles 12:5), of the Holy Apostles in the boat caught in the storm (Matthew 8:25) and others like them are exemplary prayers of supplication.
A prayer of petition is the presentation of our desires to God, with the confidence that He, if they are in accordance with His will, will fulfil them. It flows naturally from the heart of the son to his Father. What son, who loves his father, would not turn to his father with confidence in all circumstances of life, to ask for his help? It is true that God knows what we need and gives it to us without our asking. Nevertheless, He wants us to ask Him for His gifts, so that we may be aware of our dependence on Him, lift our thoughts to Him, and show filial trust in Him. Prayer of petition is not necessary so that God may become aware of our needs, but so that we may realise that our very existence depends on God. It is the condition that the believer must fulfil so that God may pour out His graces upon his life. That is why the Saviour advises: ‘Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you; for if you, though evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask Him’ (Matthew 7:7–11). This does not, however, mean that the person praying is forcing God to fulfil their wish. The purpose of prayer of petition is not to impose our will upon God, but to align ourselves with God’s will: ‘Not my will, but Yours’ (Matthew 26:39); this is the way and the goal of prayer of petition.
Otherwise, we ask without knowing what we are asking for. The prayer of petition must be offered with humility, in this spirit of surrender to God. Yet it must be full of confidence and perseverance. For God gives us everything that contributes to our salvation. Prayer, however, must concern itself first and foremost with spiritual goods, and with material goods only insofar as they serve salvation. In the ‘Lord’s Prayer’, all the petitions are spiritual; only one also refers to ‘our daily bread’, as the strictly necessary condition for human life. Whether our request is granted or not, by the very fact that we pray, that we are in communion with God, our soul is revitalised, thus gaining new strength.
Whether our request is granted or not, by the very fact that we pray, that we are in communion with God, our soul is revitalised, thereby gaining new strength.
8. To remain in the spirit of the Fathers, guidance is certainly needed. Please tell us about the role of the spiritual father in guiding us along the path of prayer…
The importance of spiritual fathers in guiding the faithful in proper prayer is essential.
The spiritual life means living in the Holy Spirit, that is, having the true faith and doing good deeds. The spiritual father fulfils his God-ordained duty for our salvation and guidance, to help us purify ourselves, be enlightened, and attain spiritual perfection. That is, to find fulfilment in Christ and to live in Him, to reach, with Him, the right hand of God the Father, in salvation, which some experience when they go to church, or when they pray, or of which they have heard in the holy books they have read.
There are many teachings of the Holy Fathers in which the relationship between the spiritual father and his spiritual son is extolled, and a great many enlightening words about what a spiritual father is.
From Holy Scripture, I shall offer a single argument regarding how God views the spiritual father. We see him as a man; that is how he appears to us, with hands, feet, eyes and ears. But how does God think of this spiritual father of ours? What does He call him? In the Old Testament, God says to Israel: ‘My Angel, your guide’ (Exodus 23:23). God calls the guiding father ‘My Angel’. Likewise, in the Book of Revelation, God sends a message to the bishops in various places: Sardis, Philadelphia, Laodicea, Ephesus, Pergamum, etc., and each time He addresses them as follows: ‘Write to the angel of the Church in Ephesus’, or ‘Write to the angel of the Church in Thyatira’. Here, the message is not addressed to any angel of the Church in those cities or of the Kingdom of Heaven, but to the bishops in these various places.
God calls the clergy of the Church ‘angels’. What is an angel? It is a herald, a counsellor, a guide. The spiritual father also has this calling. He is the guardian angel, the counsellor, or, very often, the admonisher of his spiritual children. And it is good to have this image, this word of God, engraved upon our hearts.
As a counsellor, he guides his children through the various circumstances of life; they come to him with all sorts of questions, from the simplest to the most complicated, from everyday problems to life choices: what should I do with my life, which path should I choose, should I get married or not, which profession should I choose, which university should I attend? All these choices must be discussed with this guardian angel of ours, appointed by God, whom we must listen to, love and pray for, so that God may grant him the word of life and discernment to guide us along the right path, a path which is Christ Himself.
And if we, as disciples, approach him in prayer, God fulfils yet another spiritual role through this father of ours: that of a prophet. We all want to know many things. If we go to our spiritual father in prayer, God places on his lips, in his mind and in his heart the word of life, telling us what to choose. And we see this gift being fulfilled in our lives. We do not see it immediately. Perhaps we go to our spiritual father with a question and do not accept, do not fully receive, the word he speaks to us. However, by submitting to the law of obedience, we put it into practice, and after a while we see that God has placed upon our father’s lips the word of life, a prophetic word. It is then that we see, in the most practical way possible, this work, this gift from God bestowed upon the spiritual father.
The spiritual father has many duties. First and foremost, he prays to God for his children; then he acts as a teacher, a spiritual healer, a judge, a guide and a father. Everyone’s soul is wounded by love and seeks this love, for they are made in the image of God, Who is Love. Everyone is made in the image of this love and can only find fulfilment in this infinite love, which is called God. I believe the most unpleasant situation arises when the spiritual father acts as a teacher or judge of his spiritual children’s behaviour. Then he is compelled to rebuke them for their sins and lapses; and if the heart is not open enough to receive this rebuke, it becomes wounded and many hostile thoughts arise within it.
Of course, the spiritual father has words of rebuke, but also words of encouragement. ‘Your rod and your staff, they have comforted me’ (Psalm XXII, 5), says the prophet David. The spiritual father’s rod and staff represent the harsh word that rouses one from numbness, for the disciple, often knowingly, errs in various ways.
The spiritual life means: an unattainable height of love, an unfathomable depth of humility, united by an unquenchable fire of prayer. This trinity of virtues—love, humility and prayer—must never be separated. The other virtues revolve around them, as necessary tools for uniting us with God. Without a spiritual father, however, we cannot truly come to live them out.
Thus, the spiritual father fulfils the role of both judge and physician. As a judge, he must know the Law of God by which to guide his disciple. As a healer, he naturally needs to know human anatomy, but not so much that of the body as that of the spirit, so that he may know how to apply the right remedy to the respective wound, to the rational part, to the desiring part.
As a guide, the spiritual father must know the way, and the way is none other than Christ, Who said: ‘I am the Way, the Truth and the Life’ (John 14:6). He guides the spiritual son by holding his hand when he is a child, and at other times letting him go, so that he may take a few steps to experience life for himself; and when he falls, he may hasten back to the spiritual father to confess his falls and defilements, so that he may receive purification.
As a guide, the spiritual father must know the way, and the way is none other than Christ.
The spiritual father fulfils many spiritual roles. This obedience to the spiritual father expresses a profound mystery, hidden in God; it is the way in which God reveals Himself to us in the most practical manner, day by day.
A brief glance at the Holy Scriptures makes it clear that Christ the Saviour instituted the Holy Sacrament of Confession by the fact that He Himself performedit for the first time during His earthly ministry to many people who showed their faith in Him, seeking His help, confessing their sins, and then receiving absolution from the perfect Spiritual Father, along with an exhortation to amend their lives.
We are in great need of a spiritual father, for through him we find Christ. There is never a moment when anyone, whatever their circumstances, can do without a spiritual guide, for the Holy Scripture declares: ‘Those who have no guide fall like leaves’ (Proverbs 11:14).
The question arises: How should one go about choosing a suitable spiritual father?
You proceed in the same way as when you go to the doctor: you ask which of them is the best. Does he teach according to God’s law? Is he a good teacher? Is he a good healer of the soul? Can he heal my wounds? Is his advice sound? Does he understand the mysteries of the human heart, so that he may prescribe exactly the right remedy for my heart as well? Does he strike a good balance between firmness and gentleness? We discover all this through prayer, through reading and through spiritual counsel. The same applies when choosing a spiritual father. You ask questions, seek advice, visit several priests, find out the opinions of other Christians who go to that particular priest, and so, with God’s help, through much prayer and counsel, you arrive at this priest whom you must regard as your guardian angel.
9. Once we are ‘on the path’, we become aware of God’s boundless love for us and, quite naturally, feel the need to express our gratitude. How important are prayers of thanksgiving in our spiritual growth?
In the spiritual growth of a Christian, prayers of thanksgiving are of paramount importance, as Holy Scripture attests. It is recounted that Abel received flocks of livestock from God, from which he offered a sacrifice of thanksgiving, and ‘God looked with favour upon Abel and his offerings’ (Genesis 4:4), that is to say, He accepted them with joy. Likewise, after the flood had subsided, Noah, in gratitude for having been saved from drowning, offered to God a sacrifice from all the clean animals that had been saved in the ark. And Scripture says: ‘Then Noah built an altar to the Lord; and he took some of the clean animals and of all the clean birds, and offered burnt offerings on the altar. And the Lord God smelled a pleasing aroma’ (Genesis 8:21), ‘And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them: “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it!”’ (Genesis 9:1).
Christ the Saviour Himself gives thanks to His Father through prayer. After raising Lazarus from the dead, ‘He looked up and said, “Father, I thank You that You have heard Me”’ (John 11:41).
The Holy Apostle Paul shows us that thanksgiving is the Christian’s first and most important response to the grace of God poured out upon him: ‘I always give thanks to my God for you, for the grace of God given to you in Christ Jesus,’ he tells the Christians in Corinth (1 Corinthians 1:4). Thus, man’s response to the workings of divine grace is thanksgiving, or the Eucharist, as it is called in the Holy Scriptures.
St John Chrysostom says that “the God of the universe, after His countless and unspeakable blessings, asks nothing else of man but a grateful soul, which knows how to thank Him for the blessings received”. Through the thanksgiving offered to God, the Christian is spiritually enriched in his or her relationship with Him, Who is the Giver of eternal life (2 Corinthians 9:11).
Addressed to God the Father, the Source of all gifts, the Church’s thanksgiving is offered through Jesus Christ, the Son of God and the Mediator between God and mankind, ‘for God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life’ (John 3:16). For this reason, Saint Paul the Apostle exhorts us: ‘Whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, and through Him give thanks to God the Father’ (Colossians 3:17).
It is not, therefore, God who needs our thanks, but we who need to give thanks to God and to people, through words and acts of kindness, in order to be spiritually enriched and to grow in communion of humble and holy love. And if we do not give thanks to God and to people, we sever or weaken our communication and communion with God and with our fellow human beings; we become spiritually impoverished, we shut ourselves away in selfish and possessive self-sufficiency, losing the joy of a good, grateful and generous soul.
…we need to give thanks to God and to others, through words and acts of kindness, in order to be spiritually enriched and to grow in communion through humble and holy love.
When a person fails to give thanks for the blessings received, they decline spiritually and become dehumanised. Ingratitude dehumanises a person and alienates them from their fellow human beings, whilst gratitude raises a person to dignity and enriches them spiritually. That is why the Apostle Paul commands us: ‘Give thanks in all circumstances; always give thanks, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus’ (1 Thessalonians 5:18).
God ceaselessly pours out His goodness upon us; ceaselessly He calls us, urges us on, and bestows every good thing upon us; and without Him we can do nothing; therefore our gratitude towards Him must be, as the Apostle says: always and for everything. That is why St Basil also urges us to begin all our prayers first with praise, with thanksgiving, with gratitude, and only then with our petition.
God delights in and rewards gratitude. Gratitude, however, is of great benefit to the one who shows it. First of all, he fulfils a duty: the duty to give thanks for the good he has received. God has no need of our thanks and gratitude. God has created all things and all things belong to Him; why, then, would He need anything from us? He has no need, but through them we demonstrate the right disposition of our soul, and this is what God desires. That is why He lovingly receives and rewards the gratitude offered to Him.