The whole of patristic spirituality, rooted in the spirit and lived experience of Orthodoxy, speaks of the impossibility of authentic theological reflection in the absence of an experience of prayer. Most Reverend Father Abbot, do you believe that the practice of prayer bears witness to our human identity as beings created in the image of God?
First of all, I believe we should understand what it is that is happening to us in this existence, why God has brought us here, who we are, and what the relationship is between us, as human beings, and God, Whom we must acknowledge as the Creator. The world was created out of the overflowing love of God. We, as individuals, are the gift of God’s love. God created the world for us, and not us for the world. The world was created and given to Adam so that he might leave his mark upon it and return it to God, embellished with his mind and skill, for of all creatures, man is the only one who possesses reason (reason). He was therefore created to become like God through grace. Man is superior to the angels, who possess limited wisdom. To understand all this, man needs to enter into communion with God, which is achieved through prayer.
Secondly, the love that underlies the creation of the world and of man means freedom. For love that restricts freedom is not true love. It was within the freedom that man received out of love—and which he failed to understand properly—that the first act of disobedience arose: Adam’s first fall from communion with God. For he did not heed the instruction not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. A return to the previous state would have taken place if, when God called him—desiring to restore communion with him after the Fall—he had acknowledged the mistake he had made. But Adam blamed Eve and, in a sense, implicitly, God, who had given him this woman. And Eve blamed the serpent, and we know all too well how it ended – it could not have been otherwise, under the circumstances. The consequence of this sin has been passed down from generation to generation right up to us.
Man is free because of God’s love. Prayer is necessary for man to surrender his freedom to God. When we pray, we give up exercising our freedom according to our own judgement and allow God to intervene in our lives. That is why prayer is the most essential thing, and we must pray continually.
When we pray, we give up exercising our freedom according to our own judgement and allow God to intervene in our lives. That is why prayer is the most essential thing, and we must pray continually.
God has shown that man cannot be free, independent and self-sufficient. He either serves God or serves Mammon. That is why we should be mindful and consider how much time we have devoted to prayer, for whatever matter, over the course of 24 hours. We ought to be in constant dialogue with the Creator: ‘Lord, what shall I do? Shall I turn left or right?’, ‘Lord, what shall I say?’ To call upon the Lord at every step is a sign of vigilance. Thus, a person comes to do absolutely nothing until they have sought God’s help and blessing. For though endowed with wisdom, a person is, after all, a creature. To use one’s mind correctly, it must be enlightened by the Holy Spirit.
Christ the Saviour said, ‘Not everyone who says to Me, “Lord, Lord”, will enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but only the one who does the will of My Father in heaven!’ (Matthew 7:21). How should we approach prayer so that it may be well received by God?
Our prayers may be of thanksgiving, of petition, or of praise and glorification of God. We should give thanks that we have been brought into being, give Him glory for all that surrounds us, and ask God to help us in our needs; but, above all, we should ask Him to illuminate our darkness. We are in a perverted state; we are in darkness, though we do not realise it and it seems to us that we are in the light. Saint Gregory Palamas prayed for two years: ‘Mother of God, enlighten my darkness!’ We need to see things in the Spirit of God, to perceive the true meaning of the world, which was created for us. Unfortunately, we are all too often consumed by the world and by material things, and we become incapable of looking beyond them to the essence, which is the work of God. This lost understanding can be regained through prayer. If we put into practice this constant connection and dialogue with the Creator, we will see that God does not hesitate to answer any concern we entrust to Him, provided we are attentive. Saint (Gheron) Joseph the Hesychast would do nothing until he had prayed, and would not move from the spot until he had received an answer from God. But we, people of the third millennium, are in a hurry. We are constantly on the move. We have no time to listen to God’s answer. But, in fact, even if we do ask for such an answer and are attentive, we often do not like what comes to mind. If, however, we put it into practice, we will see that God’s work is behind it. That is why the person who realises they are God’s creature sees that whenever they are not in a spirit of prayer, their actions are harmful because, if they are not serving God, they slip into serving Mammon.
We spend most of our free time doing as we please, without prayer, and this is where the stress and anxiety of everyday life come from, which are increasingly present in our lives. The person who prays, receives an answer from God and tries to act upon it, finds peace. They are no longer stressed. Until we begin a conversation with God in our most mundane daily activities, and until we feel His love – expressed through His response to even the most trivial questions – we will not realise what prayer means and how vitally important it is for our spiritual health.
Prayer is the deliberate surrender of freedom, to make way for divine intervention in our lives. It must be practised 24 hours a day, in the sense of entering into constant communion with God.
What do you think is the greatest gift of prayer?
The most precious of the gifts of prayer is the freedom gained in Christ, the spiritual understanding of the world in which we live. Our understanding is distorted, but it can be enlightened through the grace of prayer.
Where can we pray, how often should we pray, and what form of prayer do you encourage us to practise?
As prayer is a necessity, we can practise it wherever and whenever we wish. The more often we pray, the deeper our communion with God becomes; and when we feel that through prayer we gain freedom and find inner fulfilment, we will seek to pray as often as possible, everywhere, so that we may enter into unbroken communion with the Creator.
In the evening, we cannot help but give thanks to God for the day that has passed, with all its achievements. When a person begins to realise that at every moment their life is in God’s hands and starts to ask Him for help and to feel that help, even when they are not praying, they will realise that something is missing. The prayer ‘Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner!’ is a good prayer, but it requires a certain favourable setting, at least for those new to its mysteries. However, lifting one’s mind to God at any moment and in any place is always possible for a person, and this is the most practical form of prayer: ‘Lord, what should I do?’, ‘Lord, where should I go?’, ‘Lord, what should I say now?’ These brief questions are prayers, because you are addressing Him, you have entered into communion with Him, you have set aside your own will and are asking Him to intervene.
Father Rafail Noica said at a conference, in response to the question of whether we can pray anywhere, at any time and in any way, that there is no specific place or special time for prayer. On the contrary, prayer is food for the soul; it is our way of being; it is human nature. This does not mean that we should not take part in the prayers offered in church, especially at the Divine Liturgy. Once it has begun, the Holy Fathers say that it is good to sit quietly somewhere, without disturbing anyone, and that there is no point in going to venerate the icons, lest our devotion disturb the other people in the church. Instead, we must enter into communion with God, listening to the priest’s words and responding to the litanies, even setting aside our thoughts of the choir loft. In this way, when we leave the church at the end of the service, we will feel a special inner peace.
You said that prayer is our way of speaking to God, but how should a Christian respond to a prayer that has gone unanswered?
When, despite having prayed for certain wishes to be granted, they have not been fulfilled, we wonder why we do not receive an answer. We must consider that even we, as parents, would not give our young child a knife, even if they were to ask for it insistently to play with. It is the same with God. Without being enlightened by the Holy Spirit, we ask for things that are of no use, especially material things, which can become dangerous for the salvation of our souls. Sometimes, even the request for healing is not what brings us salvation, for illness, like other profound sufferings, leads us into full communion with God. There are things, such as illness, from which we can only be delivered with God’s help, and which make us realise that we are creatures, dependent on the Creator. These apparent punishments are, in fact, blessings.
When we pray and do not receive a positive answer to our requests, we must ask God to help us understand why this is happening. And, in time, if we pay close attention, we will see that everything is for the benefit of our souls.
It is very difficult for modern man to understand who God is and what He wants from us. He wants us to become like God through grace, by renouncing our own freedom and surrendering it to Him. Our life can be a paradise on earth. And so it must be, for eternity begins here. What does eternity mean? Eternity means communion with God, entering into God’s love. But let us not forget that love is intertwined with pain and suffering. There is no love without suffering. And suffering without love is a terrifying torment. God Himself has shown us this. He came to earth out of love, and we crucified Him. Whilst on the cross, He prayed for people, that they might be forgiven, ‘for they know not what they do.’
It is very difficult for people today to understand who God is and what He wants from us. …Our life can be a paradise on earth. And so it must be, for eternity begins here. What does eternity mean? Eternity means communion with God, entering into God’s love. But let us not forget that love is intertwined with pain and suffering.
We come to church and pray to God to turn us away from Him, not to draw us closer. In the akathists brought to church, we see that what is asked for is a distancing from God – that is, a comfortable, peaceful life, with the fulfilment of our passions, here on earth.
But what should we ask of God first?
When we pray, we should begin by asking to understand what God’s will is, that He may enlighten us and fulfil His will in us. When we understand what God wants us to do, we will see that the life which seems to us like a torment, in a Valley of Tears, is in fact a beautiful gift, and it is our attitude towards the world that is mistaken.
God responds to us and wants to work together with us. We expect miracles, but God loves and respects us so much that He does not grant us anything without our consent, so as not to infringe upon our freedom and not to negate Himself, for He is Love. That is why there is no miracle without human participation.
Our search for God stems from His having found us first. As one Holy Father put it, speaking on God’s behalf: ‘You would not be seeking Me if I had not found you!’ We need only respond to His call. He is ever-present within us and in our neighbour; He is present in the person who upsets us. For the person who upsets us makes us aware of our own weaknesses; by discovering them, we strive to correct ourselves and, in this way, come to aspire to the true meaning of human existence: to bring peace to those around us, to become full of understanding towards people’s weaknesses. We shall no longer judge anyone, for we shall understand that everything bad that happens around us is the consequence of a lack of love. Sin means a lack of love. God is love, and sin is the absence of God.
Once God enlightens us, in answer to our prayers, we realise that life is beautiful, and that the people around us are the very best. Our parents, our wife, our husband and our children are the best for our salvation, for enabling us to express our love for God.
This does not mean that life must be comfortable. Once we find ourselves in a state of fallenness, a life without tears, without suffering, is not life, but death. A person begins to feel that they are truly alive when they suffer, for it is then that the new person is born out of the old.
Prayer is the natural expression of our total dependence on God, Who created us to strive ever more towards an ever fuller communion with Him. Is this the path to salvation?
To answer whether we can bring about the salvation of our souls through the practice of prayer, we must first discern the meaning of salvation, of prayer and of eternity. Prayer is entering into communion with God, who reveals to us our role and purpose in this world, which is, in fact, salvation itself. But salvation is not something abstract. It does not mean that in the hereafter we shall enter a world that is just and righteous, governed by certain preconceived judgements, where people are good and rewarded as such, a world in which happiness will conform to the moulds of our own thinking. Eternity means love. The love of God. To attain it, we must renounce our passions. This detachment from worldly passions can only be achieved by asking God to help us through all the trials we will face, to grant us patience and strength, so that we may gain new insights which we would otherwise be unable to comprehend.
Eternity means love. The love of God. To attain it, we must renounce our passions. This detachment from worldly passions can only be achieved by asking God to help us through all the trials we will face, to grant us patience and strength, so that we may gain new insights which we could not otherwise understand.
The path to salvation is unique to each person, for we are all unique. Therefore, through prayer, each of us comes to understand what we must do to become better people and to fulfil our purpose as human beings. Man is a creature made by God in His own image and called to become like Him, to be deified through grace. Man is created to improve the world created by God through our wisdom, to bring it back to the One who created it.
What is the connection between fasting and prayer?
To understand just how close the link is between fasting and prayer, we must experience how easily we can pray when we fast, and how weighed down our mind and soul become when we fatten our bodies with abundant and choice foods. It also depends on what is meant by fasting. Fasting does not merely mean abstaining from food, nor is it merely abstaining from certain foods; the quantity we eat is also important. Furthermore, it is very important to fast with our ears, eyes and mouth – by refraining from idle talk – and with our sense of smell, as well as with our stomach. All these things contribute to the quality of our prayer.
Personally, I find the first week of Great Lent to be the most beautiful time of the year, when the majority of our people are fasting and people come to church for the ‘Canon of Saint Andrew of Crete’. I feel then that fasting helps me in my prayer. I would always like to carry on at the same pace into the following week, but I cannot manage it. I no longer have the same strength, because most people give up fasting and the pressure of evil is greater, making prayer feel more difficult. Here is clear proof that fasting and prayer undertaken together possess extraordinary power. As a nation, this is how we have prevailed throughout history, with small armies, standing up to numerous empires.
Most Reverend Abbot, when we speak of prayer, what should we bear in mind?
Essentially, we must not forget that we need to have a prayer schedule. Even if it becomes a ritual, it is helpful to set aside time each day for this practice, which helps us to become accustomed to directing our thoughts and hearts towards God. Structured prayer will gradually support unstructured prayer as well. The more we pray, the better our inner state becomes and the more peace we experience. God certainly knows what we need, but He waits for us to give Him the go-ahead to put it into practice. We give Him this go-ahead by allowing Him and asking Him to fulfil His will in us. Otherwise, He will not intervene in our lives, so as not to infringe upon the freedom born of His very being, which is Love.
God knows, without a doubt, what we need, but He waits for us to give Him the go-ahead to put it into practice. We give Him this go-ahead by allowing Him and asking Him to fulfil His will in us.
In conclusion, suffering is our best friend, whilst ease and comfort are our greatest enemies. Our greatest achievement is to conquer ourselves. Let us not speak unless asked, and when we are asked, let us first pray and only then answer! May God help us!