Why Do we Seek Virtues?

The seeking of virtue is much more than being obedient to God's will.  Listen to what Evagrius Ponticus (345- 399 A.D.) has to say (read this carefully):

We seek after virtues for the sake of attaining to the inner meaning of created things.  We pursue these latter, that is to say the inner meanings of what is created, for the sake of attaining to the Lord who has created them.  It is in this state of prayer that he is accustomed to manifest himself.  Chapters on Prayer # 51.

As we become more virtuous we become quieter and more open to things that are spiritual.  This inner peace allows us to be more attentive and to "see" more.  Not just in a physical sense but a spiritual sense. The more we can observe of the inner meanings of things the more we come to know God who created them all.

More on Prayer

Evagrius: Admonition on Prayer - 4

If your Mind Wanders...

One of the major challenges in our prayer life is the wandering of our mind. Here is what Evagrius has to say about this:

"Be careful lest your mind wander during your time of prayer, thinking about empty things. In that case you will stir the Judge to anger, rather than to good will, seeing that he has been insulted by you. Should you be afraid in the presence of ordinary judges but show contempt in the presence of God? How can a person who is not aware of where his is standing and what he is saying imagine of himself that he is offering up prayer?..."

I found this to be a powerful admonition. How can one expect to be in relationship with another person when your mind is not focused on the conversation with them. And how much more important this is with God. What an insult it is to Him. This is surely taking the Lord's name in vane when we let our minds wander while calling out to him for help and forgiveness.

He continues with a powerful punch:

"Arouse yourself, wretch; your Lord is speaking with you. Do not wander off. His elect angels surround you, do not be dismayed; the ranks of the demons stand facing you, so do not grow lax."

Wretch? These are very strong terms he is using. The dictionary says this is "a despicable or contemptible person." He says rather directly "Do not wander off." This tendency we must fight with all our ability. We cannot be lax in this effort.

more on prayer...

Evagrius: Admonition on Prayer - 3

Preparing to Pray

Evagrius writes,

"When you stand up for prayer, do not begin in a slovenly way, lest you perform all your prayer in a slack or slovenly and wearied way.

When you stand up,

sign yourself with the sign of the cross,

gather together your thoughts,

be in a state of recollection and readiness,

gaze upon Him to whom you are praying,

and then commence.

Force yourself so that right at the beginning of your prayer tears may flow and you feel suffering in yourself, so that your whole prayer may prove beneficial."

More to come...

See Saint Theophan's advice on preparing to pray in an earlier post

More on prayer

Evagrius: Abmonition on Prayer - 2

Patience
Evagrius says:

"If you are thinking of adding to your labors, do not be in a hurry. Be patient. "

Think about what kind of hurries you introduce into your own prayer life. What are you thinking of adding into it. A new prayer? More time? Prostrations? Or just establishing a daily rule of prayer?

He continues,

"If the idea remains with you, urging you on to yearn for something more ambitious, you may know that this is to your advantage, and you can carry out your intention in confidence, for it is of God. But if the idea should come to you only once or twice, and not again, then you should consider it to be f o Satan who cunningly wants to hold you back. It is the same with all one's thoughts: as the Fathers have said, 'Do we not discern between them?'"

How do we discern what is the right path for our prayer life? What Evagrius is saying is that with patience we will see which of the ideas we have are true for us and which are attempts to distract us, to push us beyond our limits.

He continues:

"A person who embarks on this way of life needs to be both astute and simple, both wise and foolish, both cunning and guileless: in each case, the former with respect to anything good and the latter with respect to all that is bad. Let us be wise in keeping the good watch over our way of life..."

What is meant by being wise and foolish? Are not these opposites? Wise about what is good and foolish about what is bad? Maybe he is saying that if we are wise we will choose what is good and if we are foolish we will choose what is bad.

Humility

He says,

"Above everything else, choose for yourself humility. Set an example and foundation by means of all your good words. Bend down as you worship, let your speech be lowly, so that you may be loved by both God and other men and women."

The first characteristic he points out for us is humility. The way he asks us to demonstrate this is through our words by making them "lowly." Here he us suggesting to keep our way of speech in a way that does not puff ourselves up above others, does not make others feel inferior to ourselves. This is what he probably means by being lowly.

He continues with,

"Allow the spirit of God to dwell within you; then in his love he will come and make a habitation with you; he will reside in you and live in you."

Do you seen how is comes back to the idea of achievement he rejected in the beginning of his discourse? He puts the emphasis that it is God who resides within each of us, the Spirit, who will work from within. This "habitation" is what we should be seeing rather than any achievement in our prayer efforts.

He writes,

"If your heart is pure you will see him and he will sow in you the good seed of reflection upon his actions and wonder at his majesty. This will happen if you take the trouble to weed out from your soul the undergrowth of desire, along with the thorns and tares of bad habits.

(Mat 13:22, Mk 4:18, Lk 8:14)

Now to have the Spirit work from within we need a pure heart, he is telling us. And to gain this purity we need to deal with our desires. These are our bodily cravings that go beyond our needs as well as our social striving and desires for processions of all kinds. It's not what we desire that is bad but it's our attachment to our need for them that make our heart impure. The desires for lesser things overclouds our desire to be in communion with God. This desire become productive when it is focused on our desire for God. Unfortunately for most of us, thinking of my own experience, the desires end up as habits, patterns of behavior that are automatic like responses. The rooting out of them, as we all learn, is a most difficult task and among our greatest of our challenges. He is telling us that to attack these issue we must remain humble.

Humilty is about being Penitent

Evagrius continues:

"A sinner who begins to show concern over his soul and who becomes penitent is like a kitchen utensil which is full of filth and blackened; yet once washed and scrubbed it glistens. Again, he resembles a piece of charcoal that was dark-colored and cold, but when it is put in the fire it becomes host and glows. Or it is like gold or silver vessels which were badly discolored, but were then polished up. You could compare this to a corpse into which the soul is breathed, to a dead person who has come to life, to someone lost who has been found (cf Lk 15:6, 24), to a stray lamb that has returned, to a sick person who has recovered, to someone poverty-stricken who has become rich, to a person mourning who now rejoices, to someone starving who has got enough to eat, to a royal portrait that has been renovated, to a ruined house into which a king has entered and taken up residence after having restored it."

He is directing our attention to the need to be penitent. This means we show a concern about the condition of our soul. When penitent we no longer see ourselves as one who is capable of taking on any journey, but a as a traveler who is in need of assistance, in need of conditioning to undertake the spiritual journey our soul desires. This is the essence of the idea of humility he began with.

Finishing up the thought he writes,

"Have a love for penitence, then; put your neck under its yoke. Give pleasure to your Lord by changing from bad actions to good. Be reconciled (Lk 12:58) readily, while there is still time, while yo still have authority over your soul. Carry out whatever you are capable of doing, and then after it is all done reckon yourself as a useless servant, (Lk 17:10) for you have not been able to repay anything of what you owe...."

Remember that the Jesus prayer is not a mechanical devise like some kind of mantra, but is a prayer of one who is penitent. We say with deep feeling and sadness, "Lord have mercy on me a sinner."

Evagrius: Admonition on Prayer

While I was visiting my family in MN, I read a book containing the writings of Syriac fathers on Prayer. One I would like to share was by Evagrius. Although he wrote in Greek many of his documents survive only in Syriac. He comes from Pontos being born in the mid fourth century. He was ordained a reader by Saint Basil the Great and a Deacon by Saint Gregory the Theologian. He spent the last 18 years of his life in the desert. Some of his more speculative works were condemned two hundred years later in the Fifth Ecumenical council yet his spirituality was deep and he had a significant impact on later Syriac writers as well as western fathers such as Cassian and Byzantine fathers such as St. Maximos the Confessor.

The aarticle I plan on sharing is titled "Admonition on Prayer"

He begins as follows:

"You know very well, my brother, that someone who wants to set out on a long journey will first of all examine himself, and then he will attach himself to another travelers with whom he is able and willing to keep up; otherwise he may get left behind by his companions on the journey an come to harm."

Now in those days to travel was quite a different proposition than today's travel. It required great physical stamina and was dangerous because of thieves. One who was not prepared for the journey would be left by the roadside, very likely in a remote area, unable to continue. So he is using this as an example to show us how we must assess our condition before embarking on a spiritual journey. We must first examine our condition so we can choose a course that fits our present condition. Otherwise we may be harmed and left behind or fail altogether.

He goes on to say:

"First of all let him look into himself and see how strong he is, then let him choose a way of life that is appropriate to himself."

If we are inexperienced in prayer we cannot start at the level of mental prayer as many of the desert fathers discuss. So we have to be careful when reading the fathers on prayer as often they are talking to highly advanced monks who are conditioned for a much higher level of spiritual journey than we may be prepared for. Not only are we mistaking the life of a monk to be the same as our worldly life, but also ignoring the difference in our spiritual condition. If we attempt to follow their course we can easily fail and even be harmed.

He says,

"It is better to begin from one's feeble state and end up strong, to progress from small things to big, than to set your heart from the very first on the perfect way of life, only to have to abandon it later,__or keep to it solely out of habit, because of what others will think––in which case all this labor will be in vain."

I can speak from experience on this point in my practice of the Jesus Prayer. In my earlier years I was not able to assess my weak condition and felt I could run with the most advanced practicers of this prayer. After all I was a disciplined and successful person in worldly affairs. What use was vocal prayer I thought, if the aim is mental prayer in the heart, begin with mental prayer. So I would say the prayer in my mind focusing my attention on the heart. I forced such a practice for several years and finally become discouraged. My mind wandered all the time and this I tended to ignore or discount. I was focused on achieving someting and not on developing a relationship with our all-powerful God. Finally, I heard the fathers say, BEGIN WITH VOCAL PRAYER and mental prayer will flow naturally when you are ready. Concentrate. Concentrate on God over all else. Stamp out all extraneous thoughts. When I heard and accepted this advice, I began to say the prayer vocally with more humility. I was more and more able to concentrate on God, the wandering of my mind was reduced, and then without any effort mental prayer came to me. Occasionally I still have to revert to vocal prayer, but I learned an important lesson about a spiritual journey. LISTEN to the Fathers who teach beginners and be humble in your own assessment of your spiritual condition. Pride and ambition can destroy all your efforts.

Evagrius continues going back to his travel analogy:

"It is the same with people who travel: if they tire themselves out on the very first day by rushing along, they will end up wasting many days as a result of sickness. But if they start out walking at a gentle pace until they have got accustomed to walking, in the the end they will not get tired, even though they walk great distances.

Like wise anyone who wishes to embark on the labors of the virtuous life should train himself gently, until he finally reaches the perfect state. Do not be perplexed by the many paths trodden by our Fathers of old, each different from the other; do not zealously try to imitate then all: this would only upset your way of life. Rather choose a way of life that suits your own feeble state; travel on that, and you will live, for your Lord is merciful and he will receive you, not because of your achievements, but because of your intention, just as he received the destitute woman's gift" (Mk 12:43 & Lk 21:3).

This point seems to be very important to me, God will not receive you based on your achievements, but on your intention. The achievement you may seek will come as a gift from God. The spiritual realm is different than this world where we are rewarded based on our achievements. In the spiritual life we are blessed when we hold a humble view of our condition. What is most important is our sincerity, our intention. So do not be hurried in your efforts. Be realistic about your current status. Be wary of equating your spiritual condition to that of the monk whose writings you may be reading. Be clear about who they are instructing.

Do not be discouraged by discovering your lowly status, but be encouraged by your intentions to be in relationship with God and to do His will. Seek His help and He will guide you along the path that is suited to you.

More to come....

Source of quotes: The Syriac Fathers on Prayer and the Spiritual Life, trans. Sebastian Brock, Cistercian Publications,1987