What is a Spiritual Life?

Our life is said to be spiritual when the spirit has supremacy over the other aspects of our being, according to Saint Theophan the Recluse.

What is Spirit? Saint Theophan says that spirit is “that force which God breathed into man when he created him.” It combined with the soul and raised the soul in humans above al other of His creation. He says, “The Spirit, as a force which has come from God, knows God, seeks God, and in Him alone finds rest.”

Our being is also made up of soul and body. The body has a digestive system to nourish it, a muscular-skeletal system for movement and a nervous system to connect our five senses to our body so it can interact with the external world. The soul is intermixed with this physical aspect. The body, however, puts great demands on the soul to meet its needs and restricts its freedom. He says, “The minds and spirits... are inevitably famished, if not completely deadened, stopped up and immersed in sensuality.”

Our soul has three aspects: intellectual (imagination, memory, and intellect), desirous (will) and heart (sense).

Our intellect is subject to wandering and distraction. He says, “Thoughts rise up one after the other, they form into a line, then they intersect each other, are a few steps forward, then go backward, then run sideways, never stopping for anything. This is not reasoning; it is wandering and scattering of thoughts, this state is the complete opposite of what our intellectual faculty is supposed to be. That is its illness, which is so inculcated in it and so endemic to everyone, that it would be impossible to find a single human being who is capable of continuously conducting the substantial labor of thinking.”

Our desirous aspect thirsts for what is pleasant and beneficial. Its purpose is to control our life, but because of “wandering and scattering of thoughts” we find it preoccupied with “inconsistency, disorder, and selfish desires.”

The heart is the center of our being and senses the condition of the soul and body providing motivation to please it. With sobriety it is calm and undisturbed, but with distraction from the intellectual part and inconsistent desires from the desirous parts the heart has no peace.

The normal life today is one driven by physical desires, scattered thoughts and selfish desires. St. Theophan says,

“a person receives a particular character according to the kind of life he lives, and this character is reflected in his views and attitudes, his habits, and his feelings. That is, his life is either spiritual, with spiritual views, habits and feelings; or it is intellectual, with intellectual concepts, habits and feelings; or it is carnal with carnal thoughts, deeds and feelings…. The straying of thoughts, inconsistency of passionate desires, and uneasiness of the heart constantly disturbs us, not allowing us to a single thing as we should, and nearly always leading us astray…. Please take note of this illness of ours… Do not put entirely out of your mind the idea that within you there is always present something which is not good, which is always ready to divert you from the right way and to mislead you.”

We live a spiritual life when the spirit has command of all aspects of our being. When this is true we do not err. This is the norm of human life, says St. Theophan. Living a spiritual life, one is a real person, different than the unnatural intellectual or canal person. When the spirit reigns the soul seeks only what is beautiful in this world and in the invisible world. In the soul the intellectual part yearns for the ideal, never being satisfied but strives for the “significance of each sphere of things in the overall sum of creation.” The desirous part seeks unselfish deeds or virtuous actions. The heart has a yearning for the love of the beautiful. The soul then seeks only what is desirous by God, being bound together in harmony with the soul and body.

A spiritual life is one where the spirt harmonizes the physical demands of the body and the actions of the soul to live as God created us. Spirt of necessity takes on the leading role. It does not negate the other aspects of our being, the intellectual and physical, but puts them all in the proper perspective and under proper control. It is a life where the “spiritual predominates, subordinating to itself and penetrating the intellectual and the physical parts.”

This is the main challenge of a spiritual life. We can and must learn how to lift ourselves from domination by the demands of our physical, intellectual and desirous aspects that are distorted and contaminated by our passions and to allow the spirit to function as it was intended .

He says,

“As long as you are not living in the spirit do not expect happiness. Intellectual and physical life,when the course is favorable, give something like happiness, but it is a fleeting illusion of happiness, and soon vanishes… The spirit however, soars beyond the boundaries of all troubles and carries away the person who abides in the spirit, and , by allowing his to taste its blessings, which are ever present, makes him truly and completely happy.”

From The Spiritual Life, letters 4-13, Saint Theophan the Recluse.

Patience

Count it all joy, my brethren, when ye fall into manifold temptations, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.  And let patience have its perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, lacking nothing. (James 1:2-4)

"By taking one small step at a time, and nobody not thinking that in one big step we are going to get any place, we can walk straight to the Kingdom of Heaven––and there is no reason for any of us to fall away from that ."
Fr. Seraphim Rose

Soft Heart

We should not think we can be hard and cold and correct and still be Christians. Being correct is external side of Christianity. It's important but not of first importance. Of primary importance is the heart. The heart must be soft, the heart must be warm. If we do not have this warm heart, we have to ask God to give it, and we have to try ourselves to do those things by which we can acquire it.


One thing that can save us is simplicity.  It can be ours in our hearts if we pray to God to make us simple; if we just do not think of ourselves so wise...


As soon as you begin to hear or think to yourself critical statements [about people in the Church], you have to stop and warn yourself that, even it its true––because often those statements are true to some degree––this critical attitude is a very negative thing.  It will not get you anywhere.  ...remember not to judge, not to think you're so wise that you know better.  On the contrary, try to learn perhaps without words, from some of those people whom you might be critical of....
If we follow the simple path––distrusting our own wisdom, doing the best we can with our mind, yet realizing that our mind, without warmth of heart, is a very weak tool––then an Orthodox philosophy of life will begin to be formed in us.

Father Seraphim Rose

A Prayer - Teach Me Your Love

Your birds awaken me in the morning, and the murmur of the lake lulls me to sleep in the evening. But it is not the birds that awaken me, nor the lake that lulls me to sleep, but You, 0 Lord, Master of the voice.

You lend Your voice to the birds and the midnight murmur to the lake. You have lent a voice to every throat, and have put a story into every creature. I am surrounded by Your heralds, as a student by many teachers, and I listen to them tirelessly from day until dusk.

     O Lord, Master of the voice, speak more clearly through Your heralds!

The sun speaks to me about the radiance of Your countenance, and the stars about the harmony of Your being. The sun speaks in one language, and the stars speak in a different language, but all the languages flow out of the same vocal cords. The vocal cords belong to You, and You uttered the first sound that began to tremble in the deafness and formlessness of nothingness, and it broke into countless sounds and heralds, as a thundercloud breaks into rain drops.

     O Lord, Master of the voice, speak more clearly through Your heralds!

One exclamation escaped the breast of the Bride of God when She saw Your Son––a voice filled with a love that could not be contained in silence. And that exclamation echoed in the heart of Her Son, and this echo––this response to the love of His Mother––the Holy Spirit has spread with His powerful arms throughout the entire universe. Therefore, all the universe is filled with Your heralds, O my Song and my Love.

     O Lord, Master of the voice, speak more clearly through Your heralds!

For this reason You also spoke in parables, O Son of God, and You would explain things and events as stories about the Most High God. You cured the sick with words and raised the dead with words, for You recognized the mystery of love. And the mystery of love is a mystery of words. Through all creatures, as through piercing and blaring trumpets, words pour forth––and through words, the Love of Heaven.

     O Lord, Master of the voice, teach me Your Love through all Your heralds.

From Prayers by the Lake by Bishop Nikolai Velimirovich

Living Out of the Heart

Those who are  new to Orthodoxy often spend much time reading and studying the Fathers of the Church, its traditions and practices, reconciling doctrine to Scripture, all to help develop a new Orthodox worldview.  There is much to learn when we are making a change in our way of thinking about religion and salvation.  For some, this effort can be very intense and demanding. But, this effort is only the beginning. At some point it is necessary to make a transition––to shift one's effort towards more inner development.  Our love for Christ must move from the head to the heart.  This requires more than following the guidelines for daily prayer, following the fasting guidelines, and attending the services of the Church.  This too, can be done through mental effort, and often is in the beginning.  The move from the head to the heart requires a surrender to the Church, a giving up of filtering everything through the mind.  What we seek is the active work of the Holy Spirit that was planted in us at Baptism and sealed with our Chrismation.  The aim is a union with God, not fulfilling some external rules.

Saint Tikhon (of Zdonsk)  puts it this way

If someone should say that true faith is the correct holding and confession of correct dogmas, he would be telling the truth, for a believer absolutely needs the Orthodox holding and confession of dogmas.  But this knowledge and confession by itself does not make a man a faithful and true Christian. ... The knowledge of correct dogmas is in the mind, and it is often fruitless, arrogant, and proud....  The true faith in Christ is in the heart, and it is fruitful, humble, patient, loving, merciful, compassionate, hungering and thirsting for righteousness..

Fr Saraphim Rose says,

Do we perhaps boast that we keep fasts and the Church calendar, have good icons and congregational singing, give to the poor and maybe even tithe to the Church? Do we delight in exalted Patristic teachings and theological discussions without having in our hearts the duplicity of Christ and true compassion for the suffering?––then ours is a spirituality of comfort, and we will not have the spiritual fruits that will be exhibited by those without all these comforts who deeply suffer and struggle for Christ.

When we are able to make this transition from the head to the heart, we discover an intense heartfelt desire, a burning from within, for the love of God and to be united with Him.  We leave our earthly passions behind and have only one, to be in the loving embrace of God. We experience a sense of willingness to sacrifice all we have for Him.  When we speak we no longer search our memory for the proper thing to say based on what we have learned from out readings or studies. Instead the Holy Spirit moves us to say the proper words and do the proper deeds.  It comes naturally and in a loving way. We come alive with an inner fire of love.  We find an inner peace no matter what difficulties we face.

Elder Porphyrios says,

When you find Christ [in the heart], you are satisfied, you desire nothing else, you find peace.  You become a different person.  You live everywhere, wherever Christ is.  You live in the stars, in infinity, in heaven with the angels, with the saints, on earth with people, with plants, with animals, with everyone and everything.  When there is love for Christ, loneliness disappears.  You are peaceable, joyous, full. Neither melancholy, not illness, nor pressure, nor anxiety, nor depression nor hell.

When Christ enters your heart, your life changes.  Christ is everything.  Whoever experiences Christ within himself, experiences ineffable things––holy and sacred things.  He lives in exultation...

Fr Seraphim writes,

"When those who are rich in the Holy Spirit, really having the heavenly wealth and the fellowship of the Spirit in themselves, speak to any the word of truth...it is out of their own wealth and out of their own treasure, which they possess within themselves when they speak, and out of this that they gladden the souls of the hearers of the spiritual discourse...."

But one who is poor, and does not possess the wealth of Christ in his soul ... even if he wishes to speak a word of truth and to gladden others ... but after he has gone through it, each word goes back to the source from which is was taken, and he himself remains once more naked and poor.... 

For this reason we should seek first from God with pain of heart and in faith, that He would grant us to find this wealth, the true treasure of Christ in our hearts, in the power and effectual working of the spirit.  In this way, first finding in ourselves the Lord to be our profit and salvation and eternal life, we may then profit others also, according to our strength and opportunity, drawing upon Christ, the measure within."

It is helpful to seek out a spiritual father who can guide you.  He will be able to help you to make this transition.  He can help you avoid becoming too intense in your effort to learn doctrine and practice guidelines for this and that.  It is God's love we seek and this only comes from the heart.

A Word on Anger - Fr. George Calciu

Man today lives under such overwhelming pressure that his nerves are strained to the limit, and even the slightest provocation arouses in him the sin of anger.  Causes for anger could be the child who does not listen to us, or the husband or wife who contradicts us, or the driver who cuts us off with his car, or only seems to us to cut us off, giving a motive for us to be roused to anger.  Even if, through self-restraint, our anger is not outwardly expressed or is not heard by the one who provoked it, it is still a sin, because it harms our soul and our heart  It is an action against one’s own self, under the temptation of the devil to be angry.

The savior warns us in severe terms concerning anger that gives birth to verbal conflicts and the use of abusive words.

I say unto you, that whosoever is angry with his brother shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire (Matt 5:22).

...No one thinks evil without corrupting the heart in which God should dwell…

[….]

I counsel my penitents that before they express their anger, be it in speech or gestures, be it only mentally, to utter three or five times, “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.”  And if they say the prayer quickly and inattentively under the oppression of anger, then they should concentrate with humility upon the word “sinner,” and their anger will abate.  Many of them have succeeded inn making their life, their family relationships, their relations with other people, and even their interior life change for the better.

All the conflicts in the world have their origin in unabated anger.  One is angry and wounds the other, who then responds with greater violence and strength. Once this chain is begun, it cannot be stopped except through the appeal of prayer––genuine prayer.

[...]

The Name of Jesus is sweet to utter.  It casts our the demons and brings the angels back into the heart, into the mind, and you will bear yourself in meekness before others.

Fr. George Calciu (1925-2006) a great Romanian Orthodox confessor and spiritual father.

Excerpts from article “A Word on Anger” in The Orthodox Word No.261

More on Jesus Prayer....

Prayer is the Test of Everything....

"Prayer is the test of everything; prayer is also the source of everything; prayer is the driving force of everything; prayer is also the director of everything. If prayer is right, everything is right. For prayer will not allow anything to go wrong." — St. Theophan the Recluse Perhaps the most popular and basic definition of prayer is that it is a conversation with God. While this is essentially true, Orthodox Christianity looks upon prayer as something deeper than "conversation". Prayer is understood as an intimate encounter with God. When we pray, we meet with God in our hearts, in the sanctuary of all our thoughts, motivations, dreams, emotions and concerns. This is a place where we can share our inner selves with no other human person as completely as we can share ourselves with the Lord. To enter into this very personal and intimate place with God, full of faith and love, is to feel His presence in our lives in the most profound and life-giving of ways. In this place in our hearts, we no longer perceive God as being "out there", looking down on us. Rather, we sense His presence inside us, stirring our hearts, guiding our actions, enlightening our minds. Our Orthodox Christian Faith teaches us that prayer is the most natural thing a person can do, it is what we are created for. In Paradise Adam and God converse frequently. It is only after the Fall that we hide from God and choose not to speak openly with Him. Human beings were made for prayer, not because God needs us to pray to Him, but because we need to connect with Him who made us, saved us from sin and death, and showers His sanctifying grace upon us. Without prayer there is no life, not in its fullest sense. As human persons we are created for prayer just as we are created to breath or to think. Prayer is part of our unique nature; of all God's creatures, only human beings are able to perceive and interact with both the visible (physical) and invisible (spiritual) realities. Prayer is so important in our lives that St. Gregory of Nazianzus instructs us to, "remember God more often that you breath". At first, this task might seem daunting, perhaps impossible. In truth, we find that often the greatest obstacle to our developing prayer life is our own lack of trust in ourselves, and in what God can do for and with us. Often we "psych" ourselves out when it comes to prayer. We think that it is only for the spiritual "specialists" to engage in prayer -- clergy, monks, nuns. We feel that if we need to struggle with our prayer life we must not be "doing it right". In truth, it is only when we struggle with prayer that we are approaching it in a healthy way. But even though prayer is -- or at least should be -- a natural part in our human make-up, prayer is a discipline, it is a spiritual exercise. An analogy commonly used by the Saints is that prayer is like a fire. Initially, it starts out only as a small spark in our soul; eventually though, if we fan the flames with a constant effort to pray, this spark grows into a spiritual flames — these flames are the burning bush in our souls, where we, like Moses, speak with God. To feed the fire of prayer in our soul, we must work ourselves into a regular pattern — or "rule" — of prayer. Like a fire, if our prayer life is left untended, it will die away and turn cold. The more we pray, the more meaningful and nourishing our prayer life becomes, and the more of a desire we have to enter into prayer. The ways that we pray  In Orthodox spirituality, we recognize two basic types of prayer: liturgical (that is, worship); and personal prayer. In our Church both of these types of prayer are understood as corporate acts -- they are carried out by believers as a single body, the body of Christ. Liturgical prayer is obviously corporate. A group of brothers and sisters in the faith gather together in one place to offer hymns and prayers to God. However, even when we pray in private, we do not pray alone. Rather, we join our voices to the countless other Orthodox Christians throughout the world who are also lifting their hearts to God in prayer at that time. Christianity is always lived out as a group, never as an isolated individual. Liturgy and private prayer are interdependent. It is not enough for us only to pray by ourselves, because every human being has an innate need for community, a need to belong. Our liturgical worship also gives us the order and structure that we need to have stability in our spiritual lives. At the same time, our liturgical prayer is truly vibrant and life-giving only when those present are "people of prayer" outside the services as well. Our faith is not "Sunday-only" and our prayer life shouldn't be Sunday-only either. Each type of prayer, liturgical and personal, compliments and supplements the other. In both worship and personal prayer, structure is important. Worship services have a set structure of fixed and variable parts. Although our private prayer can be much more simple and "customized" than worship services, we still structure it as part of our daily lives. In our personal prayer life, we need to develop a habit of praying regularly at certain times during the day. This habit of regular prayer is called a "rule of prayer." Ancient Christian sources instruct Christians to pray three times a day: in the morning, at mid-day and in the evening. In this way we keep God on our minds and hearts throughout the day -- upon waking up, in the midst of our daily tasks and upon retiring for the night. This regularity is very important because, at its core, a life or prayer is a life lived in the constant remembrance of God. The Saints teach us that our prayers should include the following four elements, in this order: 1 & 2) glorification and thanksgiving: the primary work of prayer is to glorify God and thank Him for His great blessings, both know and unknown; 3) confession of sins: we ask God for His forgiveness for when we fall short of the life that He calls us to; 4) supplication: we ask God to be merciful and grant our petitions for others and for ourselves This structure helps us remember that God’s blessing are giving to us not because owe have earned them, but in spite of our imperfections and faults. It also helps us avoid looking upon God as a spiritual "bell boy" who is there merely to answer our requests -- the last thing we do is ask for things, not the first. Prayers do not have to be long or complicated to be effective. Some of the most powerful prayers in history have been sentences of only a few words. The Thief on the Cross merely had to say, "Remember me, Lord, in Your Kingdom", to hear Jesus' promise, "today you shall be with me in Paradise." When trying to develop a habit of daily prayer in your life remember this: it is far better to spend five minutes each day in private devotions, than to "bank" the time and take in 35 minutes of personal prayer once per week. Should we pray from books, or use our own words?  Many believers have developed a great love for the prayers found in our prayer books. In our prayer books we find collections of prayers, written at different times in history for different situations, times of day and needs. In the Orthodox Church, one of the most beloved prayer books is the Old testament Book of Psalms. The Psalms offer us a way of framing life's varying experiences -- good and bad -- in prayer using very poetic and profound language. So important is the Book of Psalms that you will find the Psalms used in every worship service and rule of prayer. Written prayers can be a font of wisdom and comfort. There are those, however, that do not feel that written prayers completely fit their personal "voice". For these people, spontaneous prayer is an important part of their personal devotions. There is nothing wrong with spontaneous prayer. The only caution with spontaneous prayer is that the content of such prayers must not contradict the beliefs and practices of the Orthodox Faith. For example, we would not pray that, after we die, God would reincarnate us as a better person, since we do not believe in reincarnation. The Orthodox Christian approach to written and spontaneous prayers is one of balance. Our written prayers are truly a treasury of Christian spiritual insight, nurture and guidance. But at the same time even our prayer books instruct us to "take time to pray to God in your own words..." There is a place for both types of prayer, written and spontaneous, and each complements the other. In the Gospels, Jesus gives the following warning about prayer: "when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do. For they think that they will be heard for their many words. (Matthew 6:7)" Based on this verse, some Christian groups teach that God is not pleased by written prayers; instead, they say, all prayer should be spontaneous. This teaching, however, does not make sense when we see that two verses later, Jesus gives His disciples a specific prayer to use: "In this manner, therefore, pray: Our Father Who art in heaven... (Matthew 6:9-113)." The issue that Jesus addresses is not written prayer versus spontaneous prayer, but rather the how we approach prayer. In Matthew 6, Jesus also teaches us, "when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you open." The Saints teach us that there is a double meaning to the words, "go into your room." First, "go into your room" means keep a low profile when you pray. Do not use prayer to show off to others: "Look at me, everyone! I'm praying! I am *SO* holy!" Second, "go into your room" means shut out distractions when you pray. We have to pay attention when we pray. We cannot simply rattle off the words of our prayers with our minds wandering to other things -- our schedules, a song on the radio, a conversation happening beside us, the big play of last night's game. We must focus on what we are saying. Whether we are praying using words from a prayer book or in our own words, the key is that we put in the effort to do it right. No one likes the feeling of being in a conversation, knowing that the other person is not paying attention. If we would try not to act like this with another human being, then we should also put the effort in with God. Quite simply, He deserves nothing less. The Jesus Prayer One of the most important prayers in the Orthodox Tradition is the "Jesus Prayer." It is not long or complicated, simply, "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner." Some make it even shorter: "Lord, Jesus Christ, have mercy one me." The Jesus Prayer became famous in monasteries through the movement known as "hesychasm", or the way of "stillness." The idea of hesychasm is that it is only when we have stilled our hearts and bodies that we can be fully open to the life-giving presence of God. The body must be stilled from its obsessions, compulsions and addictions and the heart must be stilled of it's wandering here and there looking for something to keep it occupied, entertained and satisfied. The Jesus Prayer is used as the refrain of a prayerful meditation. Through continued use, practitioners find themselves saying it automatically, much in the same way that we sometimes find a tune running through our minds without our conscious effort. At its highest level, practice of the Jesus Prayer leads to an intimate encounter with God through a vision of what is know as the "Uncreated Light." The Gospels tell us that, shortly before His Crucifixion, Jesus took the apostles Peter, James and John to the top of Mount Tabor. There, they saw Jesus garments go pure white, and He began to shine with a resplendent light that was almost too much for the to bear. (See Mttw. 17:1-9; Mk.9:2-13; Lk. 9:28-36) This light was a manifestation of Jesus' Divinity. This is the light that vary advanced practitioners of the Jesus Prayer will encounter when saying the prayer. This sounds very impressive and perhaps even desirable. However, it is not what we experience -- or what we do not experience -- that matters when say the Jesus Prayer or any other prayer. What really matters is that we pray with an awareness of what our words really mean, and that we try to stay as attentive as possible to the words we are saying while we pray. The most important part in the Jesus Prayer is the name of our Savior. The Saints teach that the very mention of name of Jesus sends the demons running. Jesus Christ is God speaking for Himself. God is not far off and remote from us. God loves us so much that He came to be one of us, through His only-begotten Son, and He allows us to relate to His Son on a first-name basis, calling Him "Jesus". Repetition of the name of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is a very powerful tool in our spiritual life. It allows us to approach God in a very direct manner. We do not simply say, "Somebody, who ever is out there, hear my prayer." We specifically say, "Lord, Jesus Christ, Son of God", hear my prayer. By the way, the name "Jesus" means, "the Lord is salvation." As we call on the name of Jesus, we call upon Him as "Lord" -- "Lord, Jesus Christ..." "Lord" is a title of honor. In times past, someone who was a lord had authority over people under him. To call Jesus our Lord is to put ourselves under His authority. Jesus is the Lord of our lives... we will follow His teachings, do what He wants us to do, base our lives on the way of living that He has showed us. In short, if Jesus is the Lord, Jesus is in charge. Also important in the Jesus Prayer is the call for God's mercy. Admitting that we are broken, sinful, we pray words found so often in the Gospels, "have mercy on me". No one is "worthy" of God's grace; there are no "necessary requirements" that makes us "entitled" to God's blessings. The blessings we receive from God are solely based on His great and abundant mercy. Divine mercy is the starting point our whole life. If God were not merciful, we wouldn't even exist. The Jesus Prayer became so important, so loved, that it eventually made it's way into every worship service in a couple of different forms. The best know of these forms is the response, "Lord, have mercy" in our litanies. "Lord, have mercy," is a compact form of the Jesus Prayer. Whether we are singing it in worship or saying it quietly in personal prayer, the Jesus Prayer is a jewel of our spiritual tradition. I said in an earlier posting that prayers don't necessarily have to be long to be effective. Say the words of the Jesus Prayer, with awareness, attention and a sincere heart -- say them often -- and we will find God acting in our lives like we never have before. Prayer as Silence God is always trying to get our attention. He wants us to turn to Him, to listen to Him, to open ourselves to a relationship with Him. God does not force Himself on us, but He is always making ovations towards us, waiting for us to respond with loving attentiveness towards Him. If we pay attention, if we listen, we will hear God speaking to us in our lives. Prayer is as much about listening to God as it is speaking to Him. In fact, the listening is even more important than the talking. One way that we listen to God in our prayers is through the reading of the Holy Scriptures and other of our Church's spiritual writings. In our private devotions, we can select a passage, read it, and then take some time to think about what we have read. As we think about the passage, we try to be aware of specific sentences, phrases or words that grab our attention. Some people will write down their observations in a journal for future discussion with their spiritual father. The second means of listening to God in prayer is through silence. Silence is something that many of us are not comfortable with. We fill our days with the noise of iPods, TV, radios. For some people, the time that they dread most are the moments at night before they go to sleep, when all they are left with is silence and their thoughts. And yet, God often talks to us, not in thunder claps and lightening flashes, but in the still small voice whispering in our heart. (for more on this, see 1 Kings 19:11-13) The Saints instruct us that as we say our prayers, we should take time to stop and sit quietly, just being present with God. The monastic fathers and mothers of our Church say that prayer is like a flying bird. When a bird is in the air, it beats its wings until it has reached a certain height; at that point, it stops beating its wings and glides along. The words of our prayers are our spiritual wings. There will come a point while praying where words are no longer necessary, we can stop talking and glide in silence, allowing God's presence keep us aloft. Prayer is a conversation. It is a two-way dynamic. As we all know, its hard to say we have had a "conversation" with someone, if one party has monopolized the time, without giving the other party the chance to offer any input. In order for prayer to be truly beneficial to us, in addition to talking to God we also need to listen to what He has to say to us. A Call to Prayer Sometimes we think that if our spiritual life isn't "feeling right," that our prayers are some way not working. Regardless of how we feel, any time is an appropriate time for us to pray. We start from where we are, emotionally and spiritually. We approach God as we are, trusting that He is ready, willing and able to overlook our faults, doubts and wounds and to lift us above them. At the same time, we must take care never to assume that we are doing "good enough" in our lives, and that we may excuse ourselves from prayer. Christ did not call us to being "good enough"; He called us to be perfect. The struggle for that perfection is a life-long endeavor. Furthermore, it is an endeavor that we cannot achieve ourselves, it can be accomplished only with, and through God — the God that we encounter intimately through prayer. In the Divine Liturgy, we hear the invitations "Let us lift up our hearts", and "Let us give thanks to the Lord". These two calls sum up the center of human existence. When we lift up our hearts to God, glorifying Hi for all that He does for us -- both known and unknown. And in doing so, the image of God -- who is the maker, savior and sanctifier of our lives -- shines within us, and through us into the world. "Prayer is the test of everything; prayer is also the source of everything; prayer is the driving force of everything; prayer is also the director of everything. If prayer is right, everything is right. For prayer will not allow anything to go wrong." — St. Theophan the Recluse By Fr. Andrew Jarmus Source: Saint Nicholas Albanian Orthodox Church More on Prayer...