Preparation for prayer

[Maria Mahoney]

This is to start a thread on preparation for prayer, especially the Jesus Prayer.


http://www.orthodoxinfo.com/praxis/arena_prayer.aspx


"CHAPTER 18: ON PREPARATION FOR PRAYER

On account of the signal importance of prayer, preparation should precede its practice. Before praying, prepare yourself; and be not as one who tempts the Lord. ‘When we are going to stand in the presence of our King and God and converse with Him,' says St. John of the Ladder, 'let us not rush into it without preparation, lest seeing from afar that we are without the weapons and clothing required for standing in the presence of the King, He should order His servants and slaves to bind us and banish us far from His presence and tear up our petitions and fling them in our face.’

The first preparation consists in rejecting resentment and condemnation of our neighbours.

Further preparation consists in the rejection of cares by the power of faith in God and by the power of obedience and surrender to the will of God; also a realization of one's sinfulness and the resultant contrition and humility of spirit.

The Apostle orders thanksgiving when we pray: Persevere in prayer, he says, and keep wakeful in it with thanksgiving. "

In Christ,
Maria

[Michael Stickles]

Here's another excerpt, from Bishop Theophan the Recluse of Vysha (link goes to full version):

http://www.orthodox.net/articles/bishop-theophan-the-recluse-on-prayer.html


Preparation for Prayer (from Letter 48)

Do this also. Prepare yourself to stand properly before God—don't just jump into prayer after gossiping and gadding about or doing house chores. Schedule the time and rouse the urge to pray precisely at that hour. Another opportunity may not come.

Don't forget to re-establish your sense of spiritual need. Bring your need for God to the front of your mind, then begin to draw your mind into your heart by organizing your thoughts into prayer and calling forth your desire to find their fulfillment in God.
...
All of us have this little sin hanging about us. Though we make painstaking preparations for every other task (no matter how trivial), we do not prepare for prayer. We take up prayer with flighty thoughts, willy-nilly, and rush to get it over with, as if it were an incidental, though unavoidable, bother—and not the center of our life, as it should be.

Without preparation, how can there be a gathering of thought and feeling in prayer? Without preparation, prayer proceeds shakily instead of firmly.

[Maria Mahoney]

Thank you Mike for your addition to this thread. I have read somewhere about a monk who would warm up for prayer by watching the sun set, then he would stand with arms outstretched, praying, until the sun came back up. I can't remember which Saint it was... do you, or does anyone else know?


http://www.vic.com/~tscon/pelagia/htm/b01.en.a_night_in_the_desert_of_the_holy_mountain. 05.htm


Noetic prayer requires mainly renunciation of the world, submission to a Gerondas, a decision by the monk to remain in exile and to keep the commandments of Christ for a long period of time. In the beginning our attention concentrates on the fulfilling of the commandments of Christ and is occupied in practising abstinence and obedience. We know from the teaching of our Holy Fathers that virtues do not unite man with God perfectly, but they create the appropriate climate so that prayer comes which unites man with God–the Holy Trinity. Virtues are a prerequisite for the granting of much grace, yet they also offer grace. When, therefore, the Gerondas, who has the experience of the Jesus prayer, realises that his disciple's will has been cut off, and has been cleansed from the gross passions, only then does he decide to initiate him in the Jesus prayer. Even then, however, he does not tell him everything but only as much as he can endure and carry out. He guides him little by little in case he may be led into disappointment or error.

In Christ,
Maria

[Mourad Mankarios]

I have read somewhere about a monk who would warm up for prayer by watching the sun set, then he would stand with arms outstretched, praying, until the sun came back up. I can't remember which Saint it was... do you, or does anyone else know?


It was also said of him (Abba Arsenius) that on Saturday evenings, preparing for the glory of Sunday, he would turn his back on the sun and stretch out his hands in prayer towards the heavens, till once again the sun shone on his face. Then he would sit down.

[Maria Mahoney]

That's It! Thank you Mourad!

Where is the quote from?

In Christ,
Maria

[Andreas Moran]

Perhaps it is worth bearing in mind that Elder Sophrony said that the Jesus Prayer was not for everyone, and the first part of preparation would be to have the blessing of an experienced and authentic spiritual guide to say it at all.

[Rick H.]

On Sky Gazing

Dear Maria, Dear Mourad,

Maria--why does it seem that you start all the good threads? :) Mourad--thanks for that helpful post, this reminds me a little bit about something 'Learner' wrote a while back about his spiritual practice which includes observing sunset and sunrise.

As I think of things that I have read from the saints in this area, I think of St. Symeon who wrote of attentiveness/mindfulness. He first states that the inexperienced should not rush in this sort of preparation but should follow a "sequence."

One of these methods at the end of the sequence is sky gazing.

St. Symeon describes this as 'when a person stands at prayer (like above) and he raises hands, eyes and intellect heavenwards, and fills his intellect with divine thoughts, with images of celestial beauty, of the angelic hosts, of the abodes of the righteous. In short, at the time of prayer he assembles in his intellect all that he has heard from Holy Scripture and so rouses his soul to divine longing as he gazes towards heaven, and sometimes he sheds tears.'

But, again, the saint follows up this direction with the warning that such activities can lead to a puffing up of oneself as he or she regards what is happening to him/her as an effect of divine Grace and then desires to remain in this most pleasing state perpetually, but the pride prevents a state of holiness and dispassion whereby delusion is soon to follow.

So for what it may be worth as we consider such things as sunset and sunrise, this teaching on sky gazing came to mind as it relates to a Christian mindfulness.

In Christ,
Rick

[Mourad Mankarios]

That's It! Thank you Mourad!
Where is the quote from?


http://orthodoxwiki.org/Sayings_of_the_Desert_Fathers#Abba_Arsenius

[Maria Mahoney]

It isn't that I post the best threads... but I do get the best answers! Thanks to the contributors!

Rick's post made me think of this quote:


Do you see the watchful souls? With women and children and maid servants, they sang hymns to God, made purer than the sky by affliction... Nothing ever was more splendid than that Church. Let us imitate these, let us emulate them: ... the Church of God rising up in the midst of the night. Do you rise up too, and behold the quire of stars, the deep silence, the profound repose, contemplate with awe the order of your Master's household. Then your soul will be purer: it will be lighter, subtler, and soaring, disengaged: the darkness itself, the imposing silence are sufficient to lead you to compunction... Sleep has invaded and defeated nature: it is the image of death, the image of the end of all things... " Let the house be a Church, consisting of men and women... For where two, He says, are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them (Matt. 18:20) ... Where Christ is there must be Angels, and Archangels, and other Powers."

St. John Chrysostom. Homily XXVI on Acts XII. B#55, p. 172.

Thank you for the link Mourad!

In Christ,
Maria

[Rick H.]

"Mindfulness"

Dear Maria,

How beautiful are the words of the golden mouth that you have shared with us above. Yes, let thy house be a church! Let the cosmos be a church! For any who may be familiar with the Master's household in the middle watch of the night, this is a very special place, a very special time. There are sights (and sounds) that you will not hear at any other time here.

Thank you for this blessing. This one is a keeper.

And, here's another attempt to make a contribution to this thread. There is so much written, and rightly so, by the saints about watchfulness/attentiveness or what I call a Christian Mindfulness. It is made clear that without mindfulness there will be no advance in the Life of Christ. And, on The Beginning of Watchfulness, St. Gregory of Sinai writes:




'In the morning sow your seed,' says Solomon . . . Sitting from dawn on a seat about nine inches high, compel your intellect to descend from your head into your heart, and retain it there . . . keeping your head bent forcibly downwards . . . restrain your breath . . . control your uncontrollable intellect.

Another writer says that in a monk mindfulness of God ought to take the place of breathing, while another declares that the love of God acts as a brake on his out-breathing. St. Symeon the New Theologian tells us, 'Restrain the drawing-in of breath through your nostrils, so as not to breath easily; St. John Klimakos says, 'Let mindfulness of Jesus be united to your breathing, and then you will know the blessings of stillness.



In Christ,
Rick

[Nina]

I was so amazed from the story of Abba Arsenius that I posted same message twice. Sorry! And also thank you to Maria and Mourad for this beautiful example that they shared with us.

[Nina]

I have read somewhere about a monk who would warm up for prayer by watching the sun set, then he would stand with arms outstretched, praying, until the sun came back up. I can't remember which Saint it was... do you, or does anyone else know?
In Christ,
Maria


It was also said of him (Abba Arsenius) that on Saturday evenings, preparing for the glory of Sunday, he would turn his back on the sun and stretch out his hands in prayer towards the heavens, till once again the sun shone on his face. Then he would sit down.

Wow, wow, wow! Oh my God and I go to have fun after watching the sunset. May God have mercy on us through the intercessions of the Saints!

The beauty of the nature and His Creation makes my heart leap with joy and I say "Thank You God!" but the story of Abba Arsenius is so up high and that story alone nullifies completely my poor 'thank you-s'.