Enkelhet, omedelbarhet, verklighet

Mina möten med personer under fyrtio år av undervisning och experiment med kollektiv har övertygat mig om att bakom de mest skilda livsstilar finns ett sökande efter Gud som ligger på djupet och pågår. Då och då finner människor att kyrkornas strukturer är för komplicerade, opraktiska och artificiella för att vara till någon verklig hjälp i sökandet. Ofta hindrar samma strukturer tillgängligheten på möte med Gud. Folk söker egentligen något enkelt, något omedelbart och verkligt.

Men behövs något nytt?

Jag har ofta läst högt för deltagare i meditationskurser, ur "The Way of Pilgrim" från 1850-talets Ryssland, för att visa att vi har vad som söks i den kristna traditionen, bara vi söker:

"What is prayer? And how does one learn to pray?

Upon these questions, primary and essential as they are, one very rarely gets any precise enlightenment from present-day preachers. For these questions are more difficult to understand than all their arguments that I have just spoken of, and require mystical knowledge, not simply the learning of the schools. And the most deplorable thing of all is that the vain wisdom of the world compels them to apply the human standard to the divine.

Many people reason quite the wrong way round about prayer, thinking that good actions and all sorts of preliminary measures render us capable of prayer.

But quite the reverse is the case, it is prayer which bears good fruit in good works and all the virtues. Those who reason so, take, incorrectly, the fruits and the results of prayer for the means of attaining it, in this is to deprecate the power of prayer.During this talk, we had almost reached the monastery. And so as not to lose touch with this wise old man, and to get what I wanted more quickly, I hastened to say: "Be so kind, Reverend Father, as to show me what prayer without ceasing means and how it is learnt ! I see you know all about these things."

He took my request kindly and asked me into his cell. "Come in" said he, "I will give you a volume of the holy Fathers from which with Gods help you can learn about prayer clearly and in detail."

We went into his cell and he began to speak as follows. "The continuous interior Prayer of Jesus is a constant uninterrupted calling upon the divine Name of Jesus with the lips, in the spirit, in the heart, while forming a mental picture of His constant presence, and imploring His grace, during every occupation, at all times, in all places, even during sleep."

And it is contrary to Holy Scripture, for the Apostle Paul says, "I exhort therefore that first of all supplications be made" (1 Tim 2:1)  The first thing laid down in the Apostles words about prayer is that the work of prayer comes before everything else: "I exhort therefore that first of all..."

The Christian is bound to perform many good works, but before all else what he ought to do is to pray, for whithout prayer no other good work whatever can be accomplished. Whithout prayer he cannot find the way to the Lord, he cannot understand the truth, he cannot crucify the flesh with its passions and lusts, his heart canot be enlightened with the light of Christ, he cannot be savingly united to God.

None of those thing can be effected unless they are preceded by constant prayer.

I say 'constant', for the perfection of prayer does not lie within our power; as the Apostle Paul says: "For we know not what we should pray for as we ought" (Rom 8:26).  Consequently it is just to pray often, to pray always, which falls within our power as the means of attaining purity of prayers which is the mother of all spiritual blessings. "Capture the mother, and she will bring you the children" said St. Isaac the Syrian. But those who know little of this from practical experience and the profoundest teaching of the holy Fathers, have no clear knowledge of it and speak of it but little.

During this talk, we had almost reached the monastery. And so as not to lose touch with this wise old man, and to get what I wanted more quickly, I hastened to say: "Be so kind, Reverend Father, as to show me what prayer without ceasing means and how it is learnt ! I see you know all about these things."

He took my request kindly and asked me into his cell. "Come in" said he, "I will give you a volume of the holy Fathers from which with Gods help you can learn about prayer clearly and in detail."

We went into his cell and he began to speak as follows. "The continuous interior Prayer of Jesus is a constant uninterrupted calling upon the divine Name of Jesus with the lips, in the spirit, in the heart, while forming a mental picture of His constant presence, and imploring His grace, during every occupation, at all times, in all places, even during sleep."