"Lord, teach us to pray!"

Metropolitan Ierotheos of Nafpaktos speaks to us

The Church prays unceasingly, and the true Christian is one who prays.

Prayer is a great science; it is not something easy, within everyone's reach. It is not reduced to a simple "Lord, have mercy" addressed to God, but is a true science. The Prophet David says: "Lord, I have cried to You, hear me!" (Psalm 140:1) and "Out of the depths have I cried to You" (Psalm 129:1). Therefore, prayer is a cry that erupts from the depths of a person's heart. And if we want to better understand what prayer is, let's think of an animal that roars. People also roar, they cry out, but especially animals. Prayer is a cry to God.

The Prophet David also says: "Let my prayer be set forth as incense before You" (Psalm 140:2). Therefore, the first characteristic element of prayer is the cry that erupts from the depths of a person's heart, and the second, the fact that prayer ascends to heaven, to God. These are the dimensions of prayer: depth and height. It has depth, because it springs from the depths of the heart of the grieving person. One who grieves over their sins, over their separation from God, one who grieves over the mistakes and sins of others, over the state of the world—such a person roars, cries out to God. Such a person feels God as their Father, and their prayer ascends before the Lord like incense smoke. Consequently, prayer also has height.

Whoever prays overcomes all problems and difficulties they have to face in life. If we look at the lives of the Holy Forty Martyrs of Sebaste, we see that these men in the prime of their lives were thrown into a frozen lake, and what did they say? "Harsh is winter, but sweet is paradise. Sharp is the frost, but pleasant is delight". Why could they say these words? Because they had communion with God, they loved Him and prayed to Him. Prayer made them overcome everything, and especially the difficult situation they were in, the fact that they had been thrown into a frozen lake to renounce Christ. But they said: "We will not renounce Christ, even though the members of our bodies will freeze!". So great was their love and the fire of their hearts for Christ!

The Prayer of Saint Sophrony the Athonite

Prayer is a great science. People dedicate many years of their lives to learning a human science. But the same effort, or even a greater one, should be made by a person to learn the science of prayer. Saint Sophrony the Athonite said that "prayer is the highest science and art". He had known human science and art, but he considered prayer to be above all science and art. Moreover, Saint Sophrony experienced prayer in its full depth. Prayer sprang from his heart full of pain, but at the same time it elevated him above earthly things and reached eternity.

He had learned about prayer before leaving for Mount Athos, while he was in France, in Paris – but also after arriving on Mount Athos, during the twenty-four years he spent there, he had powerful prayer, both at the Monastery of Saint Panteleimon and after his departure to the desert. During the seven years spent in the desert, in caves, his entire life was a prayer, and that is precisely why he understood so well what prayer is. And, because he knew it from experience, he could later teach others, and could speak about prayer, about its dimensions.

In a recently published book containing letters of Saint Sophrony to certain people who sought various advice from him, I read an expressive word about what prayer is, at its highest stage. Here is what Saint Sophrony writes: "It is possible for the human mind, deepened in God in the act of prayer, not to perceive that eternity itself is being revealed before it, and not to know of itself whether it is still within the boundaries of the body or not. However, in this state, it can either remain in eternity or return to this world".

Here we see a distinct dimension of prayer: when the human mind delves into God through prayer, then eternity, eternal life, opens before it. The mind touches eternity and passes into eternity, but it cannot yet understand what is happening to it. It sees itself beyond the boundaries of the body.

In other words, this prayer intertwines with the rapture taught by the Holy Fathers, especially Saint Dionysius the Areopagite and, later, Saint Maximus the Confessor and Saint Gregory Palamas. When a person prays with a mind steeped in God, in the heart and through the heart, the mind ascends to God and eternity opens to it, but it may not yet understand that what it tastes is eternity itself. It may not realize that it is tasting eternity, because the mind is deeply absorbed in God.

"Man will become like God"

And Saint Sophrony writes further:"When our spirit leaves the bounds of this earthly world..." —it does not refer here to death, but to the experience in the hour of prayer, thus still in this life —"...when man prays and his mind delves deep"— "delves deep," it doesn't say "ascends" —"...when his mind delves deep into God, he feels that he has left the boundaries of this earthly world, the sphere of gravitational attraction, and enters a cosmic sphere, governed by the laws of celestial 'mechanics.' In its movement, the mind can attain such a speed that, in comparison to it, the speed of light is akin to zero, akin to the speed of a tortoise."

Look at what an experience of prayer Saint Sophrony has! He knows very well what it means for the mind to delve deep into God. It moves with such speed that the speed of light, the greatest that can be perceived by man, is as if null. As if light were moving at the speed of a tortoise! Understand, therefore, how the mind ascends and delves deep into God and passes into eternity.

"And if our spirit is taken possession of by the Holy Spirit, then, through the Divine Spirit, man will become like God, who is everywhere and knows all things."That is, he becomes god by grace. When the mind moves in the Holy Spirit and partakes abundantly of the energy of the Holy Spirit, then man, through the Divine Spirit, becomes god by grace, resembles God by grace and, of course, also acquires charisms, that is, receives the life of God. He too becomes omnipresent and omniscient, just as God is, that is, he becomes a prophet. The saint hears the prayers of all people who ask for his intercession and call upon God to help them. This is deification by grace, the transition from the state according to the image of God to the state according to His likeness.

We are called to the life before the Fall

This fragment I have read to you is enough to see what prayer is. It is not about a typical prayer, such as we make with our lips; of course, this is where we must begin. Rather, prayer is the science of sciences, higher than all sciences and arts and human knowledge! We have prayer when the mind delves into God, when it touches eternity and passes into eternity, when it moves at a speed greater than the speed of light. This is what we are called to. This is how Adam lived before the Fall. Then he sinned, he lost this life. This is how we came to live in time and space, but we are called to the life before the Fall, which the saints live. They live in prayer, with their minds constantly absorbed in God.

Let us learn, therefore, beloved brethren, to pray! Let us understand the value of prayer that springs from the depths of the heart and ascends to the Throne of God like incense smoke, thus acquiring an eternal dimension. And, when we learn to pray, then we will be able to overcome all problems. No burden will weigh us down anymore. Even if he continues to have problems, the person of prayer will overcome them, will not feel them, but will repeat in one voice with the Holy Martyrs:„Harsh is winter, but sweet is paradise. Fierce is the frost, but pleasant is the delight.”

May the Holy Martyrs and all the Holy Fathers, who have found this life, teach us too how to attain it! Let us read the saints, so that we may learn prayer, the science of sciences, and the highest degree of spiritual life. Let us also say, like the disciples: „Lord, teach us to pray!” (Luke 11:1). May Christ also teach us this prayer, so that we may become people of God!

Sermon on the Feast of the Holy Forty Martyrs of Sebaste (March 9, 2022)

Translation by Diaconești Monastery