General Sharing of what was sent to me today: On Prayer, by St. Nilus of SinaiInbox |
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Selected Texts
-- If you pray truly, you will receive assurances of many things, and angels will come to you as they came to Daniel, and will enlighten you with understanding of causes, the wherefore of all things.
-- Pray in peace and serenity, sing intelligently and in a good state – and you will be like a young eagle soaring high in the sky.
-- Prayer is an activity becoming to the dignity of the mind, or rather, is its real use.
-- Knowledge is an excellent thing; it helps prayer, inciting the power of the mind to the contemplation of Divine knowledge.
-- If you have not yet received the gift of prayer or psalmody, ask persistently, and you will receive it.
-- Do not wish what concerns you to be as seems (best) to you, but as God wishes; and you will be free from cares and thankful in your prayer.
-- Even if you already appear to be with God, beware the demon of fornication; for it has great fascination and is full of cunning, constantly trying to overcome the transport of your sober mind and to draw it away from God, even when it stands before God with reverence and fear.
-- He who endures distress, will be granted joys; and he who bears with unpleasant things, will not be deprived of the pleasant.
-- You should also know the following subterfuge of the demons: at times they divide themselves into groups. Some come with a temptation; and when you ask for help, others come in the guise of angels and chase away the first, to make you believe that they are true angels, and you fall into vainglory, through having been granted such a thing.
-- As bread is food for the body and virtue is food for the soul, so spiritual prayer is food for the mind.
-- Strive not to pray against someone in your prayer, lest you destroy what you are building, by making your prayer an abomination (before God).
-- While another God-loving monk was practicing inner prayer, while walking in the wilderness, two angels appeared and walked along on either side of him. But he never turned his attention to them for a moment, lest he should lose something better, for he remembered the words of the Apostle, neither "angels, no principalities, nor powers . . . shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 8:38, 39).
-- Never desire nor seek to see any face or image during prayer.
-- Blessed is the mind which, praying without distraction, acquires ever greater longing for God.
-- Blessed is the mind which, during prayer, is drawn neither to the material nor to possessions.
-- Blessed is the mind which, during prayer, is insensible to all things.
-- Do not shun poverty and afflictions, these are wings of buoyant prayer.
-- It happens sometimes that the demons suggest some thoughts to you and then urge you to pray against them, to oppose them, and then quickly withdraw to make you fall into delusion, imagining that you have already begun to conquer thoughts and to intimidate the demons.
-- It happens sometimes that in doing good to one man you suffer harm from another, so that, meeting with injustice, you may say or do something unseemly and thus lose what you have gained. This is precisely the aim of the evil demons. So pay intelligent heed to yourself.
-- He who remains in sin and continues to anger God, and who shamelessly strives to understand Divine things and to acquire transubstantial prayer, should remember the warning of the Apostle that it is not without danger for him to pray with head uncovered. In the words of the Apostle, such a soul ought "to have power on his head because of the angels" (I Corinthians 11:10), having clothed itself in modesty and suitable humility for the sake of those present.
-- Just as long and persistent staring at the sun in its noonday brilliance will bring no good to weak eyes, so imagination about the awesome and transubstantial prayer in spirit and in truth will bring no good to a passionate and impure mind. On the contrary, the Godhead will rise against it in wrath.
-- Prayer is to be praised not merely for quantity but also for quality. This is shown by the "two men (who) went up into the temple to pray" (Luke 18:10), and also by the words, "But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions" and so on (Matthew 6:7).
-- When, standing at prayer, you are above all other joy, and know that you have truly attained prayer.
-- If you pray truly, you will receive assurances of many things, and angels will come to you as they came to Daniel, and will enlighten you with understanding of causes, the wherefore of all things.
-- Pray in peace and serenity, sing intelligently and in a good state – and you will be like a young eagle soaring high in the sky.
-- Prayer is an activity becoming to the dignity of the mind, or rather, is its real use.
-- Knowledge is an excellent thing; it helps prayer, inciting the power of the mind to the contemplation of Divine knowledge.
-- If you have not yet received the gift of prayer or psalmody, ask persistently, and you will receive it.
-- Do not wish what concerns you to be as seems (best) to you, but as God wishes; and you will be free from cares and thankful in your prayer.
-- Even if you already appear to be with God, beware the demon of fornication; for it has great fascination and is full of cunning, constantly trying to overcome the transport of your sober mind and to draw it away from God, even when it stands before God with reverence and fear.
-- He who endures distress, will be granted joys; and he who bears with unpleasant things, will not be deprived of the pleasant.
-- You should also know the following subterfuge of the demons: at times they divide themselves into groups. Some come with a temptation; and when you ask for help, others come in the guise of angels and chase away the first, to make you believe that they are true angels, and you fall into vainglory, through having been granted such a thing.
-- As bread is food for the body and virtue is food for the soul, so spiritual prayer is food for the mind.
-- Strive not to pray against someone in your prayer, lest you destroy what you are building, by making your prayer an abomination (before God).
-- While another God-loving monk was practicing inner prayer, while walking in the wilderness, two angels appeared and walked along on either side of him. But he never turned his attention to them for a moment, lest he should lose something better, for he remembered the words of the Apostle, neither "angels, no principalities, nor powers . . . shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 8:38, 39).
-- Never desire nor seek to see any face or image during prayer.
-- Blessed is the mind which, praying without distraction, acquires ever greater longing for God.
-- Blessed is the mind which, during prayer, is drawn neither to the material nor to possessions.
-- Blessed is the mind which, during prayer, is insensible to all things.
-- Do not shun poverty and afflictions, these are wings of buoyant prayer.
-- It happens sometimes that the demons suggest some thoughts to you and then urge you to pray against them, to oppose them, and then quickly withdraw to make you fall into delusion, imagining that you have already begun to conquer thoughts and to intimidate the demons.
-- It happens sometimes that in doing good to one man you suffer harm from another, so that, meeting with injustice, you may say or do something unseemly and thus lose what you have gained. This is precisely the aim of the evil demons. So pay intelligent heed to yourself.
-- He who remains in sin and continues to anger God, and who shamelessly strives to understand Divine things and to acquire transubstantial prayer, should remember the warning of the Apostle that it is not without danger for him to pray with head uncovered. In the words of the Apostle, such a soul ought "to have power on his head because of the angels" (I Corinthians 11:10), having clothed itself in modesty and suitable humility for the sake of those present.
-- Just as long and persistent staring at the sun in its noonday brilliance will bring no good to weak eyes, so imagination about the awesome and transubstantial prayer in spirit and in truth will bring no good to a passionate and impure mind. On the contrary, the Godhead will rise against it in wrath.
-- Prayer is to be praised not merely for quantity but also for quality. This is shown by the "two men (who) went up into the temple to pray" (Luke 18:10), and also by the words, "But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions" and so on (Matthew 6:7).
-- When, standing at prayer, you are above all other joy, and know that you have truly attained prayer.
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