Sunday<\/p>\n
*Comments on a deeper prayer life from Archimandrite Sergius of St Tikhon’s Monastery<\/p>\n
Now, when we think of the word in the Greek for chastity and purity, it\u2019s the word sophrosune<\/em>.\u00a0 This is the word for that wholeness and integrity which the Lord seeks from us, which He asks us to seek in our own lives.\u00a0 In essence, it\u2019s the descent from the head into the heart.\u00a0 This spiritual work, to not only find the heart but to abide in the heart, involves combatting thoughts that are often not very good.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Psalms 24:3-4 Who shall ascend into the hill of the LORD? or who shall stand in his holy place?\u00a0\u00a0 He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Prayer:\u00a0 O Lord and Master of my life, a spirit of idleness, despondency, ambition, and idle talking give me not.<\/p>\n Monday<\/p>\n Now, when we think of the word in the Greek for chastity and purity, it\u2019s the word sophrosune<\/em>.\u00a0 This is the word for that wholeness and integrity which the Lord seeks from us, which He asks us to seek in our own lives.\u00a0 In essence, it\u2019s the descent from the head into the heart.\u00a0 This spiritual work, to not only find the heart but to abide in the heart, involves combatting thoughts that are often not very good.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Psalms 24:3-4 Who shall ascend into the hill of the LORD? or who shall stand in his holy place?\u00a0\u00a0 He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Prayer:<\/p>\n Eternal rest grant unto them O Lord; and let perpetual light shine upon them. May the) rest in peace. Amen. <\/p>\n Tuesday<\/p>\n And there is in the Philokalia<\/em> the saying that if we keep all the commandments in our thinking, in our thoughts, we will by default keep them in our actions as well.\u00a0 Learning to keep God\u2019s commandments in our head, in our brain, in our heart, is really the beginning of keeping them outwardly.\u00a0 And we don\u2019t just do things for their own sake, or to be good; but rather we do them for the purpose of communion with God.\u00a0 For the commandments are the way into the life of God, into experiencing Him, into experiencing the vision of God.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n James 1:22 But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.<\/strong><\/p>\n Prayer:\u00a0But rather a spirit of chastity, humble-mindedness, patience, and love bestow upon me Thy servant.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Wednesday<\/p>\n St. Hesychios:\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The great Lawgiver Moses \u2013 or rather, the Holy Spirit through Moses \u2013 teaches us how to acquire this virtue, and how to perfect it, when he says, \u201cBe attentive to yourself, lest there arise in your heart a secret thing that\u2019s an iniquity\u201d (Deut. 15:9, LXX).\u00a0 Here the phrase \u201ca secret thing\u201d refers to the first appearance of a thought (logismos<\/em>).\u00a0 This the Fathers call a \u201cprovocation,\u201d introduced into the heart by the Devil.\u00a0 And as soon as this thought appears in our intellect, our own thoughts tend to chase after it and enter into impassioned intercourse with it (\u201cOn Watchfulness and Holiness,\u201d Philokalia<\/em>, vol. 1, p. 162).<\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1John 4:4 Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.<\/strong><\/p>\n Prayer:\u00a0 Yea, O Lord King, grant me to see my failings and not condemn my brother; for blessed art Thou unto the ages of ages. Amen.<\/p>\n Thursday <\/p>\n Romans 7:19 For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Prayer: Bless the Lord O My soul and all that is within me bless His Holy Name.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Friday<\/p>\n This older lady…looked at me and reminded me of probably the most important thing that we could be talking about right now, and that\u2019s how to be quiet <\/em>\u2013 how to listen to God, how to be present to God, how to get some space between our own thoughts and ourselves; and through that stillness to be able to look upon the face of God, and through this to be changed into the same image.<\/p>\n Psalm 46:11 Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.\u00a0 The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge.<\/strong><\/p>\n Prayer:\u00a0 \u00a0 Grant, O Lord, remission of sins to all our fathers, brethren, and sisters that have departed before us in the faith and hope of resurrection, and make their memory to be eternal.<\/p>\n Saturday<\/p>\n And as I talk with people, the thing that seems to be most difficult to understand is not only how to pray (because we often don\u2019t give it much effort, or much place in our lives), but even more specifically, as we enter into that life of prayer, the life of the Church\u2019s prayer, is how to learn to stand before God with a watchful, attentive heart, being \u201call eye\u201d like the Cherubim (cf. Ezek. 10:9-12), listening and receiving what God has for us and wants to give us \u2013 His life, His grace, and His energy.<\/p>\n Luke 11:1 And it came to pass, that, as he was praying in a certain place, when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples.<\/strong><\/p>\n Prayer:\u00a0\u00a0 Lord have mercy upon us, Christ have mercy upon us, Lord have mercy upon us.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Sunday *Comments on a deeper prayer life from Archimandrite Sergius of St Tikhon’s Monastery Now, when we think of the word in the Greek for chastity and purity, it\u2019s the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12332","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-orthodox-daily-devotional","has_no_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12332","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12332"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12332\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12333,"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12332\/revisions\/12333"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nRequiem Eternum<\/strong><\/p>\n
\n…understanding of stillness is not just something for St. John Climacus on Mt. Sinai.\u00a0 Rather, it\u2019s something we all need to practice at some level during all of our life, in order not only to continue our journey towards our heart, but also towards the freedom from the passions that we all seek.\u00a0 As the Fathers tell us, nobody really wants to sin, even though we may be habituated towards it sometimes, or people may become identified with their sin.\u00a0 But the reality is that nobody really wants to sin, according to the Fathers.<\/p>\n