First Conference in Prayer
THE FIRST CONFERENCE OF ABBA ISAAC
On Prayer
Contents
1. With the help of the Lord, the conferences of the elder Abba Isaac that we are now presenting will fulfil what was promised in the second book of the Institutes concerning unbroken continuity in prayer.18 After these things have been unfolded, I think that I shall have satisfied both the commands of Father Castor of blessed memory and your wishes, blessed Father Leontius19 and holy Brother Helladius –at least, once the length of the book has been excused. For it has been dragged out to a greater length than we intended, despite our efforts not only to restrict what had to be told to a brief account, but even to pass over many things in silence.
So, after he had launched into a long discussion of various precepts (which we have preferred to curtail out of a desire for brevity), at length the blessed Isaac spoke these words:
2. ISAAC: (1) ‘The whole purpose of the monk and perfection of his heart tends toward continual and uninterrupted perseverance in prayer. So far as it is allowed to human frailty, the monk struggles for a stable tranquillity and perpetual purity of mind, for the sake of which we tirelessly strive in bodily labours no less than we constantly exert ourselves for spiritual contrition.20 Indeed, between these two there is a kind of reciprocal and inseparable union. For just as the structure of all the virtues tends towards perfection in prayer, so, too, the whole can in no way remain firm and strong unless it has been bound and fitted together with pure prayer as the capstone. (2) So, then, without them the perpetual and constant tranquillity in prayer about which we are speaking cannot be attained or perfected; and, to the same extent, the very same virtues which support it cannot be completed without assiduously pursuing it.
‘So, then, we can neither treat rightly of prayer’s effect, nor with a hasty discourse plunge into its final purpose (which is attained through effort in all the virtues), without first having enumerated and discussed one by one all the things that must be either cut out or else prepared in order to attain it. Thus, in keeping with the teaching of the Gospel parable, such things as pertain to the building of that spiritual and most high tower will have been tallied up and diligently considered in advance [cf. Luke 13: 28]. (3) But even once these things have been prepared in advance, they will be useless and will not bear the lofty peak of perfection to be put upon them—unless first all the waste of the vices is cleared away and the ruin and debris of the passions is dug out. Then can the foundations of simplicity and humility be put down most firmly on the (so to speak) living and solid soil of our heart, or rather on that gospel rock [cf. Luke 6: 48]. After being built by these efforts, the tower of spiritual virtues can be stood fast, and raised to the furthest heights of heaven in the confidence of its stability. (4) And once it rests upon such foundations, even when the massive storms of passions break over it; even when the violent surges of persecutions pound it like a battering ram; yes, even when a savage tempest of adversarial spirits slams into it and attacks it—even then, not only will no ruin overtake it, but the attack itself will not disturb it in the slightest.
3. (1) ‘So, then, that prayer may be made with due fervour and purity, the following points must be observed in their entirety.
‘First, all care for fleshly things must be altogether excised. Next, even the very memory of enterprises and projects—much less care for them—must not be entertained in the slightest.21 Likewise, gossip, idle talk or chatter, and clowning must be cut off. The disturbance of anger above all and sadness must be entirely destroyed. And the poisonous shoot of fleshly lust and love of money must be pulled up by the roots. (2) Once these vices, and others like them which are also apparent to the eyes of men, have been entirely removed and excised, and that cleansing and purification such as we said is accomplished by pure simplicity and innocence has occurred, then the first thing is that unshakeable foundations of deep humility must be laid. These foundations are strong enough to support a tower that will be built up into the skies. Next, the spiritual infrastructure of virtues needs to be put down on those foundations. The soul must be restrained from all wandering and slippery digressions, so that by degrees it may begin to ascend to the contemplation of God and to the understanding of spiritual matters.22 (3) For it is sure that whatever our mind has been entertaining before the time for prayer will occur to us when we pray as our memory brings it up.
‘For this reason, we need to prepare ourselves before the time for prayer to be as we would wish to be found when we pray, since the mind is shaped in its petitions by its previous state. As we bend ourselves to pray, images of the same deeds or words or thoughts in keeping with our previous condition will dance before our eyes to anger us, or sadden us, or recall our former projects and lusts, or shake us with stupid laughter—it is shameful even to say it!—by amusing us with some silly word or deed, or turn us back to our former wandering ways. (4) And so we must take care before prayer to exclude from the shrine of our heart whatever we do not want to rush in while we are praying. In this way, we can fulfil the words of the Apostle: “Pray without ceasing” [I Thess. 5: 17], and “In every place, raising holy hands without wrath or argument” [I Tim. 2: 8]. In any case, we will not be able to satisfy that command unless our mind has been purified from every stain of the vices and dedicated to the virtues as to its natural good, so that it pastures constantly on contemplating Almighty God.
4. (1) ‘The soul’s character is, after all, not ineptly compared to an exceedingly fine feather or a very light wing.23 If it has not been damaged by having been soaked to its harm by any moisture from without, it is as it were borne up to the heavenly heights with the aid of the slightest breath, owing to how distinctly mobile it is. Yet if it has been weighted by the sprinkling and soaking of any moisture, it will in no way be carried into heavenly flights, winged by its natural mobility; instead, it will be dragged down to the depths of the earth by the heavy moisture it has taken on. (2) So, too, our mind. If it has not been weighted down by the vices that touch it and by worldly cares, or harmed by the moisture of poisonous lust, it will be carried off to the heights as it were by the natural blessing of its purity, elevated by the lightest breath of spiritual meditation. Taking its leave of lowly and earthly things, it is borne across to things heavenly and invisible. It is therefore fitting that we are well warned by these precepts from Our Lord: “See to it that your hearts are not weighed down in drinking and drunkenness and earthly cares” [Luke 21: 34]. (3) Thus, if we want our prayers to penetrate not only the heavens, but even what is beyond the heavens, let us have a care for our soul. Let us lead it back to its natural fineness, purged from all earthly vices and cleansed from all the stains of the passions. In this way, the soul’s prayer may ascend to God, unhindered by the weight of any vices.
5. (1) ‘Let us note the ways in which the Lord points out that the soul is weighed down. He did not put down adultery, fornications, murder, blasphemies, or rapes, which everyone knows are deadly and damnable, but rather drinking, drunkenness, and the cares or anxieties of this world. No worldly man avoids these things or considers them damnable. Indeed, even some who call themselves monks—it is shameful even to say it!—entangle themselves in these very same distractions as though they were harmless or even useful. (2) These three things can literally weigh down the soul, thus separating it from God and bringing it down to earthly matters, it is nevertheless quite easy for us to avoid them, since we are so far removed from all interaction with this world and in any case never have anything to do with these visible cares and drunkenness and drinking.
‘But there is another kind of drinking that is no less dangerous, a spiritual drunkenness that is harder to avoid, and a care and anxiety for this world that often entraps us—and this even after we have completely renounced all of our goods, even as we abstain from wine and all feasting; even when we live in solitude! It is of them that the prophet says: “Awake, you who are drunk but not with wine” [cf. Joel 1: 5 LXX]. (3) Another says, “Be stupefied and amazed and stagger, be drunk but not with wine” [Isa. 29: 9]. Consequently, the wine of this drunkenness must necessarily be the “fury of the dragons” according to the prophet [Deut. 32: 33 LXX], and hear now from what root that same wine comes: “From the vineyard of Sodom is their vine and their branches from Gomorra” [Deut. 32: 32 LXX]. (4) Would you like to know more about the fruit of that vine and the seed of that branch? “Their grape is the grape of gall, their cluster is of bitterness” [ibid]. If we are not purged from all vices and sober from the drink of all passions, even apart from the drunkenness of wine and the excess of all that feasting, our heart will be weighed down by an even more poisonous drunkenness and drinking.
‘The fact that worldly cares can sometimes befall even us who consort with none of the deeds of this world is clearly shown according to the rule of the Elders. They have decreed that whatever goes beyond the necessities of daily food, and the unavoidable needs of the flesh, is evidence for worldly cares and anxieties. (5) This happens, for example, if we want to protract a job by longer toil and work in order to gain for ourselves two or three solidi, when earning just one solidus would satisfy the needs of our body; or else when we arrange it so that we become owners of three or four tunics, although a covering of two tunics would suffice for use by night and by day; or else when, out of delight in worldly ambition and comfort, we build four or five cells—and these richly appointed and larger than need requires—although a dwelling of one or two cells would suffice: in such a way, we prefer the passion of worldly lusts whenever we can.
6. (1) ‘Surest proofs teach us that this does not come to pass without the prompting of demons. Once a highly accomplished elder was passing by the cell of a certain brother who was suffering from this spiritual disease which we have described and was at that moment restlessly exerting himself in his daily practices of building and repairing what was unnecessary. And from a distance the elder watched him trying to break a very hard stone with a heavy hammer, and saw a certain Ethiopian24 standing over him and striking the blows of the hammer together with him with joined and clasped hands, and stirring him to diligence in that work with fiery encouragement. The elder stood there for quite some time, astounded by the influence of that most fierce demon and the deception of such an illusion. (2) Even when the brother was worn out with exhaustion and wanted to rest and make an end of the work, he would catch another wind at that spirit’s stirring and was driven to take up his hammer again and not to desist from devoting himself to the task that he had undertaken. Being in this way indefatigably sustained by the demon’s incitements, the brother did not perceive the injury that so great labour was doing him.
‘At length the elder, deeply troubled by the demon playing such a terrible game, turned aside to the brother’s cell. After greeting him, the elder asked, “What is this work, brother, which you are doing?” And the brother said, “We are working at this terribly hard stone, and we are hardly able to break it at all.” (3) To this the elder replied, “You were right to say ‘we’! For you were not alone when you were striking it; rather, there was with you another whom you did not see, who was standing by you—not so much as a helper in the task, but as a ruthless taskmaster.”
‘And so, merely abstaining from those affairs which we cannot accomplish even if we wanted to undertake or complete them, or despising those matters which, if we pursued them, would make us stand out in the front rank among spiritual persons as well as among worldly men, will not prove that the disease of worldly vanity is not present in our minds. It will only be proved when with unbending mental rigour we reject those things that lie in our power and that seem veiled with a kind of honesty. These things may seem trivial and unimportant, and we may find that they are permitted as matters of indifference by those who belong to our calling. (4) But in fact by their character they weigh down the mind no less than those more important things which typically intoxicate the senses of worldly people—as befits their status—and which do not allow the monk to lay aside earthly filth and aspire to God, on whom his attention should always be fixed. In the monk’s case, even a tiny separation from the highest good must be considered immediate death and most ruinous destruction.
(5) ‘And when the mind has been established in such a peaceful condition, or rather has been freed from the snares of all fleshly passions, and the heart adheres with its most tenacious fixity to the only true and highest good, then will the monk fulfil the Apostolic precept: “Pray without ceasing”; and: “in every place lifting up holy hands without wrath and disputing” [I Thess. 5: 17, I Tim. 2: 8]. For when the mind’s thoughts are, so to speak, engrossed by this purity (if we can say so) and are re-fashioned from their fallen earthly state into a spiritual and angelic likeness, then whatever it accepts, whatever it attempts, whatever it does, will be perfectly pure and sincere prayer.’ 25
7. GERMANUS: (1) ‘Would that we could perpetually keep those spiritual thoughts in like manner and with the same ease with which we usually conceive the seeds of them! Yet once they have been conceived in our hearts, either through the remembrance of Scriptures or the recollection of some spiritual actions or indeed the consideration of heavenly mysteries, all too quickly they vanish, flying as it were unseen. (2) And when our mind has found some other occasions for spiritual perceptions,26 different perceptions slip in again and those that had been grasped are scattered with slippery speed; thus, because the soul cannot of its own power keep steadfast, nor have any stability with respect to holy thoughts, it must be believed that the soul conceived them by chance and not by effort, even when it somehow seems to keep them. After all, how can it be thought that their rising should be ascribed to our will, when to persevere with them is not in our power?
(3) ‘But so as not to digress any further from the discussion that had begun through considering this question, and delay any longer the explanation of the nature of prayer that was being advanced, let us set this subject aside for its own time; at this precise moment, what we ask to be informed about is the character of prayer, particularly since the blessed Apostle exhorts us to cease from it at no time, when he says, “Pray without ceasing” [I Thess. 5: 17]. (4) So, first, we want to be informed about its character—i.e., which prayer ought to be offered up always—and, second, how we can obtain this (whatever it is) and practise it without ceasing. We are shown by Your Holiness’s discourse in which you defined the aim of the monk and the peak of all perfection as consisting in the perfection of prayer, and by daily experience, that it cannot be accomplished by a paltry intention of the heart.’
8. ISAAC: (1): ‘I take it that all the types of prayers cannot be grasped without tremendous purity of heart and soul and the illumination of the Holy Spirit, for there are as many conditions and characters as can be produced in one soul, or rather in all souls. (2) Even though we know that we cannot see all kinds of prayers owing to our dullness of heart, we will try nevertheless to relate them in some order, insofar as the poverty of our experience enables us to understand them. The very prayers themselves will be altered moment by moment according to the degree of purity to which each mind attains and according to the character of the state to which it is either being inclined—owing to what happens to it—or in which it is being renewed by its own efforts; it is therefore most certain that nobody can always offer up uniform prayers. (3) For a person prays in one way when he is excited, in another way when oppressed by the weight of sadness or despair; in another when invigorated by spiritual accomplishments, in another when cast down by a mass of assaults; in another when asking pardon for his sins, in another when asking to obtain grace or some virtue or else praying for the annihilation of some sin; in another when pricked by the thought of Gehenna and fear of future judgment, in another when radiant with the hope and desire of good things to come; in another when he is in exigencies and dangers, in another when he is in peace and security; in another when he is illuminated by revelations of heavenly mysteries, and in another when he is constrained by barrenness in virtues and dryness in perceptions.
9. (1) ‘But even once these things concerning the character of prayer have been enumerated (even if not so fully as the importance of the subject cries out for, but as fully as the lack of time permits—and certainly as fully as our meagre wit and dull heart are up to undertaking!) a greater difficulty now awaits us in expounding one by one the different kinds of prayer which the Apostle distinguished in his four-fold account, when he says, “I exhort therefore first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, thanksgivings be made” [I Tim 2: 1]. It cannot be doubted in the slightest that this division was not made idly by the Apostle.
(2) ‘The first thing to be investigated is what is meant by supplication, by prayer, by intercession and by thanksgiving. Next it must be asked whether these four kinds are to be attempted all at once by one who prays: that is, are they all to be linked together in each and every prayer? Or are they to be offered one by one in turn (so that, for instance, it is proper that supplications should be made at one time, prayers at another, intercessions at another, and thanksgivings at yet another)? Or indeed ought one person to make supplications to God, another prayers, another intercessions and yet another thanksgivings, in keeping with the measure of maturity to which each mind is advancing by the effort of its intention?
10. ‘First, we must treat of the distinctive properties of the names and words, and discuss what the difference between prayer and supplication and intercession is. Second, we must likewise consider whether they are to be produced separately or all together. Third, we must investigate whether the very order itself which is thus set down by the Apostle’s authority has anything further to teach the hearer, or whether the distinction simply is to be taken and the fact that they were arranged thus by him is to be regarded as a matter of no importance. Now that seems to me utterly absurd, for it should not be believed that the Holy Spirit uttered anything through the Apostle casually or without purpose. And so let us treat of them separately, as the Lord grants us, in the same order in which we began.
11. ‘“I exhort therefore first of all that supplications be made ....” Supplication is an imploring, or petition, about sins whereby one who is struck with sorrow for present or past deeds asks for pardon. 27
12. (1) ‘Prayers are how we offer or vow something to God, which is called euchê (“vow”) in Greek.28 Thus, where in Greek we read tas euchas mou tô Kuriô apodôsô in Latin we read, “I will pay my vows unto the Lord” [Ps. 115: 14], though it could be rendered in keeping with the precise wording as follows: “I will pay my prayers to the Lord”. And what we find in Eccles. [5: 3 LXX], “If you vow a vow to the Lord, do not delay to pay it,” is similarly written in Greek: ean euxê euchên tô kuriô (i.e., “If you pray a prayer unto the Lord, do not delay to pay it”). (2) Here is how that will be fulfilled by each of us: We pray when, renouncing this world and having died to all activities and the worldly way of life, we pledge to serve the Lord with every intention of our heart. We pray when, despising secular honours and scorning earthly gains, we promise to cling to the Lord in all contrition of heart and humility of spirit. We pray when we promise always to exhibit the purest chasteness of body and imperturbable patience, or when we vow that the roots of anger or of sorrow that bring about death will be utterly extirpated from our heart. If we ever fail to do these things, being undone by sloth and returning to our old vices, we shall be guilty of our prayers and vows and it will be said of us, “It is better not to vow, than to vow and not to pay it” [Eccles. 5: 4 LXX]—or, as it can be said in keeping with the Greek, “It is better not to pray, than to pray and not pay it”.
13. ‘Intercessions come in the third place, which we are accustomed to offer up for others too, while we are filled with fervour of spirit, making request either for those who are dear to us or for the peace of the whole world,29 and we pray “for all men, for kings and all that are in authority”, to use the very words of the Apostle [I Tim. 2: 1-2].
14. ‘Thanksgivings come in the fourth place, which the mind conveys to God through ineffable outpourings, either when it recalls the past benefits of God or contemplates the present ones, or indeed looks forward to those great ones in the future which God has prepared for those who love Him [cf. I Cor. 2: 9]. And sometimes, in this disposition, richer prayers are offered up, while, by gazing with pure eyes on those rewards of the saints which are laid up for the future, our spirit is moved to pour out ineffable thanks to God with tremendous joy.
15. (1) ‘From these four kinds of prayer, the occasions for richer entreaties sometimes arise; for we know that most fervent and fiery prayers proceed very frequently from the kind of supplication which is born of compunction for sins, from the state of prayer which flows forth from assurance in our oblations and the fulfilment of our vows in pureness of conscience, from the intercessions that proceed from the warmth of charity and from thanksgiving that is generated from the consideration of God’s benefits and his greatness and kindness. Thus it is clear that the aforementioned kinds of prayer are found to be useful and necessary for everybody, and consequently in one and the same person a change of perception results in the utterance of pure and most fervent entreaties, sometimes supplications, sometimes prayers, sometimes intercessions. Even so, the first kind seems more especially pertinent to beginners who are still vexed by the stings and memory of their vices; the second, to those who already have attained some elevation of mind in spiritual progress and seeking after virtues; the third to those who, having fulfilled their vows by their works, are prompted to intercede for others as well by the consideration of their weakness and the zeal of their own love; the fourth to those who, having already plucked the thorn of guilty conscience from their hearts, are now in safety considering with the purest of minds the bounties and compassions of God that He has either granted in the past or is presently giving or preparing for the future, are in this way carried with most fervent hearts to that fiery prayer which can be neither embraced nor expressed by the human mouth.
(2) ‘And yet sometimes the mind which progresses to that true condition of purity and has already begun to be rooted in it, conceiving all these things at one and the same time and flying around all of them like a kind of incomprehensible and most greedy flame, is accustomed to pour out prayers of purest vigour to God—which the Spirit Himself, intervening with unutterable groans that we do not know [cf. Rom. 8: 26], sends to God—conceiving at that moment, I say, and ineffably pouring forth in supplications things such as not only cannot proceed from the mouth, but also cannot even be recollected by the mind at another time. (3) And so it happens that in whatever degree someone stands, he is found sometimes to offer up pure and intent prayers. Even at that first and lowly order which is concerned with the recollection of future judgment, one who still remains under the punishment of terror and the fear of scrutiny is so smitten at that time that he is filled with keenness of spirit from the richness of supplication no less than one who, reflecting upon and dwelling on the bounties of God in the purity of his heart, is undone with ineffable joy and delight. He begins to love more who knows that he has been forgiven more, in keeping with the Lord’s claim [cf. Luke 7: 27].
16. ‘However, through advancing in life and perfecting virtues we ought rather to strive for those kinds of prayer which are poured out either from the contemplation of future goods or the warmth of charity or which (to speak more humbly and in keeping with the order of beginners) at least are generated by the acquisition of some virtue or the annihilation of some fault. Otherwise, we will be in no way able to attain to those loftier types of entreaties about which we spoke earlier, if our mind has not been raised, little by little and step by step, through the usual order of those intercessions.
17. (1) ‘The Lord Himself deigned to initiate these four types of entreaties for us by His own example, so that even in this He might fulfil what was said of Him, “which Jesus began to do and teach” [Acts 1: 11]. For He resorted to the class of supplication when He said, “Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me” [Matt. 26: 39]; or this which is sung in His person in the Psalm [21: 2]: “My God, my God, look upon me; why have You forsaken me?”—and other similar passages. (2) It is a prayer when He says, “I have glorified You upon the earth, I have completed the work that You gave me to do” [John 17: 4] and, “For their sakes I sanctify myself, so that they also may be sanctified in truth” [John 17: 19]. It is an intercession when He says, “Father, I will that those whom You have given me should themselves be with me where I am, so that they may see my glory which You have given me” [John 17: 24]; or in any case when He says, “Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing” [Luke 23: 34]. (3) It is thanksgiving when He says, “I confess to You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because You have hidden these things from the wise and the prudent and have revealed them to little children. Even so, Father, for thus it was pleasing to you” [Matt. 11: 25-26], or in any case when He said, “Father, I thank You because You heard me, though I knew that You always hear me” [John 11: 41-42].
‘But even though Our Lord made a distinction between these four kinds of prayers as being offered separately and one by one in keeping with the scheme which we embrace, He nevertheless showed by His own deeds that they can all be embraced at one and the same time in a perfect entreaty—particularly in that prayer which we read at the close of St John’s Gospel that He poured forth so copiously. (4) From that text (though it is too long to work through the whole thing) the diligent inquirer can learn from the sequence of the passage itself that these things are so. The Apostle, too, in his Epistle to the Philippians [4: 6] has clearly expressed the same meaning while putting these four kinds of prayer in a slightly different order, and shown that sometimes they ought to be offered together in the fervour of a single entreaty when he said, “But in every prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be known unto God”. By this, he wished us to learn especially that in prayer and in supplication thanksgiving should be mixed with intercession.
18. (1) ‘And so a state that is still more lofty and exalted follows upon these kinds of entreaties, which is made of the contemplation of God alone and of the warmth of charity; by it the mind, which has been undone by and cast into the love of Him, speaks with God most intimately, as with its own father, in a special devotion. (2) The formula of the Lord’s Prayer establishes that we ought diligently to seek after this state, when it says, “Our Father” [Matt. 6: 9]. Now when with our own voice we confess that God the Lord of the Universe is our Father, we profess straightway that we have been called forth from a servile condition to the “adoption of sons” [Eph. 1: 5]. Then we add, “who are in the heavens”, so that we may hasten with greatest eagerness to that place where we acknowledge that our Father abides, shunning with all horror abiding in the present life that we live on this earth as a pilgrimage, and whatever separates us greatly from our Father; and that we may admit nothing that, by making us unworthy of this profession of ours and the honour of such an adoption, would cheat us of our patrimony as being unfit for it and make us incur the wrath of His justice and severity.
(3) ‘Once we have advanced to the order and level of sons, we shall at once be aflame with the devotion appropriate to good sons, so that we shall direct our every desire not to our own uses but to the glory of our Father, saying to Him, “Hallowed be Your name” and thus testifying that our desire, our joy, is our Father’s glory as we have become imitators of Him who said, “He who speaks of himself seeks his own glory, but he who seeks the glory of the one who sent him is true and there is no injustice in him” [John 7: 18]. After all, the “vessel of election” [Acts 9: 15], filled with this desire, chose rather to be anathema from Christ if only it would gain for Him a larger family and the salvation of the whole people of Israel would redound to the glory of his Father [cf. Rom. 9: 3, I Cor. 9: 20]. (4) As one who knew that no one can die for life, he was safe in choosing to perish for Christ. Again, he says, “We rejoice when we are weak but you are strong” [II Cor. 13: 9].
‘And what wonder if the “vessel of election” chose to be anathema from Christ for the sake of Christ’s glory and the conversion of his brethren and the benefit of the heathen, when Micah the prophet willed that he might be a liar and a stranger to the inspiration of the Holy Spirit if only the people of the Jewish nation might escape the plagues and the exile into captivity which he had foretold in his proclamation; he said, “Would that I were not a man who has the Spirit and that instead I spoke a lie” [Mic. 2: 11]. And this is to pass over the Lawgiver’s desire, who did not refuse to perish with his kinsfolk even when they were going to die; he said, “I beseech You, Lord—this people have sinned a great sin, but either forgive them this offence or, if not, blot me out of Your book which You have written” [Exod. 32: 31-32].
(5) ‘But when it is said, “Hallowed be Your name,” it may quite satisfactorily be taken in this manner: “God’s hallowing is our perfection”. So when we say to Him, “Hallowed be Your name,” this is what we are saying in other words: “Make us such, Father, that we may be able to understand and grasp what Your hallowing is, or at least that You may appear holy in our spiritual way of life. Now this is effectively fulfilled in us, when people see our good works and glorify our Father who is in the heavens [cf. Matt. 5: 16].
19. ‘The pure mind’s second petition wishes for the kingdom of its Father to come straightway. This means either that situation whereby Christ reigns daily in the saints which happens when, once the devil’s rule has been expelled from our hearts by the destruction of foul vices, God begins to rule over us by the sweet smell of virtues [cf. II Cor. 2: 14] and charity reigns in our hearts when fornication has been overcome; tranquillity, when rage is conquered; and humility, when pride is trodden under foot; or else it means that which is promised in due course to all the perfect and the sons of God, when it will be said to them by Christ: “Come, you who are blessed of My Father, receive the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world” [Matt. 25: 34]—whilst the mind, with fixed and steady purpose, as it were, desires and looks for Him and says, “Your kingdom come”. For it knows by the testimony of its own conscience that, when He shall appear, it will immediately be His partner. No guilty person would dare to say or to wish for this, since nobody would want to face the tribunal of the Judge, who knew that at His coming he would receive at once not a prize or reward for his merits but a punishment.
20. (1) ‘The third is the petition of sons: “Your will be done on earth just as in heaven”. There can be no greater prayer now than to wish that earthly things should be made equal with heavenly things. And what else is it to say “Your will be done on earth just as in heaven,” than that men may be like angels and that just as God’s will is fulfilled by the latter in heaven, likewise those on earth may do not their own but His will? 30 The only person who could say this with earnest desire is one who believes that God disposes everything that is seen—whether good or ill—for our benefit and that He is more careful and solicitous for our salvation and needs than we are for our own selves. (2) Or in any case it may be taken thus: God’s will is the salvation of all, according to this statement by the blessed Paul: “… who wills everyone to be saved and to come to knowledge of the truth” [I Tim. 2: 4]. About this will, the prophet Isaiah also says in the person of God the Father, “And all My will shall be done” [Isa. 46: 10]. So when we say to Him, “Your will be done on earth just as in heaven,” we pray in other words for this: that all those who dwell on earth may be saved, just like those who are in heaven, O Father, by the knowledge of You.
21. (1) ‘Next: “Give us this day our epiousion—i.e., ‘supersubstantial’—bread”, which another Evangelist calls “daily bread” [Luke 11: 3]. The former designates the quality of its noble substance, by which it is above all substances (the loftiness of its magnificent holiness exceeds all creatures), whereas the latter expresses the distinctive character of its use and value. When it says “daily”, it shows that without it we are unable to live a spiritual life for a single day. (2) When it says “today”, it shows that it must be consumed daily and that yesterday’s supply of it is insufficient, unless it has also been given to us today in the same way. Our daily need of it indicates that at all times we ought to pour forth this prayer, since there is no day when we have no need to strengthen our inner man’s heart by eating and receiving it. However, when “today” is said, it may be understood with reference to this present life: i.e., “While we are living in this world, provide us with this bread. For we know that it will be given by You to those who deserve it in the future, but we ask that You would lavish it upon us today, since no one will be a partaker of it in that life unless in this life he has been vouchsafed to receive it.”
22. (1) ‘“And forgive us our debts as we also forgive our debtors.” O the ineffable mercy of God! Not only has it passed down to us a form of prayer, instituted for us a system of life acceptable to Him, and eradicated both anger and sorrow by the requirements of the traditional form in which He taught us ever to pray; it even gives an opportunity to those who pray and opens a way to them by which they may appeal for God’s judgment to be pronounced over them, merciful and kind. In a way, it gives us a power by which we can moderate our Judge’s sentence, inducing Him to forgive our offences by the example of our forgiveness when we say to Him, “Forgive us as we also forgive.”
(2) ‘And so, safely confident in this prayer, one may beseech pardon for one’s own offences, if one has dismissed one’s own debtors—but not the Lord’s debtors. For some of us are in the very bad habit of appearing calm and most merciful in respect of those things which are done to God’s detriment, however great the crimes may be, but of being found to be harsh and inexorable exactors of debts to ourselves in the case of even the tiniest offences. (3) Now anyone who does not wholeheartedly forgive the brother who has offended him, calls down upon himself by this plea, not forgiveness, but condemnation: by his own profession, he asks that he himself may be judged more harshly when he says: “Forgive me as I also have forgiven”. If he is recompensed according to his own request, what will follow other than that, in keeping with his own example, he will be punished with implacable wrath and a sentence that cannot be appealed against. If therefore we want to be judged mercifully, it behoves us to be merciful ourselves towards those who have trespassed against us. For it will be remitted to us only to the extent that we have remitted to those who have injured us, regardless of how spitefully.
(4) ‘There are some who, out of fear, pass over this phrase in silence when this prayer is chanted in church by all the people, lest by professing it they are seen to make themselves liable rather than excuse themselves. What they do not understand is that it is vanity to try offering up these sophistries to the Judge of all, who has chosen to show us in advance how He is going to judge those who beseech Him. As He does not want to be found to be harsh and inexorable in dealing with them, He has outlined the criteria for His judgement, with the result that we should judge our brethren (if they have trespassed against us in anything) in the same manner as we desire to be judged by Him, since there is “judgment without mercy for one who has not shown mercy” [Jas 1: 12].
23. (1) ‘Next follows, “And lead us not into temptation”—and concerning this there arises a not insignificant question: If we pray that we may not be permitted to be tempted, how will our staying power be proved? Consider the claim, “Everyone who is not tempted, is not proved” [Sir. 34: 11]; and again, “Blessed is the man that endures temptation” [Jas 1: 12]. So “Lead us not into temptation” does not signify this: “do not allow us ever to be tempted”, but rather this: “do not allow us to be overcome when we fall into temptation”. (2) Job was tempted, but was not led into temptation, for he did not ascribe foolishness to God, nor did he blasphemously enter into that wilfulness of the Tempter toward which he was drawn [cf. Job 42: 7,8; 2: 9-10]. Abraham was tempted, Joseph was tempted, but neither of them was led into temptation, since neither of them offered his consent to the tempter [cf. Gen. 22: 1-18; 39: 7-13].
Next follows, “But deliver us from evil”—i.e., do not allow us to be tempted by the devil beyond our ability, but “make with the temptation a way also of escape that we may be able to bear it” [Matt. 6: 13].
24. ‘Now you see of what sort the method is, and what is the form of prayer which is set for us by the very Judge who is to be prayed to by it. There is contained in it no petition for riches, no consideration of honours, no request for power and strength, no mention of physical health and of temporal life. For the Fashioner of Eternity would have us ask Him for nothing perishable, nothing lowly, nothing time-bound. Therefore anyone who prefers to ask him for something transitory and perishable, whilst foregoing these eternal requests, will offer the greatest insult to His majesty and bounty—and by the lowliness of the prayer will also incur the Judge’s indignation rather than His propitiation.
25. ‘So then this prayer seems to contain all the fullness of perfection in that it was instituted and established by the Lord’s own authority; and yet it leads His familiars through a loftier grade to that fiery prayer which is known or experienced by very few, but (that I may speak more precisely) is ineffable. I do not say that this prayer, which transcends all human understanding, is not distinguished by any sound of the voice or movement of the tongue or pronunciation of words. Rather it is this prayer that the mind, enlightened by the infusion of that heavenly light, does not describe by restricted, human eloquence; but, with its senses gathered together, it abundantly gives forth as it were from some most plentiful fountain and ineffably talks to God. In that most fleeting moment of time, it produces so many things that the mind, once it turns back upon itself, is incapable of speaking readily about them, either eloquently or summarily. Our Lord also similarly anticipated this condition by the form of those entreaties which He is said to have poured forth silently when He withdrew alone into the mountain; when set in an agony of prayer He even shed drops of blood in an inimitable example of purpose.
26. (1) ‘But regardless of the experience with which one is endowed, who is able to expound sufficiently the varieties and very reasons and grounds of being struck with sorrow, by which the mind, inflamed and set on fire, is incited to pure and most fervent prayers? By way of example, we will propose a few of them, as much as we can recollect by the Lord’s illumination. Sometimes when we sing a verse from a given Psalm, this provides us with an occasion for fiery prayer. Meanwhile, the harmonious melody of a brother’s voice excites torpid souls to intense entreaty. (2) We know, too, that the cantor’s ornamentation and dignity greatly contribute to the fervour of those present. No less than that, a perfect person’s exhortation and spiritual conversation31 has often raised the sentiments of those nearby to exceedingly rich prayer. We also know that we have been no less moved to profound compunction by the death of a brother or someone dear to us. The remembrance of our indifference and negligence has sometimes also aroused a saving fervour of spirit in us. And so no one can doubt that in this way there are not lacking innumerable opportunities by which the indifference and sleepiness of our minds can be stirred to action through God’s grace.
27. ‘But it is no less difficult to track how, and in what way, the very moments of compunction themselves are produced from the spirit’s innermost recesses. Frequently, in the spirit’s ineffable joy and keenness, the fruit of saving compunction emerges in such a way that it breaks forth into shouts because of the greatness of its uncontrollable joy, and the heart’s liveliness and greatness of exultation penetrates even into a neighbour’s cell. But sometimes the mind is hidden in such silence within the secrets of profound stillness that the astonishment of sudden illumination completely restrains all sound of the voice and the stunned spirit either keeps all its feelings inside or parts with them and pours forth its desires to God in “groans that cannot be uttered” [Rom. 8: 26]. And on still other occasions, it is filled to overflowing with compunction and grief so that it cannot express them except in a flood of tears.’
28. GERMANUS: (1) ‘For my part, insignificant as it is, I am not ignorant of this feeling of being stricken with sorrow. Often, when tears well up at the recollection of my faults, at the Lord’s visitation I have been so invigorated by the ineffable joy which you described that the greatness of the joy has reminded me not to despair of their forgiveness. I suppose there is nothing loftier than that state, if only its renewal could be brought about by our will. (2) Sometimes, when with all my strength I wish to stir myself up to a similar tearful state of sorrow and put all my errors and sins before my eyes, I am not able to bring back that rich weeping: my eyes remain like some really hard flint, so that not a single tear falls from them. Therefore to the same extent that I rejoice in that profusion of tears, I sorrow that I cannot recover it at will.’
29. ISAAC: (1) ‘Not every profusion of tears is drawn forth by one feeling or one power. For in one way that weeping emerges from our heart when it has been pricked with sorrow by the spines of sins (about which it is said: “I have laboured in my groaning, every night will I wash my bed; I will water my couch with my tears”, and “Day and night let tears run down like a torrent; give yourself no rest, nor let the pupil of your eye be still”; [Ps. 6: 6-7; Lam. 2: 18]). (2) And in another way emerges the weeping that arises from contemplation of the eternal goods and desire for that future glory, for the sake of which even richer springs of tears burst forth from unbearable joy and unbounded keenness, whilst our soul thirsts for the mighty living God, saying, “When shall I come and appear in the sight of God? For me, tears have been my bread day and night” [Ps. 41: 3-4] and proclaiming with daily crying and lamentation, “Woe is me that my sojourning has been prolonged” and “My soul has been a sojourner for too long” [Ps. 119: 5-6].
(3) ‘In another way flow the tears which, quite apart from any awareness of deadly sins, proceed all the same from the fear of hell and the remembrance of that terrible judgment, with the terror that struck the prophet who prayed to God, saying: “Do not enter into judgment with Your servant, for in Your sight no one living shall be justified” [Ps. 142: 2]32. And there is another kind of tears which are engendered, not by one’s own conscience, but by the recalcitrance and sins of others: it was with this kind of tears that Samuel is described as having wept for Saul [cf. I Kings 15: 35], and both the Lord in the Gospel [Luke. 19: 41 ff.] and Jeremiah in earlier times for the city of Jerusalem, saying, “Who will give me water for a head and a fountain of tears for my eyes, and I shall weep both day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people” [Jer 9: 1].
(4) ‘And indeed such were those tears, concerning which we hear in Psalm 101: [10], “I have eaten ashes for my bread, and mingled my cup with weeping”. Certainly, they were not caused by the same feeling as those which emerge from the person of the penitent in Psalm 6, but are due to the anxieties of this life and its difficulties and tribulations by which the righteous living in this world are oppressed. The text of the psalm itself is not the only thing that clearly shows this: it is done even by the psalm’s title, which, in the person of that poor person about whom it is said in the Gospel, “blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” [Matt. 5: 3], is described as “the prayer of a poor person, when he was distressed and poured forth his petition to God” [Ps. 101: 1].
30. (1) ‘Very different from these tears are those which are squeezed out of dry eyes when the heart is hard. Although we cannot believe that they are utterly fruitless (after all, the attempt to shed them is made from good intent, particularly by those who have as yet been unable to arrive at perfect knowledge or to be thoroughly cleansed from the stain of past or present vices) nonetheless this flow of tears should not be forced out in this way by those who have already advanced in the disposition of virtue. Nor should the weeping of the “outward man” be attempted with great labour—even if the weeping is produced somehow, it will never be able to attain the richness of spontaneous tears. (2) Instead, drawing down the soul of the suppliant by his endeavours, these tears will humiliate the suppliant, submerge him in human affairs and remove the stunned mind of one who prays from the celestial heights where it ought to be unwaveringly fixed, and it will compel the mind to languish from sterile and forced teardrops, once the purpose of its prayers has been relaxed.
31. ‘For you to perceive the disposition of true prayer, I offer, not my own judgment, but the blessed Anthony’s. We have known him sometimes so to have persisted in prayer that, his mind being in a transport of prayer, when the sun began to appear we have heard him proclaim in the fervour of his spirit, “Why, O sun, do you impede me, who have been praying until now, so as to draw me from the glory of that true light?” And this heavenly and superhuman view of the end of prayer is also his: “It is not a true prayer when the monk knows himself, or the very thing that he prays”.
‘For our part, if we dared in the slenderness of our ability to add something further to this admirable judgment, it would be to relate the characteristics of a prayer which, in our experience, is heard by the Lord.
32. ‘When no hesitance interrupts us at prayer and destroys the confidence of our petition through some despair, and instead we perceive that we have obtained what we ask for by the very pouring forth of prayer, we do not doubt that our pleas have effectually made their way to God. That person will deserve to be heard and to succeed who believes that he is beheld by God and that God is able to accomplish it. This saying of Our Lord’s cannot be repealed: “Whatever you seek in prayer, believe that you will receive it and it will come to you” [Mark 11: 24].’
33. GERMANUS: ‘Certainly we believe that this confidence of being heard comes from purity of conscience. But as for us, whose heart is even now pierced with sorrow by the thorn of sins, how can we have it? We have no merits advocating on our behalf, so that by them we might presume confidently that our prayers would be heard.’
34. ISAAC: (1) ‘The message of the gospels and of the prophets teach us that there are different reasons for prayer being heard, in accordance with the different and varying condition of souls:
‘You have the fruit of being heard marked out by our Lord’s words in the case of two people in agreement, according to the passage, “If two of you shall agree upon earth concerning anything they shall ask for, it shall be done for them of my Father who is in the heavens” [Matt. 18: 19]. You have another in the fullness of faith, which is compared to a grain of mustard. “For if you have faith even like a grain of mustard,” He says, “you shall say to this mountain: ‘Be removed from this place’, and it shall be removed; and nothing will be impossible for you” [Matt. 17: 19]. (2) You have it in assiduousness with respect to prayer, which the Lord’s word calls importunity because of the indefatigable persistence in petitioning: “Amen, I say unto you that, even if not because of his friendship, yet because of his persistence, he [the householder] will rise and give him as much as he needs” [Luke 11: 8]. You have it in the fruit of almsgiving: “Store up alms in the heart of the poor and it shall pray for you in the time of tribulation” [Sir. 29: 15]. You have it in the improvement of life and works of mercy, according to the passage, “Loose the bands of wickedness, undo the oppressing burdens”; (3) and after a few words in which the sterility of an unproductive fast is castigated, it is said, “Then you will call and the Lord will hear you; you will cry, and He will say, See, I am here” [Isa. 58: 6, 9]. Sometimes an excess of distresses also causes it to be heard, according to the passage, “When I was distressed, I called upon the Lord, and He heard me” [Ps. 119: 1]; and again: “Do not afflict the stranger, for if he cries out to Me I will hear him, since I am merciful” [Exod. 22: 21, 27].
‘So you see how many ways there are for the gift of being heard to be obtained, with the result that no one should be broken by his conscience’s despair of attaining those things that are eternal and for salvation. (4) Suppose that, in contemplating our miseries, I concede that we are completely destitute of all those virtues which we considered above, having neither the commendable agreement of two persons, nor faith comparable to a grain of mustard, nor the works of piety that the prophet describes; even so, could we lack the persistence that He supplies to all who want it? It is for that persistence alone that the Lord promises to give whatever He has been petitioned to give. Therefore we ought to persevere in our requests without faithless hesitation, and never to doubt that if we continue in them we shall obtain all those things which we have asked that are appropriate to God.
(5) ‘For the Lord, wishing to grant what is heavenly and eternal, exhorts us to compel Him (so to speak) by our persistence; not only does He not despise or reject the persistent, He actually welcomes, praises them, and most favourably promises to grant whatever they have persistently hoped for, saying, “Ask and you shall receive, seek and you shall find, knock and it shall be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives, and whoever seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it shall be opened” [Luke 11: 9-10)]; and again, “All things whatever that you shall ask in prayer, believing, you shall receive, and nothing shall be impossible to you” [Matt. 21: 22, 17: 20]. (6) So then even if all the aforementioned reasons for being heard are altogether wanting, at least the steadfastness of persistence may quicken us, as this is given to any one who wills—quite apart from any difficulties of merit or labour.
‘But even when the suppliant doubts whether he has been heard, he should have no doubt that he certainly will be heard. We are taught by the example of the blessed Daniel that this also shall be sought from the Lord indefatigably, because, though he was heard on the first day when he began to pray, the result of his entreaty only followed after twenty-one days [cf. Dan. 10: 2 ff.]. (7) Therefore we, too, should not leave off once we undertake the purpose of our prayers, if we perceive that we are being heard rather slowly: perhaps the grace of being heard has been postponed by the Lord’s providence for a good reason, or the angel of divine services, who was dispatched from the presence of the Almighty, has been detained in his departure by the resistance of the devil (for it is certain that he cannot force on us the desire of the gift conveyed, if he should discover that we have left off from the intention of the entreaty that we have purposed). This undoubtedly would have happened to the above mentioned prophet, too, but that with incomparable strength he prolonged the persistence of his prayers until the twenty-first day.
(8) ‘So let us not be utterly broken by despair for want of confidence in this faith when we perceive that we have not obtained at all what we have prayed for, and let us not hesitate about the Lord’s covenant, who says, “All things whatever that you shall ask in prayer, believing, you shall receive” [Matt. 21: 22]. It is seemly for us to reconsider that saying of the blessed John the Evangelist, by which the ambiguity of this question is clearly resolved: “This is”, he says, “the confidence which we have in Him, that whatever we ask according to His will, He hears us” [I John 5: 14]. (9) He therefore bids us to have full and undoubting confidence of being heard only in matters conforming, not to our convenience or temporal consolations, but to the Lord’s will. We are also taught to add this by the Lord’s Prayer, where we say, “Your will be done”—Yours, not ours. If we also remember these words of the Apostle, that “we know not what to pray for as we ought” [Rom. 8: 26], we shall understand that we sometimes petition for things contrary to our salvation and that we are most suitably refused what we have requested by Him who considers what is good for us more rightly and truly than we do.33
(10) ‘There is no doubt this also befell the teacher of the Gentiles, when he prayed that that messenger of Satan (who had for his own good been allowed to buffet him by the Lord’s will) would be removed from him, saying: “About this I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me. And He said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for strength is perfected in weakness’” [II Cor. 12: 8-9]. Our Lord, too, expressed this sentiment when He prayed, in the person of His humanity,34 that He might provide us with a form of prayer for other things by His example, when he said: “Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me; yet not as I will but as You will” [Matt. 26: 39]—though of course His will was not discordant with the Father’s will. (11) “For He had come to save what was lost, and give His soul a ransom for many” [Matt. 18: 11, 20: 28]—concerning which He Himself says: “No one takes My soul from Me, but I lay it down of Myself: I have the power to lay it down and I have the power to take it up again” [John 10: 18]. About the unity of His will which He maintained with the Father, the following is sung in Psalm 39: [9] by the blessed David on behalf of this person: “I have willed, O My God, to do Your will”.
‘Even if we read about the Father, “For God loved the world in such a way that He gave His only begotten Son ...” [John 3: 16], we find nonetheless about the Son, “Who gave Himself for our sins” [Gal. 1: 4]. (12) And in the same way it is said about the former, “Who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him for all of us” [Rom. 8: 32], it is also related about the latter, “He was offered because He Himself willed it” [Isa. 53: 7]. So it is shown that the will of the Father and of the Son is one in all things: it is taught that even in the very mystery of the Lord’s resurrection their working was not discordant. Just as the blessed Apostle preached that the Father accomplished the resurrection of His body, saying, “… and God the Father, who raised Him from the dead” [Gal. 1: 11], so too the Son announced that He Himself will raise again the Temple of His body when He says, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up again” [John 2: 19].(13) ‘And so having learned from the aforementioned examples of our Lord, we too ought to end our entreaties with like prayer and always to append this word to all our requests: “Nevertheless not as I will, but as You will” [Matt. 26: 39]. But it is sufficiently clear that one who does not make a petition with an attentive mind cannot observe that threefold reverence which is usually celebrated in the assemblies of the brethren at the end of the service.35
35. (1) ‘But before everything, that gospel precept must be most diligently observed, which tells us to enter our room, shut the door and pray to our Father [cf. Matt. 6: 6]. This may be fulfilled by us as follows: we make our request within our room when, drawing our hearts within, away from the tumult of all thoughts and cares, we disclose our petitions to the Lord intimately and in secret. (2) We pray with the door closed when we pray with closed lips and total silence to the one who scrutinises not words, but hearts. We pray in secret when we reveal our requests to God alone from the heart and fervent mind, so that no hostile powers are able to recognize of what kind our petition is. (3) On this account, prayer should be made in complete silence, not only so that we do not distract the brethren standing near by our whispers or cries and thus disturb the perceptions of those at prayer, but that the intention of our entreaty may be concealed from our enemies who particularly lie in ambush for us when we pray. Thus we shall fulfil this precept: “Guard the door of your mouth from her who sleeps in your bosom” [Mic. 7: 5].
36. (1) ‘For this reason prayer should be made frequently but briefly, lest our insidious enemy be able to implant something in our heart as we take our time about it.36 For that is the true sacrifice, since “the sacrifice of God is a broken spirit” [Ps. 50: 19]; this is the offering of salvation; these are pure libations; that is the “sacrifice of righteousness” [Ps. 50: 21], the “sacrifice of praise” [Ps. 49: 23]; these are true and fat victims; they are “burnt offerings full of marrow” [Ps. 65: 15] which are offered by broken and humble hearts—and when we offer them through the aforementioned control and fervour of spirit, we can sing with effectual power: “Let my prayer be set forth in Your sight as the incense, let the lifting up of my hands be an evening sacrifice” [Ps. 140: 2]. (2) But the arrival of that very hour and of the night reminds us to render thanks with appropriate devotion, concerning which we seem to have put forth a great deal (from the measure of our slender ability) and to have prolonged our conference. And yet we believe that we have actually said little when compared to the loftiness and difficulty of the subject.’
More overwhelmed than satisfied by these words of the holy Isaac, we briefly rested our limbs after the evening service had been celebrated37 and departed to our accommodation, intending at the crack of dawn to return with the promise of a fuller treatment, rejoicing as much over the acquisition of these precepts as over the assurance of his promises. We felt that, even though the excellence of prayer had been shown to us, we had not yet wholly understood from his words its nature and the power by which unbroken endurance in prayer could be gained and kept.