An Elder Teaches His Disciple How to Pray Source: xristianoss.blogspot.

gr Translated into English by: Olga Konnaris-Kokkinos

It is not necessary to mention the many spiritual gifts one receives when talking to spiritual elders. It is self-evident We are talking about treasures whose huge benefit will only be revealed with the passing of time. At times like these, when we demolish rather than build spiritual realities, all the more will some recognize these assets and not hesitate to seek spiritual truth derived from the experience of revered hermits. From them we hear mellifluous words which truly stick to the soul, calm and revive it. Nevertheless, whoever truly wishes to find such elders, may find them anywhere, often unknown, sometimes even next to him. Whoever seeksshall find This is a Godly promise, one not to be taken lightly. If you are going to seek well, expect then to find. Just know that what you find may NOT be what you expected! But once found, one may be certain that he will gain a lot What follows is a story of a disciple who visits his elder in order to receive the benefits from prayer. Going to my elders cell today, I wanted him to speak to me about prayer, which is at the center of a Christians spiritual life. - Bless me, my father. - May you have the blessing of our Lord Jesus Christ. Come We will walk in the forest. Listen to the birds nature gives a different meaning to ones life You get in touch with Gods creation. You feel an immense peace in your heart and you think that the Lord is walking there beside you, just as in the Old Testament, where God was walking with Adam in Paradise. Everything here gives off the fragrance of the Lords presence. You may abandon yourself in the peaceful surroundings and begin looking for the Lord inside of you and all around you. You cannot resist praying passionately. Look how wonderful it is here! Come; lets sit at this tree trunk. As you can see, I have made a small seat out of this trunk and I often use it to pray to the Lord. This tree is huge. It seems that it is touching the Heavens. I have named this place Gethsemane to remind me of the garden where Jesus Christ prayed so fervently before His willing Passion. He was asking His Father to strengthen Him, in order to accomplish His mission on earth. Jesus Christ was always praying to His Father for the salvation of mankind. Come; free yourself from all your worries. This place is fit for prayer and silence. Perhaps something here will remain with you wherever you go in the world, maybe the silence here will hollow-out a silence within you, one to which you can return at any time or any place, and feel the strength of the Holy Spirit Well pray to our Lord and thank Him for all the good things He has given to us Some time passed quietly, silently. Everything was filled with Divine Grace. I felt that a kind of supernatural peace was touching everything inside me and outside of me. But it was different from the natural kind of peace of the forest, or of a mountain Our silence was covered by Gods Presence. Indeed how many spiritual gifts was the elder experiencing inside his own silence, having left the world? Indeed he was living in the light of the Lord and I was receiving illumination from his prayer. I cannot remember how much time had passed I did not dare break his silence. He had closed his eyes and his face was perfectly peaceful. It was reflecting calmness, and peace, which was very striking. I tried to copy his posture. I closed my eyes and was reciting the prayer: Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me. Some time had passed. The elder nudged me and I opened my eyes. I saw his face illuminated and then experienced something with my entire being which I have never experienced before in my whole life. Then I heard his soft voice: -I can see that you like it here!

- Father, I see how easy it is for us to concentrate in prayer and abandon ourselves to it. -Indeed, he answered, I try to keep my mind free from any care; and not just now, or moments like these, when prayer comes more easily, but all of the time. If we wait for the quiet moments to unburden our hearts, we will be building up and tearing down at the same timealways at cross-purposes with ourselves. We have to come to the quiet prepared for the quiet. When Grace descends, my mind is fixed on Him, and I realize that I cannot live without Him. Then, I dont feel right when I am not praying. I feel like the fish out of water. Thats why I hurry to dive into the spring of prayer as soon as possible, in order to be able to breathe the Lord instead of air. -Elder, please, tell me. What is prayer to you? -A man without prayer is without life. He is full of himself, and that is where it stops. Without true prayer, he remains disconnected from the source of Life. Hes a slave to his own thoughts and ideas. He has nothing to rescue him from this body of flesh. Unless prayer becomes the center of our existence, the arrogance of knowledge will carry us away and we will become poorer and weaker as Divine Grace slips away from us. As for me, I am always praying to receive strength from His strength. We ought to be very warm towards the Lord at the time of prayer, since it ought to be regarded as the most important task of our entire lives. No time is more precious than the time we stand in our hearts, with our outward eyes closedwholeheartedly asking for nothing but mercy. Ah, that word of words, that word beyond all words, the word which sums up all requests and anticipates everything needful: mercy. This is the kind of prayer which sets our heart ablaze with divine passion and fills our soul with His wonderful peace; we are abandoning ourselves to a world without end. Lord Jesus have mercy on me. The person who prays is the one who hands himself over to the Lord and does not think about anything else but Him. The Lord is everything to him. He has dissociated himself from reasoning and has been attached to the Light of the Lord. The Lords Heavens will never open up to receive us unless we learn to pray. Wishywashy Christians are well-marked by the insufficient time they devote to prayer. We are pitiful without prayer, even if we are the best orators in the world. With the silence of prayer we say more than with the best sermon. If our words are dead, i.e. devoid of prayer, they dont reach anyones hearts. If, however, real prayer precedes speaking, then not only will it strengthen the speaker but it will also implant spiritual gifts into the listeners, even if they dont realize it. Do you see? Many people wish to talk about God while they have never managed to speak to Him. They talk about the Lord without experiencing the Lords love inside their hearts. They preach about spirituality without being bearers of the Holy Spirit. Never lessen prayer; almost anything else can be reduced, at least somewhat, but never prayer preserve prayer in your heart if the Lords peace is to spread to others around you -Elder why is prayer so important for a Christians life? -My child, prayer ought not to be seen as a habit but as a force and power the only source of true insight, something far beyond our puny abilities or understanding. The more we pray the more we abandon our selfishness and abstain from the temptations of the flesh and from vanity. Strive to become a person of prayer. This is your only source of enlightenment and will enable you to attract Grace that will far exceed your abilities and bring you the knowledge of God. Do not forget that St Paul was praying day and night; Daniel the prophet was praying three times a day despite his many duties. David the prophet was praying several times each day, especially at night. Similarly Jesus, when He was on earth, was constantly praying to His Heavenly Father. All the Saints devoted most of their lives to prayer because they knew that it was the strongest weapon in their spiritual life. During prayer, all our senses are concentrating on the Lord and are sanctified through the Grace of the Holy Spirit. You must use everything in your disposal to increase the duration of your prayer. Do not regard this time as immaterial or, (God forgive us!) wasted, because this is an indication that you are far from the Kingdom

of heaven. The time for prayer should exceed four hours a day. This ought to be your me-time, inside your room. You should bow when you pray to the Lord. The more prayer increases, the more you will feel the divine flame encircle you, and, as the ancient fathers of the desert said, you become all fire. You will live inside Gods Light, the Uncreated Light of His Grace. Those who pray this long and even longer recognize the true value, strength and power of prayer, and they are never willingly or easily parted from it even for the sake of the whole world. -Elder, how should I pray? -You should wake up early and pray to the Lord. The Lord ought to be the first One you meet each day as soon as you wake up. This desire should accompany you for the rest of your life if you wish to become one chosen of the Lord and find favor in His eyes. You ought to look for Him day and night and never hesitate asking for His mercy. Do you realize my child that these days we do not get the strength, or the help, or the insight we need in our everyday tasks because we have lost touch with prayer and become spiritually weak, or sometimes, even dead? We preoccupy ourselves with everything and everyone else forgetting the Lord in order to engage fully in worldly affairs. Priests have also lost Jesus simplicity and humility. The world is spinning away from God because the number of people who pray has decreased. The devil moves everywhere freely and has thousands of followers because people follow him. (After all, he says what we want to hear!) There are so few models of praying people men and women who, without shame, will be preoccupied with the task of prayer without any hesitation. The devout person turns to prayer and devotes all his might to this task. He teaches people with his life. He wants the Lord to be near him to receive His blessings. He helps keep evil from completely over-running everything. Truly, the world is sustained every day by a mere handful of such people. I hope you believe me The Jesus Prayer creates saints. I beg you, do not be lazy. You ought to pray extensively to the Lord because this prayer teaches love, patience, faith, goodness, silence, politeness and so many other virtues. Can you see how great the results of such prayer for mankind are? Reduce all your other duties and practice The Prayer. Do not find excuses to reduce the time of prayer because this comes from the devil. He finds myriad ways to prevent you from praying. You need to prove your strength and determination in this task. You will gain a lot spiritually. Very soon you will be transformed; and at the same time you will be able to help many others. -Elder, is it possible for those who live in the world to pray so much? -Yes, yes my blessed child, yes, indeed, it is. As soon as we succeed in loving the Lord with all our heart, it becomes easy. We ought to live in order to pray and work for the Lord. We must not pay attention to secular matters but feel the strength of Gods love through our prayer. We have to be overpowered by prayer and taken captive by it, if we are to shine in our everyday lives. Its spiritual might removes every obstacle in our path, since prayer works for our salvation and for the salvation of those for whom we pray. Prayer works best when we practice it inside our heart. Love Jesus with your heart. When you pray give Him more love. Do not forget that God is love and communicates through love. Try to show your love with your heart and not your brain. The Lord says: Give me your heart not your mind. The heart can cry, but not the brain. Do not use your brain when you pray but your heart. You ought to try to entice your mind inside your heart before you start praying. You ought to prepare for this with total concentration and your mind ought to turn towards the Crucified Jesus. Ask for His mercy like the thief. Humiliate yourself with your prayer. Cry. Set your heart ablaze with love for the Lord. Crush your heart. Acquire spiritual zeal. Do not cease praying unless you have tears in your eyes. Then your heart will be flooded with the Presence of the Holy Spirit. Know that the Lord is glorified and worshipped by His holy angels through pure prayer. -Elder, what must we do to acquire pure and fervent prayer? -My child, pure prayer needs self-denial. Whoever wishes to really pray ought to giveup many (perhaps most?) of the things surrounding him, and restore himself with God. He ought to abandon worldly affairs and anything which tarnishes his mind and soul. Fervent prayer only loves the Lord and detests anything else. It becomes a mans breath. He regards the lack of prayer as damaging because he sees his soul wither without it. The soul weakens without the Lords strength and becomes lazy for spiritual matters. Thats why I

insist that you ought to pray even more, in order to feel this strength inside you. You ought to devote more time for praying and get up early in the morning for it. Do not be in a hurry, but devote this time completely to the Lord. You ought to be calm when you pray. You must devote a lot of time, several times a day, to practice careful praying. Learn that he who prays while still young and has cleansed his mind, receives many blessings from the Lord; the spiritual world opens up to him to such an extent that human reason cannot comprehend. He constantly lives inside the Lord and he is given spiritual authority to save lives, even those in Hell. His prayer is very effective and possesses divine power which destroys the demonic designs. He comes to know the spiritual state of other people and is informed about anything that is bothering him. But the most important thing is that the Lord is constantly talking to him and tells him anything relevant to his spiritual condition and reveals to him where he will be in Heaven. He is given divine protection which teaches him how to guard himself in order to advance spiritually and is told about his spiritual condition and how pleased the Lord is with him. He lives in a spiritual world which has nothing to do with the world as we know it. His spiritual state extends to territories blessed by the Lord. He sometimes becomes the Lords counselor for human decisions. His prayer attracts the angels and archangels who serve him; he tastes the fragrance of Paradise and of the heavenly realms. My blessed children, do not abandon prayer or let it weaken having put your hand to the plow, dont look back, but rather seek to take it further, deeper, with all your might Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on us!