The Most Difficult Prayer

While I was stressing out last week about something that really was nothing in the end, I found this prayer.  As I was going through it, I realized that this has got to be the most difficult prayer out there.  The difficulty lies in the condemnation and hence realization of how far my soul is from God.

Bless my enemies, O Lord. Even I bless them and do not curse them.

Enemies have driven me into Thy embrace more than friends have.

Friends have bound me to earth, enemies have loosed me from earth and have demolished all my aspirations in the world.

Enemies have made me a stranger in worldly realms and an extraneous inhabitant of the world.

Just as a hunted animal finds safer shelter than an unhunted animal does, so have I, persecuted by enemies, found the safest sanctuary, having ensconced myself beneath Thy tabernacle, whether neither friends nor enemies can slay my soul.

Bless my enemies, O Lord. Even I bless them and do not curse them.

They, rather than I, have confessed my sins before the world.  They have punished me, whenever I have hesitated to punish myself.  They have tormented me, whenever I have tried to flee torments. They have scolded me, whenever I have flattered myself.  They have spat upon me, whenever I have filled myself with arrogance.

Bless my enemies, O Lord.  Even I bless them and do not curse them.

Whenever I have made myself mighty, they have mocked me.

Whenever I have rushed to enrich myself, they have prevented me with an iron hand.

Whenever I have tried to sleep peacefully, they have wakened me from sleep.

Whenever I have tried to build a home for a long and tranquil life, they have demolished it and driven me out.

Truly, enemies have cut me loose from the world and have stretched out my hands to the hem of Thy garment.

Bless my enemies, O Lord.  Even I bless them and do not curse them.

Bless them and multiply them; multiply them and make them even more bitterly against me; so my fleeing to Thee may have no return; so that all hope in men may be scattered like cobwebs; so that absolute serenity may begin to reign in my soul; so that my heart may become the grave of my two evil twins:  arrogance and anger; so that I might amass all my treasure in heaven; ah, so that I may for once be freed from self deception, which has entangled me in the dreadful web of illusory life.

Enemies have taught me to know what hardly anyone knows, that a person has no enemies except himself.  One hates his enemies only when he fails to realize that they are not enemies, but cruel friends.  It is truly difficult for me to say who has done me more good and who has done me more evil in the world:  friends or enemies.

Therefore bless, O Lord, both my friends and my enemies.

A slave curses enemies, for he does not understand.

But a son blesses them, for he understands.  For a son knows that his enemies cannot touch his life.  Therefore he freely steps among them and prays to God for them.

Bless my enemies, O Lord.  Even I bless them and do not curse them.

Amen.

I told you that was hard.  Love to all!!

 

Let us pray.

I've been thinking about starting a whole new blog dedicated to prayer but being that I am crunched for time, it's much easier to just use this one.

It has come to my attention that almost every.single.night after the daily tragedies are read on the news, most of them end with "and our thoughts and prayers are with the family/town/survivors."  It made me wonder, sheesh, with all these people praying you would think that the world would be in a much better spot than it is presently.  If you have been living on Mars and have sketchy Internet service, and the only website you can get is my blog (my apologies to you), it's really awful. Truly awful.  One would not be incorrect in saying that we are probably at this point:

 “A time is coming when people will go mad and when they see someone who is not mad, they will attack him, saying, “You are mad, you are not like us.” - St. Anthony of the Desert, 4th century.

For the next year, or maybe for the life of this blog, posts will be dedicated to all things prayer. Of course, it will be the Orthodox Christian we-have-2000+years-of-experience-with-prayer viewpoint.

First posting, if I don't have to work, will be Monday.  Praying for you all to have a peaceful weekend.

The Importance of Having a Merciful Soul



Elder Porphyrios (February 7, 1906 - December 2, 1991)



The following is from one of my favorite books of all times, Wounded by Love:  The Life and the Wisdom of Elder Porphyrios (pgs. 213-214).  This section is entitled 'The noise of murmurings shall not be hidden' which are words spoken by the Wise King Solomon. The Elder's reflection is on the necessity of having a merciful soul.  This marvelous book can be purchased here from Uncut Mountain Supply. 

Within us there is a part of the soul called the 'moralist'.  This 'moralist', when it sees someone going astray, is roused to indignation, even though very often the person who judges has strayed in the same way.  He does not, however, take this as an occasion to condemn himself, but the other person.  This is not what God wants.  Christ [through St. Paul] says in the Gospel:  You, then, that teach others, will you not teach yourself?  While you preach against stealing, do you steal? Romans 2:21 It may be that we do not steal, but we commit murder;  we reproach the other person and not ourselves.  We say, for example: 'You should have done that and you didn't do it.  So see now what's happened to you!'  When we think of evil, then it can actually happen.  In a mysterious and hidden manner we diminish the power of the other person to move towards what is good, and we do him harm.  We can become the occasion for him to fall ill, to lose his job or his property.  In this way we do harm, not only to our neighbor, but also to ourselves, because we distance ourselves from the grace of God.  And then we pray and our prayers are not heard.  We 'ask and not receive'. James 4:3 Why?  Have we ever thought of this? 'Because we ask wrongly.' James 4:3  We need to find a way to heal the tendency within us to feel and think evil of others.

It's possible for someone to say, 'The way that person is behaving, he will be punished by God,' and to believe that he is saying this without evil intent.  It is not a simple thing, however, to discern whether he had or does not have evil intent.  It does not appear clearly.  What is hidden in our soul and how that can exercise influence on people is a very secret matter.

The same is not true if we say with a sense of awe that another person is not living well and that we should pray to God to help him and grant him repentance;  that is, neither do we say, nor deep down do we desire that God will punish him for what he does.  In this case not only do we not do harm to our neighbor, but we do him good.  When someone prays for his neighbor, a good force proceeds from him and heals, strengthens and revives him.  It is a mystery how this force leaves us.  But, in truth, the person who has good within him radiates this good power to others, mystically and gently.  He sends light to his neighbor and this creates a shield around him and protects him from evil.  When we possess a good disposition towards others and pray, then we heal our fellows and we help them progress towards God.

There is an invisible life, the life of the soul.  This is very powerful and can have effect on the other, even if we are miles apart.  This also happens with the curse, which is power that works evil.  But if, conversely, we pray with love for someone, whatever the distance that separates us, the good is transmitted.  So distances do not affect the power of good and evil.  We can transmit these across boundless distances.  Solomon the Wise [King Solomon] says this very thing: 'The noise of murmurings shall not be hidden.'  Wisdom of Solomon 1:10  The noise of our soul is transmitted mysteriously and affects the other, even if we don't say a word.  Even without speaking we can transmit good or evil, irrespective of the distance which separates us from our neighbor.  What is not expressed generally has greater power than words.

Great Lent Week 2 Meditation



The Archangel Salathiel "Prayer of God" - can be purchased at Not Of This World Icons.

The following quote is from St. Seraphim of Sarov's beautiful conversation with the layperson Nicholas Motovilov in 1831.  I posted once before about it here.  It's a discussion about the aim of the Christian life.  If you would like to read the conversation in its entirety here's the link again:  A Wonderful Revelation to the World. 

The excerpt below from the conversation speaks of good works, which is the focus of this blog during Great Lent 2011.  It teaches us not to despair if our good intentions cannot come to fruition, because there is always an alternative. 

Of course, every good deed done for Christ's sake gives us the grace of the Holy Spirit, but prayer gives it to us most of all, for it is always at hand, so to speak, as an instrument for acquiring the grace of the Spirit.  For instance, you would like to go to church, but there is no church or the service is over; you would like to give alms to a beggar, but there isn't one, or you have nothing to give; you would like to preserve your virginity*, but you have not the strength to do so because of your temperament, or because of the violence of the wiles of the enemy which on account of human weakness you cannot withstand; you would like to do some other good deed for Christ's sake, but either you have not the strength or the opportunity is lacking.  This certainly does not apply to prayer.  Prayer is always possible for everyone, rich and poor, noble and humble, strong and weak, healthy and sick, righteous and sinful.

....Great is the power of prayer, and it brings most of all the Spirit of God and is most easily practiced by everyone...

 * an editor's note:  preserving your virginity here means that you would like to remain unmarried.

A Peace-filled Prayer

As a part of an Orthodox Christian's morning prayers, there is one prayer in particular that converses with God about gaining and maintaining personal peace throughout the day.  It is a favorite of mine and one that I try to recall during the course of the day.

O Lord, grant me to greet the coming day in peace.
Help me in all things to do Your holy will.
In every hour of the day, reveal Your will to me.
Bless my dealings with those who surround me.
Teach me to treat all that comes to me throughout the day
  with peace of soul and firm conviction that Your will governs all.
In all my deeds and words, guide my thoughts and feelings.
In unforeseen events, let me not forget that all are sent by You.
Teach me to act firmly and wisely without embittering and embarrassing others.
Give me strength to bear the fatigue of the coming day with all it shall brings.
Direct my will, teach me to pray, and You, Yourself, pray in me.

Amen.

I especially love the two sentences in bold. It reminds me that every single person is known by God and that my reaction to this person is also known.  Lovely thing to contemplate, easy thing to forget.

Elder Porphyrios finishes his train of thought

The elder continues a few paragraphs later about praying rightly...

The same is not true if we say with a sense of awe that another person is not living well and that we should pray for God to help him and grant him repentance; that is, neither do we say, nor deep down do we desire that God will punish him for what he does. In this case not only do we not do harm to our neighbor, but we do him good. When someone prays for his neighbour, a good force proceeds from him and heals, strengthens and revives him. It is a mystery how this force leaves us. But, in truth, the person who has good within him radiates this good power to others, mystically and gently. He sends light to his neighbor and this creates a shield around him and protects him from evil. When we possess a good disposition towards others and pray, then we heal our fellows and we help them progress towards God.

There is an invisible life, the life of the soul. This is very powerful and can have effect on the other, even if we are miles apart. This also happens with the curse, which is a power that works evil. But if, conversely, we pray with love for someone, whatever the distance that separates us, the good is transmitted. So distances do not affect the power of good and evil. We can transmit these across boundless distances. Solomon the Wise says this very thing: 'The noise of murmurings shall not be hidden.' (Wisdom 1:10) The noise of our soul is transmitted mysteriously and affects the other, even if we don't say a word. Even without speaking we can transmit good or evil, irrespective of distance which separates us from our neighbour. What is not expressed generally has greater power than words.

Such simple wisdom. The trick is snatching those evil feelings and thoughts before they leave the building! May God help us always to disseminate peace to each other and the world!

Again this is from the book Wounded by Love: The Life and the Wisdom of Elder Porphyrios. Available at Uncut Mountain Supply.

Good and evil thoughts, part 1 of a 1,000,000,000 in a series

More about those who harm us from Elder Porphyrios:

We need to be careful not to harbour any resentment against those who harm us, but rather to pray for them with love. Whatever any of our fellow men does, we should never think evil of him. We need always to have thoughts of love and always to think good of others. Look at St. Stephen the first martyr (Acts 7:60). He prayed, Lord, do not hold this sin against them. We need to do the same.

We should never think about someone that God will send him some evil or that God will punish him for his sin. This thought brings about very great evil, without our being aware of it. We often feel indignation and say to someone: 'Have you no fear of God's justice, are you not afraid of God's punishment?' Or else we say. 'God will punish you for what you've done,' or 'O, God, do not bring evil on that person for what he did to me,' or, 'May that person not suffer the same thing.'

In all these cases, we have a deep desire within us for the other person to be punished. Instead of confessing our anger over his error, we present our indignation in a different way, and we allegedly pray to God for him. In reality, however, in this way we are cursing our brother.

And if, instead of praying, we say, 'May God repay you for the evil you have done to me,' then once again we are wishing for God to punish him. Even when we say 'All very well, God is witness,' the disposition of our soul works in a mysterious way and influences the soul of our fellow man so that he suffers evil.

More about this from Elder Porphyrios tomorrow. Good stuff although hard to bear because it exposes false piety. Sigh...

Easier said than done

Before doing anything, pray and think: would this be wise and pleasing to God?

This quote is from St. Nikon and can be found in Living Without Hypocrisy: Spiritual Counsels of the Holy Elders of Optina, Holy Trinity Monastery.