Category: PRAYER

  • “To leave off praying is the same thing as deserting one’s post. The gate stands open for the ravaging hordes, and the treasures one has gathered are plundered.”

    Way of the Ascetics: The Ancient Tradition of Discipline and Inner Growth
    Tito Colliander

  • “In a weird way, it’s easier to do the fighting than to do the praying. It’s easier to do the discussing, it’s easier to do the arguing, it’s easier to try to convince than it is to stand & pray. Why is that? It’s easier to go to doctor after doctor after doctor, it’s easier to read different books, go to different seminars—it’s easier to try all these different things than pray. Why? Because we don’t really believe in the effectiveness of prayer. I’m happy to pray if I know at the end of the prayer, the problem is solved, but because we don’t see that direct one to one correlation, we would rather do something that seems more productive.”

    —Fr. Anthony Messeh

  • A psalm implies serenity of soul; it is the author of peace, which calms bewildering and seething thoughts. For, it softens the wrath of the soul, and what is unbridled it chastens. A psalm forms friendships, unites those separated, conciliates those at enmity. Who, indeed, can still consider as an enemy him with whom he has uttered the same prayer to God?

    So that psalmody, bringing about choral singing, a bond, as it were, toward unity, and joining the people into a harmonious union of one choir, produces also the greatest of blessings, charity. A psalm is a city of refuge from the demons, a means of inducing help from the angels, a weapon in fears by night, a rest from toils by day, a safeguard for infants, an adornment for those at the height of their vigor, a consolation for the elders, a most fitting ornament for women.

    It peoples the solitudes; it rids the market place of excesses; it is the elementary exposition of beginners, the improvement of those advancing, the solid support of the perfect, the voice of the Church. It brightens the feast days; it creates a sorrow which is in accordance with God.

    For, a psalm is the work of angels, a heavenly institution, the spiritual incense.

    —St. Basil the Great

  • “Through humility the saint makes himself almost unobserved, but he appears when there is need for consolation, for encouragement or help. For him no difficulty is insurmountable, because he believes firmly in the help of God sought through prayer. He is the most human and humble of beings, yet at the same time of an appearance that is unusual and amazing and gives rise in others to the sense of discovering in him, and in themselves too, what is truly human. He is a presence simultaneously most dear, and unintentionally, most impressing, the one who draws the most attention. For you he becomes the most intimate one of all and the most understanding; you never feel more at ease than near him, yet at the same time he forces you into a corner and makes you see your moral inadequacies and failings.”

    —Dumitru Staniloae, Orthodox Dogmatic Theology: The Experience of God, Vol. 1: Revelation and Knowledge of the Triune God

  • “If you only pray when you are inclined to, you will completely cease praying.”

    —St. John of Kronstadt, My Life in Christ

  • “If you do not feel like praying, you have to force yourself. The Holy Fathers say that prayer with force is higher than prayer unforced. You do not want to, but force yourself. The Kingdom of Heaven is taken by force (Matt. 11:12).”

    —St. Ambrose of Optina

  • “Prayer is a great blessing…both when we receive what we ask and when we do not receive it. For when He gives and when He does not give, He does it for your good. Thus when you receive what you ask, it is quite clear that you have received it; but when you do not receive it, you also receive, because you thus do not receive what is undoubtedly harmful for you; and not to receive what is harmful means to be granted what is useful. So whether you receive what you ask or not, give thanks to God in the belief that God would have always given us what we ask were it not often better for us not to receive it… Prayer is a great weapon, a rich treasure, a wealth that is never exhausted, an undisturbed refuge, a cause of tranquility, the root of a multitude of blessings and their source.”

    —St. John Chrysostom

  • “The man who prays in faith never employs (or is engaged in) ways and means.”

    —St Isaac the Syrian, Ascetical Homilies

  • A.E. McAdam said it this way:  “No praying man or woman accomplishes so much with so little expenditure of time as when he or she is praying.”

    WHICH IS HARDER: PRAYER OR WORK?

  • If your brother does not wish to live peaceably with you, nevertheless guard yourself against hatred, praying for him sincerely and not abusing him to anybody.

    —St Maximos the Confessor