Step 20: Prayer

“Prayer is by nature a dialog and a union of man with God.  Its effect is to hold the world together.”

--St. John Climacus

“Therefore, I tell you, all that you ask for in prayer, believe that you will receive it and it shall be yours.”

--Mark 11:24

Climacus speaks so beautifully about prayer in this step on the ladder that I’m going to let him speak for himself today:

“Pray in all simplicity.  The publican (Luke 18:9-14) and the prodigal son (Luke 15:11-22) were reconciled to God by a single utterance.”

“But heart-felt thanksgiving should have first place in our book of prayer.  Next should be confession and genuine contrition of soul.  After that should come our request to the universal King.”

“In your prayers there is no need for high-flown words, for it is the simple and unsophisticated babblings of children that have more often won the heart of the Father in heaven.”

“Try not to talk excessively in your prayer, in case your mind is distracted by the search for words. …Talkative prayer frequently distracts the mind and deludes it, whereas brevity makes for concentration.”

“If it happens that, as you pray, some word evokes delight or remorse within you, linger over it; for at that moment our guardian angel is praying with us.”

“However pure you may be, do not be forward with God.  Approach him rather with all humility, and you will be given still more boldness.”

“Make the effort to raise up, or rather, to enclose your mind within the  words of your prayer; and if, like a child, it gets tired and falters, raise it up again.  The mind, after all, is naturally unstable, but the God who can do everything can also give it firm endurance.”

“After a long spell of prayer, do not say that nothing has been gained, for you have already achieved something.  For, after all, what higher good is there than to cling to the Lord and to persevere in unceasing union with him?”

“Get ready for your set time of prayer by unceasing prayer in your soul.”

“We are not all the same, either in body or soul.”

“You cannot learn to see just because someone tells you to do so.  For that, you require your own natural power of sight.  In the same way, you cannot discover from the teaching of others the beauty of prayer.  Prayer has its own special teacher in God, who “teaches man knowledge” (Psalm 93:10).  He grants the prayer of him who prays.  And he blesses the years of the just.”

Prayer:

Lord, teach us to pray, through Christ our Lord.  Amen.

St. John Climacus, pray for us.