A Monk In The World

Prayer by the Lake

"The saints in the spiritual world are like the rays of the sun in the material world. God is the eternal, life-giving Sun, and the saints are the rays of this wise Sun." + St John of Kronstadt

Saint Nikolai: Prayers by the Lake

St. Sophrony: On Prayer

God who is free to come to you, to respond, to answer your prayers, may come to you and make you feel, perceive, his presence; he may also choose not to do so. He may just give you a sense of his real absence, and this experience is as important as the other, because in both cases you come upon the reality of God’s right to answer or to stand back. Try, then, to discover your own real self and to stand it face to face with God as He is, having shed all false images or idols of God. In the search for our true self we may come not only to boredom, but to fear, or even to despair. It is this nakedness that brings us to our senses; then we can begin to pray. The first thing to avoid is lying to God; it seems quite obvious, and yet we do not always observe it. Let us speak frankly to God, say to Him what sort of person we are; not that He does not know it, but there is a great difference between assuming that someone we love knows all about us, and having the courage and real love for the person to speak truthfully and tell everything about ourselves. Let us say to God openly that we stand before Him with a feeling of uneasiness, that we do not really want to meet Him, that we are tired and would rather go to bed, but we must beware of being frivolous or just presumptuous: He remains our God. After that the ideal would be to remain happily in His presence, as when we are with people we love dearly, when there is real intimacy. But more often than not we are not on those terms with God. We do not feel so happy and intimate with Him as to be able just to sit and look at Him and feel glad. As we must talk, let it be genuine talk. Let us put all our worries to God, squarely, and then, having told Him everything, so that he should know them from us, we should drop them, leave them to Him. Now that He is in the know, it is no longer any of our concern: we can freely think of Him. After having settled ourselves in front of Him, and then drop these concerns; and to help us in this, let us from day to day repeat a very simple and precise prayer, that will define our way of dealing with God: “Help me O God to let go all my problems, and fix my mind on thee.” Metropolitan Anthony Bloom Living Prayer

“God is everywhere. There is no place God is not…You cry out to Him, ‘Where art Thou, my God?’ And He answers, “I am present, my child! I am always beside you.’ Both inside and outside, above and below, wherever you turn, everything shouts, ‘God!’ In Him we live and move. We breathe God, we eat God, we clothe ourselves with God. Everything praises and blesses God. All of creation shouts His praise. Everything animate and inanimate speaks wondrously and glorifies the Creator. Let every breath praise the Lord!” ☦️ St. Joseph The Hesychast