With the storms of life we learn from the experience of prayer the great benefit, the escape. Without prayer we cannot defy the wilderness of the storm. The waves are always caused by troubles, sorrows, pains from the children, husbands, relatives, from the worries of earning what is necessary, from diseases, from demons or from our passions. In every moment we have a temptation and a small or big storm. Then we immediately need the remedy of prayer. Let us kneel down and raise our hands and beseech and pray and cry and God will answer to us from the skies. Let us not despair when the frightening waves of life threaten us. Everything is calmed down and quieted.
What does the captain do when he sees the storm? Do you think that he goes against it? NO, he stops the engine and leaves the ship to float on the waves. And when he sees the storm stops, he starts the engine again and goes further and thus the ship escapes from a wreck.
So when we see the storm we should stop the engine, quench the temptation, stop the danger by kneeling down. We shall kneel down, pray and immediately the sea will begin to calm itself. When we acquire this experience we will feel a great joy because we have found the remedy for facing, for fighting with, for stopping the troubles and pains of life.
That is why it is necessary to kneel down every morning and evening or anytime we need and pray to God. By praying to Him we will receive His help, His grace, the guardian angel will always be beside us, protecting our soul and body. The dangers are of both kinds: spiritual, not to sin and physical, to avoid a danger. In their daily life, in wars and everywhere the men of God experienced this thing and acquired a redeeming experience.
What did Christ do when He had to face that great struggle from Golgotha? When he Had to lift His Cross and climb on Golgotha and be crucified, what did He do? H knelt down and his agony turned into sweat. Our own life is a Golgotha too. Let us kneel down and say: My Lord if I must face this trial please help me! And because of my helplessness it will kill me, please escape me! And with this weapon of the prayer we will fight with the storm of the sea.
When the prophet says, `when the sea is raging I run to Your shore, I receive Your help and I escape`, he refers at prayer.
As we said in our previous homily from yesterday in our prayer we should assume the storms of our brothers as well not only ours.
Let us pray so that they may be helped by God, cause when we pray for our brothers, God helps us too. Let us pray for ourselves and for our neighbor as well. Let us pray without cease according to the word of saint Paul, the Apostle:
pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances [1]; let us thank Him both in trials and when He sends us His blessing.
Saint abba Isaac the Syrian says: Remember God in time of peace so that He may remember you in time of trial. Do not forget Him when He gives you a soothing or different blessings because of you don`t forget Him then, He won`t forget you when the trials and dangers will take you down. He will help you because He will remember you.
Now that we learnt the prayer is the only means of escape from any danger from our life let us take care of it with all the power of our soul. The devil comes and says: Leave it now. You are tired and you cannot pray. Leave it until later.` The we must say: `No, now I will kneel down to pray. I won`t say many things. I will say a few words to God and make five prostrations. And by doing so he receives God`s blessing and we will do a little bit more and thus the prayer grows and we benefit.
I pray humbly for you every day and I beg you to pray for me too because everyone of us has his fight. And since we all have trouble in our life our prayers must meet and we must help each other.
May the most Kind God and our Lady the Theotokos make us be worthy to meet again in good health and with God`s blessing. And when God wills to receive us in heaven, may He receive us all, so that nobody will miss the celebration of that great day of eternal Easter. Amen.
[1] I Tessalonians 5, 17.
Excerpt from the book The Art of Salvation, Evanghelismos Publishing.
