St.Paisios the Athonite
”Pray without ceasing.”(1 Thessalonians 5,17)
”And when you stand praying forgive anything you hold against anyone.” (Mark 11, 25)
- We should pray faithfully for any demand and have patience and God will speak. Because when man prays faithfully he somehow urges God to fulfill his request for his faith.
- That’s why when we ask something from God we should not doubt and we shall be heard. Have faith without doubting, God said. God knows when He has to give us what we ask, so that we would not hurt ourselves spiritually.
- Sometimes we ask something from God but we don’t have patience and worry. If we did not have an almighty God, then we should worry. But because we have an almighty God, who has such a great love for us that he even feeds us with his own blood, we have no reason to worry.
- The key to success (in prayer) is that the one who prays should feel pain. If he does not feel pain, he could stand for hours with his rosary in his hand and his prayer wouldn’t bring any result.
- The true prayer starts from pain, it is not pleasure or nirvana. But what kind of pain is that? Man suffers in the good way. He feels pain, moans, suffers for the other one.
- Do you know what means to suffer? Yes, he suffers, because he participates in the general pain of the world or of a certain man.
- This participation, this pain is rewarded by God with divine rejoicing. Of course the man doesn’t ask for this divine rejoicing. It comes as a consequence of his participation in the pain of the other one.
