Elder Dionisie Ignat: On the Stages of the Jesus Prayer
The man stopped him and said: “Father, please tell us about the steps of the Jesus Prayer!” And then the Elder told him: “You don’t understand? Without humility, there are no steps."
Archimandrite Melchisedec of Putna:
When the Holy Apostle Peter spoke before the Sanhedrin–we find this in the Acts of the Apostles–he says that there is no other name under heaven we call on that is greater or more important than the Name of the Lord Jesus (cf. Acts 4:12). Therefore, whoever calls on His Name, ascends from step to step, and there is no monotony in his life. And someone may say, “but what do we need for this?” Humility. Humility is the ladder upon which prayer climbs. It is the ladder, the support of prayer.
Once, we were with Elder Dionisie Ignat on the Holy Mountain, and Elder Dionisie was telling us about others who had come to see him–it was 1998 if I’m not wrong. And I asked Elder Dionisie about the Jesus Prayer. And Elder Dionisie said that someone came to him and said: “Father, please tell me about the steps of the Jesus Prayer.” And the Elder said to us, “I dismissed it and talked to him about humility–the Jesus Prayer is based on humility.” And he spoke about humility, about humble-mindedness. And the man stopped him and said: “Father, please tell us about the steps of the Jesus Prayer!” And then the Elder told him: “You don’t understand? Without humility, there are no steps. Humility is the ladder that we climb. Humility is what attracts unceasing prayer.”
That is why the Elder emphasized and gave us this counsel: humble-mindedness. And he said: “Whoever has this blessing, this grace, this gift from God of humble-mindedness, the small prayer rule he does goes like lightning before God.”
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