Elder Ioanichie Balan: Let's Start with Prayer

Pray more. When a nation prays, be it only one in a hundred, God saves the country.

Let’s start with prayer. Theory is secondary. I won’t ask you how many books you have read and I won’t tell you how many I have. I will ask you: “How much do you pray, brother?” And from that I understand why you do or do not have peace. We must return to the prayer of our parents. Didn’t you have mothers and grandmothers at home? When we will pray like our grandmothers, the situation will change in Romania. Don’t you remember? Who doesn’t?

Grandma would put a scarf over her head, kneel, pray, and weep into her headscarf and wipe her tears with the end of her scarf. She only knew “Our Father” and a couple other prayers, but do I have her prayer? Father Dimitrie Bejan and Elder Cleopa saw a peasant woman wearing leather slippers who was praying and had a large flame of fire above her head. We need to arrive at this level of prayer. Either it is fire, or it is nothing. And then we won’t have to make requests from the government to give us things. We appeal to the God of lights and to the fire of prayer. 

Pray more, you’ll see how you succeed. Pray more and you’ll see how God resolves things with His angels; because if we do everything ourselves, where would God’s angels be? It’s all about worshiping God. There’s no need to ask God for what you need. Worship God and He will give you what He knows you need. You’re not even expecting it and you find a plate of food on your table.

Pray more. When a nation prays, be it only one in a hundred, God saves the country.

From I Long for Heaven: The Life of Father Ioanichie Balan (Sihastria Monastery: 2010)