Elder Sofian: When We Put Prayer Above All Else
When you choose prayer above all else, what you could not do in a year resolves itself in nearly five minutes. Everything is resolved if God is in your heart, if we acquire Love.
This is, possibly, the greatest benefit of the Prayer of the Heart: you feel that you are no longer in the world, as if in the desert. Someone is protecting you, accompanying you continually; you are in His arms, and you feel His love. Everything depends on our diligence. And you will see that by praying more a desire, love for prayer fills your soul. If a day passes and you have not prayed, something weighs on you painfully, something consumes you, hurts you.
In order to progress in this prayer, you need to confess as often as possible. You must continually examine your conscience to see if you are at all proud, wrathful, hard-hearted, or who knows what else. It is essential! Confess as often as possible.
When you have God, you will see how easy it is to bear everything! There will be difficulties. But with God in your heart, you bear everything much more easily. You know that you are in God’s hand and you no longer fear anything, you no longer get troubled by anything. You know how to act around an enemy, you know how to act in a mishap or disaster. When you choose prayer above all else, what you could not do in a year resolves itself in nearly five minutes. Everything is resolved if God is in your heart, if we acquire Love.
From: Părintele Sofian Boghiu, Smerenia şi dragostea, însemnele trăirii ortodoxe, pref. de prof. acad. Virgil Cândea; ed. îngrijită şi postf. de protosinghel Teofan Popescu, ed. a 4-a, reviz. şi adăug (Iaşi: Doxologia, 2022), p. 269-70.