Fr. Dumitru Staniloae (d. Oct 5, 1992): True Freedom Comes Through Prayer
In prayer, man has won his freedom from nature because he is in a direct relationship with God Who, as a superior Person, is above nature and every passion.
Prayer is also man’s rising above himself. Only by escaping himself, escaping what is considered voluntary freedom, man escapes nature and death. Only by freeing himself from himself does man become free in the true sense of the word, not being dominated by any passion. Evagrius Ponticus says: “The state of prayer is a dispassionate disposition acquired by habit in which the mind that has become wise and spiritual is caught up to intelligible heights.”
In prayer, man has won his freedom from nature because he is in a direct relationship with God Who, as a superior Person, is above nature and every passion. “Prayer is the conversation of the mind with God. What state, then, does the mind need so that it can reach beyond itself—without looking back—until it reaches the Lord and converse with Him without anyone’s mediation?”
Only dialogue full of love with another person gives us freedom in relation to external nature and ourselves. But only God can give and inspire in us such a love for any other person. Only in relation to God can we free ourselves truly and steadfastly from ourselves, because His person that is infinitely rich and so generous in love is so attractive that we forget ourselves. Therefore, only conversing with God gives us total freedom from nature and ourselves making us capable of expressing this freedom in our conversation with human persons as well.
Translated from:
Fr. Dumitru Staniloae, The Jesus Prayer and the experience of the Holy Spirit, Deisis Publishing House: Sibiu, Romania, 1995), p. 70-71. https://doxologia.ro/numai-convorbirea-cu-dumnezeu-ne-da-deplina-libertate-fata-de-natura-fata-de-noi-insine