Fr. Savatie Bastovoi: a short prayer is better than a long one
When we will know that we are nothing, when we will know that we can do nothing by ourselves, and that prayer is a gift to those who have a 'broken and contrite heart,' then prayer will overtake us.
Question:
If we pray without paying attention, then we talk in vain. Is it better in this case to pray less - for example, to only recite the introductory prayers?
Fr. Savatie:
Many Fathers say this - actually St. Porphyrios reminded us of it not long ago - that a prayer read for five minutes can be more fruitful than a whole night spent in vigil. So it is not about the quantity of prayer, but about its quality. Where do we see this? We see this in the Paterikon, when two monks meet and one of them asks the other how things are going in his community. He answers that it’s not going well, that there is a great drought where they live. The first one then asks: “So you didn’t pray to God to send you rain?” “We did, but still there was no rain.” “That means you didn’t pray correctly. Let me show you how.” And the first one started to pray, and immediately there were clouds in the sky and it started to rain. And he said: “So you see how you need to pray?”, then he continued on his way.
This shows us that what matters is the intensity of prayer. That’s why we see that monks who were beginners in monasteries received a prayer rule with just a few prayers. They had a short prayer rule. St. John Chrysostom says that it’s better to say short prayers more often during the day (let’s say in the morning I say a prayer, then in another hour I say another short prayer) than long prayers said once a day - for example, you tell yourself that you’ll spend three hours praying in the evening, but all day long you are scattered. Because the one who doesn’t pray often will also find it hard to spend a long time in prayer all at once. Because if he were able to pray for a long time all at once, he would have a zeal for prayer - and if he had a zeal for prayer, he wouldn’t be able to let the day pass without praying often.
And so, we don’t abandon prayer. But it’s better to say short prayers more often and with your whole being. We each know our measure according to how much time we can spend in prayer with intensity. When we start to tire and our mind starts to scatter, that is our measure. It could be three minutes, it could be five minutes - and we don’t need to be scared that our measure is one “Heavenly King” prayer and one Trisagion prayer.
We know that the Holy Fathers used to read many Kathismata from the Psalter, and they had long prayer rules - and we try to do the same, and we get troubled and say “Father, I am not able to spend a long time in prayer!” It is not your measure yet to pray for a long time! The angel told St. Pachomius to say twelve prayers a day - what is twelve prayers a day for a monk? - to say Psalm 50 twelve times during the day. And St. Pachomius said: “How can I have such a short prayer rule?” And the angel said: “Yes, so that beginners can do it too, so they can feel comforted. But the perfect pray without ceasing.”
And so the angel knew the measure of a beginner - of a beginner monk from the time of Pachomius! Then what can we say about ourselves? That’s why it’s better to say short prayers. 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind' (Luke 10:27). If we don’t do this, we don’t have much benefit, and we see that we don’t get far. That’s what the Fathers tell us.
Question:
Father, when we pray, we get new ideas or find solutions to problems. What should we do? Should we continue our prayer or should we stop?
Fr. Savatie:
It’s better to continue. Because if you get up to work on that new idea, then the enemy will give you new ideas every time. I asked my Elder Seraphim: “Father Seraphim, how does it happen that I have an idea, I think of a good thing to do, and then I find that I am tempted? Does the devil know my thoughts?” He said: “No.” Then I asked: “Then how does he find out about them?” And he said: “From your deeds.”
And so if the devil gives me this idea when I say my prayers: “You forgot to write this, go and write down this new idea!” - then if I get up, I close the Psalter and I write down that idea, then he will give me ideas every time, one more brilliant than the other. And so we need to be patient until the end, and then the devil will not be able to see what was the effect of his prompting in our minds. He might be thinking that we were not troubled at all, even though we were tormented by thoughts. We need to sit down and say: “Lord, save me from this temptation!”
Remember that you are mortal and that you can die before you get to act on that new idea. By closing the Psalter and going to act on that idea, you can die. If you think this way, you keep reading the prayers till the end and you say: “Lord and Master of my life, let this not happen to me! It’s better for me to read the prayers till the end, and then You can give me life and wisdom to act on the idea that came to me. And if I do something while abandoning You, what benefit do I have from it? Because You said: ‘He who does not gather with Me, scatters.’” And so let us not scatter, because in vain will we do all the good in the world, if by doing it we will separate from Christ.
And so let us not get up from where we sit and pray, because the enemy will make us get up every time. And even if we get up just one time, we will be tempted for a long time afterward. Like a stray dog - if you left some food for it once at the door, you can then not leave any food for months, it will still come and look for it. That’s how the evil spirit is: if you listened to it once, if you gave it food and it saw that you can be its prey, then even if you don’t want to do that thing anymore, it will keep tempting you for a long time.
Question:
How can the common man reach the quality of prayer? Is it possible to reach quality through quantity?
Fr. Savatie:
I don’t think it is possible. On the contrary, I think that through quantity you can lose all love for prayer. We find this in St. Porphyrios, who speaks beautifully about these things. We find this in other Fathers, but he develops this topic in detail. There is a recent book where St. Porphyrios talks about prayer. It is wonderful. He says that even the Jesus Prayer doesn’t need to be forced, we shouldn’t force ourselves, because this triggers an interior rebellion in us, and we will hate prayer.
But through love, through good thoughts, through remembering that we are mortal and weak, and we can’t do anything without God - “You Lord, You will love us until the end. You have the power to take us out of this state!” - we can reach this God, and we can pray with greater love. But if we mumble the prayer like a mantra, this is not good. And St. Sophrony says that this is talking in vain, it is taking the name of the Lord in vain, and it is very dangerous.
And so, I think that for beginners prayer comes through good thoughts. They need to read Psalms. Psalms educate us, they teach us how to pray - Psalms are prayers, but they are also an instruction manual for prayer. Today one Psalm, tomorrow another…
And prayer also comes through obedience - obedience and humility towards our spiritual father. God will then give us the joy of prayer. This is a great gift! It is a gift; nobody can do certain exercises and obtain prayer. Even those who obtained prayer can lose it by a single thought.
Not to mention Elder Ephraim of Arizona, who was told by St. Joseph the Hesychast: “How many times did I wake up at night, and I thought I was doing everything right, I was saying ‘Lord Jesus Christ,’ ‘Lord Jesus Christ,’ but grace wouldn’t come to me! And when I would get up to do a certain chore, all of a sudden grace would come to me. And I didn’t know what was happening.” And he continued: “For a prideful thought, God can take the prayer away from you. And when the prayer is taken away from you, don’t say that you had no prideful thought. Don’t tell God: ‘Lord, I didn’t have any prideful thoughts or any other bad thoughts, and you took the prayer from me!’ The Lord does this so that you know that He can take the prayer away from you whenever He wants, even though you were not prideful. What is the big deal if you were not prideful? Does it mean that God owes it to you to give you the prayer?”
When we will know that we are nothing, when we will know that we can do nothing by ourselves, and that prayer is a gift that is given to those who have “a broken and contrite heart” (Psalm 50/51), then prayer will overtake us. If we are beginners or advanced, this does not matter.
And so, through humility, through good thoughts, through obedience, and through not wanting to aim higher than where we are, God will give us prayer.
Translated by Grig Gheorghiu from: