Met. Serafim: Unceasing Prayer in Modern Life
Even intellectuals who work in offices, who work with their minds can reach unceasing prayer
The Holy Apostle Paul says to “pray unceasingly” [cf. 1 Thess 5:17]. This doesn’t mean you have to pray on your knees to God all the time.
“Pray unceasingly” means to have God in your mind and heart, and even on your lips, in every time and place. That is, to get used to prayer at all times. Of course, we pray at home in the morning, evening, before and after eating, but throughout the day, hours on end, wherever we may be, whatever we may be doing, we can pray—if we want to pray.
You know that the Burning Bush movement appeared in Bucharest in 1946, —an association of mainly intellectuals from Bucharest who were interested in hescyhasm, a life of interiorization, of unceasing prayer. Under the guidance of some great elders at the time—among whom was Elder Sofian Boghiu of Antim Monastery—the intellectuals who took part in the Burning Bush movement and worked in offices strove to say the Jesus Prayer—“Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner”—as much as possible, unceasingly. And some were able to pray unceasingly, to have this prayer permanently in their heart without any effort on their part.
I also knew someone recently, a lawyer in Făgăraș, who was able to have the Jesus Prayer unceasingly in his heart because he struggled and repeated it year after year, day after day, moment by moment. So, even intellectuals who work in offices, who work with their minds can reach unceasing prayer if they strive for it, as the Holy Apostle Paul commands us [cf. 1 Thess 5:17]. And if those who work in offices and with computers can reach unceasing prayer, then how much more can those of us in the world who do other jobs, who don’t use their intellect very much, reach it?
Thus, it is important to have faith and love for prayer, and then God helps you to pray. Not necessarily with the Jesus Prayer—“Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner”—very well if we can pray with this, but even shorter prayers, saying: “Lord help me, Lord forgive me, Lord bless me, Lord have mercy on me, Lord give me faith, Lord bless my husband, bless my wife, bless my children,” but an endless number of times each day and every day. And you will see what miracles prayer does.
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