COUNSELS ON PRAYER
by Holy Elder Hieronymos of Ǽgina (†1966)
• Do not let a day pass without prayer; and your prayer should not be without tears.
• Persevere in and increase your prayer. Say the prayers that our Church has prescribed: the Six Psalms, Small Compline, the Paraklesis, etc. Read them from prayer books, but now and then leave the books aside for a while. That is, without the book, apart from the words of prayer written there, speak to Christ on your own. Simply, and from the heart, speak to Him as though you were seeing Him before you: “My Father, I have sinned; I did not spend my day in a spiritual way, but with worldly things. I judged, spoke a lot, laughed in an inappropriate way, ate a lot, did not pray. I had so many weaknesses and falls. Forgive me, Lord,” and so on. Speak that way and Christ will take pity on you and send you tears. And tears have to come, because such prayerful tears will give you strength and joy. They will take away your sorrows.
• Just as when you do not work, you do not get paid, so without toil, effort, diligence, prayer, etc., neither spiritual gifts nor a taste for holy and spiritual things come.
• Humility, tears, prayer, and a pure soul. Tears do not come when one has not spent his day well, in a spiritual manner.
• If a day has passed during which you do not sense Christ in your heart by means of prayer, reading of the Psalter and the Gospel, etc., consider such a day to be a waste! Beg with tears, like Mary Magdalene, saying: “Do not abandon me, O my Christ! Do not leave me alone, O my Christ! My sweetest Christ, do not take my soul before I become all Thine!” With each prayer, you must shed one teardrop. And when you are filled with compunction, do not tell it to anyone, because it is a Divine gift and you might lose it!
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