Some advice on prayer

“Not as I Will…”

At the end of our every petition, we should say: “Not as I will, but as You will” (Math. 26:39). There is only one petition where we do not need to add this: in that petition for our salvation, because God “wishes all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim. 2:4).

Attention and Prayer

When you say the prayer, turn your intellect’s attention to each word.

Work and Prayer

When you work, it is both allowed and imposed that you pray. But when you pray, you should not work.

Proof That the Devil Exists

Any person whatsoever can be concentrated, even for hours, thinking of a certain problem or a certain matter - - without his attention being distracted by anything else.

In earlier times also, when adding machines did not exist, accountants worked for eight hours doing additions without lifting their heads and without their mind wandering, even if a compressor was working next to them! Something analogous occurs with many students when they are occupied by their lessons.

If, however, someone sets out to pray, then all the personal family or business occupations project themselves before him and distract him. This is proof that the devil exists and that prayer burns him up. For this reason, he fights it.

Never Neglect Prayer

A working couple once asked him, “Elder, when at night we return very tired to our home, we don’t have the desire for prayer.”

“How do you have the desire to eat? Just as you don’t neglect food, no matter how tired you are, all the more so - and even more so - you should never neglect the food of the soul: communicating with God.

“Don’t ever neglect prayer. At the table, in the morning, in the evening, at night. Especially, don’t neglect the Small Compline for any reason, no matter how occupied and tired you are. It is a matter of self-sacrifice and mainly of love. When a certain person, beloved by you, calls you up very late at night, how is it that despite your tiredness, you hook yourselves to the receiver and, furthermore, sometimes one and two hours, without being impatient, but, on the contrary, you rejoice?”

Persistence in Prayer

“How will we become better, Elder? We remain constantly in the same things.”

“My child, practice much prayer and then you will see the improvement. How should we do it? There is no magic wand for us to tap and have Christian progress come automatically.”

SOURCE : Councels for life – From the life and teachings of Father Epiphanios Theodoropoulos