Third Tuesday in Lent

1 Thessalonians 5.12-end; Matthew 6.5-15

The third of St. John Chrysostom's five paths of repentance is 'Prayer', and again I'd like to quote from a Russian saint - Theophan the Recluse. 'Prayer is the test of everything; prayer is also the source of everything; prayer is the driving force of everything; prayer is also the director of everything. If prayer is right, everything is right. For prayer will not allow anything to go wrong.'

I don't really think there's much left to say after that. Prayer is our communication with God, it's how we form our relationship with Him, it's how we get to know Him and to know His will for us. It's through prayer that we come to know the Holy Spirit working in us and through prayer that we are given the wherewithal to live God's commandments. Through prayer we are the living branches on the vine and without which we wither and die, fit only to be pruned off and cast into the fire. As St. Theophan says, get prayer right and everything else is right.

But we labour over prayer so much, it seems so hard to us, at least to those who take prayer seriously. Prayer is difficult because sometimes it's easy and at other times, inexplicably difficult. Sometimes we feel we are really in touch and at other times all that goes through our mind is our wandering thoughts and we can't even remember what we are supposed to be doing let alone concentrate on it. And that, I think is why prayer is so difficult, because each occasion brings its own thoughts, feelings, emotions.

But difficulties aside, if we are truly to turn our hearts to God, if we are truly to repent then we have to press on with our prayer through good times and bad, through times of consolation and times of desolation. And these times can last a long time or a short time and you never know from one day to the next whether the clouds will descend again or they will disperse and the Sun of God's love shine in our hearts and minds. We just have to carry on, in faith and in the hope that God hears and with the assurance that God always answers our prayers giving us what we need whether or not He gives us what we want, just as a loving mother will give her child what it needs before she gives it what it wants.

So what do we do on this path to repentance, how do we go about treading the path? St. Theophan says we should pray 'with the mind in the heart'. Our praying is not simply the use of our rational mind. The heart is the dwelling place of the soul, it's where we have our true being, and it's from our heart that we talk with God, and it's in the heart that we hear him best. And so we bring the whole of ourself to our prayer. We sit or stand or kneel, we cross ourself and make prostrations in some traditions, we speak in silence, or out loud in chant and song. We pray together and alone. But in all of these ways we pray from the heart. We take our mind into that room that is our heart, close the door and pray to our Father who is in secret, as Jesus says in his Sermon. Our prayers for ourselves and others, on our own and with others are made to and from this 'secret' place and it's here we get the answers, answers which can seem illogical to the rational mind but to the heart, it's consolation and salvation.

So knowing how we pray, when do we pray? It's customary to pray in the morning and evening. The Church sanctifies the opening and closing and the course of the day with its prayers. 'Seven times a day have I praised you' the Psalmist sings and monks and nuns use this model with their seven times of prayer throughout the day and night. Once, twice, seven times, all are good. But St. Paul says to the Church at Thessalonica, 'Pray continuously' in the version of the Bible we are using at present, in others it reads 'pray without ceasing'. So we turn our heart to prayer which is never ending. St. John Cassian in the fourth century advised; "To keep yourself continually mindful of the presence of God, you should set this formula before your eyes: 'O God, come to my aid; O Lord, make haste to help me'. Our prayer for rescue in bad times and for protection against pride in good times should be founded on this verse of Scripture. The thought of this verse should be turning unceasingly in your heart. Never cease to recite it in whatever task or service or journey you find yourself. Think upon it as you sleep, as you eat, in the various occupations of your daily life. This heartfelt thought will prove to be a formula of salvation for you. Not only will it protect you against the assaults of the devil, but it will purify you from the stain of all earthly sin...Let sleep close your eyes as you meditate on its words until as a result of good habit you find yourself repeating them in your sleep....Let it form a continuous prayer, an endless refrain when you bow down in worship and when you rise up to do all the necessary things of life."

So we see that a simple verse repeated can turn our heart to God and lead us on the path of repentance. And it opens the door to the dwelling place of God so that we can encounter him face to face as Moses did. Something so easy for the rational mind to do, done with the heart leads us to peace and the glorious presence of God wherein we find our salvation. Another prayer is that known as 'The Jesus Prayer' which comes to us again from antiquity. Again it's a simple formula; 'Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy upon me, a sinner'. Repeated over and over, it's a prayer that is used by the beginner and by the expert, by the lay person starting out on the path of repentance and the most experienced in prayer and holiest of saints. All that's needed is to stand or sit or kneel and say it, from the heart; and the heart, truly turned to God will receive all it needs from God, which it realises then, is all it ever really wanted.