Thusfar what I've read, the book is full of quotations from the Holy Fathers on prayer, and it's SO HELPFUL!!! Here's why: the Desert Father Abba Agathon (+3rd century A.D.) was asked, "Amongst all good works, which is the virtue which requires the greatest effort?" He answered, "Forgive me, but I think there is no labor greater than that of prayer to God. For every time a man wants to pray, his enemies, the demons, want to prevent him, for they know that it is only by turning him from prayer that they can hinder his journey. Whatever good work a man undertakes, if he perseveres in it, he will attain rest. But prayer is warfare to the last breath." So if a holy Desert Father explained the temptations experienced with prayer, we can only expect it to be ten times harder for us to pray undistracted and from the heart. Again, although I've just begun the book, it's already explained the two types of prayer (internal and external), and how to pray.
With regards to our morning prayer prayer rule (which should be in conjuction with our evening prayer rule, of course), Igumen Chariton quotes St. Theophan the Recluse (+1894) on the process of prayer:
Rising in the morning, stand as firmly as possible before God in your heart, as you offer your morning prayers; and then go to the work apportioned to you by God, without withdrawing from Him in your feelings and consciousness. In this way you will do your work with the powers of your soul and body, but in your mind and heart you will remain with God.
By doing this, because we are making a conscious effort to continue to connect ourselves with God throughout the day—and hopefully, we are offering Him prayers throughout the day when the Holy Spirit inspires us to do so, coupled with our own efforts to seek God out (the essence of James 4:8: "Draw near to God and He will draw near to you")—it makes what St. Paul tells us in 1 Thessalonians 5:17 possible: "Pray without ceasing".
St. Theophan continues: If we want to pray properly using the prayers of the Church, in Her services, in Holy Scriptures (like the Psalms), St. Theophan says "the power of prayer lies not in this or that oral prayer, but in the way in which we pray".
So when praying, St. Theophan says we must do this:
"enter into the spirit of the prayers in which you hear and read, reproducing them in your heart; and in this way offer them up from your heart to God, as if they had been born in your own heart under the action of the grace of the Holy Spirit. Then, and then alone, is the prayer pleasing to God. How can we attain to such prayer? Ponder carefully on the prayers which you have to read in your prayer book; feel them deeply, even learn them by heart. And so when you pray you will express that which is already deeply felt in your heart."
I know that St. Theophan was a big proponent on memorizing prayers and Psalms so that we would always have prayer available to us, no matter what place or situation we found ourselves, because there may not be places we can bring a prayer book with us. I agree with this holy practice. It's fairly easy to memorize these things, after all, "repetition is the mother of learning". By often repeating prayers and psalms from the heart, it's not the "vain repetitions" as our Lord God and Savior Jesus Christ warns us of in Matthew 6:7 because it's from the heart (notice the emphasis there on those three words). The vain repetitions—prayer repeated but not prayed from the heart—is the very thing that God Himself spoke of in Isaiah 29:13: "Inasmuch as these people draw near with their mouths and honor Me with their lips, but have removed their hearts far from Me".
God just doesn't hear prayers like that.
St. Theophan continues with his enlightenment on prayer with regards to hymns of the Church:
"It is not difficult to understand that the most important part of this is not good harmony in the singing, but the content of what is sung. It has the same effect as a speech written with warm feeling, which animates whoever reads it. Feeling, expressed in words, is carried by words into the soul of those who hear or read them. The same can be said of Church songs. Psalms, hymns and Church songs are spiritually inspired outbursts of feelings towards God. The Spirit of God filled His elect, and they expressed the plentitude of their feelings in songs. He who sings them as they should be sung enters again into the feelings which the author experienced when he originally wrote them. Being filled by these feelings, he draws near to the state wherein he is able to receive the grace of the Spirit, and to adapt himself to it. The purpose of Church songs is precisely to make the spark of grace that is hidden within us burn brighter and with greater warmth. This spark is given by the sacraments. Psalms, hymns and spiritual odes are introduced, to fan the spark and transform it into flame. They act on the spark of grace as the wind acts on a spark hidden in firewood."As if we needed any further reason to draw us to the Sacraments, knowing their great power and benefit to our souls already, this Holy Medicine of the Church will give us a "spark of grace" to make us more zealous and warm in prayer. I say the Sacraments are "Holy Medicine", because the Church is not only the House of God wherein we worship and glorify Him, but also our Spiritual Hospital for the healing of our souls; the Sacraments given to us by our Great Physician our Lord God and Savior Jesus Christ Himself. It's sad that in there are faithful in Orthodox churches that don't feel it's necessary to partake of the Holy Sacraments very frequently; maybe once a year. I suppose it's better than not preparing adequately and then partaking of Sacraments, doing so to the condemnation of our souls (1 Corinthians 11:27-28). But when I hear our priest call out the words, "With faith and with love, draw near!" as the chalice is raised, urging us to come to Communion, it reminds me of the parable our Lord spoke of in Matthew 22:2-14, where the king wants to give a marriage supper for his son, and invites people. We too are being invited to partake of this Supper. But many times, because we may be indifferent to exactly What we are being invited of to parktake in, or maybe we just didn't feel like preparing adequately that week with Holy Confession, prayers, and fasting, we are like those in the parable that gave every type of excuse as to why we can't come to the marriage supper. And it makes me feel sad to know that our Lord God and Savior offered Himself up for us, for our own benefit, that there can be such a cool indifference to His sacrifice for our benefits, and such a cool response to His love for us. So perhaps if somebody out there can see that the Sacraments are a way for us to enter into a more deeper life with God and our prayer to Him, it may prompt them to at least consider the importance of having Confession more often, having Holy Communion more often, and having Holy Unction at all times when it is offered.
From this page at the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese website, an article by Father Thomas Fitzgerald on the Holy Sacraments of the Church explains effect of the Holy Sacraments in our lives and on our souls just beautifully:
"Not only do the Sacraments disclose and reveal God to us, but also they serve to make us receptive to God. All the Sacraments affect our personal relationship to God and to one another. The Holy Spirit works through the Sacraments. He leads us to Christ who unites us with the Father. By participating in the Sacraments, we grow closer to God and to receive the gifts of the Holy Spirit. This process of deification, or theosis, as it is known by Orthodoxy, takes place not in isolation from others, but within the context of a believing community. Although the Sacraments are addressed to each of us by name, they are experiences which involve the entire Church."
That quotation also touches on why it's important for us to be part of a parish community. Indeed, Holy Father St. Cyprian of Carthage (+258 A.D.) has instructed us "You cannot have God for your Father if you do not have the Church for your mother". Wiser words and truer words have not been spoken. True, we can worship God "anywhere", as many claim as the reason they aren't a part of any "organized religion"—the Orthodox prayer to the Holy Spirit acknowledges this with the beginning "O Heavenly King, the Comforter, the Spirit of Truth, Who art everywhere and fillest all things"—the Church is our Ark of Salvation, and only through Her can we be saved.
So I'm hoping to draw more from the rest of the book. Already getting a plethora of beneficial advice and teaching from just the beginning, the rest of it should be extremely enlightening and helpful!
