The second discourse on prayer, on the day of St. Alexis, the Man of God on March 30, I recorded in 1973, with nine or ten people present. The conversation was long, there were disputes about the meaning of prayer, about its influence on the human soul, and about the meaning of prayer at home and prayer in church. Four people participated in the conversation. Father Arseny was silent, the others, including me, were listeners and did not take part in the heated debates. When everyone fell silent, Fr. Arseny said: I am a hieromonk, my duty, with the blessing of the elders, is to help people, to bring them peace and love, to teach them to pray and love their neighbors and the Lord with all my heart, with all my mind. I believe in the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, the indivisible Trinity. My faith corresponds exactly to the great words of the Symbol of Faith confirmed by the Ecumenical Councils, I am commanded never to enter into theological disputes, and I consider them unnecessary.

I am afraid to be mistaken, but, as far as my memory serves me, almost every apologist and theologian, having written many good books, has always made one or two inaccuracies, for which he has been subjected to severe criticism and condemnation by his opponents (however, such theologians have also been canonized for their great deeds). I have accepted the obedience to serve people, and what I will say about prayer comes only from the canons of the Church and my priestly experience, accumulated over the years in communication with spiritual children and people who come to me.

I listened with great interest to your conversation about prayer, each of you is right; Prayer is diverse and for each person it comes from the heart (soul) in his own way, depending on the inner structure, spiritual experience, ability to tune himself to prayer, and the contemplation of the person praying. Almost everything I will say has long been known, but for the sake of the uninformed, I will repeat it. All the teachers of the Church wrote about the meaning of prayer for the believer. In the 19th century, Metropolitan Philaret (Drozdov) of Moscow, Bishop Theophan Vyshensky, Bishop Ignatius (Brianchaninov), the Optina Elders (in letters to spiritual children) and other spiritual writers wrote, and in recent times even a classification of prayers has been compiled. It seems to me that the most important things in the performance of prayer are: spiritual composure, spiritual sincerity, renunciation of worldly vanity, temptations, and immersion in a state of prayer. Only then can the soul in its prayer aspire to God, but not every person can do this to the same extent.

Prayers to the Lord God can be divided into three types:

1. Supplicatory prayer, when the praying person asks God to help, to deliver from troubles and misfortunes, to help loved ones, to heal from illnesses, to console in sorrow, to give daily bread, to forgive sins, or when he prays for the dead. Prayer of supplication is the most important thing for the majority of believers: even a person who is not sufficiently aware of God can turn to the Almighty in a difficult moment with a request for salvation. When we come to church and pray, we always ask God for something.

2. A prayer of thanksgiving offering gratitude for the help given to a person in his affairs, for the fulfillment of our requests, previously set forth in petitionary prayers, for the fact that the Lord has mercy and gives life. Unfortunately, not everyone offers prayers of thanksgiving to the Lord. Many only ask, being like debtors who constantly borrow, but forget to pay back what they have previously taken. A prayer of thanksgiving, directed to God, the Most Holy Theotokos and the saints, and directed not once, but many times, is a person's return of his debt to the Lord for the fulfillment of what he asked earlier in the prayer of supplication. However, as I have already mentioned, not all believers turn to the Lord with gratitude. The task of the priest or spiritual father is to explain to people who come to him that it is necessary to thank the Lord God, the Most Holy Theotokos and the saints for the help provided.

3. A prayer glorifying God is the highest prayer to God, the Creator of heaven and earth, it is a praise of the Lord for everything and everything. For sorrows and troubles, for salvation and deliverance, for the fact that we live, for joys and sorrows, and, I repeat once again, for everything and everything. The Lord is our Creator, everything comes from Him, He created us and gives us the opportunity to save our souls by His pious life on earth and by His mercy to enter the Kingdom of God. This is a great prayer of a perfect soul, and each of us, having comprehended the full power of the prayer of thanksgiving, can enter the circle of glorifying prayer.

A prayer glorifying the Lord is always heard in church, and especially during the greatest church service, the Liturgy.

I will say a few words about how one should pray. It is difficult for many to renounce the world around you and enter into the words and spirit of prayer without a long experience of prayer. You pray, trying to delve into the prayer, but the prayer goes on absent-mindedly, next to the prayer there always arises a parallel thought about something worldly, and you cannot get rid of it, get away from it. To overcome this, it is necessary to pray more often and more, always aloud at first, if possible. Priests often say and even write that scattered, unfocused prayer is not pleasing to God and is even sinful, because the one who prays does not give his soul completely to God and thereby commits a sin. Of course, such prayer is incomplete. The praying person tried to gather his will and lead his soul into prayerful striving, but, due to his weakness, he could not, but still strove to do it. Only the Lord can appreciate the sincerity and spiritual value of such a prayer. However, I believe that if a prayer is said and a person tries to aspire to God, then although for reasons unknown to us he was unable to perform a fervent and sincere prayer, he still prayed. I did not forget to read the rule in due time: this is already a sacrifice, a work brought to the Lord, and He will accept the prayer, weighing the inner structure and sincerity of the person praying. Many, including priests, disagree with me, but I think so and have found indirect confirmation of my words in spiritual literature and even in ancient patericons.

At all stages of prayerful activity, a person is obliged to strive, offering petitions, thanksgiving or praise, to pray with all his soul, trying to renounce everything vain, earthly. If the praying person cannot in any way acquire the ability to pray sincerely, he must consult with his spiritual father. Often I pray for a long time with visitors, pronouncing each phrase loudly and distinctly, trying to put my whole soul into each word, and then explaining the meaning and significance of the prayer. The most sincere and directed to God are prayers of supplication, for any person who prays, even if he has not attained spiritual perfection, is sincere to the end in his prayers of supplication, he asks for healing, mercy, help to loved ones, sending down the blessings of life, for salvation from death, illness, for what causes him pain and suffering

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The recording of the conversation about prayer has been reproduced from memory. Two conversations about Fr. Arseny's prayer, which I recorded, were of a general nature and were conducted with the newly arrived people. With each new person who came to him and became his spiritual child, Fr. Arseny always had a personal conversation about prayer to the Lord and about relationships with people. He considered and demanded from a person the obligatory and strict fulfillment of the daily prayer rule. At first, he asked what rule the visitor observed, after listening, he advised which prayers to include or exclude, depending on the spiritual appearance of the visitor. He recommended that you carefully review the past day, your actions, thoughts, conversations, realize what you have done wrong, and, lifting up prayers to God, ask Him for forgiveness for what you have done and try not to repeat the bad in the following days. Fr. Arseny did not approve of lengthy prayer rules, saying that by the end of his prayer he gets tired and repeats prayers soullessly, mechanically, but he blessed some to pray for an hour or more.

He advised to pray in the morning and in the evening at the hours set once and for all, he recommended that parents with children pray with the whole family, but in such a way that the child does not get tired; At first, pray briefly with the children, and then continue to pray to adults, fulfilling the established rule. He advised to pray on the way to or from work, repeating the entire rule or individual prayers from it, believing that such a prayer saves a person from empty and unnecessary thoughts. He constantly reminded me: pray to God, but do not forget to pray for people, do good. Prayer to God and love for man must be in unity, one cannot live without the other.

MEMOIRS OF FATHER ARSENY