This is a lesson for us. A lesson in the need for persistent, prolonged prayer, which does not fall into despair and does not stop because it is not immediately heard, but continues to achieve its goal without losing hope. We see that the woman's insistent request is finally fulfilled.Ask, and it will be given to you, – says the Lord, – seek, and you will find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you; for everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened (Matt. VII, 7, 8). He confirms the same idea in two parables in the Gospel of Luke. Suppose, one parable teaches, that one of you, having a friend, comes to him at midnight and says to him, 'Friend! lend me three loaves of bread, for my friend has come to me from the way, and I have nothing to offer him; And he will answer from within, 'Do not disturb me, for the doors are already shut, and my children are with me on the bed.' I can't get up and give you. If, I tell you, he does not get up and give him because of his friendship with the NCM, then because of his persistence, he will get up and give him as much as he asks. And I will say to you, Ask, and it will be given to you (Lk. XI, 5-9).

He also told them a parable about always praying and not losing heart, saying, "There was a judge in a certain city, who did not fear God and was not ashamed of people." In the same city there was a widow, and she came to him and said, "Protect me from my rival." But he didn't want to for a long time. And then he said to himself: although I do not fear God and am not ashamed of people, yet, since this widow does not give me peace, I will protect her, so that she will not come to trouble me any more. And the Lord said, Do you hear what the unrighteous judge says? Will not God protect His elect, who cry out to Him day and night, although He is slow to defend them? I tell you that he will give them protection soon (Lk. XVIII, 1-8). For this reason, the Holy Orthodox Church also tries to accustom to persistent prayer, offering its own lengthy Divine services, the tediousness of which many complain. Thus, as the parable says, we must cry out to the Lord day and night. We should not fall into despair if the Lord delays in fulfilling our request.

"Asking for that which is worthy of God," writes St. Basil the Great, "do not cease to ask until you receive it. Suggesting this, the Lord told the parable of the one who begged bread at midnight with His perseverance. Although a month, a year, and three years will pass; and for a great number of years, until thou receivest, do not depart, but ask in faith, continually doing good."

"Let it always be our task," teaches another great saint, John Chrysostom, "to be diligent in prayer and not to lose heart at the slowness of hearing, but to show patience of good humor. Let us accustom ourselves to cling to prayer and pray day and night, especially at night, when no one bothers us with business, when thoughts calm down, when everything around is silent and the mind has complete freedom to ascend to the Physician of souls. Every place and every time is suitable for such work. If you have a mind cleansed of impious passions, then be you in the marketplace, be on the road, be at home, be in the judgment seat, be in the monastery, be at sea, and wherever you are, everywhere, calling on God, you can receive what you ask for." The spiritual father Fr. A. Kolokolov, who was once more famous in St. Petersburg, sometimes said to his spiritual children: "Do you seek the help of the Mother of God? So go to the Kazan Cathedral and, standing as if with your own eyes before the icon, say: "Lady, help! I will not retreat, but I will beg, beg, as far as my strength is enough. I will come to You tomorrow, and the day after tomorrow, and for many years I will ask and pray until I receive what I ask for!"

The prayer of Fr. John of Kronstadt, the great man of prayer of the Russian Church, always produced the impression of extraordinary perseverance. According to eyewitnesses, when he prayed, it was as if he grabbed the vestments of Christ and did not let them go, seeking at all costs to receive what he asked for.

He himself told the following about the first steps of his pastoral prayer: "Infants Paul and Olga, through the boundless mercy of Vladyka and through the prayer of my lewdness, were healed of the spirit of infirmity that had taken possession of them. Little Paul's infirmity was resolved by sleep, little Olga received peace of mind, and his face became clear from dark.

And so the Lord did: He did not shame me, a sinner. I came for the tenth time, and the babies were healthy. I thanked Vladyka and the Most Swift Intercessor." But why do we need long, persistent prayers? Does prayerful labor and long-term prayer have any value in the eyes of God, and does not the Lord hear short, but sincere, fervent prayers? Undoubtedly, sometimes even an instant prayer offered from a pure heart is heard by God. In the same Gospel passage that was read, another case is told of the healing of a deaf, tongue-tied man, who was brought to the Lord and asked to lay hands on him. Without the slightest delay and without waiting for the repetition of the request, the Lord put His fingers into his ears and, spitting, touched his tongue; And he looked up to heaven, and sighed, and said unto him, Ephatha, that is, be opened. And straightway, his ears were opened, and the bands of his tongue were loosed, and he began to speak clearly, v. 33-35. Here the prayer of those who ask is heard immediately.

But nevertheless, prolonged prayer is necessary; is needed first of all, as Fr. John of Kronstadt says, "in order to warm up our cold hearts, tempered in prolonged vanity, by the duration of fervent prayer. For it is strange to think, much less to demand, that a heart hardened in the vanity of life could soon be imbued with the warmth of faith and love for God during prayer. No, it takes work and work, time and time. The Kingdom of Heaven is taken by force, and those who use force take it away (Matt. 11:12). The kingdom of God does not come soon to the heart, when people run away from it so zealously. The Lord Himself declares His will, that we should not pray briefly, when He presents as an example the widow who went to the judge and troubled him with her requests. The Lord, our Heavenly Father, knows before our petition what we require, what we need, but we do not know Him, as we should, we are very devoted to the vanity of the world, and not to the Heavenly Father; behold, in His wisdom and mercy, He turns our needs into a pretext for turning us to Him. "Turn, ye my erring children, though now unto me your Father, with all your heart, if you were formerly far from me, though now warm your hearts to me, which were formerly cold, with faith and love."

"Prolonged prayer," writes one of our theologians, Archbishop Anthony (Khrapovitsky), "is needed not for God, but for ourselves, scattered and inert – it warms the heart of a person and influences the gradual emergence of a religious mood in him. It is not suddenly that a religious feeling is kindled in a person who is busy with worldly affairs, but this requires a prolonged concentration on prayerful thoughts and some other means. Whoever is ready for prayerful heartfelt sighs and the shedding of tender tears, there is no need to pray for a long time for the warming of the heart, but only for greater and greater spiritual Perfection. The unrighteous judge and the miserly friend yielded only to prolonged supplications, but the Heavenly Father will hear "those who cry to Him day and night." - "Watch and pray, that ye may not enter into the attack." The Lord Himself "prayed again." The Apostle Paul also commanded us to pray without ceasing, and said of ourselves: "Pray with all earnestness, day and night" (1 Thess. III, 10). Cornelius pleased God by giving alms and "praying continually."

Prolonged prayer is useful even in that it accustoms us to constant remembrance of God. The center of our inner life, as we know, must be God, and psychologically this is expressed in the fact that the thought of God is constantly and inseparably linked with our consciousness. This is achieved by first forcing man to dwell on the thought of God as long as possible. Continuous; prayer, during which the thought is constantly raised to God and to Heaven, is one of these spiritual exercises. Little by little it turns into constant prayer, and in the hearts of experienced and hard-working ascetics it becomes an inexhaustible and unceasing spring of prayerful feelings and sighs, beating involuntarily even in the hours of sleep. The heart itself begins to exude prayer, according to the testimony of ascetic writers.

Finally, there is no better means for strengthening the will in spiritual work than prolonged prayer. Never does Satan attack a person so fiercely as during prayer. "When we pray," testifies St. John Chrysostom, "then the evil devil attacks us most of all. He sees the greatest benefit for us from prayer, which is why he contrives in every possible way to make us depart from prayer empty-handed. He knows, knows well, that if those who come to church approach God with sober prayer, express their sins and grieve warmly in their souls, then they will depart from here, having received complete forgiveness: for God is a lover of mankind. Why does He warn them to lead them away from prayer in some way, so that they do not receive anything? And this he does, not by force, but by pleasant dreams entertaining the mind and thereby leading laziness to prayer. It is our own fault that we willingly give ourselves over to its snares, that we deprive ourselves of the blessings of prayer, and we have no excuse for this. Fervent prayer is the light of the mind and heart, an unquenchable, unceasing light. Why does the enemy whip innumerable thoughts, like clouds of dust, into our minds, and even of such things as we are talking about! We have never thought that it gathers and pours into our souls during prayer. Just as sometimes a gust of wind, attacking the light of a lamp that is kindled, extinguishes it, so the devil, seeing the flame of prayer kindled in the soul, hastens to blow from here and there innumerable caring thoughts, and does not leave behind this until he has time to extinguish the light that has been engaged. In this case, let us act as those who light lamps do. Those who do? Noticing that a strong breath of wind is approaching, they block the opening of the lamp with their finger, and thus do not allow the wind to enter, because if it bursts inside, it will immediately extinguish the fire. It is the same in us. As long as thoughts are attached, we can still resist them; the enemy, having extinguished in us all good memory and holy thought, makes of us a smoking lamp: then in prayer only the lips utter empty words."

What the great saint so figuratively describes was undoubtedly experienced by each of the Christians who follow the spiritual path. The fiercest struggle with thoughts has to be endured precisely during prayer, much work is required in order to drive away obsessive unnecessary thoughts and concentrate prayerfully in God. But it is this struggle with thoughts, like any struggle, that strengthens the will, if it is conducted seriously, persistently, and therefore successfully. The ability to fix or concentrate attention on one object, which is developed by this struggle in prolonged prayer, is a sign of a spiritually strong will, and the longer the duration of such concentration can be achieved, the stronger is the person spiritually. In the language of mystical concepts, the more often and resolutely a Christian defeats the spirits of darkness that seek to distract him from prayer, the more he is strengthened.

In prolonged prayer, a religious feeling also develops, especially a feeling of gratitude to God. We usually do not appreciate much what we receive too easily, and for what we have from the Lord without any effort on our part, we rarely give thanks. But what has been achieved through hard, hard work, we keep and cherish as the greatest value. That is why we especially value all the gifts and blessings of God, which we ask for in persistent long prayer, and do not treat them with the usual disdainful frivolity, as things received for free. And such a reverent and attentive attitude to the gifts of God, especially to spiritual gifts, is necessary for their fruitful use in life. On the other hand, the more vividly we realize the great value of what the Lord gives us, the more grateful our heart is filled with.

But speaking of the benefits and even the necessity of prolonged prayer, three extremely important reservations should be made here. There are certain obligatory conditions that make such a prayer fruitful, and if violated, it does more harm than good.