"Prayer is the breath of the spirit. If there is prayer, the spirit lives, if there is no prayer, there is no life in the spirit," wrote St. Theophanes. To strengthen the spirit of prayer in yourself, this collection will be an excellent help.

ru Tatyana And. Bragina FictionBook Editor Release 2.6 22 July 2011 9E2C7E1B-6153-4637-B1EB-C4AC4362545F 1.0

1.0 — File creation — Tatyana A. Bragina

St. Theophan the Recluse

Collection

"The Holy Fathers on Prayer and Sobriety"

Preface to the collection of Theophanes the Recluse

The proposed collection owes its origin to the following incident. A certain God-lover, who loves to pay attention to himself and to converse with God in prayer, told about himself that he, sometimes having to worry a lot about the household and his position, always weakens in attention and cools down in prayer. No matter how sorrowful it is, he says, I am not able to cope with myself. But then, as soon as I have free time, I lock myself in my room and, putting an end to all my affairs and worries, I only pray, read, and meditate on God and divine things. God is merciful, — the former peaceful mood returns again. At this time I read only about prayer, now in one book, now in another. Having said this, he expressed the desire that it would be good if all this were collected in one small book. Then there would be no need to rummage through various books.

And behold, it is collected, at least partially, but enough for the purpose. The motivation was not only the desire of the aforesaid God-lover, but especially the fact that many other God-lovers are in similar circumstances, and those in which prayer is written do not have at hand the books in which prayer is written in order to read and restore in themselves a prayerful mood. Meanwhile, such reading is the best means of pacifying the mind and sobering the heart, and it will kindle the desire for prayer. He will pray while his heart is glowing, and again for reading, so that, warmed by it, he may again stand up for prayer.

That is the reason and motivation for this collection! But even without that, in it everyone who wishes to establish himself in prayer will find the necessary instruction for this.

Everything is said in it about the spirit of prayer. As for the rules and the order of the prayer book, there is no need for special instruction for this. These rules and rites are indicated in the church, and are fulfilled by everyone, even those who do not listen to prayer so diligently. They go to church and pray at home according to prayer books. And there is no one who remembers himself at all, who does not correct his prayers every day, be that as it may.

With all this, however, one cannot help wondering how it happens that we pray for a whole century, but still do not know how to pray as we should. The proposed collection will remind us of this, depicting proper prayer, and whoever desires to attain perfection in it, so that it may be worthy in his soul, will teach him how to succeed in this.