33) "O Lord my God, I have cried unto Thee, and Thou hast healed me" (Psalm 29:3). "Blessed is he who knows his inner wound, who can come to the Physician and say: 'Heal me, O Lord. Heal my soul, for I have sinned against Thee" (Psalm 6:3; 40:5)! But here the Prophet also offers thanksgiving for the healing given to him: "I have cried unto Thee, and Thou hast healed me." There was no interval between the invocation and Thy grace: no sooner had I cried out than healing came. He who prays to God must say something that is not unimportant, so that a speedy healing may come to us [1, 251-2].

34) "Sing unto the Lord His saints" (Psalm 29:5). Not everyone sings to the Lord who pronounces the words of the Psalm with his lips, but only those who sing psalmody from a pure heart, all who are reverend and keep the truth before God, all such can sing to God, faithfully observing spiritual rhymes (spiritual mood). How many have come here, those who hide falsehood in their hearts? Such people cannot sing as they should. They imagine themselves to be singing, but they do not sing in reality: for the Psalm invites the monk to sing. "An evil tree cannot produce good fruit," and a vicious heart can pour out the words of life (spiritual). Purify your hearts in order to bear spiritual fruit, and then, having become venerable, you will be able to sing to the Lord intelligently [1, 253].

35) "Thou hast turned away Thy face, and I am troubled" (Psalm 29:8). As long as the rays of Thy visitation, says the Prophet, shone upon me, I lived my life in an unshakable and serene state. But when "Thou hast turned away Thy face"; then the passionate and confused state of my soul was exposed. Let us pray unceasingly that the face of God may shine upon us, that we may be in a sacred state, quiet and untroubled by anything, according to our readiness for good [1, 258].

36) "What profit is in my blood, when I descend into corruption" (Psalm 29:10)? What profit is it to me, he says, in the well-being of the flesh and in the abundance of blood, when it is given over to the general destruction? "But I mortify my body and enslave it" (1 Corinthians 9:27), so that the fattening of the flesh would not serve as a pretext for sin. Do not please the flesh with sleep, baths, soft beds, constantly repeating this word: "What profit is in my blood, when I descend into corruption?" Why do you fatten yourself and burden yourself with the flesh? Do you not know that the more delicate you make your flesh, the more painful will you prepare for the soul? [1, 259].

37) "Rejoice in righteousness in the Lord" (Psalm 32:1). "Rejoice in the Lord" — not because your works are prosperous, not because you enjoy bodily health, not because your fields abound in all kinds of fruits; but because you have the Lord, Who is so beautiful, so good, so wise. The Psalm urges the righteous to feel their dignity that they are worthy to be the slaves of such a Lord, and to admire their slavery to Him with inexpressible joy and with leaps, as if their hearts were torn from the rapture of love for the Good. If at any time in your heart, as it were, a descending light has suddenly produced a thought about God, and illumined your soul so that you have loved God, and despised the world and all bodily things; then from this weak and small likeness know the full state of the righteous, who grow evenly and unceasingly in joy in God. From time to time and rarely this joy visits you, according to God's providence, so that a small taste of it may bring to your mind how great a blessing you lack. And in the righteous there is always divine and heavenly joy, because the Spirit undoubtedly dwells in him. For the righteous, the Lord is, as it were, a place that contains them, a place into which one who enters cannot but be pleased and rejoice. And the righteous become a place for the Lord, receiving Him into himself: but the sinner gives place in himself to the devil (Ephesians 4:27). Therefore, abiding in the Lord Himself, and contemplating His miracles as much as we can, from this contemplation let us gain joy for our hearts [1: 261-2].

38) If anyone, led by the Holy and Humane Spirit, not dreaming of himself, but humbling himself in order to exalt others, cry out in spirit, asking for something great, and does not utter anything unworthy and base, expressing a search for earthly and worldly things; then the cry of this supplicant will be heard by the Lord [1, 295].

39) "God is our refuge and strength" (Psalm 45:2). Do not run away from what you should not, and do not run to someone you should not. But let you have one thing to avoid, sin, and one refuge, God. Many say: God is our refuge; but very few say this with the same disposition as the Prophet: for not all are given over to God in all things, not all breathe in Him alone, not all have hope and confidence in Him alone. And our very deeds convict us, when in sorrows we rather turn to everything else, but not to God. Does your child hurt? You are looking for a fortune-teller, or one who hangs empty inscriptions around the necks of innocent babies. Did the dream disturb you? You run to the dream-interpreters. Are you afraid of the enemy? You look for an intercessor in someone from among the people. In general, in every need you denounce yourself, which in words you call God a refuge, but in fact you seek help from useless and vain things. But for a righteous man, the true help is God. As a military commander, having brave soldiers, is always ready to help the faint, so God, our helper and champion of everyone who fights against the wiles of the devil, sends ministering spirits to those who demand salvation [1, 340-1].

40) "The prophet said, 'Incline your ear' (Psalm 114:2), not so that you form some sensual conception of God, as if He has ears and inclines them because of a small voice, as we do, bringing our ears closer to those who speak weakly, so that you may better hear what is being said. He said: "Bow down" in order to show your own weakness, i.e. Descend in love with humanity to the valley that lies in me, like a humane physician, inclining his ears to the sick, who, because of great exhaustion, cannot speak intelligibly, in order to know more clearly the needs of the sufferer. God's ear has no need of the sound of the voice to hear. God knows what is asked even by the movements of the heart. Or do you not hear how Moses, who says nothing, but in wordless sighs prays to the Lord, was heard by the Lord, Who said to him: "Why do you cry out to Me" (Exodus 14:15)? [1, 399].

Chapter 2: ST. JOHN CHRYSOSTOM'S INSTRUCTIONS ON PRAYER AND SOBRIETY[2]

1) The Lord not only commands to forgive him who kidnaps you and covets you, but also says: love him with a strong and sincere love. For it is precisely this, wishing to inspire, that He said: "Pray for those who do you wrong" (Luke 6:28), which is usually done only in relation to those who are loved deeply. Thus Christ commanded us to pray for those who offend us, and we sew our snares against them, and, having received the command to bless those who curse us, we heap upon them a thousand curses [1, 400].

2) You say, I can pray at home, but I cannot hear conversations and teachings at home (those who leave the church are denounced, having listened to the discourse of Chrysostom, after reading the Gospel). You are deceiving yourself, human. Of course, it is possible to pray at home; but it is impossible to pray as in church, where there are so many fathers, and where such a unanimous cry is invoked to God. You will not be so heard when you pray to the Lord for yourself alone, as when you pray to Him with your brethren. For there is something more here, such as: unanimity, concord, the union of love and prayer of the priests. The priests are appointed to stand in the assemblies for this reason, so that the prayers of the people, which are the weakest in themselves, may ascend to heaven together with them. "Besides, what is the use of preaching when prayer is not combined with it?" Prayer comes first, and then the word. Thus the Apostles say: "But we shall abide in prayer and in the service of the word" (Acts 6:4). Paul does the same, always beginning his epistles with prayer, so that both the light of the lamp and the light of prayer precede the word. If you accustom yourself to pray with diligence, then you will have no need of instruction from your equal slaves; for then God Himself, without any intermediary, will enlighten your mind. If the prayer of one has such power, then how much more so is prayer in union with many. This one has more strength and more boldness than the one who is at home, alone. Where does this come from? Listen to how St. Paul says about this: "Who has delivered us from a bit of death, and delivers, trusting in us, that he will deliver us again, to those who help you also through prayer, and from many persons, who are gifted in us, thanks for us with many" (2 Corinthians 1:10, 11). In the same way, Peter was freed from prison, because "the prayer of the Church to God for him would be diligent" (Acts 12:5). But if Peter benefited from the prayer of the Church, then tell me, how do you despise her power, and what excuse can you have for this? Listen again, and God Himself says that He cannot but bow down when a multitude of people prudently pester Him in prayer. For, justifying before Jonah the speedy pardon of the Ninevites, He says: "Thou hast been offended by the gourd, for which thou hast not laboured, nor hast thou nurtured it, which thou wast born in the night, and perished in the night. Will I not spare Nineveh, the great city, in which dwell more than twenty men" (Jonah 4:10, 11)? He does not simply display a multitude of people, but in order to make you understand that the great prayer that agrees with many has power with Him [1, 725, 726].

3) The object of my constant admonitions is that we should be diligent in fervent prayer with sober thought and cheerful soul (this is in church, at the Liturgy). "The devil, seeing how ardent and excited your soul is in prayer, will understand that the path to your thoughts is impassable for him. When he sees that you yawn and do not pay attention to yourself, he will immediately jump up into you, as into an empty dwelling left by the tenant. But if he sees that you are collected in yourself, watchful, and as if hung to the very heavens, then he will not even dare to look at you. Have pity on yourself, and bar the entrance to your soul to the evil demon. Nothing blocks the way to it so much as diligent and warm prayer [1, 734].

4) What, do you think, is commanded when the deacon exclaims: "Forgive" (oρθοι, straightening up), "let us become good"? That we may raise up our creeping thoughts, and shake away the spiritual disintegration engendered in us by the cares of worldly affairs, and place our souls right before the face of God. And that this is true, that this word does not refer to the body, but to the soul, commanding it to be raised up directly, let us listen to Paul, who used this saying in this very sense. For stretching out his word to people who were ready to lose heart under the burden of troubles, he says: "Set ye right the weak hands and the weakened knees" (Heb. 12:12). Do you say what he says here about the hands and feet of the body? Nohow; for he does not address his speech to those who compete in running and wrestling, but he exhorts with these words to restore the strength of inner thoughts broken by temptations [Ibid.].

5) Think, near whom are you standing? With whom do you begin to call upon God? — With the cherubim. Take heed to this, standing in the same choir with you, and this will be enough for you to maintain sobriety, when you remember that you, clothed with body and intertwined with flesh, are vouchsafed to sing the praises of the Lord common to all together with the bodiless. Thus, taking part in these sacred and mysterious songs, no one stands here with loose attention and relaxed zeal, no one at this time hold worldly thoughts, but having expelled all earthly things from his mind, and having been wholly transferred to heaven, so lift up the all-holy hymn to the God of glory and majesty, as if you were standing near the very throne of glory, hand in hand with the Seraphim. For this reason we are commanded to stand good at this time. For to stand good is nothing else than to stand as it behooves a man to stand before the face of God, with fear and trembling, with a sober and alert soul [Ibid.].