Reflecting on God and man, saying that the hope of people is in Nog, Father John pays much attention in his diary to prayer as a way of communication between man and God. Father John reminds: "'Pray, that ye may not enter into misfortune,' says the Lord twice to His disciples before His very sufferings." Father John values prayer very highly, he seeks and finds an accurate expression of his thought: "Is it possible to pray without ceasing? "You can, as you can breathe incessantly. Prayer is the breath of life... Prayer is the elevation of the mind and heart to God, the contemplation of God, the daring conversation of the creature with the Creator... Prayer is the correction of life, the mother of heartfelt contrition and tears... Prayer is the safety of life, the destruction of mortal fear... the expectation of the universal Judge, the general resurrection... the unceasing search for mercy (mercy) from the Lord... the living water of the soul... bringing heaven down into the soul... Prayer is proof of my rational personality, my God-likeness. The pledge of my future deification and bliss. Prayer inspires me that I am the image of God... Prayer is a sign of my great dignity, with which the Creator has honored me."

"What should our prayer be? In church? At home? In any place? What does it be?" asks Father John and gives deep answers to these questions, advice, and teachings on how to pray:

"To learn to pray truly means to learn to be truly happy and blessed... When conversing with God, one must firmly remember Whom one is conversing with, and express extreme reverence with the posture of the body, and with the voice, and with the eyes, and above all, with the heart and thought. It is necessary to bring every word of the prayer to the heart... In prayer it is especially necessary to take care of the peace of the soul, for where there is peace, there is the Holy Spirit... It is necessary to stir up one's heart to prayer, otherwise it will fall asleep completely. Love for God, sincerity, simplicity – these are the properties of prayer... One must pray in the spirit, because God is Spirit, and not flesh; truly, and not flatteringly, because God is the Truth."

One must pray in spirit and in truth, Father John repeats this many times.

"Let prayer be a voluntary, free offering to the Lord, and not a reluctant and forced one... When praying, one must believe in the power of the words of the prayer in such a way as not to separate the words themselves from the very deed expressed by them... as with the Lord word and deed are inseparable..." "And since we have little faith," writes Father John, "that is why our prayers are powerless and fruitless."

Father John himself composed several prayers to the Lord and writes in his diary: "In order to deliver me from this terrible temptation, I myself composed a prayer to my Lord, that He grant me grace... I prayed it every day, and I do not cease to pray: and He hearkened to my prayer."

Father John shares his experience of prayer: "When I pray, I firmly believe that 1) God is one Who is Himself and therefore He is everywhere... and therefore at my right hand, (2) that I am His image... 3) that He is the abyss of goodness... and (4) that He Himself authorized me to pray to Him."

"They say: we soon get tired of praying. Why? Because you do not imagine the Lord alive before you... but look at Him unceasingly with the eyes of your heart, and then you will stand all night in prayer — and you will not get tired. What do I say: night? "Stand for three days and three nights and you will not get tired."

Father John repeatedly thanks the Mother of God for her help in prayer to Her: "Wondrous art Thou, Most Merciful Lady, in Thy mercies. Behold, I wear an icon of Thy Tikhvin Icon on my breast... and the wisdom of God flows like a river from my tongue... To my Lady and Lady, the Most Holy Theotokos, I inscribe a thanksgiving offering, a great sinner: today twice through my prayer She delivered my heart... I raised the eyes of my heart to Her twice... and She delivered me from my doubt..."

Father John writes down his reflections on the Holy Gifts and Communion: "Those who approach the sacraments of repentance and communion should remember that this is the mystery of God, and should not be curious and questioning inwardly, much less doubt..." Heartfelt faith is needed that "the smallest particle of the Holy Mysteries of Christ is the whole of Christ."

"Place God and your soul as the image of God, as well as the soul of your brother, as the image of the All-Creator God, immeasurably above everything. By doing so, you will please Him who created you and you will be moist on earth," Father John writes down his thoughts about the human soul. He also thinks a lot about love for one's neighbor, about the attitude to sorrows, about the Christian faith and the significance of the Church: "The word of the Lord is so firm and unchangeable that the whole world, visible and invisible, is held together by it, the angelic and human worlds. That is why the word of the Gospel is so firm... Everything that the Lord said in the Gospel is so true and so sure that heaven and earth can pass away and disappear sooner than the words of the Lord spoken in the Gospel... The divine services of the Orthodox Church, the sacraments, and all prayers are the path of spiritual life, by which the saints of God have walked and been saved, and which [i.e., the divine services, the sacraments...] even now prove to be the path of life for all the faithful... Glory to the Christian faith – Orthodox! Its true fruit has always been and is the unity of believers among themselves through love and communion of spiritual and material goods... True Christianity also establishes well-being on earth, because it looks upon Christians as one great body..."

Father John writes about the need to preserve the purity of the faith, he is concerned about the schism in the Christian Church: "The Church is like a verdant tree with leaves and fruits: and a schism is a dry branch that has broken off from the tree..."

In the diary notebook there are many blanks for the sermon, advice addressed to the priest, many references to his own experience: "When preparing a sermon, have a high respect for it, as for the living seed of the Lord... the simpler and more heartfelt, the better it is... remember that the Lord is with you, and He speaks through your mouth."

On the pages of Father John's diary, we find an assessment of the state of contemporary science along with reflections on the universe: