ΤΗΕ ROLE OF THE ORTHODOX CHURCH
Love
towards God and the difficulty in praying ceaselessly
How
is it when you are in love with a certain person? Just tell me, do
you need any special effort to think about this person? No, you
don’t. Your mind constantly revolves around this person;
constantly… And you may be walking a heavily crowded sidewalk of a
central avenue with a lot of noise and distraction, and you don’t
see anything, you don’t hear anything! Why? Because your mind is
focused on the person you love. This is how our relationship with
Christ is, our love for Christ, Divine Love. This is what I mean when
I say we should love God.
Does
it need any effort? Of course, not. As soon as we start this flaming
love for God, no effort is necessary. We pray spontaneously. You
might say “How
am I supposed to do this, now that I don’t love Him yet?”
Well, in the beginning, you need to force yourself a little. This is
what our Lord Jesus Christ said [Matthew
11:12] “the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent
take it by force”.
At the start, we will have to think of Him deliberately, to force
ourselves.
It
is like when we try to set up a fire. What happens then? In the
beginning we get smoked; the fire does not start immediately. The
wood gives out smoke, our eyes are watering, they are full of tears,
but later… when the fire is burning alright, smoke is gone,
humidity is evaporated out of the wood, and we are full of joy. We
are so happy to be there, in this comfortable heat. This is what
happens with the Jesus Prayer, the ceaseless prayer.
f. Savvas Agioreitis
To be continued...
Δεν υπάρχουν σχόλια:
Δημοσίευση σχολίου