When we truly understand more about God, who He is, how holy and
mighty He is and see that in His mercy loves to hear us, His children call out to
Him; we will be faced with the stark reality that we are truly unworthy sinners
not deserving of such a privilege and yet have been made worthy through Christ
alone so God our Father longs to hear us pray to Him, no matter how
underserving we are (Jeremiah 33:3).
Knowing all of this, our faithful and blessed forefathers were indeed
acquainted with the understanding of this reality and their faithful Spirit
eagerly lead them into a state of humble submission before the Father. As they
grew closer to God through constant prayer, fasting and the reading of the
scriptures, they became more in-tune with the ‘language’ with which they were
to communicate with God. And we today, can learn much about ‘pure prayer’ from
their faithful life examples.
St. Isaac of Nineveh claims that reverential outward postures are conducive
to one’s inward progress towards pure prayer.
It is not God who needs external signs of
reverence; rather, a reverential outward posture is necessary for us so that we
may be trained in a pious attitude to God. 1
Continuing his
description of the outward forms of prayer, Isaac then comes to prayer with outstretched
hands. This posture, according to him, promotes concentration of thought and a deep
feeling of compunction. Isaac also emphasizes the necessity of prayer with
one’s own words; this prayer, he is convinced, leads to inner spiritual
insights. The advantage of prayer with one’s own words is that it does not
require one to recite certain texts from a book or to learn texts by heart or
to repeat them. Some ancient saints, Isaac notes, did not know the psalms at
all, yet their prayer reached God because of their humility.2
The more we start to understand who God is - Holy, sovereign, awesome,
magnificent (and immeasurably more) and who we are - imperfect sinners who have
been forgiven by His merciful grace, we will desire to draw nearer to Him and
as a result we will humble ourselves more and physically lower ourselves in
prostration as we faithfully pray to Him (Romans 12:1).
A perfect example of this type of faithful prayer is one that Christ
Himself gave to us when He spoke of the prayer that is accepted in God’s eyes.
The tax collector’s prayer; which was one of humility and unworthiness. He
believed in God, but he knew himself to be an unrighteous, unworthy person. He
acknowledged that he was a man of many sins that was in the presence of the
Holy and almighty God. This knowledge and conviction caused him to fall
prostrate, beat his chest and pray earnestly to God. (Luke 18:13-14) Whereas Christ
also shows us the contrasting way of prayer that people take, as being
self-righteous like the Pharisee who stood, looking down at those who
acknowledge their unworthiness and pray in this way, and think themselves
better or more righteous than they are. Too righteous to even kneel before God
(Luke 18:9-12).
In the Bible, we see our Lord Jesus teaches us to pray in an
un-hypocritical fashion (Matthew 6:1, 6:5-6). St. Paul teaches us to pray without ceasing
(1 Thessalonians 5:17-18) and when we do not have the words to pray, the Spirit will pray on our
behalf (Romans 8:26-27). St. Paul further states “ I desire
therefore that the men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands, without wrath
and doubting; in like manner also, that women adorn themselves in a modest
apparel, with propriety and moderation, not with braided hair or gold or pearls
or costly clothing, but which is proper for women professing godliness, with
good works. (1 Timothy 2:8-10)
St. Paul is
exhorting us all to pray in a quiet and godly manner. These verses would at
face value seem to contradict Christ’s teaching of praying in secret, not to be
seen by men (Matthew 6:5-6). But Christ’s warning here is about mankind’s motive
for prayer, spoken in the context of praying in a hypocritical manner, not
referring to congregational worship:
St. Aphrahat
further explains these important verses on prayer: “But why, my beloved, did our Saviour teach and
say, "Pray to your Father in secret with
the door closed?". I will demonstrate you about this as much as I have understood. For he said, "Pray to your Father in
secret with the door closed". But this, the word of our Lord shows us
thus, "Pray in secret in your heart, and close the door". What is the door that he said to close? If not your mouth, which is (the door
to) the temple in which Christ dwells as the Apostle said, "You are the temple
of the Lord" (1 Cor. 3:16), for him to enter into your inner man, to this house, cleanse it from
everything that is unclean, while the
door, that is your mouth, is to be closed.”(Aphrahat Demonstration IV on Prayer)
Are we praying in a self-righteous manner where we think we are good
enough to not stoop down and earnestly pray a pure prayer that calls out from
The Spirit abiding in us? Do we think that this type of prayer is
not really necessary since we have been brought into saving grace through
baptism and are continually being saved and sanctified through the gracious
sacraments? If we think about it, this should be the very reason we stoop down
and humble ourselves all the more in thanks to God every day. That we are in
fact living in His grace, and we do not deserve this awesome gift from a Holy
God that He has bestowed upon us.
We will
conclude with more encouraging words from St Isaac of Nineveh: Outward forms of prayer are
necessary, but they should be measured in accordance with the strength of every
person. Not only the old and infirm are freed from the necessity of performing
many prostrations and other external actions of prayer: anyone who is exhausted
from prayer is deserving of rest. One can pray standing, sitting or kneeling,
in his room or while he is at work; what is more important is that prayer
should be accomplished with the fear of God.3
This
week’s song: The time in between – Francesca Battistelli
1.
Bishop Hilarion
Alfeyev, The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian, Prayer in St. Isaac of
Nineveh (Cistercian Publications, Kalamazoo, Michigan, 2000. P.p 3
2. Bishop Hilarion Alfeyev, The Spiritual World of
Isaac the Syrian, Prayer in St. Isaac of Nineveh (Cistercian Publications,
Kalamazoo, Michigan, 2000. P.p 3
3. Bishop Hilarion Alfeyev, The Spiritual World of
Isaac the Syrian, Prayer in St. Isaac of Nineveh (Cistercian Publications,
Kalamazoo, Michigan, 2000. P.p 4
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