A simple word

John Climacus calls prayer the communion of man with God and gives it many names: a bridge over temptation, an axe against despair, a lessening of anger, a mirror of progress. A mirror, because it shows where you are: as a soldier’s love for his king is seen in war, so a man’s love for God is seen in prayer.

Here John is very practical. Prayer should be simple. The tax collector and the prodigal son were reconciled with God by a single word. Lofty words are not needed, and many words scatter the mind.

The simple babbling of children is often dearest to the Father.

Today this rung shows itself when you pray only when things are hard. Prayer is a list of demands. Your thoughts wander from the first word, and you give up. Or you simply do not know what to say.

John gives an order that helps even a beginner. First come reconciled: before prayer, forgive everyone in your heart, because prayer offered from rancour, he says, is of no use. Then keep the sequence: first gratitude, then confession, then the request. For example: thank you for this day and for my family; forgive me for flaring up today; give me peace tomorrow. Take one short prayer and say it slowly, with attention, often through the day. When the mind wanders, bring it back without anger, as when you teach a child to walk: you pick him up and carry on. When a word touches your heart, stay with it. Pray for others, by name: for your wife, your children, your parents, the people you work with. And do not give up when you see no fruit. The gain, John says, is already that you pray.

John also distinguishes three degrees of prayer. At the beginning, thoughts that arise are driven off with short words as soon as they appear. In the middle, the mind stays only in what is being said. And at the summit, the whole soul turns to God.

There are three traps. The first is irritability: as soon as you begin to pray seriously, anger will appear, and that is to be expected. Do not let it spoil what you have gained. The second is a single bad word after prayer, by which what was gathered is easily lost. The third is daydreaming: prayer is a conversation, not a film in your head.

The sign that you have climbed: after true prayer a man comes out, John says, either as from a blazing furnace, feeling that something has burned out of him, or illumined, with peace and joy. Whoever leans constantly on the staff of prayer will not stumble, and even if he stumbles, he will not fall completely.

The question remains: what is left of the passions when a person has been climbing for a long time?

N. Ž.