{"id":17546,"date":"2018-12-16T19:11:00","date_gmt":"2018-12-16T19:11:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.smallpage.online\/2018\/12\/asking-elder-about-how-one-should-pray.html"},"modified":"2019-02-19T06:47:31","modified_gmt":"2019-02-19T06:47:31","slug":"asking-elder-about-how-one-should-pray","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/catalog.obitel-minsk.com\/blog\/2018\/12\/asking-elder-about-how-one-should-pray","title":{"rendered":"Asking an Elder about How One Should Pray"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/div>\n
How often have I searched for the “Method” to pray.\u00a0 I hate to admit to you, but often.\u00a0 “Just tell me the steps so I can follow them and come to know God,” I have asked repeatedly.\u00a0 But, after time in our foolish efforts we find out how naive this notion is.\u00a0 Still I seek for the “Method.”\u00a0 How about you?<\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/div>\n
The quotation below from Elder Paisios strikes me as an important truth:<\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/div>\n
One afternoon, I had the opportunity to speak in private with a venerable monk in the library of the monastery\u2019s guesthouse.\u00a0 At one point, I told him, \u201cElder, I\u2019d like you to teach me to pray.\u201d\u00a0 With a surprised look in his eyes, he repeated my words, \u201cYou want me to teach you to pray?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/div>\n
\u201cYes, Elder, what should I do in order to pray?\u00a0 What do I have to say?\u00a0 How should I sit?\u201d\u00a0 Being influenced by Hinduism, I imagined that there must be a special method or technique, just as there was for the meditation I practiced.\u00a0 He understood how little I knew, but he didn\u2019t show it.\u00a0 \u201cIt is really quite simple, and you must approach prayer with simplicity.\u00a0 Just sit calmly in some corner and speak to Christ as though He were in front of you and listening to you.\u00a0 And He is in front of you and listening to you.\u00a0 Just speak to Him as you would one of your friends.\u201d\u2026<\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/div>\n
On the following day, I walked two and a half hours in order to see Father Paisios and to tell him what happened.\u00a0 Smiling, he said, \u201cSit down, and I\u2019ll bring you a pistol.\u201d\u00a0 He went into his cell and brought me a prayer rope with thirty-three knots, representing the years of Christ\u2019s earthly life, and a cross. \u201cGuess what?\u201d he said, laughing.\u00a0 \u201cThis shoots spiritual bullets.\u00a0 Every time you say the prayer \u201cLord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me a sinner,\u201d it\u2019s like shooting at the devil, so he won\u2019t come near you.\u00a0 Take it, so you\u2019ll have it to defend yourself.<\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How often have I searched for the “Method” to pray.\u00a0 I hate to admit to you, but often.\u00a0 “Just tell me the steps so…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17602,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[61],"tags":[2,29],"class_list":["post-17546","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-orthodox-wisdom","tag-life-and-guidance-of-the-holy-fathers","tag-prayers"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/catalog.obitel-minsk.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/242155.p.jpg","views":{"total":73,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1768403712},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paPyw9-4z0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/catalog.obitel-minsk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17546","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/catalog.obitel-minsk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/catalog.obitel-minsk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catalog.obitel-minsk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catalog.obitel-minsk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17546"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/catalog.obitel-minsk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17546\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17946,"href":"https:\/\/catalog.obitel-minsk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17546\/revisions\/17946"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catalog.obitel-minsk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17602"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/catalog.obitel-minsk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catalog.obitel-minsk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17546"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catalog.obitel-minsk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}