The Upper World is a whole host of spirits that help people through life situations. In Orthodoxy, there is the concept of “Jacob’s ladder”, on which spirits (Lords) are located according to the degree of hierarchy. These are spirits who have gone through their entire earthly path, incarnated on Earth many times, and atoned for all their sins, all earthly karma, and became Higher spirits - each at their own level.
These are saints, angels, archangels, and Lords of the planets - people do not know the entire exact structure of the Upper World, but in all religions there are many spirits to whom you can turn with prayers and requests.
How to pray so that the Lord will hear?
This question, which came to our editorial office, determined the topic of a new conversation with Metropolitan Longinus of Saratov and Volsk.
— Vladyka, we have already said: prayer is our communication with God, for a Christian it should be as necessary as breathing. But we know both from our own experience and from the experience of our readers, who have many questions on this topic, that learning to pray and love prayer is very difficult. Even the saints said: to pray means to shed blood; prayer requires work until a person’s last day... Master, why can prayer be so difficult?
— Indeed, prayer is work, many saints have spoken about this. And the Russian people have a very precise saying: the most difficult thing in the world is to pray to God and feed old parents.
Why is it difficult to pray, although many saints had the skill of constant, unceasing prayer? We need to remind ourselves what prayer is. This is standing before God, one might say, a conversation with God, communication with Him. What does it take to constantly want to communicate with a person in our everyday life?
- Love him…
- Absolutely right. For example, here is a bride and groom - they want to communicate with each other all the time, 24 hours a day. Because there is love, attraction to each other. It’s the same with God: there must be a desire for Him so that prayer does not become a tedious task. You know how they sometimes say: “read the rule”? It’s like digging a hole... Of course, it’s difficult to pray constantly while living in the world, but at least you can turn to God often and with love.
I remember my youth when I just ran to the temple. I also know other people my age, those who came to the Church back in Soviet times. For us, this was the most important thing that could be on earth, and overshadowed absolutely everything: study, work, and some kind of family connections. We literally “matured” to the temple (as it is said in the prayer: “For my spirit will morning to Thy holy temple”), that is, from the very early morning we constantly wanted to be in the temple, to see, to hear what was happening there. I remember this feeling, to this day the memory of it is in my heart.
A person must have such a living feeling for God in order for him to want to pray. But, of course, it is not always there. Man is an extremely fickle creature, and even when he reaches some peaks in his life, then he has periods of cooling and falling. But the memory of what happened - about previous peaks, be it relationships with God or people - should warm the human heart when the peak of feelings gradually passes. Then, instead of cooling, there will be an even combustion, and then it will flare up more and more brightly. There are cases when spouses, having lived with each other for many decades, at the end of their lives love each other no less, but on the contrary, even stronger, deeper than they did in their youth.
A person can have approximately the same relationship with God. This example may not seem entirely correct to some, but it is understandable. We must not forget that communication between man and God is communication between two personalities, and it requires that a person constantly warm up and nourish his feelings with the memory of those moments when the Lord Himself appeared to the human heart. In general, every person who goes to church—I am deeply convinced of this—at least once saw God, felt His closeness, and even here on earth experienced that feeling that the apostle spoke about: the eye has not seen, the ear has not heard , and it did not enter into the heart of man what God had prepared for those who love Him (1 Cor. 2:9). The memory of this gives a person strength when cooling comes.
When one of the spiritual children complained in a letter to St. Theophan the Recluse about her coldness, about the fact that she could not pray, although only yesterday she rejoiced at everything and thanked God, he answered like this: look outside the window - yesterday the sun was shining, but today it started to rain . This does not depend on you and me. In the same way, he says, in the human heart there is one state, then another. But we must learn to endure periods of cooling, despondency, forgetting about God and return to Him again.
— Vladyka, we would like to ask you questions about prayer that many parishioners of our churches have. “I have a difficult life situation. I pray, but it is not resolved, but is getting worse. What to do, how to pray so that the Lord will hear?” - asks Sergei.
— You must pray relentlessly. But in addition, you must definitely understand the situation, try to understand why it is developing this way. After all, sometimes the Lord wants us, so that we change in something, so that we work on our own. Let's say we ask God for something, and He puts us in circumstances in which we can fulfill God's will by doing something with our own hands. The Lord very rarely acts directly in human life, with the help of some obvious miracle. Usually people are corrected by people.
Therefore, I think that Sergei and those who are concerned about similar questions must first of all carefully analyze this difficult situation, perhaps consult with one of the spiritually experienced people in order to understand: what exactly is my fault in what happened? What can I change not in the people around me, but in myself? And if we change something in ourselves, then the situation will begin to change after that.
— Another question, let’s say, about the effectiveness of prayer: “I would like to clarify issues that are important to me. What is the best (more effective) way to fulfill the prayer rule: mentally or out loud? If out loud, is it in a whisper or loud? What intonation should you strive for: church intonation or your own? Igor"
— In general, approaching prayer from the point of view of “efficiency” is wrong. And we need to fulfill the rule in such a way that it is most useful for us. We are all very different people: we have different skills, habits, characters. Some people find it more convenient to read silently, others out loud. The main thing is that the texts of the prayers that we read pass through our heart, our consciousness. And the pace of the prayer and the way it is said depend on how easier it is for a person to perceive it. Personally, I have one problem since my youth: I read a lot of books in my time and I read very quickly. Let’s say, I can read a prayer rule (three canons with an akathist) to myself in about fifteen minutes, and quite consciously. So when I minister, I always say my prayers out loud to make it a little slower. Another person, on the contrary, may read aloud syllable by syllable, and it is more convenient for him to read silently.
As for the intonation, which Igor calls church intonation (this is reading on one note, calm, without emotional outbursts), I think it is preferable, because this way a person gets used to reading in church better, and then it is easier for him to understand it. Such reading in church is actually more correct, because the prayer itself should be heard in the words of the prayers, and not our personal emotions. Although I will repeat regarding the home rule - all this is very individual and does not matter much, as long as the prayer is understandable to the person and passes through his heart.
“For about ten years I have been praying and addressing my needs to Saint Matronushka. She asked, of course, for earthly things: health, marriage, for her daughter to enter the budget department, etc. Because even before her death she said: “Everyone come to me and tell me, as if alive, about your sorrows.” I understand the word “sorrows” as earthly difficulties, problems, sorrows, failures. But the lectures of the theologian Professor A.I. Osipov say that we pray incorrectly, asking for earthly blessings. We must pray, ask for help in getting rid of sins. And when we get rid of sin, the Lord, seeing our needs, will Himself provide what we need. Now I have doubts: I believe both Matronushka and Professor A.I. I also believe Osipov. Explain how to pray correctly? Do I need to confess that I asked for earthly blessings? Angelina"
- No, there is no need to repent of this. Professor Osipov talks about lofty things. But we still live in this world, and therefore we are worried, among other things, by the everyday things that you write about. In such cases, I always remember an episode from the biography of St. Ambrose of Optina. One day a peasant woman from a neighboring village came to him and complained that her turkey poults were dying. And the elder listened, sympathized, explained to her what and how to do. The peasant woman left comforted. Was this attitude correct? Everyone has some needs and sorrows, and I think it’s normal when a person turns to God with them.
Another thing - and here I agree with Professor Osipov, I often talk about this myself - is that our relationship with God should in no case be limited only to this “give, give, give”... If we are Christians, we need to think and about some deeper things, they themselves tried to sacrifice something to God. “Son, give me your heart,” says the Lord. He expects our heart from us, I think that is most important.
Therefore, despite the apparent contradiction of the positions given in the letter, both sides are right. You can ask God for earthly blessings, and there is nothing criminal or bad about it. But we cannot limit ourselves to this alone, because our earthly life is a preparation for eternity. The most important thing is the salvation of our soul. This is exactly what we need to ask God for and do everything that depends on us.
— Another question that can often be heard: “They say that in order to understand the will of God, you need to pray. How to pray correctly and how to understand that the answer really comes from God?”
— There is a rule: follow the circumstances in which the Lord places you. Especially if a person prays from the heart and asks God for help. In general, you must be guided by the Gospel in all life situations, and then you will fulfill the will of God, because in the Gospel God’s will for us is absolutely clearly defined.
— The next few questions, Vladyka, are again about cooling down in prayer. This is a very common illness... “If the heart does not respond to prayer for a long time, should we come to terms with it and accept it? For example, they pray in church, but I want to, but I can’t, and then the prayers even begin to irritate: “How long can you do the same thing?..” Irina.”
- No, you don’t need to come to terms with this, but you need, as St. Theophan the Recluse, whom I just quoted, says, to somehow wait out this state. There is an interesting episode in the ancient Patericon. One novice monk asks a more experienced one: what to do if there is no desire to pray, on the contrary, relaxation and despondency have come? The elder advises: get up, overcome yourself, try to warm up your heart. The monk complains that it doesn’t work. Then, says the elder, take your mantle, wrap yourself in it and sleep.
This advice, although it seems humorous, is actually very wise. Because sometimes it happens that a person just needs to come to his senses, take a break. But under no circumstances should you agree with such a state, but, having rested, gradually return to prayer. And here, as I have already said, the memory of that period when a person prayed and was heard by God, when he felt unity with Him, His closeness, is very important.
“For many years I have been reading evening and morning prayers, but I have great difficulty in following the rule. Whatever you do, as long as you don’t pray... How to change your attitude towards prayer, how to fall in love with it? Tatiana"
“It happens that a person is simply, as they say, fussy, that is, ordinary daily worries and worries have taken up too much of a place in his life. But at the same time, this rudiment remains: you need to get up for prayer in the morning and in the evening. Of course, when there is no living relationship with God, after some time this rudiment begins to irritate: well, why, one might ask, waste time repeating the same words when the heart is silent? You need to stop again and understand yourself. The reason is always in the person himself.
It also happens that a person stops praying, fasting, and going to church when his lifestyle becomes far from Christian. What are we like? We sinned in one thing, in another, in a third - but it’s hard for us, and these are the times, everyone lives like this... We all know this set of self-justifications. And gradually, when some shortcomings, sins, maybe even vices accumulate, it becomes impossible to pray. Attempts to pray only cause rejection.
The reason could be anything. Therefore, Tatyana and everyone who has a similar condition needs to think, understand themselves, their lives, and try to make adjustments. Then the person will be able to pray carefully again.
— You once spoke, Vladyka, about the experience of unceasing prayer. But these things, the troubles that our reader writes about, don’t they prevent everyone from praying, according to the word of St. Seraphim of Sarov, who said that prayer is not a hindrance to business?
— Continuous prayer is still the work of monastics, and even then you don’t always see it in our time. There is no need to strive for this in the world, but you can and should often pray. You know, there is incessant prayer, and there is its opposite - incessant vanity... This incessant bustle must still be pushed aside. In addition, prayer is the memory of God. And it’s good to acquire such a skill: here I walk, talk, do something - and all the time I remember that there is God, He is above all my affairs. But usually we live as if He does not exist, and we rarely remember Him. In fact, we must always remember Him.
- “Please tell me what to do correctly if during prayer anything comes into your head except the prayer itself... I read two completely polar opinions: stop praying, since God doesn’t hear such a prayer anyway, or force yourself to pray through force. Inna"
— Under no circumstances should you stop; you should force yourself. To restore attention to prayer, you can do the following exercise from time to time: when you are reading a rule and suddenly realize that your attention has “flown away,” you need to go back and read with attention. This is difficult, and you don’t need to do it all the time, but you need to try in order to develop the skill of attentive reading.
The same Saint Theophan also has a wonderful answer to a similar question. One of his spiritual children asked: “Sometimes I realize that I stood in prayer and nothing moved in my heart. What to do?". He replied: “Then stand in front of the icons, cross yourself, sigh, and say: “Lord, I couldn’t bring my heart to You today, at least accept my feet from me.” He says a lot in his letters that one must learn to keep oneself in order, to be collected. For example: here you are lying on the sofa, remember that this is wrong, and instead sit up straight, as you should. Such seemingly small external things help a person keep himself within the necessary boundaries, because when we abolish these boundaries, we spread out and lose our composure. And without this, many things are impossible, not only to pray to God, for example, to study. Look, much of what we say about prayer can be said to a student who does not know how to study, because it is exactly the same: there is no attention. Therefore, many things in a person’s life will change, many things will become easier to do, a person will achieve great success if he tunes himself into correct, attentive prayer.
I would like to advise the authors of these questions and all our readers to be sure to read the book of St. Theophan the Recluse “What is spiritual life and how to tune in to it.” These are answers to similar questions in the form of letters. And for those who love to read and are not afraid of thick books, I would recommend the collection of letters of St. Theophan, which contain extremely deep, very valuable, completely modern materials. The saint answers questions from his spiritual children, which are not so different from those asked today. At one time, these books helped me a lot.
Photo by Alexey Luzgan and Andrey Gutynin
Who to contact during prayer
Therefore, when people pray, it is best to turn to a specific saint, Master, spirit, Supreme teacher, or the Creator himself. That is, appeals must be specific, “nominal”. Why is that? Because if you don’t know who to turn to, the prayer won’t reach you.
After all, prayer is a kind of thought, energy that goes to a specific place, to a specific spirit. Therefore, when people pray, they first of all make an appeal: Muslims turn to Allah; Christians - to Christ; Buddhists - to Buddha or Lord Maitreya.
In general, people are divided into several main religious denominations, beliefs and atheists. In terms of percentage, the picture looks like this:
- Christianity - 33%, among them Orthodox, Catholics, Protestants and other small divisions of Christianity;
- Islam – 23%;
- Hinduism – 15%;
- Buddhism – 7%
- Atheism – 17-20%
The rest belong to a wide variety of beliefs, the listing of which would take a lot of time. These are different branches of the main religions, which in some ways do not agree with them.
Which prayer is better: silently or out loud?
Know, may Allah guide you, that the Almighty ordered the prayer to be made secretly and praised the one who hides the prayer. Allah, Holy is He, said:
وَخُفْيَةً ۚ إِنَّهُ لَا يُحِبُّ الْ مُعْتَدِينَ
«Call upon your Lord humbly and secretly; indeed He does not love those who show excess
" Surah Al-A'raf - "Barriers", 55 verses.
In another verse, Allah Almighty praises the one who makes his prayer secretly, saying:
(2) إِذْ نَادَىٰ رَبَّه ُ نِدَاءً خَفِيًّا
«This is the story of the mercy of your Lord towards his servant Zechariah. When he called out to his Lord with a secret prayer
" Surah “Maryam”, 2 – 3 verses.
Abu Musa Al-Asha'ri (may Allah be pleased with him) said:
كَانَ النَّبِيُّ صَلَى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَ سَلَّمَ فِي غَزَاةٍ فَأ َشْرَفُوا عَلَى وَادٍ فَجَعَلَ النَّاسُ يُكَبِّرُونَ وَ يُهَلِّلُو نَ, قَالَ النَّبِيُّ صَلَى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَ سَلَّمَ: “أَيُّهَا الن َّاسُ, اِرْبَعُوا عَلَى أَنِفُسِكُمْ, إِنَّكُمْ لَا تَدْعُونَ أَصَم َّ وَ لَا غَائِباً, إِنَّكُمْ تَدْعُونَ سَمِيعاً قَرِيباً إِنَّهُ م َعَكُمْ"
“When the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) was with his companions on one of the campaigns, they came to one valley, and the companions began to exclaim takbirs and tahlil, to which the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “O people, quiet! Truly you do not call on the absolutely deaf and distant, truly you call on the hearing and close, and He is with you.”
Reported by Al-Bukhari (4205) and Muslim (2704).
Another narration states:
A ُمْ
«Verily the one to whom you call is between you and the necks of your camels
" Quoted by Ahmad in the collection “Musnad” 4/402.
Al-Hasan said: “There are seventy degrees between hidden and unhidden supplication. Previously, if a person learned the Qur'an, then his neighbor did not suspect it, if a person studied fiqh a lot, then people did not know about it, a person performed prayer at home, and his guests did not see it. We found people who could perform all the actions that exist on Earth secretly, even if they had to be performed publicly. The Muslims were earnest in prayer, but nothing was heard except whispering between them and their Lord, because Allah Almighty said:
ادْعُوا رَبَّكُمْ تَضَرُّعًا وَخُفْيَةً
«Call upon your Lord humbly and secretly
". Surah Al-A'raf - "The Barriers", 55th verse."
Verily Allah, the Holy One, being pleased with the words of His servant, mentions him, saying:
إِذْ نَادَىٰ رَبَّهُ نِدَاءً خَفِيًّا
«When he called out to his Lord with a secret prayer
" Surah “Maryam”, 2 – 3 verses.
If someone asks, “What does it mean to hide? Should I hide it from people, turning to God out loud alone, or is it necessary in all situations to say a prayer in a whisper or only with my heart?”
Answer.
In the Word of Allah Almighty: “نِدَاءً خَفِيًّا” - “ with a secret prayer
“There is a clear indication that it is necessary to make the supplication in a whisper, as Al-Hasan said, because concealment here is a description of the supplication. As they say: “He hid his prayer from his people, secluded himself in the middle of the night, and cried out with his heart in secret.”
It is said: “He called sincerely, and no one saw him except the one to whom he addressed.”
Some sources say: “Truly Allah loves a pure heart and hears the hidden voice.”
Regarding the Word of Allah, Holy is He:
إِنَّ اللَّهَ لَا يُحِبُّ الْتَدِينَ
«Verily Allah does not love those who are hostile
"
Surah Al-Baqarah - “The Cow”, 190 verses. That is, those who go overboard in what they are told to do in prayer. Among the mufassirs there are different opinions regarding this word. Ibn Jurayj says that these are those who ask for the degree of prophets (peace be upon them). A student of Ibn Abbas (may Allah be pleased with them) Atiya Al-Awfi said: “They ask for what is forbidden for believers to ask, for example, words such as “O Allah, humiliate him! O Allah curse him! Ibn Jurayj also said: “ Hostility
means raising your voice, shouting and screaming, and people are ordered to show humility and trepidation.”
It was narrated from Abu Naam that the son of Sa'd (may Allah be pleased with him) said: “My father heard me say: “O Allah! I ask You for Paradise, and its prosperity, and its splendor, and so on and so forth. And save me from Hell, and its chains, its shackles, and so on and so forth.” He told me: “Oh my son! Indeed, I heard the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) say:
سيكون قوم يعتدون في الدعاء
«There will be people who will exceed the limit in prayer
" Beware of being one of them! Truly, if you enter Paradise, you will receive all its benefits, and if you are saved from Hell, you will be saved from all its evils.” Quoted by Abu Daud hadith No. 140, Ibn Majah hadith No. 3864, Ahmad in “Musnad” 4/87 by Ibn Abu Shayb in “Musannaf” 10/288.
Another companion Abdullah bin Mughaffal (may Allah be pleased with him) heard his son say: “I ask You for a white palace to the right of Paradise when I enter it.” Abdullah bin Mughaffal (may Allah be pleased with him) said to him: “O my son! Ask Allah for Paradise and ask Him for protection from Hell. Indeed, I heard the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) say:
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«There will be people in this Ummah who will go beyond the limits of ablution and supplication.
"
Quoted by Abu Dawud hadith No. 96. Source:
alhakk.ru
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