Seventh Sunday After Easter Series

As an amateur photographer, I have often been asked to take photos of people at various events – maybe it was at a wedding, or for a school yearbook, or for the press. Well, some of the photos turned out very pleasing but some were not so flattering. The request has always been to destroy bad photos and keep only the good ones. This reminds me of an occasion when a painter came to paint the portrait of Pope John XXIII. His eminence told the portrait painter that, “If you paint my face, paints it warts and all.” He didn’t want to embellish or cover up the true image of himself. He wanted to be honest in all that he said or did. That is what Jesus was doing with His followers - telling it like it is. That too, should be our motto – to tell the truth at all times. In this way others will have no reason to doubt us.

In reflecting upon our own prayer, how would we describe it? What is our prayer like when we pray to the Father? Is it a warm and personal conversation with God? Is it slow and attentive? Is it both spiritual and outwardly? Many prayers are done by rote quickly and without feeling. Or, when we pray, our mind may not be on our prayer but wandering. That’s when we lose our connection with God. So if at times when repeating a prayer from memory causes your mind to wander, why not make up a prayer of your own at such a time and then you will be able to keep your mind on what you want to say and stay connected with God.

As mentioned earlier, Jesus constantly prays for us in the Holy of Holies. We too can reciprocate by constantly praying to God. The saintly Abbot Isaiah, an Egyptian Hermit, introduces us to the Jesus prayer. It’s a short prayer that’s easy to remember: “Lord Jesus, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” I like to compare this prayer to a burglar alarm in the house. If I’m in bed and a thief happens to break into my house, the alarm goes off and lets me know very quickly that something is amiss. The Jesus prayer is like having Jesus voice within us that constantly keeps watch over me. When the Jesus prayer is perpetual, that being the purpose of this prayer, the evil one cannot break through because the one who keeps watch is Jesus, and He is always there.

At the start, the prayer can be repeated out loud or running through our mind but with close attention to the prayer and free from all evil thoughts. As the prayer is repeated over and over again, after a while it begins to become a part of our being as it runs through your minds constantly. Eventually it turns into a prayer that is internalized by constant repetition and continues on even when we are fast asleep. In this way the prayer does not allow evil to penetrate our being at any time. It should bring forth an inner peace, love, gratitude, and humility to our lives.

But if the prayer fails to do that, Tito Colliander writes that, “If you are, on the contrary, tense and stirred up, in high spirits or in deep despair, if you feel contrition or bitterness or an exaggerated will to action, if you are thrown into ecstatic experiences or a drunkenness of the senses, such as you enjoy when listening to music, if you feel a supreme enjoyment or satisfaction so that you are ‘content with yourself and the whole world,’ you are on the wrong road. You have built altogether too much on yourself. Sound your retreat and go back to the self-reproach that must always be the starting–point for every true prayer. The angels of light always bring peace, the peace that the demons of the dark wish at all cost to disturb. By this, say the holy fathers, one can recognize the evil powers and separate them from the good,” (Way of the Ascetics – Tito Colliander, St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press Crestwood, New York 10707, 1994 pp 97 & 98)