...this is not anywhere near the quality of what the DVD will look like. This came from our "point and shoot" camera.
As you read below, please remember that I'm not there--I'm going that way, but I've got a long bus ride to go and I haven't even gotten to the bus station yet. If you have any comments, encouragement or prayer helps you have found, feel free to share them with me. Thanks.
QUOTES FROM: ORTHODOX PRAYER LIFE--THE INTERIOR WAY
"Prayer does not reach its power and efficacy as an actual communion with God until man is fully aware that his soul is created in God’s image. He should feel that it derives its very being from Him."
"Prayer, then, has become the stance of the soul toward its Maker in and through the awareness of its renewal by the Holy Spirit. In this renewal, the soul recovers through Christ the image of its original sonship that was lost through sin. It henceforth approaches God the Father boldly and at all times in answer to His open invitation. The soul actually becomes a creation ever attracted to its Creator. It is a son who finds no rest except in his Father’s bosom. This rest lies in simultaneously hearing and heeding His Father’s call. Prayer, then, is a mystery forming an integral part of our being and psychic consciousness. Mystically, it is God’s perpetual call within us drawing us toward the fulfillment of the ultimate purpose of our creation: Our union with God."
"According to St. Gregory of Nyssa, prayer is a heart-to-heart talk, forever active on God’s part, forever slow on ours. In fact, both parties call, and both respond. However, the initiative is always God’s: 'I spread out my hands all the day long' (Isa. 65:2). "
"When we respond to God in prayer, we begin down the path that leads us to seeing His greatness. As we see that, we then are confronted with our own sinfulness." My thought: You can’t see how bad you are until you see how holy and good He is. So prayer is initiated by God calling us to Himself and we freely respond. Afterward prayer accomplishes its divine purpose as an act of repentance--we see God’s goodness and our own sinfulness and that results in repentance and leads to purification. That takes us up to the next step, which is humility. We were created for prayer.
"When we quit praying we forfeit the glory of our image and bear no resemblance to God anymore." My thought: We are no longer answering God’s call to draw near and subsequently drift away from Him and that corrupts our whole journey into Theosis. No prayer--no repentance, purity or humility.
When God created us in His image that was His offering of Himself to us. He came to us, drew us near to Him and through prayer we draw near to Him and are changed. His offering was given to us so that we can be totally His and He can be totally ours.
"We are transformed into a spiritual being by giving praise and honor (the fruit of our lips and righteous works) to God. " My thought: In praying, we often ask God for temporal things, needs to be fulfilled. This was foreign in the beginning before the fall of Adam and Eve. Even so, God came to us and made it OK to talk to Him about our temporal needs and concerns.
The foundation of prayer is for us to honor God’s will--”Thy will be done on earth"--not our temporal needs. When we do this we resemble the seraphim in that they continually cry out praise to God--this is their office, their duty but not necessarily their nature. We cry out to God in prayer and this too is an office. Sin may stick all over us as we do this but it is still acceptable to God because the Blood of Christ prevails.
"When addressed to God directly to hallow Him, prayer endows man with holiness and purity. Man's eyes are then opened anew to see, in the Spirit, the Tree of Life, which is Christ: 'This holiness without which no one will see the Lord' (Heb 12:14). So, by pure prayer, man's hand stretches forth in heartfelt repentance to pluck the words of the gospel from the Tree of Life and to eat them at all times. Thus he is renewed and lives, never to die. St Macarius says if we continually and daily persevere in prayer, our love of God, like a flame, will grow brighter and brighter. As a result, we receive from God sanctification."
"God created trees to bear fruit. In the appointed time, fruit grows from them. So, too, we are created to be like a tree. We are to pray, grow and bear fruit. A gardener looks upon a tree with affection but grows it to bear fruit. If it doesn’t bear fruit, it is taken out and replaced. The fruit that a tree bears endears it to the Gardener and it invites Him to water and take care of it. When a tree is unfruitful, it is dug up and replaced."
Lesson from pg 29, 30:
Prayer is like the fruit that comes from a tree. God is the vine dresser (John 15) and He bought us with His blood and suffering and acquired us for His vineyard. Since He planted us, He expects there will be fruit. That was His goal for His suffering, death and resurrection. We need to respond to that in a right, prayerful way.
We now live in a time when the love of many has grown cold. Greed, control and cruelty dominate our world. Mankind now strives to be first, wealthy and supreme over all. It is commonplace “in the world and in the Church alike.”
How do we save ourselves from this plight? We pray of course. We must disassociate ourselves from the world and its corruption. We are to be light and salt in the midst of gross corruption. We do that by taking refuge in prayer, our first and only weapon. Prayer is our reminder that we are God’s own, planted in His Kingdom. He has prepared a better place for us. Prayer reminds us that we aren’t of this world and restrains us from participating in the sin of others. When we are praying, living in remembrance of God, how can we possibly sin against the One we love so dearly? Prayer is an inward light that reveals to us our impurities and failings and drives us to repentance. It saves us from being driven into hell.
God seeks more than believers--He seeks “true worshipers” (Jn 4:23-24). God is truth and Spirit and when we pray we must pray in Spirit and truth to be heard. The beauty of prayer and God seeking prayer from me is that He sets up circumstances and possibilities for its success. In other words, God comes looking for worshipers and makes a way for them to be found by making us needful of Him.
Lesson from pg 34:
Our purpose, our calling in life, is always do those things which bring pleasure to God. To do this we should always keep Jesus at the forefront of our thoughts so that our actions will be guided by Him. If we do this, we can count on Him to hear our prayers and answer them. When we pray God’s will be done, we are in fact praying for our redemption to be brought to full fruition. That is God’s will. What does "full fruition" look like? It looks like men and women who have become Christ like (theosified!). He wills for us to be saved and we will to be in fellowship (prayer) with Him. If we continue to be in prayer, our will soon becomes the will of God.
The person who doesn’t pray can expect nothing from God, especially his salvation. By not praying a person is consigned to doing whatever crosses his mind and that only carries him further and further from God. An unpraying person is motivated by his/her ego. Eventually, he becomes content with the way he is and his ego remains the source for his direction and life-style. Prayerlessness is why Christians are in such a mess.
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