my life in Christ 4

Outward prayer is often performed at the expense of inward prayer, and inward at the expense of outward ; that is, when I pray with my lips or read,

then many words do not penetrate into the heart, I become double minded and hypocritical; with my lips I say one thing, whilst in my heart I feel another. The lips speak truth, whilst the disposition of the heart does not agree with the words of the prayer. But if I pray in­wardly, heartily, then, without paying attention to the pro­nunciation of the words, I concentrate it upon their contents, their power, gradually accustoming my heart to the truth, and thus entering into the same disposition of spirit in which the words of the prayer were written. In this way I accustom myself, little by little, to pray in spirit and truth in accord­ance with the words of the Eternal Truth: " They that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth."(St.John iv.24) When a man prays outwardly aloud, then he cannot always follow all the move­ments of his heart, which are so rapid that he is necessarily obliged to pay attention to the pronunciation of the words, and to their outward form. Thus the prayers of many of the clergy who read rapidly become quite untrue: with their lips they seem to pray; in appearance they are pious, but their hearts are asleep, and do not know what their lips say. This proceeds from the fact that they hurry, and do not meditate in their hearts upon what they are saying. We must pray for them, as they pray for us; we must pray that their words may penetrate into their hearts and breathe warmth into them. They pray for us in the words of holy persons, and we must pray for them also.

He who says prayers hurriedly, without hearty understanding and feeling, being conquered by his slothful, sleepy flesh, does not serve God, but serves his own flesh, his self-love, and reviles God by his inattention and the indifference of his heart to prayer : " God is a spirit; and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth"( St.John iv.24)—not hypocritically. However slothful and weak your flesh may be, however inclined to sleep you may be, conquer yourself; do not spare yourself for God ; renounce yourself; let your gift to God be perfect; give God your heart.

St.John of Kronstadt

My Life In Christ