Orthodox Portal

… stand before the icon, prostrate yourself a few times, and begin the recital of the customary prayers: “Glory to Thee, Our God, glory to Thee! O Heavenly King, the Comforter, the Spirit of Truth…”
Repeat this without haste so that you enter into every word and so bring the meaning of each word down into your heart… and accompany this by bowing.

This is the whole work of prayer. It is fruitful and it is pleasing to God. That is, understand what you say, and then experience what you have understood. No further rules are necessary. These two, understanding and feeling – if they are properly carried out – ornament every offering of prayer to the highest quality and make it fruitful and effective.

When you recite: “and cleanse us from all impurities”, experience with feeling your own impurity, desire to become pure, and pray to God for it in hope.

When you recite: “and forgive us our trespasses” etc., first forgive everyone inwardly and then, from a heart that has forgiven everyone for every single thing, beg the Lord to give us forgiveness.
When you recite: “Thy will be done”, submit your destiny to the Lord, and, without questioning, state that you are prepared to accept willingly everything the Lord will send you…

To perform this work even more successfully, act in the following way:
1. Have your own rule of prayer, asking the blessing of your spiritual father for this. It should not be a lengthy rule, but one that you can perform without haste in the circumstances of your everyday life.
2. Before you pray, read the prayers you will use while you have nothing else to do. Make sure you understand and feel every word… so that you know beforehand what should be in your heart at each and every word. It is even better to learn all the prayers by heart. If you work in this way, it will be easier for you to understand and to feel when you are saying the prayers.
One difficulty will still remain: your mind will keep wandering off to attend to other things. What should be done in such a case?
3. It is necessary to make the effort to concentrate the attention even though one knows in advance that the thoughts will wander. When the mind does in fact wander during prayer, recall it – and do so over and over again. Whenever you have said a prayer while your mind was wandering – and so have said it without feeling or comprehension – never forget to recite again all that you said in this way.
If the mind wanders many times at the same place, repeat that section again and again, until it is said entirely with feeling and understanding. Once you have overcome this difficulty, it may never repeat itself.
But it can also happen that some word will so strongly affect the soul that it will not wish to continue speaking the prayers. The tongue may continue to recite, but the mind will run back to the passage which affected it so powerfully. In this situation:
4. Stop. Do not continue repeating the prayers, but stand with your attention on those words, feeling them. Feed the soul on them or on the thoughts that arise from them. Do not hurry to move on from this state, even if you have no time left; it is better to leave your rule of prayer unfinished than to destroy this state of mind. This will sanctify you and will perhaps last all day long, like the presence of the Guardian Angel. This kind of action of grace when you are saying prayers means that the spirit of prayer itself is beginning to penetrate into you… and it follows that keeping such a state is the most hopeful way to encourage and strengthen the spirit of prayer within us.
Finally, once you have finished saying your prayers, do not immediately go on to do something else. Stand for a while and consider what it is to which all this commits you. Try to hold in your heart what has been given you to feel during prayer.
Nobody who has fulfilled his rule of prayer with care will immediately want to return to his ordinary interests. This is the quality of true prayer! As our fore fathers said on their return from Constantinople: “He who tastes sweetness does not then wish to taste something bitter.” This happens to everyone who has prayed conscientiously during his time for saying prayers. Indeed, you must realize that to taste this sweetness of prayer is the true aim of saying prayers, and that if praying educates us and gives us a prayerful spirit, this happens precisely because of this tasting…

If you will be obedient to these few rules you will soon see the fruits of this effort. Whoever fulfills these rules, even without being given this instruction, will also taste this fruit.
Every repetition of prayer in this way will leave a mark of prayer on the soul. Uninterrupted practice in the order described will make it take root in the soul, and patience in this practice will establish a prayerful spirit.
May the Lord grant you this by the prayers of His most pure mother!
Here I have given to you the first elementary method of training the spirit in prayer in accordance with the aims of spoken prayer said at home in the morning and the evening – and in church.
But this is not all. Tomorrow I will tell you of another method.
Amen.