Pray as often as possible. Try to feel compunction and to weep, and you will see how much you will be relieved from thoughts and grief. Prayer is a conversation of man with God. He who prays with a broken and humbled spirit is filled with divine gifts and blessings—that is, with joy, peace, comfort, illumination,and consolation—and he, too, becomes blessed. Prayer is the double-edged sword that slays despair, saves from danger, assuages grief, and so on. Prayer is a preventive medicine for all diseases of soul and body. Likewise, entreat the Mother of Light, the immaculate Theotokos, to help you, for she is the greatest means of consolation after God. When a person calls upon her holy name, he immediately senses her help. She is a mother; when she was on earth, as a human being and fellow-sufferer she suffered the same things we do, and for this reason, she has great sympathy for pained souls and swiftly comes to help them.
Elder Ephraim of Arizona
