Force yourselves in your spiritual duties, for forcefulness in spiritual things is like a solid wall that does not let the river run into the garden and destroy what the gardener has labored to grow. But if we are negligent, the river comes in and destroys everything! The Lord speaks to us about this in the Holy Gospel: “While the men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat” (Mt. 13:25 ). The more we compel ourselves, the more we shall gain. The more one works, the more he is paid. The life of a monk is a daily cross, a holy Golgotha, where Jesus is calling all of us who love Him to be crucified with Him, and then the soul will resurrect.
Elder Ephraim of Arizona
Αφού υπάρχει πόλεμος, παιδί μου, με τον διάβολον, ασφαλώς θα έχωμεν λογισμούς, εφ’ όσον ζη μέσα μας ο παλαιός άνθρωπος, θα έχωμεν αρρωστημένας εκδηλώσεις! Όταν όμως είναι άρρωστος κανείς, του χρειάζεται υπομονή και όχι απελπισία, εσύ διατί απελπίζεσαι, παιδί μου; Βίαζε τον εαυτόν σου, ενθυμού τον θάνατον και το φοβερόν κριτήριον και την κόλασιν, ταπεινώσου, διότι από την υπερηφάνειαν σου συμβαίνουν τα κακά, μη φοβήσαι καθόλου, θάρρος, η χάρις του Θεού θα σε βοηθήση, αν ταπεινωθής.
Γέροντας Εφραίμ Φιλοθεΐτης
1. Prayer is one of the foremost and strongest powers that causes him who prays to be born again, and it grants him bodily and spiritually well-being.
2. Prayer is the eyes and wings of the soul; it gives us the boldness and strength to behold God.
3. My brother, keep praying with your mouth until divine grace enlightens you to pray also with your heart. Then a celebration and festival will take place within you in a wondrous way, and you will no longer pray with your mouth, but with the attention which works in the heart.
4. If you truly desire to expel every anti-Christian thought and to purify your nous, you will achieve this only through prayer, for nothing is able to regulate our thoughts as well as prayer.
5. Be careful, because if you are lazy and inattentive in prayer, you shall not make any progress either in your pursuit of devotion towards the Lord, or in the acquisition of salvation and peace of thoughts.
6. The name of Jesus Christ, which we invoke in prayer, contains within it self-existing and self-acting restorative power. So do not worry about the imperfection and dryness of your prayer, but with perseverance await the fruit of the repeated invocation of the Divine Name.
7. When guided by prayer, the moral powers within us become stronger than all our temptations and conquer them.
8. Frequency in prayer creates a habit of prayer, which quickly becomes second nature and which frequently brings the nous and the heart to a higher spiritual state. It is the only way to reach the height of true and pure prayer. It constitutes the best means of effective preparation for prayer and the surest road for one to reach the destination of prayer and salvation.
9. Each one of us is able to acquire interior prayer—that is, to make it a means of communication with the Lord. It does not cost anything except the effort to plunge into silence and into the depths of our heart, and the care to call upon the name of our sweetest Jesus Christ as often as possible, which fills one with elation. Plunging into ourselves and examining the world of our soul give us the opportunity to know what a mystery man is, to feel the delight of self-knowledge and to shed bitter tears of repentance for our falls and the weakness of our will.
10. May your entire soul cleave with love to the meaning of the prayer, so that your nous, your inner voice, and your will—these three components of your soul—become one, and the one become three; for in this way man, who is an image of the Holy Trinity, comes into contact with and is united to the prototype. As the great worker and teacher of noetic prayer, the divine Gregory Palamas of Thessalonica said, “When the oneness of the nous becomes threefold, yet remains single, then it is united with the divine Triadic Unity, and it closes the door to every form of delusion and is raised above the flesh, the world, and the prince of the world” (The Philokalia, vol. IV. p. 343 ).
11. Wherever the prayer is active, there is Christ with the Father and the Holy Spirit, the Holy Trinity, one in essence and indivisible. Wherever there is Christ, the Light of the world, there is the eternal light of the other world; there is peace and joy; there are the angels and the saints; there is the splendor of the Kingdom. Blessed are those who in this present life have clothed themselves with the Light of the world—Christ—for they have already put on the garment of incorruption.
12. Since Christ is the light of the world, those who do not see Him, who do not believe in Him, are all most certainly blind. Conversely, all who strive to practice the commandments of Christ walk in the light; they confess Christ and venerate and worship Him as God. Whoever confesses Christ and regards Him as his Lord and God is strengthened by the power of the invocation of His name to do His will. But if he is not strengthened, it is evident that he confesses Christ only with his mouth, while in his heart he is far from Him.
13. Just as it is impossible for someone who walks at night not to stumble, likewise it is impossible for someone who has not yet seen the divine light not to sin.
14. The goal of noetic prayer is to unite God with man, to bring Christ into man’s heart, banishing the devil from there and destroying all the work that he has accomplished there through sin. For, as the beloved disciple says, “For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil” (1 Jn. 3:8 ). Only the devil knows the inexpressible power of these seven words of the Jesus prayer, and this is why he wars and fights against the prayer with furious rage. Countless times the demons have confessed through the mouths of possessed people that they are burned by the action of the prayer.
15. The more the prayer unites us with Christ, the more it separates us from the devil—and not only from the devil, but also from the spirit of the world, which engenders and sustains the passions.
Μη φοβού, μηδέ δειλιάτω η καρδία σου, ο Χριστός μας αοράτως σε βοηθεί κρυφία χειρί, σε δοκιμάζει δια να σου δώση την χάριν Του.
Όσον γεωργείται η γη της καρδίας και όσον πιο βαθειά ο γεωργός βάζει το αλέτρι, τόσον περισσότερον καρπόν θα δώση το χωράφι εις τον καιρόν του. Ούτω κάνει και ο μέγας γεωργός, ο Θεός, την ψυχήν μας. Μας αφήνει να έρχονται πειρασμοί και θλίψεις και πόνος και στενοχωρία, να εισέρχωνται βαθειά εις την καρδίαν και πολλάκις να ευρισκώμεθα εις αδιέξοδον, το πώς θα τα καταφέρωμεν με αυτόν ή εκείνον τον πειρασμόν, και πάσχει και οδυνάται ο άνθρωπος, αλλά εις τους αγαπώντας τον Θεόν, συνεργεί ο Θεός να γίνωνται εις αγαθήν έκβασιν.
Γέροντας Εφραίμ Φιλοθεΐτης
Cry out the name of God; He is ready to help everyone who asks. Do not forget the prayer; man’s entire being is sanctified by the prayer. It is the only thing which those who do not struggle to the point of shedding blood are unable to do. What is more beautiful than prayer! Whoever prays is enlightened and comes to know the will of God. And how does he know it? When he prays well, of course. And when does he pray well? When he sends his prayers to God with all the right ingredients. And what are the ingredients that make prayer savory? Humility, tears, self-reproach, simplicity, and especially obedience with love. Prayer sheds light, and this light shows the right path which God wills. The prayer should be said without flagging; by praying thus you will remain invulnerable on all sides. When you find yourselves in a state of passionate thoughts, resume the prayer eagerly and assiduously, and immediately you will find relief. Hold on to the Jesus prayer steadfastly.
Elder Ephraim of Arizona
Μην ομιλήτε πολλά, φεύγετε την αντιλογίαν, την φιλονεικίαν, την περιττολογίαν και όλα όσα προέρχονται από την απρόσεκτον γλώσσαν. Διώκετε, τους κακούς λογισμούς από τον νουν σας, μόλις εμφανισθούν, καθώς και τας αισχράς φαντασίας. Διότι αύται πολυκαιρίζοντας έσωθεν εις τον νουν και την καρδίαν δημιουργούν κατάστασιν, ενώ, όταν προσέξωμεν από την αρχήν της εμφανίσεως της αισχράς φαντασίας και κατόπιν αυτής του αισχρού λογισμού, διάγομεν εν ειρήνη και απολαμβάνομεν την της καθαρότητος ηθικήν ικανοποίησιν. Δια τούτο, τέκνα μου, ας προσέξωμεν τους εαυτούς μας εις κάθε είσοδον ποικίλων κακών λογισμών, διότι ο ίδιος τρόπος ισχύει δια κάθε κακόν λογισμόν. Οιοσδήποτε τοιούτος, όταν εύρη απρόσεκτον τον νουν, εισέρχεται και δημιουργεί, αναλόγως με το πάθος, την ανωτέρω εκτεθείσαν νοσηράν ηθικώς κατάστασιν. Λοιπόν, επειδή ο μοναχός πολεμείται κυρίως από λογισμούς, εκείνο που τον σώζει είναι η νήψις!
Η νήψις παράγεται από το ρήμα νήφω, δηλαδή προσέχω, αγρυπνώ, γρηγορώ, επισκοπώ. Όταν και ημείς προσέχωμεν, αγρυπνώμεν, γρηγορώμεν, και επισκοπώμεν, τότε ο οίκος της ψυχής μας θα διατηρήται καλώς και θα σώσωμεν τας ψυχάς μας, δια τας οποίας αγωνιζόμεθα καθ’ όλην την ζωήν μας.
Γέροντας Εφραίμ Φιλοθεΐτης
What is a more beautiful example than that of the Lord Jesus! Didn’t obedience towards His Father lead Him to the Cross and death? Couldn’t He, being of the essence with the Father, have opposed this? But no, He walked with sweat; He fell to His knees with pain beneath the weight of cutting off His will as He ascended Golgotha. But He had to ascend it, reach the top, be lifted up on the glorious—and to the demons, dreadful—Cross, and there on it show perfect and absolute obedience, and receive the unfading crown of eternal glory. This is how the resurrection of our soul is gained, and not by vacillating between obedience and disobedience with self-will. The crown is not acquired like that, but by a willingness to sacrifice. All obstacles are surmounted by the strong thought of preferring to die rather than betray the obedience of doing one’s duty.
Elder Ephraim of Arizona
The Christian struggle is glorious, for the prize is not something ephemeral, but it is eternal glory up in heaven! Blessed is he who is wise in God, for no account will be demanded from him, and he will not find himself in a difficult position when God calls him to give an account for his time on earth. We waste time with no regret. When we leave this world, we shall realize the damage we have suffered by letting time escape from us. The days are passing with no reckoning. Realizing this saves us, even if it is only during the final days of our life.
Elder Ephraim of Arizona
Αγωνίζου, παιδί μου, όπως φέρης καρπούς εις την ψυχήν σου, διότι αναλόγως των κόπων του έκαστος θα λάβη και θέσιν κοντά εις τον Κύριον Ιησούν. Μη φοβού, θα διέλθωμεν δια πυρός και ύδατος, δηλαδή δια πυρός μεν, όταν οι πειρασμοί, μας φαίνωνται ωσάν φωτιά εις την ενέργειάν των, ως οι αισχροί λογισμοί, του μίσους, του φθόνου κ.λ.π., δι’ ύδατος δε, όταν μας έρχωνται οι λογισμοί απογνώσεως και απελπισίας, που βυθίζουν την ψυχήν ως εις ύδατα. Μετά την διέλευσιν του πυρός και του ύδατος θα μας αναβιβάση εις την πνευματικήν αναψυχήν της απαλλαγής εκ των χαμαιζήλων λογισμών και εις την χαριζομένην εκ της χάριτος απάθειαν.
Γέροντας Εφραίμ Φιλοθεΐτης
