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Пишет webpadre (![[info]](http://lj.rossia.org/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} webpadre)@ 2004-09-27 11:58:00 |
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Notes from a poor monk...
2004-101
Prayer is like life, at least in the sense that life has to be lived; it cannot be defined. Thus, it would be impossible to define prayer. In no way can a definition of prayer be given. All that we can do is talk about it, examining it from various sides, from different aspects. Still, these aspects under which we consider prayer paint a pretty good picture of what it is, and so what we want to do in these meditations is introduce ourselves to the fundamental themes of prayer, to get an idea of what it is really all about.
St Maximus, the Confessor, tells us that as a matter of fact, we and God serve each other by being models for each other. God becomes human in order to make man divine, to use the words of St Athanasius. And man does his share in this co-operation, by practicing and thereby increasing his love so that he "becomes god by God!" Thus, our nature is to be deified, divinized. And this comes about, in part, by obeying another aspect of our nature, i.e., by praying. The nightingale sings because it is its nature. Similarly, we humans must pray because praying is a crucial aspect of our nature, and in so doing, we are led to greater love of God and neighbor and thus become godly, sharing in the divine nature by the grace of God.
Prayer, we might note, is not peculiar only to christianity. We can say that every religion, no matter how primitive, has the practice of prayer to some, however elementary, degree. So, no matter what religion we follow, we are by nature called to be people of prayer. Of course, there are those who would deny the existence of God and thereby free themselves (so they think!) of the practice of any religion, but these, too, being human, are called to prayer, though we do not at this point intend to get into some sort of sparring about this question.
So, with this, we begin our excursion into the land of prayer...this will take a great deal of consideration, so we have, from the beginning, to be persistent in working at these meditations. Best to all always!
2004-101
Prayer is like life, at least in the sense that life has to be lived; it cannot be defined. Thus, it would be impossible to define prayer. In no way can a definition of prayer be given. All that we can do is talk about it, examining it from various sides, from different aspects. Still, these aspects under which we consider prayer paint a pretty good picture of what it is, and so what we want to do in these meditations is introduce ourselves to the fundamental themes of prayer, to get an idea of what it is really all about.
St Maximus, the Confessor, tells us that as a matter of fact, we and God serve each other by being models for each other. God becomes human in order to make man divine, to use the words of St Athanasius. And man does his share in this co-operation, by practicing and thereby increasing his love so that he "becomes god by God!" Thus, our nature is to be deified, divinized. And this comes about, in part, by obeying another aspect of our nature, i.e., by praying. The nightingale sings because it is its nature. Similarly, we humans must pray because praying is a crucial aspect of our nature, and in so doing, we are led to greater love of God and neighbor and thus become godly, sharing in the divine nature by the grace of God.
Prayer, we might note, is not peculiar only to christianity. We can say that every religion, no matter how primitive, has the practice of prayer to some, however elementary, degree. So, no matter what religion we follow, we are by nature called to be people of prayer. Of course, there are those who would deny the existence of God and thereby free themselves (so they think!) of the practice of any religion, but these, too, being human, are called to prayer, though we do not at this point intend to get into some sort of sparring about this question.
So, with this, we begin our excursion into the land of prayer...this will take a great deal of consideration, so we have, from the beginning, to be persistent in working at these meditations. Best to all always!
