Vigils Readings – Office for Vocations

Pray Without Ceasing
A Reading from The Way of a Pilgrim

I went to church to say my prayers there during the Liturgy. The first Epistle of St. Paul to the Thessalonians was being read, and among other words I heard these – “Pray without ceasing.” It was this text, more than any other, which forced itself upon my mind, and I began to think how it was possible to pray without ceasing… I looked at my Bible, and with my own eyes read the words which I had heard…that we ought always, at all times and in all places, to pray with uplifted hands. I thought and thought, but knew not what to make of it. “What ought I to do?” I thought. “Where shall I find someone to explain it to me?… I heard a number of very fine sermons on prayer; what prayer is, how much we need it, and what its fruits are; but no one said how one could succeed in prayer… how it wasdone was not pointed out…

One day I was told that in a certain village a gentleman had long been living and seeking the salvation of his soul… I got there and found him… “What do you want of me?” he asked… “In God’s name please explain to me the meaning of the Apostle’s words, ‘Pray without ceasing.’

He was silent for a while and looked at me closely. Then he said: “Ceaseless interior prayer is a continual yearning of the human spirit towards God. To succeed in this consoling exercise we must pray more often to God to teach us to pray without ceasing. Pray more, and pray more fervently. It is prayer itself which will reveal to you how it can be achieved unceasingly; but it will take some time.”…Again I set off.

I thought and thought, I read and read, I dwelt over and over again upon what this man had said to me, but I could not get to the bottom of it…

At last towards evening I was overtaken by an old man who looked like a cleric of some sort… “What sort of spiritual teaching are you wanting to get?” he asked me… “Well, it’s like this, Father…About a year ago, while I was at the Liturgy, I heard a passage from the Epistles which bade men pray without ceasing…This surprised me very much, and I was at a loss to understand how it could be carried out…

…the old man crossed himself and spoke. “Thank God, my dear brother, for having revealed to you this unappeasable desire for unceasing interior prayer. Recognise in it the call of God, and calm yourself. Rest assured that what has hitherto been accomplished in you is the testing of the harmony of your own will with the voice of God…Many people reason quite the wrong way round about prayer, thinking that good actions and all sorts of preliminary measures render us capable of prayer. But quite the reverse is the case, it is prayer which bears fruit in good works and all the virtues…for the Apostle Paul says, ‘I exhort therefore that first of all supplication be made’. The first thing laid down in the Apostle’s words about prayer is that the work of prayer comes before everything else… The Christian is bound to perform many good works, but before all else what he ought to do is to pray, for without prayer no other good work whatever can be accomplished. Without prayer he cannot find the way to the Lord, he cannot understand the truth, he cannot crucify the flesh with its passions and lusts, his heart cannot be enlightened with the light of Christ, he cannot be savingly united to God…

Consequently it is just to pray often, to pray always, which falls within our power as the means of attaining purity of prayer, which is the mother of all spiritual blessings. ‘Capture the Mother, and she will bring you the children,’ said St. Isaac the Syrian. Learn first to acquire the power of prayer and you will easily practise all the other virtues