Discipline Of Prayer As St Theophan example essay topic

A BOOK REVIEW OF The Path of Prayer: Four Sermons on Prayer by St. Theophan the Recluse Trans. Esther Williams, Ed. Robin Amis Praxis Institute Press, Seabury, MA, 1992 It is often said that there are no more heroes in today's world or even that this is an age of the anti-hero. Yet anyone who is blessed with the opportunity to observe children for any length of time will see that regard for those who exemplify certain ideals (heroes) is a spontaneous element in basic human psychology. The reported lack of heroes and the cult of the anti-hero are the fruit of a disillusioned A adult@ mentality which has been lied to on this as well as other subjects and hence robbed of the natural inclination of a normal human being (a child) who is as yet untainted by the cynicism and A sophistication@ of a deeply troubled society. The more often the lie is repeated the more firmly it is held to be true.

But, heroes do still exist -- it is rather that a society which values valueless ness no longer has eyes to see them and has lost the ability to produce them. For those who have eyes to see, one such hero is the author of the book under review here. St. Theophan of Vy sha (+1894), better known as Theophan the Recluse, is one of the great 19th century Russian luminaries of the Orthodox Church whose light reaches even unto us in the present, heterodox West. Being virtually our contemporary, he was nevertheless steeped in the ancient Tradition of the Fathers. Having faced in his life existential and intellectual conditions very similar to our own, he is a bridge to authentic spiritual life in Christ, making the wisdom of the Christian Tradition easily accessible to us. This should not be particularly surprising, for as Christ himself tells us, a light is kindled not to be hidden under a basket but to be held aloft to shed light for all.

One must stubbornly persist in blindness not to behold this Light Who has been providentially kindled in St. Theophan for our sake in these latter days. Like so many of the more recent saints of the Orthodox Church, very few of his writings are available in English. What is available is quickly gobbled up by seekers thirsting after a word of life from the Living Spring of Christ's Gospel. Unseen Warfare, his reworking of Lawrence Scupoli's Spiritual Combat (from the version already adapted by St. Nicodemus of the Holy Mountain) has been a perennial best seller in English translation for four decades, first for Faber & Faber and now for SVS Press. The present volume in hand, The Path of Prayer, now adds to this availability. Knowing our regard for St. Theophan as a spiritual hero, imagine our joy at being offered the chance to review this new translation in galley form (pre-publication)!

Imagine the expectancy with which we awaited the arrival of the text -- the spiritual excitement with which we opened the simple brown envelope concealing what for us is a spiritual treasure! And we were not disappointed in the having but found expectation fulfilled and surpassed in reality. Hyperbola you say? No, rather this is the stuff of heroes. But, you say, in a more prosaic manner of speaking, just what is it that has caused this flight of hero worship? What we have here are actually four short pieces (sermons) on prayer which the publishers, Praxis Institute Press, have selected from St. Theophan's voluminous works.

Brief homilies would perhaps better describe them, and they are as exquisitely simple as they are profound. The publishers have added the A poetic@ title, The Path of Prayer, to the text originally published in Russian under the simple title, Four Sermons on Prayer (3rd edition, 1891). First a few words about the context provided for the sermons by the publishers: an introduction, a preface and an appendix containing a collection of prayers from the Fathers and a life of St. Theophan. Frankly, this material is a disappointment; fortunately, it is also brief. Justifiably the material is aimed at introducing St. Theophan and his Orthodox understanding of prayer to a non-Orthodox readership.

And we must concede a modicum of success in achieving this intent: St. Theophan ='s teaching is made access able to some who may not otherwise have heard of him. There are however, three major flaws in this regard as well as a few superficial ones. The introduction is brief, simple and mostly to the point. The slight hint of British eccentricity sounds a quaint note and would seem to indicate a High Anglican@ audience is in mind here. The preface is likewise to the point but suffers in places from awkward sentence construction. St. Theophan's writing is by contrast the epitome of lucidity and simplicity of expression.

On a more serious note, two points in the preface demand our attention, bearing as they do more heavily on the apprehension or misapprehension by the reader of the spirituality of St. Theophan and the Orthodox Tradition which he represents. On page ix, the author of the preface (unnamed) makes the following statement, AThis personal rule of prayer, as Theophan describes it, forms one of the great ways of spiritual development which were once listed as: the way of service, the way of prayer, the way of study and the way of self-control. @ It is not at all clear who Once listed@ these Aways; @ by association one might be lead to think it was our Theophan himself, but this cannot be the case. Nor do I believe it is the author's intent to imply that for, in fact, this very mode of thinking (categorizing and compartmentalizing) is foreign not only to St. Theophan but to the whole of Orthodox Tradition. It reflects a way of thinking which traces its origins to the European High Middle Ages when the influences of Scholasticism began to differentiate between A types of spirituality, @ a process which has reached an absurd degree in the present age. In contrast, within the Orthodox world view, the one who serves is not excused from prayer, nor is the one who studies exempt from the need to strive for self-control.

Rather, all these things are a part of the discipline of an integral spiritual life. There is truly only one Way in Orthodoxy and one spirituality; it is integral and integrative, partaking of the One Holy Spirit. It is only the Away@ into the Way that may vary from person to person and from age to age. The proliferation of Aspiritualities@ about which there is currently much ado in religious circles is simply a fashion springing from the over rationalization of life and thought which has plagued the Western world for nearly a millennium. The second point of concern revolves around the manner in which the appendix is conceptualized. There is the barest hint in the preface (p. x) where it is said that a selection of Patristic prayers has been included Because the prayers of the fathers are difficult to find in English translation...

@ The idea behind this statement is more fully brought out on page 36 where it is said, AThis section of the book contains a brief selection of patristic prayers from many different sources, intended to help the reader who wishes to begin learning how to put these ideas into practice. @ The reference here is to St. Theophan's teaching that the prayers composed by holy men and women are charged with the energy and spirit of prayer and are therefore potent to create a state of true prayer in us, when we repeat them with attention, understanding and pious feeling. Admittedly these prayers are Of help for those who are not familiar with these texts, @ as the preface says. However, numerous English translations of these prayers (and many like them) are available, in the liturgical service books of the Orthodox Church.

And herein lies our main criticism of the introductory material. For St. Theophan, the ground of prayer is always liturgical, not individualistic or pietistic; it is not an exercise in isolation. That was not what his reclusion meant in its Orthodox context. Therefore he is not recommending that we repeat a prayer from Matins here, a prayer from the Divine Liturgy there, then try the Lenten Prayer of St. Ephraim followed by a prayer of St. Symeon's from the prayers before Holy Communion. Such an approach might be suitable for members of a poetry salon where the prayers of St. Gregory the Theologian might be read for aesthetic appreciation along with Shakespeare and Keats, but not for one who is serious about pursuing a life a prayer. It is not only each individual prayer that has been formed out of the experience of the God-bearing Fathers, but the structure and content of the liturgical cycle of services as we find them today taken as a whole.

This by no means implies that the only A legitimate@ prayer is that done in company with others within the confines of a Church building. The suffusing with prayer of every aspect and activity of life in its totality is the goal of St. Theophan's method and of Orthodox spirituality in general. It is, however, precisely the life of prayer in the context of the cycle of services which is normative and formative in St. Theophan's mind (and indeed in all the Fathers) -- the ground out of which personal, interior prayer grows and in which it is strengthened, deepened and refined. This means that, even for the recluse, prayer is cradled, embraced as it were, in the arms of the liturgical life of the Church.

The concept (and the reality) is wholistic and integral, not an abstraction that fragments human life and consciousness. Any other approach represents a strip-mining technique which attempts to make the Divine gift of Tradition a thing for human manipulation. We see in this approach a mind alien to that of St. Theophan and the Fathers, bearing within itself the same tendency which has lead to the spiritual sickness of this present, worldly society with all its attendant ills -- from senseless abortion and environmental desecration, to euthanasia and teenage suicide. In addition to this selection of prayers, the appendix also contains a brief life of the saint.

It is a simple recounting of the basic points of St. Theophan's career. There is however, once again, a note sounded which cannot go unaddressed and leads to our third point of criticism of the publisher's efforts. Describing the saint as an elder (stare tz), the remark is then made, The was thus one of the last - if not the last - of the bishops to publicly teach the church's ancient knowledge of man in public. @ Leaving aside the redundancy, without question Theophan was an elder and a great saint of a caliber not appearing in every generation, but this statement is simply insupportable. Orthodoxy is often portrayed as a museum piece, and not only by the non-Orthodox. It is perhaps less threatening to think of such spiritual vitality as a thing safely stored in the past.

But this is not the truth concerning the Church of Christ. St. Theophan reposed in 1894. He was followed both in name and in way of life and spiritual experience by Archbishop Theophan of Poltava, considered by many whose opinion we respect to be the greatest Russian theologian of this century, and who reposed while living as a recluse in a cave in France in 1940. Archbp. Theophan was spiritual father to Archbp. Avery of Jordan ville, himself a great theologian and teacher who reposed as recently as 1976, in this very country (USA).

These are but two examples of righteous hierarchs who come readily to mind because of their personal connection with St. Theophan. So you see, this spiritual way is a living way; one cannot be called a spiritual father who has no spiritual children. Christ has not abandoned His Church and so Athe church's ancient knowledge of man@ has not ceased to be publicly taught to this day (although it would appear that counterfeit teachings concerning man rule the day). Yes, it is true that in the times in which we live there appears to be but a dim shadow of the holiness which once shone brightly throughout the world as from a hundred thousand lamps.

Sadly enough, it is also true that not all who go by the name of Christian are such in fact or have any inkling of Athe church's ancient knowledge of man. @ But, as another holy bishop of recent memory, Archbishop Andrew Rymarenko, (+1979 -- himself a spiritual son of the great Elder and Saint, Nek tary of Optima, +1928) was wont to say, AThe darker the night, the brighter the stars. @As with any sophisticated text composed in another language, quality of translation is an abiding concern. In the case of translating a spiritual text, the difficulties are increased, for not only must the translators be thoroughly familiar with both languages, but they must have a discerning understanding of the spiritual subject. As St. Athanasius the Great (+373) remarked, A Without a pure mind and the striving to model ones life after the saints, a man cannot possibly comprehend their words. @ (DI 57: 2) The translator ='s English text in this case passes the test of readability by proving itself to be unobtrusive; that is, by allowing meaning to be in the forefront of the reader's mind.

The language and expression chosen are appropriate for the work at hand, but having neither time nor talent to check the text against the original Russian, we can only assume it is a faithful rendering. There is one notable exception to the general feeling of having a trustworthy text, and this has to do with what can only be called a poor word choice which occurs twice in the opening paragraph of the first sermon. The quote in question is as follows: When we pray, all our care should be focused on filling our souls with such emotion that when the tongue speaks in prayer, and the ear hears that prayer, and the body prostrates itself, the heart will not be found empty but will be moved by its emotion towards God. @ (p. 1 emphasis mine) Contemporary English usage (need I qualify, American English usage?) casts a distinctly negative shading upon the word Aemotion. @ We instinctively think of such feelings as anger, fear, or jealousy and only secondarily, if at all, of positive ones such as joy or gratitude. At best one might see Aemotion@ in neutral terms, like an empty container waiting to be filled once the more definitive word is given - anger, joy, etc. Certainly, neither of these shades of meaning are what St. Theophan seeks to convey.

Filling our souls with negative emotions or inducing some sort of zombie-like emotional neutrality are not what he is proposing. A better choice of words would be Awarmth of feeling@ or as Fr. Seraphim Rose has said, speaking on the same topic, Awarmth of heart. @ If you try reading the same passage substituting Awarmth of feeling@ each time you will see what I mean. Despite the additional words, the meaning is much clearer, more readily grasped, and I propose nearer to what St. Theophan intends to convey in this passage. After all, it is a matter of feeling, and happily the translator for some reason never returns to the word Aemotion@ after this opening paragraph but always uses the word Feeling@ thereafter.

A much better choice, in our opinion. Let us move now to the text of the sermons themselves. As C.S. Lewis once said about St. Athanasius' work On the Incarnation, Only a master mind could have written so deeply on such a subject with such classical simplicity. @ There are no wasted words. The ideas come forth boldly and with authority. In four short homilies, each one requiring less than ten minutes to read, we are guided step by step from beginning to read and listen to the prayers of the Fathers to the constant remembrance of God in true spiritual prayer of the heart.

Rather than a document for theoreticians of A mental prayer, @ this is a veritable handbook on prayer both for the beginner and for the serious practitioner. In St. Theophan's own words: If you will be obedient to these few rules you will soon see the fruits of this effort... 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. (p. 7) The first homily deals exclusively With the aims of spoken prayer said at home in the morning and the evening -- and in Church. @ The instructions are about preparing to pray; praying with attention, understanding and feeling; dealing with a wandering mind and so forth. One of the most profound sections addresses the situation where, in the course of reading Ait can also happen that some word will so strongly affect the soul that you will not wish to continue speaking the prayers.

@ St. Theophan continues: In this situation: Stop. Do not continue repeating 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... it is better to leave your rule of prayer unfinished than to destroy this state of mind. This will sanctify you... and it follows that keeping such a state is the most hopeful way to encourage and strengthen the spirit of prayer within us. (p. 6) Sermon number two takes up this thread building upon what has already been said (and practiced). The keynote here is that, having learned to pray in others' words, it is important to add something of our own and Ato pass on into our own prayerful conversation with God. @ (p. 9) St. Theophan quickly lets us know that for him this is a continuous conversation not limited to specific times of prayer.

He says, ATo achieve this, it is necessary to begin - as often as possible during the day - by calling out to God from the heart in short words, according to one's needs and in ways appropriate to the events around you. @ (p. 11) After giving a few examples of such brief appeals, he proceeds to a discussion of the essential attitudes one must have to bear fruit in this way of prayer, of the necessity of daily meditation on God and of A turning every action to the glory of God. @St. Theophan himself characterizes sermon number three as dealing with, Athe constant turning of mind and heart to God. @ Expounding on this thought he adds, Prayer is not some kind of casual, occasional activity, but should abide in us as an uninterrupted state of the spirit, just as breathing and the beating of the heart are uninterrupted actions of the body. @ (p. 18) Anticipating our thoughts he remarks: But do not think that this describes some kind of very high state which cannot be approached by people in ordinary life. No.

It actually is a high state, but it can be achieved by all. Everyone sometimes feels a warmth and ardor during prayer... It is actually in this occasional inspired descent of the Spirit upon prayer that the landmark of prayer may be reached so that it becomes a constant condition. (p. 19) What is required of us is that we make the effort to persist in the discipline of prayer as St. Theophan prescribes and leave the rest to God. On this point he quotes a saying of St. Marc arius the Great, AIf you do not have prayer, labour in prayer. Then the Lord, seeing your work, will grant you this prayer, because of your patient perseverance and because of your powerful desire for this blessing. @ (p. 19) The remainder of this sermon is instruction on how to go about this labor. The final sermon provides the crown for this teaching by expounding on the necessity of a life of prayer which is not only prayer as we may imagine it but is Ato perfect ourselves in every good work. @ (p. 28) To describe this prayerfully active life of a true Christian, St. Theophan draws upon the teaching of St. Dimitri of Rostov.

Then in conclusion he says: Some of you when you hear this may think: that is so much to expect of us! What a difficult and heavy burden! Where can we find the time and the strength for all this? Take courage, brothers! What is needed is not so very much. Just one thing is necessary: fervor towards God and the desire that one's soul be saved by Him...

As soon as fervor to please God and for salvation is born in the soul, all its natural goodness will collect around this fervor, and much that is good will appear in the soul. This fervor - strengthened by God's blessing and reinforced by this dormant goodness - will begin to develop... It will grow step by step. (p. 32) This book is a Must read. @ More than that, this reviewer, having previously begun a ASt. Theophan the Recluse Study Group, @ will be basing the group's future study and practice on the teachings contained in this small volume. We all need heros, regardless of how old we may be; if you are looking for a hero to emulate, you won't go wrong with St. Theophan the Recluse.