By Prayer and Fasting

Posted in Fasting, Practical Matters, Uncategorized by Fr. Sergei Sveshnikov on 14 February 2020

With Great Lent now fast approaching, the topic of fasting is on our minds once again. In my previous posts, I discussed some of the practical aspects of fasting, including my belief that fasting without prayer is akin to prostrations without prayer–both may be very beneficial to our physical health but quite separate from spirituality. Thus, no discussion of fasting can be complete without a discussion of prayer.

Much of what we often mean by prayer these days–at least, in the first approximation–is recitations of various formulaic texts: daily rules, canons, akathists, “Lord-have-mercies,” the Jesus prayer, etc. Moreover, it somehow became accepted that more is better as we are encouraged to “pray more.” I must admit that I have never experienced “a gracious warmth which spread through my whole breast” (The Way of the Pilgrim 14) from reciting anything 1000 or 3000 or 10000 times and perhaps should not speak about such matters, but I have not yet encountered a coherent and satisfactory explanation of Matthew 6:7 in light of our current common practice of “praying more”:

But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.

When the “hour was at hand and the Son of man was betrayed into the hands of sinners” (Matt 26:45), Jesus prayed only three times (44)–each prayer, according to the Gospels, consisting of just one sentence (39, 42, 44). We, on the other hand, repeat our prayers “again and again”–perhaps unsure of whether God really heard us the first few times or whether we truly meant what we prayed.

The Apostle Paul’s exhortation to pray without ceasing (1 Thess 5:17) is often referenced in favor of abundant repetition. I am not an expert on the earliest Christian practices, but it seems as unlikely that Paul was referring to a ceaseless repetition of any formulaic text as it is that he was a practitioner of hesychasm, at least in the way we understand it today. One of the earliest sources for understanding daily Christian formulaic prayer is the Didache which instructs us to recite the Lord’s Prayer–and, apparently, nothing else–three (not three thousand) times a day (8:11). This thrice-daily practice is meant not as ceaseless repetition in an attempt to “pray more,” but as a way to punctuate the times of day and to fill natural time with spiritual meaning: “Evening, and morning, and at noon, will I pray, and cry aloud: and he shall hear my voice” (Ps 55:17).

Likewise, in trying to understand the early monastic practice of praying the psalms, it is important to note that likely, at least initially, they did not keep vigil in order to recite a specific number of psalms. Rather, they recited psalms partly because they kept vigil. Imagine someone occupying her time by singing love songs while awaiting the return of her beloved. She is not staying awake in order to sing those songs. She sings because she is awake. She is consumed with the anticipation of his arrival, and this is why she sings songs of love and not of lumberjacks or military victories. The state of being in the presence of God or of waiting for Him is not at all the same thing as carefully counting off the number of psalms or akathists that must be recited in a 24-hour period.

The genius Friedrich Nietzsche offered arguably the most meaningful critique and criticism of Christianity, and, I dare say, not solely of its Western incarnations. What made this criticism truly powerful was Nietzsche’s ability to note the very essence of certain things. And thus, it was Nietzsche who offered what may be one of the most profound definitions of prayer as “the state of perpetual readiness for the ‘coming of God'” (Beyond Good and Evil 58). Very precisely, prayer is a state–not an activity or a task, not a chore or a spell–a state. If prayer is understood in this way, all of the supporting activity, such as the canons, akathists, rules, as well as fasting, prostrations, vigils, etc., are but tools to help achieve and maintain the proper state of being. Although many of the compositions that we usually associate with prayer also have a teaching aspect with respect to the knowledge of history, theology, or praxis, the value of this knowledge is dubious at best, unless it helps us be in the “state of perpetual readiness for the ‘coming of God’.”

As we prepare to enter Great Lent, a time of prayer and fasting, it is important to remember that it is not a time of “more” repetitions coupled with a vegan diet, but a time of preparing ourselves for the coming of God through becoming Christ-like–that is to say, through sacrifice in whatever limited way we can–the sacrifice of fasting, the sacrifice of almsgiving, the sacrifice of worship and prayer:

Let my prayer be set forth before thee as incense; and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice. (Ps 141:2)

If you can say a prayer once and actually mean it–you will do well. After all, “The Wise Thief didst Thou make worthy of Paradise, in a single moment, O Lord” (Exapostilarion of Holy Friday). But perhaps, one must first hang on a cross before he can walk on water (Прогулки по воде, Наутилус Помпилиус [1990]). If you must repeat the same prayer ad abundantiam before one is uttered with some degree of sincerity–do what you must. Just do not babble so much that your own voice is the only one you hear. The Lord is neither in a great strong wind that rents mountains, nor in an earthquake or a fire, but in a “still small voice” that asks: “What doest thou here?” (1 Kings 19:11-13)

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Fr. Sergei Sveshnikov