The catechumen must accustom himself to not be alone – the Lord must always be with him (more precisely, he must always (as often as possible) be with God, Who is always entirely with us and for us as Love and Mercy, for we live by God, in God and for God!): if he is alone, then they are two: the Lord and him; if the catechumen is in the company of someone – then they are three: the Lord and the two of them, and so on. For the catechumen, the Lord should become a constant interlocutor. (The Lord Jesus Christ is everything for us! Everything exists through Him, everything is from Him, in Him, and for Him!). The Lord should become a Friend to the catechumen (we are friends, beloved, dear to the Lord God!!!), with Whom he needs to talk (at first in monologues) about everything, consult about everything, tell Him everything… This is not achieved at once, it takes years (of correct spiritual life; Orthodox catechism), but the goal of ascetic catechetical labors is precisely this – constant walking before God, constant memory of God, feeling of God’s presence, constant communication with God in everything and through everything: “whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all as Eucharist-Thanksgiving in the name of Jesus Christ to the glory of God the Father”.
Thus, the catechumen should always (as often as possible) talk (communicate, pray) with the Lord! It is very simple. For example, one can say: today is a beautiful day! This is a simple statement of fact. But it is enough to add one word to this statement (with attention and reverence for the sake of repentance-thanksgiving): Lord! And this statement becomes a prayer! “Lord! Today is a beautiful day!” – this is already a prayer (if with attention, reverence, and repentance, that is, for the sake of thanksgiving (both for the good weather and for the bad…)). Every word, every phrase can (and should) be turned into a prayer – and this is done very simply: we add (consciously! responsibly! attentively! humbly! reverently!) the word “Lord!” (For example: “What beauty!” – “Lord! What beauty!”; “it is raining” – “Lord, it is raining”; “I missed the plane” – “Lord, I missed the plane” and so on. Do you feel how every word, phrase comes alive in dialogue with God, filled with life, light, hope, joy?! Then everything is done in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ to the glory of God the Father). And it must be remembered that not everyone who says: “Lord! Lord!” (even after every letter, after every sound), is pleasing to God, prays to God, but only those who fulfill all God’s commandments and constantly repent! Atheists (who do not believe in God, in the afterlife, etc.) also often say: “My God”, “Lord”… – but these are empty words in their mouths (like swear words; like exclamations: “oh”, “ah”, “lord”…). This is not what we are talking about! But about consciously, attentively, reverently discussing with God (Who is Love) all your affairs, plans, worries, concerns, indignations… Consider everything in the light of the Orthodox faith (Constitution), in the light of Truth for the sake of Love. (The Orthodox faith is Love; to be an Orthodox believer means to act in love – to love God and the image of God, that is, everything that is God’s). All great things start with small ones (faithful in little – will achieve great), so to achieve ascetic correct prayer, we start with short prayerful (with attention, reverence, for the sake of repentance, fulfilling God’s will) standings before God and as often as possible (after 10 hours, 5 hours, 1 hour, 30 minutes, 10 minutes, …). Do not forget: discernment, advice, discernment, advice, discernment…
The catechumen must try to do everything with God (before God, in God): to look, to contemplate, to listen, to read, to walk, to serve, to perform work, to eat, to drink, to love… – to do everything chastely, with God, in God, for God, to the glory of God (in Christ, for Christ, by the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ); to do everything that pleases Him, to act in a way that pleases Him (the Friend, the Beloved, the Dear) and with His permission, blessing! And this is achieved (by God’s mercy) when we force ourselves, urge ourselves to have God (the name of God) in our mind, in reverent standing before Him (before the Person-Love, Creator, Almighty – the One Who is everywhere and fills everything!) and constantly trying to be pleasing to Him – by fulfilling all God’s commandments and unceasing repentance!
In God, everything (both Essence and Energy-Grace) is Hypostatic, Personal – everything is Consciousness, everything is Light, everything is Freedom, everything is Truth! In God, there is nothing unconscious, impersonal, unhypostatic, unfree, something that would be instinctive, self-acting. In every smallest manifestation, action, energy – there is the whole God-Person! Therefore, to unite with the Personal God-Love, you can only consciously (freely, responsibly, voluntarily)! To pray means to have communication, commonality with God (Consciousness, Love, Freedom, Truth) – to have the same way of existence, to be hypostatically similar to God (like unites with like!). Where there is no consciousness, attention, understanding – there is no prayer (communion with the Conscious, True, Responsible, Loving Personal Trihypostatic God)! Thus, with God unites, prays that part of the human being that is already conscious (because only the conscious can unite with the Conscious, and in God everything is conscious, there is no movement-action unconscious – everything is Hypostatic, Loving, Personal!)! Therefore, prayer begins with the mind, awareness (“faith (knowledge, prayer) from hearing” (for details, see about “faith, trust, fidelity” in part II); prayer begins with understanding, awareness, from which responsible trust is formed, which is tested by action according to conviction; the test is performed by urging the being, and the person urges himself to act by conviction, conscious, responsible trust in the Gospel, the Orthodox Faith, the Constitution). Initially, grace combines (synergistically cooperates) with the mind, consciousness (the core of the hypostasis; the Conscious Deity can only unite with the conscious, hypostatic). (In practice, this means that the prayerful person (catechumen) tries to enclose the mind in the words of the prayer, to pray reasonably, attentively, understanding every word he (responsibly) speaks-utters!). Then, step by step, with the help of God’s Grace, the mind-consciousness penetrates the entire human being, every cell, every power, energy! Then the prayerful person (catechumen) fights for every power, every energy, every atom-molecule of his psychosomatic being. According to the spiritual law: what we do not fight for – that is not healed, not deified, does not unite with God (like unites with like; therefore, to unite with the Conscious Hypostatic Free God (in Whom nature-essence is determined by the Hypostasis, and not vice versa; the basis, cause of all existence – Person, Hypostasis, Father, and not the Divine essence!), it is necessary that in the person primary in everything was hypostasis, consciousness, freedom (this happens in the baptism of the Holy Spirit), so that the person (hypostasis, I, consciousness) determines his being, and is not determined by the instincts, passions of his nature! To make the human being deified, to enter into communion with the Free Deity (Grace), it is necessary to voluntarily, consciously give it to God; and to voluntarily give something, you first need to take, get power, subdue, make it yours, obedient to me, and then voluntarily give it to God! Prayer-communication – is mutual (of God and man) voluntary, conscious, free self-giving and acceptance of the Other!). Therefore, the disciple of prayer fights with his passions, with sin, with evil, subdues his egoistic, lustful, sinful being. He is constantly in repentance (likeness to God, Jesus Christ), in fulfilling all God’s commandments (and constantly repents of sins, that is, in breaking God’s commandments or not fulfilling them – sinning against Love, not showing Love!). (Above we spoke about delusion, prèlèst, into which fall ascetics who only “engage” in prayer, prayerful reading (reading prayers, unceasing repetition of “Jesus” prayers or other verbal forms), and do not care about repentance – fulfilling all God’s commandments (which alone gives the fruit of humility, recognizing one’s weakness, sin, and God’s great Mercy to oneself, the last wretch; and only to the humble God gives the Grace of the Holy Spirit, baptizes with the Holy Spirit!)! And these dreamers do not know that prayer (prayerful reading, monologues of the catechumen) has only one task – repentance, that is, diligent, correct, conscious fulfillment of all God’s commandments! And they (those in delusion), inducing themselves by “prayerful reading” into trances, neuro-psychic lascivious autoerotic states, are convinced that they have achieved the goal, great grace, whereas they have not even begun to repent! We have already talked about such delusion: this is when people call themselves Christians, while they have not even begun to catechize, moreover, they have no idea about catechism, about the necessity of correct preparation for baptism, without which there can be no baptism (with the Holy Spirit)!). Therefore, the saints (Spirit-bearers) have no subconscious, super-conscious, dark depths, in them everything by the power of the Holy Spirit (the Conscious, True Light) becomes conscious, light, free, hypostatic, personal!