So, to unite with the Conscious True God-Love (in Whom everything (essence and energies, that is, the whole nature) is Conscious, Personal, Hypostatic) can only be that which is conscious, voluntary, free, humble! Therefore, where there is no attention, obedience, understanding, awareness (true, Orthodox), sincerity, simplicity – there is no prayer (even if “unceasing psalters” are read, unceasing Jesus prayers, Eucharisties, masses, various rites of worship are performed)! The sign of correct prayer is repentance, the struggle with passions: spiritual struggle so that all the powers of soul and body can unite with the Holy Spirit, become consciously humble, sanctified by the Holy Spirit, and begin to want-desire hypostatically, lovingly, personally! Once again, and again we repeat: prayer – attention (consciousness, understanding, awareness, obedience), reverence and repentance! Therefore, the Church teaches not to read prayers, not to stand through services, but to listen attentively, to read into the words of prayers (“sing-pray reasonably!”, “five words with my mind I would rather speak, than thousands in a tongue, that the church might be edified!”), which express (should express) the Orthodox faith, God’s will, God’s commandments, God’s word – with reverence and for the purpose of repentance!!! Therefore, let us not deceive ourselves that we pray or have prayed (reading out akathists, canons, prayer rules or standing through long vigils, liturgies or other services), but let us be vigilant about how we pray (whether there is attention, reverence, repentance), whether there are fruits (repentance, humility, hope…)! You can perform all services, read all prayers, psalms… and never actually pray (not even begin to learn to pray, not begin to catechize, prepare for baptism), and hear on the terrible Judgment of God: “I never knew you, never communicated with you, had no access to your hearts, for with your lips you honored Me, but your heart was far from Me, hostile to Me, full of deceit, hypocrisy, falsehood, lawlessness!”. Let us be vigilant about how we pray, let us not deceive ourselves!
We said that catechism is learning to pray, and that before catechism comes the science of obedience: only the obedient one is taught to pray, and as long as a person is disobedient, willful, self-willed – they will not pray correctly, savingly (whose fruit is humility)! Therefore, the Church, before starting the process of catechism, first teaches the “applicant” (to the school of catechumens) obedience, attention, listening! And we have already shown that attention is the very first component of prayer, without attention, listening there is no prayer! And now, in the light of the necessity of obedience, we will say a few words about the catastrophe of prayerlessness in which humanity of the 21st century is. Prayer is communication, and today there is an acute problem of people being unable to communicate with each other, and the reason for this inability is disobedience (no one wants to listen to anyone), irresponsibility (corruption), empty talk… Communication means having something in common with the one you communicate with (that is, there is something (thought, understanding, feeling, experience…) in them and in you that is the same). For example, I am talking to someone (with words), and for there to be communication between us, we need to hear (understand) each other. Then what belongs to my interlocutor will become mine (if I heard him and correctly understood him), and therefore common for both of us, and what belongs to me will become the property of my interlocutor (if he heard me and correctly understood me), and obviously common for both of us. Thus, without obedience, without trying to hear, comprehend, understand the interlocutor, there is no communication (prayer). Obedience is the foundation and necessary condition of communication (prayer). To be in communication (prayer), I must always be obedient (ideally with all my being), attentive, vigilant, unbiased! And we will also say: whether what is mine becomes common for both of us (three, four… millions…) does not depend only on me (my task is to offer, present, convey as perfectly as possible), but also on my interlocutors, on their desire, ability, willingness to hear and accept! My interlocutors may not hear me, may not even want to hear, or hear biasedly, deceitfully, irresponsibly, and therefore in this direction – from me to them – there may be no communication (it does not depend on me)! But I definitely know that communication in the direction from them to me depends entirely on me, on my ability to accept what is in my neighbor and make it mine, common for us: I must hear my neighbor, make every effort to hear, understand, comprehend exactly what belongs to him – and all this, heard and accepted by me, will be common for us, that is, I will have communication, commonality with my interlocutors, I will be enriched, gain knowledge.
Thus, communication (whether I will have something in common with my interlocutors, “communicators”) depends only on me, on how obedient, attentive, unbiased, discerning I am! And whether my interlocutors accept me, hear me, understand me (those who want to communicate with me) – these are their concerns, their responsibility (it does not depend on me – my task is to present myself and my as best as possible, to give). Only what you have accepted, heard, comprehended becomes common, not what you said, gave to others (for they may not hear, not perceive you or yours; and you may fall into delusion, thinking that you communicated, heard each other, whereas each remained deaf in their world of selfishness-egoism). Modern culture is deaf: people are taught to speak correctly, politely, courteously, grammatically, to express their thoughts (advertise themselves, present, represent), but they are not taught the most important thing (without which no communication is conceivable) – obedience (listening, hearing, understanding, seeing, perceiving the Other). Therefore, the foundation, essence of prayer (communication with God) is attentive listening (obedience), not speaking! God has long accepted you, heard you, understood you (God knows you and about you more than you, so: what can you give to God (what He does not have), tell God (what He does not know), or are you trying to evoke in God some feelings or a certain reaction-action (while God is absolute Freedom and Love for you, absolute care for you)?! Or maybe you want to tell God something about God that He does not know about Himself?! Everything we know about God is what the Lord Himself wishes to reveal to us!