When we sin – we break communion with God. God cannot sin, share our sin, so that sin would be common (deed) between man and God. Sin interrupts our communion with God. In the Old Testament, there was an ontological chasm between God and man, and “communion” was only external – across the chasm, at a distance of alienation, through intermediaries… Sin separates us from God, because God cannot sin! But God heals the wounds of sin – accepts repentance! In repentance, communion is restored: the Physician has access to the sick (with sin), of course, with his good, conscious, free will: “Lord, come and save me, by whatever means You know, let Your will be over me and in me!” Communion is restored!
Prayer (communion, community with God, His communion) has different degrees, which are located between the opposite states of man: isolation, lukewarm indifference, deadness (nothing in common, and do not want to have) and when a person has everything in common with God (“I in You, and You in Me”, “it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me, and I live in Christ, in the Holy Spirit”). Prayer is an indicator of spiritual life.
(Do not forget that you are in a pharmacy, not in a place where ideological brainwashing and the formation of systems of herd consciousness, herd zombified slave worldview are conducted! Catechesis is personal, direct communion of the catechumen with the one who catechizes him (“spiritual mentor,” friend-adviser…)!!! It is there, in the process of direct catechesis-learning that Orthodox consciousness is formed (free, knowing-knowing, true), systematic, holistic (chaste) vision of all reality, all existence (created and Uncreated)! And in our pharmacy, we only offer medicines-thoughts, components of the Orthodox worldview system, but not the system itself. Therefore, we do not systematize anything (on our shelves-sections “disorder”, no order-sequence – neither thematic nor literal), so as not to mislead the sick (thoughtlessness, irresponsibility-corruption, condemnation, senselessness…) visitor (reader), not to give him reason to temptation (accusing us of heresy) and self-delusion, that he already knows something, when he still has no slightest idea about the mystery of catechesis, about preparation-learning for the Mystery of Enlightenment, baptism with the Holy Spirit! Be vigilant! Do not forget! Your “doctor” knows (must know) “from what” and “for what” this or that thought is, and how and in what dose to carry it (specifically for you, according to your spiritual-mental-physical state)! In case of need, call our old village “doctor”).
The word “prayer” the Church points to the goal of human life (deification, absolute communion with God and all created hypostases: that all may be one with the unity of perichoresis-communion of the Faces of the Holy Trinity – “I in You, and You in Me, We in them, and they in Us”, “he who eats Me (Body and Blood of Jesus Christ) will live in Me, and I (Son of God, and in Christ the Holy Trinity and all the saints) – in him”) and the means to achieve this goal (communion with God in the Holy Spirit, in the Body of Christ, in the perfect communion of the Eucharist), that is, as one of the commandments that the catechumen must fulfill (try to fulfill) in the process of repentance-preparation for baptism with the Holy Spirit: “Pray that you may not enter into temptation”, “Watch and pray”, “Pray then like this: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name…”… Further, we will talk a little about prayer as a commandment (that is, about verbal communion with God, about verbal prayers (rites, rituals, prayers): supplicatory, thanksgiving, penitential…). We have spoken about prayer as a goal (deification, knowing the Father, unity-perichoresis of all being), to properly, purposefully fulfill the commandment to pray, to understand what kind of prayer is correct and leads to the goal (leads the catechumen into the state of the ability to accept the Holy Spirit, the ability to be baptized with the Holy Spirit – that is, to acquire a humble and contrite heart, to enter into the state of seeing one’s sin (the innumerable number of sins-symptoms – as the sand of the sea), one’s perdition-death, godlessness, alienation from God and the desire for salvation in hope in Jesus Christ, the Savior-Healer, in the Holy Spirit, whom the Lord generously gives to those who believe in Him)!
Do not forget that the purpose of all the commandments (and prayer as well) is not to give the zealot of the law (one who zealously fulfills the commandments, the Law) salvation, to achieve the Goal (God gives the Holy Spirit, baptizes with the Holy Spirit not when the rites-prayers are performed, but only when a person is capable of accepting God in his heart, accepting the Holy Spirit, and the rites (prayers) of the Sacraments – these are formalities that testify that the Sacrament of the gift of the Holy Spirit has been accomplished! The gift, Grace cannot be begged, prayed for, but only humbly, gratefully accepted by a humble and contrite heart! Therefore, as soon as the Lord finds such a heart (a humble hypostasis), He immediately gives him the Gift – the Holy Spirit! Sacraments – the Gift of the Grace of the Holy Spirit – are accomplished ONLY by God, when and how He wants, and a person must take care to be able in due time (which ONLY God knows) to accept the Gift (the Kingdom of God, the Holy Spirit, Grace-filled Prayer, communion with God in the Holy Spirit) – Which has already been generously, without measure given to everyone, poured out (like the waters of the ocean) on all flesh! Glory to You, our God! Glory to You, God! Glory to You, God, forever!), integrity, but in order to bring the catechumen to his senses, to himself, so that he knows in what catastrophic, hellish state he is, and so that he desires (with a humble and contrite heart), desires Christ the Savior (“whoever WANTS (himself, consciously, freely, voluntarily!) to follow Me… only that one will become a Christian, will accept the Holy Spirit with a humble heart, a humble spirit”). He is in great delusion who thinks that by fulfilling the commandments (by his own strength) he can acquire the Grace-filled Gifts of the Holy Spirit, such a “prayerful,” unfortunate ascetic begins to perceive his psycho-nervous (psycho-somatic) states, (and be convinced of this), as the Grace of God, and hallucinations, dreams, images and demonic influences and appearances in the form of angels of light – as Divine revelations, visions, experiences of the mysteries of the Kingdom of God!? Usually, the end of such delusion is madness, mental disorders, destruction of the mind, sanity, blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, hatred of Truth, in extreme forms delusion ends in suicide! We remind of these simple, obvious facts so that we are careful, vigilant, prudent! For there is no such thing or commandment that cannot be used to cripple or even kill oneself, to destroy one’s soul, to use for one’s own perdition! Therefore, all the Spirit-bearers testify that the greatest virtue is prudence! Therefore, we emphasize that the Grace of the Holy Spirit is given not for any merits, feats, efforts, methods (for example, the grace-filled prayer of the mind in the heart in the Holy Spirit, when the mind is united with the heart (healing of being occurs) in the Holy Spirit), but only given (and not bought, earned, begged for), and only to those who can accept Him (the Holy Spirit) – only with a humble and contrite heart, the catechumens who have entered this state (seeing their sins, their weakness, their hellish perdition and the unspeakable Divine Love for themselves – a nobody, a criminal, an unpayable debtor) by the Orthodox fulfillment of all God’s commandments (including the commandment to pray, to pray often, to pray unceasingly!)!