Feelings towards God, even without words, are prayer. Words support and sometimes deepen feelings (humility, repentance, joy, thanksgiving…). Prayer (of catechumens who are already preparing for enlightenment, not for novice catechumens) is a conditional standing in the heart before God with praise, thanksgiving, supplication, and contrite repentance. The basis of this prayer is the reverent fear of God, from which comes faith about God and in God, self-surrender to God, trust, and drawing near to God in the feeling of love, forgetting all creation…
Prayer is the memory of God, the feeling of His presence: always, everywhere, and in everything. Prayer should become life (the word (the meaning-thought of Truth) should become a conscious deed-love, a conscious state of my entire being: mind, will, feelings… – everything should be filled with Truth). Life (everything in it – all the movements of my being and all its powers) should become prayer (communication with God, joint work with God, fulfilling God’s will, realizing His plans-designs; constant repentance – moving towards Christ, becoming like Christ, constant self-surrender to God (in a spirit of humility and thanksgiving) in all circumstances and in everything!!!). The Church gives the commandment: “pray without ceasing!” But no one can fulfill the commandment by their own strength (no catechumen can fulfill any commandment by definition! The commandment is given so that, in attempting to fulfill it, a person recognizes their weakness, powerlessness, sin – and, as a result, humbles themselves, and accepts the Gift of the Holy Spirit, salvation). Therefore, to pray as the Church commands (and not to read prayers without attention, reverence, and without repentance – there are no problems with such “prayers”, even a pagan, an atheist, anyone can “pray” in this way; mindlessly reading texts, mantras – this is a simple matter, sometimes extremely dangerous, because it brings the fruits of delusion, psychoneurotic states of pleasure, hallucinations, visions, ecstasies… and other catastrophic “gracious”, “supernatural” states to the zealots of such “prayers” who reach “unceasing prayers” (which – the states of delusion, demonic deception – “Christian” ascetics of “prayer” (incorrect, pagan, reciting mantras, magical incantations – and not conscious, attentive, obedient, reverent, repentant communication-standing before the Living God, Person-Consciousness-Freedom-Love) call “gracious”, “in the Holy Spirit”, “gracious experiences”, “gifts of the grace of the Holy Spirit”. Do not forget: those in delusion, heretics can perform miracles, signs, prophesy – see above), which end in madness, destruction of reason, various mental disorders, pathologies, suicides…), no one can (only Christians in the Holy Spirit can)! Therefore, the catechumen must try to fulfill the commandment “to pray to God”, learn to pray, often approach prayer, often place themselves before God, often turn to God, often remember God, often repent before God – and all this the catechumen does under the guidance of the one who catechizes them; and the catechumen, and the one who catechizes, do everything with great discernment and frequent counsel! There is no virtue without discernment! A novice catechumen must pray (correctly – with attention, reverence, and repentance; pray attentively (listen, understand every word of the prayer), with reverence (the fear of God, humble trembling before God) for the purpose of repentance, fulfilling God’s commandments, God’s will) with short (in terms of the duration of standing before God, not the number of words to be spoken) prayers, but as often as possible. Each catechumen has their own measure, their own abilities, so for each catechumen their own: “short” (duration) and “as often as possible” (interval between prayers) – all this is determined by discernment and advice, many consultations with a friend-advisor! The main thing in prayer is not quantity (words: promises, requests, thanks…), but quality – attention (vigilance, hearing what I say, understanding what I say, immersing the mind in the words-thoughts of the prayer) + reverence (trembling, in the fear of God standing before God the Father, Almighty, Creator, Provider, Crucified Love, Truth, Person-Face-Consciousness…) + repentance (so that the word becomes life – fulfilling God’s will, God’s commandments, good deeds, which you speak about in prayer; so that the word becomes a deed, done in a feeling of reverence, thanksgiving, humility…). Therefore, for beginners, prayers are short and by content-word… (examples of this in the following sections, when we will discuss specific prayers; if you have questions: contact our pharmacist (elder or young-elder, in our village no one knows who he is – the main thing is that he knows his business-service, and the grandmothers do not complain…), they say, he knows the doses and measures, but remember: whatever he advises you – check everything with the instructions, the Constitution, with the advice of other recognized Doctors – the Holy Fathers!). Therefore, learning the correct, saving, appropriate prayer is the science of sciences, the art of arts (this is the essence of catechism), which in due course will become a prayer in the baptism of the Holy Spirit, when the Lord gives the prayer (in the Holy Spirit) to the one who prays correctly (ascetically), that is, catechizes! Therefore, the fruit (of correct) prayers and alms (see Acts 10) is the baptism of the Holy Spirit, union with Jesus Christ, and in Christ – with God the Father! Correct prayer quickly leads the catechumen (the Orthodox ascetic of true prayer) to the baptismal font, to the baptism of the Holy Spirit – quickly brings them into the proper state of humility and contrition, knowing their weakness, seeing their sins and hoping in God-Love, in Jesus Christ! (To pray is the hardest thing on earth because it requires the whole person! And those who have tried to pray attentively (keeping the mind in the words of prayer) know well how many seconds their attention lasts: “So you could not keep watch with Me for one hour?” – see Matt. 26: 37-45. And how not to humble oneself: only said “Father”, and on the word “our” already scattered, forgot, daydreamed… and to say with attention “Your will be done” for a beginner is almost unrealistic…). And do not forget – we are created for prayer! So prayer (conscious communication with God) should be the foremost commandment we should fulfill unceasingly – alone or in conjunction with fulfilling other commandments, good deeds (“Be thankful! Whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, giving thanks to God the Father through Him” (see Col. 3: 12-17); “Give thanks in all circumstances! Rejoice always! Pray without ceasing!” (see 1 Thess. 5: 16-18). To pray – to do everything (with gratitude and joy) before God, for God, for the sake of communication with God, so that everything is to the glory of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit)! The goal of everything is repentance, union with God, prayer in the Holy Spirit! Be vigilant and pray without ceasing! Persevere in prayers! The Lord will not delay to come to you and unite you with Himself in the Holy Spirit forever!