One who wishes to pray (have communion-fellowship with God – ignite the Fire of the Holy Spirit in their heart, be baptized in the Holy Spirit) must ensure the creation of appropriate conditions under which this Fire of Pentecost can ignite in the heart, allowing the Holy Spirit to pour into it. What kind of heart can burn with the Holy Spirit (what essence can assimilate the Holy Spirit)? – A humble, merciful heart, broken by repentance, watered with tears of repentance… According to spiritual law, like is joined to like. To unite with the humble (“Learn from Me (Jesus Christ), for I am gentle and humble in heart”) and the merciful (“Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful”), one must also be humble and merciful (as much as possible in the old covenant state; we will discuss these states and how to enter them in more detail below and in the following parts, how to acquire these virtues and their signs-fruits). Thus, the necessary conditions for prayer to be fulfilled (achieving its goals – communion-union) (the baptism of the Holy Spirit) are humility: “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble,” “Blessed are the poor in spirit (= humble), for theirs is the Kingdom of God”… and mercy: “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful,” “I desire mercy, not sacrifice,” “Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy,” “Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us… For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.”
We have previously discussed that forgiving (showing mercy) means accepting your neighbor as they are now, to help them become better, more blessed. Thus, “if you do not accept your neighbors with a merciful heart as they are (so that they, relying on your love-mercy, faith in them, trust in them, will become better, more perfect), then your Father (God-Love) will not accept you, will not be able to unite with you, baptize you in the Holy Spirit, and you will not be able to unite with the Humble and Merciful Holy Spirit.” The necessary conditions for baptism in the Holy Spirit (for the fulfillment of prayer in the Holy Spirit) are clearly, briefly, and unambiguously formulated in the Acts of the Apostles: “Your prayers and your alms have ascended as a memorial before God… Your prayer has been heard, and your alms have been remembered before God” (see Acts 10:4, 31). Therefore, prayer and alms, that is, humility and mercy. Prayer is the expression, the fruit of humility, and alms are the fruit of mercy, the deeds of a merciful heart. God hears and accepts the prayers of the humble; therefore, the essence of God-pleasing, true prayer is humility. Humility is the source of prayer, the mother of prayer. The proud do not pray, do not ask, do not thank, have no need for communion – they are self-sufficient; only the humble (those who know the truth about themselves and about God) pray truly, sincerely, and righteously, only the humble (poor in spirit; nothingness, which for their sins deserves all the torments of hell, but instead constantly receives the Gifts-Graces of God) give true thanks, only the humble (poor in spirit, needy, those who thirst for what they lack) ask truly, genuinely need. Humility is the foundation of every virtue, every good deed. From humility flows both prayer and mercy. Prayer is love for God, alms is love for people! To pray is to communicate with the Beloved, to fulfill the will of the Beloved, to fulfill the desires, covenants, commandments of the Beloved – this is love for God, the manifestation of love. Humility is the fruit of the deeds (fulfillment of all God’s commandments) of love, life according to Orthodox faith-trust. Humility is unthinkable without mercy, humility is the mother of mercy. Mercy is the source of all good deeds. Announcement – is the zealous fulfillment of God’s commandments, more precisely, one: Love for God, from which flows the similar – Love for the image of God (to created personal essences), to all that is God’s! Therefore, it is said: “prayers (Love for God) and alms (Love for neighbor),” because they make the announced humble, that is, capable of being baptized in the Holy Spirit in the name of Jesus Christ to the glory of God the Father! Therefore, the non-humble, that is, those who do not pray and do not do alms, cannot be baptized in the Holy Spirit! The necessary condition for baptism in the Holy Spirit (or prayer in the Holy Spirit) is humility, which primarily manifests itself in prayers (thanksgiving, repentance, intercession…) and alms-mercy! The merciful, for example, do not judge anyone, pity everyone, do not wrong anyone, do not grieve anyone, try to be at peace with everyone, etc.
Therefore, by unfolding the Constitution of the Church and describing the constitutional necessary conditions for baptism in the Holy Spirit, we can say that in order to become capable of being baptized in the Holy Spirit, one needs: not to judge – “Do not judge, and you will not be judged,” “For with the judgment you make you will be judged,” “Judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful”; to forgive the offenses, debts of their offenders, abusers, enemies: “if you do not forgive from your heart their offenses, debts… neither will your Father forgive your offenses, sin, unpayable debts” (see also the parable of the unmerciful debtor in Matt. 18:23-35); to be at peace with everyone, to reconcile with everyone, to forgive everyone and to ask forgiveness from all those you have wronged, offended, grieved: “Be at peace with everyone, if it depends on you; strive for peace with everyone (forgive everyone and ask forgiveness from everyone), love your enemies…”. (When we speak of mercy, it is clear that it is shameful to speak of the Law: how can the merciful, who does a lot of spiritual, soulful, bodily alms (who loves enemies, tries to love enemies) not take care of their own parents (when they do a lot of alms for “strangers”), not honor their parents and not take care of their relatives, household members, or steal, kill, commit adultery (steal a brother’s wife, or a wife’s husband), covet something that belongs to a neighbor (whom they pity, pity with a merciful heart), slander a neighbor, judge, wrong… That is, the Law has been left far behind – the announced has already traveled from lawlessness to the Law, and has covered a considerable distance from the Law to Grace, that is, has worked hard (endured) in prayers and alms-mercy).