On the Energies of Divine Grace
We once asked an elder, "How can a person receive divine grace?"
"One cannot receive divine grace unless he endures all temptations as they
come," he replied and then added: "The greatest obstacle that obstructs
God's grace is self-love. When : God finds one 's heart emptied of all
desires, He fills it with I His grace, which is impossible to describe. It
can only be experienced in one's heart. But even a moment's sinful thoughts
can make this grace withdraw. "
------------------------------
An elder said, "People of today do not have God's grace. And if they
sometimes have a little bit of it, they cast it away. Then the demons stay
with them. Bad thoughts obstruct divine grace. No ascesis is as powerful as
good thoughts. Good thoughts come only to those who see everything through
cleansed eyes."
-------------------------
A contemporary venerable hesychast would say to me: "Not many people are
graced these days. Frequently we remain empty of God's grace. Then through a
sorrow or difficult it comes back to us again."
------------------------
An elder said, "Many times our prayers are not answered because of us. Other
times it is because of someone else and for a different reason. For example,
someone asks me to pray for a person who is ill. I pray, and let's say I
have sufficient faith and am not egotistical. Still God does not answer my
prayer, because the other person is not humble enough. He may believe that
God will help, but his ego stands in the way. We must trust God. We should
let Him do whatever He wills. If I pray correctly, I may feel the removal of
the temptation, and everything will go well. Any time, however, that God
allows us to go through a temptation, it is for our own benefit, and we
should probably not ask God to deliver us from that difficulty. If the
difficulty is caused by the Devil, then God helps us right away. Many times
God's will is unknown to us."
-----------------------------
Ail ascetic once was asked: "How is it that many times we don't feel
anything when we pray, either in church or privately somewhere else?"
He answered: "There are many possible reasons. Sometimes you may feel deep
compunction, or you may sense that the Lord has given you a sweet
consolation, though not as a result of your own labour. Then, because you
did not understand these things, He takes them away until you understand.
There is always a purpose to these things.
"In any case, do not strive for the gift of tears while praying, or for any
other spiritual gift, for that matter. The silent suffering within a person
for some sin done in the past is the best gift Forced tears in prayer can be
dangerous because they can create illusions about one's spiritual state.
"Tears give rest. A deep sigh many times could be worth— 1 am not sure, this
is only my thought, and I might be wrong—such a deep sigh might be worth
more than a basketful of tears.
"We should not ask from God the gift of tears; rather we should ask Him for
repentance, over and over again. We need repentance."
----------------------------
The ever memorable Elder Lazaros the Dionysiatan told us the following
incident, which was an experience of his own. He had just been tonsured, and
one day as he was reading the salutations of St. John the Forerunner,
standing before St. John's awesome icon, he was filled with such grace in
his heard St. John the Baptist say to him, "Go to the chapel of' the Holy
Unmercenaries and be hesychastic. Father Lazaros had indeed just been
praying about this very thing, because he had the desire to be a hesychast
outside the monastery in a small hut near the forest.
