A Reading from Noetic Prayer as the Basis of Mission and the Struggle Against Heresy
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 7 ก.พ. 2025
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This is a reading of Chapter 4
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My copy gets delivered tonight, I look forward to reading.
I have this book in paperback but it would be a blessing to also have the audio version of it, so I can listen to it on a long drive. I feel like noetic prayer is so crucially important.
Thank you! God bless ☦️
thank you Father for all that you do. this is helpful for me in my struggle
”They do not know how this frequent service of the lips imperceptibly becomes a genuine appeal of the heart, how man becomes immersed in the interior life, how the prayer becomes a delight, becomes, as it were, natural to the soul, bringing it light and nourishment and leading it to union with God” ....Please allow me to add text from a speech of elder father Cleopa Ilie of Romania: ” Prayer is the food of the soul, as we cannot live without air, without food, without drink, without heat, without light, without rest..., so the soul cannot live without prayer. That is why the Holy Spirit teaches us to pray all the time... ..St. Apostle Paul says "pray without ceasing". But how to pray without ceasing if you don't know? Yes, there are four kinds of prayers for new beginners, for children, for babies in Christ. 1. The prayer of the lips. Says the Apostle Paul "Bring the fruit of your lips to the Lord." 2. The prayer of the tongue. It says in the Psalter: "and I exalted Him under my tongue" 3. Prayer of the mouth "I will speak the Lord well all the time, always all the time in my mouth. I will always praise Him with my mouth." and 4. The prayer of the voice "With my voice to the Lord I cried. With my voice to the Lord I prayed." See these four kinds of prayers are on the lowest rung in the prayer ladder. But with these, you learn everything, for babies in Christ. And little children and old people, with these they begin to learn to pray, with their mouth, tongue, lips, with a loud voice, but if you stay at that, you stay in the first class all life. We must climb the ladder of prayer, because prayer has nine steps, until the Divine Rapture. When you pray, let the mind understand what the mouth says. To take the words of the mouth to the understanding of the mind. If your mind understands them, then you have passed the 5th step. But is the prayer of the mind complete? It's not the whole thing. It's half a prayer. Can a bird with one wing fly? Can a man with one leg walk? Yes, the prayer of the mind is half a prayer. Father Cleopa Ilie tells from the book "Sbornicul. The work of the mind. Collection about the Jesus Prayer" and says that one who writes to Theophan the Recluse, says to him: "Well, I have the prayer of the mind but my thoughts come like wasps" and the reply comes "Get down from there because there is a big fair. Who told you to stay at the prayer of the mind? You have to get to the prayer of the heart." And Ilie Cleopa developed: ”I mean, what the mouth says let the mind understand and the heart feel. Then you have reached the pure prayer. Saint Isaac the Syrian says: "one in 10,000 reaches the pure prayer, of those who struggle" The pure prayer. Because when the mind passes to the heart, to unite with the heart, it meets two customs. And when the heart descends into the heart, it meets the first customs at which you don't have to stop for a moment. The customs of imagination, imagination. Do not imagine God, because neither the cherubim nor the seraphim, no one can imagine, God has no limit in the ages of ages so that you can imagine him, see him with the eyes of the mind. Go through there quickly and then you will reach the customs of reason. It is in the gate of the heart. Here devils called archicons attack our minds. What sectarians have them. Who will turn the Bible upside down, all Scripture upside down. Here at the customs of reason, the devil does not attack with sins, with passions. Not. They attack with the words of Scripture. These are theological devils... When you focus your mind on your heart, you see that suddenly (the attack) appears in your mind: "You have raised Your horses to the sea, troubling many waters". And Cleopa Ilie analyzes: Where does this come from? The song of Moses. Who are the horses, huh? Who are the waters? How did they troubling? The apostles troubled the waters. Horses are the peoples who worship idols. The sea is everyone. But if you like it (the distraction), it brings you another. "The mountains skipped like rams, and the little hills like lambs." Where is this from? From the Psalms (114:4). What about the mountains? What about the hills? Saint Grigore Palama brings you the interpretation when he talks about deification after the gift. "God, I am a mountain, deified according to gift" which is the highest spiritual step. The hills place you on the 2nd step of the spiritual climb. In order to reach perfection, we have three steps: moral action, natural contemplation in the spirit, and deification after the gift. Moral performance still uses thinking to reach deification. Have you seen those who have chickens? And chickens have chicks. But the chicks are just starting to take wings. The rooster and the hen fly high on the treetops so that the fox doesn't find them, but the chickens would go too, but they can't fly. The chickens see a cart, and they fly on it. They see a beam fly at her. From this beam to another. And flying from one to the other, the chickens also reach up there. The man on the 2nd rung of the climb does the same, he uses thinking to reach the 3rd rung.
And you see when it is at the customs of reason when the mind goes beyond the sound of the heart, the mind is not allowed to theologize (says St. John Chrysostom).
When you pray, don't theologize, because you will be mocked by the devil. The theological devils will attack you. To keep your mind on these things, the devil also gives you pride. "Hey, look what great things I understand now, this is because I pray." And the devils laugh at you to the max. And Father Cleopa Ilie says, you don't pray, you theologize. Not. Then you descend with only one reason in your heart saying "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me." leave theology aside. And when the mind joined the heart, what is the sign that you have descended into the heart? A nail of fire rises in the heart. A nail of fire. This is how the heart warms. ...The heart warms up like fire and feels a great divine sweetness. What was? The Bride and Groom got together. Christ with our Soul that we have since Baptism, in our heart. Now it has joined through the speaking part, through the mind, with our soul. And from now on it only heats up, the chest, the spine, the whole body is on fire. And after the body has warmed up, tears start to flow from your eyes”.( I will update a later edit with the rest of his speech)
St. Seraphim of Sarov ☦️
As a protestant that enjoys reading the Bible, I can't relate to orthodox church reliance on "saints" comments. (wise they may be) but I prefer actual Bible texts to justify an opinion. BUT I did see a few references to the Bible in this reading, which helped me to understand. I don't say constant spiritual prayer isn't good, or isn't necessary, but I don't think it is possible for everyone.. I think God gives different gifts to people, and the ability to reach that spiritual prayer is only one of those gifts. I also wish explanations of orthodoxy in general would be explained in common man's language.. 80 percent of this went over my head.
And yet those of us who do now understand this who thought just like you a short time ago, through the very process explained here, can relate to and understand you and what you are generally saying and going through and will pray for you. You are one of perhaps (millions?) who profess such a stance.
Something to consider.
It's ok if most of this was difficult to grasp. This book isn't necessarily directed at those outside the Orthodox Church. However, we do have a book you would probably enjoy very much: The Truth of Our Faith by Elder Cleopa.
In this book Elder Cleopa answers the questions of many Protestants who came to him inquiring about Orthodoxy and how the Scriptures are to be understood. Elder Cleopa was a holy elder who had deep experience of God and was very well-versed in the Scriptures, citing them nearly one thousand times in this book. Please pick up a copy. It sounds like the perfect book for you.
Buy the book here: uncutmountainpress.com/shop/product/the-truth-of-our-faith/
Watch the Book Trailer: th-cam.com/video/zZCmeSCcNOg/w-d-xo.html
Listen to a reading of one of the chapters here: th-cam.com/video/gyY2fpqJB50/w-d-xo.html
Well, the Orthodox dearly love the Scriptures that its Saints and Holy Apostles wrote through the teaching of the Holy Spirit. The services are filled, lifted, founded on those Scriptures. Far more than i ever experienced in my former life..Keep watching these videos, please. You are here for a reason.. i thought of the Ethiopian eunuch today who needed St. and Holy Apostle Philip to teach him.. Keep watching. Please, keep watching..☦💝☦