"Pray for us." Consider who it is that asks for the prayers of others. It is Paul, who once, with his fellow worker Silas, offered prayerful praise to God in the Philippian prison.
He did this with such spiritual power that "suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened, and everyone’s chains were loosed" (Acts 16:25-26).
It is Paul, who by the embrace of compassionate love and prayer raised Eutychus. It is Paul, to whose prayer God granted at once two hundred seventy-six souls, his companions in the voyage, who were ready to perish by shipwreck.
It is Paul, whom the Lord Himself called a "chosen vessel" (Acts 9:15) of His grace. It is Paul, who did not hesitate to confess of himself: "I can do all things through Jesus Christ who strengthens me" (Phil 4:13).
And this man, who can do all things, asks help for himself in prayer. From whom does he ask? Not from certain chosen and strong men of prayer, but from all the Hebrew Christians without distinction, not excluding even the last layman.
What, then, does Saint Paul do? What he does is worthy of our deep attention. If we are attentive, it can give us no small instruction.
The Apostle’s example should make us understand, Christians, how urgent is the need for mutual prayer for one another, and especially for common prayer.
Even this strong spiritual struggler acknowledges his need for this spiritual help. How bold it would be to rely on the power of one’s own prayer alone, even if one had already had some experience and attained some success in it.
A man so extraordinarily and wondrously graced did not dare rely on his own prayer. With what humility and simplicity, then, must we not reject or despise the prayerful help of the weakest of the faithful.
Paul’s clairvoyant spirit did not use in this case a discrimination that is hard to use without self-exaltation and contempt for one’s neighbor. Such discrimination would have had no purpose.
For the "power" of God "is made perfect in weaknesses" (2 Cor 12:9). Therefore it can sometimes be made perfect even in those who appear to be the weakest in prayer.
From Saint Paul’s example we may also note how faithfully, even to this day, the same spirit and order are preserved in the Church of God that the holy Apostles introduced into her by teaching and example.
At every divine service you hear how the Church calls all the faithful, not excluding the weakest and the last, to pray for one another in general and in various relations.
She calls them especially to pray for those who have been called to the ministry of grace in succession to the Apostles.
In order to show you clearly, without difficult arguments, the beneficent action of prayer for one another, I shall cite the example of another Apostle.
"Peter was kept in prison, but earnest prayer was being made by the Church to God for him. And when Herod was about to bring him out," for trial and probably for execution, "that night Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains, and the guards before the door were keeping the prison" (Acts 12:5-6).
The danger is extreme. Deliverance seems impossible. Besides this, Peter himself does not pray for deliverance. "Peter was sleeping." But what an unexpected event!
"Behold, an angel of the Lord stood by him" (Acts 12:7). He awakened Peter; the chains fell from him by themselves; the angel led him through the locked doors, between the guards standing by them, and left him free.
How did Peter obtain deliverance, not by praying it out, but while resting in sleep? Because "earnest prayer was being made by the Church to God for him." It accomplished Peter’s deliverance without his effort and without his knowledge.
Those little acquainted with the works of the spirit may ask why people who themselves have the gift of prayer, cultivated by practice and bearing even miraculous fruits, require the prayerful action of others.
Some, out of perplexity and simplicity, may say of Peter or Paul what the Jews once said of Christ in hardness of heart and reproach: "He saved others; can He not save Himself?" (Mt 27:42).
To those who sincerely ask, we answer this: Paul asks the prayer of others for himself out of humility. Peter does not save himself from prison because he rejects his own will and gives himself over to the will of God’s providence.
At the same time, love for mankind and compassion make this same Peter and this same Paul much freer, and bold by faith, in prayer for others.
Therefore they truly save others by their prayer, and are not ashamed themselves to be saved by the prayer of others.
But why does God place upon His chosen ones this form of spiritual poverty and abasement, that they borrow the assistance of prayer from other people who are less graced?
He does this in order to preserve the height of their dignity more securely in the depth of their humility. Or let these people themselves explain the wondrous divine economy in them.
"We have," they say, "this treasure in earthen vessels, that the exceeding greatness of the power may be of God and not from us" (2 Cor 4:7).
If the saints were always as wondrously mighty for themselves as they often are for others, undiscerning people would easily ascribe to them the divine power acting in them.
Thus they would steal from God the glory that belongs to Him. But when the same people are in one case Godlike in miraculous power, and in another subject with us to the common infirmity of men, then even the undiscerning must see that here appears "the exceeding greatness of the power" of God, "and not from us."
Let us return to the Apostle’s words that we have taken as the guide for our present reflection. "Pray for us, for we trust that we have a good conscience, desiring to live honorably in all things."
He does not simply demand prayers for himself. He presents something by which his request may be acknowledged as just, and by which they may not refuse what is asked.
"For we trust that we have a good conscience, desiring to live honorably in all things." In these words one may see the following reflection of the Apostle.
If I recognized in myself a conscience that was not good, not cleansed of sins as far as human possibility and God’s grace allow, and if I had no sincere intention to lead a good life in every respect, then I would not dare ask the Church for prayerful help.
An unclean conscience is unworthy of such help, and such help cannot assist an evil intention. But since, examining my heart before God, I do not find that my conscience accuses me of deeds knowingly and intentionally evil, I have boldness.
On the contrary, I strive in every case to have intentions pleasing to God, useful to my neighbors, and saving to my own soul. Therefore with undisturbed boldness I flee to the Spirit of grace and compassion.
He breathes in the Church, searches hearts, and gives to all according to the heart of each. Thus here is another instruction that we must draw for ourselves from the Apostle’s example.
Whoever desires to make use of the assisting prayer of his neighbors and of the whole Church must diligently examine his conscience. He must reject every sinful intention and every unclean desire.
He must strive without hypocrisy, in every case, to accomplish that portion of good and righteousness possible for him, according to God’s natural gift and according to prevenient grace.
Only then may he ask with hope for the most worthy spiritual and grace-filled help from souls that sincerely pray.
Such, brethren, are the laws of the common spirit of prayer. Such is the order of its operation. Whoever does not submit to these laws and does not attend to this order will complain in vain of the scanty fruits of common and mutual prayer.
He must complain against himself, against his lack of understanding. Or, since for simple ignorance that loves the good there are simple inspirations of the spirit and the secret help of grace, he must still more justly complain against his own voluntary negligence or unfaithfulness.
The Church continually calls us to reciprocal prayer: sometimes especially for those who govern and serve the Church; sometimes for our brethren suffering in various ways; sometimes for all of one faith in general.
The appointed choir again and again cries out to the Lord on our behalf, asking mercy for us and the granting of grace to us. What, then, are you doing, you who stand here?
Are you also crying out in your heart at this time? Do you feel the importance of this communion, so as to join your small prayerful voice to the great prayerful harmony of the Church?
Do you think of your private prayer humbly and lowly, and of the united prayer of the Church with reverence and good hope?
Or do you merely hear the reader’s passing words like the noise of wind, and the singer’s voice like the sound of a pipe? Among those animated by the spirit of prayer, do you stand idle, cold, and unfeeling?
If this is unfortunately so, then come to yourself, half-dead soul. Awaken your heart. Cry out to the Lord from your inward depth, so that by your soaring you may touch the depths of the Spirit of God, Who fills the Church of God.
Thus you may draw to yourself the beginning of the Spirit of grace and compassion, for the renewal and good ordering of your life.
Some apparently turn to the prayers of the Church, invoke the prayers of the saints, and ask prayers from certain neighbors. Meanwhile they do not turn sufficiently to their own conscience.
They do not give sufficient attention to their life. They do not take up good intentions, or, having taken them up, do not preserve them.
They say to a saint, "Pray for us," while they themselves stand carelessly in the way of sinners. Have you considered what you are asking?
Was the spirit of prayer given to the Church so that it might, like a whirlwind, seize an unrepentant sinner and throw him into paradise?
What righteousness would there be with God in such a case? And what would become of paradise itself if it were filled with sinners uncleansed by repentance and uncorrected in life?
A blessed place cannot make a sinner blessed. Rather, a sinner defiles and damages even a blessed place by himself, as happened once to this blessed world through Adam’s sin.
No. The grace-filled spirit of prayer is given by God to help sinners who have felt and hated their sinfulness. They have decisively desired purification and complete correction.
They lack only the strength to do good, not the good intention.
I desire, brethren, that as few as possible be found among us for whom there is rebuke in our present reflection. Whoever finds rebuke for himself here should not be angry at the one who rebukes by duty.
Let him accept the well-intentioned reminder and use it for his correction. May this be granted to us all by the grace of the Lord God and our Savior Jesus Christ, through the prayers of our venerable father Sergius and all the saints. Amen.
THEOSIS