Wednesday, July 6, 2011

On Prayer by St Makarios of Egypt

The crown of every good endeavour and the highest of achievements is diligence in prayer. Through it, God guiding us and lending a helping hand, we come to acquire the other virtues.

It is in prayer that the saints experience communion in the hidden energy of God's holiness and inner union with it, and their intellect (nous) itself is brought through unutterable love into the presence of the Lord.

"Thou has given gladness to my heart," wrote the Psalmist. And the Lord Himself said that "the kingdom of heaven is within you."

And what does the kingdom being within mean, except that the heavenly gladness of the Spirit is clearly stamped on the virtuous soul? For already in this life, the active communion with the Spirit, the virtuous soul receives a foretaste and a prelude of the eternal light of Christ's kingdom.

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