In the hour of prayer, when our mind wanders to thoughts of bad things, or if these thoughts come without our wanting them, we shouldn’t wage an offensive war against the enemy; because, even if all the lawyers in the world joined together, they wouldn’t make any headway with a little demon. Only through ignoring these thoughts can one chase them away. The same is true for blasphemous thoughts.
The Elder Paisios
I have also heard it said that filling our hearts with prayers to God, rather than chasing evil thoughts, can be effective.
Fr. Stephen
Heh, heh, heh… a good chuckle has also been known to have beneficial effects. Thanks, dear Father.
The Jesus prayer is very effective. Thank you and God bless.
Lawyers and Demons… Back when I was in the Navy that title is what we would have called a target rich environment. 😉
Under the mercy,
John
Thank you Father for the reminder! In most things it is what you pay attention to…
David, please have pity on our noisy children. Oh, and us beautiful women too. 😉
Hmmm some of the above comments make me wonder if perhaps we should not take a close look at the discipline of the Russian Church Abroad who separate the genders during liturgy.
Under the mercy,
John
If a child distracts you, pray for the child (not that he’ll quit distracting you). But prayer for a child is always pleasing to God. Better to please God in a liturgy than to please yourself. If a woman distracts you, lower your eyes. Liturgies are for praying, not for watching.
I just love the accompanying picture. nice.
Ad Orientem,
Same in Ethiopian churches genders are separated just like the Russian churches not only abroad here in America as well. There is discipline of attire as well. Everyone should think first that they go to pray and need to remember that when getting ready for church.
Kids like to imitate the priest and the choir duromg servoce. They should always be shown love and parents should not be discouraged by the noise they make or their act after a while they will grow out of it. Others without kids should not be hard either it is part of life. Like Father said pray for the child, and it works try it.
Very active children who hardly pay attention to the parents quiet whisperings during Divine Liturgy makes me think of how loving and patient God is to us (people) who commit all kinds of disobedient acts against God.
Parents don’t be disheartened with your very active children during the Divine Liturgy, your patience and kindness towards your children during this time reminds me of God’s love and long suffering towards His people.
And by this post I understand you to be saying “One who prays is a theologian” and that we should focus more on knowing God and less on protracted argument and effort to know about God.
Thank you for the insight into prayer!
There was an instance when my car was hit and the other party was at fault.To make a long story short, I was passing by my attorney in the Chicago subway system, I stopped to say hi but he looked like he had a lot in his mind and did not notice me.But god showed me something interesting, the holy spirit is stronger in us than other times, but as I passed him by he started to shake violently.This only last about three minutes then he returned to normal as if nothing ever happened! what god showed me is that he was serving satan unconsciously. Many lawyers have demons of lying.