The following text is adapted from some of the works of St. Theophan the Recluse. 

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Chapter 1: How to Enter a Prayerful State of Mind

Prayer – the soul’s breath – is of utmost importance in the life of a Christian. The presence of prayer in someone’s life means that person is spiritually alive.  Without prayer, a person is dead.

Standing in front of icons and bowing is not yet prayer itself – these are attributes of prayer. The same can be said about reading prayers – whether recited by memory or read from a book – such a practice is not prayer itself, but merely a means to start it. The first step in prayer is invoking feelings of reverence for God: devotion and gratitude to the Father, submission to the will of God, an aspiration to glorify Him, and other similar feelings. While praying, we should make those feelings permeate ourselves in order to prevent having a [spiritually] dry heart. It is only when our hearts appeal to God that reading our morning or evening prayers becomes true prayer, otherwise it is not yet prayer.

Prayer, which is an appeal of our heart to God, should be invoked and strengthened; a spirit of intercession should be stirred up within us.

The first way to stir up such prayer is through reading or listening to prayers written in prayer-books.  Read the prayer-book or listen to it very attentively.  Doing so will certainly incite and strengthen the heart in its ascension to God, which in turn will help us attain a prayerful spirit.  In the prayers of holy fathers (printed in prayer-books and other church books), a great prayer-power is in motion. Those who diligently attend to the prayers will – through the force of interaction – enjoy that power, because the state of mind of a praying person comes closer to the essence of those prayers. In order to turn your intercessions into an effective nourishing prayer, you must engage both your mind and heart to perceive the content of the prayers being read.

Here are the three simplest ways to achieve effective prayer:

• Do not begin prayer without preparing yourself for it properly.
• Say prayers with feeling and attention, but not casually.
• After completing your prayer, do not hasten to go back to your everyday cares.

Preparation for praying: Before you begin praying, no matter where you are, stand or sit for a short time.  Calm your mind, relieving it of all irrelevant work and cares. Then give thought to Who it is that you are praying to, and who you are in regards to Him.  Invoke the appropriate attitude of humility and reverential awe to God. That is the beginning of prayer, and a good beginning is half the success.

Praying itself: Having prepared yourself, stand in front of the icons, make the sign of the cross, bow, and begin the usual praying.  Pray without haste, discerning every word, and drawing the prayer close to your heart. You should understand what you are reading and feel what you understand.  Pray while frequently making the sign of the cross with bows.  Such is the essence of reading prayers in a manner that is fruitful and God pleasing.  For example, while reading “Cleanse me from every impurity” you should feel how impure you are, desire the cleansing, and ask the Lord for it.  In saying, “Thy will be done,” commend your destiny to the Lord completely and wholeheartedly, with readiness to accept gladly whatever He sends you. While reading, “And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors,” your soul should forgive everyone who has offended you.

Praying every phrase of a prayer in the above manner creates real prayer.

Additionally, here are four other guidelines:

• First, set a certain prayer rule for yourself.  It should not be too lengthy so that you can fulfill it without haste within your busy daily routine.
• Second, in your spare time, attentively read through your normal set of prayers, understanding and perceiving every word.  Doing so will help you realize what feeling and thoughts you need to evoke in your soul to understand and perceive everything easily during your prayers.
• Third, if your thoughts are frequently distracted by other things during prayer, exert yourself to focus your attention, keeping your mind concentrated on the subject of your prayer. Bring your mind back every time it wanders away. Read the prayer – again and again – until every word of the prayer is said with awareness and feeling. Such a practice will help discipline your mind to prevent absent-mindedness during prayer. [Editor’s note: not all Church Fathers recommend this method. Speak to your priest if you are uncertain]
• Fourth, if some word in the prayer touches your soul in a special way, do not keep going.  Rather, pause and focus on that word or phrase, nourishing your soul with the attention, feeling, and thoughts evoked by the word.  Stick to that state of mind until it fades away. This is a sign of the prayerful spirit beginning to enter you.  That state of mind and soul is the most reliable way to cherish and strengthen the prayerful spirit in a person.

What to Do after Prayer

After finishing your prayer, do not hasten to take up your usual chores.  Rather slow down and think – at least for a little while – about what you felt and to what it obliges you.  Try to keep in your mind what impressed you most of all.  True prayer will cause the praying person to desire to dwell in the sweetness of prayer, to hesitate to return to one’s daily duties.  It is similar to those who have tasted something sweet – they do not want anything bitter.  Enjoying the sweetness of prayer is in fact the goal of saying prayers, which rouses a prayerful spirit [in us].

Following these simple rules will soon bring results.  Prayerful invocation makes a good impact on the soul – and if you stick to these rules – it deepens the impact.  Patience in prayer will generate a prayerful mood.

Those are the first steps in rousing a prayerful spirit in oneself – yet there is even more!

Further Progress in Prayer

After your mind and heart become accustomed to turning to God through written prayers, you should try to pray in your own words. Your aim is to make your soul capable of entering into a conversation with the Lord, lifting up your mind and heart to Him, opening up in confession to Him, and telling Him what is in your soul and what it needs. We must teach this to our souls.

How can we succeed in mastering such knowledge? One common way is to pray by the book with awe, attention, and deep emotion. For it is from the heart filled with devout feelings and prayers that your own prayer will begin to emanate and be addressed to God. But there are also other ways that lead to the desired result in prayer.

The first way to teach your soul to turn frequently to God is through meditation, that is, devout contemplation over divine ways and deeds. The soul ponders God’s mercy, justice, wisdom, creation, and providence. It also dwells upon our salvation through Christ – mediated through God’s grace and the Word of God – as well as the sacred mysteries and the heavens. Those thoughts will unfailingly fill your soul with devout awe towards God, which directly turns the whole being of a man to God. It is a direct way to teach your soul how to rise up to God.

Having finished your prayer, especially in the morning, sit down and contemplatively tune your soul to the ways and deeds of God. Join holy Saint Dimity of Rostov in saying, “Visit me, sacred godly thinking, and we will be absorbed in contemplating the great acts of God.” This will touch your heart and your soul will start pouring itself into prayer. With little effort you will achieve much. However, you must practice this with persistence.

For example, begin to think of God’s Grace – it will show you that both your spiritual and bodily being is endowed with God’s mercies. You will fall down before Him overwhelmed with gratitude. Start thinking about God’s omnipresence and you will understand that – wherever you are – you are facing God and God is facing you. Then you will be filled with devout awe. Think of the Truth of God, and you will be convinced that no bad deed goes without consequence. Such a realization will lead you to completely cleanse your sins through your heart-filled repentance and lowliness. Ponder God’s omniscience and you will understand that everything in you is open to God’s eye. As a result, you will become stricter with yourself in every matter so that you do not offend God – who sees everything – in any way.

The second way to teach your soul to turn to God is based on devoting every deed – big or small – to the glory of God. For, if according to the commandment of the Apostle (1 Cor. 10:31), we consistently devote everything we do, even eating and drinking, to the glory of God, then no matter what we are doing, we will certainly remember God. Not only will we remember Him, but we will fear to do something that could anger God. Such a devotion causes us turn to God with fear – asking for His help and enlightenment. And since we are always doing something, we will constantly turn to Him throughout the day in prayer – thus learning the skill of frequently addressing God in prayer.

The third way to teach our souls to pray is to appeal frequently to God from our hearts during the day with short petitions. These petitions concern the needs of our souls and the things we are doing at the moment. When beginning to do something, say, “Bless me, O Lord!” Finishing the work, say: “Glory to Thee, O Lord!”  If a passion inflames you, fall down before God in your heart saying, “Save me, O Lord, I am perishing!” When overcome with disconcerting thoughts, call out, “Lead me on Thy way, O Lord,” or “Do not let my feet go astray.” If you are downcast by sin, growing despondent, exclaim like the tax collector did: “O, God be merciful to me a sinner!”

You should develop such a habit in all situations. [Alternatively,] you can simply repeat [one or more of] the following:

• “Lord have mercy!”
• “Holy Lady Theotokos, save me!”
• “Angel of God, my holy guardian, protect me!”
• Or some other similarly worded prayer, calling upon God’s name.

The point is that this habit should be done all throughout the day. It should feel as if the words are being squeezed out of the heart [rather than being said absentmindedly]. When we attain to such a state, our hearts will often rise up to God, addressing God in frequent prayers that translate into the ability to converse intelligently with God.

In summary, there are three ways – besides the typical morning and evening prayers – that will lead us to a prayerful spirit:

• Devote some time in the morning to Godly meditation and contemplation
• Devote every action to the glory of God
• Appeal to God often with short invocations

After we thoroughly ponder over spiritual ideas in the morning, sacred thoughts tune [the soul] to constant remembrance of God. Those thoughts – in turn – direct all our actions, both external and internal, to the glory of God. Glorifying God in all things reminds us to send short, prayerful invocations to God.

These three ways are a most effective means to learn inward, heartfelt prayer. Those who practice this method will soon master the skill of ascending to God in their hearts. Thus, a soul will begin entering the sphere of the Sublime – so inherent to its nature – through the heart and through its thoughts. Such a state beginning in this life, prepares the soul to appear before God in the next life.

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The information here was compiled by Bishop Alexander (Mileant) and translated by Irina Nabatova-Barrett.  In order to make the translation more readable for an English audience, it was edited quite heavily by Subdeacon Jeremiah McKemy.