Conferences IX & X - On Prayer

John Cassian


The ultimate way to pray is "wordless prayer"
(XXV.1 p.345)

• All types of prayer are important: “I urge first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be
  made.” (IX p.335) “Thus it is clear that all these kinds which we have spoken about appear helpful and necessary to
  everyone, so that in one and the same man a changing disposition will send forth pure and fervent prayers of
  supplication at one time, prayer at another, and intercessions at another (XV.1 p.338)… Yet sometimes the mind
  which advances to that true disposition of purity and has already begun to be rooted in it… pours out to God
  wordless prayers of the purest vigor (XV.2 p.339) … Hence, in whatever state a person is, he sometimes finds
  himself making pure and intense prayers.” (XV.3 p.339)
  
• The ultimate way to pray is ‘wordless prayer’: “This prayer (The Lord’s Prayer), although it seems to contain the
  utter fullness of perfection inasmuch as it was instituted and established on the authority of the Lord himself,
  nonetheless raises his familiars to that condition which we characterized previously as more sublime. It leads them
  by a higher stage to that fiery and, indeed, more properly speaking, wordless prayer which is known and experienced
  by very few.” (XXV.1 p.345)
  
• Different experiences may occur in prayer: “… an ineffable joy and gladness of spirit… profound
  speechlessness… outpouring of tears (XXVII p.346/7)…‘That is not a perfect prayer,’ (St Anthony) said,
  ‘wherein a monk understands himself or what he is praying.”(XXXI p.349)
  
• The importance of interiority: “Before anything else, we must carefully observe the gospel command which says
  that we should go into our room and pray to our Father with the door shut. We shall fulfill this in the following way.
  We pray in our room when we withdraw our hearts completely from the clatter of every thought and concern and
  disclose our prayers to the Lord in secret and, as it were, intimately. We pray with the door shut when, with closed
  lips and in total silence, we pray to the searcher not of voices but of hearts. We pray in secret when, intent in heart and
  mind alone, we offer our petitions to God alone… prayer should be made frequently, but briefly...” (XXXVI.1
  (p.353)
  
• There is an inherent danger in images: “It is against the error of ..people that the text is well directed: ‘The changed
  the glory of the incorruptible God into the likeness of an image of a corruptible man.(Conference X V.1)
  
• Solitude is important: “But they alone see his Godhead with purest eyes who, mounting from humble and earthly
  tasks and thoughts, go off with him to the lofty mountain of the desert…..our Lord…taught us by the example of
  his withdrawal that, if we too wish to address God with purity and integrity of heart, we should likewise draw apart
  from all the turbulence and confusion of the crowd.” (VI.4 p.375)

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