Prayer is the mother and daughter of tears. It is an expiation of sin, a bridge across temptation, a bulwark against affliction. It wipes out conflict, is the work of angels, and is the nourishment of everything spiritual. Prayer is future gladness, action without end, wellspring of virtues, source of grace, hidden progress, food of the soul, enlightenment of mind, an axe against despair, hope demonstrated, sorrow done away with. It is a wealth for monks, treasure of hermits, anger diminished. It is a mirror of progress, a demonstration of success, evidence of one’s condition, the future revealed, a sigh of glory. For the man who really prays it is the court, the judgment hall, the tribunal of the Lord—and this prior to the judgment that is to come.
Let us arise and pay heed to what that holy queen of the virtues cries out to us in a loud voice, saying: “ ‘Come to me, all of you who labor and are weighed down, and I will give you rest. Take upon yourselves my yoke, and you will find rest for your souls’ (Mt. 11:28-29), and a balm for the blows that fall on you. ‘For my yoke is easy’ (ibid. 30) and is a remedy for great sins.”
~St. John Climacus (c. 579-649): The Ladder of Divine Ascent, Step 28—On Prayer.
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| "Heavenly ladder of St. John Climacus," by Russian School (17th century). St. Petersburg, State Russian Museum. |