“We cannot say the Jesus Prayer without our thoughts being plundered. With beginners, God does not demand undistracted prayer: it is acquired with much time and labor. As the writings of the Holy Fathers say: ‘God gives prayer to him who prays,’ thus we must nevertheless continue to pray, orally, and with the mind.”
— St Hilarion of Optina
“From the moment you sit or kneel down to pray, many demons attack you, even at your first words of prayer; the evil one fills your mind with many worldly thoughts, all sorts of unimportant things. Even the curiosity to know the time will occupy in your mind. Or the interest to know whether is sunshine or cloudy outside. All these thoughts may seem innocent, but they vanish the voice of prayer from our hearts.
“Elder Porphyrios says that these thoughts that assault our mind while we’re praying are like airplanes. You hear them from afar like a soft noise without much disturbance, then they grow stronger and when they fly above your head they overwhelm you with their noise, but then they’ll pass away.
“But if you get into conversation with such thoughts – says Father Porphyrios – they’ll make your heart an airport.”
— Father George Calciu
