December: Day 9: Teaching 2: Righteous Hannah, Mother of the Prophet Samuel

December: Day 9: Teaching 2:
Righteous Hannah, Mother of the Prophet Samuel
 
(On the Importance of Spiritual, Heartfelt Prayer)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. How powerful before God is the inner prayer of the heart, we see from the life of the Righteous Hannah, the mother of the Prophet Samuel, whose memory is celebrated today. The father of the Prophet Samuel, whose name was Elkanah, had two wives: Hannah and Peninnah. Peninnah had children, but Hannah had no children. Despite her barrenness, Hannah was more beloved by her husband than Peninnah. For this reason, the latter greatly grieved Hannah, prompting her to complain that the Lord had closed her womb. And so, when they were in Shiloh to offer a sacrifice, Hannah in the sorrow of her soul prayed to God for the resolution of her barrenness, promising to give the child when born as a gift to God for all the days of his life. Hannah's prayer was inner, heartfelt - her voice was not heard - and her lips only moved. The high priest who was in the tabernacle thought that the woman was drunk and rebuked her. Hannah answered him: "No, my lord, I am a woman of a sorrowful spirit; I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but I pour out my soul before the Lord." The high priest, realizing his mistake, said to her: "Go in peace, and the God of Israel will grant your request that you have asked of Him." And, indeed, God granted Hannah, through her prayer, a son named Samuel, which means: "Asked of God."

II. Thus, in performing our prayer work, let us always remember that the essential quality of prayer consists in its spirituality and sincerity of heart, and not in verbosity and loud cries.

Outward prayer alone without inward prayer is as dead as the body without the soul, and as fruitless as a lamp without oil, or a censer without fire or incense. You stand in church, pronouncing words and songs of prayer with your lips, but your mind wanders far away. You kneel, bow, cross yourself with the appearance of one who is piously praying and humbles himself before God, but in your soul at the same time worldly memories do not cease to stir and fill it with sinful thoughts. Can such a prayer be pleasing to God? No, God needs our soul, turned to Him with faith and trust; the slightest sigh of a contrite heart, the most imperceptible drop of a repentant tear will be more likely to be accepted by God than all our hypocritical cries.

Here are the instructions of the Holy Fathers about the need for complete attention and cordiality during prayer.

a) “Lips without a heart,” says Saint Tikhon of Zadonsk, “and words without reason, and the external voice without internal zeal of the heart, are of no use. For the external voice and the word must be in agreement with the internal thought. God 'searches our heart, and looks at the heart, and not at the words' (2 Chronicles 28:9; 1 Kings 16:7). For this reason, we must strive to have the heart pray when the tongue prays, and the mind think about what the lips say, so that the heart is in agreement with the word, and the word with the heart, and the thought is exercised in what is pronounced by the voice.”

b) St. Basil the Great says: “One should not bring oneself to the point where one’s own conscience condemns oneself in anything, and in such a state call upon God’s help; one should call upon it not with negligence, not with a mind wandering here and there. Such a one not only will not receive what is asked for, but will upset the Master even more. If the one who speaks before the prince stands with great fear, not allowing either his external eye or his internal, spiritual eye to wander; then should one not stand before God with fear and trembling all the more, directing one’s whole mind to Him alone, and not to anything else? Because He not only sees the external man, like people, but also sees into the internal.”

c) Similar instruction on attentiveness to prayer is given by the Holy Martyr Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage: "Moreover, when we stand praying, beloved brethren, we ought to be watchful and earnest with our whole heart, intent on our prayers. Let all carnal and worldly thoughts pass away, nor let the soul at that time think on anything but the object only of its prayer. For this reason also the priest, by way of preface before his prayer, prepares the minds of the brethren by saying, 'Lift up your hearts,' that so upon the people's response, 'We lift them up unto the Lord,' he may be reminded that he himself ought to think of nothing but the Lord... But what carelessness it is, to be distracted and carried away by foolish and profane thoughts when you are praying to the Lord, as if there were anything which you should rather be thinking of than that you are speaking with God! How can you ask to be heard of God, when you yourself do not hear yourself? Do you wish that God should remember you when you ask, if you yourself do not remember yourself? This is absolutely to take no precaution against the enemy; this is, when you pray to God, to offend the majesty of God by the carelessness of your prayer; this is to be watchful with your eyes, and to be asleep with your heart, while the Christian, even though he is asleep with his eyes, ought to be awake with his heart, as it is written in the person of the Church speaking in the Song of Songs, 'I sleep, yet my heart wakes' (Song of Songs 5:2). Wherefore the Apostle anxiously and carefully warns us, saying, "Continue earnestly in prayer, being vigilant in it with thanksgiving" (Colossians 4:2), teaching, that is, and showing that those are able to obtain from God what they ask, whom God sees to be watchful in their prayer."

d) Absent-mindedness in prayer is also forbidden by Saint Nilus the Ascetic, and he calls blessed the one who does not indulge in it: “During prayer, keep your gaze undistracted,” he says, “and, having renounced your flesh and soul, live according to the mind. Blessed is the mind which, praying without absent-mindedness, constantly feels a great striving for God. Blessed is the mind which, during prayer, has completely detached itself from the senses.”

III. Having such instructions from the Holy Fathers about the inner prayer of the heart, let us, brethren, always combine our external prayer, our bows and the sign of the cross with the inner prayer of the heart, so that we may glorify God both in our souls and in our bodies.

Source: A Complete Annual Cycle of Short Teachings, Composed for Each Day of the Year. Translated by John Sanidopoulos.