Letter 754

To Epictetus the Archimandrite [the head of a monastery]. In our supplications and entreaties to the Higher Power, we ought not, like the uninstructed, to cry aloud with the bodily mouth, but rather to shout with the whole heart by means of the reasonings of the mind. To sing psalms together with those of one mind is indeed good, "and to hymn the Lord is delightful," as David says; but for the ascetic to cry out without measure at the time of prayer is neither reasonable nor seemly. Certain of those who have laid down the rule of prayer take this into account. For the Lord does not wait upon the reasonings that come from the lips and the cries that come from the body, since he knows the things we need even before the petition is offered through the fleshly tongue. Rather, he attends to the undistracted state of the mind, to the tongueless voice, and to the unspeakable groanings of the heart; for if you pray in this manner, says the Lord, "Behold, I am present while you are still speaking," as it is written in Isaiah. And Moses too, when he was pressed into a strait beside the shore of the Red Sea, with the lips of the body closed but crying out with the mind, we learn was heard. "For why do you cry out to me?" he says; "break open the sea." Let us not, then, now after the psalmody, cry out as though praying by way of a task, but even if we pray with the body, let us be the more zealous to pray with the mind, just as the Apostle exhorts. "For the blessed Hannah, the mother of Samuel the prophet, was praying, and her lips moved, but her voice was not heard." And because she prayed from the heart, she was heard, and being barren, after so long a time she became the mother of so many children. For all things are possible to the one who believes and to the one who prays in the manner that is required.

Ἐν ταῖς πρὸς τὸ κρεῖττον δεήσεσι, καὶ λιταῖς, οὐ χρὴ μεγάλα κράζειν τῷ αἰσθητῷ στόματι κατὰ τοὺς ἀπαιδεύτους, τοῖς δὲ λογισμοῖς ὁλοκαρδίως βοᾷν. Ψάλλειν μὲν μετὰ τῶν συμφρόνων « καλὸν, καὶ ὑμνεῖν τὸν Κύριον τερπνὸν », καθά φησιν ὁ Δαυΐδ· τῷ δὲ τῆς εὐχῆς καιρῷ τὸ ἐκβοᾷν ἀμέτρως τὸν ἀσκητὴν, οὐκ εὔλογον οὐδὲ εὐπρεπές· λογίζονταί τινες τῶν κεκα- νονικότων τῆς προσευχῆς τὴν τάξιν. Οὐ γὰρ ἀναμένει Κύριος τοὺς ἐκ χειλέων λογισμοὺς, καὶ τὰς ἐκβοάς τὰς· ἀπὸ τοῦ σώματος, διότι ἐπίσταται ὧν χρήζομεν, καὶ πρὶν ἢ προσενεχθῆναι τὴν διὰ τῆς σαρκίνης γλώττης ἱκετηρίαν. Ἀλλὰ προσέχει τῷ ἀπερισπάστῳ τῆς διανοίας, καὶ ἀγλώττῳ φωνῇ, καὶ τοῖς ἀλαλήτοις στεναγμοῖς τῆς καρδίας· ἂν γὰρ οὕτως προσεύχῃ, φησὶν ὁ Κύριος, « Ἰδοὺ πάρειμι ἔτι λαλοῦντός σου, » καθὼς γέγραπται παρὰ τῷ Ἠσαΐᾳ. Ἀλλὰ καὶ Μω- σέα, ἀποστενοχωρηθέντα παρὰ τὸ χεῖλος τῆς Ἐρυθρᾶς θαλάσσης, καὶ τὰ μὲν χείλη τοῦ σώματος μεμυκότα, τῇ δὲ διανοίᾳ κράζοντα, ἐπακουσθέντα μανθάνομεν. « Παῦσαι γὰρ, φησὶ, τοῦ βοᾷν πρός με, καὶ ῥῆξον τὴν θάλασσαν. » Μή το，ιν νῦν μετὰ τὴν ψαλμῳδίαν, ὥσπερ ἐξ ἔργου εὐχόμενοι κράζωμεν, ἀλλ᾽ εἰ καὶ τῷ σώ- ματι εὐχόμεθα, τὸ πλεῖον σπουδάζωμεν προσεύξα- σθαι τῷ νοῒ, καθάπερ παραινεῖ ὁ Ἀπόστολος. « Καὶ γὰρ ἡ μακαρία Ἄννα ἡ μήτηρ Σαμουὴλ τοῦ προ- φήτου ηὔχετο, καὶ τὰ μὲν χείλη αὐτῆς ἐκινεῖτο, φωνὴ δὲ οὐκ ἠκούετο. » Καὶ ἐπειδὴ ἀπὸ καρδίας ηὔχετο, εἰσηκούσθη, καὶ στεῖρα ὑπάρχουσα, μετὰ τοσοῦτον χρόνον, μήτηρ τέκνων τοσούτων ἐγένετο. Πάντα γὰρ δυνατὰ τῷ πιστεύοντι, καὶ τῷ προσευ- χομένῳ, καθ᾽ ὃν δεῖ τρόπον.