Prayer is not the most important thing!

“It is not a great thing for your mind to be with God; but it is a great thing to see yourself beneath all creation.”

 

 

Exhausted, the Monk arrived before the Abba. He looked at him with wonder and boundless reverence. He stood before the champion of the Desert, the Teacher of Ascetics, the Great Sisoës.

He drew near to him.

— How are you, Brother? the Abba asked him.

— Elder, I believe I have made steps of progress. For years I have cultivated prayer, and especially noetic prayer. I have come to love it, Father. I have felt it to be as necessary as my very breath. It has become a delight to me. I cannot live without it! And thus, my thought does not depart from God. I would say, Abba, that my mind and my heart are now united with the unceasing remembrance of God.

The Abba looked at him attentively. He plunged his eyes down to his heart. Even to the marrow of his bones. And there he discerned the secret working of the deceitful worm of hidden pride. He shook his head.

— Ah, my child… I fear that you are still behind… It is good and holy that you labor so much in prayer. That with much attentiveness you strive to keep your mind fixed on God. But know this: that is not the most important achievement. There is something much greater and more significant…

The Monk, shaken, did not dare to ask him. Yet his gaze was full of wonder. What could be higher than unceasing prayer?

— Do not wonder, Brother… continued the Great Sisoës. There is, yes, something higher: to regard yourself as lower than all creation. Do you hear? Than all creation. Not only lower than the other Monks, not only than the rest of the Christians, nor even than all men. Lower than all creation — than the living and the lifeless beings — you must consider yourself. To believe deeply that you are the most unworthy of the love of God… This is the greatest achievement. And this is the only safe path.

For it is humility that makes prayer pleasing to God. It is that which gives meaning even to all the other virtues. Without it, our virtues can end up becoming even blasphemy against the Name of God — for how else can one describe the egotistical appropriation of His own gifts?

Keep, then, your prayer with attentiveness. But immerse it in the saving abyss of humility.

● “It is not a great thing for your mind to be with God; but it is a great thing to see yourself beneath all creation.”

 

Source: Ἡ Δράση μας, 614 / January 2024, pp. 22.

Shared by the Metropolis of Oropos and Phyle in Greek:

https://www.imoph.org/pdfs/2025/10/12/20251012aProseyxi-spoudaio.pdf