Acquisition and Loss of the Prayer

Narration of an Elder:

I was helping with the preparations for the feast of a Cell. The Elder of the Cell, who was very skilled and fast, kept saying to me: "Hurry up, bring that, go there..." I couldn’t bear so much pressure, but I did everything in obedience.

At that very moment, while I was struggling to prepare a meal for forty fathers—and doing it all with great eagerness—the prayer entered within me and my heart began to say the [Jesus] Prayer on its own, without any effort.

Oh, what exultation! I cannot describe it. My heart began to say the prayer, and from my mouth came forth a heavenly fragrance. And all this, because I obeyed a stranger; he was not my Elder. The Grace of God came and overshadowed me.

I had this Grace for about a quarter of an hour, while I was still working, and the Elder of the Cell noticed nothing.

Then another brother came and said to me in a somewhat abrupt manner:

— Why did you take the frying pan from me?

— Get out of here, you possessed one, that I took your frying pan!... We’re drowning in work!...

And as soon as I said that to him, the prayer departed from within me.

The next day, I went to Father Ephraim of Katounakia and told him everything that had happened to me.

He answered me:

"My child, the Grace of the Holy Spirit came and overshadowed you, but you were not worthy for it to remain, because you have pride. If, at that moment, you had said to him: 'Forgive me, I took the frying pan...', you would have heard the demon shrieking like a pig, howling.

"He was placed there by the tempter, and God allowed it in order to test you—whether you were worthy for the prayer to remain within you."

 

Source: Ἀσκητικὴ καὶ Ἡσυχαστικὴ Ἁγιορείτικη Παράδοση [Ascetic and Hesychastic Athonite Tradition], published by the Holy Hesychasterion “Saint John the Forerunner,” p. 377.

Shared by the Metropolis of Oropos and Phyle:

https://www.imoph.org/pdfs/2025/12/21/20251221aApoleiaEyxhs.pdf