Silence
comes gradually in prayer. This is our first stage in seeking a union with God.
It is this silence where you are able to hear more than your heart beat. It is
in silence that God can speak to us. In silence we come to know our soul and
the life giving spirit that dwells within.
Elder
Aimilianos says,
I have to learn to be silent, that is, I have
to learn to listen, I have to learn to wait, to await the voice of God. Within
this silence, I’ll then be able to hear the beat of my heart, not the beat of
my bodily heart, but I’ll feel my life-giving-Spirit, my hypostasis, which is
none other than the Holy Spirit.
It is in
silence that we can come to know and experience the Holy Spirit, the uncreated
energies of God. It is in this silence of prayer that we begin to desire to
acquire the Holy Spirit. We want to know what is the real meaning of the Holy
Spirit. What we need is a revelation, Elder Aimilianos tells us, so we can
understand the true meaning of the Holy Trinity revealed to us in Scripture.
This is an experience that he says comes gradually.
He says,
The experience comes gradually, progress
within our soul and God takes up His place within our being. And His steps and
His voice mingle with our steps and our voice and then we become one with God.
This is
all part of a long process that comes from our love of God, Our humbleness, our
patience seeking and endurance in prayer. Eventually we develop this true
desire for the Holy Spirit.
The Elder
says,
We begin to desire the acquisition of the
Holy Spirit, so that at some stage we can say:”Come and abide in us, Holy
Spirit, and cleanse us from all stain” because our souls are full of stains,
they fill our souls and there is nothing we ourselves can do about it.
We want
to be pure in heart so we can see God as Jesus promised us. Not in some future
life but in our life right now. It is only in this way that we can do with
certainty the will of God. With a soul cleansed of all stain we know His will
for us and can begin to act as a loyal servant.
This
stage of desiring the Holy Spirit is only a temporary stage. Once we realize
that is is the acquiring of the Holy Spirit that is essential for us we still
have not acquired it.
The Elder
tells us,
We feel this anxious expectation, then we’ll
progress and we’ll have that silent delight which we call the foretaste of the
coming of the Spirit and awareness of the presence of God.
To be in
communion with God we need to call for Him, we need to seek, we need to knock
on His door as Scripture says. Then in silence with great anticipation we, in
our complete humility, we realize that without the Holy Spirit we cannot
understand, we cannot be cured of our blindness or the satins that block us
from God. The Elder tells we must say, “Spirit, where are you for goodness’
sake. You teach me!”
Now we
must wait in anticipation feeling that He is nearby.
Source: http://orthodoxwayoflife.blogspot.com/2018/05/what-comes-after-silence-in-prayer.html
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