Letters of Spiritual Direction to a Young Soul - Letter Forty-six Part II and Letter Forty-seven Part I

Tonight we picked up with Letter 46 to Anastasia including general rules about staying on the spiritual path. St. Theophan’s guidance is very sensible. He begins by encouraging her to pray, read and meditate in order to engage her mind, body and memory in every aspect of her prayer. He does not want it simply to be a discipline for her but rather a relationship. She must labor with all of her strength trusting in God and that He will provide things in His own time and in accord with His Providence. In Letter 47 St. Theophan begins to lay out for her the foundations of a prayer rule. He begins by telling her that this has been the practice of great practitioners of prayer from the beginning. It helps us to avoid laziness but it also helps us to restrain our enthusiasm so that it is always measured. She must not be overly concerned about the number of prayers she is doing but rather the manner in which she is engaging God. One of the great pieces of advice that he offers her goes back to the earliest of the Fathers. He wants her to begin to memorize her prayers and not always be reading from a book. He wants her to have access from her own heart the longings and desires expressed in the prayers that she has memorized. In particular, he encourages her to memorize the Psalms that speak to her soul in a particular way. We will pick up there next time.