Prayer as Personal Encounter
By Brother Vladimir Metropolitan Anthony Bloom, of blessed memory, once instructed his audience on a BBC television series to set aside regular periods of silence for sincerely praying this (seemingly) simple prayer: “ Help me, O God, to put off all pretenses and to find my true self .” Since my first encounter with this prayer, I’ve often returned to it as a way of acquiring what the Zen tradition calls “beginner’s mind.” For in its pithy phrasing is contained the inner dynamic of prayer as entry into a deeper, more profound knowledge of self . “Enter eagerly into the treasure house that is within you, and so you will see the things that are in heaven; for there is but one single entry to them both,” St. Isaac the Syrian informs us. When approaching this short prayer, one should tread carefully: its words, when deeply felt and experienced, are extremely potent. There is no rule book as to how such a prayer, pronounced with faith, will grow and ...