A prayer from Talmud

MAY it be Thy will, O God, that we return to Thee in perfect penitence, so that we may not be ashamed to meet our fathers in the life to come.

Unite our hearts, O God, to fear Thy name; keep us far from what Thou hatest; bring us near to what Thou lovest; and deal mercifully with us for Thy name’s sake. May it be Thy will, O God, that love and peace and brotherliness dwell among us! May our hopes of Heaven be fulfilled! Grant that the good inclination may uphold us. Fill us with the desire to fear Thy name, and do Thou give us our soul’s peace. Amen. 

TALMUD.

Abba Serapion

One day Abba Serapion passed through an Egyptian village and there he saw a courtesan who stayed in her own cell. The old man said to her, ‘Expect me this evening, for I should like to come and spend the night with you.’ She replied, ‘Very well, Abba.’ She got ready and made the bed. When evening came, the old man came to see her and entered her cell and said to her, ‘Have you got the bed ready?’ She said, ‘Yes, Abba.’ Then he closed the door and said to her, ‘Wait a bit, for we have a rule of prayer and I must fulfill that first.’ So the old man began his prayers. He took the Psalter and at each psalm he said a prayer for the courtesan, begging God that she might be converted and saved, and God heard him. The woman stood trembling and praying beside the old man. When he had completed the whole Psalter the woman fell to the ground. Then the old man, beginning the Epistle, read a great deal from the apostle and completed his prayers. The woman was filled with compunction and understood that he had not come to see her to commit sin but to save her soul and she fell at his feet, saying, ‘Abba, do me this kindness and take we where I can please God.’ So the old man took her to a monastery of virgins and entrusted her to the Amma and he said, ‘Take this sister and do not put any yoke or commandment on her as on the other sisters, but if she wants something, give it her and allow her to walk as she wishes.’ After some days the courtesan said, ‘I am a sinner; I wish to eat every second day.’ A little later she said, ‘I have committed many sins and I wish to eat every fourth day.’ A few days later she besought the Amma saying, ‘Since I have grieved God greatly by my sins, do me the kindness of putting me in a cell and shutting it completely and giving me a little bread and some work through the window. ‘The Amma did so and the woman pleased God all the rest of her life.

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The former Chasidim used to sit still one hour, and then pray for one hour, and then again sit still for one hour.

Talmud 

Danger is more than imaginary

Imagine that you are in the middle of the sea, with a storm raging to the very heart of the heavens. You are hanging on by a hairbreadth, not knowing what to do. You do not even have time to cry out. You can only lift your eyes and heart to God.

You should always lift your heart to God like this. Seclude yourself and cry out to God. The danger is more than imaginary. As you know deep down in your soul, every man is in great danger in this world.

Understand these words well.

NACHMAN OF BRATZLAV

Simone Weil on Prayer taught by Christ

Pater aymohn ho en toyss ooranoyss,	Our father who art in heaven,
agiasthaytoh to onomasoo,	hallow be thy name,
elthetoh hay basileya soo,	thy kingdom come,
genaythaytoh to thelayma soo,	thy will be done,
hohss en ooranoh kai epi gayss	on earth as it is in heaven,
ton arton haymohn ton epioosion dos haymin saymeron	give us this day our daily bread
kai aphess haymin ta opheilaymata haymohn	and forgive us our trespasses
hohss kai haymeiss aphyemen toyss opheyletaiss haymohn	as we forgive those who trespass against us
kai may eisenenkayss haymass eyss peirasmon	and lead us not into temptation
alla rusai haymass apo too ponayroo	but deliver us from evil

Up until last september, I had not prayed even once in my life, at least in the litteral sense of the word. I had never addressed words to God aloud or mentally

The virtue of this practice is extraordinary and surprises me every time I do it, for, even though I live it every day, it goes beyond my expectation every time. Sometimes the first words already tear my thought outside my body and transport it to a place outside space from which there is neither perspective or point of view. Space opens up. The infinity of ordinary space is replaced by an infinity to second or third power. At the same time this infinity of infinities fills itself to the brim with silence, a silence that is not an absence of sound, and that is the object of a positive sensation, more positive than that of a sound. Noises, if there are any, only reach me after going through this silence.

Sometimes also, during this recitation or at other moments, Christ is present in person, but with a presence that is infinitely more real, more poignant, more clear and more full of love than the first time he took me.

I never would have taken it upon me to tell you all this if I wasn't leaving. And as I leave with more or less the thought of a probable death, it seems to me that I do not have the right to not speak of these things. For after all, in all of this, it's not about me. It's about God. I have nothing to do with it.

The words of the Pater are perfectly pure.  If you recite the Pater with no other intention than to pay the fullness of one's attention on the words themselves, you are completely sure to be delivered by this means from a part, as small as it may be, of the evil you hold inside you. In the same way if you look at the Holy Sacrement with no other thought than that Christ is there, and so on.

The only pure things down here are sacred objects and texts, the beauty of nature if you look at it for itself and not as a place for your reveries, and, to a lesser extent, human beings in whom God lives and works of art issued from divine inspiration.

That which is perfectly pure can not be anything else but God present down here. If it was something else than God, it would not be pure. If God was not present, we would never be saved. In the soul where there has been a contact with purity, all its horror of the evil that it carries inside it changes into love for divine purity. This is how Mary-Magdalene and the good thief were privileged by love

Simone Weil (from a letter in May1942)

A Praying Crane

When we see a crane standing motionless on the side of a tank or lake, we may suppose from his attitude that he is musing on the glory of God or the excellent quality of the water. But no such thing! He stand there motionless for hours, but the moment he catches sight of a frog or small fish he springs upon it and gulps it down. Just such is the attitude and method of many with regard to prayer and religious meditation. Seated by the shore of the boundless ocean of God, they give no thought to His majesty and love, or to His divine nature that cleanses from sin and satisfies the hungry soul, but are wrapped up in the thought of acquiring some specially desired object, by means of which they may more fully indulge in the delights of this fleeting world. Thus they turn away from the fountain of true peace, and, immersing themselves in the fading joys of this world, with them also die and pass away.


Sadhu Sundar Singh

Let only that little be left of me whereby I may name thee my all.

Let only that little be left of my will whereby I may feel thee on every side, and come to thee in everything, and offer to thee my love every moment.

Let only that little be left of me whereby I may never hide thee.

Let only that little of my fetters be left whereby I am bound with thy will, and thy purpose is carried out in my life-and that is the fetter of thy love.

Rabindranath

Food for spiritual journey

He who wants to cross the spiritual sea is long-suffering, humble, vigilant and selfcontrolled.
If he impetuously embarks on it without these four virtues, he agitates his heart, but cannot cross.

 Stillness helps us by making evil inoperative. If it also takes to itself these four virtues in prayer, it is the most direct support in attaining dispassion.


Afflictions that come to us are the result of our own sins. But if we accept them patiently through prayer, we shall again find blessings.


The intellect cannot be still unless the body is still also; and the wall between them cannot be demolished without stillness and prayer.

The flesh with its desire is opposed to the spirit, and the spirit opposed to the flesh,and those who live in the spirit will not carry out the desire of the flesh 


Whatever we do without prayer and without hope in God turns out afterwards to be harmful and defective.


There is a sin which is always ‘unto death’ (1Jn 5:16): the sin for which we do not, repent. For this sin even a saint’s prayers will not be heard.


The sign of sincere love is to forgive wrongs done to us. It was with such love that the Lord loved the world.

We cannot with all our heart forgive someone who does us wrong unless we possess real knowledge. For this knowledge shows us that we deserve all we experience.


A passion which we allow to grow active within us through our own choice afterwards forces itself upon us against our will.


Saint Mark the Ascetic

Self-effacement

I cannot conceive the necessity for God to love me, when I feel so clearly that even with human beings affection for me can only be a mistake. But I can easily imagine that he loves that perspective of creation which can only be seen from the point where I am. But I act as a screen. I must withdraw so that he may see it.

I must withdraw so that God may make contact with the beings whom chance places in my path and whom he loves. It is tactless for me to be there. It is as though I were placed between two lovers or two friends. I am not the maiden who awaits her betrothed, but the unwelcome third who is with two betrothed lovers and ought to go away so that they can really be together.

If only I knew how to disappear there would be a perfect union of love between God and the earth I tread, the sea I hear....

What do the energy, the gifts, etc. which are in me matter? I always have enough of them to disappear.

May I disappear in order that those things that I see may become perfect in their beauty from the very fact that they are no longer things that I see.

I do not in the least wish that this created world should fade from my view, but that it should no longer be to me personally that it shows itself. To me it cannot tell its secret which is too high. If I go, then the creator and the creature will exchange their secrets.

To see a landscape as it is when I am not there...

When I am in any place, I disturb the silence of heaven and earth by my breathing and the beating of my heart.

Simone Weil 

this life is not altogether lost.

I KNOW THAT this life, missing its ripeness in love,
is not altogether lost.
I know that the flowers that fade in the dawn,
the streams that strayed in the desert,
are not altogether lost.
I know that whatever lags behind in this life
laden with slowness is not altogether lost.
I know that my dreams that are still unfulfilled,
and my melodies still unstruck,
are clinging to some lute-strings of thine,
and they are not altogether lost.

Rabindranath

At the times when you remember God

At the times when you remember God,
increase your prayers,
so that when you forget Him,
the Lord may remind you.

St Mark The Ascetic

How to pray

Men and women run away from every goal,
whether worldly or spiritual, because they overestimate the initial task. The proper way is a bit at
a time. It is the same if someone eats too much;
they should diminish it daily by a small bit, gradually. In that way, before a year or two have
passed, they will have cut down what they eat by
half, reducing it in such a way that their body
does not notice. So it is with worship, withdrawing into solitude, attending to the service of God,
and prayer. When a person enters upon the Way
of God, for a while their prayers will be short. But
after that, if they pray with their whole heart,
their prayers will go on and on without end.

Rumi

On Prayer

I now feel every day the necessity of praying, of asking
God's aid.
This necessity is natural (at least to those of us who
have been accustomed to it from childhood), and I think
it is natural to all men.
To feel one's weakness and to seek outside aid, that is,
not merely through a struggle with evil, but to try to
find methods by which it would be possible to vanquish
evil, this is called praying.
To pray does not mean to employ methods which
deliver one from evil, but among the methods which deliver
there is also the action which is called prayer.
The peculiarity of prayer, as compared with all other
methods, consists in this, that it is agreeable to God.
If this is true, then, in the first place, the question
arises why prayer, that is, an action which is pleasing to
God and saves me from evil, must be expressed in words
only, or in obeisances, which do not last long, as is generally
assumed. Why can prayer not be expressed by
continuous motions of the body, say of the feet only,
the wandering of the pilgrim is a prayer of the feet,
and if I go and work a whole day or a whole week for a
poor widow, will this be prayer ?
I think it will.
Remember what Jesus said to the Samaritan, "Men
must worship God in spirit and in truth." The true
translation for " in truth " is " by deeds."

Tolstoy

Let Me Not Forget

If it is not my portion to meet thee in this life
then let me ever feel that I have missed thy sight ---let me not forget for a moment,
let me carry the pangs of this sorrow in my dreams and in my wakeful hours.
As my days pass in the crowded market of this world and my hands grow full with the daily profits,
let me ever feel that I have gained nothing ---let me not forget for a moment,
let me carry the pangs of this sorrow in my dreams and in my wakeful hours.
When I sit by the roadside, tired and panting,
when I spread my bed low in the dust,
let me ever feel that the long journey is still before me ---let me not forget a moment,
let me carry the pangs of this sorrow in my dreams and in my wakeful hours.
When my rooms have been decked out and the flutes sound and the laughter there is loud,
let me ever feel that I have not invited thee to my house ---let me not forget for a moment,
let me carry the pangs of this sorrow in my dreams and in my wakeful hours

Rabindranath Tagore

GIVE ME STRENGTH

Give Me Strength

This is my prayer to thee, my lord---
strike, strike at the root of penury in my heart.
Give me the strength lightly to bear my joys and sorrows.
Give me the strength to make my love fruitful in service.
Give me the strength never to disown the poor or bend my knees before insolent might.
Give me the strength to raise my mind high above daily trifles.
And give me the strength to surrender my strength to thy will with love.

Rabindranath Tagore

When the heart is hard and parched up,

When the heart is hard and parched up,
come upon me with a shower of mercy.
When grace is lost from life,
come with a burst of song.
When tumultuous work raises its din
on all sides shutting me out from beyond,
come to me, my lord of silence, with thy peace and rest.
When my beggarly heart sits crouched, shut up in a corner,
break open the door, my king, and come with the ceremony of a king.
When desire blinds the mind with delusion and dust,
O thou holy one, thou wakeful, come with thy light and thy thunder


TAGORE

GRIEF and PAIN and SORROWS

One night a certain man was crying "Allah!" till his lips
were growing sweet with the praise of Him.The Devil said,
"Prithee, O garrulous one, where is the (response)
`Here am I' to all this `Allah'?
Not a single response is coming from the Throne:
how long will you cry `Allah' with grim face?"
He became broken-hearted and laid down his head (to sleep):
in a dream he saw Khadir amidst the verdure.
He (Khadir) said, "Hark, you have held back from praising
God: how is it that you repent of having called unto Him?"
He said, "No `Here am I' is coming to me in response, hence
I fear that I may be (a reprobate who is) driven away from the Door."
He (Khadir) said, "(God saith), that `Allah' of thine is My`Here am I,'
and that supplication and grief and ardour of thine
is My messenger (to thee).
Thy shifts and attempts to find a means (of gaining access to Me) were (in reality)
My drawing (thee towards Me), and re-leased thy feet (from the bonds of worldliness).
Thy fear and love are the noose to catch My favour; beneath
every `O Lord' (of thine) is many a `Here am I' (from Me)."
Far from this prayer is the soul of the fool, because to him it
is not permitted to cry "O Lord."
On his mouth and heart are lock and bolt, to the end that he
may not moan unto God in the hour of bale.
He (God) gave to Pharaoh hundredfold possessions and riches,so that he claimed (Divine) might and majesty.
In his whole life that man of evil nature felt no (spiritual) headache, lest he should moan unto God.
God gave him all the empire of this world, (but) He did not
give him grief and pain and sorrows.
Grief is better than the empire of the world, so that you may
call unto God in secret.The call of the griefless is from frozen heart*, the call
of the grieving one is from rapture:
(`Tis) to withdraw the voice under the lips, to bear in mind
(one's) origin and beginning;
(`Tis) the voice become pure and sad, (crying)
"O God!"and "O Thou whose help is besought!" and "O Helper!"
(Even) the moan of a dog for His sake is not void of (Divine) attraction,
because every one who desires (Him) is a brigand'scaptive* –
As (for example) the dog of the Cave*,
which was freed from (eating) carrion and sat at the table of the (spiritual) emperors:
Until the Resurrection, before the Cave it is drinking in
gnostic wise without (any) pot the water of (Divine) mercy.
Oh, there is many a one in a dog's skin, who hath no name
(and fame), yet is not without that cup (of Divine knowledge) in secret.
Give thy life for this cup, O son:
how may victory be (won) without (spiritual) warfare and patience.?


RUMI

Father in heaven!

You hold all the good gifts in your gentle hand.

Your abundace is richer than can be grasped by human understanding.

You are willing to give, and your goodness is beyond the understanding of a human heart, because you fulfill every prayer and give what we pray for

or what is far better than what we pray for.

Give everyone his allotted share as it is well pleasing to you, but also give everyone the assurance that everything comes from you ,

so that joy will not tear us away from you in the forgetfulness of pleasure,

so that sorrow will not seperate you from us,

but in joy we may go to you and in sorrow remain with you,

so that when our days are numbered and the outer being is wasting away,

death may not come in its own name , cold and terrible,

but gentle and friendly, with greetings and news, with witness from you,

our Father who is in heaven !Amen.

Soren Kierkegaard

You I choose, of all the world, alone;

Will you suffer me to sit in grief?

My heart is as a pen in your hand,

You are the cause if I am glad or melancholy.

Save what you will, what will have I?

Save what you show, what do I see?

You make grow out of me now a thorn and now a rose;

Now I smell roses and now pull thorns.

If you keep me that, that I am;

If you would have me this, I am this.

In the vessel where you give color to the soul

Who am I, what is my love and hate?

You were first, and last you shall be;

Make my last better than my first.

When you are hidden, I am of the infidels;

When you are manifest, I am of the faithful.

I have nothing, except you have bestowed it;

What do you seek from my bosom and sleeve?

पूरी दुनिया में मैंने तुम्हें ही चुना है

क्या तुम मुझे दुःख में छोड़ दोगे

मेरा दिल तेरे हाथ की कलम है

मैं खुश हूँ या उदास - कारण तुम हो

तुमने जो दिया उसके सिवा मेरे पास क्या है

तुमने जो दिखाया उसके सिवा मैंने क्या देखा

तुम्ही मुझमें कभी कांटा कभी फूल उगाते हो

कभी मुझमें गुलाब की खुशबू है तो कभी कांटे ही कांटे

तुम मुझे जैसा रखते हो वैसा ही हूँ

RUMI