Prayer Takes Many Forms

I think that all the kinds of prayer cannot be grasped without great purity of heart and soul and the light of the Holy Spirit. For there are as many of them as there can be states and conditions produced in one soul, or rather in all souls. So, although we know that because of our dullness of heart we cannot see all the kinds of prayer, we will still try to describe them in some order, as far as our slender experience allows us to succeed. For each soul’s very prayers will change from moment to moment, according to the degree of purity it reaches and the kind of state it is in, whether it has sunk into that state through what happens to it or is renewing itself by its own efforts. And so it is quite clear that no one can always offer up prayers that are all the same. For everyone prays in one way when he is cheerful, and in another when he is weighed down by sadness or despair. He prays in one way when he is strengthened by spiritual successes, and in another when he is cast down by the burden of attacks. He prays one way when he is asking pardon for his sins, and another when he asks to receive grace or some virtue, or prays for the destruction of some sin. He prays in one way when he is pierced to the heart by the thought of hell and the fear of the judgment to come, and in another when he glows with the hope and longing for the good things to come. He prays in one way when he is taken up with business and dangers, and in another when he is in peace and safety. He prays in one way when he is enlightened by the revelation of heavenly mysteries, and in another when he is depressed by a sense of barrenness in virtue and dryness of feeling.