A MANTRA

Germanus said, “We are parts amazed and dazed by our prior conversation with you, which is why we came back here. As excited as we are by this teaching, as much as it makes us long for a state of complete bliss, we’ve lowered our expectations that much more, because we don’t know how we can possibly strive for—let alone achieve—such exalted conduct. Maybe this calls for a lengthy follow-up? We had started going over and over all of this in a long meditation in our cell, and we beg you to put up with us as we unpack it all (which isn’t to say that your blessed self usually gets irritated with needy and presumptuous people!). This way everything will be laid out on the table, so whatever screwy ideas we’ve got can be set straight.

“So okay, here’s the impression we have. When it comes to perfecting a given craft or discipline, it’s essential in the early stages to be trained with beginner-level exercises that are easier, forgiving, and very low impact. Gradually, a person will grow when raised in this way, nursed on a kind of milk of reason: little by little, step by step, they will climb from the depths to the heights. And when they’ve made it through this accessible introductory training and passed through the ‘doors’ of the profession they’ve taken up, they will eventually summit the innermost and highest trails of perfection, without even breaking a sweat.

“After all, how could children learn to pronounce simple sequences of syllables without first really knowing the letters of the alphabet? How would they go on to be fast readers if they aren’t yet capable of grouping short phrases together? How in the world would someone who isn’t educated in grammar attain the fluency of rhetoric or the knowledge of philosophy? I’m sure that the same is true of this incomparably exalted discipline, through which we’re taught to cling tightly to God nonstop. Certain educational foundations need to be set solidly in place first. Then the framework of perfection can be built on top of them and sent soaring.

“Our tentative theory is that these are the beginning steps: first, we need to figure out what exactly we should be reciting to grasp and think about God. Then, we should keep a very close watch on this material,⁴⁰ whatever it might be, because we have no doubts that the peak of complete perfection will come into view. So we want you to show us what this methodological stuff of the memory actually is—the material that the mind uses to perceive and hold on to God constantly. That way we can keep it right in front of our eyes, and when we notice that we’ve fallen away from it, it will be easily accessible when we snap back to attention and get right back to work. We’ll be able to pick it up again without going around in circles or looking all over the place.

“Because, I mean, the way things go now is that when we’ve gotten distracted from spiritual contemplation, then come to, it’s like we’ve awakened from a deathly sleep. Then we have to go looking for a guide we can use to recuperate the spiritual memory that sank out of sight. There is a prolonged search, and before we find it we falter again; and before we obtain some spiritual perspective, the attention held in our heart slips away. It’s pretty clear that this disorientation befalls us because we don’t have some particular thing set in front of our eyes to hold tight to—like a rule of thumb or something the wandering mind can work its way back to after so many different digressions and detours, like entering a serene harbor after grueling storms at sea.

“So the result is that the mind is constantly tangled up in this ignorant and struggling state, always reeling around and stumbling into things like it’s drunk. And as long as it keeps starting one thing after another and never seeing anything through to the end, it won’t hold tight for very long—not even to some spiritual thing it happens to run into accidentally rather than intentionally!”

Isaac said: “You’ve put the problem in a fine-grained and precise way, and it’s a sign that clarity is close by. But no one will prevail with this line of questioning (let alone pick things apart and get to the bottom of them) unless they carry it out with assiduous and powerful mental effort and with an unblinking commitment to investigating these deep matters. Nonstop attentiveness to self-correction is the practical experience that will enable you to march right up to the threshold of clarity and knock on the door.

“So I wouldn’t say that I see you standing outside the doors of that form of prayer we’ve talked about. It’s more like you’re already feeling your way through its inner passageways with the hands of your experience, getting a sense of certain parts of it here and there. For that reason, I don’t think it will take much more work for me to lead you into its innermost chambers, as far as the Lord escorts us, given that you’re already basically wandering around the main hall. And there won’t be any major obstacle to keep you from scrutinizing the things I’m going to show you.

“You’re definitely as close as you can be to knowing something when you pinpoint the question you should be asking. And you’re not far from knowledge when you start to recognize what you don’t know. So I’m not afraid to risk being seen as indiscreet or easily swayed if I divulge things now that I withheld in our earlier discussion about the perfection of prayer. I think that through God’s favor, their power would be revealed to you even without the help of my words, given that you’re intensely engaged in this training.

“You very perceptively compared our pedagogy to elementary education. Little kids can’t learn the alphabet, make out its shapes, or draw them with a steady hand, unless they keep carefully tracing over models of the letters using templates and models impressed in wax tablets, thinking about them all the time, and practicing every day. In keeping with that idea, I have a model for spiritual contemplation to entrust to you. By keeping it in your sight—always and as tenaciously as possible—you’ll learn to keep it turning it over in your mind in perpetual, beneficial motion. And by using it and meditating on it you’ll be able to climb to higher vistas.

“So now I’m going to set this device before you, which you’ve been seeking in your disciplinary practice and prayer. Each and every monk who is striving for an ever-present memory of God should become habituated to meditating on it, going over it continuously with their heart. But first you have to kick out every other kind of thought, because the only way you can keep it up is to disentangle yourself from all your physical and mental preoccupations. Just as it was entrusted to me by the few ancient elders who were still around, I’m sharing it in the same spirit, with only the very few persons who truly thirst for it. So to hold onto a perpetual memory of God, this is the devotional mantra to fix in your mind: ‘O God, come to my assistance; O Lord, make haste to help me!’

“This short verse was chosen out of the entirety of the scriptures with good reason. It encompasses every state of mind that can beset human beings, and it is neatly applicable to every situation and all onslaughts. It includes an invocation to God against every possible crisis. It includes the humility of a sincere confession. It includes the alertness that comes from care and constant anxiety. It includes a reflection on one’s own weakness, confidence in being heard, and trust that help is always close at hand—[10.10.4] because whoever appeals to their bodyguard nonstop is certain that he’s always there. It includes the burning heat of love and compassion. It includes a cognizance of traps and a fear of enemies. And in perceiving that they are surrounded by them day and night, the speaker admits that they can’t be set free without the help of their protector.

“For anyone who is struggling with demonic disturbances, this short verse is an unscalable wall, an impenetrable breastplate, the most fortified shield imaginable. This verse will not allow anyone to lose hope of a lifesaving cure when they find themselves in a state of paralyzing dissatisfaction or mental anxiety, or when they’re weighed down by deep sadness or any other kind of thoughts. This verse shows that the one whom it summons is always aware of our struggles and is accessible to his petitioners.

“And when we’re flush with spiritual achievements and a celebratory heart, it warns us that we shouldn’t gloat or get cocky about our fortunate circumstances. We can’t maintain them without God acting as a bodyguard, and the verse attests as much by begging God to help out all the time—and quickly!

“Let me be clear: this short verse is useful and essential to each and every one of us regardless of our circumstances. When you always seek help with everything, not just when times are hard or sad but also when they’re easygoing and fortunate, you attest to the fact that God is there to assist either way. And it shows you know that human beings, weak as they are, don’t subsist in either state without God’s support. He’s the one who rescues you from trouble and the one who makes the good times last.

“A gluttonous impulse suddenly seizes me. I look around for the sort of food that hermits don’t bother with, and in my spare cell the scents of regal meals waft over to me, and I feel like I’m being dragged entirely against my will to crave them. That is when I have to say, ‘O God, come to my assistance; O Lord, make haste to help me!’

“Something goads me to start thinking about dinnertime early, or I feel a great pain in my heart that has me straining to stick to the usual moderate portions. I have to call out and lament: ‘O God, come to my assistance; O Lord, make haste to help me!’

“A feeling of faintness keeps me from battling my body with stringent fasting, because my stomach is growling. Or maybe it’s dryness and cramping in my belly that puts me off. So in order to accomplish what I want, or at the very least to calm my body’s agitating urges without fasting more stringently, I have to pray: ‘O God, come to my assistance; O Lord, make haste to help me!’

“Then I go to dinner at the right time, and I recoil from the bread, because I’m unable to eat anything I actually need. I have to call out and wail: ‘O God, come to my assistance; O Lord, make haste to help me!’

“A headache keeps me from reading to steady my heart: it gets in my way even though I want to read. Midmorning, drowsiness slams my face down onto the sacred page, and it forces me to oversleep past the allotted time for rest. And eventually the onslaught of a deep sleep moves me to truncate the cycle of psalmody during the liturgy. Again I have to call out: ‘O God, come to my assistance; O Lord, make haste to help me!’

“Or say my eyes don’t close into a deep sleep, and I’m hounded night after night by demonic insomnia, and my eyelids are deprived of a good night’s rest. Then I have to pray and sigh: ‘O God, come to my assistance; O Lord, make haste to help me!’

“Now, as I struggle against my vulnerabilities, I’m suddenly stung by physical arousal. And while I sleep, it uses seductive turn-ons to try to coerce me into consent. To keep the hostile roaring fire from scorching the sweet-smelling flowers of chastity, I have to call out: ‘O God, come to my assistance; O Lord, make haste to help me!’

“I sense that the things arousing me have abated and the raging heat in my genitals has cooled: in order for this strength I’ve gained to persist within me always and forever—with God’s support, that is—I have to concentrate and say: ‘O God, come to my assistance; O Lord, make haste to help me!’

“I’m agitated by jabs of anger and acquisitiveness and sadness, and I’m shaken out of the mild mood I’d resolved to maintain. To prevent an unsettling rage from dragging me down into bitter resentment, I have to call out and wail: ‘O God, come to my assistance; O Lord, make haste to help me!’

“I’m pitted against the pull of boredom, pretentiousness, and pride; and my mind is deluded by the suspicion that other monks are being negligent and indifferent. To keep the enemy’s pernicious suggestion from overpowering me, I have to pray with total anguish in my heart: ‘O God, come to my assistance; O Lord, make haste to help me!’

“Through nonstop spiritual remorse, I’ve dislodged the tumor of pride and obtained the grace of self-debasement and honesty. To keep the foot of pride from approaching me again, and the hand of the sinner from moving me, and the thrill of my victory from digging me into an even deeper hole, I have to call out with all my might: ‘O God, come to my assistance; O Lord, make haste to help me!’

“My soul is bubbling over with countless different distractions, my heart is vacillating, and I’m unable to keep my scattered thoughts under control. I can’t pour out that prayer of mine without being interrupted by pointless mental images and inner monologues and rehashed events. I’m so in thrall to these slim pickings that I can’t conceive of a single spiritual thought. I can’t set myself free with a lot of complaining and moaning, so to earn my liberation from this mental degradation I absolutely have to call out: ‘O God, come to my assistance; O Lord, make haste to help me!’

“Thanks to an appearance from the Holy Spirit, I feel my soul has found its footing again, my thoughts have settled, and my heart is alert. My joy is inexpressible, and my mind is transported. I’m overflowing with a superabundance of spiritual perceptions, and thanks to a sudden inspiration from the Lord, the most hallowed forms of knowledge that were once totally hidden from me have been uncovered, and I understand them. To earn more time to linger here, I have to cry out anxiously and repeatedly: ‘O God, come to my assistance; O Lord, make haste to help me!’

“I’m being harassed by demonic nightmares that surround me on all sides. I’m disturbed by images of filthy spirits. And hope itself—of being saved, of being alive—is dragged away from me through sheer terror. Taking refuge in that lifesaving harbor of this brief verse, I will exclaim with all my might: ‘O God, come to my assistance; O Lord, make haste to help me!’

“Then once I’ve recovered in the comfort of the Lord and been revived by his approach, I feel as though thousands and thousands of angels are encircling me. As a result, I suddenly have the courage to seek out and face the demons I feared worse than death until just now—the demons whose touch felt so close it used to make my mind and body quake. I challenge them to fight, and, to maintain this stamina for a while longer with God’s support, I have to call out with all my might: ‘O God, come to my assistance; O Lord, make haste to help me!’

“And so, we should pour out this brief verse in nonstop constant prayer—to be rescued when we’re embattled, and to be preserved when we’re flourishing without it going to our heads. I’ll say it again: you should recite this brief verse in an unbroken cycle in your breast. Whether you’re working, or performing some task, or traveling, you should never stop chanting it. You should recite it when you’re sleeping and eating and going to the bathroom. This perpetual motion of the heart will become a lifesaving formula for you. Not only will it keep you unharmed from any demonic attack. It will also purge you of all the contaminating weaknesses of everyday life. It will guide you toward those unseen celestial contemplations. And it will transport you to that inexpressible fiery prayer that very few people experience.

“May you nod off while you’re meditating on this verse, until you’ve become so conditioned to the constant practice of it that you chant it even while you’re fast asleep. May it be the first thing to greet you when you wake up. May it anticipate all the thoughts you’ll have when you’re awake. May it usher you to kneel when you rise from your bed, and then from there, may it conduct you through all your deeds and affairs. May it always be at your side. In accordance with the Lawgiver’s commands, you will meditate on this verse when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise up. You will write it over your threshold, and on the doors of your mouth. You will place it on the walls of your house, and in the innermost chambers of your breast. That way, this chant will be with you when you bow to pray, and then again when you rise. And as you go about the obligatory business of everyday life, may your prayer be ever attentive.

“The mind should maintain its hold on this mantra without letting up, through constant use and nonstop and intense meditation, until it has tossed out and rejected the riches and vast resources of all its thoughts. In this way the mind will become bound up in the poverty of this verse and will all the more easily reach that state of bliss that holds pride of place among the others. ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit,’ he says, ‘for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.’ So whoever excels as a poor person in this kind of poverty will fulfill that prophetic utterance: ‘The poor and the needy shall praise the name of the Lord.’ ”