Slowly, take a deep breath and exhale. Repeat. Repeat once again.
Now, continue to breathe normally, naturally.
Your life depends upon your breathing. If you stop breathing, your body will die.
Prayer is breathing for the soul. When you pray with your heart, you invite the Life-Giving Energy into your soul. Your soul is then nurtured with Life.
Everything that you have been taught to be and to do as an Orthodox Christian assumes that you are regularly and actively praying. If you do not neglect to give your body oxygen, do not neglect to attract God’s Grace through prayer mingled with humility and repentance.
Consider a fish swimming in the water. If the fish jumps out of the water, it cannot breathe or move freely. If you do not pray, you are like a fish out of water. Without prayer, you cannot live as an Orthodox Christian naturally should live.
Your body normally breathes on its own, involuntarily, without you having to think about it. May your heart likewise learn to (noetically) pray continually, keeping your soul and body always in harmony with the Way, even as your mind attends to your daily tasks. This unceasing prayer is a gift from God.
Remember always to pray everywhere.
Read: Philippians 4.6-7: 1 Thessalonians 5.16-18
Text copyright © 2018 by Fr. Symeon D. S. Kees