718 (PRAYER/SERVICES/ FAITH/ SPIRITUAL LIFE) Repetition, my brethren, is the mother of learning: Saying the prayer continually and believing that the good God will take care of our problems, one by one, is good and pleasing to God; at the same time believing that in the end whatever is said in the services is done, achieved and experienced. These are the keys that greatly help us in our spiritual life and journey… When, for example, we sing in the Church the Hymn, “Today hanging on the Cross…”, let us believe that we are crucifying ourselves with Him, our passions and our carnal desires and let us believe that He will eventually give it to us…. (of course, with our prayers and our cooperation). When we say, “for our deliverance from all affliction, wrath, danger, distress and need….” let us believe that it is done (i.e. it will be applied to us), and that He will save us from any temptation and need… With this faith, then, let us experience, let us live all that is said, both in the Church –through the Holy Services- and each day and hour through the comprehensive and all-powerful Jesus Prayer, as we have analyzed in previous Paternal Advices. The spiritual life, my brethren, is lived according to the degree of one’s purity and humility! One experiences it (the spiritual life) according to the degree he lives it… There are many mysteries in the spiritual life, and many spiritual pleasures…
The spiritual man lives a daily feast, as St. Paisios the Athonite would tell us! All the above, we wish to all of us wholeheartedly! May Christ and His all-Holy Mother always be with us!