ON PRAYER FOR PEACE. ARCHPRIEST SERGIY BARANOV

QUESTION. They say during a war it is necessary to intensify your prayer. What exactly should we pray for?
ANSWER. You know, I am going to tell you the following: the main thing in prayer is not your request, but Christ. We should find Christ in prayer, but not file our request. If you haven’t found Christ, whom will you file your requests or even claims? Recently one non-believer told me: “If there were God, children would have never suffered and innocent people would have never died”. He also added with sarcasm: “So, where is your God? Why is it all happening?” And I answered him sincerely: “I do not understand everything in the providence of God, only a madman would, but sober-minded people realize that there is something that goes beyond understanding. Owing to our narrow-mindedness and to the impossibility of understanding it now, but then, in time, we might see the point of it.” That is why the main thing in prayer is to find Christ. If you did it and He is here (showing at his heart), you won’t need to explain anything to Him there. Or ask the One Whom you trust of anything. You should have Christ Whom you can say: “Thy will be done, even though I do not understand something completely. If you found Christ and have such a relationship with Him, your prayer for anything, even for the war, will be just: “Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus…” And He will answer: “I hear you, I hear, I hear, I hear. I do not hear your words. I hear your heart. I hear that it is bleeding. And you may even not put it into phrases, as I simply perceive your pain and know what it is about. It already has a shape for Me. Do not bother with finding a formula. Leave it alone. I know it all. I feel you through your pain: Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus…” I think the prayer for peace doesn’t need us, it needs Christ. Our prayer is filled with personal emotions and subjective evaluation of the events we pray for. It is subjective and distorted. It comprises anger, judgment and contradiction. Due to that the whole picture gets distorted. While Christ sees all this with one simple look.

QUESTION. (Daria. Kyiv) Every day is filled with cruelty, it brings losses and deaths; every night is full of fear, the whistle of missiles and gunfire. The prayer became more distracted; we have no opportunity for going to a confession or taking Communion. How do we not run wild, how not to hate and hold a grudge against people in this time? How to keep our faith unshattered and remain human? Thank you very much.
ANSWER. As far as we are not personally concerned, it seems to us that everything is alright in the world. But troubles take place every day in the world. Today it is here, tomorrow there. Today in this shape, tomorrow in some other. But the world is always filled with sorrow. We see the world through our presence in it and through our mindset. While God always sees it as a whole. Just imagine, today we are healthy, tomorrow we are sick, today we are prosperous, tomorrow we are not. But God perceives us all and lives through all the events simultaneously. He embraces people who are at war, who are at oncology hospitals, those who were deceived, oppressed and those who live in prosperity. He perceives them all simultaneously by one impression. Try to perceive the world through God, through Christ.
A while ago I gave the following example to our sisters: when elder Sophrony Sakharov (as a young man called Sergey Sakharov) during World War I tried to understand the sorrow by himself, through his “self”, he came to a contradiction with God and wondered: “O Lord, there is so much sorrow! Where are You?” Deep down he felt like grieving over the whole world while indifferent God was nowhere to be found. In the end, at that point of temptation, Christ appeared before him on the cross and asked: “Was it you who was crucified for them? You can’t fully realize the pain of each separate individual. You are not even in the field. You suffer emotionally and that is why you are being selfish. You are making a mistake supposing that you are a sympathizer. I was crucified for them and I am still on the cross. For everyone killed in this war. And for every killer who takes life, my heart is bleeding for him too. For every single moment. You are able to see only a narrow path in this whole space and it seems to you that you sympathize. While I bear all this global pain every moment”. Guess what, it made young Sergey Sakharov a sober-minded man. Then he began to try to perceive the grief of the world not through his “self”, but through Christ, who carries this grief every moment. And everything fell into place. He stopped taking offense at God, and misunderstanding was over. I think he lowered his eyes and said: “Forgive me, my Lord”. END IN COMMENTS
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[IVERMONENG]

He said these words to Christ Whom he saw on the cross, suffering for every one affected by this war, and for those who will live after. As Christ is beyond time. He lives through history with one immediate “I”, laconic as “Amen”.
Try to live through Christ, but it will hurt you much and bring a lot of sorrow. Nevertheless, your “self” will stop and you will realize that you don’t sympathize at all, only your ego rebels. Only Christ suffers selflessly and fully. And your prayer will come back at once. As the prayer is Christ. When a prayer is your “self” it always gets lost. But when the prayer is Christ, it is stable, invincible and unchangeable. Learn to live historical events through Christ. Today we are puzzled, we wonder as the young Sergey Sakharov: “Why, Lord?” We see only today, but we don’t see tomorrow and the day after tomorrow. Our Lord sees all the period of time. He sees what is going to happen next. A gleam of hope after this great grief.

[beatrizmezzadra]

His words, the wisest I have heard from a priest related to this war, resonate as timeless wisdom anchored in a deep communion with Christ. 🙏🙏

[beatrizmezzadra]

His words, resonate as timeless wisdom anchored in true Comunnion with Christ.