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Text Box: PRAYER - AND NOTHING ELSE, NOT EVEN ZEN BUDDHISM OR ROGERIAN PSYCHOLOGY - IS THE FOREMOST TOOL God calls all of us equally, and challenges us in the measure of our individual talents and abilities. Each of us therefore is challenged, tested, tried, and given opportunity to succeed or fail, each in a different measure, but each in accordance with his abilities. In the Divine assessment, which is truly un-knowable to us, each person receives Divine Judgment - and by definition Divine Judgment is perfectly fair. Each of us is given the same opportunity to receive Divine assistance in our time of being tested on Earth. Those who have been given greater talents may be tested more severely, but are also given the opportunity to receive Divine assistance in a measure in accordance with the greater difficultly they experience. It may be that some with lesser talents are tested even more severely than some with greater talents, and these receive the opportunity to receive Divine assistance in accordance with the measure of their respective needs. Within this context the general reward for those who succeed is the same: eternal happiness; and for those who fail it is all the same: eternal damnation. While each receives the same wage for the labor performed, the measure of each individual’s total reward is unknown to us. However, we infer from scripture and the Fathers of the Church that those who have been evil receive greater punishment in measure to their evil in accordance with their abilities and trials, and those who have been good receive happiness and honor in similar measure. With this in mind, it is important to realize knowledge and ability are two separate things, and do not necessarily naturally flow one to and from the other. Knowing God provides the tools we need to succeed does not mean we

Text Box: will be able to select the proper tools; it does not mean we will know how to use those tools; and it does not mean we will be able to use those tools. We must train to know which tools to use, learn how to use them, and practice using them, so that the Divinely provided tools will be of use and advantage to us. Fastening two pieces of wood is a good example of this. A saw would not be very useful in this task, but a screw and screwdriver would. But if one had no hands, a screwdriver may not be very useful - but a tube of wood glue may prove useful, or even a nail driven into the wood by one’s shod foot. Knowledge of spiritual tools is not obtained by probing one’s inner self. Spiritual tools are useful in examining our consciences and in correcting the evils within us, but just as a hammer can not teach us how to measure the sticky properties of water, so too does probing our inner selves fail to give us knowledge of God and that which He provides. Likewise, Rogerianism, Zen, and all other things and methods that are not provided by God Himself, also are of absolutely no assistance as spiritual tools. What we must do is examine the tools which we know God has given to us; and the first of these is prayer. Prayer is not a “feel good” experience, though one may experience a feeling of well-being while in prayer. It is not a means of getting things which are of this world, though we may receive things of this world in conjunction with prayer - but those things may be a reward, they may be for use in assisting us to greater good, or they may even be a temptation and a trial or test - a challenge which we must meet. Prayer begins with humbly acknowledging our inadequacies and inabilities; our failings. It may include thanks for our not being as evil as we could be, and for not being tested and tempted more severely. But its focus is always first on God, and only then on our relationship with God, and on ourselves, others, and other matters. We now begin the season or time of preparing for Great Lent. It is a time

Text Box: when we move or transition from celebration and thanksgiving for the birth of the Saviour, to the time of penance and sorrow for our wasted lives and repairing of our souls during Great Lent. In this transition time of the liturgical season we should sharpen our knowledge of and ability to use the tools which God has provided for our own role in our own salvation and the salvation of everyone else. Since prayer is the first and foremost of these tools, we should recognize how we can have prayer be the integral part of everything we do - everything: from formal liturgical worship of God, to study of worldly things and of God, and even to eating; and even sleeping. Everything. And then we should so make it. Ref: 1 Cor. 9:24-27; 10:1-5; Mat. 20:1-16 +

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