Dimensions: 21.5 × 15.7 × 2.3 cm, 299 pages
For as long as man finds himself in the presence of God in the act of prayer, he remains in constant touch with His grace, that is, with the energy that brought all things into being. Through prayer, therefore, man gives himself over to a perpetual increase in God, which begins in this life and will continue unto endless ages.
Hypostatic prayer in all its manifestations, whether it be universal repentance, universal thanksgiving, intercession for the world or prayer for enemies exceeds the natural limits of human strength. However, prayer of supra-cosmic dimensions can be experienced by every member of the Church together ‘with all the saints’ during the celebration of the Divine Liturgy.
The greatness of the Sacrament of the Divine Eucharist lies precisely in the fact that it is a miniature of the sublime communion of all the saints. When the Christian enters this communion, he partakes of the supernatural gifts of the elect servants of God. Strengthened by these gifts, he comes to know ‘the breadth, and length, and depth, and height of the love of Christ’ and in the love of Christ, he too embraces the entire world.
By obeying the divine commandments, the believer voluntarily becomes a ‘prisoner of Jesus Christ’. He is dependent on God and gradually becomes His child, freed from the law of sin and a bearer of the Holy Spirit. Through the fall, Adam lost the bliss of uninterrupted abiding in the presence of God. Through prayer, Adam’s descendants taste anew the bliss of the divine presence and converse with the Lord, which awakens in them the longing to ever abide in dialogue with Him.