Hardness of heart

Monday, March 27, 2017

Here is a Lenten prayer from the Orthodox Liturgy for Lent by Ephraim the Syrian (306-373):

Lord and Master of my life,

take far from me the spirit of laziness, discouragement, domination, and idle talk;

grant to me, thy servant, a spirit of chastity, humility, patience, love;

yea, my Lord and King, grant me to see my sins, and not to judge my neighbor,

for thou art blessed for ever and ever. Amen.  

“Laziness” refers to a certain hardness of heart which is the result of self-centeredness and pride. Hardness of heart causes us to become insensitive to the needs of other, forgetful of God’s love continually being poured into our hearts through the work of the Holy Spirit, unable to see beyond appearances, unable to savor and wonder at the beauty of nature and other human beings.

“Idle talk” can be lying, talking about magic, a frivolous outlook on life, an obsession with greed, words of discouragement and despair, and, as Olivier Clément puts it, “fascination with nothingness.” (In this, I can’t help thinking of people who faithfully read publications like People magazine.)

The remedy for these things is the cultivation and practice of the virtues, the things Ephraim prays for in the third line of the prayer.

The fourth line of the prayer calls us to “wake up,” to reflect on our own personal sinfulness and inclinations to sin. All too often, when we grow forgetful of our own condition we are more prone to judge others; in addition, judging others is a good way to distract ourselves from the important work we need to do—to direct our attention within where we can be honest about all those things that cause us to need to pray, “Have mercy on me, a sinner.”

Olivier Clément (The Roots of Christian Mysticism, p. 131) speaks about the condition of a soul which has been freed from hardness of heart. Perhaps this might also be the basis for a good Lenten prayer:

the heart, he says, “may become an antenna of infinite sensitivity, infinitely vulnerable to the beauty of the world and to the sufferings of human beings, and to God who is Love, who has conquered by the wood of the cross.”

God bless you!