11 May 2025

John Cassian  was born in the Roman Empire in the fourth century. He became a monk and his first monastery was in Bethlehem. He and his friend, Germanus, set out to learn as much as they  could from older practitioners like Abba Isaac of Scetis in the Nile Delta. He recorded Abba Isaac's robust wisdom:

‘In order to be able to utter a prayer with the intense heat and clarity that you should, here are the tasks you need to take care of.

First of all, you need to mow down all your concerns for physical matters.

Then you need to prune away your preoccupations about business matters and odd jobs, as well as gabbing, chitchatting, telling dirty jokes, and other similar things that shouldn’t get lodged in your memory.

Above all, you need to dig deep to excavate the destabilizing forces of anger and sadness, and root out the toxic fire starter of impulsivity and greed.

Once these and other weaknesses that people are prone to exhibit are cleared out and cut down – as I said, that’s the preliminary work of clearing the construction site, which is accomplished through the clarifying effects of honesty and integrity – then it’s time to lay the firm foundations of deep self-debasement.'

The images are vivid – the gardener and the builder. The work is serious. Never was prayer so much like hard work. There is no escape from the preparation. It’s necessary for the garden and for the construction site. Nothing will grow. Foundations will not be stable without these preliminaries. So it is with prayer!