Lent: Life at Home by St. Theophan the Recluse

In Lent it is good to know only church and home, nothing else. So go home. What are you going to do there; You will strive with all your might to maintain the attachment of mind and heart to the Lord.

Immediately after church, run to your room and do several penances, reverently asking God to help you, so that you can use the time of your stay at home in a way that is beneficial to your soul.

Then sit back and rest for a while. But even then don't let your mind go astray. Banishing every thought, mentally repeat the prayer: "Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me! Jesus Christ show me mercy!".

After you have rested, you must do something, either prayer or work. It doesn't matter what job you do; you already know what you like.

It is, you see, impossible to occupy oneself all the time with spiritual things; one must also have some pleasant occupation. This is what you will do when your soul is tired, when you do not have the strength to read or pray.

If, of course, your spiritual pursuits are going well, the manual labor is not necessary. It only fulfills the need to utilize time, which would otherwise be wasted in idleness. And inactivity is always harmful, but much more so in the time of fasting.

How should one pray at home? You are right that during Lent we must add something to the usual prayer rule.

I think, however, that instead of reading more prayers from the Prayer Book, it is better to increase the duration of your direct communication with the Lord.

Every day, before you start and after you finish the morning and evening services, address in your own words the Lord, the Blessed Virgin Mary and your guardian angel, thanking them for their protection and begging them for the satisfaction of your spiritual needs.

Ask them to help you, so that, first of all, you can know yourself, gain self-knowledge and, when you gain it, give you zeal and strength, so that you can heal the wounds of your soul.

Ask them, still, to fill your heart with the feeling of humiliation and brokenness. Humility is the most pleasing sacrifice to God.

So pray. However, do not impose on yourself a long and heavy prayer rule, a rule that will exceed the measures of your psychosomatic powers and overwhelm you.

It is better to pray more often during the day and, when engaged in any other work, keep your mind on God.

After the prayer, read for a while with self-concentration. Studying is not aimed at loading your mind with various information and knowledge, but at your mental benefit and edification. That's why you don't need to read much. But read with great attention and heart participation.

"What should I read?" , you will ask me. Only spiritual books, of course. Careful reading of such books inspires the soul more than anything else. If, however, during the study the desire to pray is born, leave the book and pray.

So you will read, you will pray, you will do penances.

And with all this, however, you will not be able to keep your mind and heart in a state of constant and intense struggle. It's inevitable that you'll get tired. Then, as I told you, you will be engaged in some practical work.

You are thinking, as you write to me, to reduce the quantity of your daily food.

Your thinking is correct and beneficial; correct, because the body, which with its deviations forces you to repent, must pay during Lent the toils that correspond to it; and beneficial, because with fasting the body is enslaved, the mind is purified , the heart softens, the passions die.

Just don't overdo it. You already eat so little. You must have strength to stand in church and to fight at home. Try to eat as much as you need in order not to weaken.

It would also be good to reduce the time of your sleep and rest a little. It is a sacrifice for you, but any kind of sacrifice is appropriate at this time.

And what will happen with the discussions? During Lent at least, let conversations with others be limited to spiritual matters.

Even better are the joint spiritual readings, which give occasions for the exchange of constructive thoughts and the drawing of beneficial conclusions.

Suitable for this purpose are the Lives of the Saints. I have written enough. I'll add whatever else is needed later.