If you are going to occupy yourself with prayer of the heart exclusively you must have the guidance of a spiritual father. Prayer of the heart is impossible without a spiritual guide. There is a danger of the soul being deluded. Care is needed.

Listen and I'll tell you about something that happened to me a few days ago. A monk who practices the Jesus Prayer came here from the Holy Mountain and he asked me:

--How do you day the Jesus Prayer? Do you sit on a low stool? Do you lower your head and concentrate?

This Parable further confirms that God is impartially merciful to all, for some gift is given to every created man. It is true that some are given more and some less, but this in no way changes the situation, because God seeks more from him to whom much has been given, and less of him to whom little has been given. Enough, though, is given to everyone for his or her salvation, and to help in the salvation of others.

The wicked and faithless complain, for example, when God takes their children from them: "See," they cry, "how He mercilessly takes our children before their time!" On what basis are they yours? Were they not His before you called them yours? And how before their time? Does not He who created time know when their right time has come? Not a single householder on earth waits until his entire forest has grown to maturity, and only then cuts it down, but he cuts it, old or young, as he needs it--both that which has been growing a long time and that which has just sprouted--to put to use in his house.

God gives to each according to his strength: as much as each can carry and use. Of course, God gives His gifts to men also according to the plan of His dispensation, as the members of a household neither all have the same capacities nor do the same job, but one has a particular capacity and one another, and each works according to his capacity.

God creates inequality; men grumble at it. Are men wiser than God? When God creates inequality, it means that inequality is wiser and better than equality. God creates inequality for man's good, but men cannot see the good in their inequality. God creates inequality because of the beauty of inequality, but men can see no beauty in it. God creates inequality out of love, that is aroused and sustained by inequality, but man can see no love in it.