The Contemplative Life for the non-Monastic

A common complaint I get from people is that “we can’t live a contemplative life in the modern world, Father.  There’s no time. I just don’t have several hours a day to spend in prayer.” This is a complaint that I can empathize with.  Most of us don’t live a cloistered life behind monastery walls, yet the church still calls us to learn to be “holy ones of God,” or Saints. (ἅγιος, ἅγία, ἅγιον agios, agia, agion – is the Greek for “holy, transliterating literally as “a,” not, and “gis”(γῆς), earth, so to be a saint is to be “not of the earth.”)

Thus, each and every one of us is called to find ways in our lives to cultivate stillness in hesychastic prayer and BE contemplative so we can purify our hearts and become saints. The question is, then, how do we do this while living in the world. First and foremost, we have to DO it.  We can’t talk about it, we can’t have positive intentions, we can’t watch something online. We must make the time to do this.

Anyone who has been in Wasilla for any length of time has likely heard my teachings on prayer.  I know that the “prescribed prayers” of the Orthodox Church can be overwhelming. When you wake up and the dog has messed up the carpet, the cattle are out, the kid is sick and you are not even dressed yet, looking at the prayer book can be thoroughly intimidating.  Yet our prayers can be short and, if said with intensity, will bring us to holiness and help us become true saints, or men and women who are not of this earth! As I have said repeatedly, make “Glory to Thee, O God” part of your prayers as soon as your feet hit the ground, then – after the messes are cleaned up – return to the prayer corner and follow the rule of Seraphim of Sarov and go down the list of a spiritual routine I have handed out and posted on the website.

Most importantly, take the time to contemplate in your prayers.  Do it at the end of each day after reading the scripture, and do the following:

1. Give thanks for every mercy and help you received.
2. Recall your sins in thought, word, and deed, what you did and what you failed to do. Ask yourself:
   1. Where did I speak with pride, anger, or gossip?
   2. Where did I judge, despise, or ignore my neighbor?
   3. Where did I give myself over to distraction, impurity, or forgetfulness of God?
   4. Where did I fail to pray, to forgive, to show mercy?

These contemplations remind us, daily, to both look for Christ everywhere, represent Christ everywhere, and reflect on where we fail to do this (repentance) so we remember that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23) and do not become arrogant.

Fr. Simeon B. Johnson

June 11, 2017 – Sunday of All Saints (revised – July 10, 2026)