"I remember certain pious laymen, even from the nobility who were contemporaries in my youth, who led a very simple life and were occupied with the Jesus Prayer. This precious custom now, with the general weakening of Christianity and monasticism, has almost been lost. Praying in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ requires a sober, strictly moral life, the life of a sojourner or a pilgrim. It demands the abandoning of passionate attachments. But, for us, distraction has become a necessity, a vast acquaintanceship, the gratification of the great number of our passions, benefactors and benefactresses. "Jesus departed, a multitude being on that place."
- St. Ignatii Brianchaninov (from Divine Ascent [1])
"There are two ways to become one with God: the active way and the contemplative way. The first is for Christians who live in the world, the second for those who have abandoned all worldly things. But in practice neither way can exist in total isolation from the other. Those who live in the world must also keep to the contemplative way in some measure. As I told you before, you should accustom yourself to remember the Lord always and to walk always before His face. That is what is meant by the contemplative way.
The question arises: how can we hold the Lord in our attention while busy with various activities? This is how it can be done. Whatever your occupation, great or small, reflect that it is the omnipresent Lord Himself who orders you to perform it and who watches to see how you are carrying it out. If you keep this thought constantly in mind you will fulfil attentively all the duties assigned to you and at the same time you will remember the Lord. In this lies the whole secret of Christian conduct for one in your position, if you are to succeed in your chief aim. Please think it over carefully and adjust yourself to this practice. When you have done this your thoughts will cease to wander hither and thither.
Why is it that things are not going well with you just now? I think it is because you wish to remember the Lord, forgetting worldly affairs. But worldly affairs intrude into your consciousness and push out the remembrance of the Lord. What you should do is just the reverse: you should busy yourself with worldly affairs, but think of them as a commission from the Lord, as something done in His presence. As things are now, you fail both on the spiritual and on the material level. But if you act as I have explained, things will go well in both spheres."
"You dream of a hermitage. But you already have your hermitage, here and now! Sit still, and call out: "Lord have mercy!" When you are isolated from the rest of the world, how will you fulfill the will of God? Simply by preserving within yourself the right inner state. And what is this? It is a state of unceasing remembrance of God in fear and piety, together with the remembrance of death. The habit of walking before God and keeping Him in remembrance -- such is the air we breathe in the spiritual life. Created as we are in the image of God, this habit should exist in our spirit naturally: if it is absent, that is because we have fallen away from God. As a result of this fall, we have to fight to acquire the habit of walking before God. Our ascetic struggle consists essentially in the effort to stand consciously before the face of the ever- present God; but there are also various secondary activities, which likewise form part of the spiritual life. Here too, there is work to be done, in order to direct these activities to their true aim. Reading, meditation, prayer, all our occupations and contacts, must be conducted in such a way as not to blot out or disturb the remembrance of God. The seat of our consciousness and attention must also be concentrated on this remembrance of God."
"It is good to withdraw from distractions under the protection of four walls, but it is even better to withdraw into solitude within oneself. The first without the second is nothing, whereas the last is of the utmost value even without the first
You thirst for a definite seclusion. It would be better to wait. External seclusion will come of itself once inner seclusion is established. God will arrange about that. Yet do not forget that you can be alone amid the noise of the world; and equally you can be surrounded by the hubbub of the world whilst withdrawn in your cell. You will have something better than external seclusion if you retreat in this way within yourself, thus making it impossible for any external turmoil to distract you. Pray that you may be granted this."
-St. Theophan the Recluse
From "The Art of Prayer: An Orthodox Anthology," (London: Faber & Faber, 1966 - see these and other quotes at Inner Light Productions [2])
May the Lord help you to firmly strengthen yourself by His spirit. This demands the utmost heedfulness. If inner concentration is lacking we must grieve and fall down before the Lord with pain of heart. It is not attained solely by our own efforts; on the other hand, it does not come without labor. It requires a cooperation of forces--from there and from here; this is essential. First God created light, and then He gathered it into the celestial bodies. And so it is with us. Good exists, but it is dissipated or diffused. It must all be brought together into a single unity. The soul, it seems, desires this, although evidently it does not recognize this desire. The chief obstacle is--self-pity. Lord, have mercy upon us! Without struggling and applying ourselves we shall achieve nothing. We must force ourselves at least a little bit, even if only by a hair's breadth. When there is zeal and dedication everything goes as it should. But true zeal shows no self-pity. Is there, aside from this, a good foundation? Here it is: a profound sense of one's sinfulness and lack of self-justification before God.
-St. Theophan the Recluse
(Translated From Letters on the Spiritual Life: 1985 reprint of 1908 Moscow edition. Printed by Orthodox America [3])