The book, “Prayer, the Experience of Eternity”, by Archimandrite Sophrony Sakharov (1896-1993) was translated from French into Albanian by Eleni Pani. The book answers the questions: “What is the meaning of life?” and How to become a “person”?To become a “person” means to be united and to be like Christ, to become the vessel of divine fullness, of humanity itself with its sufferings and joys. But how then may we enter into the love of God, into His Light that was revealed on Mount Thabor? Through humility and the continuous transformation of the whole being, of the body, soul and mind.
As “the art of arts”, prayer is the key to this inner metamorphosis. As a gift of the abundant life of the Holy Spirit, prayer restores the image of God within us. Prayer, face to face with the eternal Being, is the source of spiritual fatherhood and of true theology. It is a recognition of it that gives you communion with God. But “as a creation which always rejects” prayer, it is also the way of the cross, the endless battle in the heart between the Divine Light and the darkness of the old man; the liberating power of Christ from the enslaving, power of the passions.
For this is the “narrow path” to the boundaries between the visible and invisible, between the intermitted highs and lows, the Paschal sadness and joy, declares Father Sophrony – Not from the external, originating from literary knowledge, but from the internal, from his personal experience as a monk, hermit, priest, confessor, and as the spiritual father of many monasteries on Mount Athos since 1925, and later in Europe (1947). This experience of being part of the tradition of the Ascetics Fathers of the Church and of his teacher, Elder Silouan (1866-1938), gives to his writings and words “life and spirit.”
