After the consecration in the Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, this prayer follows: “that they (3l) may be unto watchfulness of soul (32), unto forgiveness of sins … “. Not only before but also after Holy Communion we have need of watchfulness and vigilance toward ourselves. According to St. John Chrysostom, watchfulness of the soul is the first blessed fruit of Holy Communion.
In the Divine Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts, in the prayer of the second Antiphon, the priest prays: “… enlighten the eyes of our hearts unto the knowledge of Thy truth”. The enlightenment of the eyes of our heart, in other words, the watchfulness which is given as a divine gift guides us to the thorough knowledge of Divine Truth. The first prayer of the faithful, after a little while, says: “O God, great and praiseworthy, Who by the life-creating death of Thy Christ hast translated us from corruption to incorruption, do Thou free all our senses from deadly passions, setting over them as a good guide the understanding that is within us. And let our eyes abstain from evil sight, our hearing be inaccessible to idle words, and our tongue be purged of unseemly speech. Make clean our lips which is well-pleasing to Thee, fortifying our members and minds by Thy grace”.
In that most beautiful, deeply neptic prayer we see that all our sensory members and our intellect are secured by the Grace of God: they acquire that spiritual freedom, since this “understanding that is within us” becomes set in our hearts as a “good guide” that attracts Divine Grace and protects the senses.
The second prayer of the faithful next says: “that through them our mental sight may be illumined and we may become children of the light and of the day”. With the eye of the mind enlightened by the Immaculate Mysteries, we become children of the light and of the day.
St. Hesychios the Presbyter makes clear the relationship between Holy Communion and watchfulness by writing:
“When in fear, trembling and unworthiness we are yet permitted to receive the divine, undefiled Mysteries of Christ, our King and our God, we should then display even greater watchfulness, strictness and guard over our hearts, so that the divine fire, the Body of our Lord Jesus Christ, may consume our sins and stains, great and small. For when that fire enters into us, it at once drives the evil spirits from our heart and remits the sins we have previously committed, leaving the intellect free from the turbulence of wicked thoughts. And if after this, standing at the entrance to our heart, we keep strict watch over the intellect, when we are again permitted to receive those Mysteries the divine Body will illuminate our intellect still more and make it shine like a star” (33).
~ Watchfulness and Prayer, Themes from the Philokalia, Number 1, 2nd Edition, Publications of the Holy Monastery of St Gregory Palamas, Koufalia, Thessaloniki, Hellas
31. That is, the Consecrated Gifts.
32. Here all translations we have seen incorrectly have: “unto cleansing” (nipsin) of souls, rather than “unto watchfulness” (nepsin)!
33. Op cit.”, No 101, in Philokalia, vol.1 p.179.
