What are the signs of purity of heart?

First: Forgiving those who trespass against us. St. Aphrahat says , “There are people among us who multiply the prayers, make long intercessions, bowing themselves down and spreading out their hands (Isa. 1:15), but the works of prayer are far away from them. For they pray the prayer which our Life-giver taught, ‘Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive to our debtors’ (Matt. 6:12). O you who pray, should remember that you are bringing an offering before God. Let not the angel who presents prayers feel shame at an offering which has a blemish. That is to say, you pray that you be forgiven and acknowledge that you forgive; consider first in your mind whether you really forgive and then acknowledge ‘I do forgive.’ For you should not deceitfully act with God and say ‘I forgive’ when you do not forgive. For God is no man like you, whom you can deceive (Num. 23:19). ‘When a man sins against a man, he may beseech the Lord, but when a man acts foolishly against God, whom will he beseech?’ (1 Sam. 2:25). So do not find yourself guilty through your prayer.

“Hear again what our Lord said, ‘When you bring an offering and you remember that you have some grudge against your brother, leave your offering before the altar, go and be reconciled with your brother and then come and bring your offering’ (Matt. 5:23–24). Lest when you pray, you remember that you have some grudge (against your brother), thereby you should consider in your mind that your prayer has been left before the altar. He who carries the prayers (Gabriel) will not wish to take it from the earth because he has inspected and seen a blemish in your offering. If it is pure, he takes it up before God. If he finds in your prayer, ‘forgive me and I do forgive,’ in such case it is said to the one who prays by (him who) takes up the prayers, ‘First of all forgive your debtor, and then I will raise up your (prayer) to the Lord, your creditor. You forgive the hundred denarii according to your poor condition and the Lord, your Creditor, will forgive you the ten thousand talents according to his greatness (Matt. 18:23–35). He will not reckon with you for any payment or interest.’

“If you are willing and forgiving then, he (Gabriel) takes your offering, the prayer, raises and brings it up with him. If you do not forgive, in such a case he will say to you, ‘I will not bring an unclean offering before the holy throne. But, see, you go there to give an account to your Creditor, taking your offering with you’; and he leaves your offering and goes off. Now listen to what the prophet had said, ‘Cursed is he who has a good ram in his flock, but he vows and sacrifices a sick one to the Lord’ (Mal. 1:14). For he said, ‘Offer it to your governor, and (see) whether he is pleased with you or will he give you favor?’ (Mal. 1:8). Therefore

you ought to forgive your debtor before your prayer and then pray. And when you pray, your prayer will ascend before God on high, and it is not left on the earth.”²⁶⁴

Second: Comforting the weary, for the comfort of God resides in comforting the weary. St. Aphrahat says, “For God said through the prophet, ‘This is my rest, give rest to the weary’ (Isa. 28:12). Therefore give the rest of God, o man. There is no need to you to say ‘forgive me.’ Give rest to the weary, visit the sick, provide for the poor (Matt. 25:35–36); this is prayer. I shall convince you, my beloved, about this, that (if) all the time a man does the rest of God, this is prayer. For it is written thus, ‘When Zimri committed fornication with a Midianite woman, Phineas, the son of Eleazar saw him and he entered into the cell and killed both of them’ (Num. 25:6–8; Sir. 45:23–26). Their killing was considered as prayer to him; David says about him thus, ‘Phineas has stood up and prayed, and it was considered a victory to him for generations, forever’ (Ps. 106:30–31). He killed them (lit. their killing which he killed) for the sake of his God and it was considered as prayer for him.

“Take heed, my beloved, suppose an opportunity of giving rest to the will of God happens to you, you say, ‘the time for prayer is near, I will pray and then take care.’ While you are seeking to complete your prayer the opportunity for giving rest has slipped away from you and you are disabled from (doing) the will and rest of God, and through your prayer you are guilty of sin. Rather, do the rest of God and it is prayer.”²⁶⁵

Phineas the priest could not bear to see Zimri with the Midianite woman with whom he had committed adultery and perhaps even worshipped her gods. He even dared to bring her in front of Moses and the whole assembly in front of the tabernacle, despising the holiness of the house of God.

Third: A sincere longing for prayer. St. Aphrahat says, “But all the more you be diligent for prayer and not to be reluctant (in it), as it is written that our Lord said, ‘Be praying and it shall not weary you’ (Luke 18:1). You should be diligent in wakefulness, remove from yourself drowsiness and slumber; you should be vigilant both by day and night, and you should not be disheartened.”²⁶⁶

Fourth: Purity of the heart. The scholar Tertullian says, “Purity does not signify the washing with water, but repentance through the work of the Holy Spirit within us for the purity of our hearts and our entire inner and outer beings.”

“But what reason is there in going to prayer with hands indeed washed, but the spirit foul?— inasmuch as to our hands themselves spiritual purities are necessary, that they may be lifted up pure from falsehood, from murder, from cruelty, from poisonings, from idolatry,

264 St. Aphraphat, Aphrahat: Demonstrations I , trans., Kuriakose Valavanolickal (Kottayam, India: St. Ephrem Ecumenical Research Institute, 2005) 4.14: pp. 88–90.

265 St. Aphraphat, Aphrahat: Demonstrations I , trans., Kuriakose Valavanolickal (Kottayam, India: St. Ephrem Ecumenical Research Institute, 2005) 4.14: p. 90.

266 St. Aphraphat, Aphrahat: Demonstrations I , trans., Kuriakose Valavanolickal (Kottayam, India: St. Ephrem Ecumenical Research Institute, 2005) 4.16: p. 92.

and all the other blemishes which, conceived by the spirit, are effected by the operation of the hands. These are the true purities.”²⁶⁷

“After the whole body has been washed and purified in baptism, there is need for purification through continuous repentance from the defilement of our hands.”²⁶⁸

The scholar Origen says, “And it would be proper, when one lifts up his eyes and lifts them up properly to heaven, also to lift up holy hands, especially when he offers up prayer without anger and contention (cf. 1 Tim. 2:8). For in this way, when the eyes are lifted up through thought and contemplation, and the hands ae lifted up in deeds which lift up and exalt the soul, as Moses lifted up his hands (Ex. 17:11), one may consequently say, ‘The lifting up of my hands is as the evening sacrifice’ (Ps. 140:2); the Amalikites and all the unseen enemies will be worsted, and the Israelite reasonings in us will prevail.”²⁶⁹

Fifth: Acquiring a mindset of truth. The scholar Origen says, “And so it was more the soul of Anna that was cured of barrenness and bore fruit than her body when she conceived Samuel (cf. 1 Sam. 1:19f). Hezekiah begot divine children of the mind rather than such as are born of the body from the seed of the body (cf. 2 Kings 20:18; Isa. 39:7). Esther and Mordecai and the people were delivered even more from spiritual attacks than from Haman and the conspirators (cf. Esther 6–7).”²⁷⁰