Vladimir Soloviev. Brief biography. The Spiritual Foundations of Life. The Prayer, Our Father, the name of God and Thy will be done.
Vladimir Soloviev, a Muscovite, son of one of the most important Russian historians, Sergei Soloviev, lived only 48 years (1/28/1853-8/13/1901) but left a trail of eternal light not so much in speculative or discursive philosophy, but in idealistic and religious philosophy, mystical and soteriological, where he greatly developed the idea of the Universal Church, the role of the deep and traditional Russia, and Sophianity, or Sophialogy, for early on, at the age of 11, he was touched by the Divine under the vision of its feminine face, Sophia. Entering the youthful phase of greater Gnostic openness, coinciding with his travels and stays in England and Egypt, he delved deeper into Christianity, trying to unite the Orthodox and Catholic Church and doctrine, but with a strong emphasis on Sophia, Divine Wisdom, which is depicted in the following famous icon from Novgorod, of the XV century, the first one to represent her:
Already graduated in philosophy and as a professor, he distinguished himself through articles and books, friends and lectures, even having the joy of seeing both Dostoievsky (1821-1881) and Tolstoy (1828-1910) attend his lecture on Dostoievsky's work, although they had never met. Unlike his relationship with Dostoevsky, with whom he was quite friendly and a confidant, in St. Petersburg, the relationship with Tolstoy was difficult, as he, although deeply Christian, was against certain anti-natural dogmas of Christianity, such as the resurrection of the flesh or the body of Jesus, with Soloviev's letter to him attempting to prove the necessity of his existence being well known.
His vast body of work, which came to attract the interest of German, French, and English intellectuals, and even Rudolf Steiner in one lecture spoke well of him, was not completed in some projects, such as the translation of Plato's Opera omnia, due to his premature death. The most important companions or disciples were Sergei Trubetskoy (1862-1905), Pavel Florensky (1882-1937), Sergei Bulgakov (1871-1944), and Nicholas Berdiaev (1874-1948). In Portugal, The Truth of Love is published by Guimarães Editora, an excellent book.
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| Pavel Florensky and Sergei Bulgakov in a mystical conversation, perhaps invoking God. Painting by the excellent Mikhail Vasilievich Nesterov |
After the preface by Archbishop Michel d'Herbigny, in the 1st part, in the Introduction, it briefly addresses Nature, Death, Sin, Law, and Grace, followed by three chapters on Prayer, Sacrifice, and Almsgiving, and Fasting. In the second part, the first chapter addresses Christianity as the revelation of the Light and the universal meaning (logos) of Christ, followed by The Church and the State and Society according to Christ.
It is from the 1st chapter, about Prayer and the Our Father, that we have selected the transcribed text, a good approach to God as the source of Good, and a good justification for the need for prayer, followed by a summary by me of what it says about the Our Father prayer. May this text improve the effectiveness of prayer, without, however, underestimating other formulas or expressions of the prayer-aspiration to the Divinity, even in the way of reciting the Our Father, which can be done only in parts, or even prayed more slowly in one of its petitions, or even paraphrased-transformed by our own soul and aspiration...
"We believe in the Good, but we know that the [true] good is not within us." [Here Soloviev does not affirm the existence in us of the immortal spirit in itself, or our conscious connection to it, and that it is Good, as he believes there has been the Fall]. We must then turn to the Real Good, surrender our will to it, offer it a spiritual sacrifice, and direct our prayer to it. He who does not pray, that is, does not align his will with the supreme will, either lacks faith in Him, does not believe in the good, or thinks of himself as the absolute possessor of the good, considering his own will as perfect and all-powerful. Not believing in good is moral death. Believing that one is the origin and source of good is madness. Believing in the divine source of good, directing prayers to it, and surrendering everything to its [limited] will, is supreme wisdom and the principle of moral perfection.
If we truly aspire to a free and perfect life, we must entrust ourselves and submit to the One who can free us from evil and give us the strength to do good, and who possesses freedom and perfection for all eternity. Our soul has only the capacity to become free and perfect, but it does not possess freedom or perfection on its own; it only has the possibility [or potential] for both.
This virginal aptitude of our soul can become fruitful with a new life that will be our salvation; but, for this purpose, for there to be a true emergence of a new life, it is necessary that a principle enters into activity that carries within itself a certain creative power and is like the germ of this new life. Our soul is capable of receiving God, but this aptitude must be surrendered unreservedly to His liberator and lord, the Father of a new life; so that it does not remain barren, but becomes the mother-matter of a new spiritual life that allows it to act and create in freedom. By surrendering to Him in faith, the person unites with Him in prayer; likewise, this is the first act of faith, in which God and the human being act together.
"Faith without works is dead," prayer is the first of these works and the beginning of supernatural activity. Believing in God, we must believe that all good resides in Him, in fullness and perfection (for otherwise He would not be God) and if, in truth, all good resides in God, we cannot, by that fact, establish any good and true work by ourselves. We have no power except to not act against the good and grace that come from heaven, to cooperate with grace, not acting against it, but giving it our assent [or consent]. Divine grace turns us towards God, and we merely consent to such a conversion by our will.
Here is the essence of prayer; it is already a certain good and just work, through which we act upon God and God acts upon us. It is already the beginning of a new spiritual life, in which we experience the first movement within us. We know that this life is within us and constitutes the best of us, but also that it does not come from us (...) but comes from the Father (...)».
Hence the importance of the Our Father for Soloviev, who will try to elucidate in the sense that the Father of Lights or the Father who is in Heaven is not the source of diseases, sins, and death, but that He is, and in Him reside, the Good, the Truth, the Life. And therefore, if we truly believe in Him, we leave behind all that sick and miserable past and desire above all, or with all our heart and strength, God.
For Soloviev, the desire can be to appear: 1st something that did not exist, 2nd something that already exists, and 3rd modifications or improvements. In the case of God, "we must first desire that He reveals Himself to us, and that He tells us His name, that He communicates to us the conception, the idea by which we will know Him." [Important is this trusting receptivity to which the Divine can manifest in us, as so many more devoted or mystical beings have felt throughout the centuries. In India, such internal divine revelation is called ishta devata, the intimate and personal deity of each individual.]
"And then, having known Him, we must truly receive His revelation or acknowledge His name (...) and then we must conform to Him, so that His Name may be sanctified", or, may be more conform to the original, glorified..
Regarding "Thy Kingdom Come," Soloviev points in a traditional sense; we should desire that God reign not only in the intimacy of our hearts but also in a visible way in other souls. The obstacle to such a coming is human wills that do not want their worlds to be the Kingdom of God, or to be open or in accordance with the divine Will, which can be more discerned by applying it as a rule of conscience in daily life, asking ourselves what the will of Master Jesus Christ would be.
Our daily bread is seen as a confident request for fulfilment on both levels of sustenance, the spiritual and the physical. Recognising the need to forgive, it warns of the deep negative forces within us that rebel against the divine will or the harmony of natural laws and multipolar fraternity, and that can tempt us in three ways, namely with sensuality (which is overcome by purity), pride (by humility), and power (to be overcome by patience and detachment). The final petition "deliver us from evil" is a new affirmation of openness to God and the higher forces to help us in adversities, without underestimating fasting and prayer, which will be the most effective means of purification and reconnection.
Here is a brief overview of wisdom regarding the value and manner of prayer, from one of the main masters of Russian, Sophiology and European philosophy and spirituality, which is worth reading and delving into.
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