Fr Roman Braga

"Fr Roman Braga lived through extraordinary times, endured unimaginable suffering as a prisoner of conscience, and ultimately transcended everything to discover the inner universe within himself where even in the complete isolation of solitary confinement he could commune with the Holy Trinity, the Mother of God, and all the saints. . . . And yet, the extraordinary thing was that his suffering did not embitter Fr Roman or destroy his childlike trust in divine love. Indeed, he could even acknowledge God’s grace operating within the suffering he and others experienced under the communist regime in Romania, declaring that 'this suffering was necessary for the salvation of the nation.' It was in the all-embracing rhythms of the Orthodox life, lived continually in the presence of God, where he found his greatest joy." (from the Introduction to Journey to Simplicity: The Life and Wisdom of Archimandrite Roman Braga by Daniel B. Hinshaw - St. Vladimir's Seminary Press, 2023)

In solitary confinement, you could not even look through a window. There was no exterior horizon, nothing but the four walls of your cell. You had to go somewhere; you had to find an inner perspective, because otherwise you would truly go crazy. I’m ashamed to say that I was forced to find myself in prison. I had some ideas about prayer because I came from the Burning Bush Movement, but it was mostly theory about what prayer is; but there in those difficult moments I confess that I started to recite the Jesus Prayer and practiced it intensely. Only then was I able to discover how beautiful the interior life of man is. I liked it very much. A couple of months before I discovered this, I thought that I would go crazy because the solitude was a total break from the world with which I had been so involved. . . our culture is oriented outside ourselves; it is a cosmological knowledge directed towards existence outside ourselves. … I needed a method to find myself, to liberate myself from the slavery of the books, because there were no books there. It is not an exaggeration to say that in freedom we become slaves of the books, we do not have time even to know who we are because we are made out of quotations. (Archimandrite Roman Braga, Exploring the Inner Universe, HDM Press, 2006, p. 40)

A Roman Catholic priest once came to me asking how many times he should say the Jesus Prayer in order to see the Uncreated Energy, and I stopped him saying, “Do not say the prayer anymore.” This is Western mentality; they are more interested in technique than spirituality. It will take time for them to understand that spirituality comes from the Holy Spirit and is not a result of our ascetic exploits. However, their curiosity in reading the Holy Fathers, who are extensively published in this country, is promising. (Archimandrite Roman Braga, Exploring the Inner Universe, HDM Press, 2006, p. 83)