Alexis Khomiakov
1804-1860 19th century
Prayer understood as an act that is never solitary, and theology done by working hands.
Who was Alexis Khomiakov?
A Russian landowner and master of serfs, cavalry officer, poet, inventor of farm machinery and father of a family, he was one of the founders of Slavophilism and was never a priest or a professor. He did theology as a layman, at home, between harvests. His short treatise on the Church, written for friends and published only after his death, fed a century of Orthodox thought. He died of cholera on his Riazan estate on 23 September 1860, after seeing much sickness around him.
In their own words
The Church is one. Her unity follows of necessity from the unity of God; for the Church is not a multitude of persons in their separate individuality, but a unity of the grace of God, living in a multitude of rational creatures, submitting themselves willingly to grace.
Creeds and prayers and works are nothing of themselves, but are only an external manifestation of the inward spirit. […] Neither he who prays nor he who does works nor he who confesses the Creed of the Church is pleasing to God, but only he who acts, confesses, and prays according to the spirit of Christ living within him.
We know that when any one of us falls, he falls alone; but no one is saved alone. He who is saved is saved in the Church, as a member of her, and in unity with all her other members. If any one believes, he is in the communion of faith; if he loves, he is in the communion of love; if he prays, he is in the communion of prayer.