The Sign of the Cross
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How Should I Pray?"Prayer needs no teacher. It requires diligence, effort and personal ardor, and then God will be its teacher." St. Meletius the ConfessorPersonal Prayer Why do we Pray? We are asked to pray without ceasing. Here are the
Scripture references to this idea. Our life is to become one of a constant prayer where we are continually in a relationship with God. This is our main task, to draw nearer to God. Saint Isaac of Syria says that it is impossible to draw near to God by any means other than unceasing prayer. How Do We Pray? A Private
Place Praying You should have a specific rule for both morning and evening. Don’t try and wing it. You are developing a discipline that is beyond what you will feel like doing. This is not a relaxation exercise but a path to be in communion with your God. You will need to have a specific set of guidelines that you follow each time with no excuses for shortcutting them. In your rule, incorporate standing, prostrations, kneeling, making the sign of the cross, reading, and at times singing. Use prayer books and written prayers. The Orthodox prayer books are filled with prayers that have been well tested and used for hundreds of years. Prayer does not have to be a creative activity. You must be sincere. Keep your awareness in your heart and concentrate on the words of the prayer. Once you establish a rule, always keep it. Be sure to work with your spiritual Father on this. As you begin to pray enter into every word of the prayer. Bring the meaning of the words down into your heart. Do not rush through the prayers like you are in a hurry to get them over with. Let them slowly drop into the depths of your heart with humility and awe of God. Its like in driving a car. When you are going 90 miles per hour down the highway the driver may feel powerful and in control. But at high speeds things can go wrong fast. When driving at a speed of twenty-five miles per hour the car handles easy and if someone makes a dangerous maneuver you can easily avoid it. Well, the mind works the same way. We want to train it to slow down so we can open our heart to God’s presence. So, in prayer we say the words slowly so we can gain the meaning of them and allow them to penetrate our consciousness and to bring to our heart feelings of love and reverence for our God. Let the words drop individually into your heart like pebbles dropping into a pond. You will eventually find the right pace for yourself. Beware of the tendency to rush to complete them hurriedly. When this happens you have turned your prayer into an obligation and it is no longer true prayer. Don’t worry if you catch your self doing this. It is normal at first. Just stop and slow down and proceed asking God’s forgiveness and help. Also, study the prayers before you use them so you know the meaning of each word. Eventually you will want to memorize them. After you begin to recite your prayers you will find that your mind will want to wander. Don’t be concerned about this as this is natural due to the forces that do not want us to pray to God. Work to learn to concentrate your attention. When you mind wanders, be gentle with yourself and go back and recite again what you said while your mind was elsewhere. Bring yourself to concentrate on the words of the prayer. Sometimes it helps to say them out loud for a while. The mind is quite adept at being able to have you do more than one thing at a time. You need to bring yourself to a single focus on God. These wanderings of the mind show you the dimensions of your busy life that you need to find ways to make quieter so you can be always mindful of God. Prayer it is not time to focus on these worldly activities, because this will only further distract you from prayer. Work to concentrate your attention more and more. Each day you will gain in your attentiveness during prayer. When you finish your prayers, stand for a few moments. Consider to what your prayer life commits you. Try to hold in your heart what has been given to you. Treasure it for a few moments. Remember to make your prayer life one that is a firm rule and not something that is done occasionally or sporadically. It must be done each day morning and evening at a minimum. You need to have specific prayers that are part of your prayer rule. You need to commit to doing you rule each and every day. Think about certain personal hygiene tasks such as brushing your teeth that you do each day out of habit . You don’t forget to do them each day. The same needs to be with your prayer rule. You need to make prayer a similar habit that you never forget. Just like the hygiene activities that we do for the health of our body, prayer is essential for the health of our soul. What is the Jesus Prayer? The name of our Lord Jesus Christ is a divine name. The power and effect of that name are divine, omnipotent and salvific, and transcend our ability to comprehend it. With faith therefore, with confidence and sincerity, and with great piety and fear ought we to proceed to the doing of the great work which God has entrusted to us: to train ourselves in prayer by using the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. St. Ignatius (Brianchaninov) You begin the practice of the Jesus prayer as with other prayers by reciting them with you lips or saying them aloud. Then after you have learned to concentrate your mind on prayer, you can begin to say them in your mind. Finally after much time you will descend from the mind into your heart and your prayers will be said from the depths of your inner most being. St. John of the Ladder counsels that the mind should be locked into the words of the prayer and should be forced back each time it departs from it (Step XXVIII, ch. 17). Such a mechanism of prayer is remarkably helpful and suitable. When the mind, in its own manner, acquires attentiveness, then the heart will join it with its own offering—compunction. The heart will empathize with the mind by means of compunction, and the prayer will be said by the mind and heart together. The words of the prayer ought to be said without the feast hurry. even lingering, so that the mind can lock itself into each word. St. Ignatius (Brianchaninov) Why
do we Pray for the Dead? When we pray for the dead the Church intercedes for them just as it does for the living. We pray for the forgiveness of sins for all who have died for no one is sinless (1John 1:8). Prayer helps nurture the seeds of a new life that those who have died have taken up. Now we are not to be deceived about reviving rotten seeds. Nothing can revive rotten seeds. The prayers for those who have died in impiety and without repentance are powerless. (1Thes 5:19) However, on earth we do not know what lot one has been subjected to. A prayer of love can never be without profit. We must remember that those in heaven respond to our prayers with prayers for us. Why do we include Saints in our Prayers? These holy people the Lord calls His friends. You are My friends if you do whatever I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you. (John 15:14-15) They are those He has received in His heavenly mansions in fulfillment of His words: Where I am, there you may be also. (John 14:3) Instead of praying for forgiveness of their sins, we praise them for their struggles in Christ. We make petitions to them asking them to pray for us and the remission of our sins and spiritual growth, seeking their help in our spiritual needs. The saints
are near the Throne of God. Sacred scripture presents numerous examples
that the righteous, while still living can see and hear and know
much that is inaccessible to the ordinary understanding. The saints
while they were still on earth we able to penetrate in spirit into
the world above. The Church has always taught the invocation of the saints, convinced they intercede for us before God in heaven. Having a prayer relationship with a saint is another way that we can gain help in our spiritual path to salvation in the Church. A Sample Prayer
Rule A prayer rule should first specify the place and
time of prayer. Morning and Evening Prayer
Stop mid morning , noon and mid afternoon to say a simple prayer. Repeat the Jesus Prayer in your mind whenever you can throughout the day. Offer a prayer before and after each meal thanking God and asking for His blessing. What is Corporate Prayer? |
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Living
the Orthodox Life
Next, you need to find a quiet private place where you will not be
disturbed for your daily prayer. This may be a corner in the bedroom
(a room divider can help make a special place), space in a walk-in
closet, or, if you are fortunate to have an extra room, a special
room that is only for prayer. It needs to be a place where you can
be undisturbed and alone. Once you choose the place, you should set
up a small home icon stand. On it place an icon of Christ, Theotokos,
and your patron saint. Have an oil lamp or candle that you can light
while you pray. Also an incense burner, a cross and a prayer book
and Bible.