Use of the paraklesis as a personal prayer

[Olympiada]

Greetings Friends

It has been recommended to me by a renowned church musician that I pray the paraclesis, or the small supplicatory canon to the mother of god. I think I am going to challenge myself to do it for 40 days starting with tonight, as I did it at vespers. So I wanted to 'put it out there' so I am accountable to the community.
Has anyone ever done a 40 day paraclesis?

Yours in Christ
Olympiada

[Baroness]

Dear Olympiada,

Thanks for sharing your message. I haven't prayed such before, but after reading your message, I also feel compelled to pray along with you. So I'm going to also try praying the canon to our Mother for 40 days.

Love in Christ,
Baroness

[Theopesta]

excuse me Olympiada and Baroness with all respection
what the mean of "paraclesis"?
are the text of this prayer on-line?
many thanks, theopesta

[Baroness]

"Paraclesis" is another word for supplication, isn't it? Also, you can find the Supplicatory Canon to the Mother of God (in English) online at:

Similar to the Jordanville Prayer Book:
http://www.myriobiblos.gr/texts/english/prayerbook/main.htm

A shorter version:
http://pages.prodigy.net/frjohnwhiteford/rub/supplicatorycanon.htm

Another version:
http://www.bright.net/~palamas/CyberPsaltiri/Horologion/SmSupTh.htm

Hope this helps Theopesta :-)

[Olympiada]

Hello friends

Tonight I prayed the Akathist to Saint Mary of Egypt as a lot of the men folk are giving me heat. We will see what it will be tomorrow. I realized with my nature, I just need to commit to doing a 40 day akathist or canon to either the Theotokos or Saint Mary of Egypt. Can't have it too narrow at this point.

At any rate I did this in my 5 year old daughter's room tonight and then read her the life of Saint Mary.

Tomorrow I am either thinking to do the Akathist to the Mother of God "The Inexhaustible Cup" or "Nurturer of Children".

Yours in Christ
Olympiada

[Baroness]

Dear All,

Well, who can believe 40 days has gone so quickly. I tried praying this Canon to our Lady Theotokos, and with much trouble, but with God's help, I managed. Praying the prayer helped me a lot ... and now that I've finished the 40 days, I miss having that time in prayer to the Theotokos so have continued praying on anyway ... isn't that funny!

Has anyone else ever done a 40 days of specific prayer?
(Forgive me if this message comes up twice - as I posted a similar message the other day, but it never appeared!)

Happy Christmas everyone!
Joy in Christ!
Baroness

[Fr Raphael Vereshack]

and now that I've finished the 40 days, I miss having that time in prayer to the Theotokos so have continued praying on anyway ... isn't that funny!

Quite a few of us here are on the Old Calendar. Come on over & you can keep praying as you have for another 17 days!

In Christ- Fr Raphael

PS: this also allows you to get really inexpensive Christmas gifts at those 'after Christmas sales'! Ever done Christmas shopping with only a few people in the store?

[Baroness]

Don't worry - I'm one of those that's still in the Old Calendar too ... :-)

[Olympiada]

Who exactly is on the Old Calendar?

I must say I failed to keep my 40 day prayer. I am doing something else right now for 90 days.

I also have to say that I became critical of the retired professor who recommended I do this 40 day prayer and it kind of soured my zeal.

In Christ
Olympiada

[Olga]

Simply put, the Orthodox churches which use the new (Gregorian) calendar are the Greek (well, apart from most of Mt Athos, and a small number of Greek Old Calendarists), the Bulgarian, the Romanian and the Cypriot, as well as the Antiochian jurisdiction. The Slavic churches (Russia, Byelorussia, Ukraine, Serbia, etc), have continued to use the old (Julian) calendar for liturgical purposes. Of course, churches formed in other countries such as the USA, Canada, western Europe, etc through immigrant communities have kept the calendar used by their respective "homeland" church.

[Fr Raphael Vereshack]

In Canada most of the Russian parishes with the OCA are on the Old Calendar. Recently a number of English speaking parishes as well as St Isaac of Syria Skete that came into the Bulgarian Patriarchate under Metropolitan Joseph were given a blessing to be on the Old Calendar. I also heard that some Greek Old Calendrists who entered the Greek Archdiocese in N America were given a blessing to keep the Old Calendar although I'm not sure about this.
In Christ- Fr Raphael

[Olga]

Good point, Fr Raphael, about the Christmas sales, but there's one snag: it doesn't quite work when one spouse is Greek, the other Russian... unless the Greek side of the family doesn't mind waiting until January 7 to receive their gifts! http://www.monachos.net/mb/clipart/lol.gif

It used to be possible in my part of the world to buy Easter eggs cheaply after Western Easter if Orthodox Easter did not coincide with it. The retailers have recently cottoned on, and only drop their prices after Orthodox Easter now!http://www.monachos.net/mb/clipart/sad.gif

[Vasiliki D.]

Many Greek Orthodox people I know do the Paraklesis every day regardless of the situation so it becomes a part of the prayer routine daily ... the usual time devoted to saying or chanting the prayer is at 3pm :-) but some people tend to do it just before meal times or after work too.

I have personally done a devotional 50 day Paraclesis for a specific problem, a few years ago. I first sought out the blessing from my spiritual father and had to marry it with strict fasting and a strict prayer routine which included absence of other material habits from my life ... during that period my spiritual father and I were in close contact with each other and he had warned me about the possibility of "certain things" occuring during the devotional ... since by "devoting" yourself you open the door to the Spiritual realm, he said, you open the realm not just to the good but to the evil ... and they fight you ...

My advice to anyone who needs to do a "devotional" is to never start the prayers without the guidance and friendship of a spiritual guide by your side throughout the 40 or 50 days.

I should share my experience as a warning to others but I am afraid that most will mock the experience or not believe it. The best I can offer is: stay CLOSE to your Spiritual father because if you truly achieve ... the evil one does fight you and not being experienced we, not knowing these temptations by the cunning one - may fail in our initial purpose.