The practice of prayer

[James Liane]

I have a few questions - and a conversation I would like to begin - on the manner of praying. I see my prayer life in two different aspects. The first is trying to create a ritual of morning and evening prayer. The second is continual prayer throughout the day, like while I am working or driving or grocery shopping. And admittedly, I have trouble getting to a time in the evening or morning to focus on prayer (I have a job that swings me from night shift to day shift and so on, and I have three kids who seem to never sleep.)

But anyhow, here are my questions. I am currently using the prayers in the Orthodox Study Bible, though I do not think that it is one I will stick with indefinitely. I think of myself as exploring different rules. I also have a Jordanville book, but there again time is a factor in using this. Is this a good way to go about finding for myself a rule of prayer?

Second: We are in the Pascha season, and we are not to pray kneeling. However, I do not feel as attentive in my prayers when standing. What if I simply got on my knees to pray during this period? It would be a great benefit to me.

I am searching to fulfill this deep yearning within me, but I wonder about how other Orhodox do this and have been brought up to do it (I myself being recently converted, but not recently enamored to the church).

Scattered, but looking for advice,
jim

[Alec Lowly]

Christ is risen, Jim!

A few responses from one who lacks anything resembling monastic discipline in his own prayer life ...

1. Given the choice between the Study Bible and Jordanville, I would certainly choose Jordanville. The Study Bible includes no prayers to the Theotokos, the saints and the Bodiless Powers (especially one's guardian angel), an oversight I find astonishing in an Orthodox book. Permit me to suggest that your rule of prayer include not only the Theotokos, of course, but your patron saint and your guardian angel. Commemorate others as devotion may lead you (your parish's patron, perhaps), but I am suggesting the Theotokos, your patron and your angel as a minimum. For readers who may not be Orthodox, let me be perfectly clear that these prayers I'm suggesting are ~in addition~ to one's prayers to God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

2. Jordanville provides numerous morning and evening prayers. Nowhere is it commanded that one must say ~all~ of them, although that would certainly be commendable. But start this way: Take time to read through all the prayers and identify those prayers that are especially meaningful to you. Then say those prayers as part of our rule. It's better to pray a few prayers with all your heart than to rush through many out of a sense of duty. You can always add prayers as time or devotion allow. One thing more: Always leave time for personal, spontaneous prayer, as the Spirit leads. And leave time to, well, listen.

3. Draw up a list of those you wish to pray for ~all the time~, living and dead. You can add people to that list as circumstances arise, whether as permanent or temporary additions, but create a core and stick to it. The core absolutely should include your bishop and priest.

4. As you know, short prayers can be prayed just about anytime, anywhere. The Jesus Prayer. Most Holy Theotokos, pray for me (him/her/them). The Paschal troparion. Etc.

5. I am willing to be corrected if I am in error about what I am about to say. so here goes: If, in ~private~ prayer, you wish to kneel, then kneel, but be mindful to observe the church's customs when it comes to public worship. This can get complicated, however. The fundamental principle is not to look like the pharisee in the temple by calling attention to oneself by one's pious practices. I have attended liturgies in churches that had pews, and where it was the custom of the congregation to be seated at this or that point in the liturgy. When the congregation sits, I sit. When they stand, I stand. Etc.

5. In matters of faith, morals and piety, always obey the Eleventh Commandment: Ask your priest.

May the Lord grant me the grace to practice what I preach.

+ Yours & His, Alec

[Trudy]

Dear James,

Thank you for starting this thread.


Dear Alex,

Recently I gave away my little prayer book to one who was in more need of it than I. I replaced it with the new Jordanville Prayerbook which I like very much. However, I was always puzzled whether to pray ALL the prayers for Morning or Evening. I would just skip around as I felt led, but that brought no help nor peace because I pressured myself to "do it all." (Prideful I know!) I like your idea of reading through them all and choosing only certain ones then sticking with those prayers for a time.

I've also started the prayer list idea. I like the "core" idea and add/subtract from there.

Thank you for posting these excellent suggestions. They have been most helpful to me today.

In Christ,
Athanasia

[Irene]

If you run out of time and don't get to do your morning prayers you can also pray as you walk or drive to work (or school). Say any prayers you might remember off by heart as you go, even if it is just the Jesus Prayer. (In your head is fine.) If you know how long your morning prayers last and you pray the Jesus Prayer for this amount of time it is good (with or without a prayer rope). This also works if you are travelling overseas etc... (or doing chores around the home...)

Also, if you are feeling disturbed by any person or situation, You can alter the Jesus Prayer and pray for them for a length of time you choose, so it could be "Lord Jesus Christ Son of God have mercy on (insert name here)." My spiritual father told me to do this and it works.

[Moses Anthony]

Dear James-the student,

Of the three prayer books which I own, probably the most sage advise is in the Jordanville Prayer Book, about prayers of prepration before Communion. It's advised that if time is short, it is best to say just a few prayers with attention and devotion, than to try saying them all, in a hurry.

Find out from your priest how to construct a "Personal Rule of Prayer". The emphasis here is on the word personal, for all our situations differ, even though some may be very similar; and therefore, what God wants for each in the realm of spiritual discipline..... I just happen to believe that here in the West our untaking of a rigorous asceticism is very weak, and therefore, I tend to be a little more rigorous in my "personal" rule. Usually I stand, unless for some reason I think that my discipoline is lax, I will kneel for the entire time, since such activity hurts my ankles.

There's so much that can be said for, and about prayer. Over time as you recite the printed prayers in any prayer book, the Holy Spirit wil begin to impress on you an entire prayer, or just a phrase or two from it. I continue to think to this day about, "...as I go forth to do Thy works." (From the Jordanville Prayer Book)

As my wife is wont to tell me when we disagree, You find time to do that which you actually want to do. Time of day, location, procedures, etc., etc., can all be worked out with the help of your priest, who knows you. The main thing about a Rule of Prayer is that it must be do-able.

the sinful and unworthy servant

[M.C. Steenberg]

It is probably worth noting that the 'rubrics' of 'morning prayers', as such, are rather late, and comprise what is in essence an assembly of various prayers suitable to the start of the day, many of which have origins as portions of liturgical services (e.g. prayers at the start of the hours, matins, and so on). Part of the reason for the extensive listing of prayers for morning and evening, is that there are countless options. Many have become standard, and find their way into most collections. But there is not set limit, no standard selection.

As they appear in the page, they sometimes seem to suggest that the 'service' of morning prayer consists of all these prayers; but in fact that has never been properly the case.

XB, Matthew

[Fr Raphael Vereshack]

As they appear in the page, they sometimes seem to suggest that the 'service' of morning prayer consists of all these prayers; but in fact that has never been properly the case.

XB, Matthew

Just take a look at the Old Rite Believers prayer book and you can see how true this is. Except for one or two of the prayers the format and most of the prayers are very different from the standard prayer books. This prayer book is well worth taking a look at.

In Christ- Fr Raphael

[M.C. Steenberg]

Just following further on this, so far as I am aware there has never been a 'service' of morning or evening prayer, as such. The services of these times are matins, vespers and compline. Private prayers said in the mornings and evenings arise, I would imagine, out of the monastic culture of the kanon or prayer rule, expanded into a more general environment. The services of morning and evening prayers often found in prayer books - the Jordanville, the Antiochene Prayer Book (the 'red book'), the Old Believers Prayer Book, etc. - are in fact kinds of 'standardised' morning and evening rules that have taken on a certain familiarity over time. But they remain collections and assemblies, rather than services with rubrics and strict forms.

XB, Matthew

[Fr Raphael Vereshack]

Just following further on this, so far as I am aware there has never been a 'service' of morning or evening prayer, as such. The services of these times are matins, vespers and compline. Private prayers said in the mornings and evenings arise, I would imagine, out of the monastic culture of the kanon or prayer rule, expanded into a more general environment. The services of morning and evening prayers often found in prayer books - the Jordanville, the Antiochene Prayer Book (the 'red book'), the Old Believers Prayer Book, etc. - are in fact kinds of 'standardised' morning and evening rules that have taken on a certain familiarity over time. But they remain collections and assemblies, rather than services with rubrics and strict forms.

XB, Matthew

I could easily be wrong about this but maybe these standardised morning & evening prayers arose as more and more people in the modern world found themselves unable to attend morning and evening services in a parish or monastery.

In Christ- Fr Raphael

[James Liane]

At the almost unanimous advice of my new friends at monachos, I have been trying the Jordanville book (which, I must admit, I already owned and had in my Prayer Corner). But at the urging of all here, I have not let the weight of prayers be daunting.

In a very real way I felt the timeless aspect of the church hit me yesterday. I was at St Tikhon's Monastery for their annual pilgrimage and attended the Unction Service. It was almost 90 degrees n the Pocono Mountains, and the chapel at which the service was held had no shade. There were hundreds of elderly people enduring the external elements to be a part of the Sacrament. Had the service been 4 hours long, the love of the Lord kept those people there. It is hard to explain, but the adversarial weather heightened my attention on the service.

So to tie this to prayer. I was afraid of failing at holding a prayer service for myself. But now I see the foolishnes, er rather, high-falutinness of such an endeavor. So now I kneel, if only for myself as I more deeply examine my soul and am effected by its black spots.

jim

[Father David Moser]

Just following further on this, so far as I am aware there has never been a 'service' of morning or evening prayer, as such. The services of these times are matins, vespers and compline.

At Holy Trinity Monastery, the morning prayers are said communally within the context of the Midnight office (Nocturne) and the evening prayers are said communally within the context of Compline. In the English edition of the Jordanville Horologion they are actually written out that way.

A/pr David Moser