Prayer

Relationship of Prayer to the Cross

Early Christians concentrated their attention in prayer on the cross, facing East. This is because our only access to God is through the passion of Christ. The early Christians prayed in hours tied to the cross of Christ. St. Hippolytus of Rome wrote about year 210 concerning the significance of the prescribed hours of prayer. The prayer hours evolved over the first two centuries into a pattern of praying seven times per day, the scriptural basis of which can be found in the psalter, i.e., the Church's prayer book:

Seven times a day I praise you because of your just regulations. - Psalm 119:164 (NET)

The monastic prayer schedule:

• Matins (6am)
• Third Hour (9am)
• Sixth Hour (Noon)
• Ninth Hour (3pm)
• Vespers (6pm)
• First Hour (9pm)
• Midnight Hour (Midnight)

St. Hippolytus claims that this tradition of prayer came from the Apostles themselves. He further describes the prayer hours thusly:

• Matins - Upon awaking one is to pray, then read from the Bible.
• Third Hour - At this hour the lamb was slain in the morning sacrifice in the temple. Also, the shew bread was put out at the third hour. We inherited praying at this hour from the Jews. Christians pray at this hour, because the true Pascal lamb was nailed to the cross, who is to be identified with the living shew bread that came down from Heaven.
• Sixth Hour - At this hour the sun was at it's zenith, but the world was cloaked in darkness as Jesus died. Darkness precedes the death of Christ. The ninth plague of Egypt was darkness, which preceded the slaying of the first born.
• Ninth Hour - At this hour, Jesus died. Hippolytus reminds us that at this time Jesus' side was pierced with a spear, and blood and water flowed out; that is, the sacramental life of the Church.
• Vespers - This is the time of the burial of Christ.

When to Pray

"The idea [of praying the hours] is to keep praying throughout the day; to withdraw from the world and pray during the course of the day. I give counsel to my folks, in the confessional especially... to pray what I call the 'seams' of the day. Those places where one thing, becomes another. To slide prayer into those points of transition. An obvious one: I'm getting into the car to take the kids to school. Never start the engine of a car without prayer... Anytime a bell rings, such as a phone... You're coming home from work, about to go into the house. Pause. Stop. Don't go into that house until you've prayed. You don't know what you're going to find there. There may be a crisis that you haven't seen that day. Or somebody might not be in a good mood. Or you might not be in a good mood. Stop and pray... Anytime there are 'seams' in life, make those points of opportunity to invoke the mercy of God. And sometimes it might be no more than 'Lord have mercy'." - Fr. Patrick Henry Reardon, Lecture delivered at North Texas Orthodox Missions, Feb, 2006 (ntom.org)