Prayer

Snow can never emit flame. Water can never issue fire. A thorn bush can never produce a fig. And just so, your heart can never be free from oppressive thoughts and words and actions until it has purified itself internally. So, be eager to walk this path. Watch your heart always, and constantly say the prayer "Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me." Be humble. Set your soul in quietness. - Abba Hezekias

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.

Notes On The Hours

• Sixth Hour - The hour of darkness. The hour of temptation.

"This is the hour that Jesus meets the woman at Jacob's well... St. Paul was converted at the sixth hour. This hour was a time when the Jew also prayed. St. Paul was converted while he was praying. He stopped along the road to Damascus, faced Jerusalem, and prayed. And in his prayer, a voice came to him and said, "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads"... In the very next chapter, chapter 10 of Acts, Peter is on the roof at Joppa. He's praying while lunch is being prepared downstairs... And Jesus speaks to Peter. Peter has a vision... This is the hour dedicated to the Church's mission. It's the hour of high noon, where the light of the Son's righteousness shines over the whole Earth... But because it is also in the Church the hour of darkness and of temptation, the psalm most associated with this hour is Psalm 91... That is the psalm that Satan used to temp Christ." - Fr. Patrick Reardon, "Building A Habit of Prayer", Lecture delivered at North Texas Orthodox Missions, Feb, 2006 (ntom.org)

• Ninth Hour -- The hour that Jesus died. Here we remember the passion of the Lord.

At the ninth hour, the Lord spoke to Cornelius the Centurion, and Peter gets the call to go see Cornelius (a gentile) at that hour. So always pray for the mission of the Church at that hour.

Psalm 69 is appropriate at this hour. This psalm contains many verses quoted in the Gospel of Matthew with respect to the passion 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, "Building A Habit Of Prayer", Lecture delivered at North Texas Orthodox Missions, Feb, 2006 (ntom.org)