Prayer

St. John Chrysostom on Prayer

"Prayer is a great weapon, a rich treasure, a wealth that is never exhausted, an undisturbed refuge, a cause of tranquility, the root of a multitude of blessings, and their source." -- St. John Chrysostom

Why We Pray

"Prayer unites one with God, being a divine conversation and spiritual communion with the Being that is most beautiful and highest. Prayer is forgetting earthly things, an ascent to heaven. Through prayer we flee to God." -- St. Nectarios of Aegina

Prayer promotes purity of heart

"Prayer for others is very beneficial to the man himself who prays; it purifies the heart, strengthens faith and hope in God, and arouses love for God and our neighbor." -- St. John of Kronstadt

Pray Continually, Wordlessly

Pray without ceasing. - 1 Thess 5:17

In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness, for we do not know how we should pray, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with inexpressible groanings. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes on behalf of the saints according to God’s will. - Romans 8:26,27

"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

Prayer Transforms

Abba Lot went to see Abba Joseph, the elder, and said to him, "Abba, as far as I can I say my little office, I fast a little, I pray, I meditate, I live in peace as far as I can, I purify my thoughts -- what more can I do?" The old man stood up and stretched out his hands towards heaven, and his fingers became like ten lamps of fire, and he said to young Lot, "If you would, my child, you can become all flame." - Sayings of the Desert Fathers

In other words, true prayer can wholly transform a person.

Prayers Answered

The only thing Jesus promised us in response to prayer was the Holy Spirit. God gives us what is spiritually profitable for us. See the section God is with us in the Tribulations article.

Intercessory Prayer

"If we think that [the Saints and our departed loved ones] are in peril, we can continue to pray 'God be merciful to them. God forgive their sins. God give them rest'. Why not? Because first of all, God has heard the prayer before he even created the world. And the whole providence of the world, and even the salvation of Christ is in function of my prayer. God doesn't sit around wondering if Hopko is going to pray for his father, you know, and then decide what to do with Johnny. I mean, it's ridiculous. What kind of idea of God is that? But we believe that God takes all of our prayers from before the foundation of the world and arranges the whole symphony of the providence in view of our prayer. So it's never too late for a timeless God. And God doesn't apply the prayer to the dead guy now. He applies the prayer to the total life of the dead person, and to the whole of divine providence. So, if I pray for my dad now, who is dead, that prayer is applied to my father's whole life. And it's an element of my relationship with my father, even when I was four year's old, when I didn't even know I was going to pray for him, and didn't even know what it meant. God's bigger than all that. We make our prayers in time, but God answers the prayers out of eternity. And therefore, if I'm praying for mercy for my father, that's a mercy for his whole life and his ultimate salvation." - Fr. Thomas Hopko, On The Apocalypse.

Prayer for the Departed

Some Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to him and asked him a question, saying, "Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man's brother dies, leaving a wife but no child, the man shall marry the widow and raise up children for his brother. There were seven brothers; the first married and, when he died, left no children; and the second married her and died, leaving no children; and the third likewise; none of the seven left children. Last of all the woman herself died. In the resurrection whose wife will she be? For the seven had married her."

Jesus said to them, "Is not this the reason you are wrong, that you know neither the scriptures nor the power of God? For when they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. And as for the dead being raised, have you not read in the book of Moses, in the story about the bush, how God said to him, 'I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob'? He is God not of the dead, but of the living; you are quite wrong." - Mark 12:18-27 (NRSV)

Commentators expositing on these verses rightly see what Christ is saying here, i.e., that the dead must be raised because God claims that he is their God (present tense), not was their God (past tense). But the implications of this passage are even more important than they would appear to be on the surface. It means that all God's people, whether living or dead in this world, are alive in Him for eternity. Our patriarchs, saints and loved ones are still alive in Christ. They are still part of the Church. We may still pray for them, and ask them to pray for us, just as we might when they were in this world with us. They are not gone, but only their state of being has changed. This is not necromancy. We are not performing divination or attempting to conjure those who have departed. But rather, we are recognizing that the barrier between life and death has been broken by Christ, through his resurrection. The prayers we pray for the deceased now, are received by God in eternity, and are applied to them when they were alive. -- Wcrowe, July 2009

"Holy Theotokos Save Us"

• This does not occur in the Divine Liturgy.
• It is only said during the dismissal for Vespers and Orthros
  • During this time, a prayer is said:

Deacon: "Wisdom!"

People: "Father bless."

Priest: "Christ our true God, He who is, is blessed always, now and forever and unto ages of ages, Amen"

People: "Preserve, O God, the Holy Orthodox faith, and the Orthodox Christians, unto ages of ages, Amen"

• Originally that last line did not say Orthodox Christians, it said, the Holy Orthodox Emperor, as against the Barbarians, Muslims, or whoever. It was a prayer for earthly preservation, and not a prayer for divine redemption.
• Then the next line reads, Most Holy Theotokos, save us. This is the same type of prayer for earthly protection. It has nothing to do with divine redemption. It is a prayer to be saved from hardship, danger, disease, etc. We are asking the All Holy Mother, the greatest Saint, to intercede on our behalf and save us from every possible evil and harm. And to also save us from ourselves, when we do sinful things, and from our failures, weaknesses, and prejudices.

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)

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.

See Also

Tribulations

Faith