Every Orthodox Christian knows that prayer is an integral part. With the help of prayers, a person cleanses himself of sins, thanks God for the day he has lived, and turns to Him for help in any difficult situation.
“...During the day, no matter what we do, we must constantly read the Jesus Prayer...
If there is a need to read something else, then you can read kathisma from the Psalter, canons and akathists.
Never argue with anyone, don’t be indignant, don’t swear...
You can read the rule both on public transport and during your lunch break.
Being in society, it is not necessary to be baptized.
Read, and the Lord, seeing the secret, will clearly reward with His grace...”
Ambrose Fontrier
archimandrite
Thanks to prayer, a person is cleansed of his sins. Going to temple at least once a week will be no less important. Photo: ruvera.ru
Orthodox people need daily prayer
Orthodox people need daily prayer. Only those people who pray every day will be able not to fall out of the prayer life and will strive to God every day. Many holy fathers believe that those who do not pray do not want to be with God at all.
Orthodox prayers that a person reads every day will change his life. A person will begin to appreciate what he did not value before, and will also begin to understand what is truly important in life. A person will rejoice in the day he has lived, no matter what it is.
How prayer helps: 3 of its beneficial properties
What is prayer for a believer?
An integral part of any religion is prayer. Any prayer is a person’s communication with God. With the help of special words that come from the depths of our souls, we praise the Almighty, thank God, and ask the Lord for help and blessings in earthly life for ourselves and our loved ones.
It has been proven that prayer words can greatly influence a person’s consciousness. The clergy claim that prayer can change the life of a believer and his destiny in general. But it is not necessary to use complex prayer appeals. You can also pray in simple words. Often in this case, it is possible to invest great energy in a prayer appeal, which makes it more powerful, which means it will definitely be heard by the Heavenly forces.
It has been noticed that after prayer, a believer’s soul calms down. He begins to perceive the problems that have arisen differently and quickly finds a way to solve them. True faith, which is invested in prayer, gives hope for help from above.
Sincere prayer can fill spiritual emptiness and quench spiritual thirst. A prayerful appeal to the Higher Powers becomes an indispensable assistant in difficult life situations when no one can help. A believer not only receives relief, but also strives to change the situation for the better. That is, we can say that prayer awakens internal strength to confront current circumstances.
Prayers for the coming day are prayers before and after meals, prayers for every task
Prayers for the coming day include prayers before and after meals, prayers before reading spiritual literature, prayers for every task, prayers before leaving the house and others. You can read daily prayers from one o'clock in the afternoon until the evening. It is believed that holy prayers are necessary for a person like air and water. Without prayer it is impossible to grow spiritually.
Many Orthodox people believe that it is simply necessary to read prayers before starting any business. Be it cleaning or work. During the day, prayers are as important as morning and evening prayers.
A page from the prayer book, where we see that daily prayers refer to prayers for every need of the soul. Photo: static-eu.insales.ru
What types of prayers are there?
The most important prayers for a believer are prayers of thanksgiving. They glorify the greatness of the almighty Lord, as well as the mercy of God and all the Saints. This type of prayer should always be read before asking the Lord for any blessings in life. Any church service begins and ends with the glorification of the Lord and the singing of his holiness. Such prayers are always mandatory during evening prayer, when gratitude is offered to God for the day.
In second place in popularity are petitionary prayers. They are a way of expressing requests for help with any mental or physical needs. The popularity of petitionary prayers is explained by human weakness. In many life situations, he is not able to cope with the problems that have arisen and he definitely needs help.
Petitionary prayers not only ensure a prosperous life, but also bring us closer to the salvation of the soul. They necessarily contain a request for forgiveness of known and unknown sins and acceptance of repentance by the Lord for unseemly actions. That is, with the help of such prayers a person cleanses the soul and fills it with sincere faith.
A sincere believer must be sure that his petitionary prayer will definitely be heard by the Lord. You need to understand that God, even without prayer, knows about the misfortunes that befell the believer and his needs. But at the same time, the Lord never takes any action, leaving the believer the right to choose. A true Christian must offer his petition by repenting of his sins. Only a prayer that includes words of repentance and a specific request for help will be heard by the Lord or other heavenly Heavenly Powers.
There are also separate prayers of repentance. Their purpose is that with their help the believer frees the soul from sins. After such prayers, spiritual relief always comes, which is due to liberation from painful experiences about committed unrighteous acts.
A prayer of repentance involves a person’s sincere repentance. It must come from the depths of the heart. In such cases, people often pray with tears in their eyes. Such a prayerful appeal to God can save the soul from the most serious sins that interfere with life. Repentant prayers, cleansing a person’s soul, allow him to move further along the path of life, find peace of mind and acquire new mental strength for new achievements for good. Clergymen recommend using this type of prayer appeal as often as possible.
One of the main prayers read in the morning will be the Creed
What prayer should you read in the morning? Let's look at what prayers you need to read when you wake up from sleep. Morning prayers include prayer to the Holy Spirit, to the Most Holy Trinity. In the morning, the creed, Psalm 50, and the prayers of Macarius and Basil the Great are also read.
What prayer is read every day in the morning? Every day you should begin with this prayer: “In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, now and ever, and unto ages of ages. Amen".
The day should begin with the prayer of the Creed.
Every morning one and the same prayer should be read - this is the Creed. This is a very important prayer.
Symbol of faith:
I believe in one God the Father, Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth, visible to all and invisible. And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the only begotten, who was born of the Father before all ages; Light from Light, God is true
true from God, begotten, uncreated, consubstantial with the Father, and by Him all things were; For our sake, man and for our salvation, who came down from heaven and became incarnate
from the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, and became human; Crucified for us under Pontius Pilate, and having suffered, she was buried; And he rose again on the third day, according to the Scriptures; And ascended
into heaven, and sits at the right hand of the Father; And again the coming one will be judged with glory by the living and the dead, His Kingdom will have no end.
And in the Holy Spirit, the Life-Giving Lord, who proceeds from the Father, who with the Father and the Son is worshiped and glorified by the prophets who spoke.
Into one, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church. I confess one Baptism for the remission of sins. Tea of the resurrection of the dead; And the life of the next century. Amen.
Correct reading of the Jesus Prayer
Only baptized people can recite the Jesus Prayer. This prayer appeal is considered the first step in the formation of faith in a person’s soul. Its meaning is to ask for mercy from the Lord God through His Son. This prayer is a real daily amulet for a believer and can help overcome any difficulties. Also, the Jesus Prayer is an effective remedy against the evil eye and damage.
In order for prayer to be effective, the following recommendations should be followed:
- While pronouncing words, you need to concentrate on them as much as possible;
- The prayer should not be memorized mechanically; it should be memorized by fully understanding each word;
- It is necessary to pray in a calm and quiet place;
- If faith is very strong, then it is allowed to pray while actively working;
- During prayer, all thoughts should be directed toward true faith in the Lord. The soul must contain love for God and admiration for the Almighty.
Daily prayer in the morning is very important for the whole day
Also, one of the main prayers that must be read every day, in addition to the morning and evening ones, is the prayer to the Holy Cross.
The icon, which is called “The Exaltation of the Honorable and Life-Giving Cross of the Lord.” You can pray in front of this icon every day, reciting the prayer to the Holy Cross. Photo: hram-nikola.kiev.ua
In this prayer the person says the following words:
“Most honorable and life-giving Cross of the Lord! Help me with the Holy Virgin Mary and with all the saints...”
As we see, in prayer we ask for help not only from Our Lord, but also from the Mother of God and the saints.
Prayer to the Honorable Cross of the Lord:
May God rise again, and may His enemies be scattered, and may those who hate Him flee from His presence. As smoke disappears, let them disappear; As wax melts in the face of fire, so let demons perish in the presence of those who love God and sign themselves with the sign of the cross, and say in joy:
Rejoice, Most Honest and Life-Giving Cross of the Lord, drive away demons by the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, who descended into hell, upon you
and trampled down the power of the devil, and gave us His Honest Cross to drive away every adversary.
O Most Honest and Life-Giving Cross of the Lord! Help me with the Holy Virgin Mary and with all the saints forever. Amen.
After finishing the prayer, you must say the following words: “Most Holy Theotokos, save us! All saints pray to God for us!”
Also during the day, Psalm 90 is read. You can read it in front of the icons.
Psalm 90:
Living in the help of the Most High, he will settle in the shelter of the Heavenly God. Says the Lord: Thou art my Protector and my Refuge, my God, and I trust in Him.
For He will deliver you from the snare of the trap, and from rebellious words, His splash will overshadow you, and under His wing you hope: His truth will surround you with weapons.
Do not be afraid from the fear of the night, from the arrow that flies during the day, from the thing that passes in darkness, from the cloak, and from the demon of the midday.
Thousands will fall from your country, and darkness will be at your right hand, but it will not come close to you; Look before your eyes, and you will see the reward of sinners.
For You, O Lord, are my hope, You have made the Most High your refuge.
Evil will not come to you, and wound will not approach your body, as His Angel commanded you to keep you in all your ways.
They will lift you up in their arms, but not when you dash your foot against a stone; tread on the asp and the basilisk, and cross the lion and the serpent.
For I have trusted in Me, and I will deliver, and I will cover, and because I have known My name.
He will call to Me, and I will hear him: I am with him in sorrow, I will destroy him and glorify him, I will fill him with long days, and I will show him My salvation.
Prayer "Our Father"
The Lord's Prayer is one of the main prayers in Christianity.
According to the Gospel, Jesus Christ gave it to his disciples in response to a request to teach them prayer. Quoted in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke: It is suitable for both adults and children, both for every day and for special occasions, for example, for the baptism of a child.
The Lord's Prayer in modern Russian with accents
Option "Matthew"
Our Father who art in heaven!
Hallowed be Thy name; Thy kingdom come; Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven; Give us this day our daily bread; And forgive us our debts, just as we forgive our debtors; And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.
For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.
Amen.
(Matt. 6:9-13)
The Lord's Prayer in Church Slavonic
Our Father, who art in heaven! Hallowed be Thy name, Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, as it is in heaven and on earth. Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our debts, just as we forgive our debtors; and do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.
The prayer rule can be complete or short
Many people often ask what is a prayer rule? Are there any rules for lay people? Prayer rules include morning and evening prayers. It is also worth noting that the prayer rule can be complete and brief.
It is read in full if you can read it all at once. A person who has just come to Orthodoxy will not be able to read the huge texts of prayers. A short rule has been written for such people.
For those who have just come to Orthodoxy, you can read a short prayer rule. Photo: 1000-molitv.ru
How to properly watch the broadcast of worship services?
It is very important that we do not just watch the broadcast as an interesting film. This option is, of course, not participation in the divine service, although it may also be useful to someone: people will hear some stichera, chants, and see, perhaps for the first time, how the Liturgy proceeds from beginning to end. If your back or legs do not hurt, it is better to pray standing during online worship. It is better to watch the Liturgy live rather than recorded, because in this case you are mentally and prayerfully present in the church, you see, hear and feel exactly the same as what they see, hear and feel there. Although, if you can tune in, it can be recorded. It seems to me that video broadcasts cannot be paused, because we don’t pause life either. If necessary, take a break yourself, and then return to prayer again.
For a woman, there are the same rules for reading prayers as for laymen
Many are also interested in whether there are any rules for reading prayers for a woman during her period? Does she need a priest's blessing to read her prayers? In fact, women can pray in the same way as usual in front of icons. The only ban is on touching icons.
You can pray at night as well as during the day.
Of course, if something worries you at this moment, you can contact any priest in the temple and ask questions. Every priest is simply obliged to answer it.
The question is often asked: is it possible to pray at night? You can pray at any time, including at night. This must be of your own free will. If you feel like praying at night rather than in the evening, then pray.
Evening prayers
Ideally, the evening rule should be read immediately before bed. But in practice this is rarely possible. Due to extreme fatigue, it is sometimes very difficult to concentrate on prayer. Therefore, it is recommended to read the evening rule a little earlier, before dinner or at any other free time, while you still have strength and fatigue has not taken over.
You need to pray in solitude, starting with bows, either to the ground or from the waist. First, stand in silence for a while, contemplating the icons and burning candles. The soul has been in vanity and earthly worries all day, and now it needs to gradually calm down. When peace reigns inside, you can say the first words of prayer.
During the evening rule the Christian:
- thanks for the past day;
- brings repentance for sins committed during the day;
- takes a blessing for the coming sleep.
For some Christians, reading prayers out loud helps them concentrate after a busy day. From time to time, prayer should be interrupted by bowing and personal appeal to the Lord. This will help cultivate a prayerful spirit within yourself.
Reading the prayer should take place in solitude
There are prayers for the days of the week to the Lord God and Angels
Are there any prayers for the days of the week? There are prayers for the days of the week to the Lord God and Angels. You can read these prayers both in the morning and in the afternoon.
Prayers for the days of the week can be read in front of the icons of the Savior and the Mother of God. Photo: i.pinimg.com
Monday:
Great Saint Michael, saint of God. You, who created the world and defeated demons, pray to our Almighty Lord for His servant (name).
May luck be with me in my worldly and righteous deeds, may the wrath of my envious people not fall upon me. Amen.
Tuesday:
Holy Archangel Gabriel! You, overshadowed by God’s hand, who do not allow fear and ungodly thoughts into the soul, protect me from human slander and send prosperity to my family.
By righteous labors, not by cunning and selfishness, we acquire for ourselves the benefits for a worthy life.
The servant of God (name) asks you, Gabriel, to convey my request to the Lord, and do not leave me alone in a world full of evil to fight against the machinations of the devil. Amen.
Wednesday:
God's great archguard Raphael! I appeal to You for help, healer and healer of human souls and bodily ailments.
May the will of the Lord be done on my sinful head, may His mercy be upon me, His faithful servant (name).
Deliver me from ambition and illness for success in my earthly affairs for the good of mankind. Amen.
Thursday:
Great Uriel! God's guardian, enlightener of the way in the darkness, deliverer from sinful thoughts, light the path of the sinful servant (name) wandering in the darkness.
Guide him on the true path and bestow good luck and goodness on the hard worker with God's mercy.
With daily prayers I glorify our Savior forever and ever. Amen.
Friday:
I pray to You, great Archangel Selaphiel, bring my humble prayers to the Lord. May He deliver me from sorrows and adversities that do not allow me to conduct business for a good life without need and wandering.
May the wrath of God be poured down on the heads of the infidels who are trying to lead me astray from the righteous path. Amen.
Saturday:
Great Archpriest Jehudiel of God! The servant of God (name) prays to You, defender of the word of the Lord, glorifier of the Trinity of God, awaken in me sincere faith, unclouded by evil and envy.
Don’t let me drag out a miserable existence, granting God’s will to grant me success in my earthly affairs. Amen.
Sunday:
Archangel Varahail, bringing God's blessing to every home and soul. Do not leave me (name) without attention, give grace to my family for prosperity. Take away sorrows and sorrows from me, and hide them from the ignorant who dream of glorifying the devil.
With God's help, may I overcome temptations within myself. Amen.
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I’m embarrassed by live services, but I want to pray. What to do?
Those who are embarrassed by live broadcasts from churches can perform divine services in a secular manner. All services of the daily liturgical circle contained in the Book of Hours can be performed by the lay rite. The secular rite cannot serve only one service - the Liturgy; it is replaced by the Fine Service. Find a text specially prepared by the Patriarchate on the Internet and print it out or download it to your phone. There is another option: you can not watch, but listen to the recording of the Divine Liturgy, while standing in front of the icons at home. Imagine standing behind a column in a temple and not seeing what is happening in front, this often happens.
Orthodox Life
In different eras in the Church there were various forms of morning, afternoon, and evening prayers. Our time is characterized by the tradition of reading a certain relatively small number of morning prayers, as well as prayers for the future, which constitute the minimum prayer rule of a believer. Despite its apparent simplicity, this is one of the topics that regularly gives rise to questions for people living church life. How to overcome yourself and establish regular prayer? How to turn a rule from some text into an integral part of your life? Hegumen Nektary (Morozov) shares his pastoral and personal Christian experience in these matters.
Resisting Chaos
Before talking about the prayer rule, it is necessary to say, at least briefly, in principle about the place of prayer in a person’s life. We know that the purpose of man, unlike all other earthly creatures created by God, is constant communication with God. And prayer is, of course, that natural and perfect way of communicating with God that is available to us.
Prayer can be general, performed in church, or it can be private, but nevertheless its purpose is always the same: to direct the mind and heart of a person to God and give a person the opportunity to turn to Him and at the same time, at least in part - as much as in our in a state it is possible to hear God’s answer. But in order to cultivate this ability to turn to God in oneself, a person must learn to pray. If a person prays, then prayer gradually changes his state. And it is no coincidence that the morning and evening prayers that we perform daily are called the word “rule”: we can say that the prayer rule really rules our soul - it straightens its position in relation to God. We have many different aspirations, sometimes coinciding with one another, sometimes opposing each other, and our inner life is constantly in a disordered state, in some kind of chaos, with which we sometimes fight, and sometimes - and most often - we reconcile, calming ourselves down because this is the norm of existence. And prayer builds a person’s life properly, so when a person does not neglect prayer, everything in his life gradually falls into place.
Why is this happening? Because when a person turns to God, then in prayer he finds first of all himself - the way he is, the way he often doesn’t even see himself among the bustle, affairs, many conversations and worries. Having stood before God in prayer, each of us begins to understand what is truly important in his life, what is in second or third place, what is not important at all... If a person neglects prayer, then he certainly does not have this inner clarity. the system of priorities that should be in the life of a Christian does not arise, and the system of priorities that should be in the life of a Christian is not built - in which nothing is more important than God and what is connected with the fulfillment of the commandments of the Gospel.
No regularity - no basis
Reading the prayer rule, on the one hand, takes very little time - it is a negligible portion of our day. On the other hand, for a person who is not used to praying, but is accustomed to spending this morning and evening time on something else, regularly performing this work is not easy. So, acquiring the skill of getting up in the morning and praying before all other things, overcoming fatigue in the evening, turning off the TV, perhaps, and reading the necessary prayers, is essentially the simplest and very first feat for a person just beginning the Christian life.
What to do if you can’t establish a daily prayer rule? Sometimes, when talking with a person, you have to give him the following advice: “If it is so difficult for you to fully read the prayers every morning and every evening, assign yourself at least some part of the morning prayers, some part of the bedtime prayers for the future, which you will read regularly in any case, because only regularity in this case is the key to moving forward.” If there is no regularity, there will be no basis on which a person can rely in the future.
It sometimes happens that a person comes home, he has had an incredibly hard day, he has spent all his strength and can only fall and fall asleep. In this case, you should pray at least briefly, for two or three minutes, and then go to bed. Elder Simeon the Reverent told his disciple, the Venerable Simeon the New Theologian, that it was enough then to read the prayers from the Trisagion to the “Our Father” and cross his bed. But you need to understand: we are talking about an exceptional situation, and not one that repeats itself from time to time. Moreover, you need to keep in mind that the enemy sometimes puts a person to sleep just before reading the rule, but as soon as you finish praying or change your mind about praying, you are cheerful, feel good, and can at least live the day again. This happens when we begin spiritual reading or come to a service. You don't have to give in to this. The simplest advice is to make a few prostrations and then continue the prayer. Such an action, firstly, accelerates the blood and drives away sleep, and secondly, when the enemy sees that a person, in response to his efforts, only intensifies his prayer, he, as a rule, retreats.
“By gaining time,” we lose everything
But it is not only through drowsiness that the enemy can tempt a person during prayer. Sometimes you just have to take the prayer book and open the first page, and some things immediately pop up in your memory that need to be done right now, so you want to finish reading the prayers as soon as possible. And in this case, it makes sense, on the contrary, to deliberately slow down the reading of prayers - and after a few minutes this internal bustle, this haste stops, and the enemy again retreats. It is useful in such cases to remind ourselves that those five or fifteen minutes that we get as a result of haste or skipping some prayers will not actually make any difference in our lives, and this “gain of time” will not at all compensate for the harm. which we will cause to ourselves by making our prayer careless and inattentive. In general, when we stand for prayer and some very important and serious thoughts begin to come to our minds, we must at that moment very clearly realize that we are now standing before the One in whose hands absolutely everything is - all our circumstances, all our affairs, our life itself - and therefore there is nothing more important than this upcoming one. We all know very well that sometimes you can work as much as you like, perform completely reasonable and effective actions, but there will be no result, because there is no God’s blessing for this. And vice versa, sometimes we just have to start doing something, both difficult and incomprehensible, and everything somehow works out, and we accomplish this task with God’s help.
If a person is usually prevented from starting the evening rule by fatigue, then with morning prayers another problem arises much more often. Day after day, a person cannot get up when the alarm clock rings; he jumps out of bed just before leaving the house, and the rule remains unread. Or perhaps the time in the morning hours is simply distributed in such a way that prayer does not fit in there. In this case, the fight with yourself, with your negligence, should probably begin by starting the morning rule anyway and reading it anyway, even if it’s not morning anymore. I remember how someone in front of me asked a similar question to Archimandrite Kirill (Pavlov) - about the fact that he does not have time to read the morning prayers before all other things, and does not have time to read them afterwards. Father Kirill asked: “Can you do it in the evening? Well then, read it in the evening.” It is clear that, according to their meaning, morning prayers should not be read in the evening, but if a person understands that there is no escape from them, he will still have to read them, then he will most likely find both the time and the opportunity to read them in the morning.
By the way, evening prayers, if day after day you can’t read them before bed, you can start reading them a few hours before bedtime - for example, when we come home after work. More precisely, in this case they are read before the prayer “Vladyka Lover of Mankind, will this coffin really be my bed,” and then “It is worthy to eat” and those short prayers with which the morning and evening rule usually ends, and with “Vladyka Lover of Mankind” the prayers are already read just before going to bed. It is much easier to pray this way, because then we are no longer afraid of the fact that we will need to undertake significant prayer work for us, for which we may not have enough strength.
There is also a trick that St. Nicodemus the Svyatogorets talks about: when it becomes difficult to pray, say to yourself: “Okay, I’ll pray for at least five more minutes.” You pray for five minutes, then you say to yourself: “Well, now another five minutes.” And oddly enough, in such a simple way you can deceive both the enemy and your own flesh.
And it’s also very good to try to at least learn the morning prayers by heart. They learn quite easily, since we repeat them every day, and if we use at least the same efforts that we used at school when we learned poetry, then most likely this task will be feasible for us. And then we make our life easier: we couldn’t read the rule, we didn’t have enough time - you prayed at home, at least briefly, went out the door and continued to pray. Of course, this is not entirely correct, and it’s not very convenient to read prayers to yourself somewhere on the go, in transport, but here you need to be guided by this rule: if you have fresh bread, you eat fresh bread, and if you only have crackers, then , you will have to eat crackers, just not to starve.
There is another question: “It’s very difficult for me to read the rule, I read it and don’t understand.” When you don't understand something, it's really difficult to do it, especially day after day. But what prevents you from understanding? With regard to prayers, in this case you just need to undertake a small but very important work, which St. Theophan the Recluse often speaks about: find a little time, sit down and analyze the prayers that are included in the rule, highlighting in the text those words whose meaning is not clear. And then - use the Internet, a dictionary of the Church Slavonic language, come to the parish library and ask for the appropriate literature, contact the priest, in the end - in a word, find what these incomprehensible words mean. Moreover, there are actually few words and expressions that can really be an obstacle to understanding the meaning of a particular phrase in a prayer; otherwise, you just need to set yourself the task of carefully reading the text and making some efforts to understand its meaning.
A little less than we can
Sometimes the opposite situation arises: a person reads the rule regularly, understands everything, but this volume of prayer work is no longer enough for him, and he wants to add something to it. This seems completely natural to me, and for many people living church life, sooner or later this question arises. What makes sense to add to the prayer rule? Probably, here you need to look at what is more consonant with a person, at his state of mind. Some people prefer to read the Psalter, others prefer akathists and canons, others prefer to pray the Jesus Prayer. And here it is quite possible to follow your preferences, but you need to remember that akathists - unlike psalms, where every word is inspired by God - were compiled by people and therefore come in different theological and literary levels. Among them - especially among those that were written in the 19th and 20th centuries - there are many that are not particularly beneficial to read. Therefore, probably, everyone who is thinking about what to compose their prayer rule from should consult with the priest with whom he is confessing and show him the prayer books that have been chosen to complement the rule.
An important point: if we have determined for ourselves a certain amount of prayer work, it must be constant. And it happens that a person adds to the rule, say, a kathisma, an akathist to the Sweetest Jesus, a certain number of Jesus prayers, but then he omits one, then another, then a third, then all together, then begins to read it all again. Inconsistency shakes the very foundation of our prayer life, so it is better to take on a little less than we can commit, but stick to it relentlessly. A little less - because when we work regularly, we begin to get tired, and if we take the maximum volume, we will not have enough strength for it. Another thing is that sometimes we just want to pray more than we usually pray, our soul demands it - and in this we, of course, have complete freedom.
Is it possible to replace morning and evening prayers with something? No, it is advisable not to replace them with anything. In our impermanent life there must be some constants, like some kind of columns to which our life is tied during the day. And if a person abandons the traditional prayer rule and decides to pray at his own discretion, then, as experience shows, this leads to the fact that today he read kathisma instead of morning prayers, tomorrow - an akathist to the Mother of God instead of evening prayers, and the day after tomorrow he read nothing. I’m not saying that this is how it objectively should be, but for some reason it mostly turns out this way. Therefore, I advise you to read morning and evening prayers in any case, and add something to them.
Is it possible to pray without distraction?
If possible, you need to prepare to perform the prayer rule. Don’t start praying suddenly, but stand a little and wait, “until the feelings calm down,” as it is said in the prayer book. In addition to this, it is advisable to remind yourself of several very important and, moreover, completely natural things. Remember, firstly, to whom we are addressing. Believe me, a person is such a creature that he can sometimes get up, light a lamp, open a prayer book, start reading prayers and at the same time be completely unaware of what he is doing. If you then ask him: “What were you doing just now?”, he will answer: “I read the rule,” and will be completely honest. But we should strive not for reading, but for prayer. At least for a short time - even two or five minutes out of the twenty that it takes us as a rule - we should feel that we are praying, and not just uttering words. And in order to support this desire to pray in oneself, as a rule, preparation is needed.
In addition to remembering that we turn to God, we also need to remind ourselves who we are. It is precisely for this reason that the publican’s prayer is placed at the beginning of the morning prayer rule: “God, be merciful to me, a sinner.” Sometimes they ask: “How can I learn to pray with a repentant mood?” You know, if a person is told that he has been convicted of some crime and will be shot tomorrow, he does not need to explain in what mood, in what words to ask for mercy - he himself will beg for at least his life to be spared. And when a person has this feeling, he prays properly; if he does not realize the extreme vital necessity of God’s mercy for himself, then he will fulfill the rule simply out of duty. And before reading the rule, you definitely need to try to awaken your heart: remember the danger of the situation in which we find ourselves; remember how far away we are from God because of our sins and the inner impurity that is present in each of us. And at the same time, remember that, despite our distance from God, the Lord Himself is close to us, and therefore He hears every word we utter in prayer, He is ready to respond to every word, but only if these words before our heart responded.
At the same time, the Lord requires from each person only what a person can give. And it happens that a person begins his prayer work in good faith, but out of a sense of duty, and not out of a heartfelt need. He knows that he needs to pray so that his life will gradually change, and he prays. And the Lord gives such a person grace. But as soon as a person can do more, the Lord expects more from him.
Sometimes a person says: “But I can’t pray without distraction, no matter what I do.” It is necessary to understand that praying undistractedly, completely indulging in prayer, is the destiny of the Angels, and a person will still be distracted to one degree or another. And our task is not to demand that we remain completely absent-minded, but to return it to its place when we come to our senses and realize that our mind has wandered off to the side. But in no case should we allow ourselves to say a prayer with our lips, and at the same time think about something.
Some believers, if they get distracted in prayer, return to the place where their mind wandered and then re-read it again. In my opinion, this should not be done, because, from the experience of communicating with such people, then the usual prayer rule can take an hour or an hour and a half, and this is completely not normal. Some of the Optina elders have a warning not to do this - not to re-read the same prayer ten times, because the enemy will deliberately knock us down over and over again, and our rule will turn into absurdity. Therefore, reading must still be consistent and continuous.
If possible, it is highly advisable to supplement the morning and evening rules with at least a very brief daytime rule. Within a day without prayer, a person’s soul manages to cool down - just as a stove cools down if no firewood is added to it all day. And therefore, if during the day we find five to ten minutes to turn to God with the Jesus Prayer or read, for example, one of the psalms, then we will greatly help ourselves to establish ourselves in prayer. The famous ascetic of the 20th century, Abbot Nikon (Vorobyov), advised us to set aside one minute at the beginning of each hour to turn mentally to God and ask for an intercession for our pardon and salvation from the Most Holy Theotokos, the Guardian Angel, and the saints. This rule, if the nature of our employment allows, can also be guided by. In addition, a Christian’s prayer rule usually includes reading the Holy Scripture, and this is also that part of the rule that can be done during the day.
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Newspaper "Orthodox Faith" No. 18 (566)
