Origin
Its basis is the words spoken by the Lord :
“Truly I also say to you that if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven, for where two or three are gathered in My name, there I am in the midst of them.” Matthew 18:19-20).
Prayer of the Church
For most of the history of the Church, the theological interpretation of the words of Jesus Christ was very clear: we are talking about conciliar prayer, that is, performed during worship , when believers gather in the temple.
Photo from the archive of the press service of the Udmurt diocese
Not only the liturgical practice itself is based on these words to this day, but also, for example, special intensified prayers (the text of which is approved by the clergy) performed at services in recent years:
- about peace in Ukraine, the unity of the Church (petitions for this began to be raised after the aggravation of the church and also political situation in the neighboring country);
- “prayer during the spread of a harmful epidemic, what is it?”
Cell room
However, about 100 years ago, the practice of private joint prayer of several believers, performed at the same time, most often without a general meeting in a temple or someone’s home, also arose. Often people can be separated by distance, sometimes very significant. It is this kind of prayer that is now understood as performed “by agreement.”
It is believed that one of the first to introduce such prayers among his spiritual children was Archpriest. Valentin Amfitheatrov, a famous Moscow shepherd (1836-1908), the text of this short prayer is attributed to him.
Prayer by agreement: text
Prayer Team
To begin with, I would recommend that you take a blessing from a priest who knows your spiritual mood. Tell him that there is such a request, such a problem or such a misfortune, can we pray that the Lord will bless and resolve the situation. And tell me who you would like to ask, say, three or four such and such people. If the priest blessed, then God help!
Is it necessary to have prayer people on your team? I would say it is possible. Because if you know that a person will really sincerely pray and not because you will give him some kind of reward, but because he himself loves to be with God, then his help will be in demand.
But if there are no such special people around, then you can invite everyone who cares and who agrees to voluntarily pray from the heart. And you don’t need to persuade anyone. Because if five or six people agreed to pray, but they pray only because it was inconvenient for them to refuse, this is bad. If you approach prayer formally, there will be no benefit. The Lord sees the hearts of people and mechanical pronunciation of prayer does not produce results.
I myself really love this prayer. Father John (Krestyankin) advised me to pray to her. My own grandfather, a man of high spiritual life, Nikolai Ivanovich Pestov, often prayed by agreement with his loved ones. People prayed especially fervently during the years of persecution and during the war. Nowadays it takes three hours to travel from Moscow to Tula, but back then it took three days to travel by train. Yes, more bombings. They brought food with them. And so, when someone set off on the road, the rest prayed and the Lord preserved. They told me about one mother, an old one, who was going into exile and took with her a hundred kilograms of food. The guys who saw her off were all surprised, how would she get there, how would she get there?! And she said: “What does the Mother of God need? And St. Nikolai for what? Take me to the corner and pray, stand!” They brought her to the corner of this street and left. And when they returned an hour later, she was no longer there. No money, no tickets. With God's help, through the prayers of her loved ones, she made it into exile alone and brought food with her.
recorded by Ekaterina Stepanova
magazine about Orthodox life “Neskuchny Sad”
Prayer
“Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, for You have declared with Your most pure lips: “Amen, I say to you, that if two of you take counsel on earth about every thing, and if you ask for it, you will have it from My Father who is in Heaven: where is it?” two or three have gathered in My name, and I am in the midst of them.”
Thy words are immutable, O Lord, Thy mercy is unconditional and Thy love for mankind has no end. For this reason, we pray to Thee: grant to us, Thy servants (names), who have agreed to ask Thee (request), the fulfillment of our request. But not as we want, but as You want. Thy will be done forever. Amen." It is also known that Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh, and Archimandrite John (Krestyankin) and other experienced confessors recommended him to their spiritual children.
Father John Krestyankin and Father Tikhon Shevkunov
The prevalence of the practice among believers in the 20th century. can be explained:
- mass closure of churches (for example, by the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, there were only 100 parishes left in the country!), so that people were not able to gather for services;
- persecution, repression - many Orthodox Christians went through exile and camps.
Often, what united people separated by circumstances was joint prayer, and its simultaneous performance, the knowledge that now, perhaps hundreds, thousands of kilometers away from you, a brother or sister in Christ is praying with you, gave enormous psychological support.
When religious persecution ceased in the 1990s, the practice continued, thus reaching the present day.
Help Heal Babies
Among humble appeals to the Lord, a special place is occupied by prayer by agreement for a sick baby. There are no stronger words than the words of a mother addressed to God with a request for the health of her children. The prayers of parents protect their children not only from physical suffering, but also, first of all, from birth they protect the soul of the child, helping him to follow the path prepared by God.
The Lord protects a person from an unbearable burden and gives only what a person is able to bear. In prayer, Orthodox Christians strengthen their faith and gain strength to survive current events.
What do they pray for?
More or less, a tradition has developed to perform such a prayer, as a rule, in case of some serious, even critical situation that arises in life. It is necessary, however, to understand: such prayer, even the most fervent, is not a replacement for church commemoration, but an addition to it. Therefore, many of those who perform it also try to write the names of those for whom they pray in notes, serve magpies , and prayer services.
About the health of the sick person
As a rule, several people agree to take on the work and agree to beg Christ for the preservation of life and the healing of a sick person. Most often, a loved one or the sick person can ask for such a prayer.
About marriage
Girls and women looking for a “soul mate” often turn to fellow believers for support.
Photo by Natalia Vetoshkina
About children
Quite often, believers unite at the request of parents, begging God to guide a teenager or an over-aged “child” who is entangled in the networks of passion (for example, drunkenness, drug addiction, gambling addiction, etc.) on the path of truth.
Miraculous power
Among the miraculous evidence of supernatural responses to collective petitions, one can see completely different reasons for the request itself:
- a request for healing and a miraculous recovery from an incurable (according to doctors) illness;
- a request for deliverance from smoking and alcoholism, as well as other psychological and physical addictions and the resulting freedom from any sin;
- the miraculous birth of a child in a family whom doctors determined to be infertile, in response to collective prayer;
- a request for housing and a miraculous acquisition of it;
- a request to get rid of loans and debts and the work presented that could help with this.
Some people ask the Lord for answers to material needs, others to spiritual ones, but God does not ignore any of them. A collective request strengthens the prayer and those asking receive an answer. But the most important thing that everyone gets after such an experience is a living confirmation that the Lord hears us and answers us. The experience of His close presence is what is most precious to a Christian.
Archpriest Vladimir Golovin often invites parishioners to take part in the Cathedral Prayer together with the entire St. Abraham's Church in the city of Bolgar - this church is the center of all collective prayers. The archpriest believes that this type of prayer is “first aid” for all people who find themselves in difficult circumstances and cannot find a way out of them, that is, when a person cannot do anything else on his own.
Father's blessing
Modern pastors strongly recommend, if possible, to take a priestly blessing for this work. It is better if it is given by a confessor, or a priest to whom the believer goes to confession, an acquaintance:
- with the spiritual dispensation of those who are going to perform prayer;
- with circumstances that, in the opinion of people, require God's help, can determine whether prayer is done “for the sake of blessed guilt,” that is, whether it is really necessary to “knock on the doors of God’s mercy,” or whether it is necessary to simply wait for His will to be done.
What the priests say
Pastors have mixed opinions about this practice.
Archpriest Nikolai Sokolov (rector of the Church of St. Nicholas in Tolmachi, Moscow):
“I noticed that when people begin to pray earnestly and this request pleases God, then everything happens and happens very quickly. Particularly dear to me are the cases when, after prayer, peace comes to the family by agreement. When mother and daughter did not talk, there was complete discord, but something happens and everything changes. Recently we prayed for the health of one seriously ill baby and the Lord sent good doctors. Although the child did not receive complete healing, the situation became significantly easier and the parents were able to prolong his life. I can list such stories endlessly, since in my practice as a priest, prayer by agreement is quite popular.”
But the opinion is the opposite. Says the prot. Alexy Uminsky, rector of the Church of St. Trinity in Khokhly, in an interview on July 24, 2022 :
“... some hobby groups gather, they read endless akathists about someone getting married or going to college, or about something else altogether. And all this is called prayer by agreement. This is pure magic and complete heresy. This is not a prayer. Because that's not how they pray. God does not need people to pray in any special, intense way.
Prayer reaches God in a completely different way. There is no need to strain, there is no need to gather in some groups of the population so that at the same time the same prayer is heard from everyone, as if this will begin to work on its own. Who do you take God for?”
If there is no will of God
Do I need to set a deadline? I think no. Because God has his own timing. What is six months, a year, ten years? We know examples from the Holy Scriptures when all the deadlines had already passed, but the Lord fulfilled his promise. Remember Joachim and Anna, Abraham and Sarah - how many years they prayed and the Lord sent what they asked for, when even hope was gone. Remember, it was even funny to them that they would become parents at that age, but nevertheless, the will of God is immutable. If the Lord said yes, then yes.
But it also happens that people pray for a long time, but their request is not fulfilled. You need to be prepared for the fact that God’s will may not happen. A negative answer is also an answer. That’s why we always say at the end of our prayer, “Thy will be done.” (In fact, repeating the prayer “Our Father” - it can also be read by agreement. The same words, only in a different form). You must believe that if a person sincerely prays, then the Lord will definitely reveal His will to him through other people, through his life, through circumstances, and it will become obvious to you whether you need to continue praying about this. There will be no doubt. But, of course, you need to ask for reasonable things. If a person does not have an arm or a leg, there is no need to ask for it to grow. There was a case in history when a hand grew to St. John of Damascus, but this is not a common case.
Two years ago I was asked to pray for a couple. I started to pray, but they disappeared and I don’t know how they are doing. Maybe they separated, maybe they died, or maybe, on the contrary, everything was fine with them and they just moved. But I pray so, because they don't appear. Therefore, it seems to me important to share the results with each other and discuss the development of the situation.
There are times when we pray for a girl’s marriage, for example, and she has someone, but she is silent and doesn’t tell anyone anything. He thinks, let them continue to pray, maybe I’ll find something even better. There are such cases. But it’s better to share news with each other and keep them up to date. If it works out, then it’s not in vain that we pray. And if not, then maybe you need to serve an additional prayer service. Gather with the whole team in the church to read the akathist in front of the icon “Seeking the Lost” or “Quench My Sorrows” and then, by agreement, the prayer of the Church will be added to your prayer.
And most importantly, when the request is fulfilled, it is very important not to forget to thank God, serve a prayer of thanks, remember the gospel lepers, ten of whom were cleansed and only one came to thank.
