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Conversations with the priest. Orthodox prayer and its features. Home prayer. What icons should be in the house

Not only the temple of God can be a place for our prayer, and it is not through the mediation of the priest alone that God’s blessing can be brought down on our deeds; every home, every family can still become home church, when the head of the family, by his example, guides his children and household members in prayer, when family members, all together, or each separately, offer their prayers of petition and gratitude to the Lord.

Not content with the general prayers offered for us in churches, and knowing that we will not all rush there, the Church offers each of us, like a mother to a child, special ready-made food home, - offers prayers designated for our home use.

Prayers read daily:

In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen .

Prayer of the publican mentioned in the Gospel parable of the Savior:

God, be merciful to me, a sinner.

Prayer to the Son of God, the second person of the Holy Trinity.

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, prayers for the sake of Your Most Pure Mother and all the saints, have mercy on us. Amen.

Prayer to the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Holy Trinity:

Glory to Thee, our God, glory to Thee.

Heavenly King, Comforter, Soul of truth, who is everywhere and fulfills everything, treasure of good things, and giver of life, come and dwell in us, and cleanse us from all filth, and save, O blessed One, our souls.

Three prayers to the Holy Trinity:
Trisagion. Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal, have mercy on us(three times).
Doxology. Glory to the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen.
Prayer. Most Holy Trinity, have mercy on us; Lord, cleanse our sins; Master, forgive our iniquities; Holy One, visit and heal our infirmities, for Thy name's sake.
Lord have mercy(three times).

The prayer called the Lord's, because the Lord Himself pronounced it for our use.

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, as we also forgive our debtors: and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.

When you wake up from sleep in the morning, think that God is giving you a day that you could not give to yourself, and set aside the first hour, or at least the first quarter of an hour, of the day given to you, and sacrifice it to God in grateful and benevolent prayer. The more diligently you do this, the more firmly you will protect yourself from the temptations that you encounter every day (words of Philaret, Metropolitan of Moscow).

A prayer read in the morning, after sleep.

To You, Master who loves mankind, having risen from sleep, I come running, and I strive for Your works with Your mercy, and I pray to You: help me at all times in every thing, and deliver me from all worldly evil things and the devil’s haste, and save me, and bring us into Your eternal kingdom. For you are my creator, and the provider and giver of every good thing, in You are all my hope, and I send glory to You now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen.

Prayer to Our Lady.
Angelic greeting . Theotokos, Virgin, rejoice, gracious Mary, the Lord is with you: blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb, for you have given birth to the Savior of our souls.
The Greatness of the Mother of God. It is worthy to eat as you truly bless Thee, the ever-blessed and immaculate Mother of God and the Mother of our God. The most honorable cherub, and the most glorious seraphim without comparison, who gave birth to the word of God without corruption, the real Mother of God, we magnify Thee.
In addition to the Mother of God, the intercessor of Christians before the Lord, everyone has two intercessors for us before God, prayer books and guardians of our life. This is, firstly, angel ours from the realm of disembodied spirits, to whom the Lord entrusts us from the day of our baptism, and, secondly, the saint of God from among the holy men of God, also called angel, whose name we bear from the day of our birth. It is a sin to forget your heavenly benefactors and not offer prayers to them.

Prayer to the angel, the disembodied guardian of human life.

Angel of God, my holy guardian, given to me from God from heaven for my protection! I diligently pray to you: enlighten me today, save me from all evil, guide me to good deeds and direct me on the path of salvation. Amen.

Prayer to the holy saint of God, by whose name we are called from birth.

Pray to God for me, holy servant of God(say name) or holy saint of God(say name) as I diligently resort to you, a quick helper and a prayer book for my soul, or first aid and prayer book for my soul.

It is the duty of every believer to pray for the fatherland, i.e. The country in which our fathers were born and lived. The Apostle Paul speaks in his letter to Bishop Timothy, ch. 2, Art. 1, 2, 3: I beg you, first of all, to make prayers, supplications, petitions, thanksgivings for all people, for the Tsar and for everyone who is in power... This is good and pleasant before our Savior God.

Prayer for the Fatherland.

Save, Lord, your people, and bless your inheritance: granting victories to Orthodox Christians against resistance, and preserving your life through your cross.

Prayer for living relatives.

Save, Lord, and have mercy(then briefly offer a prayer for the health and salvation of the entire priesthood, your spiritual father, your parents, relatives, leaders, benefactors, all Christians and all servants of God, and then add): And remember, visit, strengthen, comfort, and with your power grant them health and salvation, for you are good and a lover of mankind. Amen.

Prayer for the dead.

Remember, Lord, the souls of your departed servants(their names), and all my relatives, and all my departed brethren, and forgive them all their sins, voluntary and involuntary, giving them the kingdom of heaven and the communion of your eternal good things and your endless and blissful life of pleasure, and create for them eternal memory.

A short prayer said before the honest and life-giving cross of the Lord:

Protect me, Lord, by the power of your honorable and life-giving cross, and save me from all evil.

Here are the prayers that every Orthodox Christian needs to know. It will take a little time to slowly read them, standing in front of the holy icon: May God’s blessing on all our good deeds be a reward for our zeal for God and our piety...

In the evening, when you go to sleep, think that God gives you rest from your labors, and take away the firstfruits from your time and peace and dedicate it to God with pure and humble prayer. Its fragrance will bring an angel closer to you to protect your peace. (Words by Philar. Metropolitan of Moscow).

During evening prayer the same thing is read, only instead of the morning prayer, St. The Church offers us the following prayer :

Lord our God, who have sinned in these days, in word, deed, and thought, as he is good and a lover of mankind, forgive me; grant me peaceful sleep and serenity; Send Your guardian angel, covering and keeping me from all evil; for You are the guardian of our souls and bodies, and to You we send glory to the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, now and ever, and forever and ever, Amen.

Prayer before eating.

The eyes of all trust in You, Lord, and You give them writing in good time, You open Your generous hand, and fulfill every animal’s good will.

Prayer after eating.

We thank Thee, Christ our God, for Thou hast filled us with Thy earthly blessings: do not deprive us of Thy heavenly kingdom.

Prayer before teaching.

Most gracious Lord, bestow upon us the grace of Your Holy Spirit, bestowing and strengthening our spiritual strength, so that, by heeding the teaching taught to us, we may grow to You, our Creator, for glory, as our parent for consolation, for the benefit of the Church and the Fatherland.

After the lesson.

We thank You, Creator, for You have made us worthy of Your grace to listen to the teaching. Bless our leaders, parents and teachers, who lead us to the knowledge of good, and give us strength and strength to continue this teaching.

Students of the sciences and arts should turn to the Lord with special zeal, for He gives wisdom, and from His presence knowledge and understanding(proverbs 2, 6). Most of all, they must preserve the purity and integrity of their hearts, so that the light of God may enter the soul without being obscured: For wisdom does not enter into the soul of an evil artist; it dwells below in a body guilty of sin (Prem. 1, 4). Blessedness of purity of heart: like this not only the wisdom of God, but they will also see God Himself(Matt. 5:8).

Not only the temple of God can be a place for our prayer, and it is not through the mediation of the priest alone that God’s blessing can be brought down on our deeds; Every home, every family can still become a home church when the head of the family leads his children and household members in prayer by his example, when family members, all together or each separately, offer their prayers of petition and gratitude to the Lord God.

Not content with the general prayers offered for us in churches, and knowing that we will not all rush there, the Church offers each of us, like a mother to a child, special home-cooked food - offers prayers intended for our home use.

Daily Orthodox prayers

In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Prayer of the publican mentioned in the Gospel parable of the Savior:
God, be merciful to me, a sinner.
Prayer to the Son of God, the second person of the Holy Trinity:
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, prayers for the sake of Your Most Pure Mother and all the saints, have mercy on us. Amen.
Prayer to the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Holy Trinity:
Glory to Thee, our God, glory to Thee.
Heavenly King, Comforter, Soul of truth, who is everywhere and fulfills everything, treasure of good things, and giver of life, come and dwell in us, and cleanse us from all filth, and save, O blessed One, our souls.
Three prayers to the Holy Trinity:
1. Trisagion. Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal, have mercy on us (three times).
2. Doxology. Glory to the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen.
3. Prayer. Most Holy Trinity, have mercy on us; Lord, cleanse our sins; Master, forgive our iniquities; Holy One, visit and heal our infirmities, for Thy name's sake.
Lord have mercy (three times).
The prayer is called the Lord’s Prayer because the Lord Himself said it for our use:
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, as we also forgive our debtors: and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.

Orthodox prayers read in the morning after sleep

Orthodox prayers to the Mother of God

Angelic greeting. Theotokos, Virgin, rejoice, gracious Mary, the Lord is with you: blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb, for you have given birth to the Savior of our souls.
The Greatness of the Mother of God. It is worthy to eat as you truly bless Thee, the ever-blessed and immaculate Mother of God and the Mother of our God. The most honorable cherub, and the most glorious seraphim without comparison, who gave birth to the word of God without corruption, the real Mother of God, we magnify Thee.

In addition to the Mother of God, the intercessor of Christians before the Lord, everyone has two intercessors for us before God, prayer books and guardians of our life. This is, firstly, our angel from the realm of disembodied spirits, to whom the Lord entrusts us from the day of our baptism, and, secondly, a saint of God from among God’s holy men, also called an angel, whose name we bear from the day of our birth. It is a sin to forget your heavenly benefactors and not offer prayers to them.

Prayer to the angel, the disembodied guardian of human life

Prayer to the holy saint of God, by whose name we are called from birth

Pray to God for me, holy servant of God (name) or holy servant of God (name), as I diligently resort to you, a quick helper and prayer book for my soul, or a quick helper and prayer book for my soul.

The Sovereign Emperor is the father of our fatherland; His service is the most difficult of all the services that people undergo, and therefore it is the duty of every loyal subject to pray for his Sovereign and for the fatherland, i.e. The country in which our fathers were born and lived. The Apostle Paul speaks in his letter to Bishop Timothy, ch. 2, Art. 1, 2, 3: I beg you, first of all, to make prayers, supplications, petitions, thanksgivings for all people, for the Tsar and for everyone who is in power... This is good and pleasing before our Savior God.

Prayer for the Emperor and the Fatherland

Save, Lord, your people, and bless your inheritance: granting victories to our Blessed Emperor Nikolai Alexandrovich in opposition, and preserving your residence through your cross.

Prayer for living relatives

Save, O Lord, and have mercy (therefore briefly bring a prayer for the health and salvation of the entire Royal House, the priesthood, your spiritual father, your parents, relatives, leaders, benefactors, all Christians and all servants of God, and then add): And I remember, visit, strengthen, comfort and with your power grant them health and salvation, for you are good and a lover of mankind. Amen.

Prayer for the dead

Remember, Lord, the souls of your departed servants (their names), and all my relatives, and all my departed brethren, and forgive them all their sins, voluntary and involuntary, granting them the kingdom of heaven and the communion of your eternal good things and the pleasure of your endless and blissful life, and create for them an eternal memory.

A short prayer said before the honest and life-giving cross of the Lord

Protect me, Lord, by the power of your honorable and life-giving cross, and save me from all evil.

During evening prayer the same thing is read, only instead of the morning prayer, St. The Church offers us the following prayer:

Lord our God, who have sinned in these days, in word, deed, and thought, as he is good and a lover of mankind, forgive me; grant me peaceful sleep and serenity; Send Your guardian angel, covering and keeping me from all evil; for You are the guardian of our souls and bodies, and to You we send glory to the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, now and ever, and forever and ever, Amen.

Orthodox prayer before eating

The eyes of all trust in You, Lord, and You give them writing in good time, You open Your generous hand, and fulfill every animal’s good will.

Orthodox prayers after eating:

We thank Thee, Christ our God, for Thou hast filled us with Thy earthly blessings: do not deprive us of Thy heavenly kingdom.

Orthodox prayers before teaching

Orthodox prayers after teaching

Students of the sciences and arts should turn to the Lord with special diligence, for He gives wisdom, and from His presence knowledge and understanding (Proverbs 2:6). Most of all, they must preserve the purity and integrity of their hearts, so that, without being obscured, the light of God may enter the soul: For wisdom does not enter into an evil soul, but instead dwells in a body guilty of sin (Wisdom 1:4). Blessed are those who are pure in heart: for they will see not only the wisdom of God, but also God Himself (Matthew 5:8).

Archpriest Oleg Stenyaev, cleric of the Church of the Nativity of John the Baptist in Sokolniki, answers questions from viewers. Broadcast from Moscow.

- How does Orthodox prayer differ from heterodox prayer?

In the Eastern Christian Orthodox tradition, prayer must first of all be dispassionate. As a result of the Fall, it was the human sensory apparatus that suffered the most. Christ in the Gospel directly says: “From the heart come murder, theft, fornication - all uncleanness.” During prayer, an Orthodox person removes his sensations to the periphery of consciousness, he avoids an outburst of feelings. As it was said at the beginning of the morning rule, when starting to pray, you need to wait until your feelings calm down. That’s why church reading (like prayers are read in church) is dispassionate, like some kind of tuning fork. Temple prayer sets the tone for home prayer. This is very dangerous, if sinful sensitivity penetrates into the world of our religious ideas, it must be avoided in every possible way. The Apostle Paul knew this. In the community of Corinthian Christians, similar experiments with their own feelings took place: prophecy, broadcasting in other tongues, pouring out their emotions. And the Apostle Paul tried to reason with such believers, to instill in them a very sound position. He said: “I will pray with the spirit (that is, with the heart), I will also pray with the mind (that is, control the world of feelings). Sing with the spirit and sing with the mind.” The Holy Fathers commanded us to immerse our minds, by which we understand the laws of God, His will, into the heart and control our sensory apparatus. And if feelings begin to prevail over reason, there is a sort of fallout from the human state into an almost animal state. These animals are guided by instincts, and man has a mind that is given to him by God to control his sensual impulses. True, sometimes it seems to us that some feeling that we experience is from God. But it could be caused by something else. Or, on the contrary, a person is attacked by sadness, depression, and he thinks that it is the devil who is tempting him. Or maybe he just has high blood pressure or bile in his liver. We are not experienced enough to trust what we feel.

There is such a gift in the Church - the gift of discerning spirits, that is, the state of feelings of this or that person. But few people have such a gift. Therefore, an Orthodox person cannot experiment with his feelings, especially during prayer. This is the fundamental difference between Orthodox prayer and heterodox prayer. If we talk, for example, about tears, the holy fathers teach that this is the rarest gift - the gift of tears during prayer, and it is mainly given to men. And if ordinary people have these tears-emotions, oohs, aahs, this is most likely the realization of that sensuality that is below the navel in the human body. You must immediately stop this categorically, interrupt the prayer if your feelings become uneasy or if too wild, charismatic delight comes over you. It is better to stop the prayer, maybe take a cold shower and only then start it again. Orthodox Christians always monitor emotions very strictly. Saint Ignatius (Brianchaninov) wrote a lot on this topic, that great danger awaits us when we are guided not by the understanding of God’s truth, but by our feelings. Imagine this situation: you come to work and say: “I won’t work today, I’m not in the mood.” And another time: “Oh, I’m in such a mood! I will do all the work myself. Let everyone else go." It is also absurd if a person begins to pray only when he has a prayerful feeling: “Yes, now I am ready for prayer,” for example, in the morning. And in the evening he is not ready for prayer, he feels that he will not be able to read the same way. You cannot be a hostage to your feelings, because, as I have already said, the sensory apparatus suffered the most as a result of the Fall. Need to take care have God in mind- this is what the Apostle Paul tells us in the Epistle to the Romans, chapter 1. And those people who neglect this, through a riot of feelings, fall into all sorts of sensual sins and perversions, this is what this can lead to. The Apostle Paul, when he wrote instructions for the young Bishop Timothy, he told him this: “Pay attention to yourself and to the Scriptures. Do this constantly; this way you will save both yourself and those who listen to you.” That is, you can’t just delve into yourself, you also need to study Scripture in order to measure what is happening in your life with the requirements of the Lord God, spoken to us in His Divine revelation.

Orthodox people do not pray out of inspiration when feelings surge, as is practiced in many sects, even denominations. We pray in the morning (we read morning prayers), we pray in the evening (we read evening prayers). We don't improvise in prayer. Perhaps another Christian denomination that adheres to this is the Roman Catholics. They also try to read church prayers, but they still have an emphasis on sensuality. Many Catholic saints write about how feelings came flooding in during prayer. So, one of them (Alexei Ilyich Osipov draws attention to this) exclaimed: “Christ is calling me from heaven with a piercing whistle.” This kind of vulgarization should not exist in prayer life. And those people who have loosened their sensory apparatus, they need to gather themselves into a group for prayer. Otherwise, their prayers, like bursts of unclean thoughts and sensations, will not rise above the ceiling. Because prayer also involves self-abasement. The Slavic word “prayer” has the same root as the word “supplication”; a person says: “I beg.” How can you impudently beg, try to demand something by shouting, expect some kind of whistle from heaven, if you turn in prayer to the Creator of the Universe? Here we need to remain reverent, show fear of God and push our feelings a little to the side, because they are not so purified, our heart is not so purified that we can trust our feelings. This is also the difference between Orthodox prayer and heterodox prayer. If someone’s prayer life does not work out, then this is most likely because you have become hostage to your feelings: I am in the mood - I pray, if I am not in the mood - I don’t pray. Orthodoxy is a way of life. An Orthodox person is one who reads morning prayers in the morning, evening prayers in the evening, tries to fulfill God’s commandments, a person who lives by worship. Strictly speaking, the prayer of Ancient Rus' is a daily circle, as well as a monthly, weekly, and annual circle. And the prayer book of Ancient Rus' is the Canon. Those prayers that we now read as morning and evening prayers - the Church, based on the weakness of ordinary people, her children, has slightly simplified what was read in ancient times as Compline (or Midnight Office), that is, these prayers offer us a certain prayer minimum.

One man told me: “It seems to me as if I had been reading this Rule for Holy Communion all night.” I looked at him in surprise and said: “Next time, set an alarm clock and note the time.” A week later he comes to me and says: “You know, it turns out it turned out to be about an hour and a half, no more.” That is, the devil sometimes inspires us that morning prayers are very long. But they only take 8-10 minutes. And that evening prayers are unbearably long, and they also take 8-10 minutes. That is, the evil one plays with our soul through the world of our feelings. But common sense should tell me: if during prayer I am attacked by sleep, fatigue, and as soon as the phone rings and I stop praying - I spend a whole hour, cheerfully, talking with my friends, then this should tell an Orthodox person that prayer is a spiritual struggle . As soon as I stopped praying - I talked on the phone for two or three hours, and sleep disappeared, and there was no weakness, this is already an indicator that there is a spiritual battle going on. The Apostle Paul wrote that our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the powers of wickedness in high places, that is, against the evil spirits living in the space between heaven and earth, who take away our prayer.

Question from a TV viewer from the Moscow region: “In the prayer for repose there are these words: “his (her) soul will dwell in good things.” How can we understand them correctly?

- “In the good” - that is, she will be in a blessed state, in communion with good beings who have rested in the Lord. “Rest with the saints” in the sense of other saints. “He will dwell among the good” and will dwell among the blessed. The meaning here is this: through the personal goodness that a person acquires during his earthly existence, he gains hope for goodness in the next life. After all, earthly life was given to us so that we could prepare for eternal life. And in this sense, hell and heaven begin here, as we spend our earthly life. And when a person dies, we pray for him and wish that he rests with the saints and settles down among the good. This is our good prayer wish for the departed.

- So prayer is a struggle?

Anyway. Especially when we pray for others. The Holy Fathers said: “Praying for others means shedding blood.” If you respond to someone's request for prayer that you will pray for that person, you should take it very seriously. The Scripture says, “Bear one another’s burdens.” But we need to weigh whether we can pray for other people. For example, blood kinship obliges us to pray for our relatives: parents, children, and other relatives. And praying for serious sinners, even if they ask us about it, may need to be delegated to other people who have more prayer experience than we do. This is also reasonable.

- The Lord’s Prayer - what is its uniqueness?

If we talk about the prayer “Our Father”, then it is like the Constitution in the state. This prayer is a model for all other Christian prayers. Hebraic researchers have noticed that the words of the Lord's Prayer are taken from prayer petitions common during the time of Christ's earthly preaching. These are mainly the Psalms and other biblical texts. This, on the one hand, is the essence of all prayers and the prayer Constitution, which tells us about the main thing with which we should turn to God, what our petitions should be. But the most invaluable thing about this prayer is that Christ gives us the right to begin it with the words “Our Father.” The fact is that the Jews did not know the personal paternity of God, although there are Old Testament prayers where Israel as a people turns to God the Father. But in general, the feeling that God is your Father is not available to other religions. It is the property of Christianity. And when Christ says: “I have revealed to them (that is, His disciples) Your name, O God,” it means that He revealed to us the secret that God the Father, through Jesus Christ, adopts us as His sons and we have the right to cry out to the Creator of the worlds: “ Abba Father! That is, in Christ Jesus we are all adopted as sons of God the Father. And the fact that our prayer begins with such an address - Father, Father - is evidence of the closeness that is being built between the Creator and the creation thanks to Jesus Christ, about whom it is said: one God one intercessor there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. This is what the Apostle Paul wrote (1 Tim. 2:5).

Question from a TV viewer from the Stavropol Territory: “I converted to Orthodoxy, I go to an Orthodox church, I read the Psalter at home, but I don’t understand many words in the text, although in general it seems clear what it’s about. Isn’t it a sin to read without understanding?”

The Apostle Paul wrote in the 14th chapter of First Corinthians: “It is better in the church to speak five words in an understandable language than ten thousand words in an unknown one.” I advise you to buy a study Psalter, when on one page there is a Church Slavonic text, and on the other, at the same time, a translation into Russian. Once you start looking at the parallel text from time to time, you will soon be able to read the Psalter without relying on translation. In fact, there are very few words in the Church Slavonic language that are incomprehensible to us. There are literally two or three dozen of them, no more. At the end of many prayer books there is a dictionary of obscure words. And the more a person prays according to the Church Slavonic prayer book, the more understandable these texts become to him. Maybe if we read prayers in Church Slavonic mechanically - without thinking, enveloping them with our feelings, the meaning here can really slip away. Therefore, I will give you advice - read more slowly. When a person reads slowly, he can penetrate into every thought, and even if an obscure word is encountered, then from the context you immediately understand what is being said. But you have to read it carefully.

- Father Oleg, how does prayer differ from a mantra?

Mantric, let's say, prayer is when the pagans repeated completely incomprehensible words, not even words, but some alternating sounds they uttered, considering them some kind of mysterious, sacred mantras and hoping that this mantra will bring a harvest, and that will give bodily health etc. A mantra can never become a prayer, but a prayer, unfortunately, can become a mantra when we read it thoughtlessly, with the goal of subtracting everything as quickly as possible. We have already decided that, for example, if morning and evening prayers take an average of ten minutes, then by your haste you will gain, say, 3-4 minutes, but it turns out that you risk not praying at all if you read without realizing it. whatever you say, your mind was silent, only your lips spoke. This is unreasonable. Therefore, we should never rush when reading prayers, we should read them in order. And it is very important to adhere to church norms of prayer. When, for example, the lights in a church are extinguished and the reading of the Six Psalms begins, then, according to church tradition, it is customary to feel as if one is about to attend the Last Judgment. Therefore, the Six Psalms are read with an arrangement, even a certain slowness. This manner of reading can serve as a good tuning fork for us, which will correctly set up our home prayer: calm, unhurried, and heartily attentive.

- And thoughtful?

Yes, sure.

- An indicator that a person has prayed well is when he has tuned his mind in a certain way?

Holy Righteous John of Kronstadt gives this advice: if you are reading a prayer and suddenly catch yourself thinking: “Who am I praying to - the Mother of God or Christ?” - and you look at the beginning of this prayer, then stop reading immediately. Re-read the prayer (not the whole rule, but precisely the one on which your mind was distracted) and then continue to pray more carefully, so that there is no such thing that a person reads and cannot understand - whether he is praying to the Guardian Angel, or to the Mother of God. This is precisely the mantric state; it is characteristic of pagans, and not of the Christian faith.

- As I understand it, mantric reading is an entrance to a certain state?

Into a certain rhythm that becomes the very purpose of such prayer. But a person prays without reasoning and without warmth of heart.

-And Orthodox prayer is thoughtful...

Thoughtful, calm, well-disciplined. Especially homemade. Public prayer is, of course, a different case. If you read everything the way we should read it at home - in order, calmly, then the service may be very long. But in general, in churches they try to read loudly, slowly, and clearly.

- What state of a person indicates whether his prayer was fruitful or not?

If a person read, say, the Penitential Canon and after that the nervous tension did not leave him, then he read the Penitential Canon incorrectly. And if he read and, perhaps, his soul felt light and timid tears of joy about God’s forgiveness appeared in his eyes, then this is normal, this is permissible. Or, for example, a person listens to prayers of thanksgiving for Holy Communion in church and experiences simply enchanting delight during the reading and even after it, then no, it shouldn’t be like that, there should be quiet joy, non-evening light. These expressions are very Orthodox - quiet joy and non-evening light, this is the spirit of Orthodoxy. We must discern the spirit of prayer, which will then manifest itself in our everyday, everyday life and influence it.

- And the extremes are either a very passionate, sensual prayer, or a mantric, mechanical prayer.

Or too enchanting delight, fireworks of feelings.

- Is it possible to pray in your own words? Or is it better to trust the prayer book?

We see that when the Lord Jesus Christ was dying on the Cross (after all, death is a very personal moment, we all die alone), He prayed with the words from the Psalter: “Have mercy on Me, O God,” “My God, My God, why You left me?" These are famous words from the Psalter. If at such the highest moment of existence Christ prayed according to the Psalter, then He teaches us to turn to it when it is very difficult for us. Or to the prayer book. As a matter of fact, those people who say that they do not need any collections of prayers, they forget that in the middle of the Bible there is a very good prayer book - this is the Psalter. We know from Scripture that John the Baptist taught his disciples to pray. Having learned about this, the disciples of Christ came to their Teacher and also said to Him: “Teach us to pray.” If we talk about church prayers, doxologies, exclamations, exclamations, the Lord’s Prayer, then they are always based on biblical texts; many parallels can be found. And the very feeling that in the evening you are reading the same thing that all the other Orthodox Christians are reading in your home, in your city, in your country, all over the globe, this is a feeling of participation in conciliar prayer, it greatly pleases and strengthens a person .

But you can, of course, pray in your own words. Public prayer cannot be impromptu: church rules prohibit performing divine services not in accordance with the Charter. But when a person has some kind of personal, subjective experience, he can tell God about it in his own words, about what trouble he has, what problem. But to limit yourself only to personal prayer is to greatly simplify your spiritual life.

I talked with Baptists, with Pentecostals, with various believers, and when I asked them: “Don’t you think that your personal prayers are repeated all the time? Are you saying the same thing? - then they agreed. That is, they are very liturgically poor. And church prayers, on the contrary, are liturgically rich: they have such colors, such beauty of style! These are the prayers of saints, and they are mainly based on biblical texts, primarily on the Inspired Psalter and the Lord's Prayer, which is the Constitution and example for all Christian prayers.

- What does the Apostle Paul’s call to pray without ceasing mean?

To pray without ceasing means to live with the awareness that you are in the presence of God. About Noah it is said: “Noah walked with God.” About Enoch it is said: “Enoch walked with God.” About Abraham it is said: “Abraham walked before the face of God.” Walking before God, living before Him means constantly feeling God’s presence in your life, that God does not leave you even for a moment, and such awareness gives rise to a prayerful attitude. And even when we communicate with other people, we understand that this happens in the presence of God. The Apostle Paul says this: “Whatever you do in word or deed, do it in the name of Jesus Christ.” For example, a person goes to work on a lathe; if he is a Christian, he will do it in the name of Jesus Christ. The mother begins to breastfeed the baby; if she is a Christian, she also does this in the name of Jesus Christ. That is, to live in the presence of God, to constantly have this state of prayer - this is only possible with the realization that God, as Omnipresent, He is everywhere. And we become fearful of God, we begin to feel reverence for Him. If we do everything in our lives in the name of Jesus Christ, perceiving in our hearts the presence of God everywhere, then in the end we will not be able to sin. You can't sin in the presence of God. Who will sin, for example, in the presence of a stranger? Who would behave impudently in front of people if he is a normal person? Therefore, the Apostle Paul’s call to “pray without ceasing” echoes his words: “Whatever you do in word or deed, do it in the name of Jesus Christ.”

- How can you turn in prayer to inanimate objects: to the Cross, to the belt of the Virgin Mary, and so on?

This is how I would answer this question. In the Book of Numbers of the Pentateuch of Moses we find the following interesting chant (chapter 21, verses 16-18): From here we went to Be'er(Beer is a well in Hebrew); This is the well about which the Lord said to Moses: Gather the people, and I will give them water. Then Israel sang this song: Be filled, O well, sing to it; the well that the princes dug, the leaders of the people dug with the lawgiver with their rods... That is, the Lord commanded that Moses gather them there, and they sang. These are the words: fill up, well, sing to him. Here's the word to him not capitalized; we are talking about the fact that they seem to turn to the well and, as it were, say to him: fill up, well. But this does not mean that they are praying to the well. For them, the well is a symbolic place; water miraculously flowed out of there. When we turn to the Cross (in prayer to the Cross, for example) or reverently venerate some shrine, the relics of saints or objects, their clothes - if we do this, then we do not honor the fabric, we do not honor the composition of some icons (gesso), but in some image, symbol we pay veneration to the prototype. Something similar can be seen in the book of the Acts of the Holy Apostles (chapter 19, verses 11-12): God performed many miracles through the hands of Paul, so that handkerchiefs and aprons from his body were placed on the sick, and their illnesses ceased, and evil spirits left them. What do we see here? People placed his aprons and handkerchiefs on the sick, and they were healed in the absence of the Apostle Paul. Isn't this a miracle? Did handkerchiefs also heal aprons? No, they came into contact with the body of the apostle and then healed. Why be surprised? Even the shadow of the apostles healed. The inhabitants of Jerusalem noticed this and began to place their sick where they could pass. But during the day the shadow changes: in the morning it is in one direction, in the evening in the other; So, based on how the shadow would fall, they simply shifted their patients. But it is said: those who were touched by the shadow were healed.

The book of the Second Book of Kings tells that a man was being buried, and suddenly there was some kind of disturbance. They threw him into the first coffin they came across - and it turned out to be the coffin of the prophet Elisha - when he fell, he touched the bones of Elisha, came to life and stood on his feet. That is, the grace of God acts in many different ways and in many ways, but we all understand that the prophets and Paul do not act on their own. If his belt heals someone, this does not mean that the fabric is capable of it. This is the action of God's grace through holy people and even through the objects they touched. At least there are such analogies and examples in the Holy Scriptures.

When a person turns in prayer to the saints who are already in heaven, how do the saints hear the person?

The Books of Kings tell us that a pagan king fought against the Jews. And he could not understand: no matter what he starts to do (perform some maneuver), the Jews already know this. He retreats, he advances - the Jews know. And he asks his nobles: “How can they know? How is this possible?" His dignitaries answer him: “But the Jews have prophets. They know everything you say in this bedroom.” That is, through the Holy Spirit, the prophets see what is happening. The very first name of the prophet is the Hebrew word “khoze” - meaning “seer,” that is, one who sees. A prophet, a saint is one who sees. In the akathist to St. Sergius there are such amazing words: “I will bring forth (at all times) enlightening illumination from the three-solar light of the Holy Trinity.” That is, the saint does not see from a distance by his own power, but by the power of God. If the prophets, living on earth, could know what the pagan king was saying in his bedroom, then the saints of God in heaven, united there even more closely with Divine grace, contemplate our affairs even more in the light of the Holy Trinity.

And another very important aspect. It is said: The Church is the Body. The Church is only conditionally divided into heavenly and earthly: earthly - wandering and militant, heavenly - triumphant. What is said about the body? “If one member hurts, the whole body suffers.” That is, it has become difficult for us here on earth (maybe it has become difficult for you or me personally) - this means that in heaven they know about our sorrows, they know how Christians in the Middle East are suffering now, how these locusts are attacking from the abyss, cuts off their heads and so on. That is, the saints penetrate through Divine grace. And since we all make up one mystical body, their light also shines on us.

- What does prayer in front of an icon mean? And how does an icon differ from a painting?

We have touched on this issue several times, but this is a very important issue. When we talk about prayer, we must definitely say why we pray in front of the icon. Prayer cuts off our sensory perception of spiritual reality. As we have already understood, the human sensory apparatus is very corrupted. And if a person prays and at the same time fantasizes something - imagining Christ, the Mother of God, these images will be distorted by his sensual nature. What is an icon? This is a manifestation to a holy man. He captured this phenomenon as an image, and all subsequent icon painters could only make copies of this image and not introduce any of their own creative elements. This is where the icon differs from the painting. You cannot pray in front of a painting. What is a painting? We know that many Italian, German, and French artists painted their Madonnas from street women. They hired them to pose. El Greco painted his saints as demoniacs in a madhouse - this is a well-known fact. The picture is the author's vision of the situation. And an icon is an insight that overtook the saint, and he either painted the icon himself, or supervised the icon painter and gave him advice. After all, even Moses could not reveal anything - neither the tabernacle, nor the Ark of the Covenant, until God showed him the Heavenly Tabernacle. And the Lord said to him: “Do in the image of heaven what you have been taught.” An icon is an image that points to the Heavenly Prototype. As a matter of fact, we must build our entire Christian life according to these words: “As in heaven and on earth.” This iconography of consciousness should be inherent in every Orthodox person.

And if we pray with our eyes closed, not in front of an icon, anything can appear in our consciousness. One woman complained to me: she watched Franco Zeffirelli’s film “Jesus of Nazareth”, stood for prayer, and this actor appeared before her eyes. And she didn't know what to do. By the way, for prayer she had not an icon, but a painting. She could not use the picture to interrupt the movie image, which was very bright. Then I told her: “Buy an ordinary icon.” She began to pray in front of the holy image. After all, an icon is a pure, dispassionate vision of spiritual reality.

- When a person prays, should he look at the icon? How can he pray and look at her? By memory?

An icon is a topic for prayer. We make the sign of the cross, we look at the icon, in front of which the lamp is burning, so that we can see the holy image. Ancient icons were painted with tempera, so even if one small lamp was lit, the entire icon was illuminated by its light. If you write in oil, then the oil does not reflect living fire. The icon shows us the reality of spiritual vision, spiritual vision, and helps us turn more prayerfully to Christ, the Mother of God, and His saints. That’s why we pray in the red corner, where we have icons, where we light candles in front of them, where lamps burn.

- What is the best way to pray - from memory or by looking into the prayer book?

Priests are forbidden to pray from memory, especially when we serve the Divine Liturgy, during the celebration of the sacraments. Because, trusting your own memory at this moment, you can confuse some words, forget something, as happens with people who know everything by heart. We are obliged to perform the service according to the book. I think that this is also important for the laity, even if they remember all the prayers by heart. I also know small children who can recite morning and evening prayers by heart, one teenager of twelve years old who knows the Six Psalms by heart. But at the same time, we always insist that one must pray from a book, whether a person reads morning or evening prayers or in church watch. It is very important. Because there is an element of a certain self-confidence in such prayer from memory. It is said: “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” Prayer is a supplication, we should not push ourselves forward in prayer, otherwise it will be the prayer of the Pharisee, who prayed and thanked God: “Glory to Thee, that I am not like others, like this tax collector.” God will not accept such a prayer. Therefore, with humility, the prayer book should be kept at hand. Of course, if we are in extreme conditions, we read prayers from memory: “Alive in help...”, the repentant prayer “Have mercy on me, God,” and so on. But this, as they say, is an application (change) of the law for the sake of need. An exception to the rule confirms the rule, not cancels it.

Question from a TV viewer: “When, for example, at a prayer in a church during a service, the choir sings and repeats the same thing, “Lord, have mercy,” twelve times, doesn’t the Lord hear at one time and He needs to repeat it twelve times? Christ said in the Gospel: “Do not be verbose like the pagans.” . As if verbose ones will be heard faster. How do you think?"

If we talk about canonical prayers, they are spoken by the Holy Spirit. Prophecies were never pronounced by the will of man, but they were pronounced by men of God, being moved by the Holy Spirit. All the canons of the Church, all the prayer rules are their author, after all, the Holy Spirit. And if we don’t understand something, something confuses us in this or that commandment, in this or that canon, rule - for example, why the same words are repeated - then what should we do? As the ancient fathers instructed: with even greater zeal to fulfill just such a commandment in comparison with the one whose meaning you understand. The Lord tests us this way. And we must always show obedience, especially to church tradition. We must learn the rules of prayer life through those canonical prayers that are given to us, blessed by the Church and established by the Rules of worship. This really builds in us trust in the Church and the habit of spiritual order.

If such reasoning is not cut off, we will come to the point where we open, for example, the Book of Isaiah and say: “Why do the angels cry out, “Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God”?” There are repetitions in the Bible when the angels cry out three times before God. Or why does God call Himself “I am the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob”, why three names at once? Why not just say, “I am God”? Not everything is accessible to our understanding both in Scripture and in the church charter. But in the Church everything exists as it is established and blessed - it has God’s anointing from the Holy Spirit and church permission.

- Jesus Prayer - can everyone read it? What does it mean?

The Jesus Prayer is a topic that we have already touched upon when talking about unceasing prayer. In ancient times in Rus' it was believed that if you continuously read the Jesus Prayer (if possible, all the time), then the remembrance of God will not leave a person anywhere: neither at home nor on the street, and this will help to cope with personal sins. But there is a danger in such reading - it can become too mechanical. Therefore, I think that if a person wants to practice the Jesus Prayer, he needs to take a blessing from the priest to whom he confesses, that is, from the one who knows him well.

I remember when I was a seminarian, I came to my confessor (the late Archpriest Dimitry Dudko) and asked: “Can I pray the rosary?” He said: “No, Oleg, you don’t need to pray the rosary.” I asked: “Why?” - and he replied: “You will fall into pharisaism.” Then again, there was a thing, I approached him and asked: “Can I start studying the Philokalia?” And I received the answer: “No, it’s too early for you to study the Philokalia, it’ll be over fifty years, then study it.” - "But why?" - “You will fall into some kind of Sadduceeism.” That is, a confessor is a person who knows you. You cannot approach any priest and say: “Here I have a rosary, bless it.” The best doctor is a family doctor. Therefore, if you confess relatively often to the same priest, you can consult with him whether to read the Jesus Prayer to you or not.

Christ save everyone!

Presenter: Denis Beresnev
Transcript: Nina Kirsanova

Daily morning and evening prayers that a Christian should perform. Their texts can be found in the prayer book.

The rule can be general - mandatory for everyone, or individual, selected for the believer by the confessor, taking into account his spiritual state, strength and employment.

Consists of morning and evening prayers, which are performed daily. This vital rhythm is necessary, because otherwise the soul easily falls out of the prayer life, as if waking up only from time to time. In prayer, as in any big and difficult matter, “inspiration”, “mood” and improvisation are not enough.

Reading prayers connects a person with their creators: the psalmists and ascetics. This helps to gain a spiritual mood akin to their heartfelt burning. Our example in praying in other people’s words is the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. His prayerful exclamations during the suffering of the cross are lines from the psalms (Ps. 21:2; 30:6).

There are three basic prayer rules:
1) a complete prayer rule, designed for monks and spiritually experienced laity, which is published in the “Orthodox Prayer Book”;

2) a short prayer rule designed for all believers; in the morning: “Heavenly King”, Trisagion, “Our Father”, “Virgin Mother of God”, “Rising from sleep”, “God have mercy on me”, “I Believe”, “God, cleanse”, “To You, Master”, “Holy Angela", "Holy Lady", invocation of saints, prayer for the living and the dead; in the evening: “Heavenly King”, Trisagion, “Our Father”, “Have mercy on us, Lord”, “Eternal God”, “Good King”, “Angel of Christ”, from “The Chosen Voivode”, to “It is worthy to eat”; these prayers are contained in any prayer book;

3) a short prayer rule of St. Seraphim of Sarov: “Our Father” three times, “Virgin Mother of God” three times and “I Believe” once - for those days and circumstances when a person is extremely tired or very limited in time. You cannot completely omit the prayer rule. Even if the prayer rule is read without due attention, the words of the prayers, penetrating the soul, have a cleansing effect.

The main prayers should be known by heart (with regular reading, they are gradually memorized by a person even with a very poor memory), so that they penetrate deeper into the heart and so that they can be repeated in any circumstances. It is advisable to study the text of the translation of prayers from Church Slavonic into Russian (see “Explanatory Prayer Book”) in order to understand the meaning of each word and not pronounce a single word meaninglessly or without precise understanding. It is very important that those who begin to pray should expel resentment, irritation, and bitterness from their hearts. Without efforts aimed at serving people, fighting sin, and establishing control over the body and spiritual sphere, prayer cannot become the inner core of life.

In the conditions of modern life, given the workload and accelerated pace, it is not easy for the laity to set aside a certain time for prayer. Morning prayers are best read before starting anything (and before breakfast). As a last resort, they are pronounced on the way from home. Late in the evening it is often difficult to concentrate due to fatigue, so prayer teachers recommend reading the evening prayer rule in the free minutes before dinner or even earlier.

During prayer, it is recommended to retire, light a lamp or candle and stand in front of the icon. Depending on the nature of family relationships, we can recommend reading the prayer rule together, with the whole family, or with each family member separately. General prayer is recommended before eating food, on special days, before a holiday meal, and in other similar cases. Family prayer is a type of church, public prayer (the family is a kind of “home Church”) and therefore does not replace individual prayer, but only complements it.

Prayer for other people (see memorial) is an integral part of prayer. Standing before God does not alienate a person from his neighbors, but binds him to them with even closer ties. We should not limit ourselves to just praying for people close and dear to us. Praying for those who have caused us grief brings peace to the soul, has an impact on these people and makes our prayer sacrificial.

It is good to end the prayer with thanksgiving to God for the gift of communication and contrition for one’s inattention. When getting down to business, you must first think about what you have to say, do, see during the day and ask God for blessings and strength to follow His will. In the midst of a busy day, you need to say a short prayer (see Jesus prayer), which will help you find the Lord in everyday affairs.

How to make your own prayer rule at home

During prayer, it is recommended to retire, light a lamp or candle and stand in front of the icon. Depending on the nature of family relationships, we can recommend reading the prayer rule together, with the whole family, or for each family member separately. General prayer is recommended primarily on special days, before a festive meal and on other similar occasions. Family prayer is a type of church, public prayer (the family is a kind of home church) and therefore does not replace individual prayer, but only complements it.

Before starting prayer, you should sign yourself with the sign of the cross and make several bows, either from the waist or to the ground, and try to tune in to an internal conversation with God. “Stay silently until your feelings calm down, place yourself in the presence of God to the consciousness and feeling of Him with reverent Fear and restore in your heart a living faith that God hears and sees you,” says the beginning of the prayer book. Saying prayers out loud or in a low voice helps many people focus.

“When starting to pray,” advises Saint Theophan the Recluse, “in the morning or evening, stand a little, or sit, or walk, and try at this time to sober up your thoughts, distracting it from all earthly affairs and objects. Then think about who is the One to whom you will turn in prayer, and who you are who now have to begin this prayerful appeal to Him - and arouse in your soul the corresponding mood of self-abasement and reverent fear of standing before God in your heart. This is all the preparation - to stand reverently before God - small, but not insignificant. This is where prayer begins, and a good beginning is half the battle.
Having thus established yourself internally, then stand in front of the icon and, having made several bows, begin the usual prayer: “Glory to Thee, our God, glory to Thee,” “To the Heavenly King, the Comforter, the Soul of Truth,” and so on. Read slowly, delve into every word, and bring the thought of every word to your heart, accompanying it with bows. This is the whole point of reading a prayer that is pleasing and fruitful to God. Delve into every word and bring the thought of the word to your heart, otherwise, understand what you read and feel what is understandable. No other rules are required. These two - understand and feel - when performed properly, adorn every prayer with full dignity and impart to it all its fruitful effect. You read: “cleanse us from all filth” - feel your filthiness, desire purity and seek it with hope from the Lord. You read: “forgive us our debts, just as we forgive our debtors” - and forgive everyone in your soul, and With a heart that has forgiven everyone, ask the Lord for forgiveness. You read: “Thy will be done” - and in your heart completely commit your fate to the Lord and express an unquestioning readiness to graciously meet everything that the Lord wants to send you.
If you act like this with every verse of your prayer, then you will have a proper prayer.”

In another of his instructions, Saint Theophan so briefly systematizes advice on reading the prayer rule:

“a) never read hastily, but read as if in a chant... In ancient times, all the prayers read were taken from the psalms... But nowhere do I see the word “read”, but everywhere “sing”...

b) delve into every word and not only reproduce the thought of what you read in your mind, but also arouse the corresponding feeling...

c) in order to trigger the urge to hastily read, do not read this and that, but stand for a reading prayer for a quarter of an hour, half an hour, an hour... how long you usually stand... and then don’t worry... how many prayers you read, and when the time has come, if you don’t want to stand any longer, stop reading...

d) having put this down, however, do not look at the clock, but stand in such a way that you can stand endlessly: your thoughts will not run ahead...

e) to promote the movement of prayerful feelings in your free time, re-read and rethink all the prayers that are included in your rule - and re-feel them, so that when you begin to read them according to the rule, you know in advance what feeling should be aroused in the heart.. .

f) never read prayers without interruption, but always break them up with personal prayer, with bows, whether in the middle of prayers or at the end. As soon as something comes to your heart, immediately stop reading and bow. This last rule is the most necessary and most necessary for cultivating the spirit of prayer... If any other feeling is very consuming, you should be with it and bow down, but leave reading... so until the very end of the allotted time.”

On a short prayer rule (Seraphim of Sarov)

Hieromonk Sergius

The Seraphim rule (3 times “Our Father”; 3 times “To the Virgin Mary...”; 1 time “Creed”) was supposed to be prayed in individual cases when for some reason it is not possible to read the full rule. That is, as an exception.

In addition, Rev. Seraphim gave it to the Diveyevo sisters, who, being nuns of the monastery, had the opportunity to often attend divine services - more often than the laity.

Spiritual life - and this especially concerns prayer - is such that if you do not constantly force yourself, there will be no success. Saint Ignatius (Brianchaninov) says that prayer requires constant self-compulsion, no matter what spiritual state a person is in, i.e. even the saints forced themselves to pray. It is labor that is valuable before God. Constancy is important in work.

But there is another side to prayer. When a person constantly forces himself to do it, he suddenly discovers a special inner joy in prayer, so that at times he wants to give up everything for the sake of prayer. That is why there are people who go to monasteries. They go there for nothing other than prayer. And if prayer did not bring joy, it is unlikely that anyone would be able to stay there.

As for attention, which is truly the soul of prayer, it directly depends on the kind of life a person leads. He who leads an attentive life has attentive prayer. “An involuntary cause is arbitrary,” said the Fathers. An attentive life is when a person is attentive to everything that happens to him. First of all - inside him, and then around him: to all thoughts, experiences, desires, intentions. Every desire and every thought is compared with the Gospel: are they pleasing to God? - and leaves in the heart and mind only what is pleasing to God, expelling from there every manifestation of sin. It helps a lot to live an attentive life when a person has a spiritual father and can ask him what to do in a given situation, and can resolve various perplexities regarding spiritual life and external circumstances.

The saints of God were wise people. They understood that it is necessary to accustom a person to a pious life gradually: they do not pour new wine into old wineskins. Therefore, at first they gave their students small rules, and then they demanded greater severity. This is an indispensable law of spiritual life: forgetting what lies behind, reaching forward, as the apostle said.

They commanded short prayers as unceasing prayers so that the mind would not be distracted by many words and would maintain attention. Continuous prayer is performed during any task, called obedience in the monastery, and work in the world. These short prayers, performed according to the commandment “pray without ceasing,” should not interfere, therefore, if the work is mental, prayer is abandoned at this time. The home rule was commanded individually, in accordance with the spiritual strength of the student. And worship, sometimes even for the laity, took considerable time. No wonder it was called an all-night vigil. The reductions began in the 19th century. On Mount Athos, services still last 13-14 hours.

I believe that the minimum required for any layman is morning and evening prayers in full.

(51 votes: 4.6 out of 5)

with the blessing of His Grace Simon, Bishop of Murmansk and Monchegorsk

Trifonov Pechenga Monastery
"The ark"
Moscow
2004

What is prayer

In the Christian catechism, that is, in the instruction on the Christian faith, it is said about prayer this way: “Prayer is the offering of the mind and heart to God and is a person’s reverent word to God.” Prayer is the threads of the living fabric of the church body, going in all directions; The prayer connection permeates the entire body of the Church.

Prayer connects each member of the Church with the Heavenly Father, members of the earthly Church with each other, and members of the earth with those in heaven.
The content of prayer is: praise, or glory; thanksgiving; repentance; a request for God's mercy, for the forgiveness of sins, for the granting of mental and physical blessings, heavenly and earthly. Prayer happens for oneself and for others. Praying for one another expresses the mutual love of Church members.

Spiritual worship is necessarily accompanied by physical worship due to the close connection between soul and body. Prayer is expressed in a variety of external forms. This includes genuflection, the sign of the cross, raising of hands, the use of various liturgical objects and all external actions of public Christian worship.
Prayer has extraordinary power. “Prayer not only defeats the laws of nature, not only is it an insurmountable shield against visible and invisible enemies, but it even holds back the hand of the Almighty God Himself, raised to defeat sinners,” writes the saint.

But reading the words of a prayer from memory or from a prayer book, standing in front of an icon at home or in a temple, making bows is not yet prayer. “Reading prayers, standing in prayer and bowing constitute only prayerful standing,” writes the saint, “and prayer, in fact, comes from the heart. When this one is not there, there is none. Prayer without feelings is the same as a dead miscarriage.” Prayer itself, as St. Theophan the Recluse writes, “is the emergence in our heart of one after another reverent feelings for God - feelings of self-abasement, devotion, thanksgiving, glorification, forgiveness, diligent prostration, contrition, submission to the will of God, and so on.”

Most of all, during prayer, we must take care that these and similar feelings fill our soul, so that when we read prayers out loud or internally, during bows, our heart is not empty, so that it rushes to God. When we have these feelings, then our prayer, our bows are prayer...

Why you need to pray according to the prayer book

The Fathers of the Church were very careful about those prayers that were composed by the believers themselves.

“Do not dare to bring to God verbose and eloquent prayers composed by you... they are the product of a fallen mind and... cannot be accepted on the spiritual altar of God,” wrote. Our example in praying in other people's words is the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. His prayerful exclamations during the sufferings of the cross are lines from the psalms ().

Books for home prayers contain many prayers written by the Holy Fathers of the Church.
These prayers were written many centuries ago by the monks and Macarius of Egypt, Roman the Sweet Singer, the saints, and other great prayer books. Filled with a prayerful spirit, they put into words what this spirit inspired and conveyed these words to us. Great prayerful power moves in their prayers, and whoever attends to them with attention and diligence will certainly experience a feeling of prayer. Reading prayers connects a person with their creators - the psalmists and ascetics. This helps to gain a spiritual mood akin to their heartfelt burning.

What prayers are included in the prayer book

Books for home prayers, most often called, have many similarities with each other, because they contain the same prayers. The prayer books contain prayers for those coming to bed and morning prayers, an akathist to the Sweetest Jesus, an akathist to the Most Holy Theotokos, an akathist to St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, a canon of repentance to our Lord Jesus Christ, a canon of prayer to the Most Holy Theotokos, sung in every spiritual sorrow and situation, a canon to the Guardian Angel , following before Holy Communion and prayers for Holy Communion.

The word akathist comes from the Greek akathistos gymnos - “non-seated hymn”, a hymn that is sung while standing. An akathist is a contemplation of a miracle; it is, as it were, a verbal icon of a sacred person or a blessed event, which explains its static nature. The Akathist consists of 12 double songs - sequentially alternating ikos and kontakia. Kontakion is a short Orthodox chant, which sets out the dogmatic or historical significance of the celebrated event or person; in the kontakion, any moment of the Church’s teaching about one of the mysteries of God is revealed. Each kontakion ends with the exclamation “Alleluia.” The kontakion is followed by an ikos, which reveals the content of the kontakion and concludes a more extensive development of the theme contained in the kontakion.

A canon is one of the forms of the Orthodox hymn. The canon consists of nine songs arranged in thanksgiving and praise to God. The song of the canon is divided into irmos (from the Greek verb “I bind”, “I unite”) and several troparia (a song depicting the lifestyle of a saint or the celebration of a holiday). The Canon of the Guardian Angel contains a prayer service to the Guardian Angel, a prayer canon to the Most Holy Theotokos - a prayer for the aversion of internal mental and physical illnesses and, in particular, for the healing of sinful ulcers that affect the soul, as the very content of the songs and verses of the canon shows.

What prayers should a layperson’s prayer rule consist of?

The prayer rule of a layman consists of morning and evening prayers, which are performed daily. This rhythm is necessary, because otherwise the soul easily falls out of the prayer life, as if waking up only from time to time. In prayer, as in any big and difficult matter, inspiration, mood and improvisation are not enough.
There are three basic prayer rules:

1) a complete prayer rule, designed for monks and spiritually experienced laity, which is printed in the Orthodox Prayer Book;

2) a short prayer rule designed for all believers; in the morning: “Heavenly King”, Trisagion, “Our Father”, “Virgin Mother of God”, “Rising from sleep”, “Have mercy on me, O God”, “I Believe”, “God, cleanse”, “To You, Master”, “ Holy Angel”, “Most Holy Lady”, invocation of saints, prayer for the living and the dead; in the evening: “Heavenly King”, Trisagion, “Our Father”, “Have mercy on us, Lord”, “Eternal God”, “Good King”, “Angel of Christ”, from “The Chosen Governor” to “It is worthy to eat”; these prayers are contained in any prayer book;

3) the saint’s short prayer rule: “Our Father” three times, “Virgin Mother of God” three times and “I Believe” once - for those days and circumstances when a person is extremely tired or very limited in time.

The duration of prayers and their number are determined by spiritual fathers and priests, taking into account everyone’s lifestyle and spiritual experience.

You cannot completely omit the prayer rule. Even if the prayer rule is read without due attention, the words of the prayers, penetrating the soul, have a cleansing effect.
Saint Theophan writes to one family person: “In case of emergency, one must be able to shorten the rule. You never know how many coincidences there are in family life. When things do not allow you to complete the prayer rule in full, then perform it abbreviated.

But one should never rush... The rule is not an essential part of prayer, but is only its external side. The main thing is the prayer of the mind and heart to God, offered with praise, thanksgiving and petition... and finally with complete devotion to the Lord. When there are such movements in the heart, there is prayer there, and when not, there is no prayer, even if you stood on the rule for whole days.”

A special prayer rule is performed during preparation for the Sacraments of Confession and Communion. On these days (they are called fasting and last for at least three days), it is customary to fulfill your prayer rule more diligently: whoever usually does not read all morning and evening prayers, let him read everything in full; whoever does not read the canons, let him read at least on these days. one canon. On the eve of communion, you must be at the evening service and read at home, in addition to the usual prayers for going to bed, the canon of repentance, the canon to the Mother of God and the canon to the Guardian Angel. The canon for communion is also read and, for those who wish, an akathist to the Sweetest Jesus. In the morning, morning prayers are read and all the prayers for holy communion are read.

During fasting, prayers are especially long, in order, as the righteous saint writes, “so that through the duration of fervent prayer we can disperse our cold hearts, hardened in prolonged bustle. For it is strange to think, much less to demand, that a heart matured in the vanity of life could soon be imbued with the warmth of faith and love for God during prayer. No, this requires work and time. The Kingdom of Heaven is taken by force, and those who use force delight it (). The Kingdom of God does not come to the heart soon when people run so diligently from it. The Lord God Himself expressed His will that we pray not briefly when He presents as an example a widow who went to the judge for a long time and bothered him for a long time (for a long time) with her requests ().”

When to make your prayer rule

In the conditions of modern life, given the workload and accelerated pace, it is not easy for the laity to set aside a certain time for prayer. We must develop strict rules of prayer discipline and strictly adhere to our prayer rules.

Morning prayers are best read before starting any task. As a last resort, they are pronounced on the way from home. The evening prayer rule is recommended by prayer teachers to be read in free minutes before dinner or even earlier - late in the evening it is often difficult to concentrate due to fatigue.

How to Prepare for Prayer

The basic prayers that make up the morning and evening rules should be known by heart so that they penetrate deeper into the heart and so that they can be repeated in any circumstances. First of all, in your free time, it is advisable to read the prayers included in your rule, translate the text of the prayers for yourself from Church Slavonic into Russian in order to understand the meaning of each word and not pronounce a single word meaninglessly or without precise understanding. This is what the Church Fathers advise. “Take the trouble,” writes the monk, “not during the hour of prayer, but at another, free time, to think about and feel the prescribed prayers. Having done this, even during prayer you will not encounter any difficulty in reproducing the content of the prayer being read.”

It is very important that those who begin to pray should expel resentment, irritation, and bitterness from their hearts. The saint teaches: “Before prayers, you must not be angry with anyone, not be angry, but leave all offense behind, so that God himself will forgive your sins.”

“When approaching the Benefactor, be beneficent yourself; when approaching the Good, be good yourself; approaching the Righteous One, be righteous yourself; when approaching the Patient One, be patient yourself; when approaching the Humane, be humane; and also be everything else, approaching the Kind-hearted, the Benevolent, the Sociable in good things, the Merciful to everyone, and, if anything else is seen of the Divine, becoming like in all this by will, thereby acquiring the boldness to pray,” writes the saint.

How to make your own prayer rule at home

During prayer, it is recommended to retire, light a lamp or candle and stand in front of the icon. Depending on the nature of family relationships, we can recommend reading the prayer rule together, with the whole family, or for each family member separately. General prayer is recommended primarily on special days, before a festive meal and on other similar occasions. Family prayer is a type of church, public prayer (the family is a kind of home church) and therefore does not replace individual prayer, but only complements it.

“When starting to pray,” the saint advises, “in the morning or evening, stand a little, or sit, or walk, and try at this time to sober up your thoughts, distracting it from all earthly affairs and objects. Then think about who is the One to whom you will turn in prayer, and who you are who now have to begin this prayerful appeal to Him - and arouse in your soul the corresponding mood of self-abasement and reverent fear of standing before God in your heart. This is all the preparation - to stand reverently before God - small, but not insignificant. This is where prayer begins, and a good beginning is half the battle.
Having thus established yourself internally, then stand in front of the icon and, having made several bows, begin the usual prayer: “Glory to Thee, our God, glory to Thee,” “To the Heavenly King, the Comforter, the Soul of Truth,” and so on. Read slowly, delve into every word, and bring the thought of every word to your heart, accompanying it with bows. This is the whole point of reading a prayer that is pleasing and fruitful to God. Delve into every word and bring the thought of the word to your heart, otherwise, understand what you read and feel what you understand. No other rules are required. These two - understand and feel - when performed properly, adorn every prayer with full dignity and impart to it all its fruitful effect. You read: “cleanse us from all defilement” - feel your defilement, desire purity and seek it with hope from the Lord. You read: “forgive us our debts, just as we forgive our debtors” - and in your soul forgive everyone, and in your heart, which has forgiven everyone, ask the Lord for forgiveness. You read: “Thy will be done” - and in your heart completely commit your fate to the Lord and express an unquestioning readiness to graciously meet everything that the Lord wants to send you.
If you act like this with every verse of your prayer, then you will have a proper prayer.”

In another of his instructions, Saint Theophan so briefly systematizes advice on reading the prayer rule:

“a) never read hastily, but read as if in a chant... In ancient times, all the prayers read were taken from the psalms... But nowhere do I see the word “read”, but everywhere “sing”...

b) delve into every word and not only reproduce the thought of what you read in your mind, but also arouse the corresponding feeling...

c) in order to trigger the urge to hastily read, make it a point - not to read this and that, but to stand for a reading prayer for a quarter of an hour, half an hour, an hour... how long you usually stand... and then don’t worry... how many prayers you read - and how the time has come, if not If you want to stand any further, stop reading...

d) having put this down, however, do not look at the clock, but stand in such a way that you can stand endlessly: your thoughts will not run ahead...

e) in order to promote the movement of prayerful feelings in your free time, reread and rethink all the prayers that are included in your rule - and re-feel them, so that when you begin to read them according to the rule, you know in advance what feeling should be aroused in the heart...

What to do when distracted during prayer

Praying is very difficult. Prayer is primarily a spiritual work, therefore one should not expect immediate spiritual pleasure from it. “Do not look for pleasures in prayer,” he writes, “they are by no means characteristic of a sinner. The desire of a sinner to feel pleasure is already self-delusion... Do not prematurely seek high spiritual states and prayerful delights.”

As a rule, it is possible to maintain attention on the words of the prayer for several minutes, and then thoughts begin to wander, the eye glides over the words of the prayer - and our heart and mind are far away.
If someone prays to the Lord, but thinks about something else, then the Lord will not listen to such a prayer,” writes the reverend.

At these moments, the Fathers of the Church advise to be especially attentive. Saint Theophan the Recluse writes that we must prepare in advance for the fact that when reading prayers we are distracted, often mechanically reading the words of the prayer. “When a thought runs away during prayer, return it. If he runs away again, come back again. It's like that every time. Every time you read something while your thoughts are running away and, therefore, without attention or feeling, do not forget to re-read. And even if your thought wanders off in one place several times, read it several times until you read it with concept and feeling. Once you overcome this difficulty, another time, perhaps, it will not happen again, or it will not happen again with such force.

If, while reading the rule, a prayer breaks through in your own words, then, as St. Nicodemus says, “do not let this opportunity pass by, but dwell on it.”
We find the same thought in St. Theophan: “Another word will have such a strong effect on the soul that the soul will not want to extend further in prayer, and although the tongue reads prayers, the thought keeps running back to the place that had such an effect on her. In this case, stop, do not read further, but stand with attention and feeling in that place, nourish your soul with them, or with the thoughts that it will produce. And don’t rush to tear yourself away from this state, so if time is pressing, it’s better to leave the unfinished rule, and don’t ruin this state. It will overshadow you, perhaps all day, like a Guardian Angel! This kind of beneficial influence on the soul during prayer means that the spirit of prayer begins to take root and that, therefore, maintaining this state is the most reliable means of nurturing and strengthening the spirit of prayer in us.”

How to end your prayer rule

It is good to end the prayer with thanksgiving to God for the gift of communication and contrition for one’s inattention.

“When you finish your prayer, do not immediately move on to any of your other activities, but also, at least for a little while, wait and think that you have accomplished this and what it obliges you to, trying, if you are given something to feel during prayer, to preserve it after prayers,” writes St. Theophan the Recluse. “Do not immediately rush into everyday affairs,” teaches St. Nicodemus, “and never think that, having completed your prayer rule, you have finished everything in relation to God.”

When getting down to business, you must first think about what you have to say, do, see during the day, and ask God for blessings and strength to follow His will.

How to learn to spend your day in prayer

Having finished our morning prayers, we should not think that everything is complete in relation to God, and only in the evening, during the evening rule, should we return to prayer again.
The good feelings that arise during morning prayers will be drowned out in the bustle and busyness of the day. Because of this, there is no desire to attend evening prayer.

We must try to make sure that the soul turns to God not only when we stand in prayer, but throughout the whole day.

Here is how Saint Theophan the Recluse advises learning this:

“First, it is necessary throughout the day to more often cry out to God from the heart in short words, judging by the need of the soul and current affairs. You start by saying, for example: “Bless, Lord!” When you finish the job, say: “Glory to you, Lord!”, and not only with your tongue, but also with the feeling of your heart. Any passion that arises, say: “Save me, Lord, I am perishing!” The darkness of disturbing thoughts finds itself, cry out: “Bring my soul out of prison!” Wrong deeds lie ahead and sin leads to them, pray: “Guide me, Lord, on the path” or “Do not let my feet become troubled.” Sins suppress and lead to despair, cry out in the publican’s voice: “God, be merciful to me, a sinner.” So anyway. Or simply say often: “Lord, have mercy; Lady Mother of God, have mercy on me. Angel of God, my holy guardian, protect me,” or cry out in some other word. Just make these appeals as often as possible, trying in every possible way so that they come from the heart, as if squeezed out of it. When you do this, we will often make intelligent ascents to God from the heart, frequent appeals to God, frequent prayer, and this frequency will impart the skill of intelligent conversation with God.

But in order for the soul to begin to cry out like this, it must first be forced to turn everything into the glory of God, every one of its deeds, big and small. And this is the second way to teach the soul to turn to God more often during the day. For if we make it a law to fulfill this apostolic commandment, so that we do everything for the glory of God, even whether you eat, drink, or whatever you do, you do everything for the glory of God (), then we will certainly remember God in every action, and we will not just remember , but with caution, so as not to act wrongly in any case and not to offend God in any way. This will make you turn to God with fear and prayerfully ask for help and admonition. Just as we almost constantly do something, we will almost constantly turn to God in prayer, and, therefore, almost continuously go through the science of lifting up prayer in our souls to God.

But in order for the soul to perform this, that is, doing everything for the glory of God, as it should, it must be set up for this from early morning - from the very beginning of the day, before a person goes out to do his work and to do his work until the evening. This mood is produced by the thought of God. And this is the third way of training the soul to frequently turn to God. Thought on God is a reverent reflection on the Divine properties and actions and on what knowledge of them and their relationship to us obliges us, this is a reflection on the goodness of God, justice, wisdom, omnipotence, omnipresence, omniscience, on creation and providence, on the dispensation of salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ, about the goodness and word of God, about the holy sacraments, about the Kingdom of Heaven.
Whichever of these subjects you don’t think about, this reflection will certainly fill your soul with a reverent feeling for God. Start thinking, for example, about the goodness of God, and you will see that you are surrounded by God’s mercies both physically and spiritually, and unless you are a stone, you will not fall before God in the outpouring of humiliated feelings of gratitude. Start thinking about the omnipresence of God, and you will understand that you are everywhere before God and God is before you, and you cannot help but be filled with reverent fear. Begin to reflect on the omniscience of God - you will realize that nothing in you is hidden from the eye of God, and you will certainly decide to be strictly attentive to the movements of your heart and mind, so as not to offend the all-seeing God in any way. Begin to reason about the truth of God, and you will be convinced that not a single bad deed will go unpunished, and you will certainly intend to cleanse all your sins with heartfelt contrition and repentance before God. So, no matter what property and action of God you begin to reason about, every such reflection will fill the soul with reverent feelings and dispositions towards God. It directs the whole being of a person directly to God and is therefore the most direct means to accustom the soul to ascend to God.

The most decent, convenient time for this is the morning, when the soul is not yet burdened with many impressions and business concerns, and precisely after morning prayer. When you finish your prayer, sit down and, with your thoughts sanctified in prayer, begin to reflect today on one thing, tomorrow on another of God’s properties and actions, and create a disposition in your soul according to this. “Go,” said the saint, “go, holy thought of God, and let us immerse ourselves in meditation on the great deeds of God,” and his thoughts passed through either the works of creation and providence, or the miracles of the Lord Savior, or His suffering, or something else, thereby touching his heart and began to pour out his soul in prayer. Anyone can do this. There is little work, all you need is desire and determination; and there is a lot of fruit.

So here are three ways, in addition to the prayer rule, to teach the soul to ascend in prayer to God, namely: to devote some time in the morning to contemplation of God, to turn every matter to the glory of God and often turn to God with short appeals.

When the thought of God is well accomplished in the morning, it will leave a deep mood for thinking about God. Thinking about God will force the soul to carefully carry out every action, both internal and external, and turn it into the glory of God. And both will put the soul in such a position that prayerful appeals to God will often be expelled from it.
These three - thinking about God, all creation for the glory of God and frequent appeals are the most effective tools of mental and heartfelt prayer. Each of them lifts the soul to God. Whoever sets out to practice them will soon acquire in his heart the skill of ascent to God. This work is like climbing a mountain. The higher someone climbs the mountain, the freer and easier he breathes. So here, the more one gets used to the exercises shown, the higher the soul will rise, and the higher the soul rises, the more freely prayer will act in it. Our soul by nature is an inhabitant of the heavenly world of the Divine. There she should have been undiminished in both thought and heart; but the burden of earthly thoughts and passions drags and weighs her down. The methods shown tear it off the ground little by little, and then completely tear it off. When they are completely torn away, then the soul will enter its own region and will sweetly dwell in grief - here heartily and mentally, and then with its very being it will be honored before the face of God to dwell in the faces of Angels and Saints. May the Lord vouchsafe all of you with His grace. Amen".

How to force yourself to pray

Sometimes prayer doesn’t come to mind at all. In this case, Saint Theophan advises doing this:
“If this is prayer at home, then you can put it off a little, for a few minutes... If it doesn’t happen after that... force yourself to fulfill the prayer rule forcibly, straining, and understand what is being said, and feel... just like when a child does not want to bend over, they take him by the forelock and bend over... Otherwise, this is what can happen... now you don’t feel like it, tomorrow you don’t feel like it, and then the prayer is completely over. Beware of this... and force yourself to willingly pray. The work of self-compulsion overcomes everything.”

What you need for successful prayer

“When you desire and seek success in your prayer work, adapt everything else to this, so as not to destroy with one hand what the other creates.

1. Maintain your body strictly in food, in sleep, and in rest: do not give it anything just because it wants it, as the apostle commands: Do not turn care for the flesh into lust (). Give no rest to the flesh.

2. Reduce your external relations to the most inevitable. This is for the time of teaching yourself to pray. Afterwards, the prayer, acting in you, will indicate that without prejudice to it it can be added. Take special care of your senses, and most of all, your eyes, your ears, and your tongue. Without observing this, you will not take a step forward in the matter of prayer. Just as a candle cannot burn in the wind and rain, so prayer cannot be warmed by the influx of impressions from the outside.

3. Use all your free time after prayer for reading and meditation. For reading, choose primarily books that write about prayer and, in general, about inner spiritual life. Think exclusively about God and Divine things, about the Incarnate Economy of our salvation, and in it especially about the suffering and death of the Lord Savior. By doing this, you will plunge into the sea of Divine light. Add to this going to church as soon as you have the opportunity. One presence in the temple will overshadow you with a prayer cloud. What will you get if you spend the entire service in a truly prayerful mood!

4. Know that you cannot succeed in prayer without succeeding in general in the Christian life. It is necessary that there should not be a single sin on the soul that has not been cleansed by repentance; and if during your prayerful work you do something that troubles your conscience, hasten to be cleansed by repentance, so that you can boldly look to the Lord. Always keep humble contrition in your heart. Do not miss a single upcoming opportunity to do some good or to demonstrate any good disposition, especially humility, obedience and renunciation of your will. But it goes without saying that zeal for salvation should burn unquenchably and, filling the entire soul, in everything, from small to great, should be the main driving force, with the fear of God and unshakable hope.

5. Having thus tuned in, bother yourself in the work of prayer, praying: now with ready-made prayers, now with your own, now with short invocations to the Lord, now with the Jesus Prayer, but without missing out on anything that can help in this work, and you will receive what you are looking for. Let me remind you what Saint Macarius of Egypt says: “God will see your prayer work and that you sincerely desire success in prayer - and will give you prayer. For know that although prayer done and achieved through one’s own efforts is pleasing to God, real prayer is the one that settles in the heart and becomes persistent. She is a gift of God, a work of God's grace. Therefore, when you pray about everything, do not forget to pray about prayer” (Rev.).

How to learn to fall before God in prayer

Holy Righteous John of Kronstadt writes:

“In prayer, the main thing that you need to take care of first of all is a living, clairvoyant faith in the Lord: imagine Him vividly before you and in yourself, and then, if you want, ask for Christ Jesus in the Holy Spirit, and you will have it. Ask simply, without hesitation, and then your God will be everything for you, performing great and wonderful deeds in an instant, just as the sign of the cross accomplishes great powers. Ask not for yourself alone, but for all the faithful, for the entire body of the Church, spiritual and material blessings, not separating yourself from other believers, but being in spiritual unity with them, as a member of the one great body of the Church of Christ - and loving everyone, as your children in Christ, the Heavenly Father will fill you with great peace and boldness.
If you want to ask God for some good from God through prayer, then before praying, prepare yourself for undoubted, strong faith and take remedies in advance against doubt and unbelief. It’s bad if, during the prayer itself, your heart becomes weak in faith and does not stand in it, then don’t even think that you will receive what you asked God for in doubt, because you have offended God, and God does not give His gifts to a scolder! Whatever you ask in prayer with faith, you will receive (), and, therefore, if you ask in disbelief or with doubt, you will not accept. If you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what was done to the fig tree, but if you also say to this mountain: be taken up and cast into the sea, it will happen (). This means that if you doubt and don’t believe it, you won’t do it. Let (every person) ask with faith, without doubting at all, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, lifted and tossed by the wind. Let such a person not think of receiving anything from the Lord. A person with double thoughts is not firm in all his ways, says the Apostle James ().

A heart that doubts that God can grant what is asked is punished for doubt: it painfully languishes and is embarrassed by doubt. Do not anger the Almighty God with even a shadow of doubt, especially you, who have experienced God’s omnipotence many, many times. Doubt is blasphemy against God, a bold lie of the heart or a spirit of lies nestling in the heart against the Spirit of truth. Fear him like a poisonous snake, or no, what am I saying, neglect him, do not pay the slightest attention to him. Remember that God, at the time of your petition, expects an affirmative answer to the question He internally offers you: Do you believe that I can do this?! Yes, you must answer from the depths of your heart: I believe, Lord! (Wed:). And then it will be according to your faith. May the following reasoning help your doubt or unbelief: I ask God:

1) existing, and not just imaginary, not dreamy, not fantastic good, but everything that exists received existence from God, because Everything began to be through Him, and without Him nothing began to be (), and, therefore, nothing exists without Him, what happens, and everything either received existence from Him, or by His will or permission happens and is done through the means of His powers and abilities given to creatures from Him - and in all that exists and happens, the Lord is the sovereign Ruler. In addition, He calls not existing, but existing (); This means that if I asked for something that does not exist, He could give it to me by creating it;

2) I ask for the possible, and for God our impossible is possible; This means that there is no obstacle on this side either, because God can do for me even what, according to my concepts, is impossible. Our misfortune is that our faith is interfered with by myopic reason, this spider that catches the truth in the nets of its judgments, conclusions, and analogies. Faith suddenly embraces, sees, and reason reaches the truth in a roundabout way; faith is a means of communication between spirit and spirit, and reason - the spiritually sensual with the spiritually sensual and simply material; that one is spirit, and this one is flesh.”

You say, I asked many times and did not receive it. Undoubtedly, this is because you asked poorly - either with unbelief, or with pride, or something that was not useful to you; if you asked often and for something useful, then not with persistence... If you do not ask with effort and great persistence, then you do not receive. First you need to wish, and having wished, ask truly with faith and patience for what is useful to everyone, and so that your conscience does not condemn you in anything as asking carelessly or frivolously - and then you will receive if God wants it. After all, He knows better than you what is good for you, and, perhaps, as a result of this, He postpones the fulfillment of the request, wisely forcing you to be diligent towards Him, so that you know what the gift of God means and guard what is given with fear. After all, they try to preserve everything that is acquired with great effort, so that, having lost what they have received, they do not lose even the great efforts and, having rejected the grace of the Lord, do not find themselves unworthy of Eternal Life...

What to ask God for in your prayers

“Carnal verbosity and floridity in prayer are forbidden to us,” writes Saint Ignatius Brianchaninov, “petitions for earthly blessings and advantages are forbidden, petitions with which only the prayers of pagans and carnal people similar to pagans are filled.”

What should a Christian ask God for in his prayers?

“If we are commanded to abstain from worldly goods, even when we have them, then how pitiful and unhappy we turn out to be if we ask God for what He commanded us to reject,” writes the saint. - God will hear us if:

First, we are worthy to receive what we ask for;
secondly, if we pray in accordance with the commandments of God;
thirdly, if we pray unceasingly;
fourthly, if we do not ask for anything worldly;
fifthly, if we ask for something useful;
sixthly, if we fulfill our duty on our part and, being mortal by nature, through communication with God we ascend to Immortal Life.”

“In prayer, ask only for truth and the Kingdom, that is, virtue and knowledge, and everything else will be added to you ()...
Pray
firstly, about cleansing from passions;
secondly, about deliverance from ignorance and, thirdly, about salvation from all temptation and abandonment” (Rev.).

“The objects of our prayer should be spiritual and eternal, and not temporary and material. The main and initial prayer should consist of requests for forgiveness of sins... Do not be reckless in your requests, so as not to anger God with your cowardice: he who asks the King of kings for something insignificant humiliates Him... Ask for what you consider necessary and useful for yourself, but fulfillment and Leave your request to the will of God..." writes Saint Ignatius Brianchaninov.

When intending to ask (for something from the Lord), before you resort to the Giver, consider your request, whether it is pure, carefully delve into the reason prompting the request. If the motive for which we ask entails harm, then (the Lord)... may he block the sources of our petitions... If you ask God for something of your own, then ask not in such a way that you will certainly receive from Him, but leaving it to Him and His will . For example, bad thoughts often oppress you, and you are sad about it, and you want to beg God to free you from the battle. But often it serves you well. For this often happens to you, so that you do not become arrogant, but be humble in your mind... Also, if some kind of sorrow or distress has befallen you, do not ask to be sure to get rid of them, because this, my brother, is often useful; I tell you, it often happens that during prayer you neglect your salvation, as was the case with the Israelites... And also, if you ask for something, do not ask in order to receive it without fail. For I say: you, as a person, often consider something useful for yourself that is useless. But if you leave your will and decide to walk according to God’s will, you will be safe. He, who foretells everything before its fulfillment, in His condescension shepherds us, but we do not know whether what we ask is useful to us. Many, having achieved what they wanted, subsequently repented, and often fell into great troubles; without carefully examining whether this was the will of God, but thinking that it was good for them, and under some pretexts that had the appearance of truth, deceived by the devil, they were exposed to extreme dangers. Many such deeds are accompanied by repentance, because we followed our own wishes in them. Listen to what the apostle says: we do not know what to pray for as we should (). For: everything is permissible for me, but not everything is beneficial; everything is permissible for me, but not everything edifies (). So, what is useful and edifying for each of us, God Himself knows, therefore leave it to Him. I say this not to prevent you from turning to God with your petitions; On the contrary, I also beg you to ask Him for everything, from small to great. And this is what I tell you: when you pray, you reveal to Him what is in your heart, tell Him: however, not My will, but Yours be done (); if it is useful, as you yourself know, do it. For it is thus written: Commit your way to the Lord and trust in Him, and He will accomplish (). Look at our Lord Jesus Christ, the Builder, who prays and says: My Father! if possible, let this cup pass from Me; however, not as I want, but as You (). Therefore, if you ask God for something, stand firm in your request, opening up to Him and saying: “If it is Your will, Master, for this to happen, then do it and make it successful. And if it is not Your will for this, do not let this happen, my God! Do not betray me to my own desire, for you know my foolishness... but as You Yourself know, so save me by Your condescension!” If you pray because of sorrow and thoughts, then say: Lord! Do not rebuke me in Your wrath, and do not punish me in Your anger. Have mercy on me, Lord, for I am weak (). Look what the prophet says: To You, O Lord, I cry: my stronghold! do not be silent for me, so that in Your silence I do not become like those who descend into the grave (); but give glory to Your name, you who are unforgettable, do not remember my sins and hear me. And, if possible, may sorrow pass me by, however, not my will, but Yours, be done, only strengthen and preserve my soul, and I will be able to endure this, so that I may find grace before You both in the present age and in the future.” And commend your sorrow to the Lord, and He will do what is good for you. For know that He, as the Good One, wants what is necessary for our salvation. That is why this good Shepherd laid down His soul...

“Do not indignate yourself with prayer, but ask for what is worthy of God. And when you ask for something worthy, do not give up until you receive it... In prayer one should ask not for the fulfillment of one’s own will, but to leave everything to God, who is useful in building the house,” writes the saint.

“If your deeds are not pleasing to God, then do not ask Him for great gifts, lest you end up in the position of a person who tempts God. Your prayer must be consistent with your lifestyle... The desire of each person is shown by his activity. Whatever his efforts are directed towards, he must strive for that in prayer. He who desires great things should not practice the unimportant. Do not ask God for what He Himself gives us without our asking, according to His providence, which gives not only to His own and beloved, but also to strangers the knowledge of Him” (Rev.).

Why are our prayers unheard?

If prayer is so powerful, then why doesn’t everyone get what they ask for? To this the holy Apostle James gives the following answer: You ask, and you do not receive, because you ask for the wrong thing (). He who wants to receive must ask well. If those who ask do not always receive, then it is not prayer that is to blame, but those who do not pray well. Just as someone who does not know how to manage a good ship well does not sail to the intended destination, but is repeatedly broken on the rocks, and it is not the ship that is to blame, but its poor management, so prayer, when the one praying does not receive what he asks for, is not to blame for this, but the one who doesn't pray well.
The only people who do not receive what they ask for are those who are either evil themselves and do not want to evade evil in order to do good, or who ask God for an evil thing, or, finally, although they ask for a good thing, they ask not well, not as they should . Prayer is powerful, but not just any prayer, but perfect prayer, the prayer of those who pray well.

What kind of prayer is this? Talking about this requires more than one day, and therefore I will briefly remember at least something.

The prayer of one who obeys the Lord is heard and pleasing to God. Whoever obeys the words of the Lord, as the Lord Himself told us: Not everyone who says to Me: “Lord! Lord!”, will enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but he who does the will of My Heavenly Father (), who walks in the law of the Lord () and does His will, the Lord will fulfill his desire and hear the prayer of those who obey Him. Humble prayer, not pharisaical, ascends high, to the Third Heaven, to the very Throne of the Most High, the prayer of the humble will pass through the clouds. This, for example, was the prayer of the humble publican: God! be merciful to me, a sinner! (), and Manasseh, king of Jerusalem. The wings of prayer, on which it flies to the Most High, sitting on the six-winged Seraphim, are all kinds of virtues, especially humility, fasting and alms, as Archangel Raphael, who flew from Heaven, told Tobias: A good deed is prayer with fasting and almsgiving and justice ... It is better to give alms than to collect gold (). As in any virtue, so especially in prayer, diligence and zeal are necessary: The intense prayer of the righteous can do much (). “It was not in vain that our Savior said: Ask, and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you (),” writes St. Demetrius of Rostov (103, 361-362).

“The Lord never refuses gifts. If he sometimes refuses ahead of time, he refuses so that the gift becomes more precious for those receiving and so that the recipient is more diligent in prayer... The mouth can ask for everything, but God fulfills only what is useful... The Lord is the wise Distributor. He cares about the benefit of the person asking and, if he sees that what is asked is harmful or, at least, useless to him, he does not fulfill the request and refuses the imaginary benefit. He listens to every prayer, and the one whose prayer is not fulfilled receives from the Lord the same saving gift as the one whose prayer is fulfilled... In all possible ways, God shows that He is a merciful Giver, He gives us His love and shows us mercy Yours. And therefore he does not answer any incorrect prayer, the fulfillment of which would bring us death and ruin. However, even in this case, refusing what we ask does not leave us without a very useful gift; by the very fact that He removes what is harmful from us, He already opens for us the door of His bounties. In this Giver there is no place for the foolishness of the one asking: to the unwise, who in his simplicity, contrary to reason, asks for something harmful to himself, God gives wisely. He refuses gifts to those who do not fulfill His commands. Any other course of action would be unreasonable for the omniscience of the Giver. Therefore, be sure that any request that is not fulfilled is undoubtedly harmful, but a request that is heard is beneficial. The Giver is righteous and good and will not leave your requests unfulfilled, because in His goodness there is no malice and in His righteousness there is no envy. If He delays in fulfilling it, it is not because He repents of the promise, on the contrary. He wants to see your patience” (Reverend).

How to Pray for Other People

Prayer for other people is an integral part of prayer. Standing before God does not alienate a person from his neighbors, but binds him to them with even closer ties.

“When praying for the living and the dead and calling them by name,” writes the holy righteous John of Kronstadt, “one must pronounce these names with all my heart, with love, as if carrying in my soul those faces whose names you remember, just as a milkmaid carries and warms her children (), - remembering that they are our members and members (members - Ed.) of the Body of Christ (cf.:). - It is not good in the presence of God to only go over their names with the tongue, without the participation and love of the heart. We must think that God looks at the heart - that the persons for whom we pray also demand from us, out of the duty of Christian love, brotherly sympathy and love. There is a great difference between an insensitive list of names and between a heartfelt remembrance of them: one is separated from the other as heaven is from earth. But the name of the Lord Himself, His Most Pure Mother, the holy Angels and holy men of God must always be invoked primarily from a pure heart, with faith and ardent love; In general, the words of the prayer do not need to be sorted out only with the tongue, as if turning over sheets of paper with a finger in a book or as if counting out a coin; It is necessary that the words come out like a spring of living water from its spring, so that they are the sincere voice of the heart, and not be someone else’s borrowed clothes, someone else’s hands.”

How to pray for offenders and enemies

We should not limit ourselves to just praying for people close and dear to us. Praying for those who have caused us grief brings peace to the soul, has an impact on these people and makes our prayer sacrificial.

“When you see shortcomings and passions in your neighbor,” writes the holy righteous John of Kronstadt, “pray for him; pray for everyone, even your enemy. If you see a proud and obstinate brother speaking proudly to you or others, pray for him, so that God will enlighten his mind and warm his heart with the fire of His grace, say: Lord, teach Your servant, who has fallen into the pride of the devil, meekness and humility, and drive away (drive away - Ed.) from his heart the darkness and burden of satanic pride! If you see an evil one, pray: Lord, do good to Thy servant through Thy grace!

If you are money-loving and greedy, say: Our treasure is incorruptible and our wealth is inexhaustible! Grant to this Thy servant, created in Thy image and likeness, to know the flattery of wealth, and how all earthly things are vanity, shadow and sleep. The days of every man are like grass, or like a spider, and as You alone are our wealth, peace and joy!

When you see an envious person, pray: Lord, enlighten the mind and heart of this Thy servant to the knowledge of Thy great, countless and unsearchable gifts, and they will be received from Thy innumerable bounties, for in the blindness of my passion I have forgotten Your rich gifts and impoverished my life. , who is rich in Thy blessings, and for this reason he gazes charmingly at the good of Thy servants, with them, O most unspeakable Blessing, he rewards everyone, in every way against his strength and according to the intention of Thy will. Take away, O all-merciful Master, the veil of the devil from the sight of the heart of Thy servant and grant him heartfelt contrition and tears of repentance and gratitude, so that the enemy does not rejoice over him, captured alive from him into his will, and may he not tear him away from Thy hand.

When you see a drunken person, say with your heart: Lord, look mercifully on Your servant, seduced by the flattery of the belly and carnal joy, grant him to know the sweetness of abstinence and fasting and the fruits of the spirit that flow from it.

When you see someone who is passionate about food and places his bliss in it, say: Lord, our sweetest food, which never perishes, but remains in eternal life! Cleanse this Thy servant from the filth of gluttony, which created all flesh and is alien to Thy Spirit, and grant him to know the sweetness of Thy life-giving spiritual food, which is Thy Flesh and Blood and Thy holy, living and effective word.

Pray in this or a similar way for all who sin and do not dare to despise anyone for his sin or take revenge on him, for this would only increase the ulcers of those who sin; correct with advice, threats and punishments that would serve as a means to stop or keep evil within the boundaries of moderation.”