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The rector of the Holy Trinity Cathedral in Saratov, Hegumen Pakhomiy, answers questions about the personal prayer rule of a Christian (Bruskov)

Prayer is a free conversion of a person's soul to God. How to relate this freedom to the obligation to read the rule even when you obviously do not want to do it?

Freedom is not permissiveness. A person is so arranged that if he allows himself to be relaxed, it can be very difficult to return to the previous state. In the hagiographic literature, there are a lot of examples when ascetics abandoned their prayer rule in order to show love to the brothers who came. Thus, they placed the commandment of love above their prayer rule. But it should be remembered that these people reached extraordinary heights of spiritual life, were incessantly in prayer. When we feel that we do not want to pray, this is a common temptation, and not a manifestation of freedom.

The rule maintains a person in a spiritually developed state; it should not depend on the mood of the moment. If a person leaves the prayer rule, he very quickly comes to relaxation.

In addition, it should be remembered that when a person communicates with God, the enemy of our salvation always strives to stand between them. And not letting him do this is not a limitation of individual freedom.

This is clearly and clearly written in any Orthodox prayer book: "Standing up from sleep, before any other deed, stand reverently before the All-Seeing God and, making the sign of the cross, say ...". In addition, the very meaning of the prayers tells us that morning prayers are read at the very beginning of the day, when the person's mind is not yet occupied with any thoughts. And evening prayers should be read for sleep to those who are to come, after everything. In these prayers, sleep is compared to death, bed - to a deathbed. And it’s strange, after talking about death, to go watch TV or communicate with relatives.

Any prayer rule is built on the experience of the Church, to which we must listen. These rules do not violate human freedom, but help to obtain maximum spiritual benefit. Of course, there may be exceptions to any rule based on some unforeseen circumstance.

What else, besides morning and evening prayers, can be included in the prayer rule of a layman?

A layman's rule may include a variety of prayers and rites. These can be various canons, akathists, reading the Holy Scriptures or Psalms, bows, the Jesus Prayer. In addition, the rule should include a short or more detailed commemoration of the health and repose of loved ones. In monastic practice, there is a custom to include in the rule the reading of patristic literature. But before adding anything to your prayer rule, you need to think carefully, consult with a priest, and evaluate your strengths. After all, the rule is read regardless of mood, fatigue, and other heart movements. And if a person has promised something to God, it must be fulfilled. The holy fathers say: let the rule be small, but constant. At the same time, you need to pray with all your heart.

Can a person himself, without blessing, begin to read the canons, akathists in addition to the prayer rule?

Of course it can. But if he did not just read a prayer according to the striving of his heart, but thereby increases his constant prayer rule, it is better to ask a blessing from a confessor. The priest, with a look from the outside, will assess his condition correctly: will such an increase be beneficial to him. If a Christian regularly confesses, monitors his inner life, such a change in his rule, one way or another, will be reflected in his spiritual life.

But this is possible when a person has a confessor. If there is no confessor, and he himself decided to add something to his rule, it is still better to consult at the next confession.

On days when the service lasts all night and Christians are awake, should evening and morning prayers be read?

We do not tie the morning and evening rules to a specific time. However, it would be wrong to read evening prayers in the morning and morning prayers in the evening. We should not be pharisaic about the rule and read it at all costs, ignoring the meaning of the prayers. If you are not going to sleep, why ask God's blessing for sleep? You can replace the morning or evening rule with other prayers or reading the Gospel.

I think that it is better for a woman to perform the prayer rule in a headscarf. This fosters her humility and shows her obedience to the Church. After all, from the Holy Scriptures we learn that the wife covers her head not for those around her, but for the Angels (1 Cor. 11:10). It is a matter of personal piety. Of course, God does not care whether you stand up for prayer with or without a scarf, but this is important to you.

How are the canons and the adherence to Holy Communion read: one day before, or can they be read into several days?

You cannot approach the fulfillment of the prayer rule formally. A person should build his relationship with God himself, proceeding from prayer preparation, health, free time, and the practice of communicating with a confessor.

Today, a tradition has developed in preparation for Communion to read three canons: to the Lord, the Theotokos and the Guardian Angel, an akathist to the Savior or the Theotokos, and the succession to Holy Communion. I think it is better to read the entire rule on the same day, on the eve of Communion. But if it's hard, you can distribute it over three days.

Often friends and acquaintances ask how to prepare for Communion, how to read the Psalter? What should they answer to us, the laity?

You need to answer what you know for sure yourself. You cannot take responsibility for something strictly obligatory to prescribe to another or say something that you are not sure of. When answering, one should be guided by the widespread tradition of church life today. If there is no personal experience, you need to resort to the experience of the Church, the Holy Fathers. And if you asked a question, the answer to which you do not know, you should be advised to contact a priest or patristic creations.

I read the translation of some prayers into Russian. It turns out that I used to put a completely different meaning into them. Do you need to strive for a common understanding, read translations, or can you understand prayers as your heart tells you?

Prayers should be understood as written. An analogy can be drawn with ordinary literature. We read the work, we understand it in our own way. But it is always interesting to find out what meaning the author himself put into this work. Also the text of the prayer. The author has put a special meaning in each of them. After all, we do not read a conspiracy, but turn to God with a certain petition or praise. We can recall the words of the Apostle Paul that it is better to say five words in an understandable dialect than a thousand in an incomprehensible one (1 Cor. 14:19). In addition, the authors of most Orthodox prayers are holy ascetics, glorified by the Church.

How should we view modern prayers? Is it possible to read everything that is written in prayer books, or prefer the more ancient ones?

Personally, I am more moved by the words of more ancient canons, stichera. They seem to me deeper and more soulful. But many people also like modern akathists for their simplicity.

If the Church has accepted the prayers, you need to treat them with reverence, reverence and try to find benefits for yourself. But to understand that some modern prayers, in terms of their content, are not of such high quality as the prayers composed by ancient ascetics.

When a person writes a prayer for public use, he must understand what responsibility he is taking on. He must have experience in prayer, but also be well educated. All texts that are offered by modern prayer creators must be edited, undergo a rigorous selection.

Go to the service. If a person is going to the temple, then public prayer should come first. Although the fathers compared public and home prayer with two wings of a bird. As a bird cannot fly with one wing, so can a man. If he does not pray at home, but only goes to church, then, most likely, the prayer will not go with him and in the church. After all, he has no experience of personal communion with God. If a person prays only at home, but does not go to church, it means that he does not have an understanding of what the Church is. And without the Church there is no salvation.

How can a lay person, if necessary, replace the service at home?

Today, a large number of liturgical literature and various prayer books are published. If a layman cannot be present at the service, he can read the morning and evening services, and the Litnitsa according to the canon.

The Apostle Paul writes: “Everything is lawful for me, but not everything is beneficial” (1 Cor. 6: 12). Tired or sick - you can sit in Church while reading the home rule. But you should understand what you are guided by: pain that interferes with praying, or laziness. If the alternative to reading a prayer while sitting is its complete absence, of course, it is better to read while sitting. If a person is seriously ill, you can even lie down. But if he is just tired or lazy, you need to fight yourself and get up. During divine services, the Charter regulates when you can stand or sit. For example, we listen to the reading of the Gospel, akathists while standing, and while reading kathismas, sedals, teachings, we sit down.

When you appear in prayer before God, in your thought, become as if an ant, as if creeping on the ground, as if a leech and as if a dumb child. Do not speak before God of anything from knowledge, but with infant thoughts draw near to Him and walk before Him in order to vouch for you that paternal providence that fathers have for their children, babies.

NS. John Climacus:

If you have ever stood before an earthly judge as an accused, then you do not need to look for another image for standing in prayer. If you yourself did not stand at the trial and did not see other tortured people, then at least learn to pray from the example of the sick, how they beg the doctor for mercy when he was preparing to cut or burn their bodies.

St. Theophan the Recluse:

They wanted to learn smart prayer. Good! And before that, what kind of prayer did you have ?! Prayer is essentially a smart action - and if you didn’t pray smartly, then you didn’t pray at all. - And I'll tell you that there is no one who does not pray intelligently. Everyone prays wisely. When they all pray, they mentally imagine God as inherent and express their needs to Him. Although they read prayers, everyone is trying to ascend mentally to God.

Prayer, a painful sinking to God in contrition and humility. ... The Lord alone is the conqueror of all our weaknesses, and one can perceive His strength only through prayer. She is the source of everything and every prosperity. ... This action is very simple. To stand intelligently before God, as they stand before the Emperor, in awe, without taking the eyes of their minds away from Him - that is all.

Venerable Macarius the Great:

But the main thing in all good faith and the height of merit is diligent prayer. Through her, asking God, we can acquire other virtues every day. Hence, in those who have been honored, there is communion in God's holiness, in spiritual efficacy, and the union of intelligent disposition, as it were, in ineffable love for the Lord. For whoever compels himself daily to abide in prayer is kindled with spiritual love for God to divine commitment and fiery desire, and receives the grace of spiritual sanctifying perfection.

Not out of bodily habit, not out of habit to cry out, to be silent, to kneel down should we pray, but, soberly listening with the mind, expect God to come and visit the soul at all its exits and paths and in all feelings. Thus, sometimes it is necessary to be silent, sometimes it is necessary to cry and pray with a cry, if only the mind was established in God. For just as the body, when something works, diligently to the work, is completely occupied, and all its members help one another, so let the soul completely devote itself to the prayer and love of the Lord, not having fun and not spinning in thoughts, but putting all the hope on Christ. And in this case, the Lord Himself will enlighten her, teaching her true petition, giving a pure, spiritual prayer, worthy of God and worship in spirit and truth.

Those who come to the Lord should perform prayers in silence, peace and great rest, and heed the Lord not with obscene and mixed cries, but with longing of the heart and sober thoughts. The servant of God should not be in disorder, but in all meekness and wisdom, as the Prophet said, “to whom will I look? only on the meek and silent, and trembling my words ”(Is. 66, 2). We also find that under Moses and Elijah, when God appeared to them, trumpets and powers served in great numbers before the greatness of the Lord, but the coming of the Lord was distinguished and revealed by what is numbered above, that is, peace, silence and rest. For it is said, “this voice is cold, and there is the Lord” (1 Kings 19, 12). And this shows that the rest of the Lord consists in peace and in accomplishment.

The true basis of prayer is this - to be attentive to thoughts and to pray in great silence and peace. A person praying needs to devote all his efforts to thoughts, and what serves as food for crafty thoughts, then cut off, and rush with thought to God, and the desire for thoughts not to fulfill, but to collect whirling thoughts from everywhere together, distinguishing between natural thoughts from evil ones. The soul under sin is likened to a large forest on a mountain, or a reed on a river, or some more thorns and trees, so those who intend to pass by this place must stretch out their hands and with effort and with difficulty push the branches before them. Likewise, the soul is surrounded by a whole forest of thoughts inspired by the resistance force, therefore great diligence and attentiveness are required in order for a person to distinguish alien thoughts inspired by the resistance force. Attentive to thoughts, all the feat in prayers is performed internally. Such by their intelligence and prudence can prosper, reflect rebellious thoughts, and walk in the will of the Lord.

2. On the attention of the mind in prayer

One must pray so that the mind is completely collected and tense. One should call upon God with a grieving soul and not say unnecessary words, not drag out the prayer, but speak a few simple words, because hearing depends not on a multitude of words, but on the sobriety of the mind. If you stretch your speech, then you can often be scattered by attention and give the devil the opportunity to completely fearlessly approach you and seduce, distract your thought from what you are saying ...

When you are awake in prayer, think not of the weariness of being awake, but of the boldness of prayer.

Knowing the devil's deceit, let us try especially during prayer to drive him away, as if we saw him present and standing before our eyes; let us try to remove from ourselves any thought that confuses our soul, to exert all our strength and to create fervent prayer so that not only the tongue utters words, but the soul, together with the words, ascends to God.

And if you yourself do not hear your prayer (due to distraction), how do you want God to hear it?

He who is careless and inattentive to what he says in prayer does not appeal to God, but speaks in vain and in vain.

We do not know how the benefits of prayer should be, because we do not listen to it with all diligence and do not exercise in it according to the laws of God.

During prayer, we can hold our attention if we remember who we are talking to, if we imagine that we are making a spiritual sacrifice.

Rev. Abba Isaiah:

What is serving God? In nothing else but in the elimination of everything alien from the mind, when we praise God. May we not be delighted with anything earthly while we pray to Him! Let there be no malice in us while we sing Him! Let there be no hatred for our neighbor in us while we worship Him! Let there be no crafty zeal in us while we direct our minds to Him! Let not shameful lust move in our members while we are engaged in the memory of God. All this darkens the soul, is held captive and, having these passions in itself, cannot bring pure service to God. They forbid her in the air, that is, stirring up thoughts and dreams, do not allow her to appear to God and perform a mysterious service to Him, praying to Him from the sweet action of Divine love with the delight of the heart, in the holy will of God, and the soul is enlightened by God. Without cutting off the aforementioned passions with the spiritual mind, the mind is constantly in darkness and cannot succeed in God.

Saint Gregory of Nyssa:

Thoroughness in prayer brings many gifts. Only let each one pray with attention and a right conscience, not wandering with thought at will and not giving prayer, as it were a necessary, involuntary duty, but fulfilling the love and desire of the soul with it ... and the Lord Himself will inspire those who ask how to pray ... So who are diligent in prayer should ask for it and know that in such an important matter he must withstand a difficult struggle with much diligence and effort, since the spirit of malice attacks them with special force, seeking to overthrow our efforts. Hence the weakening of the body and soul, effeminacy, carelessness, negligence and everything else that ruins the soul, tormented in parts and surrendered to its enemy. So, it is necessary that the soul be ruled by reason, like a wise helmsman, showing the direct path to the heights of the pier and betraying the soul intact to the God who entrusted it.

Abba Siluan:

When you stand, praying, let your mind listen to the power of words, and think that you are standing before God, torturing hearts and wombs. When you rise from sleep, first of all glorify God with your mouth, then begin the rule lightly and quietly, remembering your sinfulness and sighing for it, remembering the eternal torment awaiting you.

Venerable Anthony the Great:

A prayer performed with carelessness and laziness is idle talk.

Sayings of nameless elders:

Diligent prayer soon corrects the mind.

Rev. Abba Isaiah:

The purity of the heart is proved by undistracted prayer.

Saint Ignatius (Brianchaninov):

The soul of prayer is attention. As a body without a soul is dead, so prayer without attention is dead.

As you say the words of prayer slowly, do not let your mind wander around, but shut it up in the words of prayer.

The mind during prayer must with all care keep the formless ... the images, if the mind allows them in prayer, will become an impenetrable curtain, a wall between the mind and God.

Non-parity, accessible to man, is given by God in due time to such an ascetic of prayer, who, by constancy and diligence in heroic deeds, will prove the sincerity of his desire to acquire prayer.

Passions - these moral ailments of a person - are the main reason for entertainment in prayer.

Mindful prayer requires self-denial, while rare ones dare to self-denial.

Mindful prayer, alien to absent-mindedness and reverie, is a vision of an invisible God, drawing to Himself the sight of the mind and the desire of the heart.

From activities of your own free will and according to your own mind, care for yourself will immediately appear, various considerations will appear to the mind ... will destroy attentive prayer.

It is characteristic of prayer to reveal in the fallen nature the innermost signs of its fall and the impressions produced by arbitrary sins.

Absent-mindedness hides prayer. The one who has prayed with absent-mindedness feels in himself an unaccountable emptiness and dryness. The one who constantly prays with absentmindedness is deprived of all spiritual fruits, usually born from attentive prayer.

Close the doors of your cell from people who come for idle talk, to steal prayer from you; shut the doors of the mind from extraneous thoughts ... shut the doors of the heart from the feelings of sinfulness and pray.

During prayer, it is necessary to enclose the mind in the words of prayer, indiscriminately rejecting any thought - both obviously sinful and righteous in appearance.

The virtue of prayer is solely in quality, not quantity. Then quantity is commendable when it leads to quality ... The quality of true prayer is that the mind is in attention during prayer, and the heart sympathizes with the mind.

It must be remembered that the essence of the deed of prayer lies not in the number of prayers read, but in the fact that what is read is read with attention, with the sympathy of the heart.

The mind, enclosed in the words of prayer, draws the heart into compassion for itself.

Let us first learn to pray attentively with oral and vowel prayer, then we will conveniently learn to pray with one mind in the silence of the inner cage.

Do you want to succeed in prayer and heartfelt prayer? Learn to listen to oral and vowel: attentive oral prayer by itself turns into intelligent and heartfelt prayer.

Let us put as the basis of prayer ascetic, the main and most essential between monastic exploits ... attentive vowel prayer, for which the merciful Lord grants in due time to the constant, patient, humble ascetic a prayer of clever, heartfelt, gracious.

Attentive prayer is a sign that the heart has broken the threads of attachments and therefore is already freely directed to God, clinging to Him, assimilated by Him.

The state of deep constant attention during prayer comes from the touch of Divine grace to our spirit. The granting of grace-filled attention to the one who is praying is an initial spiritual gift from God.

The gift of attentive prayer is usually preceded by special sorrows and emotional upheavals that bring our spirit down into the depths of consciousness of our poverty and insignificance.

Prayer needs constant co-presence and attention. With attention, prayer is the inalienable property of the person praying; in the absence of attention, it is alien to the person praying.

The attention that fully observes prayer from entertainment or from extraneous thoughts and dreams is a gift of God's grace.

Puffiness:

A certain disciple was telling about his father. Once we made a rule; I read the psalms and missed one word without noticing it. When we finished the service, the elder said to me: “While performing the service, I imagine that a fire is burning in front of me, and my mind cannot deviate to the right or to the left. Where was your mind when you read the psalms and missed a word? don't you know that when you pray you are standing before God and talking to God? "

They told about John: when he returned from the harvest, he first went to the elders for prayer and edification; then he practiced psalmopenia; after that, he moved on to prayer. He considered this gradualness in his studies necessary to bring the mind into the state in which he was before leaving the cell.

Rev. Nilus of Sinai:

To one silent man in the desert, while he was praying diligently, the demons appeared and for two weeks they played with him like a ball, threw him up and picked him up on a mat. However, they could not in any way distract his mind from ardent prayer.

3. How not to pray (about charms)

Whoever imagines the blessings of heaven, the ranks of Angels and the abodes of saints - this is a sign of delusion. Standing on this path, those who see the light with their bodily eyes are deceived, who smell incense with their sense of smell, hear voices with their ears, and the like.

Saint Ignatius of Brianchaninov:

All types of demonic delusion to which the ascetic of prayer is subjected arise from the fact that repentance is not laid in the basis of prayer, that repentance has not become the source, soul, and purpose of prayer.

Many, sensing a disposition and zeal for spiritual deed, begin this feat recklessly and thoughtlessly. They indulge in him with all zeal and passion, with all recklessness, not realizing that these zeal and heat are the most bloodthirsty and fleshly, that they are filled with impurities and impurities, not realizing that when studying science from the sciences - prayer, the most faithful is needed leadership, the greatest prudence and caution are needed.

Careless, especially stubborn seekers of a high prayer state, driven by conceit and self-will, are always sealed with the seal of rejection, according to the definition of the spiritual law. Removing this seal is very difficult — mostly impossible. What is the reason for this? Here it is: pride and conceit, leading into self-delusion, into communication with demons and into their enslavement, do not allow to see the wrongness and danger of their position, do not allow to see either sorrowful communication with demons, or disastrous, murderous enslavement by them.

NS. Nikon Optinsky:

It is not helpful to strive for high feelings during prayer. You just need to delve into the meaning of the spoken words, pray carefully ...

4. What to do when prayer does not come to mind

It is good to say a few words of yours in prayer, breathing with ardent faith and love for the Lord ... God trembles with joy ... You say a few words, but you will taste so much bliss that you will not receive it to such an extent from the longest and most touching prayers - other people's prayers, out of habit and sincerely uttered. "

St. Theophan the Recluse:

If the soul is lethargic and is not strong to ascend to God on its own, recite any prayer from memory, repeating each word several times in order to break the soul like a hammer. When the soul goes to the Lord by itself, do not read any prayers of the memorized, but direct your speech directly to the Lord, starting with thanksgiving for the mercies to you yourself, then saying something else that needs to be said. The Lord is near! He hears a word from his heart.

After fatigue, you badly perform the evening rule ... Before the rule, walk a little, even outside, if it is convenient, and lie down for a while until your head rests and the impressions of your experiences are dispersed ... Then become the rule ... how. Always do it as the first thing ... As a presentation to the Emperor ... And if time does not allow, it is better to shorten the rule, and do not obey it somehow. Reduce this in case of need yourself and bless you to fulfill it with your spiritual father. Or, having reduced in need, then supplement the missing, if it is a general property in terms of content. Keep in thought and feeling that every compulsion and willfulness to the work of God sees God omnipresent and blesses this creator.

As for the rule, I think about this: no matter what rule one chooses for himself, everything is good - as long as he keeps his soul in reverence before God. Also: read prayers and psalms until the soul is stirred up, and then pray yourself, setting out your needs, or without everything. "God, be merciful" ... Also: sometimes all the time assigned for the rule, you can spend in the reading of one psalm for memory, composing your prayer from every verse. Also - sometimes you can carry out the whole rule in the Jesus Prayer with bows ... And then from that, the other and the third, little by little. God needs a heart (Proverbs 23:26), and as long as it stands reverently before Him, then it is enough. Unceasing prayer is precisely this, in order to always stand reverently before God. And at the same time, the rule is only heating, or throwing firewood into the stove.

5. Can you pray while sitting?

It is better to think about God while sitting than standing - about sore legs.

St. Theophan the Recluse:

It is good to be in line in prayer, not letting go of the members lazily and carelessly and keeping all of them in some tension.
At prayer, when you feel tired, it is better to rest.

St. Tikhon Zadonsky:

We can approach God with our petition in the church, in the house, in the congregation, on the way, in practice (at work), on the bed, walking and sitting, working and resting, and at any time.

Schedule John (Alekseev):

The Holy Fathers said that if you pray attentively while sitting down out of need, the Lord accepts your prayer, and if you pray while standing, but absentmindedly, the Lord does not heed such a prayer. For attention is the soul of prayer.

6. The essence and meaning of prayer

One must pray in order to receive the spirit of God while still on earth.

NS. John Climacus:

Prayer, according to its quality, is the stay and union of a person with God; in action, she is the affirmation of the world, reconciliation with God, the mother and together the daughter of tears, the propitiation for sins, the bridge for crossing temptations, the wall that protects from sorrow, the crushing of battles, the work of Angels, the food of all disembodied, future joy, endless work, source of virtues, the culprit of gifts, invisible prosperity, food for the soul, enlightenment of the mind, ax to despair, indication of hope, destruction of sorrow, wealth of monks, treasure of the silent, taming anger, mirror of spiritual growth, knowledge of prosperity, discovery of spiritual order, forerunner of future reward, a sign. Prayer to the one who truly prays is the judgment, the judgment seat and the throne of the Judge before the Last Judgment.

NS. Seraphim Sarovsky:

Of course, every virtue done for Christ's sake gives the grace of the Holy Spirit, but most of all it gives prayer, because, as always, it is in our hands as an instrument for acquiring the grace of the Spirit.

NS. Neil of Sinai:

The mother of all virtues is prayer: she can not only purify and nourish, but also enlighten and is able to make those who sincerely pray like the sun.

St. John Chrysostom:

He who can pray fervently is the richest of all, even if he is the poorest of all. On the contrary, he who does not resort to prayer, even if he sat on the royal throne, is the weaker of all.

Prayer performed with diligence is light for the mind and soul, an inextinguishable light.
Prayer is a great weapon, a great protection, a great treasure, a great marina, a safe haven, if only we approach the Lord with a cheerful soul and collected thoughts.

There is nothing equal to prayer: it makes the impossible even possible, the difficult - easy, the inconvenient - convenient.

Will he see the enemy after prayer? will no longer look at him as an enemy; a beautiful woman? he will not be tempted at the sight of her, because the flame kindled by prayer still remains inside him and drives away any useless thought.

Prayer and service to God is a sign of all righteousness, it is a kind of divine and spiritual garment, sheds great beauty in our thoughts, controls the life of everyone, does not allow anything bad and inappropriate to dominate the mind, convinces to honor God and respect the honor that is bestowed from Him to us, teaches us to remove from ourselves all the tricks of the evil one, casts out shameful and indecent reflections, brings the soul of everyone into a state of contempt for pleasures.

St. Ignatius (Brianchaninov):

Prayer is the appeal of a fallen and repentant person to God. Prayer is the cry of a fallen and repentant person before God. Prayer is the outpouring of heartfelt desires, petitions, sighs of a fallen man killed by sin before God.

St. John of Kronstadt:

Prayer is the greatest, priceless gift of the Creator of creation, to a person who, through it, can converse with his Creator, like a child with the Father, pouring out before Him feelings of wonder, praise and thanksgiving.

7. About prayer to the saints

95. The saints have fulfilled the word of the Lord; The Lord fulfills their word: they did for Him - He for them. “Measure in a small measure,” said the Lord Himself, “it will measure to you” (Matt. 7: 2). That is why the Lord soon fulfills the prayers for us saints.

96. "Abraham my servant will pray ... Job my servant will pray for you ... Moses ... Samuel ... Elijah" (Job 42, 8; sn. B. 20, 7, 17; Jer. 15, 1; 1 Kings 18:36, PS 98, 6). The prayers of the saints for us are pleasing to the Lord, as faithful servants of God.

97. The Saints of God are great merchants who have enriched themselves with all spiritual treasures, all virtues: meekness, humility, self-control, patience, rich faith, hope and love. That is why we ask their holy prayers, like beggars of the rich, that they help us in our spiritual poverty, that they teach us to pray and prosper in Christian virtues, so that they, as having boldness before God, pray for the remission of our sins and protect us from new. We go to earthly merchants in their shops to buy their goods: how can we not turn to heavenly merchants with earnest prayer, as if in silver and gold, how not to buy from them their intercessions before God for the forgiveness of sins and for the granting of various Christian virtues! It seems very natural.

98. Call upon the saints with unashamed faith and unfeigned love, if you want them to hear you and fulfill your prayer. Remember: the like is looking for the like. The saints pleased God by faith and love, and they want the same from you. Combine with faith and love the reverence that befits them.

99. Lutherans say: “why do we ask the prayers of the saints for ourselves? We ask God Himself ”and refute themselves: for why do they ask to pray for themselves? We would pray without a pastor, if everyone has the same access to God, there is no need for consecrated prayer books for us. - What blindness! - They say: praying to the saints, we worship idols. Not true! We do not honor a single saint for God, we do not pray to a single saint as to God, but only ask his prayers for ourselves; is there even a shadow of idolatry? As we ask the living priests and prayer-books for us before the Lord, so that they pray for us, so we ask the heavenly prayer-books, who, out of their love for God, have great boldness before Him; moreover, very many of them here on earth were prayer books and intercessors before God for the world; there - in heaven, this activity of theirs only continues, has large dimensions and is especially strong, for it is not nurtured by heavy and inert flesh. All the saints, although they have finished their earthly career, are still alive: “there is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living: for all this live the essence” (Luke 20:38).

100. How do the saints hear us? They hear how one is one with us in the Holy Spirit - “yes and that they will be one in us” (John 17:21), as members of the one Church of God, led by one Christ and animated by the one Spirit of God. The saints see and hear us in the Holy Spirit as we see and hear with our bodily eyes and ears through light and air; but our bodily vision and hearing are far from perfect in comparison with vision and spiritual hearing: at a distant distance we do not see very many objects, we do not hear very many sounds. Spiritual sight and spiritual hearing are perfect: not a single movement of the heart, not a single thought, not a single word, intention, desire escapes them, because the Spirit of God, in Whom the saints dwell, see and hear us, is all-perfect, omniscient, sees everything and hears because he is omnipresent.

101. The Saints of God are close to believing hearts and, as the most sincere and kind friends, are ready at a moment to help the faithful and pious, who call them with faith and love. For earthly helpers, for the most part, one must send and sometimes wait for a long time when they come, but for these spiritual helpers one does not need to send and wait for a long time: the faith of the one who is praying in an instant can place them at your very heart, as well as receive full help by faith. I mean, spiritual. What I say, I speak from experience. I mean frequent deliverance from the sorrows of the heart by the intercession and intercession of the saints, especially the intercession of our Lady of the Theotokos. Perhaps, some will say to this, that simple faith or firm, decisive confidence in their deliverance from sorrow is at work here, and not the intercession of the saints before God. No. How can this be seen? From the fact that if I do not call upon the saints known to me (without distinguishing anyone) in my heartfelt prayer, if I do not see them with the eyes of my heart, then there will be no help. I will not get it, no matter how much I have the confidence to be saved without their help. I realize, I feel clearly that I receive help on behalf of those saints whom I call for the sake of living faith in them. This business happens as in the ordinary order of earthly things. I will first see my helpers with heartfelt faith. Then, seeing, I ask them also with my heart, invisibly, but intelligibly to myself; then, having received invisible help in a completely inconspicuous way, but perceptible to the soul; At the same time, I get a strong conviction that this help is from them, as a patient healed by a doctor, is convinced that he received healing from a doctor, and not from another and not by himself, but from a doctor. All this is done so simply that you only need eyes - to see.

102. If you call on any saint with doubts about his closeness to you and his hearing of you, and your heart is struck with tightness, break yourself, or, better to say, immediately overcome with the help of the Lord Jesus Christ, nesting in the heart of the slanderer ( Devil), call on the saint with a heartfelt confidence that he is near you in the Holy Spirit and hears your prayer: now it will be easy for you. The heaviness and vexation of the heart in prayer comes from insincerity, from the deceit and slyness of our heart, just as in ordinary speech with people we feel internally awkward when we speak with them not from our heart, untrue, insincere. “Prati is cruel against the pricks” (Acts 26, 14). Be always and everywhere true in heart and you will always have peace in your heart, but especially be true in conversation with God and with the saints: for “the Spirit is truth” (1 John 5, 6).

103. We should be glad that I have to very often carry in my mind and heart and pronounce with my lips the name of God, the name of the Lady of the Theotokos, St. Angels and St. the saints of God, both all by name throughout the year, and special ones, who are mentioned daily in church prayers or at holy water prayers. For what is remembered sincerely, from the heart, the name of God sanctifies us, revives and comforts us, also the name of the Mother of God, the all-powerful Intercessor; and the saints, our intercessors before God, pray for us when we call them in prayer, and shine for us with their virtues in many ways. It is good to have an alliance with God and the celestials.

104. If we, sinners, pray and implore the Lord for ourselves and others; if, while living on earth, the saints pray to others and ask God for what they need, even more so when the saints migrate into eternity and will be face to face with God. By virtue of the great intercessory sacrifice of the Son of God, they have the power of intercession by the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the prayers of the saints, especially His Most Pure Mother. This is the reward from the Lord to the merits of the saints.

105. Wonderful - today I doubted - of course, because the wicked one instigated - about one turn in one prayer, namely: "One is the power to forsake sins through the prayers of Thy Most Pure Mother and of all saints" (3 mol. Wife was born in 1 day), and was put to shame in his wisdom: the enemy struck me down, stammered, angering me in public prayer. In what then was my thought false? - I thought: how does God have the power to forgive sins through the prayers of His Most Pure Mother and the saints, and not Himself independently? And without the prayers of others has power, of course, one has power; but in order to honor the high virtues of the saints, especially of His Most Pure Mother, who are His friends, pleasing Him to their last strength in earthly life. He accepts their prayer intercessions for us, unworthy, for us, who often have to block their lips because of their great and frequent falls. Remember Moses, who interceded for the Jewish people and sought his life from the angry Lord. Who would not say that even without Moses God could have spared His people - by granting them the continuation of their existence - but then the Lord would have been, so to speak, unjust, giving them life, unworthy of life, while He Himself determined to put them to death; and when Moses, a righteous, meek and humble man, began to intercede, then the eyes of the just God rested on the righteous, on his love for God and his people, and for the sake of his merits, the Lord had mercy on the unworthy, for the sake of the righteous - on the unrighteous. So now, through the prayer of His Most Pure Mother, He has mercy on us, who by themselves, for their great and frequent sins and iniquities, would not be worthy of His mercy. “Unless Moses and Samuel stand before My faces, My soul is to these people” (Jeremiah 15: 1), says the Lord to Jeremiah about the Jews. This shows that the Lord accepts the intercession of the saints for unkind people, when the sins of these latter do not exceed the measure of God's longsuffering.

106. From our own experience of living heartfelt prayer, we can know that the saints are received in close communion with God. And from our own experience, we know that in communication with God through prayer, faith, our mind is unusually enlightened and takes on the most extensive dimensions of action: at this time it sees what it does not see in its ordinary state. From this it follows that the saints, being in communion with God, moreover, pure, detached from the body, have the brightest, far-sighted mind, and they hear our heartfelt prayers, and if they are pleasing to God and are useful to us, they will certainly fulfill them!

107. Father Nicholas, pray to God for us! On what basis do we ask the saints to pray for ourselves, and do they really pray for us, and is their prayer for us effective? God Himself directly expressed His will to some people who did not have closeness to Him, for example, Abimelech, who took Abraham's wife, was commanded to ask Abraham to pray for him; Job prayed, according to the obvious revelation of the will of God, for his friends; prayed Moses, Samuel, Elijah, all the prophets; The Lord Himself, by His human nature, prayed to the Heavenly Father for Peter and all the disciples. The saints deserve to be intercessors for us to God according to their virtues, according to their merit, as His saints. If on earth justice requires a famous person close to God to pray for others (for example, a priest for people), why not in heaven? All the saints are alive with God and for us: seeing our needs in God, they sympathize with us and are ready, according to our prayers, to help us. Why, according to our prayers, and not otherwise? For. in order to confirm us in the faith and the deed of prayer. Moreover, why do the living want others in need of their help to ask for them?

108. When we call upon the saints in prayer, then to pronounce their name from the heart means to bring them closer to our very heart. Ask then undoubtedly both prayers and intercession for yourself; and they will hear you, and they will present your prayer to the Lord - soon, in an instant, as if everywhere to Jehovah and everything leading.

109. The name of the saints, from articulate sounds, means, as it were, the flesh of a saint or a saint ... In a small form, in our mouths, as it were, are reflected the creatures of the upper and lower world: and all this is through faith. By the Holy Spirit, who is one who is - who is everywhere and fulfills everything.

110. Calling or glorifying the holy saints of God, we must call or glorify them with all our hearts, with the fervor of the soul; in this way to bring them closer to yourself, to approach them and, as far as possible, become like them: for they then are with us and for us, when we call or glorify them with a pure heart, and raise our prayers to God.

111. Lord! We bring the saints to Your prayer for us, these spiritual incense, this myrrh of Your aromas. Accept their prayers for us, fragrant with love and purity, and deliver us from the stench of sin, for our hearts are unclean and our lips are filthy, and we are unworthy of the sweetest conversation with You. Everything in us is earthly and perishable, nasty, cunning, and they, Your saints, are the purest myrrh, especially Your Most Pure Mother. Thy animated chamber of light, the purest of the sun's lordships, the most fragrant more than all aromas, for heaven and earth are full of the fragrance of Her holiness, of her divine virtues.

112. You wonder how the saints from heaven listen to us when we pray to them. And how do the rays of the sun from heaven bow to us and shine everywhere - all over the earth? Saints are the same in the spiritual world as the sun's rays are in the material world. God is the eternal, life-giving Sun, and the saints are the rays of the intelligent Sun. As the eyes of the Lord constantly gaze on the earth and on the earthly, so the eyes of the saints cannot but turn to where the providential gaze of the Lord of creation is directed and where their treasure is (their bodies, their deeds, sacred places, their faces devoted to them). “Where your treasure is, so will your heart be” (Matthew 6:21). You know how the heart sees quickly, far and clearly (especially objects of the spiritual world); notice this in all knowledge, especially in the spiritual, where very much is assimilated only by faith (the vision of the heart). The heart is the eye of a human being; the clearer it is, the faster, farther and clearer it sees. But among the saints of God, this eye of the soul was brought to the purity possible for a person during their lifetime, and after their death, when they united with God, it, thanks to the grace of God, became even brighter and wider within the limits of their vision. That is why the saints see very clearly and far and wide, they see our spiritual needs; they see and hear all those who call them from the bottom of their hearts, that is, those whose clever eyes are directly directed towards them and are not darkened, they are not darkened during aspiration by doubt and lack of faith, when the eyes of the hearts of those praying coincide, so to speak, with the eyes of those who are called. There is a mysterious vision here. An experienced person understands what is being said. Therefore, how easy it is to have communication with the saints. You just need to clear the vision of the heart, direct it firmly to the famous saint, ask for the necessary - and it will be. And what is the Lord with regard to sight! He is all - sight, all light, all knowledge. He always fills heaven and earth and sees everything in every place. “In every place the Eyes of the Lord behold evil and good” (Proverbs 15: 3).

Saint Theophan the Recluse:

We have now found a safe haven; keep in it. May the Lord keep you and make you wise. But do not doze yourself. It is good that you notice what is left of the old wisdom and do not hide it. You are confused by how you write - prayer to the saints, and you are afraid of being condemned in idolatry. No, our prayer to the saints and their celebration has nothing idolatrous. It would be idolatry if we worshiped them as gods; but we honor them as servants of God and intercessors for us before God. An inner feeling should tell you that you do not honor them as God, and do not consider them the first reason for the requested blessings, but only as an instrument of their alms. Calling out to the saint, we say: "Holy God, pray for us; pray the Lord to give us this and that." Consider this: we who live here on earth, children of the church, ask each other to pray for us ... Everyone is doing this. And no one thinks there is anything idolatrous here. You write to me: "Pray for this and that." Are you afraid of being guilty of idolatry? I think that there was no one else in the world who would think so. How is it that you have the thought in your head that when the saints were here on earth, it was safe to ask them for prayer, but when they moved there - to the kingdom of heaven, it became impossible? Our departed fathers and brothers, in spite of this departure, remain in the Church of God, just as we who remained here ...

Our mutual relations, as members of the church, remain the same, in force. So we pray them, as we prayed before.

The essence of idolatry is that creatures acquire divine properties, and by virtue of this they honor them ... we don’t assign any divine properties to the saints of God ... but we honor them as the most perfect of people who have reached the age of fulfillment of Christ ... and through that they have drawn closer to God, more sincere than others. Go inside yourself and examine: do you consider the saints to be gods ... Feeling should tell you this. If it turns out that you consider them so, then stop counting, and if you do not think, there is nothing to embarrass yourself with the thought of not falling into an idolater.

Let the Lord pacify your soul. I bring you medicine for such embarrassment. As soon as something like this comes to mind, pray to the Lord for enlightenment and enlightenment of thoughts will come. Likewise, when a passionate movement comes, pray - it will make you happy ... At such a prayer, rejection is always presupposed, the stronger the rejection of a wrong thought and wrong desire and attraction ... The Lord is near and hears. May the Lord keep you from all evil ... and bless you in your family relationship; May he receive your son in the blessed monastery! Save yourself!

I believe that all the saints in heaven are one body. They all pray for us together, although we extend our prayers to one or the other. And the Mother of God with everyone stands before God for us. When you ask the saints to add their intercession before the Lord to the prayer of the Mother of God, you are not doing anything special. This is always the case in heaven.

All About Prayer: What Is Prayer? What is the right way to pray for another person at home and in church? We will try to answer these and other questions in the article!

Prayers for every day

1. PRAYER MEETING

Prayer is a meeting with the Living God. Christianity gives a person direct access to God, who hears a person, helps him, loves him. This is the fundamental difference between Christianity, for example, from Buddhism, where during meditation the praying person deals with a kind of impersonal super-existence, into which he plunges and into which he dissolves, but he does not feel God as a living Personality. In Christian prayer, a person feels the presence of the Living God.

In Christianity, God is revealed to us, having become a Man. When we stand in front of the icon of Jesus Christ, we contemplate the Incarnate God. We know that it is impossible to imagine, describe, depict God on an icon or a painting. But you can portray God who became Man - such as He appeared to people. Through Jesus Christ as a Man, we reveal God to ourselves. This revelation takes place in prayer addressed to Christ.

Through prayer we learn that God is involved in everything that happens in our lives. Therefore, a conversation with God should not be the background of our life, but its main content. There are many barriers between man and God that can be overcome only with the help of prayer.

They often ask: why do we need to pray, ask God for anything, if God already knows what we need? To this I would answer like this. We do not pray in order to beg from God. Yes, in some cases we ask Him for specific help in certain everyday circumstances. But this is not the main content of prayer.

God cannot be just an “aid” in our earthly affairs. The main content of prayer should always remain the very presence of God, the very meeting with Him. You need to pray in order to be with God, to get in touch with God, to feel the presence of God.

However, meeting with God in prayer does not always happen. Indeed, even when meeting with a person, we are far from always able to overcome the barriers separating us, to descend into the depths, often our communication with people is limited only to the surface level. So it is in prayer. Sometimes we feel that between us and God is like a blank wall, that God does not hear us. But we must understand that this barrier was not set by God: we by our own sins we raise it up. According to one Western medieval theologian, God is always with us, but we are far from Him, God always hears us, but we do not hear Him, God is always within us, but we are outside, God is in us at home, but we are in Him strangers.

Let us remember this when we prepare for prayer. Let us remember that every time we stand up for prayer, we come into contact with the Living God.

2. PRAYER-DIALOGUE

Prayer is dialogue. It includes not only our appeal to God, but also the response of God Himself. As in any dialogue, in prayer it is important not only to speak up, to speak out, but also to hear the answer. The answer of God does not always come directly at the moments of prayer, sometimes it happens a little later. It happens, for example, that we ask God for immediate help, and it comes only after a few hours or days. But we understand that this happened precisely because we asked God for help in prayer.

Through prayer we can learn a lot about God. When praying, it is very important to be ready for the fact that God will reveal himself to us, but He may turn out to be different from what we imagined Him to be. We often make the mistake of approaching God with our own ideas about Him, and these ideas obscure from us the real image of the Living God, which God Himself can reveal to us. Often people in their minds create a kind of idol and pray to this idol. This dead, artificially created idol becomes an obstacle, a barrier between the Living God and us, people. “Create for yourself a false image of God and try to pray to him. Create for yourself the image of God as an unmerciful and cruel Judge - and try to pray to him with confidence, with love, ”notes Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh. So, we must be prepared for the fact that God will be revealed to us not as we imagine Him. Therefore, starting to prayer, you need to renounce all the images that create our imagination, human fantasy.

God's answer can come in many ways, but prayer is never unanswered. If we do not hear the answer, it means that something is wrong in ourselves, it means that we have not yet tuned in enough to the way that is necessary to meet with God.

There is a device called a tuning fork, which is used by piano tuners; this device produces a clear “la” sound. And the piano strings must be taut so that the sound they make is exactly in line with the sound of the tuning fork. As long as the A string is not taut, no matter how much you strike the keys, the tuning fork will be silent. But the moment the string reaches the required degree of tension, the tuning fork, this lifeless metal object, suddenly begins to sound. Having tuned one string "A", the master then tunes and "A" in other octaves (in a grand piano, each key strikes several strings, this creates a special volumetric sound). Then he tunes “B,” “C,” etc., one octave after another, until finally the entire instrument is in tune with the tuning fork.

This should be the case with us in prayer. We must tune in to God, tune in to Him our whole life, all the strings of our soul. When we tune our life to God, learn to fulfill His commandments, when the Gospel becomes our moral and spiritual law and we begin to live in accordance with the commandments of God, then we begin to feel how our soul in prayer responds to the presence of God, like a tuning fork that responds to a precisely taut string.

3. WHEN SHOULD I PRAY?

When and for how long should you pray? The apostle Paul says, “Pray incessantly” (1 Thess. 5:17). Saint Gregory the Theologian writes: “One must remember God more often than breathe.” Ideally, a Christian's entire life should be permeated with prayer.

Many troubles, sorrows and misfortunes occur precisely because people forget about God. After all, there are also believers among criminals, but at the moment of committing a crime they do not think about God. It is difficult to imagine a person who would go to murder or theft with the thought of an all-seeing God, from whom no evil can be hidden. And every sin is committed by a person precisely when he does not remember God.

Most people are unable to pray all day long, so you need to find some time, even a short one, to remember God.

In the morning you wake up with the thought of what is to be done that day. Before you start your work and immerse yourself in the inevitable hustle and bustle, devote at least a few minutes to God. Stand before God and say: "Lord, you gave me this day, help me to spend it without sin, without blemish, save me from all evil and misfortune." And invoke the blessing of God on the day that begins.

Try to remember God more often throughout the day. If you feel bad, turn to Him with a prayer: "Lord, I feel bad, help me." If you feel good, tell God: "Lord, glory to You, I thank You for this joy." If you are worried about someone, tell God: "Lord, I am worried about him, I am in pain for him, help him." And so throughout the day - whatever happens to you, turn it into prayer.

When the day comes to an end and you are getting ready for bed, remember the past day, thank God for all the good things that have happened, and bring repentance for all those unworthy deeds and sins that you committed that day. Ask God for help and blessings for the coming night. As you learn to pray this way every day, you will soon notice how much fuller your whole life will be.

Often people justify their unwillingness to pray by the fact that they are too busy, overloaded with things. Yes, many of us live in a rhythm in which the people of antiquity did not. Sometimes we have to do a lot of things during the day. But there are always some pauses in life. For example, we stand at a bus stop and wait for a tram - three to five minutes. We go to the subway - twenty to thirty minutes, dial the phone number and hear busy beeps - for a few more minutes. We use at least these pauses for prayer, let them not be wasted time.

4. BRIEF PRAYERS

People often ask: how should one pray, in what words, in what language? Some even say: “I don’t pray because I don’t know how, I don’t know prayers”. No special skill is required for prayer. You can just talk with God. At divine services in the Orthodox Church, we use a special language - Church Slavonic. But in personal prayer, when we are alone with God, there is no need for any special language. We can pray to God in the language in which we speak with people, in which we think.

Prayer should be very simple. The Monk Isaac the Syrian said: “Let the whole fabric of your prayer be not complicated. One word of the publican saved him, and one word of the robber on the cross made him the heir of the Kingdom of Heaven. "

Let us recall the parable of the publican and the Pharisee: “Two people entered the temple to pray: one a Pharisee, and the other a publican. The Pharisee, having become, prayed to himself thus: “God! I thank You that I am not like other people, robbers, offenders, adulterers, or like this tax collector; I fast twice a week, I give a tenth of all that I get. " The tax collector, standing in the distance, did not even dare to raise his eyes to heaven; but, striking himself in the chest, he said: “God! be merciful to me, a sinner! ”” (Luke 18: 10-13). And this short prayer saved him. Let us also remember the thief who was crucified with Jesus and who said to Him: “Remember me, Lord, when you come into your kingdom” (Luke 23:42). That alone was enough for him to enter paradise.

Prayer can be extremely short. If you are just starting out on your prayer path, start with very short prayers - ones that you can focus on. God doesn't need words - He needs a human heart. Words are secondary, but the feeling, the mood with which we approach God is of paramount importance. Coming to God without a sense of reverence or with absent-mindedness, when during prayer our mind wanders to the side, is much more dangerous than saying the wrong word in prayer. Absent-minded prayer has no meaning or value. A simple law is at work here: if the words of prayer have not reached our hearts, they will not reach God either. As it is sometimes said, such a prayer will not rise above the ceiling of the room in which we pray, and yet it must reach heaven. Therefore, it is very important that every word of prayer is deeply experienced by us. If we are not able to concentrate on the long prayers that are contained in the books of the Orthodox Church - prayer books, we will try our hand at short prayers: “Lord, have mercy”, “Lord, save”, “Lord, help me”, “God, have mercy on me , a sinner. "

One ascetic said that if we could say only one prayer “Lord, have mercy” with all the strength of our feelings, with all our hearts, with all our souls, this would be enough for salvation. But the problem is that, as a rule, we cannot say this from the bottom of our hearts, we cannot say this with our whole life. Therefore, in order to be heard by God, we are verbose.

Let us remember that God longs for our heart, not our words. And if we turn to Him from the bottom of our hearts, we will certainly receive an answer.

5. PRAYER AND LIFE

Prayer is associated not only with the joys and gains that come thanks to it, but also with painstaking daily work. Sometimes prayer brings great joy, refreshes a person, gives him new strength and new opportunities. But it often happens that a person is not disposed to prayer, he does not want to pray. So, prayer should not depend on our mood. Prayer is work. The Monk Silouan the Athonite said, "To pray is to shed blood." As in any work, on the part of a person, an effort is required, sometimes enormous, in order to force oneself to do so even in those moments when one does not want to pray. And such a feat will pay off a hundredfold.

But why do we sometimes not want to pray? I think the main reason here is that our life is not in line with prayer, not in tune with it. As a child, when I was studying at a music school, I had an excellent violin teacher: his lessons were sometimes very interesting, and sometimes very difficult, and it did not depend on his mood, but on how good or bad I am prepared for the lesson. If I studied a lot, taught some kind of play and came to the lesson fully armed, then the lesson passed in one breath, and the teacher was pleased, and me. If I was lazy all week and came unprepared, then the teacher was upset, and I felt sick of the fact that the lesson was not going as I would like.

It is the same with prayer. If our life is not a preparation for prayer, then it can be very difficult for us to pray. Prayer is an indicator of our spiritual life, a kind of litmus test. We need to structure our lives in such a way that it is in line with prayer. When, saying the prayer “Our Father,” we say: “Lord, Thy will be done,” it means that we must always be ready to do the will of God, even if this will is contrary to our human will. When we say to God: “And forgive us our debts, as if we also leave our debts,” we thereby undertake the obligation to forgive people, to leave their debts to them, because if we do not leave debts to our debtors, then, according to the logic of this prayer, and God will not leave us our debts.

So, one must correspond to the other: life - prayer and prayer - life. Without this correspondence, we will not be successful either in life or in prayer.

Let us not be embarrassed if it is difficult for us to pray. This means that God sets before us new tasks, and we must solve them both in prayer and in life. If we learn to live the gospel, we will learn to pray in the gospel. Then our life will become full, spiritual, truly Christian.

6. ORTHODOX PRAYER

You can pray in different ways, for example, in your own words. Such a prayer should constantly accompany a person. In the morning and in the evening, day and night, a person can turn to God with the simplest words coming from the depths of his heart.

But there are also prayers that were compiled by saints in antiquity, they need to be read in order to learn prayer. These prayers are contained in the Orthodox Prayer Book. There you will find church prayers, morning, evening, penitential, thanksgiving, you will find various canons, akathists and much more. Having bought the "Orthodox Prayer Book", do not be alarmed that there are so many prayers in it. You don't have to all read them.

If the morning prayers are read quickly, it will take about twenty minutes. But if you read them thoughtfully, attentively, responding with your heart to every word, then reading can take an entire hour. Therefore, if you do not have time, do not try to read all the morning prayers, it is better to read one or two, but so that their every word reaches your heart.

Before the section “Morning Prayers” it is said: “Before you start praying, wait a little until your feelings subside, and then say with attention and reverence:“ In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen". Wait a little longer and only then start praying. ” This pause, “a minute of silence” before the beginning of the church prayer, is very important. Prayer must grow out of the silence of our heart. People who “read” the morning and evening prayers every day are constantly tempted to read the “rule” as soon as possible in order to get down to their daily activities. Often, with such reading, the main thing escapes - the content of the prayer. ...

In the prayer book there are many petitions addressed to God, which are repeated several times. For example, you might find a recommendation to read “Lord have mercy” twelve or forty times. Some take it as a formality and read this prayer at high speed. By the way, in Greek “Lord, have mercy” sounds like “Kyrie, eleison”. In the Russian language there is a verb “to play tricks”, which originated precisely from the fact that the psalmists in the kliros very quickly repeated many times: “Kirie, eleison”, that is, they did not pray, but “played tricks”. So, you don't need to play tricks in prayer. No matter how many times you read this prayer, it should be said with attention, reverence and love, with full dedication.

You don't have to try to read all the prayers. Better to devote twenty minutes to one prayer "Our Father", repeating it several times, pondering each word. It is not so easy for a person who is not used to praying for a long time, to immediately read a large number of prayers, but this does not need to be strived for. It is important to be imbued with the spirit that the prayers of the Church Fathers breathe. This is the main benefit to be derived from the prayers contained in The Orthodox Prayer Book.

7. PRAYER RULE

What is a prayer rule? These are prayers that a person reads regularly, every day. The prayer rule is different for everyone. For some, the morning or evening rule takes several hours, for others, a few minutes. It all depends on the spiritual constitution of a person, on the degree of his rootedness in prayer and on what time he has.

It is very important that a person fulfills the prayer rule, even the shortest one, so that there is regularity and constancy in prayer. But the rule should not turn into a formality. The experience of many believers shows that with the constant reading of the same prayers, their words fade, lose their freshness, and a person, getting used to them, ceases to focus on them. This danger must be avoided by all means.

I remember when I took monastic tonsure (I was twenty years old then), I turned to an experienced confessor for advice and asked him what prayer rule I should have. He said: “You must read the morning and evening prayers daily, three canons and one akathist. Whatever happens, even if you are very tired, you must read them. And even if you read them hastily and inattentively, it does not matter, the main thing is that the rule should be read. " I tried. It didn't work out. The daily recitation of the same prayers led to the fact that these texts quickly became boring. In addition, every day I spent many hours in the church at the services that spiritually nourished me, nourished, inspired me. And the reading of the three canons and the akathist turned into some kind of unnecessary "appendage". I started looking for another piece of advice that was more suitable for me. And he found it in the works of St. Theophan the Recluse, a remarkable ascetic of the 19th century. He advised the prayer rule to count not by the number of prayers, but by the time that we are ready to devote to God. For example, we can make it a rule to pray in the morning and in the evening for half an hour, but this half hour must be completely devoted to God. And it is not so important whether we read all the prayers during these minutes, or just one, or maybe we will devote one evening entirely to reading the Psalter, the Gospel or prayer in our own words. The main thing is that we are focused on God, so that our attention does not slip away and that every word reaches our hearts. This advice worked for me. However, I do not exclude that the advice I received from a spiritual father would be more suitable for others. Much depends on the individual's personality.

It seems to me that for a person living in the world, not only fifteen, but even five minutes of morning and evening prayer, if, of course, it is pronounced with attention and feeling, is enough to be a real Christian. It is only important that the thought always corresponds to the words, the heart answers the words of the prayer, and the whole life corresponds to the prayer.

Try, following the advice of St. Theophan the Recluse, to set aside some time for prayer during the day and for the daily fulfillment of the prayer rule. And you will see that it will bear fruit very soon.

8. DANGER OF ADDICTION

Every believer faces the danger of getting used to the words of prayers and distraction during prayer. To prevent this from happening, a person must constantly struggle with himself or, as the Holy Fathers said, “stand guard over his mind,” learn to “enclose the mind in the words of prayer”.

How can this be achieved? First of all, you cannot allow yourself to utter words when both mind and heart do not respond to them. If you start to read a prayer, but in the middle of it your attention is diverted, return to the place where your attention was scattered, and repeat the prayer. If necessary, repeat it three times, five, ten times, but make sure that your whole being responds to it.

Once in church a woman turned to me: “Father, I have been reading prayers for many years - both in the morning and in the evening, but the more I read them, the less I like them, the less I feel like a believer in God. The words of these prayers have become so boring to me that I no longer respond to them. ” I told her: “And you don't read morning and evening prayers ”. She was surprised: "That is how?" I repeated, “Come on, don't read them. If your heart doesn't respond to them, you must find another way to pray. How long does your morning prayer take you? " - "Twenty minutes". “Are you ready to devote twenty minutes to God every morning?” - “Ready”. “Then take one morning prayer — your choice — and read it for twenty minutes. Read one of her phrases, be quiet, think about what it means, then read another phrase, be silent, think about its content, repeat it again, think if your life corresponds to it, are you ready to live so that this prayer becomes a reality in your life ... You say: "Lord, deprive me not of Thy heavenly goods." What does this mean? Or: "Lord, deliver me eternal torment." What is the danger of these eternal torment, are you really afraid of them, do you really hope to avoid them? " The woman began to pray in this way, and soon her prayers began to revive.

Prayer must be learned. You need to work on yourself, you cannot allow yourself, standing in front of the icon, to utter empty words.

The quality of prayer is also affected by what precedes it and what follows. It is impossible to pray with concentration in a state of irritation, if, for example, we quarreled with someone before starting a prayer, yelled at someone. This means that at the time that precedes prayer, we must internally prepare for it, freeing ourselves from what prevents us from praying, tuning in to a prayer mood. Then it will be easier for us to pray. But, of course, even after prayer, one should not immediately plunge into vanity. After finishing your prayer, give yourself some more time to hear the answer of God, so that something sounded in you, responded to the presence of God.

Prayer is only valuable when we feel that thanks to it, something changes in us, that we begin to live differently. Prayer must bear fruit, and the fruit must be felt.

9. POSITION OF THE BODY AT PRAYER

In the practice of prayer in the Ancient Church, various postures, gestures, and body positions were used. They prayed standing, on their knees, in the so-called pose of the prophet Elijah, that is, kneeling with their head bowed to the ground, they prayed lying on the floor with outstretched hands, or standing with upraised hands. When praying, obeisances were used - earthly and in the waist, as well as the sign of the cross. Of all the variety of traditional body positions during prayer, a few remain in modern practice. This is, first of all, prayer standing and prayer on your knees, accompanied by the sign of the cross and bows.

Why is it important at all for the body to participate in prayer? Why can't you just pray in the spirit while lying in bed, sitting in a chair? In principle, you can pray both lying down and sitting: in special cases, in case of illness, for example, or while traveling, we do this. But under ordinary circumstances, it is necessary to use those positions of the body that have been preserved in the tradition of the Orthodox Church when praying. The fact is that the body and spirit in a person are inextricably linked, and the spirit cannot be completely autonomous from the body. It is no accident that the ancient Fathers said: "If the body does not work hard in prayer, then prayer will remain fruitless."

Go to an Orthodox church for the Lent service and you will see how from time to time all parishioners simultaneously fall to their knees, then rise, fall again and rise again. And so throughout the entire service. And you will feel that there is a special intensity in this service, that people do not just pray, they are working in prayer, they carry the feat of prayer. And go to a Protestant church. Throughout the service, worshipers sit: prayers are read, spiritual songs are sung, but people just sit, do not cross, do not bow, and at the end of the service they get up and leave. Compare these two ways of praying in church - Orthodox and Protestant - and you will feel the difference. This difference is in the intensity of the prayer. People pray to the same God, but they pray in different ways. And in many respects this difference is determined precisely by the position in which the body of the person praying is.

Bowing is very helpful in prayer. Those of you who have the opportunity to do at least a few bows and bows during the prayer rule morning and evening will undoubtedly feel how beneficial it is spiritually. The body becomes more collected, and when the body is collected, the concentration of mind and attention is quite natural.

During prayer, we should from time to time cross ourselves with the sign of the cross, especially saying “In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,” as well as pronouncing the name of the Savior. This is necessary, since the cross is the instrument of our salvation. When we place the sign of the cross on ourselves, the power of God is tangibly present in us.

10. PRAYER BEFORE ICONS

In church prayer, the external should not replace the internal. The outside can help the inside, but it can also hinder. Traditional body positions during prayer undoubtedly contribute to the state of prayer, but in no way can they substitute for the main content of the prayer.

We must not forget that some body positions are not available to everyone. For example, many elderly people are simply unable to bow down. There are many people who cannot stand for long. I have heard from elderly people: “I don’t go to church services because I cannot stand,” or: “I don’t pray to God because my legs hurt”. God does not need legs, but a heart. You cannot pray while standing - pray while sitting; you cannot pray while sitting - pray lying down. As one ascetic said, “it is better to think about God while sitting than to think about your feet while standing”.

Aids are important, but they cannot replace content. One of the important aids in prayer is icons. Orthodox Christians, as a rule, pray in front of the icons of the Savior, the Mother of God, saints, in front of the image of the Holy Cross. And Protestants pray without icons. And you can see the difference between Protestant and Orthodox prayer. In the Orthodox tradition, prayer is more specific. Contemplating the icon of Christ, we seem to be looking out the window that reveals to us another world, and behind this icon stands the One to whom we pray.

But it is very important that the icon does not replace the object of prayer, so that we do not turn to the icon in prayer and do not try to imagine the one who is depicted in the icon. The icon is only a reminder, only a symbol of the reality that stands behind it. As the Church Fathers said, "the honor given to the image goes back to the prototype." When we approach the icon of the Savior or the Mother of God and attach ourselves to it, that is, kiss it, we thereby express our love for the Savior or for the Mother of God.

The icon should not turn into an idol. And there should be no illusion that God is exactly what He is portrayed in the icon. There is, for example, the icon of the Holy Trinity, which is called the "New Testament Trinity": it is non-canonical, that is, it does not correspond to church rules, but in some churches it can be seen. This icon depicts God the Father as a gray-haired old man, Jesus Christ as a young man, and the Holy Spirit as a dove. In no case should you succumb to the temptation to imagine that the Holy Trinity looks like this. The Holy Trinity is a God Whom the human imagination cannot imagine. And, turning to God - the Holy Trinity in prayer, we must renounce any kind of fantasy. Our imagination should be free from images, our minds should be crystal clear, and our hearts should be ready to contain the Living God.

The car fell into a cliff, overturning several times. Nothing remained of her, but the driver and I were safe and sound. It happened in the early morning, about five o'clock. When I returned to the church where I was serving in the evening of the same day, I found several parishioners there who woke up at half past five in the morning, feeling the danger, and began to pray for me. Their first question was: "Father, what happened to you?" I think that by their prayers, both I and the person who was driving were saved from trouble.

11. PRAYER FOR THE NEIGHBOR

We must pray not only for ourselves, but also for our neighbors. Every morning and every evening, as well as being in church, we must remember our relatives, loved ones, friends, enemies and offer prayer to God for everyone. This is very important, because people are linked by inseparable bonds, and often the prayer of one person for another saves another from great danger.

In the life of St. Gregory the Theologian there was such a case. When he was still a young man, unbaptized, he crossed the Mediterranean by ship. Suddenly a strong storm began, which lasted for many days, and no one had any hope of salvation, the ship was almost sunk. Gregory prayed to God and during prayer saw his mother, who at that time was on the shore, but, as it turned out later, she felt danger and prayed intensely for her son. The ship, contrary to all expectations, safely reached the shore. Gregory always remembered that he owed his deliverance to his mother's prayers.

Someone might say, “Well, here's another story from the lives of ancient saints. Why doesn't this happen today? " I can assure you that it is still happening today. I know many people who, through the prayers of loved ones, were saved from death or great danger. And in my life there were many cases when I escaped danger through the prayers of my mother or other people, for example, my parishioners.

Once I got into a car accident and, one might say, miraculously survived, because the car fell into a cliff, overturning several times. Nothing remained of the car, but the driver and I were safe and sound. It happened in the early morning, about five o'clock. When I returned to the church where I was serving in the evening of the same day, I found several parishioners there who woke up at half past five in the morning, feeling the danger, and began to pray for me. Their first question was: "Father, what happened to you?" I think that by their prayers, both I and the person who was driving were saved from trouble.

We should pray for our neighbors, not because God does not know how to save them, but because He wants us to participate in saving one another. Of course, He Himself knows what each person needs - both us and our neighbors. When we pray for our neighbors, this does not mean that we want to be more merciful than God. But this means that we want to participate in their salvation. And we must not forget in prayer about the people with whom life has brought us, and that they are praying for us. Each of us in the evening, going to bed, can say to God: "Lord, through the prayers of all who love me, save me."

Let us remember the living connection between us and our neighbors, and we will always remember each other in prayer.

12. PRAYER FOR THE SOUL

We must pray not only for those of our neighbors who are alive, but also for those who have already passed away.

Prayer for the departed is necessary first of all for us, because when a loved one leaves, we have a natural feeling of loss, and from this we deeply suffer. But that person continues to live, only he lives in another dimension, because he has passed to another world. So that the connection between us and the person who has left us does not break, we must pray for him. Then we will feel his presence, feel that he has not left us, that our living connection with him remains.

But prayer for the deceased, of course, is also necessary for him, because when a person dies, he passes into another life in order to meet God there and answer for everything that he did in earthly life, good and bad. It is very important that a person on this path is accompanied by the prayers of his loved ones - those who have remained here on earth, who keep the memory of him. A person who leaves this world is deprived of everything that this world gave him, only his soul remains. All the wealth that he owned in life, everything that he acquired, remains here. Only the soul leaves the other world. And the soul is judged by God according to the law of mercy and justice. If a person has done something evil in life, he has to bear the punishment for this. But we, the survivors, can ask God to ease the lot of this man. And the Church believes that the posthumous lot of the deceased is alleviated through the prayers of those who pray for him here on earth.

The hero of Dostoevsky's novel "The Brothers Karamazov" Elder Zosima (whose prototype was St. Tikhon of Zadonsky) says about prayer for the dead: "For every day and when you can, say to yourself:" Lord, have mercy on all those who have appeared before You. " For at every hour and every moment thousands of people leave their lives on this earth, and their souls stand before the Lord - and how many of them parted from the earth separately, unknown to anyone, in sadness and longing, and no one will regret them ... And now, perhaps, from the other end of the earth, your prayer will ascend to the Lord for his repose, even if you do not know him at all, but he - you. How touching it is for his soul, which has become in fear of the Lord, to feel at that moment that there is a prayer book for him, that a human being and his loving one are left on earth. Yes, and God will look more mercifully on both of you, for if you have already pity him so much, then He will pity him more, infinitely more merciful ... And he will forgive him for your sake. ”

13. PRAYER FOR ENEMIES

The need to pray for enemies stems from the very essence of the moral teaching of Jesus Christ.

In the pre-Christian era, there was a rule: “Love your neighbor, and hate your enemy” (Matt. 5:43). It is in accordance with this rule that most people still live. It is natural for us to love our neighbors, those who do us good, and treat with hostility, if not hatred, towards those from whom evil comes. But Christ says that the attitude should be completely different: “Love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who offend and persecute you” (Matthew 5:44). Christ Himself during His earthly life repeatedly set an example of love for enemies and prayers for enemies. When the Lord was on the cross and the soldiers nailed Him, He experienced terrible torment, incredible pain, but He prayed: “Father! forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing ”(Luke 23:34). At that moment, he was not thinking about Himself, not about the fact that these soldiers were hurting Him, but about their salvation, for in doing evil, they primarily harmed themselves.

We must remember that people who harm us or treat us with dislike are not bad in themselves. The sin with which they are infected is bad. One must hate sin, not its bearer, man. As St. John Chrysostom said, "when you see that someone is doing you evil, hate not him, but the devil who is behind him."

You need to learn to separate a person from the sin that he commits. A priest very often observes during confession how sin is really separated from a person when he repents of it. We must be able to abandon the sinful image of man and remember that all people, including our enemies and those who hate us, are created in the image of God, and it is in this image of God, in those beginnings of good that are in every person, we must peer.

Why is it necessary to pray for enemies? It is necessary not only for them, but also for us. We must find the strength to be reconciled with people. Archimandrite Sophrony in his book about the Monk Silouan the Athonite says: "Those who hate and reject their brother are flawed in their existence, they cannot find the way to God, who loves everyone." This is true. When hatred for a person settles in our hearts, we are unable to approach God. And as long as this feeling persists in us, the path to God is barred to us. This is why it is imperative to pray for your enemies.

Each time we approach the Living God, we must be absolutely reconciled with everyone whom we perceive as our enemies. Let us remember what the Lord says: “If you bring your gift to the altar and there you remember that your brother has something against you ... go, first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift” (Matt. 5:23) ... And another word of the Lord: “Make peace with your adversary quickly, while you are still on the way with him” (Matt. 5:25). “On the way with him” means “in this earthly life”. For if we do not have time to make peace here with those who hate and offend us, with our enemies, then we will go into the future life uncompromising. And there it will be impossible to make up for what has been missed here.

14. FAMILY PRAYER

So far, we have talked mainly about a person's personal, individual prayer. Now I would like to say a few words about prayer with the family.

Most of our contemporaries live in such a way that family members get together quite rarely, at best twice a day - in the morning for breakfast and in the evening for dinner. During the day, parents are at work, children are at school, only preschoolers and retirees stay at home. It is very important that there are some moments in the daily routine when everyone can come together for prayer. If the family is going to dinner, why not pray together a few minutes before? You can also read prayers and a passage from the Gospel after dinner.

Joint prayer strengthens the family, because its life is truly fulfilling and happy only when its members are united not only by family ties, but also by spiritual kinship, common understanding and worldview. Joint prayer, in addition, has a beneficial effect on every member of the family, in particular, it is very helpful for children.

In Soviet times, it was forbidden to bring up children in a religious spirit. This was motivated by the fact that children must first grow up, and only then independently choose whether to follow a religious or a non-religious path. There is a deep lie in this argument. Because, before a person has the opportunity to choose, he must be taught something. And the best age for learning is, of course, childhood. It is very difficult for someone who from childhood to live without prayer, it is very difficult to accustom himself to pray. And a person, brought up from childhood in a prayerful, grace-filled spirit, from the first years of his life knew about the existence of God and that one can always turn to God, even if later he left the Church, from God, nevertheless kept in some the depths, in the spiritual recesses, the skills of prayer acquired in childhood, the charge of religiosity. And it often happens that people who have departed from the Church return to God at some stage in their lives precisely because in childhood they were accustomed to prayer.

One more point. Today, many families have relatives of the older generation, grandparents, who were brought up in a non-religious environment. Even twenty or thirty years ago, one could say that the church is a place for “grandmothers”. Now it is the grandmothers who represent the most irreligious generation, brought up in the 30s and 40s, in the era of “militant atheism”. It is very important that older people find their way to the temple. It is not too late for anyone to turn to God, but those of the young who have already found this path should tactfully, gradually, but with great constancy involve their older relatives in the orbit of the spiritual life. And through daily family prayer this can be done especially successfully.

15. CHURCH PRAYER

As the famous theologian of the 20th century, Archpriest Georgy Florovsky, said, a Christian never prays alone: ​​even if he turns to God in his room, closing the door behind him, he still prays as a member of the church community. We are not isolated individuals, we are members of the Church, members of one body. And we are not saved alone, but together with others - with our brothers and sisters. And therefore it is very important that each person has the experience of not only individual prayer, but also church prayer, together with other people.

Church prayer has a very special meaning and special meaning. Many of us know from our own experience how difficult it is sometimes for a person to plunge into the element of prayer alone. But when you come to the temple, you are immersed in the common prayer of many people, and this prayer takes you to some depths, and your prayer merges with the prayer of others.

Human life is like swimming across the sea or ocean. There are, of course, daredevils who, alone, overcoming storms and storms, cross the sea on a yacht. But, as a rule, people, in order to cross the ocean, get together and move on a ship from one coast to another. The church is a ship in which Christians move together on the path to salvation. And joint prayer is one of the most powerful means for moving forward on this path.

In the church, much contributes to church prayer, and above all worship. The liturgical texts that are used in the Orthodox Church are unusually rich in content; great wisdom is hidden in them. But there is an obstacle that many who come to the Church face - this is the Church Slavonic language. Now there is a lot of debate about whether to preserve the Slavic language in divine services or switch to Russian. It seems to me that if our divine service were entirely translated into Russian, a lot of it would be lost. The Church Slavonic language has great spiritual strength, and experience shows that it is not so difficult, not that much different from Russian. You just need to make some effort, just as we, if necessary, make an effort to master the language of a particular science, for example, mathematics or physics.

So, in order to learn how to pray in church, you need to make some effort, go to church more often, maybe buy basic service books and study them in your free time. And then all the richness of the liturgical language and liturgical texts will open before you, and you will see that worship is a whole school that teaches you not only church prayer, but also spiritual life.

16. WHY DO YOU NEED TO GO TO CHURCH?

Many people who occasionally visit the church develop some kind of consumer attitude towards the church. They come to the temple, for example, before a long journey - to light a candle just in case, so that nothing happens on the road. They come in for two or three minutes, hastily cross themselves several times and, after putting up a candle, leave. Some, entering the church, say: “I want to pay money so that the priest would pray about this and that,” they pay the money and leave. The priest must pray, but these people themselves do not participate in prayer.

This is a wrong attitude. The church is not an automatic machine for buying "sneakers": you put down a coin and a piece of candy falls out. The church is the place where you have to come to live and study there. If you are experiencing any difficulties or someone from your neighbors is sick, do not limit yourself to stopping by and lighting a candle. Come to church for worship, immerse yourself in the element of prayer and, together with the priest and the community, offer your prayer about what worries you.

It is very important that church attendance is regular. It is good to attend the temple every Sunday. The Sunday Divine Liturgy, as well as the Liturgy of Great Feasts, is the time when we can, having detached ourselves from our earthly affairs for two hours, plunge into the element of prayer. It is good to come to church with the whole family to confess and receive communion.

If a person learns to live from resurrection to resurrection, in the rhythm of church services, in the rhythm of the Divine Liturgy, then his whole life will change dramatically. First of all, it disciplines. The believer knows that next Sunday he will have to give an answer to God, and he lives in a different way, does not allow many sins that he could have committed if he did not attend church. In addition, the Divine Liturgy itself is an opportunity to receive Holy Communion, that is, to unite with God not only spiritually, but also bodily. And, finally, the Divine Liturgy is an all-encompassing service, when the whole church community and each of its members can pray for everything that worries, worries, or pleases. During the Liturgy, a believer can pray for himself, and for his neighbors, and for his future, bring repentance for sins and ask for God's blessing for further service. It is very important to learn to participate fully in the Liturgy. There are other services in the Church, for example, the all-night vigil, a preparatory service for the sacrament. You can order a prayer service to some saint or a prayer service for the health of this or that person. But no so-called “private” services, that is, those ordered by a person to pray for some of his specific needs, can replace participation in the Divine Liturgy, because it is the Liturgy that is the center of church prayer, and it is she who should become the center of the spiritual life of everyone Christian and every Christian family.

17. Tenderness and tears

I would like to say a few words about the spiritual and emotional state that people experience in prayer. Let us recall the famous poem by Lermontov:

In a difficult moment of life,
Is sadness squeezed in the heart:
One wonderful prayer
I repeat it by heart.
There is a blessed power
In consonance with the words of the living,
And the incomprehensible breathes
Holy charm in them.
From the soul as a burden will roll,
Doubt is far away -
And I believe and cry,
And so easy, easy ...

In these beautiful simple words, the great poet described what very often happens to people during prayer. A person repeats the words of prayers, perhaps familiar from childhood, and suddenly feels some kind of enlightenment, relief, tears appear. In church language, this state is called affection. This is the state that is sometimes given to a person during prayer, when he feels the presence of God more sharply and stronger than usual. This is a spiritual state when the grace of God directly touches our hearts.

Let us recall an excerpt from Ivan Bunin's autobiographical book The Life of Arseniev, where Bunin describes his youth and how, while still a high school student, he attended services in the parish church of the Exaltation of the Lord. He describes the beginning of the all-night vigil, in the twilight of the church, when there are still very few people: “How all this excites me. I'm still a boy, a teenager, but I was born with the feeling of all this. So many times I listened to these exclamations and, without fail, the next "Amen" after them, that all this became, as it were, a part of my soul, and now she, already guessing every word of service in advance, responds to everything with an especially kindred readiness. “Come, let us bow down ... Bless my soul the Lord,” I hear, and my eyes are covered with tears, for I already firmly know now that there is nothing more beautiful and higher than all this and cannot be anything on earth. And the holy mystery flows, flows, the Royal Doors are closed and opened, the vaults of the church are illuminated brighter and warmer with many candles. ” And then Bunin writes that he had to visit many Western churches where the organ sounded, to visit Gothic cathedrals, beautiful in their architecture, “but nowhere and never,” he says, “I did not cry like in the Church of the Exaltation in these dark and dull evenings ”.

Not only great poets and writers respond to the blessed influence with which church attendance is inevitably associated. Every person can experience this. It is very important that our soul is open to these feelings, so that when we come to church we are ready to accept the grace of God to the extent that it will be given to us. If the state of grace is not given to us and tenderness does not come, there is no need to be embarrassed by this. This means that our soul has not matured to tenderness. But moments of such enlightenment are a sign that our prayer is not fruitless. They testify that God responds to our prayer and the grace of God touches our hearts.

18. FIGHTING WITHOUT THOUGHTS

One of the main obstacles to attentive prayer is the appearance of extraneous thoughts. St. John of Kronstadt, a great ascetic of the late 19th - early 20th centuries, describes in his diaries how during the celebration of the Divine Liturgy, at the most responsible and sacred moments, an apple pie or some order that could be awarded to him suddenly appeared before his mind's eye ... And he speaks with bitterness and regret about how such extraneous images and thoughts can destroy the state of prayer. If this happened to the saints, then there is nothing surprising in the fact that it happens to us. To protect ourselves from these thoughts and extraneous images, we must learn, as the ancient Church Fathers said, “to stand guard over our minds”.

The ascetic writers of the Ancient Church had a detailed teaching on how an extraneous thought gradually penetrates into a person. The first stage of this process is called “admission,” that is, the sudden appearance of a thought. This thought is still completely alien to man, it appeared somewhere on the horizon, but its penetration inside begins when a person stops his attention on it, enters into a conversation with him, examines and analyzes it. Then comes what the Fathers of the Church called "combination" - when a person's mind is already, as it were, coaxing, merging with thought. Finally, the thought turns into passion and embraces the whole person, and then both prayer and spiritual life are forgotten.

To prevent this from happening, it is very important to cut off extraneous thoughts at their first appearance, not to allow them to penetrate into the depths of the soul, heart and mind. And to learn this, you need to work hard on yourself. A person cannot but experience absent-mindedness in prayer if he does not learn to fight with extraneous thoughts.

One of the diseases of modern man is that he does not know how to control the work of his brain. His brain is autonomous, and thoughts come and go involuntarily. Modern man, as a rule, does not follow what is going on in his mind at all. But in order to learn real prayer, you need to be able to keep track of your thoughts and mercilessly cut off those that do not correspond to the prayer mood. Short prayers help to overcome absent-mindedness and cut off extraneous thoughts - “Lord, have mercy”, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner,” and others, which do not require special focus on words, but dispose to the birth of feelings and movement of the heart. Through such prayers, one can learn to focus and focus on prayer.

19. JESUS ​​PRAYER

The apostle Paul says, “Pray incessantly” (1 Thess. 5:17). It is often asked: how can one pray incessantly if we work, read, talk, eat, sleep, etc., that is, do what seems to be incompatible with prayer? The answer to this question in the Orthodox tradition is the Jesus Prayer. Believers who practice the Jesus Prayer achieve unceasing prayer, that is, unceasing standing before God. How does this happen?

The Jesus Prayer sounds like this: "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner." There is also a shorter form: "Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me." But it is possible to reduce the prayer to two words: "Lord, have mercy." A person who performs the Jesus Prayer repeats it not only during worship or at home prayer, but also on the way, while eating and going to sleep. Even if a person speaks to someone or listens to another, then, without losing the intensity of perception, he nevertheless continues to repeat this prayer somewhere in the depths of his heart.

The meaning of the Jesus Prayer is, of course, not in its mechanical repetition, but in always feeling the living presence of Christ. This presence is felt by us primarily because, while pronouncing the Jesus Prayer, we are pronouncing the name of the Savior.

The name is the symbol of its bearer; in the name, as it were, there is the one to whom it belongs. When a young man is in love with a girl and thinks about her, he constantly repeats her name, because she seems to be present in his name. And since love fills his entire being, he feels the need to repeat this name over and over again. Likewise, the Christian who loves the Lord repeats the name of Jesus Christ because his whole heart and being is turned to Christ.

When performing the Jesus Prayer, it is very important not to try to imagine Christ, imagining Him as a person in any life situation or, for example, hanging on a cross. The Jesus Prayer should not be associated with images that may arise in our fantasy, because then the real is replaced by the imaginary. The Jesus Prayer should be accompanied only by an inner feeling of the presence of Christ and a feeling of standing before the Living God. No external images are appropriate here.

20. WHAT IS GOOD IN JESUS'S PRAYER?

The Jesus Prayer has several special properties. First of all, it is the presence of the name of God in it.

We very often remember the name of God as if out of habit, thoughtlessly. We say: “Lord, how tired I am,” “God is with him, let him come another time,” without thinking at all about the power that the name of God possesses. Meanwhile, already in the Old Testament there was a commandment: “Do not take the name of the Lord your God in vain” (Ex. 20: 7). And the ancient Jews treated the name of God with extreme reverence. In the era after the release from Babylonian captivity, it was generally forbidden to pronounce the name of God. This right was only with the high priest, once a year, when he entered the Holy of Holies, the main sanctuary of the temple. When we turn with the Jesus Prayer to Christ, then pronouncing the name of Christ and confessing Him as the Son of God has a very special meaning. This name should be pronounced with the greatest reverence.

Another property of the Jesus Prayer is its simplicity and accessibility. To perform the Jesus Prayer, you do not need any special books, or a specially designated place or time. This is its great advantage over many other prayers.

Finally, there is one more property that distinguishes this prayer - in it we confess our sinfulness: "Have mercy on me, sinner." This point is very important, because many modern people absolutely do not feel their sinfulness. Even in confession one can often hear: “I don’t know what to repent of, I live like everyone else, I don’t kill, I don’t steal,” and so on. Meanwhile, it is our sins that are, as a rule, the causes of our major troubles and sorrows. A person does not notice his sins because he is far from God, just as in a dark room we see neither dust nor dirt, but as soon as we open the window, it turns out that the room needs cleaning for a long time.

The soul of a person far from God is like a dark room. But the closer a person is to God, the more light becomes in his soul, the more acutely he feels his own sinfulness. And this happens not because he compares himself with other people, but because he stands before God. When we say: “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me, a sinner,” we, as it were, put ourselves before the face of Christ, compare our life with His life. And then we really feel like sinners and can bring repentance from the depths of our hearts.

21. PRACTICE OF PRAYER BY JESUS

Let's talk about the practical aspects of the Jesus Prayer. Some people set themselves the task of saying the Jesus Prayer during the day, say, one hundred, five hundred, or a thousand times. To count how many times the prayer is recited, a rosary is used, on which there may be fifty, one hundred or more balls. Saying a prayer in the mind, the person touches the rosary. But if you are just starting the feat of the Jesus Prayer, then you should pay attention first of all to quality, not quantity. It seems to me that one should begin with very slow reciting aloud the words of the Jesus Prayer, making sure that the heart participates in the prayer. You say: "Lord ... Jesus ... Christ ..." - and your heart should, like a tuning fork, respond to every word. And do not strive to immediately read the Jesus Prayer many times. Let you say it only ten times, but if your heart responds to the words of the prayer, this will be enough.

A person has two spiritual centers - the mind and the heart. Intellectual activity, imagination, thoughts are connected with the mind, and emotions, feelings, experiences are connected with the heart. When reciting the Jesus Prayer, the heart should be the center. That is why, while praying, do not try to imagine something in your mind, for example, Jesus Christ, but try to keep attention in your heart.

The ancient church ascetic writers developed the technique of “bringing the mind into the heart”, in which the Jesus prayer was combined with the breath, and on the inhale it was pronounced: “Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God” - and on the exhale: “have mercy on me, sinner”. A person's attention naturally switched from head to heart. I do not think that everyone should practice the Jesus Prayer in this way; it is enough to say the words of the prayer with great attention and reverence.

Start your morning with the Jesus Prayer. If you have a free minute in the afternoon, read the prayer a few more times; in the evening, before going to bed, repeat it until you fall asleep. Learning to wake up and fall asleep with the Jesus Prayer will give you tremendous spiritual support. Gradually, as your heart becomes more and more responsive to the words of this prayer, you can come to the point that it will become unceasing, and the main content of the prayer will not be the uttering of words, but the constant feeling of the presence of God in your heart. And if you started by saying the prayer out loud, then gradually you will come to the fact that only the heart will say it, without the participation of the tongue or lips. You will see how prayer will transform your whole human nature, your whole life. This is the special power of the Jesus Prayer.

22. BOOKS ABOUT THE PRAYER OF JESUS. HOW IS IT CORRECT TO PRAY?

“Whatever you do, whatever you do at all times - day and night, pronounce with the lips of these Divine verbs:“ Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner ”. It is not difficult: while traveling, on the road, and during work - whether you chop wood or carry water, or dig earth, or cook food. After all, one body is working in all this, and the mind is idle, so give it something that is proper and decent to its immaterial nature - to pronounce the name of God. ” This is an excerpt from the book “On the Caucasus Mountains”, which was first published at the beginning of the 20th century and dedicated to the Jesus Prayer.

I would like to emphasize that this prayer should be learned, and preferably with the help of a spiritual guide. In the Orthodox Church there are teachers of prayer - among monastics, pastors and even laity: these are people who themselves, through experience, have learned the power of prayer. But if you do not find such a mentor - and many complain that it is difficult to find a mentor in prayer now - then you can turn to such books as "On the Caucasus Mountains" or "Frank Stories of a Wanderer to His Spiritual Father." The latter, which came out in the 19th century and was reprinted many times, speaks of a man who decided to learn to pray incessantly. He was a wanderer, went from city to city with a bag over his shoulder and with a staff, and learned to pray. He repeated the Jesus Prayer several thousand times a day.

There is also a classic five-volume collection of works of the Holy Fathers from the 4th to the 14th century - "Philosophy". This is the richest treasury of spiritual experience, it contains many instructions about the Jesus Prayer and about sobriety - the attention of the mind. Anyone who wants to learn how to pray truly should be familiar with these books.

I also cited an excerpt from the book “On the Caucasus Mountains” because many years ago, when I was a teenager, I happened to travel to Georgia, to the Caucasus Mountains, not far from Sukhumi. There I met with hermits. They lived there even in Soviet times, far from the bustle of the world, in caves, gorges and abysses, and no one knew about their existence. They lived by prayer and passed on from generation to generation the treasure of prayer experience. These were people, as it were, from another world, who had reached great spiritual heights, deep inner peace. And all this thanks to the Jesus Prayer.

May God let us learn through experienced mentors and through the books of the Holy Fathers this treasure - the unceasing performance of the Jesus Prayer.

23. "OUR FATHER, IS IN HEAVEN."

The Lord's Prayer has a special significance because it was given to us by Jesus Christ Himself. It begins with the words: "Our Father, Who art in heaven," or in Russian: "Our Father, who art in heaven." , and for the salvation of the soul. The Lord gave it to us so that we know what to pray for, what to ask God for.

The first words of this prayer: "Our Father, Who art in heaven" - reveal to us that God is not some distant abstract being, not some abstract good principle, but our Father. Today, very many people, when asked whether they believe in God, answer in the affirmative, but if you ask them how they think about God, what they think about Him, they answer something like this: “Well, God is good, this is something bright, it’s some kind of positive energy ”. That is, they treat God as a kind of abstraction, as something impersonal.

When we begin our prayer with the words “Our Father,” we immediately turn to the personal, living God, to God as Father - the Father about whom Christ spoke in the parable of the prodigal son. Many people remember the plot of this parable from the Gospel of Luke. The son decided to leave his father without waiting for his death. He received the inheritance due to him, went to a distant country, squandered this inheritance there, and when he had already reached the last limit of poverty and exhaustion, he decided to return to his father. He said to himself: “I will go to my father and say to him: Father! I have sinned against heaven and before you and am no longer worthy to be called your son, but accept me among your mercenaries ”(Luke 15: 18-19). And when he was still far away, his father ran out to meet him, threw himself on his neck. The son did not even have time to say the prepared words, because the father immediately gave him a ring, a sign of filial dignity, put on his old clothes, that is, completely restored him to the dignity of a son. This is how God treats us. We are not mercenaries, but sons of God, and the Lord treats us as His children. Therefore, our relationship to God should be characterized by devotion and noble filial love.

When we say: "Our Father" it means that we do not pray in isolation, as individuals, each of whom has his own Father, but as members of the one human family, the one Church, the one Body of Christ. In other words, when we call God Father, we mean that all other people are our brothers. Moreover, when Christ teaches us to turn to God “Our Father” in prayer, He puts Himself, as it were, on the same level with us. The Monk Simeon the New Theologian said that through faith in Christ we become brothers of Christ, because we have a common Father with Him - our Heavenly Father.

As for the words “Like you are in heaven,” they do not indicate the physical sky, but that God lives in a completely different dimension than we do, that He is absolutely transcendental to us. But through prayer, through the Church, we have the opportunity to join this heaven, that is, to the other world.

24. "LET THY NAME BE HOLY"

What do the words “Hallowed be thy name” mean? The name of God is holy in itself, it carries a charge of holiness, spiritual power and the presence of God. Why is it necessary to pray with these words? Doesn't the name of God remain holy even if we don't say, “Hallowed be thy name”?

When we say: “Hallowed be thy name,” we first of all mean that the name of God must be sanctified, that is, be revealed as holy through us Christians, through our spiritual life. The Apostle Paul, addressing unworthy Christians of his time, said: “For your sake the name of God is blasphemed by the Gentiles” (Rom. 2:24). These are very important words. They talk about our inconsistency with the spiritual and moral standard that is contained in the Gospel and according to which we, Christians, are obliged to live. And this discrepancy, perhaps, is one of the main tragedies both for us as Christians and for the entire Christian Church.

The Church possesses holiness because it is built on the name of God, which is holy in itself. Members of the Church are far from meeting the standards that the Church puts forward. Often one hears reproaches, and absolutely fair ones, against Christians: “How can you prove the existence of God if you yourself live no better, and sometimes even worse than pagans and atheists? How is faith in God combined with unworthy deeds? " So, each of us should ask ourselves the question every day: “Do I, as a Christian, live up to the gospel ideal? Is the name of God sanctified through me or blasphemed? Am I an example of true Christianity, which is love, humility, meekness and mercy, or am I an example opposite to these virtues? "

Often people turn to the priest with the question: “What should I do to bring my son (daughter, husband, mother, father) to church? I tell them about God, but they don’t want to listen ”. The problem is that just isn't enough talk about God. When a person, having become a believer, tries to convert others to his faith, especially his loved ones, with the help of words, persuasion, and sometimes through coercion, insisting that they pray or go to church, this often gives the opposite result - his loved ones have rejection of everything ecclesiastical and spiritual. We will be able to bring people closer to the Church only when we ourselves become real Christians, when they, looking at us, say: “Yes, now I understand what the Christian faith can do to a person, how it can transform him, change him; I begin to believe in God because I see how Christians differ from non-Christians. "

25. "LET YOUR KINGDOM COME"

What do these words mean? After all, the Kingdom of God will inevitably come, there will be the end of the world, and humanity will pass into another dimension. Obviously, we are not praying for the end of the world, but for the Kingdom of God to come. to us, that is, to make it a reality our life so that our today's - everyday, gray, and sometimes dark, tragic - earthly life was permeated with the presence of the Kingdom of God.

What is the Kingdom of God? To answer this question, you need to turn to the Gospel and remember that the preaching of Jesus Christ began with the words: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matt. 4:17). Then Christ spoke to people about His Kingdom many times, He did not mind when He was called King - for example, when He entered Jerusalem and He was greeted as the King of the Jews. Even standing at the trial, reviled, slandered, slandered, to Pilate's question, asked, apparently with irony: “Are you the King of the Jews?”, The Lord replied: “My kingdom is not of this world” (John 18: 33-36) ... These words of the Savior contain the answer to the question of what the Kingdom of God is. And when we turn to God, “Thy kingdom come,” we ask that this non-worldly, spiritual, Christ's kingdom become a reality of our life, so that in our life that spiritual dimension appears, about which much is spoken about, but which so few know by experience.

When the Lord Jesus Christ spoke to the disciples about what awaits Him in Jerusalem - torment, suffering and a godmother - the mother of two of them said to Him: Your kingdom ”(Matthew 20:21). He talked about the fact that He must suffer and die, and she imagined a Man on the royal throne and wanted her sons to be next to Him. But, as we remember, the Kingdom of God was first manifested on the cross - Christ was crucified, bleeding, and a sign hung over Him: "King of the Jews." And only then the Kingdom of God was revealed in the glorious and salvific Resurrection of Christ. It is this Kingdom that is promised to us - the Kingdom that is given by great efforts and tribulations. The path to the Kingdom of God lies through Gethsemane and Golgotha ​​- through those trials, temptations, sorrows and sufferings that fall to the lot of each of us. We must remember this when we say in prayer: "Thy kingdom come."

26. "LET THERE BE YOUR WILL, AS IN HEAVEN AND ON EARTH"

We pronounce these words so easily! And very rarely do we realize that our will may not coincide with the will of God. Indeed, sometimes God sends us suffering, but we find ourselves unable to accept them as sent by God, we grumble, we are indignant. How often do people, coming to a priest, say: "I cannot agree with this and that, I understand that this is the will of God, but I cannot humble myself." What can you say to such a person? Do not tell him that, apparently, in the Lord's prayer he needs to replace the words “Thy will be done” with “My will be done”!

Each of us needs to fight to ensure that our will coincides with the good will of God. We say: "Thy will be done, as in heaven and on earth." That is, the will of God, which is already being done in heaven, in the spiritual world, must be done here, on earth, and above all in our life. And we must be ready to follow the voice of God in everything. You need to find the strength to give up your own will for the sake of fulfilling the will of God. Often, when we pray, we ask God for something, but we do not receive it. And then it seems to us that the prayer was not answered. We need to find the strength to accept this “refusal” on the part of God as His will.

Let us remember Christ, who, on the eve of His death, prayed to His Father and said: "My Father, if possible, may this cup pass from Me." But this cup did not pass him, which means that the answer to prayer was different: Jesus Christ had to drink the cup of suffering, sorrow and death. Knowing this, He said to the Father: “But not as I want, but as You” (Matt. 26: 39-42).

This should also be our attitude to God's will. If we feel that some kind of sorrow is approaching us, that we are about to drink a cup for which we may not have enough strength, we can say: “Lord, if possible, may this cup of sorrow pass me by, carry it pass me by". But, like Christ, we must end the prayer with the words: "But not my will, but Thine be done."

God must be trusted. Often children ask their parents for something, but they do not give, because they consider it harmful. Years will pass, and the person will understand how right the parents were. This is the case with us. Some time passes, and we suddenly realize how much more wholesome was what the Lord sent us than what we would like to receive of our own free will.

27. "OUR BREAD, GIVE US A DAY"

We can turn to God with a variety of petitions. We can ask Him not only for something sublime and spiritual, but also for what we need on the material level. “Daily bread” is what we live by, our daily food. Moreover, in prayer we say: “Give us our daily bread today ”, that is, today. In other words, we are not asking God to provide us with everything we need for all the next days of our life. We ask Him for daily food, knowing that if He nourishes us today, He will nourish us tomorrow. By pronouncing these words, we express our trust in God: we trust Him with our lives today, as we will trust it tomorrow.

The words "daily bread" indicate what is necessary for life, and not some excesses. A person can embark on the path of acquisitiveness and, having what is necessary - a roof over his head, a piece of bread, minimal material wealth - begins to engage in hoarding, to live luxuriously. This path leads to a dead end, because the more a person accumulates, the more money he has, the more he feels the emptiness of life, feeling that there are some other needs that cannot be satisfied with material goods. So, “daily bread” is what is needed. These are not limousines, not luxurious palaces, not millions of dollars, but this is something that neither we, nor our children, nor our relatives can live without.

Some people understand the words "daily bread" in a more sublime sense - as "supra-essential" or "super-essential". In particular, the Greek Church Fathers wrote that “the super-essential bread” is the bread that comes down from heaven, in other words, it is Christ Himself, whom Christians receive in the sacrament of Holy Communion. This understanding is also justified, because, in addition to material bread, a person also needs spiritual bread.

Everyone puts their own content into the concept of "daily bread". During the war, one boy, while praying, said: “Give us this day our dried bread,” because the main food was rusks. What the boy and his family needed to sustain life was dried bread. It may seem funny or sad, but it shows that every person - both old and young - asks God for exactly what he needs most, without which he cannot live a single day.