1. What is Prayer?
Prayer is like breathing. Without breathing we
cannot live. When we breathe, air enters our lungs, cleanses the blood in our
veins by relieving it of the carbon dioxide, and supplying it with oxygen. If
I do not breathe for a few minutes I die. When I have hard physical work to
do, I need more air than when I am sleeping or sitting in a chair.
Fortunately God has so ordained that we do not die
spiritually just because we have failed to pray for sometime. But where there
is no prayer sin accumulates and the proper functioning of the spiritual life
becomes obstructed. And if you have important spiritual work to do you need
more prayer than otherwise. Only those who pray constantly are exercising
their spiritual muscles.
Prayer is communion or communication with God -opening
ourselves to Him and receiving His love. It is by living consciously in this
relationship of love that we can be transformed into the image of God. By
prayer we become more like God, more loving, more wise, more powerful, more
kind and good.
In prayer we are cleansed of the accumulated
impurities of our life and we are supplied with power to live a good, kind
and holy life.
Prayer is not a
matter of asking God for all kinds of things. Some teen-agers speak to their
earthly father only when they need money. We should not become like them in
relation to our heavenly Father - going to Him only when we need something.
The relationship is valuable in itself, as in all true love. It is not what
we get out of it that matters, but the fact that we are in communion with our
loving Heavenly Father.
2. Why Pray?
Does not God know what we need, even before we ask
him? Why does He want us to ask? Does prayer change God’s will in any way?
Can my prayer change the future that God has already determined?
These are legitimate questions that need to be
answered. The Bible says clearly ‘your Father knows what you need before you
ask Him’ (
Prayer is thus a way of becoming good by using our
freedom to turn towards the good and to will the good. By prayer we become
like God. God is good and wills the good. We should also become like God in
willing and desiring what is good. By communion with God we also learn to
desire the good which God also desires.
God said: ‘Let there be light’ and there was light.
And God saw that the light was good (Gen. 1:3-4). What God willed became
reality. We are to become like God. So we must also acquire the capacity to
will the good, and it will happen as we desire, when we become more and more
like God. Prayer is an expression of our will in desiring the good and realising it. When we are delivered from selfishness,
pride, and evil desires, our prayers will become more like the creative Word
of God, which merely by saying ‘let there be light’ can create light.
God has made us partakers of His own divine nature.
He has called us to share in God’s own glory and excellence (2 Pet. 1:4).
When we trust in God and live a life of discipline, prayer, worship, virtue,
knowledge, godliness, brotherly affection and love (2 Pet. 1:5-8), we are
transformed into God’s likeness and share in His divine power. God wants us
to have a part in the task of shaping this world through prayer and knowledge
and work.
By prayer we do change reality. God has given us
that power. But this power is not available to us until we become more
godlike. That is why the prayers of the saints are more effective than our
own prayer - because they are more god like than we are. If the power to
change the world by our will is in the hands of evil men, they will make the
world evil. We have to grow in the capacity for prayer by developing the
habits of prayer and loving service.
And our prayers should not be selfish. In prayer the
first focus is God. The second focus is other people. Only in the third place
should we ask things for ourselves. In the Lord’s Prayer all the first
petitions are focused on God - His name, His kingdom, His will. This is the
way our prayer should also be. We pray that God’s purposes may be established
in the lives of all people, that evil may be banished from the earth, that
all men may live together in peace and justice, praising God the centre and
source of all good. Even in the prayers that ask for daily food, for forgiveness
and for protection from evil, the first person singular (I, me) is not used
in the Lord’s Prayer. We ask things for us, for all men.
When we all pray
with love and faith, without selfishness or pride, our prayer changes things.
God has more laws than the laws of physical science. He can make prayer
achieve ‘miracles’ of healing and transformation which cannot be explained by
medical science. Our science knows only some of God’s laws. Prayer is also
subject to certain laws. It is the same power of God which operates in the
scientific realm, and in the realm of prayer.
In prayer, we are never alone. Not even alone with
God. Especially in group prayer, we commemorate all those who are members of
the Body of Christ, for it is as a member of the Body that we pray, and the
other members are always with us. This is why we commemorate the Prophets,
Apostles, the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Martyrs, the Saints, the great
Teachers and all the faithful departed and all the faithful living.
3. How Pray?
Prayer has to be learned. It is like swimming. When
you are first thrown into the water, yo may sink.
You then may think that the law of gravity is final and cannot be changed.
But there are other laws, like those of buoyancy and motion. The mere
knowledge of these laws cannot teach you to swim. One jumps in and slowly, by
repeated practice, acquires the skills of remaining afloat and of moving on
the surface of or under the water. And some people are more skillful swimmers
than others, because they have learned the rules and acquired the skills by
constant practice.
The first rule in prayer as in swimming, is not
to give up just because you do not succeed in the first three or four
attempts. Prayer is a spiritual skill to be acquired by constant
practice.
The second rule, again as in swimming is to ‘let
go’, to let the water support you, to be unanxious and relaxed. In prayer also we have to let ourselves go, relax, trust in God
to support you and teach you how to pray.
The third rule is to keep up the practice, even if
you do not feel like it, or enjoy it. In the life of prayer, our inherent
love of sensual pleasures and our selfish love of laziness and comfort, will
interfere to make us reluctant to keep up the practice, finding various
excuses for not praying. There is no use saying ‘I don’t feel like praying’
or ‘I do not get anything from it.’ It will take years before you get
the habit of prayer and really begin to enjoy it. One must strengthen the
will to have control over the laziness of the body and the desires of the
flesh if one is to make progress in the art and skill of prayer. There is
nothing like regular practice which can teach you to pray.
A fourth rule, closely connected with the third, is: develop the discipline of prayer through fasting and self-control. Man
does not become free and good like God until he learns to control his own
inner drives and passions. Restraint of hunger and thirst, of anger and
jealousy, of sexual passion, of the desire for glory and flattery, of the
desire for bodily excitement and for sensual stimulation, and of all inner
turbulences which make us do things against our own free will, is a necessary
preparation for prayer. As good athletes competing for the Olympic Games go
through very rigorous self discipline in order to keep their body, muscles
and nerves in good condition, so should the man of prayer keep his body, mind
and spirit and good condition and under conscious control.
A fifth rule is to use our whole body and even
material things in the service of prayer. Prayer is an act of the whole
man, body, soul and spirit - not simply an act of the mind. The body can
participate in prayer through posture, speech, and acts:
(a) Posture - In our Eastern tradition, the posture for prayer in standing, facing east,
with arms uplifted or folded in adoration and worship.
(b) Focus - It is good to have a focal point outside - a cross with two candles on
each side, icons or pictures of Christ, of the Blessed Virgin Mother and of
the Saints, or even a more elaborate prayer - altar fixed in some part of the
house, where the whole family assembles for prayer. Crucifixes, i.e. crosses
with the representation of the crucified body of Christ on it, belong to the
Western tradition and are not to be encouraged in our tradition. In choosing
pictures, it is best to use eastern icons. Pictures with the sacred heart of
Christ or of the Virgin Mother are to be avoided, because these belong to a
particular period in Latin piety and are not helpful for a balanced
spirituality.
(c) Lips
and Mouth - The body must pray - not merely the mind. Let your lips and
mouth sing the praises of God, even if your mind does not always follow. The
act of the lips and mouth is also your act of prayer, even without the
concentration. Singing is better than saying your prayers, for in the very
music certain human attitudes and aspirations are expressed.
(d) Wandering
of the mind - Do not get anxious about the wandering of your mind. When
you become aware that your mind is wandering, bring it back by consciously
offering your wandering mind also to God. It is part of our confession about
ourselves. “This is what I am Lord, distracted and unable to
concentrate. I offer myself to Thee as I am. Take my wandering and distracted
mind, and heal it by Thy grace.” God will forgive you and transform you
gradually.
(e) Gestures - Use the gestures of prostration, bowing the head, making the sign of the
cross, and giving the kiss of peace. Words are not the only means of
expression we have. Folding the hands and bowing is a sign of adoration, and
of waiting for a blessing. Lifting up your hands with palms open, can mean
petition, penitence, and intercession. Prostration is like Sashtangapranama, the sign of complete surrender
and submission, placing yourselves in the hands of God with full trust.
Making the sign of the cross is a way of reminding ourselves that we have
been saved by the Cross of Christ, in fact crucified with Christ. Keep your
three fingers together (thumb, index and middle fingers) to touch the
forehead (symbolizing the Trinity, the source of all life and all good) and
make a descending motion to the lower side of your chest to signify the
descent of the Son of God from heaven to earth for our salvation, then take
your fingers from your left arm to your right arm signifying both the
horizontal arm of the cross, and the fact that we who were on the left as
children of darkness, have now been brought to the right side of God as
children of light. Giving the kiss of peace is the symbol of mutual
forgiveness and love, and it is a time for us to overcome all feelings of
bitterness or anger against members of the family or others outside.
All these signs are part of a language which goes
much deeper than words and transforms our sub-conscious minds which words can
seldom reach.
A sixth rule is to keep the balance between group
prayer and personal prayer. Man is not primarily an individual. It is as
a member of the Body of Christ that he has any standing before God. Therefore
it is important for us to come into the presence of God regularly as a
community - as a family as a youth group, as a local congregation. And a
community is composed of all kinds of people, not all of them exactly like
you. They have different tastes, different ways of praying, different habits
of prayer. I have to join them even sometimes when I think that their way of
worship is not what it should be. Without participating in community worship
and making the necessary adjustments necessary for joining them, we cannot
get rid of our selfishness and pride, and grow to be a real human being.
But community worship is not enough by itself. We
need various levels of community with varying degrees of intensity of
relationship. The youth group and the family are more intimate communities
than the congregation. New forms can be used in these smaller groups which
will be difficult or unfamiliar for the congregation as a whole. The prayers
in this book are mainly meant for family and group worship, but can also be
used for personal prayer in the privacy of your own room at home or in the
hostel.
In addition to these forms, however, some other
forms of prayer should be mastered for personal use. The most effective and
useful of these forms is called ejaculatory prayer. These are one - sentence
prayers which one can repeat as many times as necessary, no matter, where or
when. You can say them in your mind when you are waiting for a bus; when you
are anxious about something; when you are facing temptation, when you feel
bored and lonely, while you are lying in bed, comfortable and too lazy to get
up; while going to bed and when sleep does not come immediately, and so on.
The following are some of the possible forms of
ejaculatory prayer:
1. Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, be merciful to me
a sinner.
2. O God, Thou art my God. I love Thee. I am Thine for ever.
3. Lord, you are my Master and Lord, I give myself
to Thee.
4. Lord, keep me in Thy ways, keep me from all evil.
5. Lord, have mercy, Lord, have mercy, Lord have
mercy upon me.
You can make up your own forms of prayer, for here
the Church lays down no rules for personal prayers. Of these forms above, the
first was a favourite with the monks, and is known
as the ‘Jesus Prayer.’’ They used to recite it thousands of times in a day as
a sort of Mantra. In Mount Athos, the monks
trained themselves to say this prayer along with every breath. They would say
“Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God” with every inhaling breath, hold the breath
in the lungs for a few seconds and then exhale, saying “be merciful to me a
sinner.” The idea was that the prayer should become as incessant an action as
breathing, that the Lord Jesus Christ should become established in your heart
as a deity is in a temple, and that you should constantly be in an attitude
of prayer and repentance.
These forms of personal prayer as well as others
should be developed. Each child of God has a right to speak to God any time
and at all times, using his or her own words. There are no Church rules for
personal prayer. It is an act of your personal freedom, and therefore is all
the more pleasing to God when you use your own personal intimate language.
Personal prayer enriches group prayer; common prayer in the family, group or
congregation enriches one’s personal prayer; neither should be neglected. The
two should balance each other. But the use of extemporary prayer is not to be
encouraged in group worship.
A seventh rule is that prayer should be nourished
by the reading of the scriptures and meditation. One can discipline one
self to read a chapter of scripture every day.
Read aloud or silently. Meditate on the meaning of
the passage. Devotional books may be helpful, but may also obscure the
meaning of the scripture. Do not worry about whether the reading of scriptures
gives you a feeling of devotion or not. Feelings are deceptive. What you need
to find out is the answer to the following questions: “What was God saying to
the people of that time through this passage? What does God say to me now?”
Systematic reading of the scriptures and memorizing
some passages which touch you deeply will be found very helpful as life
advances. You will be grateful to God in your middle age that you started
reading and memorizing when your mind was still impressionable.
Conclusion
All these rules are to
help you to become a praying Christian. Only your own sustained and
disciplined practice will make you perfect. But remember one thing. Prayer
can never be isolated from the common worship of the Eucharist and from the
continuous, active compassionate love for your fellowmen. Let us all pray:
“Lord, Teach us to pray. Amen.”
(Written for Orthodox young people in India)