Contents
What is prayer?
How to pray correctly?
About mechanical prayer
About three types of prayer
Prayer of repentance
How to learn to pray in your own words?
References

Prayer is a conversation between the soul and God. How to pray to be heard? What is the main thing in a person’s turning to God and how to acquire heartfelt prayer? Is it possible to pray “in your own words”? Why does true deep prayer require first repentance and then thanksgiving? What spiritual substitutions exist during prayer and how to avoid them in your inner life? You will find answers to these and other questions about prayer, the most important problem and one of the most important virtues of Orthodoxy, in this publication.

What is prayer?

Before we start talking about prayer, let’s try to figure out what the word “prayer” actually means. To be brief, prayer is a dialogue with the invisible, or, as St. teaches in the Catechism. Filaret of Moscow1, prayer is a conversation between the soul and God.

Thus, despite the common idea of ​​prayer as a request or a person’s appeal to higher powers, in fact, prayer is precisely a dialogue, a conversation between individuals. And it is precisely this revelation about prayer that our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ brought to us, teaching us the main address to God: “Our Father”! Of course, we can learn from the entire Holy Scripture that prayer is precisely a conversation with God, and not a human monologue addressed to some power. Listen to the passionate words addressed specifically to the Person, to the Living God, of Moses and King David, the prophets and righteous Job. You and I, often turning prayer into a monologue (and from the outside it most often looks like unintelligible muttering under our breath of texts from the prayer book or the Psalter), we become like the pagans, whose idols are deaf and dumb. Therefore, when praying, the pagan remains alone. In prayer-dialogue, even if a person does not hear the interlocutor, he is somehow confident, firstly, in the existence, and secondly, in the presence of this interlocutor. Thirdly, of course, a person hopes that his prayer will be heard.

In everyday life, we can come across many examples of completely non-religious (in the classical understanding of what religion is) prayer or dialogue with the invisible. Here is a person who has lost a loved one, comes to his grave and talks to him – this is also a dialogue. Formally, we don’t seem to see… More precisely, we see completely ordinary objects: a stone, a photograph, maybe a cross that stands on a grave. There is no person in front of us. But we are not talking to an abstract spirit. We are talking with a dear and close person. Probably, if deep down we did not believe that we could be heard, we would not do this.

In general, any prayer is an integral part of a religious cult, and, of course, not only Christian. And here, so that we can continue the conversation with you, we need to say a few words about what religion is in general.

The word “religion” itself comes from the Latin verb “religare,” which means “to bind.” This concept can be interpreted in different ways, of which for you and me, of course, the most important is the interpretation of St. Augustine, who says that man and God are connected. Thus, prayer becomes one of the main ways a person interacts with God.

Moreover, from the Holy Scriptures we know that in fact God does not need anything from us except prayer, that is, communication with us: He does not need slaughtered calves, nor the fruits of the earth, He expects our love from us.

How does paganism imagine prayer? For a pagan, prayer is inextricably linked with sacrifice. He makes a certain sacrifice to a certain deity and asks in return for what he needs. That’s all the interaction is. The sacrifice has been made – the deity must give us something in return.

It is very characteristic that in primitive pagan cults (this is clearly recorded in many historical documents and cultural monuments), if one or another idol stopped responding to the requests of the priests, this idol could be punished or destroyed. And then make (carve out of stone or carve out of wood) a new idol and build your relationship with it: He burns part of the wood in the fire, with the other part he cooks meat for food, fries a roast, and eats his fill, and also warms himself, and says: “okay, I’m warmed up; I felt the fire.” And from the remnants of that he makes a god, his idol, worships him, prostrates himself before him, and prays to him, and says: “Save me; for you are my God” (Isaiah 44:16–17).

We can take away a very important point from this historical fact. When we are interested in how to pray in order to be heard, it turns out that this is not so much a sublime desire for communication with God as it is pagan roots. Very often we don’t even think about who and how our prayer should be heard. We just really want and even demand that it be heard, and not just heard, but fulfilled, because in everyday thinking, “heard” and “fulfilled” are one and the same thing.

These claims to deity in the modern world are the basis of numerous spiritual practices that are associated with a variety of Eastern and mystical cults. Such practices and cults imply penetration into the other world, where you can “catch luck by the tail.”

You can open any newspaper – there are whole pages of advertisements: “love spell, lapel, spell for good luck, for business, for family” – for anything. Pagan consciousness clearly proclaims: “If I don’t know how to interact with otherworldly forces and influence them, there is another person who can.” There is a “specialist” who knows how to get from fate what I personally need, or rather, what I want at the moment.

And the pagan has one problem – how to learn to correctly pronounce the correct (necessary) words. By the way, in the Orthodox Church a huge number of questions arise on the topic of “correct prayers.” Especially, of course, among people who are just starting to go to church, whose consciousness has not yet changed, remaining captive of “folk magic.” Every priest remembers the questions that are most often asked at the candle box by heart: “Which icon should I pray to?”, “Which icon should I light a candle for?”, “Which prayer service should I order?” It turns out that for many “believers” the question “How to pray to be heard?” a whole system of pagan magic is hidden. People sincerely believe that in the Church there is some secret knowledge hidden from everyone about what needs to be done “so that prayer is heard and fulfilled.” And as soon as a person learns this terrible secret, writes down the text of a rare prayer, everything will immediately begin to work out for him: his illnesses will go away, his husband will stop drinking, and his children will begin to get straight A’s in their grades.

But such transactions with the Most Holy Trinity, fortunately, are impossible. Our Lord and Creator wants from us “mercy, not sacrifice,” asks us to give Him our hearts: our trust, love, thirst for truth. And then and only then, when we thirst for truth and love, and not for a husband and an apartment, our prayers will be heard and fulfilled. Only when our eyes tear away from the contemplation of property and rush to the contemplation of God, will we see the Kingdom of Heaven and feel it in ourselves. Then everything else will follow.

Of course, the Lord, in His great mercy, heals us from illnesses, helps us with housing, and saves children. But only if we have faith at least as big as a mustard seed and if there is a chance to grow from it a huge fruitful tree of life in Christ. And whoever does not have it, even what he has will be taken away, according to the immutable word of the Gospel.

How to pray correctly?

One day, as you and I remember from the Gospel of Matthew, the disciples asked Christ a question about how to pray correctly: “Lord, teach us to pray, as John (meaning John the Baptist – note) taught his disciples.” The Lord Jesus Christ answered: “When you pray, say: “Our Father who art in heaven.” Hallowed be Thy name…”, etc.

When you and I pay attention to this prayer (very short, much shorter than our favorite canons and akathists), we see that in it we seem to be asking nothing special from God. Only “give us this day our daily bread,” “forgive us our debts,” and “deliver us from evil.” Not so much against the backdrop of numerous everyday troubles and incidents. It turns out that everything that God suggests asking from Him is very short and very simple. He invites us not to be verbose and not to ask for something that we can NEVER be completely sure of for ourselves. I’ll explain with an example. One day, a certain parishioner persistently prayed to the Lord to help her son avoid military service, since she was very afraid that he would end up in a “hot spot.” The son was indeed not accepted into the army – he was found to have a latent form of tuberculosis, and he soon died. Can her prayer be considered heard? We ourselves do not know what we are asking for ourselves and how it will later affect our lives. Maybe our main request should be: “Lord, teach me to want only what I really need, and deliver me from the desire for what is not useful to me”?

Here is another aspect of correct prayer. Here is St. John Chrysostom says: “Christ gave us a model of prayer, teaching us that being heard by God does not depend on many words, but on the vigilance of the soul.” This is also a very important point. We, of course, pay attention to the exploits of certain saints when we read, for example, in the life: for several nights an ascetic stands on a stone. Some nights another, repeating his feat, also goes out at night and prays in such a way as to beg God to stop the disaster or save someone. What does the saint do? Does he simply pronounce words or does he turn his whole self to God? Praying means shedding bloody sweat, and not just repeating words with your lips. And how often, when we try to follow this path, we are guided by the illusion that everything will work out if we, for example, pray more or pray at night. If we find some correct texts. If we finally learn the Church Slavonic language so that we can understand what we say.

Yes, of course, understanding what we say is a very important point. And night prayer lifts our mind to God. But only with the appropriate mood of the heart. After all, God doesn’t care whether we pray during the day or at night, in Church Slavonic or in Russian. God needs our desire for Him and our desire to do His will – a true will and full of love. If we simply mechanically repeat those or in other words, it is only possible to say that we pray

About mechanical prayer

There is an opinion that everything has already been tried in one form or another and different ways to “be heard” and achieve your goals.

For example, alchemy, the predecessor of modern chemistry, was very popular in the Middle Ages. Alchemy was based on the hypothesis (by the way, absolutely true) that the material world and the spiritual world are interconnected. They do not exist simply as two separate states. They intersect somewhere. Accordingly, the alchemists were convinced: if you know the correct forms of interaction between the visible and invisible worlds, then everything will be possible, including the transition of matter from one state to another, the transformation of lead into gold.

Perhaps if the alchemists had set themselves other goals, they would have achieved greater success. But all their efforts began to focus on the material aspect. And when the Church in the Middle Ages encountered alchemical experiments, it opposed them precisely because it believed: the world was created by God as it is. No need to redo it. We need to learn to live in it so that both the person and the world feel good. So that we, being the same creation of God as plants or animals, remain in harmony with all creation. If the Lord, having given us the Holy Spirit and the gift of words, made us ruler over the rest of creation, will we not be held accountable for how we ruled the world? Will He not exact from us, as from the careless servant from the parable of the Gospel, who, in the absence of the owner, drank, walked and beat others, and when the owner came, was severely punished for his negligence?2 Or like a faithful slave, whom the owner rewarded and brought closer to himself?3

Among the texts that alchemists tried to use when experimenting with chemicals were texts of prayers. But the alchemist believed: it doesn’t matter at all whether he understands what the text means or not. Knowing the meaning does not matter – what is important is accurate knowledge of the text and some additional components, ritual actions: outlining a magic circle, drawing the Seal of Solomon (pentagram), etc.

We, like those same alchemists, often believe that prayer necessarily requires certain conditions. Prayer requires a temple. If you are not in church, there is no prayer. The usual question is: “Why did you come to the temple?”, as is the usual answer: “To pray.” Good answer. Beautiful. But not enough. After all, through personal, secret prayer, a person is called to pray absolutely anywhere and at any time. And people go to church not only for prayer. A temple is a place where worship and the Sacraments are performed. A temple is a place of common prayer, during which the Church, visible and invisible, is formed from individual people. The place where the Lord Jesus Christ Himself descends to us in the Holy Gifts. In church we pray collectively – together. But we personally must pray, as the Apostle Paul calls us, at all times and in all places.

From the martyrdom, suffering and victorious experience of the persecution of our Church in the Soviet years, we know that prayer saved people in completely inhuman conditions: in camps and logging sites, in foundries and punishment cells, in psychiatric clinics and prisons. We need prayer in itself; it is appropriate at any time and in any matter.

Of course, it’s good to have an icon. It’s good when you have the opportunity to light a candle or lamp. It’s good to have privacy. Amazing. But is all this a guarantee that, in fact, we will be heard? After all, all of the listed actions that we perform when we stand for prayer are a ritual. By themselves, without our heartfelt burning, without tearful sighing and repentant crying, without the joy and gratitude with which our hearts burn, ritual actions are dead, just as the rituals of the Pharisees were dead, waiting for God and not accepting Him, because He violated these very rituals and did not correspond to ideas about correct religious behavior.

Of course, rituals and rituals are needed. They discipline the body, tune the mind, and train the will. But they are always just a means, and never an end. Our goal is prayer, the conversation of the soul with God.

Probably, every person who at least once appealed to God with one or another request was convinced that after saying the words of a prayer, not every time the heavens opened and a hand stretched out from there, giving what was asked. Why is this so? Is it because there is no one there? Sometimes, without asking for what they want, many stop praying and lose faith. But the Apostle James explains in his Council Epistle: You ask and do not receive, because you ask not for good, but to use it for your lusts (James 4:3).

Often you have to talk with young people who clearly formulate: “I asked once, asked twice, asked three times – nothing happens. So there’s nothing.” And for them it is completely logical. If you press a button and get no result, then the TV remote control is not working. This iron logic of household appliances is transferred to relationships with God. And vice versa, sometimes they say with surprise: “You know, I asked Him – and it happened. So, does He really exist?

God cannot be approached by human standards. God is not obligated to fulfill our desires! Moreover, there are desires that are simply criminal to fulfill. God sees everything we have done and not done: in His existence there is no time, as in ours. He is the Creator of all things, including us and our time. We move along a complex trajectory in space and time, obeying physical laws. He is the Lord of time and space. He is outside of these categories. He knows everything, so he knows what can be done and what cannot be done. We do not have a button from God, but God has power over us. But God gave us the freedom to choose between good and evil. And if we ask not for good, God “does not hear” us – does not fulfill our requests.

What about our prayers? Yes, and prayer, like any art, has degrees of mastery. The first of them is a “mechanical” prayer, a reading one. But we need to learn even such prayer.

“It seems that what could be simpler and more natural for us if not prayer, or the aspiration of our hearts to God? And yet it does not happen to everyone and does not always happen. It must be aroused and the excited one must be strengthened, or, what is the same, one must cultivate in oneself a spirit of prayer. The first way to do this is through reading, or listening, prayer. Perform prayers properly and you will certainly awaken and strengthen the ascent in your heart to God, or you will enter into the spirit of prayer,” says St. Theophan the Recluse.

“Our prayer books contain the prayers of St. Fathers – Ephraim the Syrian, Macarius of Egypt, Basil the Great, John Chrysostom and other great ascetics. Being filled with a spirit of prayer, they expressed what was inspired by this spirit in word and conveyed it to us. Great prayer power moves in their prayers, and whoever delves into them with all his attention and zeal will, by virtue of the law of interaction, certainly taste the power of prayer as his mood draws closer to the content of the prayer. In order for our prayer to become a real means of cultivating prayer, we must perform it in such a way that both the thought and the heart perceive the content of the prayers that make it up. For this, I will indicate three simplest methods: do not begin prayer without preliminary, albeit brief, preparation, do not do it haphazardly, but with attention and feeling, and do not immediately after finishing the prayers proceed to ordinary activities.

Even though prayer is the most common thing for us, it is impossible that it does not require preparation. What is more common than reading or writing for those who can read and write? Meanwhile, however, when we sit down to write or read, we do not suddenly begin the task, but rather hesitate a little before, at least enough to put ourselves in a suitable position. All the more necessary are preparatory actions for prayer before prayer, especially when the previous activity was from a completely different area than the one to which prayer belongs.

So, when starting to pray in the morning or evening, wait a little, or sit, or walk, and try at this time to sober up your thoughts, distracting it from all earthly affairs and objects. Then think about who is the One to whom you turn in prayer, and who you are who now has to begin this prayerful appeal to Him – and accordingly, arouse in your soul a mood of self-abasement and reverent fear of standing before God in your heart. This is all the preparation – to stand reverently before God – small, but not insignificant. This is where prayer begins; a good start is half the battle.

Having thus established yourself internally, then stand in front of the icon and, after bowing a few times, begin the usual prayer: “Glory to Thee, our God, glory to Thee! “Heavenly King, Comforter, Soul of Truth, come and dwell in us,” and so on. Read slowly, delve into every word and bring the thought of every word to your heart, accompanying it with bows. This is the whole point of reading a prayer that is pleasing and fruitful to God. Delve into every word and bring the thought of the word to your heart, otherwise, understand what you read and feel what you understand. No other rules are required. These two – understand and feel – when performed properly, adorn every prayer with full dignity and impart to it all its fruitful effect. You read: “cleanse us from all filthiness” – feel your filthiness, desire purity and confidently seek it from the Lord. You read: “forgive us our debts, just as we forgive our debtors” – and in your soul forgive everyone, and in your heart, ask the Lord for forgiveness to everyone who has forgiven everyone. You read: “Thy will be done” – and in your heart completely commit your fate to the Lord and unquestioningly express your readiness to graciously accept everything that the Lord pleases to send you. If you act this way with every verse of your prayer, then you will have proper prayer.

To be able to do it this way more successfully, do this:

1) have a prayer rule, with the blessing of your spiritual father, a small one – one that you could fulfill slowly, during the normal course of your affairs;

2) before you pray, in your free time, read through the prayers included in your rule, fully understand each word and feel it, so that you know in advance what should be in your soul at which word, and even better, if you memorize the prescribed prayers. When you do this, it will be easy for you to understand and feel during prayer. One difficulty will remain: the fleeting thought will continue to run off to other objects. Here’s what you need:

3) you need to use tension to maintain attention, knowing in advance that the thought will run away. Then, when she runs away during prayer, return her; If he runs away again, come back again; like this every time. But every time you read something while your thoughts are running away and, therefore, without attention or feeling, do not forget to read it again; and, even if your thought wanders off in one place several times, read it several times until you read it with understanding and feeling. Once you overcome this difficulty, another time, perhaps, it will not be repeated or will not be repeated with such force. This is what you should do when a thought runs away and dissipates. But it may also be that another word will have such a strong effect on the soul that the soul will not want to extend further in prayer, and even though the tongue reads the prayers, the thought still runs back to the place that had such an effect on it.

In this case: 4) stop, don’t read further; but stay in that place with attention and feeling, nourish your soul with it or with the thoughts that it will produce. And do not rush to tear yourself away from this state; so, if time is pressing, it is better to leave the rule unfinished, and do not ruin this fortune. It will overshadow you, perhaps all day, like a Guardian Angel! This kind of beneficial influence on the soul during prayer means that the spirit of prayer begins to take root, and, therefore, maintaining this state is the most reliable means of nurturing and strengthening the spirit of prayer in us.

Finally, when you finish your prayer, do not immediately move on to some other activity, but also at least wait a little and think about what you have accomplished and what this obliges you to, trying, if you are given something to feel during prayer, to preserve it after prayer. However, if someone accurately performs his prayer as it should, he himself will not want to quickly become preoccupied with matters. Such is the nature of prayer! What our ancestors said when they returned from Constantinople: whoever tastes sweet will not want bitter; this comes true for everyone who prays well during his prayer. And one must know that tasting this sweetness of prayer is the goal of prayer, and that if prayer cultivates the spirit of prayer, it is through this tasting.

If you follow these few rules, you will soon see the fruit of your prayerful labor. And whoever fulfills them without this instruction, of course, already eats this fruit. Any prayer will leave a trace of prayer in the soul, its continuous continuation in the same order will root it, and patience in this work will instill a spirit of prayer. May the Lord grant it to you, through the prayers of our Most Pure Lady Theotokos!

It was I who showed you the first, initial method of cultivating the spirit of prayer, i.e. performing prayers in accordance with its purpose, at home in the morning and evening and here in the temple. But that’s not all. Another way, if God helps, I will indicate tomorrow. Amen”4.

About three types of prayer

We have just read the wonderful words of the great prayer book St. Theophan the Recluse. Now we know how we should pray at the first stage of our learning to pray.

But our question is the same: what else should be in prayer in order for us to be heard? Probably, the wonderful words of Abba Dorotheus can partly help us: “If you ask for seed for your field, then first fertilize the field to receive the seed.” This means that a prayer cannot be heard and fulfilled if there are no conditions for its hearing and fulfillment in a person’s life.

In everyday life, we will not come to our boss and ask him to make us ballerinas if we have worked all our lives as factory foremen or Russian language teachers. Even if the boss wants to help us, he is unlikely to make our backs flexible, our muscles resilient, and our movements perfect. Moreover, instantly. All this requires years of training.

But for some reason we are sure that if we ask God for a husband or money, health or success, we have every reason to receive it. But not everyone can accommodate the gift! They don’t pour new wine into old wineskins, for the skins will burst and the wine will leak out onto the ground… Isn’t this what the short Gospel parable about old wineskins and new wine5, old clothes and new patches6 reminds us of?

The Lord cannot give what we cannot accept.

It is rare that a person, without imagining all the consequences, will be ready to sincerely ask the Lord: “Punish me,” “Make me become different.” Most often this is just a kind of formal pose, but in reality we are usually asking for something completely visible, understandable, obvious and tangible. About material things! About what seems to us an unconditional and absolute good: about money, health, success. But are these goods really so absolute, from God’s point of view? After all, we need to accumulate treasures for ourselves not on earth, where rust destroys them and moths eat them, but in heaven – then our hearts, and you and I, will also be there.

In general, prayer (returning to terminology again) implies three types, three varieties: prayer-repentance, prayer-petition and prayer-thanksgiving. But most often (again, if we are talking about some such general idea), for some reason the prayer of thanksgiving is completely forgotten. When they say, for example, that a person went to church, one immediately thinks: he went to atone for sins or needs to urgently get something (a car, an apartment, an “A” on an exam, etc., etc.).

The problem is that the mere recognition that there is a certain supernatural entity, a certain absolute (spiritual and governing this world), does not mean that we are praying to God.

So, we come to where we started our conversation: our often irreligious prayer. A conversation with a deceased relative or many hours of, I can’t say otherwise, “zeal” somewhere around the Mausoleum with the words: “Lenin is always alive.” This is also such a non-religious prayer. Yes, the presence of a certain being is recognized that can somehow influence my life. But the cult of the ancient Aztecs, which implied human sacrifices, was also “for a reason”! People were killed on pagan altars for the sake of a good harvest and so that the sun would rise and give life. And the priests, taking out the hearts of the victims and showing them to the sun, said prayers. So the life of many, the life of an entire people, was contrasted with the life of one person. Moreover, archaeological research carried out in Central America suggests that the person who was sacrificed believed that his sacrifice was the greatest honor and that, in general, he was giving his life for the good of the people! He did not feel like a victim (offended by life) in our understanding. No, on the contrary, he believed that he was giving his life so that the whole country would not starve or would win a war with another people, another tribe.

Returning to what prayer is from the point of view of an Orthodox Christian, we come to the conclusion that such an approach is unacceptable. God, as the prophets say throughout Old Testament history, does not need blood sacrifices. God needs us to change our lives and our ideas about Him. But people could not do this on their own. Then God descended to earth, became incarnate from the Most Pure Virgin in the chosen people, lived his life as a perfect Man and God, and with His Death on the Cross made a single Sacrifice for the whole world. God proved by His Own Sacrifice that He does not need any blood sacrifices. He only needs one thing: for us to help God change what is happening in the world. So that together with God we try to overcome the consequences of original sin.

Let us recall once again the meaning of the term “religion” – “to bind”. The most important thing is that we again learn to connect the human being and the Divine essence here on earth. This requires fulfilling the will of God. But in order to understand this will, the ability to turn to the Bearer of this will is required – to God.

Now there is such a fashionable word – “goal setting”. What goal do we set for ourselves when, for example, we adopt the country’s annual budget or vote in elections? And what kind when we build a temple? When do we turn to God?

Most often it turns out that we think something like this: “I want it to happen at any cost! – my wish was fulfilled. How much do you need to pay for this? Stand on a rock for a week – we’ll stand on a rock for a week. I need to fast for forty days – I will fast for forty days.” We most often forget the words from the Lord’s Prayer, which Christ Himself gives us: “Thy will be done, as it is in heaven and on earth.” We forget this. We say: “No, our desire, our will. No, we want it.” We still place our will, our desire, and, finally, our understanding of the situation, what is better and what is worse, above the Divine will.

At St. Theophan the Recluse’s letters7 contain a very clear idea that you need to pray very specifically. There are no small things for God. He is interested in a person – just as we are interested in what is happening to our child. What he does, what he does, what he breathes, what excites him. There are no small things for us in his life if he is interesting to us. Why do we think that God might not be interested or important in us?

In this regard, let us return to what words should be prayed. To what extent can and should you use a prayer book and to what extent can you allow yourself to pray your own (prayer in your own words)? You need to pray very specifically!

Prayer must be specific. Prayer must, of course, come from the heart. But from a heart that is prepared! Once again I will repeat the words of Abba Dorotheus: “If you ask for seed for your field, prepare the field.” If a person, without changing his life, tries to turn to God (again for earthly, material goods) and does not receive, then there is no need to be surprised. This person is not ready to receive.

There is a wonderful song, seemingly paradoxical, “The Prayer of Francois Villon” by Bulat Okudzhava. It is all built on such contradictions: “Give a head to a smart man, give a horse to a coward.” This is absolutely accurate. In fact, although surprisingly, Bulat Shalvovich wrote this song thirty years before he received Baptism. And he was baptized on the day of his death, a few hours before it. However, it turns out that inside the person was already able to accept God. Accept and understand extremely accurately what the relationship between God and man should look like.

Of course, language is an important topic when talking about prayer. Language and words in general. How to pray? To pray according to the prayer book, to pray in Church Slavonic, in Russian?

Firstly, we need to formulate it differently: not “what words to pray with,” but “how.” A prayer from a pure heart will be heard. Prayer in the right words… What then are called the right words? Sorry, the Psalms of David were written in Hebrew, partly in Aramaic. So you need to pray like this? Or do you already need to pray in the Greek translation? This means that this is not a question of language, but of cultural tradition.

There is a very good wise saying. Maybe God hears not the words of the prayer, but its melody. Of course, the musician said this, but he said it smartly, wisely, because God looks into the heart. This – “God looks into the heart” – determines a lot.

Why? Let’s take a look at our prayer books. They contain, for example, a morning rule, an evening rule, a rule for preparing for Communion, etc. Almost all of these texts, if we look, have subtitles. It is written: “Prayer number two, John Chrysostom,” prayer number such and such, Simeon Metaphrast, etc. Once upon a time, these texts were personal prayers, personal texts of this or that person (of course, most often a saint). And then, written down and rewritten by their students, they have reached our time. Someone sent someone in a letter: “Pray, here is a prayer for you,” and sent in a letter a prayer he had composed as his gift. Having been written down, such texts gradually entered church practice.

When the Church invites us to pray, in particular according to the prayer book, this is not a dead canon, not a formula for success. This is an invitation to reflect, an invitation to dialogue. So that when we see it, we try to accept it. So that when we see and read this text, we try to compare its words, its ideas with ourselves, relate them to ourselves, our inner state and needs. How a musician learns scales: he does not play scales to the public, he does not express his feelings with scales, even after becoming a composer, he does not write scales. He writes music. But in order for his heart to give birth to a melody, he must tune it to notes, translate the mood into notes, learn to put together a piece of music from notes.

Prayers are texts that are many, many years old. They exist in church practice: in Latin, in Greek, in Church Slavonic. Available in Russian translations. Another thing is that now there is no approved generally accepted Russian translation. But this does not mean that, read in Russian, this or that prayer will not be heard by God. Of course not.

Moreover. It is probably wrong to say that any prayer may not be heard by God. God hears any prayer. The question is whether we hear His answer and whether we are ready to accept this answer. The question is, strictly speaking, whether there will be an answer from God – the answer to us will be silence. After all, the answer may also lie in silence. We know this from communicating with other people, from relationships in the family.

There are no people who are incapable of spiritual life. We just often don’t think about it. But in the process, sometimes many years, of turning to God, a person changes. Forced to change. He gradually becomes different, begins to understand what he is asking for, why he is asking for it. And sometimes he begins to understand that, in fact, he has been asking for the wrong thing for many years.

As you know, in Orthodoxy one of the main prayer texts is the so-called Jesus Prayer: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God! Have mercy on me, a sinner.” Briefly, extremely briefly, although this is a full-fledged prayer and there is a fairly large number of its explanations, interpretations, explanations of all meanings. Including how it should be performed: with prostrations, etc. But the most important thing in this prayer is the feeling of the constant presence of God, the constant presence of Him.

There is a well-known expression: “At least take out the saints.” I think everyone has heard it – but not all of us understand what it is about. And the meaning is that if some kind of revelry and fun or foul language began somewhere, then the images – icons – had to be taken out of the room. The feeling that if there is no icon in the room, then you can misbehave; on the one hand, it is naive. On the other hand, it is very dangerous, because it creates the feeling that you can hide from God.

As soon as a person has a desire to hide from God, God sees it Himself. God does not force Himself. As soon as a person begins to lose touch with God, the question must arise: to what extent will such a person’s prayers be heard?

Prayer of repentance

One type of prayer is probably worth talking about in more detail – repentance. Repentant prayer, of course, like no other, needs our personal experience, our personal participation. If you can give thanks in general words, even if you can ask in general words, written in a prayer book, then saying “I’m guilty” and at the same time simply enumerating a certain list copied from a book is probably not entirely correct. Repentance in the Christian understanding is a personal experience. We ask God to intervene in our lives, to change our lives.

Beauty is not needed in confession. We do not need to beautifully state the sin in order for the priest to listen. In confession, the form is not at all important; it does not matter in what order you tell about what you did. In confession, more than anywhere else, sincerity is necessary, and only sincerity. Well, I still feel this today. Today and now I want to change and I ask God to help me with this.

Let’s try to learn for ourselves to separate confession as a church Sacrament and confession as prayer. Confession, like prayer, can occur throughout the day. At any time I look after myself and notice: now I said the wrong thing, but now I went in the wrong direction and looked the wrong way, thought something bad. If I have already learned to relate myself primarily to the person of Christ, then, having thought or done something inappropriate, I make the sign of the cross or simply say to myself: “Lord, forgive me! Lord, have mercy!” – this is how I confess my sin. And when coming to confession as a church sacrament, I first of all must isolate from the multitude of my sins the main thing that I truly want to reject, leave, what I want to cleanse myself from, what I have the determination and hope to never commit again, what I want to be saved from before this sin or passion takes me captive.

Man, due to his fallen nature, is subject to passions. Moreover, when we say that prayer is a conversation between the soul and God, an appeal to the Invisible, penetration into the spiritual world, then let us not forget that it is not only God who acts in the spiritual world. There is also a “dark force” at work within him—fallen spirits, or demons.

Of course, fallen spirits will always, until the very last moment of our earthly life, make efforts to destroy us: to turn us away from communication with God, from His saving Grace. And demons can destroy us, lead us astray from our spiritual path very simply: by catching on to all kinds of passions, all kinds of human weaknesses. Man is not only a spiritual or material being. Man is a union of soul and body, a union of two worlds – spiritual and physical. And as a being with a body, he obeys the physical laws of our world, often exaggerating for himself the importance of physical health, material well-being, and the emotions that delicious food, a soft bed, and good weather bring. But let us return once again to the petition expressed in the Lord’s Prayer “Our Father.” What are we asking for? About our daily bread. Not about nice bread, or tasty bread, or fresh bread, or even about cake! Only about the essentials, i.e. necessary. And when we really learn to ask for our daily bread, then we will be satisfied. Then we will get what we need. After all, the daily bread in this prayer is not only bread in the form of a loaf or bagel. This is what a person truly needs to maintain his life – both biological and spiritual.

God has no illusions that a person can live without food or without rest. Therefore, when Christ meets the disciples after His Resurrection, in one situation He asks them to eat, and in another He Himself tells them: “Come to dinner.” God knows very well that the human body needs food and rest. Therefore, for example, in the Gospel we see: after five thousand people were fed with five loaves, He sends His disciples to rest. God knows very well that our strength is limited.

This is how in prayer our requests and physical needs are connected with spiritual needs. And returning to the conversation about types of prayer, let me remind you that there is petition, repentance and thanksgiving. All three types of prayer, on the one hand, should be present in our lives every day. On the other hand, there is a church service in which they are all brought together. This is Liturgy.

It is no coincidence that the Russian Orthodox tradition united two great Sacraments – Confession (Repentance) and Communion. It is no coincidence that the eating of Heavenly Bread is preceded by repentance at Confession, petition at litanies, and only then, in the center, is thanksgiving – the Eucharist. By such steps a person ascends to God. And we understand that in fact, if we seriously think about the relationship between God and ourselves, then very rarely we are worthy of God not only to receive something, but even to ask.

I’ll give you a typical example from life that I don’t want to talk about, but needs to talk about. As soon as you ask people who are absolutely sure that they are Orthodox, what is the first commandment, they name everything except “love your God with all your heart.” Well, they don’t remember! They don’t remember that, it turns out, everything we do makes sense not as a “moral code of the builders of communism”, not as some kind of spiritual frame of the Criminal Code, but as a system of personal relationships based on a clear understanding of the hierarchy of the world. That at the basis of everything is the First Cause, God. God the Creator and man as a person whom God raises to Himself.

Until I have prepared myself for this meeting, I cannot ask Him for anything. How can I prepare myself? By repentance. Having at least somehow prepared myself for repentance, I can begin to ask. It was not for nothing that the Savior spoke the parable of the wedding garments. Without clean wedding clothes, how do we dare to begin the Divine Meal? How will we come to the feast of the King?

How many times have I myself had to say: “Today I came to church with a question, a request, and heard an answer. In a sermon, in Scripture, from a random person, maybe, but God found an opportunity to answer me.” Many times these words were spoken by other people, so this experience is not isolated, not unique. This is a church practice that can be used by anyone. “He who has ears, let him hear…”

In order to be heard, you need to pray from a pure heart. In order to be heard, you need to pray, preparing yourself for prayer. In order to be heard, we need to understand that our whole life, all circumstances, everything that happens to us is God’s answer to our prayers. We shouldn’t be surprised that sometimes the answer doesn’t suit us. We are not talking to the student, but to the Teacher. Not with a subordinate, but with the Creator of the entire Universe. God gives an answer to everyone, the main thing for a person is to learn to listen and hear Him!

How to learn to pray in your own words?

And in conclusion, to make it clearer what prayer is in my own words, I will continue the words of St. Theophan on prayer: “Yesterday I showed you one way to cultivate the spirit of prayer in yourself, namely: performing our prayers in accordance with its purpose. But here is only the beginning of the science of prayer; we must go further. Remember how they learn, for example, languages. First, they learn words and figures of speech from books. But they don’t stop at this one thing, but try to achieve it with help, and actually get to the point that they themselves, without the aid of a memorized speaker, conduct a correctly long speech in the language they are learning. This is what we must do in the matter of prayer. We learn to pray according to prayer books, praying through ready-made prayers handed down to us by the Lord and the Holy Fathers, who excelled in prayer. But it shouldn’t stop there; we must further stretch ourselves and, having become accustomed with our mind and heart to turn to God with outside help, we must make experiments in ascending to Him – and our own, to reach the point where the soul itself, so to speak, with speech, enters into a prayerful conversation with God, ascends to Him itself and reveals itself to Him and confesses what is in it and what it desires.

And this is what the soul must be taught. I will tell you briefly what you must do in order to succeed in this science.

And the skill of praying according to prayer books with reverence, attention and feeling leads to this. For just as water pours out of a vessel that is overflowing by itself, so from a heart filled with holy feelings through prayer, its own prayer to God will begin to pour out of its own accord. But there are also special rules directed exclusively towards this goal, which everyone who wants success in prayer must follow.

Why is it, tell me, how many years they sometimes pray according to prayer books – and still do not have prayer in their hearts? By the way, I think it’s because only at that time do some people strain to ascend to God when they perform the prayer rule; at all other times they will not remember God. For example, they finish their morning prayers and think that in relation to God everything is fulfilled; then all day long it’s just business after business, but they won’t even turn to God; Perhaps in the evening it will come to the thought that again soon you need to go to prayer and perform your prayers. This is why it happens that even if the Lord gives some good feeling in the morning, it is drowned out by the bustle and busyness of the day. That is why there is no desire to pray in the evening, a person cannot control himself in any way to soften his soul even a little, and prayer is generally poorly sung and matured. It is this wrong (isn’t it almost universal?) that needs to be corrected, i.e. it is necessary to make sure that the soul not only turns to God when you stand in prayer, but throughout the entire day, as much as possible, it continually ascends to Him and remains with Him. For this, throughout the day it is necessary to cry out to God more often from the heart in short words, judging by the need of the soul and current affairs. You start by saying, for example: “Bless, Lord!” When you finish the job, say: “Glory to You, Lord!”, and not only with your tongue, but also with the feeling of your heart. Any passion that arises, say: “Save me, Lord, I am perishing.” The darkness of disturbing thoughts finds itself, cry out: “Bring my soul out of prison!” Wrong deeds lie ahead and sin attracts you to them, pray: “Guide me, Lord, on the path” or: “Do not let my feet become troubled.” Sins suppress and lead to despair, cry out in the publican’s voice: “God, be merciful to me, a sinner.” So anyway. Or simply say often: “Lord, have mercy”; “O Lady Theotokos, have mercy on me”; “Angel of God, my Holy Guardian, protect me” – or cry out in some other word. Just make these appeals as often as possible, trying in every possible way so that they come from the heart, as if squeezed out of it. When we do this, we will often make intelligent ascents to God from the heart, frequent appeals to God, frequent prayer, and this frequency will impart the skill of intelligent conversation with God.

But in order for the soul to begin to cry out like this, it is necessary first to force it to turn everything into the glory of God – every one of its deeds, big and small. And this is the second way to teach the soul to turn to God more often during the day. For if we make it a law for ourselves to fulfill this apostolic commandment, to do everything for the glory of God, even pits and pits (1 Cor. 10:31), then we will certainly remember God in every action, and let us remember not simply, but with caution, lest in any case we act wrongly and offend God in some way. This will make you turn to God with fear and prayerfully ask for help and admonition. Just as we almost constantly do something, we will almost constantly turn to God in prayer, and, therefore, almost continuously go through the science of lifting up prayer in our souls to God.

But so that even this, i.e. The soul performed everything for the glory of God as it should; it must be tuned to this from early morning, from the very beginning of the day, before a person goes out to do his work and to do his work until the evening. This mood is produced by the thought of God. And this is the third way of training the soul to frequently turn to God. Godly thinking is reverent reflection about the Divine properties and actions and about what their knowledge and their relationship to us obliges us to; there is a reflection on the goodness of God, justice, wisdom, omnipotence, omnipresence, omniscience, on creation and providence, on the arrangement of salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ, on grace and the word of God, on St. Sacraments, about the Kingdom of Heaven. Whichever of these subjects you begin to reflect on, this reflection will certainly fill your soul with a feeling of reverence for God. Start thinking, for example, about the goodness of God, you will see that you are surrounded by God’s mercies both physically and spiritually, and unless you are a stone, you will not fall before God in an outpouring of humiliated feelings of thanksgiving. Start thinking about the omnipresence of God – you will understand that you are everywhere before God, and God is before you, and you cannot help but be filled with reverent fear. Begin to reflect on the omniscience of God, you will realize that nothing in you is hidden from the eye of God, and you will certainly decide to be strictly attentive to the movements of your heart and mind, so as not to offend the all-seeing God in any way. Begin to reason about the truth of God – and you will be convinced that not a single bad deed will go unpunished, and you will certainly intend to cleanse all your sins with heartfelt contrition and repentance before God. So, no matter what property and action of God you begin to reason about, every such reflection will fill the soul with reverent feelings and dispositions towards God. It directs the whole being of a person directly to God and is therefore the most direct means to accustom the soul to ascend to God. The most decent and convenient time for this is the morning, when the soul is not yet burdened with many impressions and business concerns, and precisely after morning prayer. When you finish your prayer, sit down and, with your thoughts sanctified in prayer, begin to reflect today on one thing, tomorrow on another of God’s properties and actions, and create a disposition in your soul according to this. “Go,” said St. Demetrius of Rostov, “go, holy thought of God, and let us immerse ourselves in contemplation of the great deeds of God,” and passed through in thought either the works of creation and providence, or the miracles of the Lord the Savior, or His suffering, or something else, thereby touched his heart and began to pour out his soul in prayer. Anyone can do this. There is little work, all you need is desire and determination; and there is a lot of fruit.

So here are three ways, in addition to the prayer rule, to teach the soul to ascend in prayer to God, namely: devote some time in the morning to contemplation of God; turn every deed to the glory of God and often turn to God with short appeals. When the thought of God is well accomplished in the morning, it will leave a deep mood for thinking about God. Thinking about God will force the soul to carefully carry out all its actions – both internal and external – and turn them into the glory of God. And both will put the soul in such a position that prayerful appeals to God will often be expelled from it. These three—thought of God, all creation for the glory of God, and frequent invocations—are the most effective tools of mental and heartfelt prayer. Each of them lifts the soul to God. Whoever sets out to practice them will soon acquire the skill of ascending to believe in God in his heart. Labor in this is like climbing a mountain. The higher someone climbs the mountain, the freer and easier he breathes. So it is here: the more one becomes accustomed to the exercises shown, the higher the soul will rise, and the higher the soul rises, the more freely prayer will act in it. Our soul by nature is an inhabitant of the heavenly world of the Divine. She should have been there in both thought and heart; but the burden of earthly thoughts and passions drags and weighs her down. The methods shown tear it off the ground little by little, and then completely tear it off. When they are completely torn away, then the soul will enter its own region and grief will sweetly dwell – here heartily and mentally, and then with its very being it will be honored before the face of God to dwell in the faces of Angels and Saints. May the Lord vouchsafe all of you with His grace.”8

And may it be done to you all according to your faith! Amen!

References

Philaret of Moscow (Drozdov), St. Orthodox Catechism. M.: Pilgrim, 1998.

Theophan, the Recluse of Vyshensky, St. Collected letters: in 2 volumes. M.: Rule of Faith, 2000.

Theophan, the Recluse of Vyshensky, St. Four words about prayer. M., 1993.

Priest Grigory Mikhnov-Vaitenko was born on September 3, 1967 in Moscow, where he spent his childhood and youth. After graduating from school, he entered the screenwriting department of VGIK. He worked as a director at Central Television and headed commercial television, film production and broadcasting companies. From 2003 to 2008 – General Director of the Orthodox TV channel “Blagovest”. In 2008, Archbishop Lev of Novgorod and Staraya Russa ordained him a deacon, and on February 13, 2009, he accepted the priesthood. Serves in the St. George Church in Staraya Russa.

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Notes

Philaret of Moscow (Drozdov), St. Orthodox Catechism.

Wed: Matt. 24:48–51; OK. 12:45–48.

Wed: Matt. 24:45–47; OK. 12:42–44; Matt. 25:14–23.

Theophan, the Recluse of Vyshensky, St. Four words about prayer. M.; 1993.

Matt. 9:16–17.

Mk. 2:21–22.

Feofan, the Recluse of Vyshensky. St. Collected letters: in 2 volumes. M.: Rule of Faith, 2000.

Theophan, the Recluse of Vyshensky, St. Four words about prayer. M., 1993.