On Prayer. -Priest Ioann Sevastyanov
In the life of a believer, prayer occupies a central place. Prayer is a conscious turning of a person toward God and His holy saints. It is founded upon the certainty that God exists, that He hears those who call upon Him, and that He is able to respond to their prayers. Christian prayer is communion between persons. A believing Christian communes either with the Divine Persons or with the holy dwellers of heaven. And it is precisely in prayerful communion that faith in the One to Whom one prays is manifested and strengthened. Prayer is a sign of faith. Where there is no prayer to God, there can be no talk of faith in God. The same is true of love. Prayer is an attempt to actively fulfill the fundamental Christian commandment: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God.” From this, the importance of prayer for the spiritual life of a believer becomes clear.
The experience of prayer arose within humanity from the very moment of the world’s creation. Throughout all of human history, one can speak of the development of a tradition of prayer, of examples of prayer, and of its inward experience. In the Christian Church, there are various forms of prayer—private and communal; spontaneous prayer and prayer from written texts; prayer by word and prayer by deed; prayer of supplication and prayer of remembrance. All of these forms are part of the vast experience of the life of prayer.
Personal prayer is primary. It is formed as the first and most important stage of communion with God. A hesitant cry in one’s own words or with commonly used phrases—“Lord, have mercy,” “Lord, help me,” or “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me”—opens to a person the very possibility of speaking with God. Then, as experience is gained, there arises the understanding and the desire not merely to say something to God, but to remain in the state of prayer. A person begins to feel the need for a fixed time of prayer. Thus, a personal rule of prayer is formed.
A prayer rule is a specific set of prayers that every Christian is expected to perform daily at set times of day. In the Orthodox Church, it is customary to perform one’s personal prayer rule using established and commonly accepted texts. This in no way forbids praying in one’s own words at any time and in any place. But prayer using the established texts allows each person who prays to enter into the spiritual experience of past ascetics who communed with the Lord while in an exalted spiritual state. Indeed, Holy Scripture does not in any way prohibit prayer to God using pre-composed texts. When the Lord gave the prayer “Our Father,” He said: “Pray ye in this manner.” The Lord’s Prayer is a composed prayer text given to us by God Himself. Therefore, the tradition of composing prayers and forming prayer texts is grounded in the example of Jesus Christ Himself.
Prayer texts composed either by God Himself or by holy men serve not only to transmit the experience of prayer, but also have another important function. By using prepared texts in prayer, the one who prays receives essential spiritual orientation. Orthodox prayers that have already been composed reflect not only the nature of their authors and the state of their souls, but also help us to understand ourselves—our relationship to God—and offer guidance along our spiritual path. Just as an experienced spiritual father helps a beginning Christian to repent sincerely, so too does the text of a prayer assist the praying soul in beginning a conversation with God, asking the right questions, and peering into the depths of the heart.
A person’s private prayer is always connected to their inner experiences. From this comes the full spectrum of liturgical texts in the Orthodox Church: prayers of repentance, thanksgiving, petition, praise, consolation, and more. In whatever state the soul may be, one may turn to God and bring before Him one’s joys, sorrows, and requests. In other words, in prayer, a person speaks with God as with a real interlocutor. And for every circumstance, the Church’s treasury contains its own manner of prayer—its own example of feelings and expressions.
A special form of private prayer is intercessory prayer—prayer on behalf of others. In the Orthodox Church, in strict accordance with the words of Holy Scripture, prayer for others is firmly established—for both the living and the departed. Intercessory prayer is one of the most vivid expressions of Christian love.
A properly ordered private prayer life naturally leads to a desire for communal, ecclesial prayer. Communal prayer presupposes the gathering of Christians for shared communion with God. This principle of gathering for prayer was also given to us by the Lord Himself: “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them” (Matthew 18:20). Communal prayer is essential for uniting all Christians into the one Body of the Church. Church prayer is the visible realization of our membership in the Church. Therefore, needless withdrawal from communal worship is a sign of estrangement from the Church and from God. As St. Cyprian of Carthage said, “He who does not have the Church as his mother cannot have God as his Father.”
Over the centuries, communal, ecclesial prayer in the Orthodox Church has taken shape as a well-defined liturgical service governed by the Ustav (rubrics). The lived experience of the Church has led to the formation of an entire body of rites, traditions, and liturgical cycles. In church services, communion with God occurs not only through spoken prayer, but also through rituals (the sign of the Cross, kissing icons, bows), through preaching (the reading of Holy Scripture and spiritual teachings), and through remembrance (commemoration of Gospel events, the lives of the saints, and the departed). All of these components of Orthodox worship work together to create a powerful atmosphere that fosters close communion between man and God. In this sacred atmosphere, prayer reaches not only the intellect but also the heart of the one who prays.
In the life of St. Mary of Egypt, there is an example of communal prayer. When the venerable mother invited the elder Zosimas to pray with her and began her prayer, he noticed a remarkable state within himself—he could not understand a word Mary was saying with his mind, yet he felt with certainty that he was praying fervently with her in spirit. Such an indescribable atmosphere of shared Orthodox prayer is the very image of church worship.
Church prayer is closely tied to the life of the church community and to each of its individual members. Thus, the divine services reflect the experiences of the entire community. In church worship, just as in personal prayer, there is expressed thanksgiving, praise, repentance, supplication, intercession for others, and prayer for the departed. The central element of the church service is the Divine Liturgy—the breaking of bread, during which the bread and wine become the Body and Blood of Christ. The word liturgy is translated as “common work” or “public service.” Therefore, it cannot be celebrated alone. The Liturgy is the summit of man’s prayerful communion with God. It is a prayer of remembrance of the Sacrifice of Jesus Christ, wherein communion with God takes place not through words or actions, but through the partaking of the Body of Christ.
The service of the Divine Liturgy includes every form of prayer—remembrance, praise, supplication, consolation, repentance, and intercession for others. A special part of the Liturgy is the commemoration of the members of the Church—both the living and the dead. At the Liturgy, each participant may submit a note with the names of loved ones and ask the celebrant to remember them during the offering of the Sacrament. This simple act—submitting a note with the names of loved ones for remembrance at the Liturgy—is an expression of love for another person.
Both personal and communal prayer may receive a certain response from God—a certain result—which is called the fruit of prayer. The fruit of prayer is a gracious gift that a person receives as a result of turning to God. The fruits of prayer can vary—they may be joy in the heart, tears of repentance, confidence that God has heard the prayer, peace, inner stillness, strength of soul, and so on. These gifts are given according to God’s providence, His divine plan for each individual person. The fruits of prayer are not an automatic reaction triggered by reciting certain prayers in a particular spiritual state. The fruit of prayer is the response of God—and it is felt only when God wills it. This belief is the foundation of the prayer rule: one must always turn to God, pray to Him, and fulfill the established rule of prayer, regardless of whether one experiences the fruit or not. The task of the Christian is to offer up the prayer. The fruit will be sent by God. The fruit of prayer is not the purpose of prayer, though it may be its result.
The expectation—or absence—of tangible spiritual fruit can sometimes make the life of prayer difficult for a Christian. Among such difficulties are reluctance to pray, the expectation of a miracle, lack of understanding of the words of the prayer, a sense of being abandoned by God, the onset of spiritual delusion, blind fanaticism, and so forth. In facing such challenges, two approaches to the life of prayer become especially important: trust and effort. In prayer, trust in God is essential above all. It is trust that forms the basis of dialogue with the One whom we do not see. One must be confident that God hears every prayer—there is no prayer that He ignores. It must be remembered that even silence is a kind of answer. For comfort in such times, one should compare their current state with their past experience, with the experiences of the Holy Fathers, and with the testimony of other Christians.
The second approach to overcoming difficulties in the life of prayer is effort. Effort to compel oneself to complete the prayer rule; effort to persevere in prayer. Just as physical fatigue, lack of mood, time, or desire do not excuse us from our obligations to loved ones, so too these outward circumstances cannot be an excuse to neglect prayer. Regardless of mood, one must discipline oneself to fulfill the labor of prayer. Prayer is that spiritual labor in which quantity is transformed into quality.
A particular difficulty in the prayer life of an Orthodox Christian lies in the incomprehensibility of liturgical texts. This problem does not arise from a lack of knowledge of Church Slavonic (though it may often seem so), but rather from the absence of a proper spiritual disposition. True prayer is performed not only with the mind, but also with the spirit. And when the disposition is right, even prayer in an unfamiliar language bears fruit—such is seen in the example of the holy apostles, who spoke and prayed in ancient tongues (Acts 2:1; 1 Corinthians 14), and in the example of St. Mary of Egypt. The experience of prayer depends on zeal and practice, not on knowing the precise meaning of every word. “Tribulation worketh patience; and patience, experience; and experience, hope—and hope maketh not ashamed” (Romans 5:3–5). By joining oneself to the grace-filled life of the Church, a person gradually attunes himself to the prayerful language (especially since Church Slavonic, for Russian-speaking Christians, is not truly a foreign tongue).
Alongside the Church Slavonic language, Orthodox worship includes many other ancient symbols whose meaning requires preparation and instruction. But to replace them would destroy the order, the atmosphere, and the spirit of the divine service. The same holds true for the language of worship. Church Slavonic is an element of prayer (not the entirety of prayer), which calls for a certain degree of understanding and preparation in order to grasp the meaning of the texts. It is perfectly acceptable—and even advisable—to prepare in advance and to have the liturgical hymns and prayers before you in church, to labor in this, and to come to the service having readied yourself. All of this labor, all this effort and desire, becomes an inseparable part of Christian prayer, a part of the sincere offering of one’s heart to God.
As a result of all this, sooner or later, by the Providence of God, every Christian comes to understand by experience that prayer is the very breath of life. The more time one gives to prayer, the closer the bond with God becomes. And the closer the bond with God, the easier life on earth becomes. And therefore, prayer is both the way to live safely in this world, and the pledge of eternal life in the Kingdom of Heaven.