A prayer service is a required service that is performed at the request of one or more believers. The prayer service can be supplicative (performed with special requests to God, the Most Holy Theotokos and the saints), water-blessing (during which water is blessed) and thanksgiving. Usually prayer services are served in a church or on the street, and during them they pray for health (that is, for the living).
One of the types of church services is a thanksgiving prayer, during which believers praise the Savior for his good deeds. From the Gospel we know about ten lepers healed by the Lord, one of whom returned to Christ with gratitude and was thereby saved. This Gospel passage is read during such a prayer service. According to the Monk Ambrose of Optina, it is gratitude, together with love, that will follow us into eternal life.
Prayer of thanksgiving to the Lord God
We thank Thee, Lord our God, for all Thy good deeds, even from the first age to the present, in us, Thy unworthy servants ( names
), who were, known and unknown, about those revealed and unmanifested, even those that were in deed and in word: who loved us as and You deigned to give Your Only Begotten Son for us, making us worthy to be worthy of Your love.
Grant with Your word wisdom and with Your fear inhale strength from Your power, and whether we have sinned, whether willingly or unwillingly, forgive and not impute, and keep our soul holy, and present it to Thy Throne, having a clear conscience, and the end is worthy of Thy love for mankind; and remember, O Lord, all who call upon Thy name in truth, remember all who desire good or evil against us: for all are men, and every man is in vain; We also pray to You, Lord, grant us Your great mercy.
How to order a prayer service in a temple
The Holy Gospel speaks of Christ’s healing of a dozen people with leprosy. One of them, having become healthy, returned and thanked the Savior, for which he was acquitted, but the Lord condemned the others. In order not to fall in line with the condemned, the Church advises following the pious example of a recovered person and giving thanks for every good deed of God.
More about prayers of thanksgiving:
- Prayer of gratitude to Nicholas the Wonderworker
- Prayer on New Year's Day
- Akathist to the Sweetest Jesus
To order a prayer of thanksgiving to the Heavenly Father, you must:
- come to the temple, write a note with the name of the prayer service and the names of the thanks;
- they should be written down in a column, in the genitive case (that is, from whom: Irina, Svetlana, Vasily) and in no case from Volodya, Mashenka, Seryozha;
- the names of people baptized in Orthodoxy are indicated;
- it is allowed to attach “statuses” to names: sick, youth, baby, non-idle, warrior;
- give the completed form to the candle maker and make the recommended donation;
- there is no need to indicate the reason for gratitude;
- It is advisable to purchase a candle and place it before the prayer service in a candlestick placed in front of the face of Christ.
Prayer of gratitude to the Almighty
The Cathedral of Saints Angel and Archangel, with all the heavenly powers, sings to Thee and says: Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of hosts, heaven and earth are filled with Thy glory. Hosanna in the highest, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, Hosanna in the highest. Save me, Who art thou King on high, save me and sanctify me, Source of sanctification; For from You all creation is strengthened, To You countless warriors sing the Trisagion hymn. Unworthy of you, who sits in the unapproachable light, whom everyone is terrified of, I pray: enlighten my mind, cleanse my heart, and open my lips, so that I may worthily sing to you: Holy, Holy, Holy art thou, Lord, always, now, and ever, and in endless centuries of centuries. Amen.
Methods of carrying out
A thanksgiving prayer service to the Lord is carried out in different forms, among which the key ones are:
- a general ritual that occurs during the performance of most prayers;
- solitary prayers aimed at resolving personal, secret problems.
General
The general ritual is used in churches during large celebrations, when a large number of believers come to the church to offer prayers of praise to the Lord God. On such days, the priest turns to the Almighty on behalf of all the parishioners gathered in the temple, which strengthens faith and calms the spirit.
As a rule, such prayer services drag on for a long period of time, since the petitions of many people are voiced. A ritual of following a prayer service is also organized, which can be held both in the temple itself and in the fresh air.
Secluded
Solitary prayers are used when a believer needs to turn to the Lord God personally, and his experiences are not intended for a large number of ears. In such appeals to the Almighty, a person humbly asks for help in matters for which he does not have the spiritual and physical strength to implement. Such prayers are allowed to be held at home.
Prayer of thanksgiving to the Lord Jesus Christ
Lord Jesus Christ our God, God of all mercy and generosity, whose mercy is immeasurable and whose love for mankind is an immeasurable abyss!
We, falling before Your greatness, with fear and trembling, like unworthy slaves, bring thanks to You for the mercies shown to us. As the Lord, Master and benefactor, we glorify You, praise You, sing and magnify You and, falling down, thank You again! We humbly pray to Your ineffable mercy: just as now You have accepted our prayers and fulfilled them, so in the future, let us succeed in love for You, for our neighbors and in all virtues. And make us worthy to always thank and glorify You, together with Your beginningless Father and Your all-holy, good, and consubstantial Spirit. Amen. Order a prayer service
What parts does it consist of?
Any thanksgiving prayer aimed at praising the deeds of the Almighty consists of:
- canon;
- troparion;
- Litany;
- readings of the Holy Gospel;
- prayer of thanksgiving.
Canon
When reading prayers, a canon refers to a special genre of church hymn, the main purpose of which is to offer eulogies to saints or significant events for the entire Christian world. The canon is divided into separate prayer chants, which are called:
- troparion;
- irmos.
Note! Due to the violation of the unity of the syllable during the translation of prayers into the Slavic language, the troparion in Orthodox churches is not sung, but read.
Troparion
A troparion is a small prayer chant, during which the essence of the celebrated event is explained. In the canon, the troparion follows the reading of the Irmos. Their prayer recitative coincides, which allows them to sing songs of praise in the same rhythm.
The structure of the troparion is as follows:
- first comes the text of the prayer listing the merits of the saint or a brief description of the church holiday;
- Next, a list of requests addressed to the saint or a doxology is voiced.
Litany
Litany means joint prayer, during which the priest voices prayer requests, and the church choir emphasizes each of them with the phrases “Give, Lord” or “Lord, have mercy.”
The litany happens:
- pleading;
- great;
- strictly;
- about the catechumens;
- funeral;
- with special petitions, brought during church sacraments.
According to most priests, a litany is a prayer designed to awaken the attention of parishioners. Because of this, it is divided into a number of short addresses, which are reinforced with exclamations.
Reading the Holy Gospel
The Holy Gospel is the word of God, with the help of which His Will is revealed to believers. Reading Holy Scripture should be accompanied by increased attention to the text and reverence for the Lord God.
Every word in the text has a deep meaning. You should not treat the text disdainfully as just another routine ritual.
Many theologians agree that the Gospel is the key book for all humanity, which contains the will and greatness of Christ himself. In the process of reading the sacred text, many parishioners get the feeling that God himself descends from heaven, listening to human needs.
Note! "Evangelios" means "good news" in Greek.
Prayer of thanksgiving
A prayer of thanks is an appeal to the Lord God, the main purpose of which is to thank the Almighty for his help and care. The purpose of the prayer is to remind believers that even in difficult life situations it is worth not only asking for help, but also giving thanks for its sending.
The Holy Fathers recommend that this tradition be elevated to a series of daily habits. In this way, you will significantly improve your spiritual mood, and good events will begin to happen in life much more often, raising your vitality and self-confidence.
Prayer service
A prayer service (prayer singing) is a service in which believers ask the Lord, the Mother of God or the saints to send mercy or thank God for receiving benefits.
Prayers of thanksgiving are addressed only to the Lord. When ordering a prayer service behind a candle box, we submit a note with the names of those for whom it will be performed.
Some prayer services belong to public worship and are performed on church holidays or at specially established times; usually they are combined with the rite of minor consecration of water. Others are performed at the request of individuals or in times of distress (illness, drought, war).
The need to pray “for small things” as St. Ambrose of Optina taught – “briefly, but passionately” – is fulfilled by us at the prayer service. Are we sick? - We will serve a prayer service for the sick. Are we starting something important? – At the prayer service we will ask for God’s help.
Are we going on a journey? – Let’s listen to the rite of blessing for the journey. Has your name day arrived and you want to fervently pray to your saint? Let's order a prayer service for him. Is the school year starting and is it time for our children to go to school? – Let us perform the rite of blessing at the beginning of the youths’ teaching.
Has the Lord heeded our prayer and we want to offer praise? - We will serve a thanksgiving prayer...
A prayer service can take place in a church, in a house, during the consecration of crops - in a field, etc. Can be combined with water blessing.
In structure, the prayer service is a shortened version of Matins. The Gospel at the prayer service is read not before the reading of the canon, but after its 6th song. At the prayer service, a canon should be read in honor of the one or those for whom the prayer service is being served. In modern practice, the canon may not be read in full, and the service may be limited to the singing of only irmos or choruses of the canon.
The Rite of the prayer service includes the 50th psalm, troparia, canon (usually only choruses are sung), reading of the Apostle and the Gospel, a prayer to the saint to whom the prayer service was addressed. The rite of prayer is contained in the Trebnik. Sometimes the prayer is accompanied by the singing of an akathist.
On the inadmissibility of prayers after the liturgy
Ordering prayers or memorial services immediately after the liturgy by those who participated in it is a misunderstanding of the essence of the Eucharist. Below we present several authoritative opinions on this issue.
His Holiness Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus' Kirill
At the diocesan meeting of Moscow on December 23, 2009, the Patriarch pointed out the inadmissibility of holding a general prayer service after the Divine Liturgy and reminded that the prayer service is a short matins.
Serving a prayer service as part of the Liturgy is contrary to the church charter, the Patriarch said and noted that the practice of holding common prayer services arose in Soviet times, when there were “few churches, and requests to serve a prayer service were received, and in order to answer all requests, they combined all requests into a common prayer service.” .
The Patriarch called for moving away from this practice and serving prayers when they are ordered: “If they order it, serve it, if they order it with an akathist, they must serve it with an akathist,” the Patriarch said. – Step away from practice. They order - to serve. And to make it part of the liturgy is against the church charter.
Chapter from the book “Eucharist” by Professor Archimandrite Cyprian (Kern)
A denial of the Eucharistic, i.e. the very meaning of the Liturgy, is the request of a person who was present at the Liturgy and heard these words to serve him a thanksgiving prayer service, because it is clearer to him, closer and tells him more than the most sublime service of thanksgiving - the Eucharist.
It is so inexpressibly sad to hear these requests for of thanksgiving after the Liturgy, that is, in other words, instead of the Liturgy, which, therefore, says nothing to the soul of the person who wants to thank God. By the way, in general, serving any services after the Liturgy is so contrary to the spirit of our worship!
After the funeral Liturgy, at which the remembrance of the dead was celebrated, and at the proskomedia and litany, after the parastas served the day before, the request for a completely private, my own, my personal memorial service, that is, a distorted funeral matins, reduced to a 10-minute requirement, sounds again - such a misunderstanding of the essence of the Eucharistic Sacrifice for the repose of the souls of the departed.
Perhaps another great liturgical contradiction is the service of a prayer service after the Liturgy, a prayer service for today’s saint. This is a denial of the entire beautiful architectural plan of our worship.
The daily circle of successions of a given holiday or saint, which began the day before with Vespers, which then turned into Matins (with their stichera, troparia, canons and kontakia, in which gradually, increasingly growing, the meaning of the celebrated event was revealed) ended, crowned with the Divine Liturgy, the Mystery Supper in honor of a given event or saint.
This is the pinnacle of liturgical revelation, above which nothing can and dare not be. If there is something that can be higher than the Eucharistic glorification of a given holiday, then the Liturgy is not the peak, it means that there is something more important in the circle and hierarchy of sacred memories and rites, which is higher than the Last Supper.
And such is a prayer service for this or that saint or holiday, in which Matins is presented, shortened to the point of any loss of individuality of the given holiday and memories, with the chants of the canon instead of the canon itself, with magnification instead of the deep stichera sung the day before, and, of course, with the presentation of notes about health and many years to this or that person.
Indescribably sad, mournful, painful for liturgical illiteracy, for the violation of the basic principles of the rules of church splendor, for the violation of church beauty.
We say this with full consciousness and conviction, not only because this is our liturgical conviction, our personal experience of the liturgical order, but because behind us we hear the voice of those dear to us Teachers, namely Teachers with a capital T, whose liturgical ear was infallible and the understanding of the meaning and structure of our worship was infallible.
We refer to the authority, scientific and liturgical authority of the church of the late Metropolitan Anthony Khrapovitsky and Bishop Gabriel Chepur, who always strongly condemned these prayer services after the Liturgy and never served them.
“And today at the liturgy they sang the figurative ones in full, at the blessed ones - what is prescribed from the canon of the saint and the fathers. We have only six troparia and kontakions, three Apostles and three Gospels were read. Of course, there was no prayer service, for it is not necessary after the liturgy, but only before “Be the name of the Lord” - a troparion to the saint and a prayer.
But there were many years both yesterday after the prayer service and today after the liturgy. His Eminence Cornelius, Bishop of Vyaznikovsky and Yaropol, with his God-protected flock of Vladimir, also lived for many years. And from the point of view of duration, they complied with the regulations, which require that the liturgy last one hour.
Our hours and liturgy with many years took 1 hour and 5 minutes.”
February 4 (old style) 1923 (St. Athanasius (Sakharov), confessor and hymn writer. TSL, 2003, p. 72.).
Teacher of the regency department of St. Tikhon's University Evgeny Tugarinov, regent of the bishop's choir of the Russian Orthodox Cathedral in London (from an interview)
– In Russia, prayers and lithiums after the liturgy are treated differently. For example, Archimandrite Tavrion (Batozsky) said that this is of no use - the Chalice contains all the fullness.
– So Vladyka (Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh) and Father Michael (Fortunato) told me about the same thing: why a prayer service, why a memorial service, we already remembered everyone at the proskomedia.
Priest Alexy Uminsky, rector of the Church of the Life-Giving Trinity in Khokhly, Moscow, confessor of the St. Vladimir Educational Center, host of the TV program “Orthodox Encyclopedia”
If a person participates in the Liturgy, if we say that he is at the same time its co-celebrant, then he came to the temple not just to ask for something for himself personally, but at that moment he became the Church, fulfilled himself as a member of the Body of Christ.
And therefore, when the Liturgy is celebrated, it embraces each person personally with all his needs, sorrows and difficulties.
To believe in the holy Apostolic Church means to believe that she brought all your petition, all the depth of your sorrow, your joy, your grief, your thanksgiving to the throne of God.
But people who do not see the Church’s all-encompassing significance then come and ask - serve especially for me on this specific occasion, although the Liturgy itself already contains the fulfillment of all these requests.
And the practice of our Church a long time ago included serving prayers and memorial services after the Liturgy.
For what? Whether you submitted a note or not, since you are standing in the Church, doesn’t the Lord see you? Doesn’t He know before you ask everything that you want to ask of Him?
And therefore, serving a prayer service after the Liturgy is simply pointless. This happens only because some of the people who come to the church service participate in the Liturgy, and some are present during the Liturgy.
Some people give themselves completely to the unity of the Church, and some experience it a little differently: they came, defended the service, and only then the most important thing begins for them - now they will ask for his personal specific request, for his health, for his journey, although all this He enters into the Liturgy spiritually, because a sacrifice is made, and He, the Savior of the world, makes a sacrifice for everyone and everything.
It has become so commonplace - the Liturgy ends, the priest comes out to serve a prayer service. But you cannot imagine how internally difficult and absurd it is for a priest to serve a prayer service after the Liturgy, when everything that is possible has been asked from God.
Then the question arises: why do prayer services exist, why do memorial services exist? And they exist as an extra-liturgical action.
And now nowhere, neither in Greece nor in Bulgaria, will we find a prayer service after the Liturgy, and in Russia there was no such practice before.
The priest was invited to a house or to a specific place, and a prayer service was served on a specific occasion with specific people. For example, a prayer service for rain.
But if there is a need to pray for someone especially, for example, for a sick person, the whole Church should pray for this, all together, and not a separate priest for an individual person.
Therefore, there is a special petition, which, if necessary, is inserted into a special litany - both for those traveling, and for the suffering, and for the sick.
And then the whole Church will pray for one or, perhaps, two or three people who are close to the hearts of everyone in the church.
• alphabetical index •
To pray means to be in that special internal state when the spiritual principle in a person comes into mysterious and direct contact with the Lord God and the otherworldly invisible world. Archpriest Valentin Sventsitsky.
What does “call to monasticism” mean? – This is, first of all, a calling to solitude, a love of worship, of prayer. If a person accepts monasticism because of something else, then he will not withstand the burden of loneliness.
You cannot become a monk just because you couldn’t find a suitable bride. One cannot accept monasticism solely because an elder or confessor has blessed it, without a heartfelt desire for an inner prayer life.
Bishop of Vienna and Austria Hilarion (Alfeev)
Source: //azbyka.ru/moleben
