In prayer, a person communicates with God. In the Orthodox Catechism, Met. Philaret says so: the conversation of the soul with the Lord, i.e. dialogue. Sometimes prayer can turn into a monologue and from the outside, it sometimes looks like an illegible, quick reading of a prayer rule or the Psalter.
Prayerful dialogue does not mean that the Lord explicitly answers a person's prayer, but rather that the person must somehow:
- be sure that God exists;
- feel the presence of God;
- hope that God will accept his prayer.
Pride as the Main Obstacle in Prayer
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The Apostle Peter in his first Epistle (chapter 5, verse 5) wrote: “God opposes the proud.” Therefore, in order for a person to be heard in his prayers, he needs to pray humbly and contritely. On this occasion, we recall Christ’s parable about the Pharisee and the publican. The Pharisee exalted himself in prayer, although he thanked God, but because of his vanity he did not gain God’s favor. The sinful publican, striking himself on the chest, said contritely: “God, be merciful to me a sinner,” and in the eyes of God he became higher than the Pharisee, righteous in performing external rituals.
Pupils and students
Students and apprentices are a separate issue. Are there many among them who turn to God for help? Hardly. Most often, mothers and grandmothers pray for their students. The students themselves either don’t want to, or don’t believe, or don’t understand why this is necessary.
How to ask God for help in studying for your son or daughter? Pray for your student and ask God to help him on his path to acquiring knowledge. And even better - the schoolchild or student himself should ask the Creator for help.
When you ask God for help, it’s somehow not very scary to take a difficult exam or go out to answer in front of a large audience and a strict professor.
Sinners
In the Gospel of John we find the following lines: “God does not listen to sinners.” And there we further read: “He listens to the one who honors God and does His will.”
It would seem that the Lord is a lover of mankind, so how can He not listen to sinful people? The fact is that sinner is different from sinner:
- A sinner who does not repent of his sins will not be heard by God.
- A sinner who sincerely repents appeases God and has greater hope that his prayers will be heard and fulfilled.
Problems at work
It also happens: a person works, tries. But the bosses are unhappy and don’t even try to answer the question of what’s wrong with the work.
Or the boss gives his subordinates a task. They do it extremely poorly, failing miserably. How can you not get angry? How not to yell at your subordinates? How can a subordinate tolerate his boss’s nagging out of nowhere?
Turn to God for help. How to ask God for help in your work? Pray for the softening of the boss’s heart and for help for yourself. It will be useful to pray like this: “Lord, remember King David and all his meekness.” This short prayer helps if the boss is very harsh. By the way, this also applies to students. The professor is angry and sends everyone to re-exam? Say these simple words more often.
When is prayer still in vain?
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Perhaps every pilgrim has had personal experience with the fact that the Lord did not always rush to fulfill what was asked in prayer. Some even after this stopped asking God for anything and even lost faith. Why is this happening?
Important: The Apostle James wrote about this that a person may not receive what he asks for because his requests are not for the good, but for the sake of satisfying his lusts.
You cannot approach God with human logic - He is infinitely higher and wiser than it. He does not act according to human whims like a genie. He knows the past, present, future, and thoughts of every person. Thus, the guile of a person will not hide from Him if he asks for something, but at the same time harbors unrighteous plans.
A little about communion and confession
As stated above, the ideal is when a person has received communion and confessed. How to achieve the ideal? It's not that difficult actually.
Confession is repentance for your sins. Sincere, and not for show. People must not only understand that they have sinned, but also get rid of this sin in the future. For example, what's the point of repenting of smoking if you don't think about improving. It is clear that you cannot get rid of this sin right away, especially for experienced smokers. Everything is done gradually. At first they smoked a pack of cigarettes a day. After the first confession, they began to smoke five less. And little by little you will achieve complete victory over sin with God’s help.
There are everyday sins that people repent of, reading the rule for the coming sleep. His last prayer is daily repentance. People “bring” more severe sins to church.
What kind of prayer is it to ask God for help? You can pray in your own words, they are sincere and come from the heart.
What about confession? What sins especially disturb the soul? Those should be confessed first. As the soul is cleansed, sins will emerge from memory on their own. Just don’t be embarrassed to tell them to the priest, he’s never heard anything like that before.
You need to go to church (preferably on Saturday evening or Sunday morning) and confess to the priest.
As for the sacrament, it is started only after proper preparation. This is a fast for three days (minimum). It is physical, as for mental fasting - it is abstaining from various entertainment activities, computer games, watching movies, listening to music. For spouses, this means abstaining from intimacy for three days before communion.
On Saturday evening you need to read three canons: Jesus Christ, the Most Holy Theotokos and the Guardian Angel. You also need to read the Akathist to the Sweetest Jesus and the procedure for Holy Communion. All these prayers are in prayer books; at worst, if you don’t have a prayer book at home and you can’t buy one at the moment, you can find it on the Internet and print it out.
If a person has completed three days of physical and mental fasting, confession has been completed. Then you need to take a blessing from the priest for communion. How to do it? Just say: “Father, bless me to receive communion.” And if he asks if you are ready, list how you prepared: you fasted and read everything you were supposed to.
Daydreaming
The Holy Fathers warn against striving during prayer for revelations, high spiritual states, sweet feelings and daydreaming, which are so popular in Eastern cults and among Catholics. In Orthodoxy, such states are dangerous because they can involve a person in “spiritual delusion”, or “deception”, which means:
- Accepting demonic influence or one’s own fantasies as divine, and as a consequence the second point;
- The idea of having achieved a certain degree of purity or righteousness.
In the Orthodox understanding, prayer should be sober, without imagining images of saints or angels.
Important: If during or after prayer you are visited by an image in the form of Christ, the Virgin Mary, a saint or an angel, be extremely vigilant, since demons can deceive people by appearing in the guise of some saint.
Precautionary measures:
- Saints are unlikely to appear to a sinner. According to the holy fathers, a person who has not been cleansed of passions and has not acquired Christian humility is not able to perceive communion with the saints.
- Cross yourself and cross the image that appears to you, then ask him to read the Jesus Prayer. The saint will not be offended by this request, but on the contrary will praise him for his prudence. Demons are unable to read this prayer clearly; they will certainly begin to distort it or will not be able to pronounce it to the end.
Examples:
- The Monk Nikita saw a demon appear in the form of an angel. The saint did not recognize the deception and bowed to such an “angel.” After this, Nikita spent a long time in “delusion” and in obedience to an unclean spirit, until finally, through the prayers of the monks, he was freed from demonic influence.
- During a prayer vigil at night, demons appeared to Saint Isaac in the guise of angels, to whom he bowed, forgetting about precautions. The demons then gained power over him and forced him to dance until he lost consciousness. For a long time after the incident, the saint could neither move, nor speak, nor hear, nor eat food. Through the prayers of Rev. Feodosia, after some time he came to his senses and sincerely repented.
Sample
The Lord asks us to be laconic in our prayer requests: “Do not say too much when you pray...” (Matthew chapter 6)
When the apostles asked Christ to teach them the correct prayer, He gave them the “Our Father.” Despite all its simplicity and brevity, it contains everything that needs to be asked of God. In the lines “our daily bread” one should understand food in general, in “deliver from the evil one” - a request to preserve from all evil, conflicts, quarrels, attacks and temptations.
St. John Chrysostom argued that the “Our Father” is a model of prayer and that God is pleased not with an abundance of words, but with the vigilance of the soul. Based on this prayer, it is not forbidden to pray in your own words. As St. said Basil the Great, the order of prayers should be as follows:
- Glorifying God;
- Thanksgiving for all God's blessings;
- Confession of your sins;
- Asking for what is good for oneself, but most of all what is necessary for the salvation of the soul.
What is needed for correct prayer?
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Some people believe that you should only pray in church. In fact, personal prayer can be performed in any place and at any hour, as the Apostle Paul wrote about this.
You can pray both in front of the icon and without it.
It is important to have:
- Attention and concentration;
- Humility;
- Repentant feeling;
- Fear of God;
- Perseverance in petitions;
- Thanks to God.
Orthodox prayer book
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Also known as the “prayer rule.” It contains ancient prayers of the holy fathers (mostly from the 4th century), which were later transmitted to believers. It helps to acquire the correct prayer attitude.
Advice: Do not read the prayer rule mechanically and hastily for the sake of formality.
Important: According to St. Ignatius Brianchaninov, the prayer rule replenishes the believer’s soul with the missing number of correct prayerful and godly thoughts/feelings.
Magism
Unfortunately, in our time there are many people who are far from the Church and have a magical attitude towards prayer, i.e. when the practice of reading “correct” (actually non-Orthodox) prayers is practiced, and even in a certain quantity. When such people receive the text of some rare and mysterious prayer, they become convinced that thanks to it, everything will go well and illnesses will go away, and the husband will stop drinking alcohol, and the children will study more diligently.
There were many examples of holy fathers who prayed at night to prevent some disaster or to save someone. The prayer could be very simple, for example, “Lord, have mercy!” Did the saint utter only words or did he turn himself entirely to God? Real prayer work is hard, it’s like shedding bloody sweat, it’s not just about frequently repeated words.
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A difficult situation
Finding yourself in a difficult situation, a person often doubts whether this is the right thing to do. People get nervous, get stressed, try to consult with loved ones or make decisions on their own. Weighing the pros and cons, they begin to get even more nervous. So what should I do? How to resolve the issue? Ask God for help? Yes, without any embarrassment. Pray to the Savior, entrust Him with the solution to a difficult issue. Who but God knows what is best for your good? Only He guides people through life, helping and protecting them in everything.
Never hesitate to ask God for help in a difficult situation, just like turning to God in general.
