A person who begins his path to the salvation of his soul through the knowledge of faith involuntarily wonders why people prayed to God. What did they ask Him for?
All peoples who have ever lived on our planet knew secret words of appeal to higher powers (to God), which were passed down from generation to generation. These words were called prayer.
Orthodox Christians revere Jesus Christ. They know how to pray to God, how to ask Him for forgiveness and atone for their sin.
Forgiveness in Prayer
To atone for your sins before other people, you need to attend services in churches. This is done in order to receive the main thing from the Almighty - forgiveness of sins and condescension of grace through confession.
The Lord forgives sins of those who show unshakable faith in the absence of evil thoughts.
Every day a person, living in this busy world, commits a large number of sins for various reasons and circumstances. This is mainly due to weak willpower. The struggle between good and evil never ceases in the hearts of people.
The Most Holy Theotokos helps Orthodox Christians in any problem.
There are countless prayers to the Most Holy Theotokos in Orthodoxy. For some reason, it was the Virgin Mary who became especially popular among our people.
She occupies a special place among Christian saints, and therefore her intercession or, so to speak, protection before God for many is the most convenient communication with the Almighty.
After all, the Blessed Virgin Mary is a mother. And every person is free to consider her his own spiritual mother. Humanity has always had a need for such a supreme patroness. Archaeologists are familiar with the Paleolithic “Venuses,” the Sumerians worshiped Astarte, and the Hindus worshiped Shakti.
The Virgin Mary is one of the most beloved saints in Orthodoxy. A variety of prayers are addressed to her. Photo: pravlife.org
Christians have found their intercessor in the form of a historical figure - Mary, and prayers to her are especially loved and popular. Here is an example of one of them:
Virgin Lady Theotokos, who bore in her womb the Savior Christ and our God, I place all my hope in You, I trust in You, the highest of all Heavenly powers. You, Most Pure One, protect me with Your Divine grace. Direct my life and guide me in accordance with the holy will of Your Son and our God. Grant me remission of sins, be my refuge, protection, protection and guide, leading me into eternal life. In the terrible hour of death, do not leave me, my Lady, but hasten to help me and deliver me from the bitter torment of demons.
For in Your will you also have power; Do this as truly the Mother of God and sovereign over all. Accept the worthy gifts brought to You alone by us, Your unworthy servants, most merciful, all-holy Lady Mother of God, chosen from all generations, who turned out to be superior to every creature in heaven and earth.
Since through You we came to know the Son of God, through You the Lord of hosts became with us, and we were made worthy of His holy Body and Blood, then blessed are You throughout all generations, most blessed of God, most holy of the Cherubim and most glorious of the Seraphim; and now, singing, the All-Holy Mother of God,
do not cease to beg for us, Thy unworthy servants, so that we may be delivered from every wiles of the evil one and from every extreme, and to keep us unhurt in every poisonous attack. Even to the end, through Your prayers, keep us uncondemned, so that, saved by Your intercession and Your help, we will always send glory, praise, thanksgiving and worship to the one God in the Trinity and the Creator of all.
Good and most blessed Lady, Mother of the good, all-good and all-good God, look upon the prayer of Thy unworthy and indecent servant with Thy merciful eye, and act with me according to the great mercy of Thy ineffable compassion and do not look at my sins, both in word and in deed, and with every feeling done, voluntarily and involuntarily, with knowledge and ignorance,
and renew me all, making me a temple of the all-holy, life-giving and sovereign Spirit, Who is the power of the Most High, and overshadowed Your all-pure womb and dwelt in it. For You are the helper of the weary, the representative of the needy, the savior of the distressed, the haven of the troubled, the protector and intercessor of those in extremity.
Grant to Your servant contrition, silence of thoughts, constancy of thought, a chaste mind, sobriety of soul, a humble way of thinking, a holy and sober mood of spirit, a prudent and well-ordered disposition, which serves as a sign of spiritual composure, as well as piety and peace, which our Lord gave to His disciples.
May my prayer come to Thy holy temple and to the dwelling place of Thy glory; May my eyes be drained of sources of tears, and may You wash me with my own tears, whiten me with streams of my tears, cleansing me from the filth of passions.
Blot out the handwriting of my sins, dispel the clouds of my sorrow, darkness and confusion of thoughts, remove from me the storm and desire of passions, keep me in serenity and silence, expand my heart with spiritual expansion, rejoice and rejoice me with unspeakable joy, unceasing joy, so that in the right paths of the commandments I followed Thy Son faithfully and with a blameless conscience I lived an untroubled life.
Give me, praying before You, pure prayer, so that with an undisturbed mind, unwandering meditation and an insatiable soul, I may constantly study the words of the Divine Scriptures day and night, sing in confession,
and with the joy of his heart he offered prayer to the glory, honor and magnification of Your only begotten Son and our Lord Jesus Christ. To Him belongs all glory, honor and worship, now, and always, and unto the ages of ages! Amen.
Merciful God
In order for Him to hear the prayer, one must rely on the postulate, which says that it is from the heart that evil thoughts come that defile a person. Sinful thoughts are generated deep in the subconscious, and then they flow into bad actions.
Before praying to God, it is important to understand that the main thing in prayer is the result, which is the long-awaited liberation from sin. A person must realize that he has committed a bad act. Then he must admit his guilt and not repeat what he did.
Faith in God's mercy will entail forgiveness if a person laments and repents of everything he has done.
To show the sincerity of your requests for forgiveness for bad deeds, you need to give alms to those in need. This is how compassion and mercy are shown towards the sick and impoverished sufferers.
Another way is prayer, which helps free the soul from sin. It must come from the heart. Pray with sincere repentance, and God will forgive.
Prayer is a way of communicating with Higher powers, and not a method of managing life
Manipulating the other world with the help of spells and ritual actions is magic. It has nothing in common with the Orthodox religion. Believing Christians understand that it is impossible to read a prayer in such a way as to order the Lord God to fulfill one’s desire.
Let's be honest: the King of Heaven is wiser than any representative of the human race. He knows better what is needed and what is not needed in the life of a particular person. To believe that God, before our request, did not know that we needed something would be strange.
A miracle through prayer happens only to those who have left a sinful life. This is what happened to the paralytic when Jesus healed him (Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, “The Healing of the Paralytic at the Sheep Font”)
A person asks for recovery, but isn’t it worth thinking about why God allowed this servant of God to get sick? Apparently, there are deep reasons.
A person must think about his life and correct mistakes. The disease is needed to draw his attention to the problem. There is such a pseudoscientific discipline, psychosomatics.
Let's say, if a person is myopic, it means that in his life he does not strive to look ahead, he is too short-sighted, and the Universe seeks to draw his attention to this problem.
Psychosomatics has nothing to do with Orthodoxy and in general many people have a wary attitude towards it. But if not, then God may well use a similar principle.
Let's say, remember how He blinded the Apostle Paul? Is it because he lived in the era of Christ and did not see the obvious?
Of course, in such cases it is useless to ask the Almighty for recovery. You need to change something in yourself.
Prayer will not help if a person does nothing for himself.
Man destroys himself . Let's say there is a certain alcoholic. He has poor immunity, liver cirrhosis, and delirium tremens. Do prayers help such people? No.
If you yourself do not want to get rid of what is destroying you, you hold on to the bottle, why does God need to deprive you of freedom of choice? You can’t ruin yourself and magically recover at the same time. Either one or the other.
A man holds on to his illness . An Orthodox Christian understands that life is work on oneself. You can’t just trust Christ and expect Him to solve all your problems. This doesn't happen.
It is very strange when we remain inactive, knowing that some disease is eating us from the inside. God created a world where there is medicine for a reason.
Sitting in front of an icon, making the sign of the cross, is an escape from the reality given to us by the Creator. Diseases are treated not at relics, not in churches, but in hospitals and clinics.
The Saving Power of Prayer
Before repentance, the sinner needs reconciliation with his enemies. In this difficult task, the icon of the Mother of God, called the “Seven Arrow”, is very helpful.
Three common prayers are suitable to help the repentant:
- Repentance and forgiveness.
- About forgiveness of grievances.
- Prayer to God for forgiveness.
You can look at the sky and pray to God, if it pleases the one praying for the purity and sincerity of his words. The Lord was crucified on the Cross, thus performing an act of forgiveness for all people.
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.
How to start praying
Those who are just embarking on the path of churching are interested in the question of how to pray to God. Many people ask whether it is better to do it from a book or in your own words.
Modern theologians have the opinion that a person who is just starting to pray should do it in his own words. After all, for him, the canonical sentences and phrases found in prayer books will be incomprehensible in many respects.
Prayer should be original and sincere. As soon as they begin soullessly proofreading what has been written, a feeling may immediately arise of the form rather than the content, but no one needs this.
It is important to know that prayer can even discredit a person. This is one of the biggest dangers that is present not only for beginners. It turns out that sometimes those people who spend most of their lives in God’s temple begin to reproduce the prayer as a kind of standard form that is given in church books. As a result, they end up with a bunch of words, because there is no sincere appeal to God - reasonable, conscious and attentive.
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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Helpful Prayer
We often hear that we need to pray more often. But we shouldn’t forget about a very simple thing: it was the people who prayed (people who ask God for others) who ascended to Heaven. They died, sinking to the very bottom of hell.
What is correct prayer according to the teachings of the Holy Fathers? Saint Ignatius Brianchaninov beautifully outlined this in his works. A person who considers himself an Orthodox believer must have books related to God. This is necessary in order to glance at them more often and receive reproaches of conscience, which will force you to at least sometimes open and read these pages.
The expositions of Brianchaninov’s teachings must be studied and try to read not a hundred sheets at a time, but two or three pages. Such exercises edify the mind, heart and soul.
How to Avoid Distractions During Prayer
Many churchgoers and even long-time churchgoers complain that during prayer their minds wander, extraneous thoughts come to mind, old grievances come to mind, blasphemy and obscene words come to mind. Or, conversely, instead of prayer, a desire arises to indulge in theological reflection.
These are all temptations that are inevitable for a person who has not yet achieved holiness. God allows this to happen in order to test a person’s faith and strengthen his resolve to resist temptation.
The only remedy against them is to resist , not to give in to them and to continue prayer , even if it is difficult to pray and you want to interrupt it.
Read carefully
Ignatius Brianchaninov teaches us that prayer is considered correct only when it is performed with reverent attention. If you turn to God while thinking about another person, this is an insult to our Lord. There is no need to jabber about prayer. When reading, attention and repentance are required. Where these three components are absent, there can be no benefit, there is only harm. You don't even talk to a person like that.
God doesn't just listen to words. He understands the thoughts of those who turn to him. There is no need to try to hide anything from Him. You cannot stage some kind of theatrical performance (screaming, crying). God will hear a quiet, sincere prayer.
People who tried to portray repentance and humility, which they did not experience, then fell into pride and vanity.
There is an amazing incident that happened to the schema-monk of the Glinsk Hermitage, Seraphim. One day a monk he knew came to him and said: “Father, I have an unceasing prayer.” To this Father Seraphim replied: “You should remember that you don’t have any prayer. You just get used to certain words, like others get used to swearing.”
Adviсe
So, when starting to pray, it is important to remember the following:
- put on a cross and a scarf (for women);
- before starting prayer, you need to forgive all the sins of your neighbors against you;
- you need to start reading the prayer in a calm mood, without fuss and haste;
- one must firmly believe that God hears the prayer of the believer;
- before reading the prayer, you should make the sign of the cross three times and bow to the waist;
- the prayer must be said in front of the images;
- do not ask for fame and wealth, God will not hear it;
- After reading the prayers, you must give thanks and praise to God and sign yourself with the cross.
If you have holy water, you need to take a few sips to sanctify your insides.
How many times do you need to say a prayer request to get an answer? Sometimes it takes a long time, and sometimes the answer comes instantly. Everything depends on the will of God and your efforts.
If your prayer calls are not answered, then you are asking for something harmful to yourself. Always rely on the Lord, because he knows best what is beneficial or harmful for you. Do not become angry or irritated over an unfulfilled request; this will lead you away from faith and into a sinful path.
Full attention before God
Many people have a completely logical question about how to pray to God. To whom should we read prayers if no one is visible? Here we need to decide who we are turning to, to God or to some soulless force, before which we need to read words that are incomprehensible to us. In the second case there is no prayer. A person simply does it out of habit.
Therefore, some confessors say that it is better to read fewer prayers, but with attention. If it is difficult to concentrate for a long time, you need to determine a certain period for yourself, for example, 15 minutes. In order not to be distracted by the clock, you can set an alarm clock and perform your pious work with attention and reverence. If a person was able to read only one prayer during this time, it’s not scary. The main thing is that he turned to God.
With what feelings do they pray to God?
According to the Holy Fathers, during prayer there is no need to seek special feelings or spiritual pleasures. Often the prayer of a sinful person, as we all are, is difficult, causing boredom and heaviness. This shouldn’t frighten or confuse you, and you shouldn’t give up prayer because of it. Much more need to be wary of emotional exaltation.
According to Saint Ignatius Brianchaninov, the only feelings that are permissible during prayer are the feeling of one’s unworthiness and reverence for God, in other words, the fear of God.
Brief attention
Experienced people say that you can pray in any position and in any place. This should always be done as soon as you think about God. After all, no one is stopping us from saying the short Jesus Prayer: “Lord, have mercy.” Some of us say these words many times a day without giving them much meaning.
We pray a lot and ask God for help in our needs and illnesses, so that he can quickly deliver us from all misfortunes. However, when turning to God, it is very important to show your faith and say: “Lord, You are Wisdom and Love. You love me like no one else. You know, what i want. Thy will be done, not mine."
Pray to God and don't talk in vain
And when you pray, do not chatter in vain, like the pagans, who think that they will be heard because of their verbosity. (Gospel of Matthew 6:7)
The Bible says that it is better to say a couple of sentences from the heart to God than to tell him a lot of beautiful and correct words. The Bible contains an example of the prayer of a lawyer and a tax collector. The first one praised himself very much, and the second one said only a couple of words, but what words:
And the tax collector stood aside and, not daring even to raise his eyes to heaven, prayed with all humility before God, saying: “Oh God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” (Gospel of Luke 18:13)
It is interesting that the seemingly more righteous lawyer did not please God with his prayer. And this happened not because of the words that he spoke, but because of the heart that he had. But the publican left the temple having pleased God with his prayer, consisting of just a few words. Do you want God to hear you? If you want to learn how to pray correctly, pray like a publican, then God will hear you.
The Danger of Prayer
The Lord, seeing the attention and reverence with which a person treats Him, will certainly give him help and spiritual support.
Some people live for decades, but receive nothing from God. You can continuously go to church and read prayers, but forget about the above-mentioned conditions, depriving yourself of God’s mercy and gifts. It is very important. We must accept the conditions described above, as they are extremely necessary.
It should also be noted that many people go crazy from incorrect prayer and fall into pride.
When is prayer still in vain?
Photo: Pixabay.com
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.
How to Pray to God at Home
About how to turn to the Lord, Isaac the Syrian writes the following: “Do not be reckless in your requests, so as not to anger God by asking the King of Kings for something insignificant. This humiliates Him. He who thirsts for perishable earthly goods arouses the indignation of the Heavenly King against himself.”
Many are also interested in how to pray correctly at home so that God will hear and forgive. People ask whether it is necessary to do this according to the prayer book. Some church leaders believe that this is not so important.
Prayer in your home can be perceived as homework at school, which you need to do yourself. Only then will it be of any use.
You can pray in your own words. Some recommend following the rule from Seraphim of Sarov, which consists of reading the prayers “Our Father” (three times), “Rejoice to the Virgin Mary” (three times) and “Creed” (one time) in the morning and evening.
This is part of the answer to the question of how to properly pray to God at home.
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.
Canons and creativity
The morning and evening prayer rule that we have came to us from the Middle Ages. In those distant times, it was composed by ascetic monks. It includes texts of appeals to God from various collections. Previously, monks woke up at midnight to pray. It was called the Midnight Office. Now it's morning.
The proposed Orthodox collection of morning and evening prayers is very successful, but you need to understand that it is only recommended and not mandatory. Repeating the same sentences can get boring if you do it day after day, year after year. Then the person will stop making sincere appeals to God. To prevent this from happening, the rule can be diluted a little.
To answer the question of how to pray to God at home, I would like to add that many reverend fathers suggested a creative approach to this action. Prayer is not just reading some church rules. This is a conversation with God. This is how we should approach it. Then no one will say: “I pray to God to help me, but He doesn’t hear me.”
Since the time of the Bible, prayer has helped people, and this still happens today.
Remember Rachel? She was barren, but fervent prayer helped her overcome her illness and give birth to two sons. True, the birth of the latter ended in death for Rachel, but this was probably the maximum that her body was capable of.
Miraculous answers to prayer continue to occur today.
Rachel is a woman from the Bible, to whose prayers for children God responded and allowed her to become a mother. Photo: xn--80ancrr3a.xn--p1ai
Here is a story from the book “Ask and it will be given to you.” Uninvented stories about God's miraculous help":
“Two sisters I knew lived outside the city - very pious women and zealous women of prayer. There were many wonderful things in their lives. Once during the war, they exchanged something for potatoes, loaded them onto a sled - it was winter - and took them away.
The journey was long. Exhausted and hungry, they were exhausted. They prayed: “Most Holy Mother of God, help us.” They stand on the road, exhausted, and see a beautiful Woman approaching them and saying:
“You are very tired, let me help you deliver the potatoes.” And She undertook to take them along. And they felt so at ease with Her, and they were amazed, looking at Her, and were afraid to ask Her who She was. As soon as they delivered the potatoes to the house, they lost sight of Her.
They realized then that it was the Quick to Hear - the Most Holy Theotokos.
Book “Ask and it will be given to you” on ABC. RU
Am I praying to God the Father, Jesus or the Holy Spirit?
It's completely up to you. Choose One Person or try praying to each member of the Trinity at different times because they are all listening to you. If you are a Christian, the Holy Spirit is the presence of God living within you. So you can approach Him directly with the confidence that He is as close as possible.
