With the revival of spirituality in society, more and more people are turning to God, to prayer, and repentance. For the majority of parishioners, the so-called consumer attitude towards faith and spirituality continues to prevail, which consists in the fact that a person remembers the Lord in difficult moments of life, and asks for more than he himself tries to give. Despite this, the number of people who trust in God is steadily growing, and the saying “Ask, and it will be given to you...” increasingly confirms its truth.
The Power of Prayer in Faith
When turning to the Almighty, the Mother of God or the Saints in prayer, many people believe that it is enough for the prayer from the prayer book or missal to be read correctly, a donation in the form of a candle is made, and the request should be granted. Without waiting for the result, they cease to believe in the effectiveness of prayer and even in Orthodoxy itself.
Prayers are a powerful weapon for a believer if the person asking is sincerely convinced that his request or appeal will be heard and satisfied, even if not immediately, then after a certain period of time. The Christian parable about the wanderings of Jesus Christ, which tells about the earthly journey of the Son of God, draws the attention of Christians to the power of faith: “... to those who turned to him with a request for healing from serious illnesses and infirmities, Jesus first of all answered: “Do you believe? According to your faith it will be...” The power of a song-prayer is truly great, but its greatness lies in sincerity and trust.
Orthodox prayers by agreement - text in Russian
Today, clergy often read prayers by agreement in Russian. This is due to the fact that Old Church Slavonic texts are difficult to understand, which means that it is very difficult for believers to repeat them sincerely. You have to constantly strain to understand the spoken prayer phrases.
Prayer for the agreement of the sick person and his health to the Guardian Angel
A prayer by agreement directed to the Guardian Angel of a sick person sounds like this:
“The Guardian Angel of the Servant of God (the name of the sick person) is a saint of Christ, appointed at the moment of birth to guard his soul and the body of a sinner. You are next to him all the time and now you see how he suffers. We fall to you and pray for the health of the sick person. If he ever angered you with his laziness or bad deed, if he pushed you away from himself with his deceit or envy, rebellion and disobedience, evil thoughts and carnal sins, then forgive him and cover him with your wing from troubles and sorrows. Turn your gaze, Guardian Angel, to the sick person, the Servant of God (person’s name). Support him and beg the Lord Almighty to forgive all his sins in life. May the Heavenly All-Merciful Father not punish him with a serious illness. Ask to judge the Servant of God (the person’s name) not according to his iniquities, but according to His mercy. We pray to you, Holy Guardian Angel and ask for your mercy. Amen".
The prayer by agreement to the Guardian Angel must be read in a positive mood
It is important to believe that the prayer will be heard and that your loved one will definitely recover.
Prayer for marriage agreement
If a girl cannot get married in any way, then she should ask the Higher Powers to assist in this matter. A strong prayer by agreement in this case can be addressed to the Lord God.
It sounds like this:
“Oh, All-merciful and All-Merciful Lord Almighty, King of Heaven, I know that my family happiness depends only on you. Give me the opportunity, Lord, to meet a person whom I will love with all my heart. For You, Almighty, my love and faith are boundless, I humbly accept Your will in everything, I follow Your commandments, glorifying Your Holy Name in prayers. Rule, Lord, my soul and guide me on the righteous path, help me resist all devilish temptations. Let my heart be filled with sincere faith, I want, Lord, to please only You alone, for You are the Creator and my God. I ask you to save me from vanity and pride, and grant me chastity and modesty. I know that you consider idleness a sin, so I promise to work hard and ask for the blessing of my labors. Your God's law commands all people to spend their lives in legal marriage and bear children. So lead me to an honest marriage, sanctified by You. Heavenly Holy Father, I ask for marriage for myself, not to please my lust, but to fulfill Your commandments. You, the Almighty, said that it is not right for a person to spend his life alone, therefore You, the Great Creator of the world of everything, created a woman as a helper for a man. You blessed such a union and ordered it to multiply and populate the earth. Hear my humble prayer, emanating from the depths of my soul and sent to You. Send me, Lord, a faithful and pious spouse, grant us family happiness and allow my betrothed and I to live in harmony. So that we can glorify Your deeds and Your good and merciful Name. Amen".
Prayer by agreement, family and faith to St. Nicholas the Wonderworker
To support people on their journey, solve financial problems, and also to save the family, a prayer is read to St. Nicholas the Wonderworker.
It sounds like this:
“Oh All-Holy Nicholas the Wonderworker, a great saint of God. You are our warm heavenly helper and intercessor; we, sinners and unworthy, turn to you with our sorrows and sorrows. You definitely hear all of us who are suffering and provide effective support and assistance. I also hope for your help. Help me, sinful and sad, mired in sins in this life, cope with problems. Ask God to grant me remission of my sins, committed due to my foolishness. My whole soul is filled with faith and love for the Lord, I repent of all my voluntary or involuntary sins. I ask for Your help, Holy Wonderworker Nicholas. Help me solve my life problems, protect me on the path of life and remove obstacles on the way to my goal. Be a merciful representative in all my affairs, so that I may glorify the name of the Lord. Amen".
Listen to the video prayer by agreement to St. Nicholas the Wonderworker:
https://youtube.com/watch?v=4QOBKgBSJUo
Sincerity of prayer in understanding the meaning
The person asking, turning to the heavenly powers, often reads the text of the prayer without delving into its meaning. With this approach, the deep subtext of this appeal often remains unconscious. The Old Church Slavonic language, which was used to compile all the old prayers of Orthodox Christians, interferes. Despite the adaptation of the text to modern language in the prayer book, it continues to remain difficult. I don’t particularly want to think about the content, so many naively believe that pronouncing the set of words that is given will be enough. A believer must understand what he is asking the Almighty for, what he is asking him for, before he begins prayerful communication with the Heavenly powers and uses great prayers.
The Effectiveness of Sincere Prayer
Many examples of the effectiveness of prayer pronounced “from the heart” can be found in Christian parables. One of them tells how fishermen caught in a storm found salvation on a secluded island. Three elders lived on the island, who ate what nature fed them, had one icon of the Holy Trinity, and worshiped it: “Three of you and three of us, have mercy on us.” The collective prayer of the elders helped them survive and not grumble. The fishermen taught them the prayer “Our Father,” drawing the attention of the elders to the fact that they were praying incorrectly and their call to the Lord could not be heard. The fishermen, sailing with a sense of accomplishment, suddenly saw three old men from the island running after the boat through the water and shouting that they had forgotten the words of the prayer and asked to be reminded. The fishermen, taken aback, replied: “Pray as you pray.” The words of petition to the Lord must be pronounced “from the heart” and with an understanding of the meaning of the appeal.
The influence of shared beliefs on performance
Prayers to the Saints, said by a person alone, are intensified by the spiritual impulse of a Christian. But Christ said: “...for where two or three are gathered in My name, there I am in the midst of them.” The point of the message is not that the effectiveness of prayer is greatly enhanced when several people offer it. Jesus is in a moment of prayer both with a group of people and with a solitary prayer leader. However, if one person approaches the sacrament of turning to the Lord formally, then among the rest of the praying people there will be one or more people who will sincerely and from the heart “formulate” their message to the Almighty. In the era of the formation of Christianity, in the first time after the resurrection of Christ, the apostles often gathered together. At such meetings they broke bread and prayed together. Such collective prayer united them, the Holy Spirit abiding in each of them united them into one whole, lifting their words directly to the Lord.
Prayer Team
To begin with, I would recommend that you take a blessing from a priest who knows your spiritual mood. Tell him that there is such a request, such a problem or such a misfortune, can we pray that the Lord will bless and resolve the situation. And tell me who you would like to ask, say, three or four such and such people. If the priest blessed, then God help!
Is it necessary to have prayer people on your team? I would say it is possible. Because if you know that a person will really sincerely pray and not because you will give him some kind of reward, but because he himself loves to be with God, then his help will be in demand.
But if there are no such special people around, then you can invite everyone who cares and who agrees to voluntarily pray from the heart. And you don’t need to persuade anyone. Because if five or six people agreed to pray, but they pray only because it was inconvenient for them to refuse, this is bad. If you approach prayer formally, there will be no benefit. The Lord sees the hearts of people and mechanical pronunciation of prayer does not produce results.
I myself really love this prayer. Father John (Krestyankin) advised me to pray to her. My own grandfather, a man of high spiritual life, Nikolai Ivanovich Pestov, often prayed by agreement with his loved ones. People prayed especially fervently during the years of persecution and during the war. Nowadays it takes three hours to travel from Moscow to Tula, but back then it took three days to travel by train. Yes, more bombings. They brought food with them. And so, when someone set off on the road, the rest prayed and the Lord preserved. They told me about one mother, an old one, who was going into exile and took with her a hundred kilograms of food. The guys who saw her off were all surprised, how would she get there, how would she get there?! And she said: “What does the Mother of God need? And St. Nikolai for what? Take me to the corner and pray, stand!” They brought her to the corner of this street and left. And when they returned an hour later, she was no longer there. No money, no tickets. With God's help, through the prayers of her loved ones, she made it into exile alone and brought food with her.
We advise you to study the Icon of the Mother of God, Helper of Sinners
Recorded by Ekaterina Stepanova
The difference between personal prayer and collective prayer
The meaning of a collective message rarely comes down to listing the personal needs of those asking. The exception is prayer when people ask before the Heavenly Throne for one person who has suffered difficult trials and who needs the help of Christians. Songs-prayer for collective appeal are taken from the Bible books of Orthodox Christians, the words are pronounced, as a rule, in the temple together with the clergy. The exception is some special instructions given by the priests themselves. For example, when all believing parishioners join in a united prayer for peace in a country that is at that moment in a state of armed conflict.
Warning to the Holy Church
A Christian believer must learn for himself the main rule of observing a single prayer: it is performed in the Temple, unless there are special instructions from the ministers of the Church. The relevance of this rule in the modern world is too great. Lately, so-called “holy” followers of Jesus Christ or the Virgin Mary have increasingly begun to appear in public, gathering people for mass prayers. At many of these events, involving thousands of people, elements of trance hypnosis are used and dubious “healing miracles” are demonstrated. Such collective prayer will not bring good to those who offer it. Its effect is exactly the opposite, since the ministers of the Church claim that such acts come “from the evil one.” Instead of saving his soul, a person will ruin it. The temptation to accept help from such charlatans is too great, but we must not forget that the true salvation of an Orthodox Christian is in the Church, and the main weapon of a believer is prayer to Christ.
The Deep Meaning of the Jesus Prayer
The prayer book offers a large number of holy texts for use when communicating with Heavenly patrons and protectors. Many people believe that a short and easy-to-remember prayer to Jesus Christ has special power. The words in it are chosen in such a way that a person, turning to the Son of God, asks him for mercy, while also trusting in the intercession of the Mother of God and the Saints. Understanding the essence of his sinfulness, an Orthodox Christian living in society understands that it is difficult for him to protect his soul from temptations and temptations and keep it pure. A sincerely repentant person, not daring to turn directly to the Lord God, turns to the great Saints with a request for mercy, leniency and intercession. Prayer to Jesus Christ supports a person and strengthens him in faith, thereby protecting him from the fall: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God. Have mercy on me, a sinner. Amen"
Death and remembrance of the dead
Life after death * Remembrance of the dead
Prayers
- Memorial for the living and the dead
- Funeral memorial for schema abbot Savva
- Litiya performed by a layman at home and in the cemetery
- A memorial service for the laity to read
- Sequence on the departure of the soul from the body, read by a layman
- Prayers for the loss of a breadwinner
- Prayers for every deceased Christian
- Waiting for death
- Prayers for the dead
- Prayers in old age
- Widower's Prayer
- Widow's Prayer
- Children's prayer for deceased parents
- Prayer for those who died outside their fatherland, for the rootless and wretched
- Prayer for the repose of those who have died after a serious and long illness
- Prayer for those who have died due to mental illness
- Prayer for the repose of Orthodox soldiers killed in battle for the faith and Fatherland
- Prayer for those who died sudden (sudden) death
- Commemoration of the dead on Easter days
About deceased children
- Prayers of those who have had an abortion
- Parents' prayer for deceased children
- Prayer for a stillborn baby
- Prayer for stillborn and unbaptized babies
About suicides
- The rite of prayerful consolation of relatives who died without permission
- Prayer of St. Leo of Optina for someone who died without repentance (can also be read privately about the unbaptized and suicides)
Canons
- Canon of prayer for the separation of the soul from the body (on behalf of a person who is separated from the soul and cannot speak)
- Prayerful follow-up with the canon of repentance about the sin of killing children in the womb (abortion)
- A touching canon to the Most Holy Theotokos, said by the wives who killed their child in the womb, with interlinear Russian translation
The ability to accept the wisdom of the Almighty
The person who believes that by praying about pressing problems will immediately receive deliverance from them is wrong, just like the person who is confident that through his prayers he will immediately receive what he asks for. Wise people say that the Lord hears and gives not what a person asks for, but what a person needs most at that moment. This shows great Divine wisdom, since people are not always aware of their desires, and often act under the influence of impulse and temporary impulse. The Lord is wise and understands what is good for a person, therefore he will give only that which will contribute not to the fulfillment of desires, but to the satisfaction of the most pressing need. Prayers to the Saints have the same power: a person is given what is especially necessary.
Once a traveling Chinese saw at the station an icon with the face of St. Nicholas the Pleasant. I looked at it for a while and moved on. A few days later, the ship got into a storm, the ship sank, and the Chinese, without understanding why, called out: “The old man from the station, save me!” A boat appeared, a gray-haired old man was sitting in the boat, and he took the traveler to the shore. The Chinese assured that this was the same “old man” whose portrait he had seen at the station. By relying on the will of God and calling on his name for his salvation, a person thereby saves his soul.
CHURCH SLAVIC IS THE “CORRECT ORIGINAL” RUSSIAN?
Some believers naively believe that the TsYA is “pure, original, correct Russian.” In fact, it is not Russian and never has been. Once upon a time, a little more than 1000 years ago, there became a need to translate liturgical books from Greek into a language more understandable to the population of Rus'. For this, the well-known Cyril and Methodius were invited, who invented the Cyrillic alphabet and, with its help, translated liturgical texts... into what language? But this is interesting. To a certain artificial language, which was based not on Old Russian at all, but on the Bulgarian-Macedonian (!) dialect, which was more native and closer to the translators themselves. Now it is known as "Old Church Slavonic". Nowadays, Bulgarian, Macedonian and just Old Church Slavonic remain in the eastern subgroup of the South Slavic group of languages. Where is the Russian? - you ask. And in general it is even in another group of Slavic languages - in the East Slavic. It should be noted that Old Church Slavonic was never anyone’s living spoken language; it was a purely bookish language. Over the next couple of centuries, under the influence of living Slavic languages, it was somewhat distorted, but since then it has not changed much. In this form it is known under the name “Church Slavonic”. The prefix “church-” just emphasizes the fact that it was never used anywhere except in the church. The question is - why not translate it into a bunch of real living languages of Rus'? But because the translation capabilities of that time were, mmm... somewhat limited. No dictionaries, no heaps of educated translators, no Google translator, no printing. Therefore, the Central Symbolic Language became a completely acceptable measure in order to make the text generally understandable to the entire population of Kievan Rus. And then, as these very living languages developed, it became less and less understandable... Especially Russian, considering that Old Russian, from which Russian originated, was generally from a different language group - with grammar and phonetics, very far from the Bulgarian-Macedonian . That is, the modern language of Orthodox worship not only has little in common with modern Russian, but even it is very far from ancient Russian. Since then, Orthodox services and prayers have been translated into a bunch of languages, but for some reason it is in the RUSSIAN Orthodox Church that services are still conducted in a non-Russian language, prayer books are written in a non-Russian language - a tradition! And calls to speak and pray in Russian in the Russian Orthodox Church are considered modernism and a violation of tradition. In this situation, I am especially touched by some “Russian Orthodox patriots” who literally chant “Down with the Russian language!” on the pages of their publications. o_O These people clearly love Russian culture very much, but they understand little about it - which leads to such funny paradoxes. For them, it seems, the main thing is to be more traditional. And in the end, at school Orthodox patriots, like all citizens of the Russian Federation, studied the great and mighty Russian language and do not know about any southern Bulgarian dialects. And if they find out the truth, what will happen?
We advise you to study Prayers for the gift of children
It is completely incomprehensible to me why the “Russian people, bearers of Orthodoxy” should be so persistently discriminated against? Any philologist can easily dispel the illusion that TsSYA is a certain “poetic style” of a Russian. And what’s poetic about all these “bugs”? The philologist will also dispel the myth that, under the pressure of worship, the modern Russian language will become ennobled and closer to the Central Language, and Russians will begin to speak it en masse in everyday life, as supposedly once upon a time, when the trees were taller and morality among the people was stronger. CSL is an “average language”, a purely utilitarian move to convey the meaning of the Bible to the maximum number of people speaking different Slavic dialects 1000 years ago. This is a type of “pidgin” - mixed languages of communication for peoples who do not have a common language. In short, the language is from the series “Sprehat na Deutsche” or “face about the table”. For me, refusing to speak Russian in church and pray in Russian at home is not just discrimination against Russians, but also disrespect for Russian culture and language. After all, since when is the Russian language not big and powerful enough? Is it really less great and powerful than the Macedonian-Bulgarian dialect of a thousand years ago, or any of the world languages, or even any of the languages of the small Russian nationalities in which Orthodox worship is now conducted?
