"Prayer needs no teacher. It requires diligence, effort and personal ardor, and then God will be its teacher." St. Meletius the Confessor
St Isaac the Syrian says we should:
• Pray with attention – so that we can have a true
encounter with God
• Pray with humility – because this sort of prayer goes
straight to God’s ear
• Pray with affection and tears – with joy and
thanksgiving, but also with true repentance and purity.
• Pray with patience and ardor – ‘to deny oneself’ is
courageously to persevere in prayer.
• Pray from the depths of the heart – even if we pray
using ‘the words of another’ they should be uttered as if
they are our own. St. Isaac says this is especially true
of the Psalms.
• Pray with faith and absolute trust in God – because He knows our life.
• Pray with attention – so that we can have a true
encounter with God
• Pray with humility – because this sort of prayer goes
straight to God’s ear
• Pray with affection and tears – with joy and
thanksgiving, but also with true repentance and purity.
• Pray with patience and ardor – ‘to deny oneself’ is
courageously to persevere in prayer.
• Pray from the depths of the heart – even if we pray
using ‘the words of another’ they should be uttered as if
they are our own. St. Isaac says this is especially true
of the Psalms.
• Pray with faith and absolute trust in God – because He knows our life.
Preparing to Pray
Take the time at the beginning of your prayer time to quiet your body and mind and to concentrate your energies in your heart. Christ says, “Enter into thy closet and ... shut thy door” (Matt 6:6). Remove all activities that could disrupt your inner descent. Set aside, to the best of your ability, all of your problems of the day and your worries for tomorrow. This is not a time for thinking or worrying. Treat intruding thoughts as birds flying by a window, just let them fly by. When you are preparing to pray, stand, sit or walk a few minutes and steady your mind to concentrate on God.
Take the time at the beginning of your prayer time to quiet your body and mind and to concentrate your energies in your heart. Christ says, “Enter into thy closet and ... shut thy door” (Matt 6:6). Remove all activities that could disrupt your inner descent. Set aside, to the best of your ability, all of your problems of the day and your worries for tomorrow. This is not a time for thinking or worrying. Treat intruding thoughts as birds flying by a window, just let them fly by. When you are preparing to pray, stand, sit or walk a few minutes and steady your mind to concentrate on God.
Reflect on who it is that you will be addressing. Remember, it is God Himself who you are about to talk with. Try to bring about a feeling of humility and reverent awe. Make some prostrations before you begin....
Follow a Prayer Rule and use written prayers
You should have a specific rule for both morning and evening. Don’t try and wing it. You are developing a discipline that is beyond what you will feel like doing. This is not a relaxation exercise but a path to be in communion with your God. Use prayer books and written prayers. St Ephraim has written some beautiful prayers and is one of my favorites. The Orthodox prayer books are filled with prayers that have been well tested and used for hundreds of years. Prayer does not have to be a creative activity but you must be sincere. Keep your awareness in your heart and strive to keep your full attention on the words of the prayer and not let your mind wander. Once you establish a rule, always keep it.
You should have a specific rule for both morning and evening. Don’t try and wing it. You are developing a discipline that is beyond what you will feel like doing. This is not a relaxation exercise but a path to be in communion with your God. Use prayer books and written prayers. St Ephraim has written some beautiful prayers and is one of my favorites. The Orthodox prayer books are filled with prayers that have been well tested and used for hundreds of years. Prayer does not have to be a creative activity but you must be sincere. Keep your awareness in your heart and strive to keep your full attention on the words of the prayer and not let your mind wander. Once you establish a rule, always keep it.
As you begin to pray enter into every word of the prayer. Bring the meaning of the words down into your heart. As St. Theophan says descend with the mind into the heart. Do not rush through the prayers like you are in a hurry to get them over with. Let them slowly drop into the depths of your heart with humility and awe of God. It’s like in driving a car. When you are going 90 miles per hour down the highway you may feel powerful and in control. But at high speeds things can go wrong fast. When driving at a speed of twenty-five miles per hour the car handles easy and if someone makes a dangerous maneuver you can easily avoid it. Well, the mind works the same way. We want to train it to slow down so we can become aware of God’s presence within us. So, in prayer we say the words slowly so we can gain the meaning of them and allow them to penetrate our consciousness and to bring to our heart feelings of love and reverence for our God. Let the words drop individually into your heart like pebbles dropping into a pond. You will eventually find the right pace for yourself. Beware of the tendency to rush to complete them hurriedly. When this tendency is present you have turned your prayer into an obligation and it is no longer true prayer. Don’t worry if you catch yourself doing this. It is normal at first. Just stop and slow down and proceed by asking God’s forgiveness and help. I usually just go back and repeat what I find myself hurrying through. Also, study the prayers before you use them so you know the meaning of each word. Eventually you will want to memorize them...
Concentrate Your Attention in Prayer
After you begin to say your prayers you will find that your mind will want to wander. While you are reciting the words of the pray your mind can jump to something entirely different. Don’t be concerned about this as this is natural due to the forces that do not want us to pray to God. Work to learn to concentrate your attention. Recognize that when this happens you are no longer praying. When you mind does wander, be gentle with yourself and go back and say again what you said while your mind was elsewhere. Make a concerted effort to bring yourself to concentrate on the words of the prayer. Sometimes it helps to say them out loud for a while. The mind is quite adept at doing more than one thing at a time. You need to bring yourself to a single focus on God. When you are talking to your best friend you don't think of other things when talking with them. When you go into the boss for a discussion you concentrate. God deserves better attention than anyone, so you must learn to concentrate, to focus on the words of the prayer. These wanderings of the mind show you the impact of your busy life that you need to find ways to make quieter so you can be always mindful of God no matter what you are doing. Prayer is not time to be distracted by these worldly activities, because this will only further distract you from prayer. Work to concentrate your attention more and more. Each day you will gain in your attentiveness during prayer. Learn how to lift you mind to be attentive to heavenly things...
After you begin to say your prayers you will find that your mind will want to wander. While you are reciting the words of the pray your mind can jump to something entirely different. Don’t be concerned about this as this is natural due to the forces that do not want us to pray to God. Work to learn to concentrate your attention. Recognize that when this happens you are no longer praying. When you mind does wander, be gentle with yourself and go back and say again what you said while your mind was elsewhere. Make a concerted effort to bring yourself to concentrate on the words of the prayer. Sometimes it helps to say them out loud for a while. The mind is quite adept at doing more than one thing at a time. You need to bring yourself to a single focus on God. When you are talking to your best friend you don't think of other things when talking with them. When you go into the boss for a discussion you concentrate. God deserves better attention than anyone, so you must learn to concentrate, to focus on the words of the prayer. These wanderings of the mind show you the impact of your busy life that you need to find ways to make quieter so you can be always mindful of God no matter what you are doing. Prayer is not time to be distracted by these worldly activities, because this will only further distract you from prayer. Work to concentrate your attention more and more. Each day you will gain in your attentiveness during prayer. Learn how to lift you mind to be attentive to heavenly things...
Don't rush into other activities when finished with Prayer
When you finish your prayers, stand for a few moments. Consider to what your prayer life commits you. Try to hold in your heart what has been given to you. Treasure it for a few moments.
When you finish your prayers, stand for a few moments. Consider to what your prayer life commits you. Try to hold in your heart what has been given to you. Treasure it for a few moments.
As a closing thought let me just say that God is always present it is we who are absent from Him. Through prayer we can become aware of He who is and be transformed in the process.
Most of the text above came from www.orthodoxprayer.org/ daily prayer basics
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