A Prayer for Sinners and the Lost

I beg and beseech You, Lord,

grant to all who have gone astray

a true knowledge of you,

so that each and every one

may come to know your glory.

In the case of all who have passed from this world

lacking a virtuous life and having had no faith,

be an advocate for them, Lord,

for the sake of the body which you took from them,

so that from the single united body of the world

we may offer up praise

to Father, Son, and Holy Spirit

in the kingdom of heaven,

an unending source of eternal delight.

- The Syriac Fathers on Prayer and the Spiritual Life, pg. 354

Pray for your enemies

If a man wants God to hear his prayer quickly, then before he prays for anything else, even his own soul, when he stands and stretches out his hands towards God, he must pray with all his heart for his enemies. Through this action God will hear everything that he asks.

- Abba Zeno

For all of you…

For all of you, both righteous and sinful, we who are halfdead, half-alive pray to the Mercy of Heaven, so that you may not be confounded, so that you may not be afraid and look back, but may, in the fullness of summer, head ever forward and ever higher— toward light and joy toward peace and plenitude.

- St Nikolai, Prayers by the Lake

On prayer

While praying, a person should not have any thoughts but rather become selfess. Even the Holy Fathers say this: ‘While at prayer, behave as though there were no one else in the wolrd, just you and God.’ When praying, we should not be preoccupied with ourselves, because in that case we are so absorbed in our own needs that we ourselves are detrimental to our prayer.

- Elder Thaddeus of Vitovnica

Let us accomplish all the things…

Let us accomplish all the things that are pleasing to God: chanting, prayer, reading, spiritual instruction, manual labour, and service of every kind, living in interior communion with God.

- St. Nilus of Sora

If prayer is right, everything is right

Prayer is the test of everything; prayer is also the source of everything; prayer is the driving force of everything; prayer is also the director of everything. If prayer is right, everything is right. For prayer will not allow anything to go wrong.

- St. Theophan the Recluse

Advice on prayer

In order to facilitate the development of true prayer, take these steps: 1) keep a prayer rule according to the blessing of your spiritual father - not more than you can read unhurriedly on a normal day; 2) before you pray, in your free time become familiar with the prayer in your rule, fully take in each word and feel it, so that you would know in advance what should be in your soul as you read. It will be even better if you learn the prayers by heart. When you do this, then all of your prayers will be easy for you to remember and feel. There is only one final difficulty: your thoughts will always stray to other subjects, therefore: 3) you must struggle to keep your attention focused on the words of your prayer, knowing in advance that your mind will wander.

- St. Theophan the Recluse

Prayer for those facing the temptation of suicide

Oh Lord, tonight people will stay awake in the cold hands of despair. Tonight many profligate souls, victims of desperation will mourn, will cry loudly, or alas! they will curse their lives…

My sweet Jesus, I shiver, when I think that tonight, maybe this moment, despair will bring people close to death. The thought of suicide will besiege many creatures of Υours around the world.

Oh, Giver of Life, don’t let it happen! You came in our world to give in our lives the dimension of eternity.

How will Your heart stand the pain to see them suicide, to take away their lives in a violent way?

Cancel, oh Lord, the plans of the emperror of the darkness and the death. Set people free from the temptation of suicide. Dissolve the mist of despair.

Jesus, if you want, you can overflow the exhausted souls with the song of life, by covering the lament of death. May the song of the nightingale resounds where the singing of the barn owl exists.

Oh Lord, fill their chests with the desire of life, with strength and the decision to live, such a decision that will beat the desire of death. Show to my brothers that suicide is an enormous, irreparable mistake…

Whisper to their hearts that never, for nothing is late. That no pain is bigger than our strength. That there is no wound that can’t be healed by Your merciful hand.

My God, sow hope and faith to You. Open the roads of life and close the paths of death forever….

Patience, prayer, and hope

Do not try to decide a difficult matter by means of disputing, but that which is enjoined by the spiritual law, namely patience, prayer, and thoughtful hope.

- Our venerable father Mark the Ascetic

The three steps of prayer

In all, prayer has three main steps: “prayer of the mouth, prayer of the mind, and prayer of the heart”. All the other steps in between are connected to one another, just like the steps of a ladder. A perfect prayer [the person] will go through all these prayer steps, by the grace of God. It is not in man’s power to climb these steps by himself. What man has is his willingness alone. So what depends on him is to want and to pray to God to the best of his abilities; for as to becoming worthy of such higher prayers, that lies only with the divine work, which is entirely dependent upon God’s grace.

- Elder Cleopa Ilie

A prayer before reading the Bible

O Lord Jesus Christ, open Thou the eyes of my heart, that I may hear Thy word and understand and do Thy will, for I am a sojourner upon the earth. Hide not Thy commandments from me, but open my eyes, that I may perceive the wonders of Thy law. Speak unto me the hidden and secret things of Thy wisdom. On Thee do I set my hope, O my God, that Thou shalt enlighten my mind and understanding with the light of Thy knowledge, not only to cherish those things which are written, but to do them; that in reading the lives and sayings of the saints I may not sin, but that such may serve for my restoration, enlightenment and sanctification, for the salvation of my soul, and the inheritance of life everlasting. For Thou art the enlightenment of those who lie in darkness, and from Thee cometh every good deed and every gift. Amen.

- St. John Chrysostom

Do not allow the mind to be enticed

The true beginning of prayer is warmth of the heart, which scorches the passions and fills the soul with joy and gladness, strengthening the heart with an unshakable love and a firm assurance that leaves no room for doubt.

The Fathers say that whatever enters the soul, whether visible or invisible, is not from God so long as the heart is in doubt about it and so does not accept it: in such cases, it is something that comes from the enemy.

In the same way if you see your mind attracted by some invisible force to wander outside or soar high do not trust it and do not allow the mind to be enticed by it; but immediately force you mind to continue with its proper work. Whatever is of God comes by itself, says St. Isaac, whilst you are ignorant even of the time of its coming.

Thus the enemy tries to produce an illusion of some spiritual experience within us, offering us a mirage instead of the real thing-unruely burning instead of true spiritual warmth, and instead of joy, irrational excitement and physical pleasure which in turn gives rise to pride and conceit and he even succeeds in concealing himself from the inexperienced behind such seducements, so they think his diabolic illusion is really the working of grace.

Yet time, experience, and feeling will reveal him to those who are not altogether ignorant of his evil wiles. ‘The palate discriminates between different foods,’ says the Scriptures. In the same way spiritual taste shows all things as they are, without any illusion.

- St. Gregory of Sinai

Persevere with patience in your prayer

Persevere with patience in your prayer, and repulse the cares and doubts that arise within you. Try to make your intellect deaf and dumb during prayer, you will then be able to pray.

- Evagrios the Solitary, “On Prayer”