Thanksgiving

"When we take God for granted our blessings decrease, with the result that we start to feel that God doesn't answer our prayers. Our religion becomes depressed and lifeless, all because we have forgotten about the need for thanksgiving."
Spirituality: Michael Keiser

How to save your soul

Evagrius visited an old Desert father and asked him: "Tell me some piece of advice by which I might be able to save my soul?" The advice was: "If you wish to save your soul, do not speak before you are asked a question."
Evagrius Ponticus: The Praktikos

The Communion of Saints

"So then, let us celebrate this heavenly joy together with the saints of old who kept the same Feast. Yes, they keep the Feast with us, and they are examples to us of life in Christ."
St. Athansius AD 330 "The Resurrection Letters".

Encountering Christ

"The Church started as a worshipping community. Even during the era of persecution, the Church never failed to come together for worship and the celebration of the Eucharist. Notice that I sdid not use the term 'to perform' the Divine Liturgy, because the early Christians did not 'act' the Liturgy; theyr celebrated it. To celebrate an event is to observe it in a very special way. The priests and the congregation are the celebrators while Christ is the celebrity par excellence. To celebrate the Eucharist is to encounter Christ."
Orthodox Worship - Benjamin D. Williams & Harold B. Anstall p78-79

Baptismal Regeneration?

'Palladios (the biographer of St. John Chrysostom) later claimed that he could not believe that "from the hour of his baptism John ever swore or made others take oaths, ever spoke evil of anyone, or told lies, or cursed, or tolerated frivilous talk."'
From 'Golden Mouth' by J.N.D.Kelly

Pray without ceasing

"Paul commands mental or spiritual prayer for all Christians without exception. He also orders all Christians to pray unceasingly. To pray unceasingly is only possible in the heart. Therefore it is impossible to contest the fact that noetic prayer is compulsory for all Christians, and if it is obligatory, then it is also possible - God does not command the impossible."Saint Theophan the Recluse

Prayer Revolution

I came to faith in August 1981 in front of a shaving mirror. I had read a book by Hal Lindsay called 'The Liberation of Planet earth' and had just come from reading a chapter in my bedroom. Half way through shaving it all suddenly made sense to me. Something 'clicked' and I was filled with joy and thanksgiving for what Jesus had done fo me on the cross. My life changed around and within a short space of time - two years - I had put my name forward for ordination and was off to train in a theological college in Cardiff.

One of the first things I was taught after my conversion was to have a daily quiet time structured around reading the Bible. It was something along the lines of A.C.T.S. an acronym standing for Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving and Supplication. All the praying was meant to be extemporary and ideally the quiet time should last at least half and hour.

For the next twenty years - with variations - this has been the structure of my quiet times with God. But I have been terribly inconsistent sometimes praying for up to an hour - including reading long passages of the Bible based on the Murray McCheyne 'lectionary' of readings - and sometimes not at all with weeks going by without quality time with God. Looking back on those times one of the main problems for me was the extemporary bit. Not that I couldn't or can't pray extemporarily - I can and do - but that when I prayed I rarely had the sense that what I was praying was somehow the right thing to pray or pray for. This sense of inadequacy was heightened after reading various books on prayer which taught me to beware selfish prayers or the importance of praying according to the Will of God. Prayertime degenerated into thinking about prayer as much as, or more than, praying prayers. Am I asking for, or saying, the right things? What about the things I should be praying for? Am I including them?

The other problems centred on who to pray for. Of course I prayed for family and close friends, but what about my work, those around me in need, those in foreign countries, missionaries, the latest disasters, headlines, etc etc. The list grew and shrank on almost a daily basis as I alternatively felt overwhelmed or pushed for time.

And I felt so guilty half the time, especially as a priest, because I missed prayer because I just did not have enough time to go through everything I needed to go through. And take the A.C.T.S structure. Sometimes I'd get stuck on the A = Adoration for so long that I did not have time to progress to the C= Confession and would wander about the day feeling unforgiven.

Enter the Orthodox Bible. What a discovery! First I managed to get hold of the Orthodox New Testament and discovered that in the back were some Morning and Evening Prayers which I began to use each day. What a revelation and what a liberation! I had, as an Anglican, used a prayer book before, but usually, like the Celebrating Common Prayer book, these consisted of responses which you made 'between' yourself which was a bit odd. Besides it - like the others blossoming on the market -was a modern prayer book with prayers that, as yet, had not been tested by time and use. The prayers in the Orthodox New Testament were different. There was something deep and right and suffiecient about them. They said the things that needed to be said somehow.

Second, I returned to the Jesus Prayer I had discovered some years back in my college years. I found a simple prayer structure based on the Trisagion Prayers online and began to use the Jesus Prayer at different times of the day when I was in between visits or if I was really pushed for time at the beginning of the day. I found I could say a 100 prayers plus the Trisagion Prayers in about 20-25 minutes.

All of this I have found so liberating. I still read my Bible every day and go through the monthly cycle of psalms (found in the 1662 BCP) and still add some extemporary prayers at the end of the intercession part of the Morning Prayers. But now I find my prayer times much more satisfying and complete than at any time in my last twenty eight years as a Christian. Sure I still have prayer problems and plenty of questions, but these are now problems about the state of my soul rather than the state of my prayer times. And that, surely, is how it is meant to be.

Using a prayer rope

For twenty years - on and off - I have used a prayer rope I bought in St. Michael's Theological College in Llandaff, Cardiff. I was inspired to use is after reading and reviewing 'The Way of the Pilgrim'. I can't say I have used it consistently for much of that time except if I found other prayer difficult, but over the past year or so it has become a much more fundamental part of my prayer life. I have also discovered that for it to 'take' or 'work' it needs to prayed often. It needs to soak down into my heart.

Here is a guide to praying with a prayer rope (also known as a comboschini or chotki) with a link below taking you to a web site rich in other Orthodox prayer resources.

The prayer rope is not some kind of amulet with magic or exorcising powers. On the contrary, it is a purely Orthodox holy object used only for praying and nothing else.

There are two ways we can pray using the prayer rope:
1. At any time of the day when we have free time, without being seen by anyone, secretly, we hold the prayer rope with our left or right hand and move from knot to knot with our thumb whispering simultaneously or meditating upon the prayer: "Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on me" or "Most Holy Theotokos save us".
2. At the time of our regular prayer, when we pray following the rule of prayer that our spiritual father has told us to follow, we hold the prayer rope with our left hand between the thumb and the index finger and move from knot to knot. At each knot we simultaneously do two things: i) with our right hand we make the sign of the cross over ourselves and ii) we say the prayer "Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on me". When we finish with all the knots of the prayer rope, we continue following the same procedure, for as many times as our spiritual father has advised.

Prayer ropes are made in keeping with a tradition whose origin is lost in antiquity. Perhaps one of the earliest forms was simply gathering small pebbles or seeds and moving them from one spot or container to another as one said his prayer rule or did his rule of bows or prostrations. The story is told of a monk who decided to make knots in a rope, which he could use in carrying out his daily rule of prayer. But the devil kept untying the knots he made in the rope, frustrating the poor monk's efforts. Then an angel appeared and taught the monk a special kind of knot that consists of ties of interlocked crosses, and these knots the devil was unable to unravel.

Prayer Ropes come in a great variety of forms and sizes. Most prayer ropes have a cross woven into them or attached to mark the "end", and also have some kind of marker after each 10, 25, or 50 knots or beads. There are many forms of prayer ropes, some knotted of wool or silk, or other more elegant or simpler materials. Others are made of beads or the dried flower of a plant called "Tears of the Mother of God". They most often are made of black wool or silky lace (soutache). The black colour symbolises repentance.

"When mind and heart are united in prayer and the soul is wholly concentrated in a single desire for God, then the heart grows warm and the light of Christ begins to shine and fills the inward man with peace and joy. We should thank the Lord for everything and give ourselves up to His will; we should also offer Him all our thoughts and words, and strive to make everything serve only His good pleasure."
St. Seraphim of Sarov

http://www.stgeorgegreenville.org/OurFaith/Prayer/PRAYER.html

I believe

"In the Creed we do not say, 'I believe that there is a God'; we say, 'I believe in one God'. Between belief that and belief in, there is a crucial distinction. It is possible for me to believe that someone or something exists, and yet for this belief to have no practical effect upon my life. I can open the telephone directory for Wigan and scan the names recorded on its pages; and, as I read, I am prepared to believe that some (or even most) of these people actually exist. But I know none of them personally, I have never even visited Wigan, and so my belief that they exist makes no particular difference to me. When, on the other hand, I say to a much-loved friend, 'I believe in you', I am doing far more than expressing a belief that this person exists. 'I believe in you' means: I turn to you, I rely upon you, I put my full trust in you and I hope in you. And that is what we are saying to God in the Creed." Kallistos Ware: The Orthodox Way

Sayings of the Desert Fathers

"One day some of the brethren came to see Abba Antony, and among them was Abba Joseph. Wishing to test them, the old man mentioned a text from Scripture, and starting with the youngest he asked them what it meant. Each explained it as best he could. But to each one the old man said, 'You have not yet found the answer.' Last of all he said to Abba Joseph, 'And what do you think the text means?' He replied, 'I do not know.' Then Abba Antony said, 'Truly, Abba Joseph has found the way, for he said: I do not know.'" Sayings of the Desert Fathers