A Life of Prayer: Considerations on Prayer for Orthodox Christians
Show me how a person worships and I will tell you what he believes.
—St. Prosper of Aquitaine
By Jason Caros | June 21, 2026
The Primacy of Prayer
For Eastern Orthodox Christians, prayer and worship are everything. St. Prosper of Aquitaine’s famous maxim, “lex orandi, lex est credendi,” sums up this sentiment perfectly.[1] In the life of Christ’s Church, we do not begin with philosophical speculation, we do not even begin with doctrine, but we begin with worship. How people worship expresses their beliefs. In other words, experience of the divine precedes definitions.[2]This is why it is said that when Orthodox Christians are asked by non-Orthodox people about their faith, the response often includes, “Come and see.” This invitation to an encounter is modeled directly after the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ. When the disciples of St. John the Baptist began to follow Him, Jesus turned and asked them, "What are you looking for?" Instead of answering directly, they asked Him where He was staying. Jesus responded not with a physical description of His lodging or a map of directions, but with a profound invitation to relationship: "Come and see" (John 1:39).
In this essay, I will share some insights about worship, with a specific focus on personal prayer, based on the teachings of Eastern Orthodox saints[3] and contemporary hierarchs, priests, and noted Orthodox writers from whom I have learned. It is important for me to stress from the beginning that I am a life-long educator, both in my daily vocation and in service to the Church, but I am not a wise and illumined elder. I am simply a follower of Christ and, as a traveler on this journey myself, a student of the faith of the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church. Though born into and raised in the Church, I am still a babe in the spiritual arts. Therefore, let us begin with a couple of passages from Tito Colliander, the author of a book that every Orthodox Christian living in the world ought to read, and keep reading: The Way of the Ascetics.[4] Here is the first:
“Prayer is one wing, faith the other, that lifts us heavenward. With only one wing no one
can fly: prayer without faith is as meaningless as faith without prayer. But if your faith is
very weak, you can profitably cry: Lord, give me faith! Such a prayer seldom goes unheard.
The grain of a mustard seed, says the Lord, grows into a great tree” (p. 56).
It goes without saying that a Christian must walk by faith, but what if one struggles to believe? What if one doubts? “Cry to the Lord in prayer, ‘Give me faith,’” Colliander exhorts us. This simple prayer—and other sincere, heartfelt prayers to God that express a desire to know Him, to love Him, and to serve Him—will be heard. I recall a story retold by Father Thomas Hopko of blessed memory about a woman who was sitting in the back of a church crying.[5] When the priest approached her to inquire about her situation and encouraged her to pray to God for help, she responded, “I don’t even know if I believe in God.” Pastorally, he suggested she pray: “I don’t know if You exist. I don’t know if I believe in You. But if You are real, and if You can hear me, help me to believe in You.” Father Hopko concluded by saying that this woman eventually went on not only to believe in God, but also to become a nun.
The second passage from The Way of the Ascetics is this:
“It follows from this that prayer is your first and incomparably most important means of
fighting. Learn to pray, and you vanquish all the evil powers that could imaginably assail
you” (p. 56).
Beyond the need to pray to increase our faith, prayer arms us with a spiritual weapon. This enables us to struggle successfully against the many temptations, tricks and deceptions of the demons, as well as our own human weaknesses that prevent us from growing in our relationship with God and becoming the Christ-like men and women we were made to be.
So, how do we pray?
The Pilgrimage
Many Orthodox Christians are familiar with the classic Russian story, The Way of the Pilgrim, which chronicles the travels of a simple man who seeks to understand and live out the meaning of St. Paul’s exhortation to the Thessalonians, “Pray without ceasing”
(1 Thess. 5:17). This wonderful book is instructive in so many ways, but in particular, about how each of us, through desire and persistence, can come to know the Lord and truly practice unceasing prayer.
My purpose in mentioning this work is to suggest that we are all pilgrims. We are all on a journey, but most of us do not travel the Russian countryside, or the deserts of Egypt where many great Church Fathers and Mothers have lived, to find the homeland of our heart’s desire. Instead, we carry the desert with us, as a number of holy ascetics have taught us to do. In other words, we can and must carry the desert inside our own heart, regardless of where we live. For some, this will be in a monastery. For most, this will be in the place we live out our lives each and every day—our homes, churches, schools, workplaces, and so on. With this in mind, how do we proceed on this journey? Again, how do we pray?
Let’s begin with a few important questions. The first is, “What is prayer?” When I’ve asked people this question in the past, I have gotten responses such as: “Prayer is conversation with God,” “Prayer is asking God for help,” or “Prayer is developing a relationship with God.” When I have further asked for specific characteristics or elements of prayer, the responses have included gratitude, requests or petitions, and words of repentance. While each of these answers do indeed relate to prayer, I have found that a couple of arrow statements sum it up well. For instance, St. Demitri of Rostov said in The Inner Closet of the Heart that “Prayer is turning the mind and thoughts towards God” (The Art of Prayer, p.50). Another Russian, Saint Theophan the Recluse, taught in a personal letter of spiritual direction: “The principal thing is to stand with the mind in the heart before God, and to go on standing before Him unceasingly day and night, until the end of life” (p.63).[6]
While prayer certainly consists of glorifying and giving thanks to God, repenting, praying for others, and making personal (unselfish) requests, true and pure prayer is, in essence, being in the presence of God, with the mind in the heart[7] continually until the end of life. Put another way, “Prayer is not merely an address of words to God, but an ascent to Him” (Elder Aimilianos, The Way of the Spirit, p. 87). This should be the goal of our pilgrimage, and we will explore how to cultivate this state as we proceed.
Another important question is “When should you pray?” The answer is already inferable from the previous paragraphs, always! We are called to pray unceasingly. “Where should you pray?” Everywhere! At home, in church, at school and work, while traveling, during meals, and so on. “How should you pray?” In modern times, influenced by the cultural trend that has been cleverly described as Moralistic Therapeutic Deism, some people answer this question by saying, “Any way you want to,” or, “However makes you feel good.”[8] This is not the way we learn to pray in the Holy Scriptures, nor is it the teaching about prayer that has been handed down to us by the saints. One who does not have guidance can certainly pray the way he knows how to pray; however, in the absence of a spiritual guide, he ought to humbly petition God, “Please, teach my how to pray.” Finally, to whom should you pray? It is certainly not the false god of Moralistic Therapeutic Deism, or the idols described by King David in the Psalms (e.g. Psalm 113:9-26 LXX), or the creations of man described by Saint Paul in his epistle to the Romans (1:18-25), but the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—The Father, His only Begotten Son, and All-Holy, Good and Life-Giving Spirit.
The priestly Anaphora prayed during the Liturgy of Saint Basil the Great expresses well to Whom we should direct our prayers and with what disposition we ought to approach God:
“Master, Lord, God, worshipful Father almighty, it is truly just and right to the majesty of
Your holiness to praise You, to hymn You, to bless You, to worship You, to give thanks to
You, to glorify You, the only true God, and to offer to You this our spiritual worship with
a contrite heart and a humble spirit. For You have given us to know Your truth. Who is
worthy to praise Your mighty acts? Or to make known all Your praises? Or tell of all Your
wonderful deeds at all times? Master of all things, Lord of heaven and earth, and of every
creature visible and invisible, You are seated upon the throne of glory and behold the depths.
You are without beginning, invisible, incomprehensible, beyond words, unchangeable. You
are the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the great God and Savior of our hope, the
image of Your goodness, the true seal of revealing in Himself You, the Father. He is the
living Word, the true God, eternal wisdom, life, sanctification, power, and the true light.
Through Him the Holy Spirit was manifested, the spirit of truth the gift of Sonship, the pledge
of our future inheritance, the first fruits of eternal blessings, the life-giving power, the source
of sanctification through whom every rational and spiritual creature is made capable of
worshiping You and giving You eternal glorification, for all things are subject to You. For
You are praised by the angels, archangels, thrones, dominions, principalities, authorities,
powers, and the many eyed Cherubim. Round about You stand the Seraphim, one
with six wings and the other with six wings; with two they cover their faces: with
two they cover their feet; with two they fly, crying out to one another with unceasing
voices and ever resounding praises…”
The beauty of the Anaphora, and the prayers of the Church, in general, is that they help us to come to God in prayer with φόβος (phobos), or “fear” of God. The word expresses the manner in which we ought to approach Him, that is, with awe, reverence, and deep loving respect for His majesty—not a paralyzing, frightening fear, such as one might fear punishment. This is precisely what fear means during the Anaphora when the deacon or priest exclaims, "Let us stand aright; let us stand with fear; let us attend, that we may offer the holy oblation in peace," or before the faithful approach the chalice for Holy Communion when the priest exclaims: "With fear of God, faith, and love, draw near."
It is essential to come to God in prayer with reverence and humility. If not, we are not truly praying.
To conclude this section, I will share something else from Father Thomas Hopko that I’ll call the ABCs of prayer. During another one of his talks that I heard years ago, Father Hopko said that when he was a child, he learned something about prayer from his mother that was confirmed to him by his decades of theological study. She simply taught him to “go to church, say your prayers, and always remember God.” For the purposes of this essay, I will not directly focus on letter A (liturgical worship in the church), though the principles that I discuss do apply to corporate liturgical services. Instead, I will focus on Letter B (prayer) and by extension, Letter C (the remembrance of God), which is an essential aspect of prayer.
The Prayer Rule
Extemporaneous prayer is common among many contemporary Evangelical Christians. Some even suggest that if it is not spontaneous, it’s not an authentic or sincere form of prayer—a view that can cause consternation for those who feel pressure to pray in a certain eloquent way in front of others. The saints approach spontaneous prayer with a mixture of pastoral guidance and ascetic caution. While they do not forbid speaking to God in one's own words, they most definitely warn against verbosity and view the pursuit of eloquent words as a temptation toward vanity. St. John Climakos said this about the words we choose in prayer:
"Do not try to be verbose when you pray, lest your mind be distracted in searching
for words. One word of the tax-collector propitiated God, and one cry of faith saved
the thief. Loquacity in prayer often distracts the mind and leads to fantasy, whereas
brevity makes for concentration" (The Ladder, Step 28, p.235).
In his Homilies on Hannah, Saint John Chrysostom also taught that God does not look for a brilliant orator. He does not hear us because of the loud tone of our voice, but because of the sincerity of our heart. He doesn’t require elegant speech, nor the careful arrangement of words, but a soul that is broken and contrite, as was Hannah’s as she prayed in the Temple in the view of Eli (1 Kingdoms 9-18 LXX).
All in all, the saints emphasize that the structured prayers given to us by the Church, those handed down by the Lord Jesus Christ and His illumined saints, must form the primary foundation of one’s prayer life. By using these written prayers our souls gradually absorb the humble and repentant disposition of the saints, and we may acquire the same spirit as they possessed. With that said, extemporaneous prayer is appropriate when our hearts are deeply touched by joy, sorrow, or temptation and we are moved to cry out to God for gratitude, comfort, or assistance.
Orthodox Christians are taught that while we can pray at any time and in any place, each person must also have a rule of prayer, or κανόνας προσευχῆς (kanonas proseuches) in Greek. The word “canon,” or rule, is derived from κανόνας. I share this etymology because when some people hear the word “rule,” they automatically think about rules given to them by an authority of some sort, whether it be parents, teachers, employers, or the government, whether for good or for bad. It’s important to know that the word rule (κανόνας) in this instance refers not to legalistic regulations (rules), but as a measuring rod or straight rule used by a carpenter. The prayer rule is meant to provide a reliable baseline of daily prayers designed to develop spiritual consistency, prayer that becomes habit, regardless of various daily circumstances, in order to keep us straight and on measure, so to speak. The Fathers and Mothers of the Church teach that the prayer rule is indispensable to our faith, as we often wander and get off track in our prayer lives.
A prayer rule consists of the daily cycle of prayers that one keeps, mostly at home. This typically involves 1) morning, midday, and evening prayers, 2) reading scripture, and 3) practicing silence. Why three times a day for prayer? The Church has continued the ancient practice expressed in both the Old and New Testaments. In Psalm 54:17-18 (LXX), we read: “But I cried out to God, and the Lord heard me. Evening, morning and midday, I shall tell; I shall proclaim, and He will hear my voice.” In Acts 3:1, we read: “Now Peter and John went up together to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour.” The fact that the ancient Jews followed specific “hours” of prayer, and that there were specific prayers prayed by the Apostles (Acts 2:42) is lost on many contemporary Christians, but this practice goes without question among biblical scholars.[9] This threefold practice continued in the early church, and this is intimated in the late first century document, The Didache (or Teaching of the Twelve Apostles), which advocates praying The Lord’s Prayer three times a day. To the present time, Orthodox faithful maintain a prayer regimen that includes morning, midday, and evening prayers.
Having noted the three-fold schedule of prayers for the faithful that occurs in their homes, normally in their prayer corner,[10] I would be remiss if I didn’t say something about the larger cycle of prayers that the Church observes, coinciding with the Psalmist’s prayer: “Seven times a day I praise You, because of Your righteous judgment” (Psalm 118:164 LXX), and “From the rising of the sun to its going down the Lord’s name is praised”(Psalm 112:3 LXX).
In monasteries, and at some cathedral parishes, a seven-fold daily cycle of prayers is kept:
A) Vespers: This is the first of these prayer services. It commemorates the beginning of the new day and creation of the world; the church has continued the ancient practice of marking the beginning of the day at sundown.
B) Compline: In these evening prayers, the people give thanks for the previous day, protection for the coming night, and ask for forgiveness of sins.
C) The Midnight Office: This service commemorates the second coming of Christ (Matthew 25:26, 1 Thessalonians 5:2) and resurrection of the dead.
D) The Hours: These services, comprising numbers 4-7 of the cycle, begin at sunrise. The 1st Hour prayers signify the coming of the True Light;[11] at 9 a.m., the 3rd Hour prayers signify the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles (Acts 2:16), at Noon, the 6th Hour prayers signify the Crucifixion (Luke 23:33, 44), and at 3 p.m., the 9th Hour prayers signify the time when Christ breathed His last on The Cross (Mark 15: 34, 37).
For most of the faithful, keeping the seven-fold cycle would be difficult to achieve due to lack of proximity to a monastery or a parish that keeps it. However, parts of the cycle are very often available to most, including the Vespers service—especially on a Saturday evening—Small Compline prayers, which can be prayed at home, and some of the Hours, depending on one’s work or school schedule. Multiple Orthodox prayer books contain these prayers for both liturgical and non-liturgical use; in other words, there is a lay typika, or set of prayers used in the absence of a priest.
Returning to the personal prayer rule, it is important to note that before establishing its key elements, one's daily prayers must be done in synergy with regular and consistent liturgical worship to be truly efficacious. This includes regularly receiving the Eucharist, going to Confession, keeping the commandments of Christ,[12] fasting and other ascetic practices, and charity.[13] These are all complementary and essential to progress in the Christian life.
With those precursors in mind, it is important to follow the guidance of a spiritual father or mother when devising a rule,[14] rather than going it alone. It is interesting that in our day, so many people rely on experts for things from nutrition and physical health to education and training, to financial planning and navigating legal matters. Yet, when it comes to the most important and in some ways mysterious part of life, the health and future of our souls, they decide to do their own thing. This is unwise, for as Saint Symeon the New Theologian warned in his Twentieth Discourse on Spiritual Fathers: “It is better for you to be called a disciple of a disciple rather than to live by your own devices and gather the worthless fruits of your own will” (sec. 2).[15] Similarly, Saint John Climakos warned in The Ladder of Divine Ascent that a person who tries to navigate the spiritual life without an experienced guide is like a someone trying to steer a ship without a skilled pilot—they are guaranteed to shipwreck (Step 4, 70). In short, consult with a wise teacher who can guide you toward a prayer regime that is suitable for you and consistent with the teachings and practices of the Church.
Another important element of a rule comes to us from the sixth century saint, Benedict of Nursia, who provided us with one of the normative teachings about a rule of prayer. He told his monks that prayer should be “brevi et pura,” or short and pure (The Rule of St. Benedict, Ch. 20, Reverence in Prayer). Rather than trying to keep a long set of prayers that you cannot keep up with daily, that will cause you to lose focus, or that may lead to burnout, it is better to pray in a way that enables you to do so consistently multiple times a day with reverence and attention. Another way to think about this is quality over quantity. Again, this is part of the prudence of a good spiritual guide, who will help you to discern what is appropriate for you.
The prayers in typical morning, midday and evening prayers include as the foundation, the prayer to the Holy Spirit (O Heavenly King), the Thrice-Holy Prayers (“Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal have mercy on us…”), and The Lord’s Prayer.
Beyond the foundation, the following are generally spread out among the three times in various ways: The Symbol of Faith (The Creed), morning or evening Psalmody and/or other morning and evening prayers of the Church, personal devotions (i.e. glorification, thanksgiving, repentance, petitions), intercessory requests to the Theotokos, one’s guardian angel and patron saint, and a commemoration of the saints for each day.
The rule generally includes Scripture reading and reading of other ascetic or catechetical texts, sometimes within the morning, midday or evening prayers, and in other cases outside of those times. For working people and students, the midday prayers are often the shortest due to time and place constraints; however, at the minimum, these should include The Lord’s Prayer and prayers before a meal if eating lunch.
Finally, in order to fulfill Father Hopko’s mother’s third teaching about prayer, we have to remember God.[16] Remembering God is achieved primarily through the use of noetic or mental prayer, whereby the lips are often silent and the prayer is centered on the nous.[17] The nous repeats the words with deep attention, actively fighting off intrusive thoughts. Remembrance of God through mental prayer is most often associated with the use of The Jesus Prayer, practiced both at a set time of day, where one might pray in solitude for a certain number of minutes with a prayer rope, and also throughout the day as one is able. Continually praying with intention and attention “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me,” we keep our mind anchored in God’s presence amidst our daily responsibilities.[18] A goal in praying The Jesus Prayer is to be vigilant. We guard the mind and heart by cutting off and preventing negative thoughts from developing into sin, breaking the habit of the spirit forgetfulness, and learning to pray unceasingly to the Lord. Again, “the principal thing is to stand with the mind in the heart before God, and to go on standing before Him unceasingly day and night, until the end of life,” reuniting the mind with the heart leading to theosis (or union with God).[19]
Consistency is key to maintaining a prayer rule, and believers should strive to keep it no matter what! Regarding this effort, Saint Gabriel of Georgia said: “When you are tired and half asleep, but you make the effort to rise up and read your prayer rule, this kind of prayer is doubled in God’s eyes” (Great Art Thou, O Lord, p. 179). Therefore, the daily rule acts as a spiritual minimum. If you have extra time and feel moved to add to it, doing so is a blessing.
Christians Do Hard Things!
Someone once asked Abba Agathon, “Which is the virtue that requires the greatest effort?” He answered, “Forgive me, but I think there is no labor greater than that of prayer to God. For every time a man wants to pray, his enemies, the demons, want to prevent him, for they know that it is only by turning him from prayer that they can hinder his journey. Whatever good work a man undertakes, if he perseveres in it, he will attain rest. But prayer is warfare to the last breath” (The Sayings of the Desert Fathers, Agathon, 9). Anyone who prays regularly knows that praying consistently and with focus is a challenge. Notable hindrances to prayer include our general lack of discipline and self-will. On this, the Lord Himself told us: “Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak” (Mt 26:41). Saint Paul also famously taught about our human weakness in his letter to the Romans: “For what I will to do, that I do not practice…” (7:15). So, before facing any outside hindrances, we first have to deal with our own shortcomings.
Besides the innate struggles we each face with self-discipline and a lack of self-control, there are other hindrances to prayer, one of which is delusion. The word for delusion used by the Greek speaking Church Fathers is plani (πλάνη). The English word planet takes its root from plani and it refers to wandering, roaming, or getting off track. While our purpose in prayer is to give God glory, to offer Him gratitude, to repent, and to pray unselfishly for others and the world, we can easily fall into the trap of spiritual delusion during prayer. One type is fantasia, or the allure of mental images running around in the mind that deceive, divert attention away from God, or lead to pride. Examples can include visualizing the Lord Jesus Christ rising from the dead during prayer, or when you think you see an angel or experience the light of Christ, but in reality, it’s deception of the devil. Another might involve visualizing a spiritual conversation in which you wax eloquent to someone else on a spiritual matter while you pray, falling victim to pride. On a more mundane level, you might begin doing something akin to multi-tasking, mouthing the words of a prayer and thinking about your chores, a work deadline, or something else at the same time. The saints warn us about these internally generated images and thoughts that take us off track. At the minimum, our prayers are empty; at worst, they result in pride or even a form of idol worship.
Another type of deception that may or may not involve images is spiritual gluttony, or mystical avarice: the disordered desire to consume spiritual practices, including prayer, simply to enjoy emotional experiences for self-gratification, rather than offering true worship to God. Regarding feelings during prayer, whether emotional highs or lows, it is important not to strive for an emotional experience, but to pray to God with all of our being in a focused way. Rather than seeking personal gain, we must strive to give something of ourselves during prayer. Paradoxically, if we truly give, we will truly receive the grace of the Holy Spirit. Contemporary saints and elders such as Saint Paisios the Athonite, Saint Porphyrios of Kavsokalyvia, and Elder Aimilianos of Simonopetra express that by humbly and lovingly offering our prayers and other ascetic efforts we attract God’s attention, attract His grace, or send Him a signal—tuning our souls, as it were, to God’s frequency.[20] Against the notion that grace is cheap, the Church Fathers teach that grace is given in proportion to our spiritual state; thus, the more we become purified of the passions, the more deeply we will experience the uncreated grace of God. This might involve the warmth of the Spirit, the gift of tears, or, for the pure of heart, divine illumination. However, we should not enter into prayer seeking an esoteric encounter. Instead, we must pray with all of our mind and heart, keeping our attention on the words of our prayers.
Have you ever said or heard someone else say: “I love you with all my heart?” To love with all one’s heart means to love completely, deeply, with all sincerity and without any reservations. It is one of the strongest expressions of love in the English language. When we pray to the Lord, our focus and desires should be likewise. We should offer all of the energies of our mind and heart, the core of our being, to God. This, I know, is easier said than done. But if we love the Lord and wish to make Him the center of our lives, we must make pure prayer a priority, a true commitment.
Finally, one of the ways we can have a sense that we are making progress in prayer, and in the spiritual life in general, is by the fruits of our prayer life—namely, whether humility and repentance increase within us. These are two sure signs that we are on the right path, for the Lord Jesus Christ Himself taught us in His first act of public preaching to “repent” (Mt. 4:17, Mk. 1:15), and He also emphasized in His teaching that the humble will be exalted (Mt. 23:12, Lk. 14:11). The Church Fathers universally taught that humility and repentance are the definitive signs of growth in the spiritual life. In the patristic tradition, spiritual progress is not measured by visions or emotional highs, nor by intellectual mastery in the academic sense. Instead, the closer a person draws to God by grace, the more clearly he sees his own imperfections. Therefore, a deepening sense of one's own need for repentance and humility is the truest sign of spiritual maturity.
Prayer: Mind, Heart and Body
Echoing the words of Saint Paul in his letter to his spiritual children about glorifying God with our bodies (Romans 12:1, 1 Cor. 6:20), Saint Augustine of Hippo famously said that “A Christian should be an Alleluia from head to foot” (Sermon 256). If we return to Saint Prosper’s maxim that the way we worships determines what we believe, in Eastern Orthodox liturgical services, worshippers’ senses are activated and enlivened from the moment we step into the narthex. We see the beautiful architecture, icons, liturgical items and vestments, woodworking and metals, and candles. We listen to, and participate in petitions, chanting, singing, readings and prayers, while also hearing the jingle of the priest’s censer. We smell the rich scent of incense, rose water, basil leaves, and holy myrrh. We taste the Antidoron and Holy Water, but most importantly, we participate in the Mystical Supper and receive the Sacrament of Sacraments, the Holy Eucharist, the precious Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. However, we also feel things and experience movement with our bodies: we make the sign of the cross, we kiss icons, we are immersed and sprinkled with water, we are anointed with oil, we kneel, bow and make prostrations. All of these sensory activities bring healing and promote affection toward God, gratitude, humility and repentance, essential virtues that help us to climb the ladder of divine ascent.
Whether during church services or during prayer in the home, all of our physical senses should be used and enlivened. We should praise and glorify God from head to foot, both in liturgical worship and in our prayer corners at home.
Orthodoxy is known for its beautiful, solemn and timeless worship. As Orthodox faithful, we are called to honor and offer reverence to God in our liturgical services and personal devotions, corporately and individually. We are to glorify God in all we say and do—glorifying God with our lips (PS 63:3) as well as with our bodies, just as Saint Paul teaches.
From the Catechism of St. Philaret, (c. 1823), written by the great Metropolitan of Moscow, we receive a clear explanation of the importance of our bodies in worship:
“Does not inward prayer alone suffice without the outward? This question is as if one
should ask whether the soul alone might suffice for man without the body. It is idle to
ask this, seeing that God has been pleased to make man consist of soul and body;
likewise, it is idle to ask, whether inward prayer alone may not suffice without outward.
Since we have both soul and body, we ought to glorify God in our bodies, and in our souls,
which are God’s, and this is only natural, that out of abundance of the heart, the mouth
should speak. Our Lord Jesus Christ was spiritual in the highest degree, but even He
expressed His spiritual prayer both by words and by devout gestures of the body:
sometimes, for instance, lifting up His eyes to heaven, sometimes kneeling, or falling on
His face to the ground.”
Coinciding with the Metropolitan’s teaching, another 19th bishop, Saint Ignatius Brianchaninov, said the following about the prayer rule in his Instruction to Nuns:
“In correct spiritual activity, even the struggles of the body have an enormous significance,
because repentance and humility are expressed by the actions of the body. Behold my
lowliness and my toil, and forgive all my sins (Ps. 24:18), the holy David prayerfully chants
to God, combining his bodily labors with deep repentance and with abject humble-mindedness
in his pious struggles.”
On a specific type of bodily accompaniment to prayer, namely prostrations, St. Theoliptos of Philadephia said:
“Do not neglect prostrations. It provides an image of man’s fall into sin and expresses the
confession of our sinfulness. Getting up, on the other hand, signifies repentance and the
promise to lead a life of virtue. Let each prostration be accompanied by a noetic invocation
of Christ, so that by falling before the Lord in soul and body you may gain the grace of the
God of souls and bodies” (“On Inner Work in Christ,” The Philokalia, v.4).
In Wounded by Love, Saint Porphyrios of Kavsokalyvia instructs us:
“The person of faith displays his love, respect, devotion and worship of Christ
in tangible ways. That’s why bodily exertion is made. That’s why we make prostrations…
when prostrations are made for Christ, grace works directly on the soul and brings penitence,
serenity, peace and joy… Thus with our prostrations we demonstrate that we are humble
servants of God. We acknowledge our lowliness and display our respect in a tangible way.
With prostrations the Christian is humbled, and this helps for the grace of God to come upon
him. When grace comes, his heart is set on fire. The fire of love makes sacrifices. Prostrations
are a sacrifice and an offering—an offering of love and worship. And the whole person
participates in the worship, body and soul (p. 169).
You may be wondering why I have given so much space to quotations from saints about the body. In our contemporary age, certain elements of Orthopraxis are absent from corporate worship in some parishes, whether due to the influences from other faith traditions, or another cause, I do not know, but as members of a Church that has been coming out of what some historians have called “The Western Captivity” and is reclaiming its historic doctrine and practice in its fullness, it is vital to revive some lost elements of our historic worship. We do this not merely for the sake of repeating what others have done before us, but because they are essential aspects of proper glory, thanksgiving and worship—in other words, they are truly “Orthodox.”
Bowing, kneeling, prostrating, and other bodily accompaniments to prayer are not addenda to worship; they are essential. In fact, there are over two-hundred instances of these bodily forms of worship described in the Holy Scriptures. Put another way, as Christians, we worship and praise God with our entire being. This stands in contrast to the ancient Gnostics and Platonists, the eighth and ninth century Iconoclasts, and certain adherents of our modern hedonistic culture. Such groups often believe that the flesh doesn’t matter or that it is evil and ought to be rejected. Conversely, Orthodox Christians believe the Holy Scriptures and follow the unbroken teaching of the Church, which informs us that we are persons made with a unified human nature consisting of physical bodies and souls, both of which are necessary and good. As a result, what we do with our bodies truly matters, and what we experience through our senses matters truly.
In short, our prayer rule ought to include the aforementioned bodily aspects of prayer. For questions about when to kneel during prayer, or how many bows and prostrations to make, or even when to make the sign of the cross, speak with your parish priest or spiritual guide. For additional reading on this topic, read the essay, “Why do we do that? The Importance of bowing and prostrating during church services and at home.”
The Prayer Corner
The prayer corner has been mentioned a few times in this essay, so I’ll just say a few words about it. Near the end of each Divine Liturgy, the priest says something that is a commission for all of the faithful: “Let us go forth in peace.” The original Greek says Ἐν εἰρήνῃ προέλθωμεν, which literally means “In peace let us go forward (or advance).” Having encountered the Lord Jesus Christ in the Eucharist, the faithful should carry the Spirit of Peace into the world, or advance the Gospel, in our interactions and relationship with others, and bring the peace of Christ back to the home. Some have referred to this as “the liturgy after the liturgy.”
With this in mind, the prayer corner is an extension of the church, or our little church in the home. It is a central place for families to pray together, and for individual members to pray at various times of the day, although icons are also found in bedrooms. The prayer corner is usually in a place in the home that orients us towards the East, the traditional and historical direction in which we pray. After all, the word orient refers to the east. This layout symbolizes turning toward the True Light, Christ, the Sun of Righteousness.[21]
There is no one way to set up a prayer corner. When setting up a prayer corner for the first time, one could start with at least a single icon of Christ and later add an oil lamp (or kandili from the Greek, κανδήλι) and a censer, which you can see in each of the pictured examples.
