Prayerful Friday

I would love to share prayers with you regularly. Prayer has definitely transformed my life and will transform all if we ask and allow.

When I was very young I bought a poster that said, “Prayer changes things.” I believed it at the time but now, 40 years later, I never imagined really how much!

Let me share with you a few snippets from the Acquiring the Mind of Christ, the chapter titled Prayer as Communion.

Prayer generates prayer. The Holy Scriptures tell us that “God grants prayer to the one who prays.” Our task is to begin simply, entering into the dialogue with God and renouncing the monologue with our ego and passions.

If we wish to make progress in the area of prayer and be sensitized to spiritual things we must fulfill three basic tasks:
First, we must be deeply committed to a certain amount of prayer at a certain time every day, without fail.
Secondly, as St. Theophan the Recluse says, we must always pray as if we have never prayed before. This means we always approach the mystery of God without expectation.
Thirdly, we must always be willing to start again no matter how long it has been since we have prayed or what the outcome, good or bad, has been in the past.

The Jesus Prayer, “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me,” is an essential tool for enabling us to overcome the deadly sinful movements of the mind and heart. This short prayer is a remedy and defense against every kind of darkness. St. Isaac the Syrian even says that the Name of Christ is light. When we use this light against the onslaught of temptations, we dispel their darkness.

Today is the day of salvation, and we must never put off prayer for another time. Every moment is the moment to turn to the Lord, to thank the Lord for all His innumerable benefits, to beseech aid from on high, to repent and ask for forgiveness, and to ask His blessing. The most essential part of prayer is the inner turning of the heart to the Lord.

Prayer is the only bridge over the despondency of the world with its death, sins, and passions.

Archimandrite Sergius in Acquiring the Mind of Christ

Such encouraging words.

I highly recommend this book.

I shared a prayer with you last Saturday written by Princess Ileana of Romania, Mother Alexander. It is in a little prayer booklet we received for Christmas from dear friends titled “Our Father: Meditations on the Lord’s Prayer” put out by The Orthodox Monastery of the Transfiguration in Ellwood City, PA. ( I haven’t found a source for it online.) In this booklet there is are 2 prayers for each day of the week, morning and evening. They are focused on one little part of the Lord’s Prayer. Today I want to share with you the one for Friday morning with its focus on Forgive us our trespasses…

Full of fault am I, my sin is ever before me, I start out Thy debtor in everyway. I strive to keep straight but ever and again I fall. My one hope lies in Thy mercy. Yet, O wonder, were it not for sin I would not have known Thy loving kindness, the power of Thy forgiving love through Jesus Christ, my Lord.
As I start out upon this day seeking to come closer to Thee in all I do, it is the knowledge of Thy power to turn even my faults to good purpose that gives me the strength to go forth and do my work. In my past lie many transgressions I cannot of myself put right. The weight of them lays heavily upon me. But Thou has said: ‘Come unto me all that are heavily burdened.’ To Thee I come, O Lord, humbly praying that this day may pass without sin and that AI may make retribution, ever remembering the pain Thou didst suffer for me and all mankind, and thus keep to the true and only path that leads to Thee. Amen

May you be blessed this beautiful Friday!