Approach Prayer Effectively, How to Pray? Why? (Orthodox Lenten Class)

0:06 [Music] name of the father Son and Holy Spirit so tonight uh originally I was going to go over more of a which is going to include part of what I'm going to talk about uh about prayer rules but I as I was working on this I kind of went in a different a little bit of a different direction about really why we end up praying the Reflection from a couple days ago from the prologue of oid says if we fulfill the law of God in our thoughts how much easier will it be for us to fulfill it in our Deeds that is if we do not if we do not transgress

0:51 the law of God in our thoughts how much easier will it be not to transgress it in our Deeds furthermore if our hearts are with God then our tongues hands and feet and our entire body cannot be against God your heart your heart prepare your heart for God consecrate it to God and worship Him fulfill the law of God in it unite it with God and all the rest will follow and will be governed by the heart it is not he who holds a spoke of the wheel that steers the wheel but he who holds its axis the heart is the axis of our being speaking about the Commandments of God the venerable Hezekiah says if you compel yourselves to fulfill them in your thoughts then you will really have the

1:38 need to strain yourself to fulfill them indeed that is if you set your heart on God as an on an axis then the wheels will easily and comfortably follow the axis in other words the entire man will follow after his own heart the law of the law is within my heart King David says so again loving the Lord your God with all your heart all your mind and all your soul all your strength getting getting the correct mindset that's the one of the most important things that we gain from prayer right the reason why we're should all be so adamant but I'm very adamant about all of my spiritual children learning how to pray is that you get

2:25 again the frima right the frona is the Greek term that the Orthodox Christians use in theology to refer to the mindset or the outlook on our life in general it is a it is an orthodox mind the attaining of a frona is the matter of practicing the correct faith orthodoxia and the correct manner orthoxia so the thing that I have realized myself included is that all of us through various types of media since we've been young we have all been conditioned in ways to think in in different in worldly ways right we we have been taught that again sex and

3:11 violence is a Paramount thing we see in almost every one of the shows now we see nudity on on on on network television now we're hearing language we're hearing all those things and we have been conditioned by seeing adultery and idolatry rampant in everything that we do as a matter of fact as well I always think about one of the things that has driven me from playing like most of the games that I was playing like like in the the PlayStation and the Xboxes and everything is you work constantly to try to gain a a a a trophy a trophy that is doesn't even exist it's just a bunch of ones and

3:57 zeros right and you work diligently to try to get those things I've done it myself coming home from work and being on there for four or five hours before you know it it's time for bed you didn't spend any time with your family and then praying you have a hard time doing it right people have a hard time praying because our hearts and our minds are not uh where they need to be we do not have the Orthodox mindset the Thon and throughout our lives we are taught to undermine God in so many various ways and we don't even we do without even realizing it we undermine God in our jobs a lot of times our jobs are what takes us away from church on Sundays and we revolve our lives around

4:44 the pursuit of getting money and attaining some sort of financial stability whereas if we learn how to pray and learn how to rely on God not only will we get the stability but we will also be having the prona of our daily life lives and the Orthodox mindset and not only must we learn how to pray but we must learn how to pray well prayer is like the oxygen that we breathe it's the very life blood that flows through our spiritual veins that connects our mind our heart and our soul with our physical selves you got to remember it's our physical selves it's the things that we wrestle with it's the things that we struggle with those are the things that are helping us to attain Holiness right if you separate those two

5:31 things Christ became fully man and became fully man being fully God he became fully man he was born unto a woman he became one of us to set and to set and be a Pioneer for the journey for us to go forward that's why it's very important for us to remember all those important aspects of what Christ did when he came the Book of James in chap 5 and: 15 and 16 he talks about James writes he says and the prayer and that word prayer in this instance means properly a wish right often times we say we don't make wishes to God right but properly that's what this word actually entails in the

6:17 Greek properly a wish expressed as a petition to God or a vote of obligation so a prayer of faith and again faith belief with a pred dominant idea of trust or confidence in the power of the Holy Trinity springing forth from faith in the same shall save right and the prayer of faith shall save to rescue Us by extension to be in a right relationship with God with implication that the condition before salvation was one of great danger and distress every one of us we're in the same great danger we're in the same distress we are all in the same condition of sinfulness and if we do not conquer the sinfulness our destiny and our and our Our Fate so to

7:05 speak is not our own but if we live according to God's will then what we live is according to God's will to get to the kingdom of heaven because the only way we can get to the kingdom of heaven is through Christ the only way we can get to the father is through Christ so and prayer of faith shall save the sick now now that word the sick immediately when we hear that word we think of whatever ailments a cold cancer whatever else but this is a sickness that is more of the weariness or to be to the point of fainting it's the sickness that we have through sinfulness okay this is what James is talking about and the prayer of faith shall save the

7:52 sick and the Lord shall raise him up and if we have committed sins they shall be forgiven and that word for given in this context is to send it away completely to send Away The Sins to remit the sins and to put away offenses right should be forgiven him so if we go to God and we ask for for the Forgiveness we're going to be given it through the vehicle of the of confession and St James goes on to say confess now this Con word confess that he uses is to profess right it's also can be profess to acknowledge openly and joyfully that's the one thing I think that many people often get upside down is that we are often afraid to come and confess but when we're

8:37 coming to confession we should have yes compunction yes sorrow yes hurt and pain for the sin that we did but we should be looking forward to going to confession and joyfully going into confession in order for us to be able to be reconciled with God remember prayer is like the oxygen we breathe right we cannot live without it so confess your faults to one another right it's oh again one of the arguments that our Protestant Brothers say is we can go directly to God you can as a matter of fact everybody should be going directly to God every single day during their prayer rule during their prayer time to confess the things that they've done but in order for you to hear it it makes a Mind and Body Connection when

9:23 you hear the prayer of absolution it makes a difference it makes a difference so confess your faults to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed now that word healed is to be made whole as the woman that was caught in adultery if you remember right Jesus said go forth and sin no more go forth and be entirly whole right only God can do that if you remember last week our our uh class with the psalm right created me a new heart oh God created me a new heart you're the only one that can do this for it and then youve you all everybody's heard the effectual prayer the effectual fervent prayer and that word effectual fervent it means to

10:09 produce so our prayer is supposed to be producing okay use the and uh again the prayer in this context is Seeking a need a want an INT treaty to God so the effectual prayer a fervent prayer of a righteous man right that word righteous used for a person whose way of thinking feeling and acting is wholly confirmed to the will of God and who therefore needs to uh needs to uh rectification in the heart of life okay that righteousness that we're trying to attain is the only way we can do that is for God to create in us that new heart it's the effectual prayer that we must have and when we go to God we're supposed to use that correct mindset the

10:56 Orthodox mindset and have the correct heart in order to do it so the effectual the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man aileth to be strong have power as to show extraordinary Deeds right aileth much so there's a so James is talking about how important it is for us to have a right standing with God so when we go to God because many times people are like well I prayed and God didn't answer my prayer well were you praying with the my right heart were you praying with the right mindset were you going to go God and relying on his will okay Jesus and St John and go and the Gospel of John chap 14 he says verily verily that word verily is amen amen

11:43 believe it right he's saying believe it be faithful be sure it's an expression of absolute trust and confidence in what is being said he's talking to the people he's coming with authority he's coming to teach people what the good news is okay so verily verily I say unto you he that believeth on me the works that I do shall do also he shall do also and the Greater Works in these he shall do because I go to my father and whatever you ask in my name that will I do that the father may be glorified in the son and if you ask anything in my name I will do it and if you love me keep my Commandments now what's the important aspect of that one sentence what's the

12:29 most important word in if you love me the word if right if you love me keep my Commandments everything he just said that word if is now qualifying what he just said right he's telling he's saying that you'll be able to do everything that I do I gave the authority to you to do it he's telling the disciples but if you follow my Commandments this is the way you're going to be able to do it and I will pray right ask request entreat beg beseech I will pray the father that he shall give you another comforter right who is the comforter the holy spirit that was given during Pentecost I will send you another comforter he can right he's not separate from the Holy Spirit the Father the Son and the Holy

13:16 Spirit the Trinity we've seen the trinity in the gospels and he shall give you another comforter and that he may abide with you forever even the spirit of Truth whom the world cannot deceive receive deceive because it sees him not neither knows him but you know him for he dwelleth with you and shall be in you so throughout the gospels we see that Jesus he emphasizes the importance in prayer with his own life he demonstrates this many times throughout the gospel in his own example the gospel writers note this right they watched him they see him and that's another reason why it's very important for us as fathers to be at our prayer wall praying and having our

14:01 children see us pray if they see us pray no matter what how tired we are no matter how sick we are if we're at the prayer wall they too will have that mindset us for us to have young children it's so important for us to teach in the right way before the Mind get set gets skewed by what they learn at school okay so Jesus had a deep and intimate prayer life often praying audibly or crying aloud right the whole Sermon on the Mount his sermon is all about our relationship with God and during the sermon which I'll talk about later during The Sermon on the Mount what is what what did the disciples say teach us to pray right and he teaches them this outl outline of a

14:46 prayer often times he would you to desolate places to pray alone and sometimes spent the whole night in prayer I mean some of us we have a hard time getting one hour out of the way let alone a whole night but if you go and come to God with a heart that is right in your thinking right again heart mind and soul our seed of emotions the way we're thinking everything that needs to be in the right place Jesus prayed for God's will to be done to give thanks in time of Crisis and for his disciples right it's important right Jesus prayed God's will to be done for the will to be done in all of our Lives we must have a right thinking in our PR in our prayer

15:32 life he taught his followers how to pray emphasizing the importance of loving God through prayer again it's our life blood it's our oxygen it's what we need Jesus prayed repeatedly even while in pain on the cross showing surrender and compassion one of the last things he did was what father forgive them for they don't know what they're doing from the cross he's praying right he's praying for every one of us that are ignorant in our sins Luke 21 he says but take heed right that word heed is to be on guard watch out view where pay attention devote and apply oneself take heed to yourselves lest your hearts again the center the

16:18 center and the seat of our spiritual life be weighed down with what carousing drunkenness and the cares of this life what's the hymn that we do every time for the great entrance guys that sing and chant what's the hym right right lay aside all the cares of our life we do this every single time we have liturgy right so but take heed for your to yourselves lest your hearts be weighed down with carousing drunkenness and the cares of this life that the day capital D Judgment Day our judg Day come on you unexpectedly none of us know the time of the hour right Jesus is telling

17:04 them for it will come as a snare on on all those who dwell on the face of the whole earth watch again he's saying it again Watch take he first says take heed now he's saying watch and what does that watch mean what when you're when you're a guard with a spear guard with the the machine gun at the post what are you doing and when you're watching are you allowed to sleep no right what happens if you fall asleep during your during your time of guarding you get dead you get dead or the everybody that your friends is going to get killed as well right so you to be to watch is to be Sleepless be attentive and be ready at all times and therefore and Pray Again ask beg plead

17:51 always a fixed definite time this always in the Greek is a fixed definite time the time when things are brought to crisis the decisive Epoch waited for right he's talking about this time that is coming our time that is coming every one of us will stand before the Judgment seat and he's telling us while we have an opportunity we need to be prepared we need to watch We Need to Be watchful right how many of us have wasted most of our Lives not being watchful not being prepared for the time at is hand and I always ask everybody that's coming to the church that has been atheists or satanists or whatever else are you not happy that God did not require your life of you even three months ago right if

18:38 you were if your life is required of you how would you stand before God all right so watch therefore and pray always that you may be counted worthy considered worthy right we want to be counted worthy again at the Liturgy every single liturgy so that we stand prepared before the Judgment seat of God the dread judgment seat the awful and beautiful thing that's going to be for some people beautiful and so for some people it will be absolutely awful that you'll be counted worthy to escape all these things that are come to pass Jesus is warning about all these things that are coming the wars the rumors of wars the tumults the earthquakes the storms the Hurricanes all these things again two

19:24 weeks ago 15 over 1500 people being martyred and the modern day okay to escape all these things that will come to pass and to stand before the son of man again a note with the son of man we hear this word we hear this word right know that the son of man Jesus is using humility right the son of man is a term that he pulls from the Old Testament it's humility Jesus then again talks about the True Vine in chapter 15 if you abide right if you abide in me to abide in Christ is to follow his example of Life obedience to the will of God if you want to abide in Christ you follow his example if you do not follow his example

20:09 you cannot abide in Christ all right so if you abide in me and my words abide in you make it a part of you right his words need to become something personal his words need to become something that is we breathe his words we breathe the gospel you will be able to ask what you desire right this is one of the ones that are always always abused everybody used well I ask God anything I desire he just says we can do that again if we follow his Commandments right whatever you ask that you desire and that word desire will be for God's glory and honor if it's if I am going to God with what I desire it's

20:56 not what I am asking God to and and make me a millionaire get me a Lamborghini I wouldn't fit very well in a Lamborghini I would be a frivolous prayer on my part right but you asking those things will it glorify God well if the million dollar glorifies God then that's something that's a possibility for God he can do whatever he wants okay but you will ask whatever you desire and it shall be done for you by this my father is glorified that you bear much fruit so you will be my disciples what is the key to that statement right my father to be glorified right when we live our lives when we go to God and we are in prayer and we are working diligently to conform

21:42 our hearts and our minds to what Christ is requesting us to do we glorify God with our lives we glorify God with every aspect of our lives in our marriages and our jobs whenever we are married when I am married to my wife I am married to my wife and I honor my wife to glorify God I serve my wife to glorify God I serve PTI to glorify God I serve the people of St nectarios to glorify God I don't get anything out of those things other than what God is willing to give me in his grace right do I do those do I do those Works to receive his grace yes or no God's going to give me the grace but I want to do those things because I want to glorify God I want to have the right

22:29 mindset I want to become a man of prayer so the basis of Orthodox Christian Life is fasting and prayer remember fasting is the twofold aspect of Our Lives fasting and prayer prayer said uh prayer uh a prayer said St filler of Moscow is the conversation of our so of the Soul right with God and it is in a it is a conversation is impossible to hear one side at all times so prayer it is good to sometimes stop and listen to the Lord's answer to our prayer often times we are so busy we are so consumed with everything we rattle off our prayers as fast as we can so we can go to bed right but we're supposed to take time we're supposed to meditate

23:15 on those things we're supposed to meditate on the words we're supposed to think about the words and part of our prayer Life part of our prayer time is also supposed to be silence often times is very hard especially with kids they want noise all the time because if it's quiet there's boredom but that's not how it's supposed to be we're supposed to find solace in Christ okay so the main purpose of the prayer rule is to dispose the soul of the Christ of the Christian to active association with God to awaken in us the repentant thoughts to purify the heart of sinful corruption this is our prayer we're going to God right we're going to

24:01 God to enliven us for the Holy Spirit to move in us to heal us to cure us of the sickness for this reason by thoroughly fulfilling what is required we learn by the words of the Apostles right the apostle that St Paul talked to in the Ephesians that we're supposed to pray always with all prayer and supplication of the spirit with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints so what then is prayer pray prayer is a raising of the Mind Right the right thinking the prayer of the mind and heart to God and praise and thanksgiving to him and in supplication for good things that we need both spiritual and physical prayers are spiritual because they are

24:47 originally born in the human Spirit right and ripen them there by the grace of the holy spirit in their origin they through prayers and songs and hymns were purely spiritual and only afterward came to be clothed in the words and so assumed in oral form St theop on the recluse speaks about this and then St tkon of zadonsk says I advise you to convince yourself and to force yourself to pray and every good action even if you do not feel the desire for it he's telling us no matter what we feel like we need to pray that's that's why often times when people come and talk to me

25:32 right I've had different people come to me and say you know what father I think I want to be a priest right all right the Holy Spirit if the holy spirit's coming to you for the next year you pray for the next year you go to God and pray is this your desire is this what you want me to do and that includes people that want to leave the church right I've seen people leave the church wait a year pray make sure that this is the right thing cuz we do not we do not live off our emotions but often times emotions gets the best of us okay so God seeing such labor and application will give you good will and Zeal such good will and a certain attraction to prayer is often a

26:19 result of habit again a prayer rule needs to become a habit we have lots and lots of bad habits that were very easy for us to incorporate in our lives our sinfulness is a habit therefore we need to rewrite all those sinful habits with prayer and with Holiness so get into this habit and it will draw you to prayer and good actions St John of constant says do not spare yourself from heartfelt prayer even when you have spent the whole day in hard work do not indulge in laziness When you pray tell God everything that is in your heart if you allow yourself time to pray with diligence you will not fall asleep before you have wept over your sins believe that if for the sake

27:05 of the a bodly rest you pray hurriedly you will lose the Tranquility of both Body and Soul by what labor Sweat and Tears is our closeness to God achieved when we go to God again we're not supposed to be rushing through our prayers when you wake up in the morning I'm going to go over this a little bit later but when you wake up in the morning the first thing you should doing is praying if you got to get up in the middle of the night now that I'm older I got to get up in the middle of the night to go to the go pee right soon as I get up Jesus Christ Son of God Have Mercy In me a sinner my mind goes to those things okay I want my mind to be revolving around God okay first Thessalonians he says St Paul

27:51 says Rejoice always and pray without seeing see and everything give thanks for this is the will of God INR Christ Jesus for you pray without ceasing pray constantly I mean people we need to understand that we if we get our prayer rule down then you will learn how to pray throughout the day we had one of our my spiritual Sons tell you on Sunday right I asked him to share his journey with you and he says things are starting to fall into place I'm doing my prayer rule I'm there I'm at my prayers it makes a difference right don't wait for another 20 years to start your prayers okay when we pray and walk in God's will we will participate in the Divine

28:37 energies of God gaining wisdom and Faith the only reason those some of those guys that we read about doing all the things that Jesus did and more healing people Clairvoyance uh raising people from the dead giving people their sight we've there's those M Miracles are still happening but those people are diligent in their prayer I'm not there yet but they're diligent in their prayers they go to God they're constantly requesting repentance right the first thing we need to do is realize that each of us right I heard this beautiful statement about the the when the the the landowner went out to the different times the first hour the fifth hour at the 11th hour and the one hymn

29:24 said Lord I am the man that's coming to you at the 11th hour I am the one coming at you in the last hour of the day and yet I know that you're going to give me that Grace why do we need to be at the 11th hour to wait for those things but nonetheless right all the saints every one of the people when they come to God they understand that compared to everybody else they're the most wretched person St Paul says I am the chief among Sinners because as you get closer to God as you work your way closer to God as you get closer to the fire again if that fire is on the stove I can't feel it from here but if I go near the stove and I put my hand even near it I can feel the heat and if I put my hand on the eye

30:11 I'm going to burn my hand therefore as we get closer to God he starts to show us the sinfulness that we have and if we do not change our ways that fire will consume us if we refuse to repent that's why we need to go to God and participate in his Divine energies so we should follow the outline of the prayer that Jesus taught his disciples what did he teach them again the Lord's Prayer the first thing he did was giving thanks to God in all things praising God for what he had done in our lives and what we do in our lives right he teaches them that our Father who art in heaven Hallowed be thy name right our father makes it personal to us who are in heaven right our father he's not saying your father our father he's

30:58 making all of us included we are to hollow God's name that word Hollow we are to separate from the profane things and dedicate Our Lives to God that's why for me I've tried so hard to diligently change my language why should I speak the name of Jesus and with my mouth and then 30 minutes later use the f word use a swear word right why do I do that how can I profane God's name with my mouth when it comes out as something holy that we need to have we to live our lives glorifying God not only with our lips but also with our actions all right we are also to pray that God's kingdom to come quickly right that's what we pray

31:45 for it's a two-fold thing please Lord come quickly BR come to us quickly but at the same time in the other side of our mouth we're saying please give us a little bit more time please give us a little bit more Mercy please I know that you're at the door and the Virgin thecus is saying not yet there still people right and God knows our hearts he waits for people to come to him right the only way that we can come to the father is for Christ for the Holy Spirit to woo us to him okay for we pray for God's kingdom to come quickly and for us to live and strive to live by God's will as we prepare for his eminent return We Now pray for all things we need right now he goes after half of the prayer that he

32:32 teaches us now we're going to God for the things that we need our daily bread praying to God again one of my favorite statements praying without prejudice because often times we go to God with a whole bunch of prejudice and we need to go to God looking for his will when we pray searching for his will to pray in his will for our Necessities we're to seek repentance and seek for to forgive others who have wounded us that's the next part right seeking repentance and through seeking repentance through realizing our own wretchedness when we see people we will offer them the same Grace that is given to us and when we pray that it's in God's will that we F that we will follow his will no matter where it t makes no matter where it

33:19 takes us that God will be gentle in his sovereignty as we learn to conform into his image and likeness that we be strong and courageous as we prepare for judgment and that we will have good defense before Christ who would judge us without impunity God will judge us there is no doubt about it everybody will be judged there's going to be a there's going to be a pure Justice and a pure love and each one of our judgment and we when we pray we must pray with intent when we we pray we must go to God knowing what we want to ask him that's why it's important for us read those out those prayers that have already been written somebody has written those prayers at one point in their life and their walk with God when you get to that

34:05 place in your walk with God you too will be able to write those prayers you too will be able to write things and to go to God with those spontaneous prayers when we have spontaneous prayer we're often searching in our mind for what's to say trying to push out also whatever things that are coming into our mind the things of our passions we must take our time and not run rush through our prayers right we are spending time with our King and savior when we are in prayer why do we rush just to get to bed right and if you're trying to get to work if you have work and you wake up 30 minutes before you get to work and you're trying to squeeze in your prayer just so you can get as much sleep again the problem is not the prayer the problem is the sleep and if we don't learn how to curb our

34:51 sleep we will sleep for the rest of our lives and Slumber not watching and not being aware we should be praying as we when we're praying we should be standing before our prayer wall we should be standing at attention the guard who watches when he leans back on the chair he's going to fall asleep but if you're standing at attention you stand before God you stand before your icon screen you stand before your home icon aasis and you're coming to God and you're beseeching him we must learn to pray throughout the day again going back prayer without ceasing it's important to give thanks to every everything right we must learn uh we must learn to give thanks and praise God for all he does each day we should see this through the scriptures where God is

35:38 constantly REM constantly remembered for all the Wonders that he does if you read the Psalms King David and Moses your mercy endures forever you part of the Red Sea your mercy endures forever you took us out of Egypt your mercy endures forever the pillar of the cloud your mercy endures forever everything that we do everything that we have a home everything right and for myself every day I thank God for his Incarnation he became a man right for his mother that accepted that challenge accepted that gift his baptism that he Sanctified all things through his baptism his Transfiguration that he changed he we were able to see his glory he was transfigured before his disciples thank God for his gospel the good news

36:24 that he brought thank God for his death and Resurrection ction and thank God for his Ascension and the outpouring of his Spirit on Pentecost and then we also we need to thank God for the day that he gave us for the food that he provided for us for my spouse for my children I thank God for my the people of St nectarios I thank God for a wonderful Bishop that we have I thank God for St nectarios for my vehicle that I drive for the house that I live in we need to be thanking God for all those things we need to thank God for the day that he gave us gave us the beauty of the pre- Sanctified liturgy tonight and we and the other thing we must do at the end of our day is do a spiritual accounting of our day working

37:09 constantly toward repentance and having a heart and mind that is set on honoring God above all again going to God it's important if you do a spiritual accounting of your day when you come to confession on Saturday night you're not going to have to search your mind but if you go man today I messed up I did this this and this have mercy on me oh God forgive me right forgive me for that and that's why one of the other things that we need to do is read the Holy scriptures every day there's ways you read the scriptures in a year I challenge everybody right I challenge everybody I right now in my my daily readings for Holy Scripture I'm at I'm at 362 days in a couple days I will start over do with me by the time next

37:57 year goes comes around in a couple days if we all start reading the scriptures if you've never run the scriptures one one time all the way through let do it this year make time to read the scriptures we should read the 50th Psalm again that we that's why I did the class last year and memorize the 50th Psalm be at a place one of the things that I really moved me about that I told you about the sermon uh about uh the the the individual that started the voice of the martyrs Richard uh worm what is his name I forgot his name now worm brand uh the one of the things he said is that when he was in prison the only scripture that he had was the stuff he memorized he

38:42 memorized as many things as he could during his time as a Christian he memorized those things and he used them over and over and over again and while he was in prison he said he used the chains as musical instruments right so read the 50 Psalm every single day and memorize it and also read the Creed that's the statement of our faith memorize the Creed meditating on our statement of faith and and having it in our hearts and our souls we must also read the church fathers read the church fathers read like The prologue of ID that's something I read every single day I read it I make I've made it a part of our lives that we read the Saints we read the homy we read those things it's moved me it's given me ideas for sermons it's helped me in my

39:29 life okay so read the church fathers read holy writings limit your exposure to social media right social media is one of the biggest poisons that we have in our in our in our country today in this world social media I wish we just be okay but whatever else at least limit your exposure to it and other secular means of entertainment make sure that during your prayer life that again you prepare yourself to confess and work on repenting from all of our sins we must do and one of the things that I know I'm looking forward to doing after I take care of whatever I need to take care of with my health doing prostrations again now that I've lost lost quite a bit of weight I can't wait to do prostrations

40:16 again I want to be able to honor God in every aspect of my life including my physical need my physical life pray the pray the Jesus prayer prayer time through and in the morning at night when you do your prayer rule do the pre Jesus prayer do at least a 100 of them right do more if you can but do at least 100 of them and then throughout the day whenever you can if you get a thought in your mind go do something sinful immediately as soon as you as soon as if you're being watchful and aware you will be able Jesus Christ Son of God have mercy on me a sinner all right and we must again finally make sure that you have a set prayer time every day it's important the time itself does not matter but if you set a prayer time my

41:02 prayer time 5:00 every morning every morning no matter what I'm doing it's at 5:00 in the morning I get up I go to the restroom first thing I do is do my prayer to place my focus on my relationship with God immediately at the start of the day and then it sets my life in the right direction it sets my life to following God's will and I'm learning more and more how to honor God through my prayer Rule and again it's not it's it's my personal prayer rule in the in the morning and at night my my my family and I pray together but you need to have both if you're married you need to have the time alone and your prayer together all right so is there any

41:50 questions yes so when you pray alone so and then you talk about praying with your spouse do you repeat the prayer like some of the prayers yes uh like for for our prayer rule at night the the prayer that we have that I wrote that I that my wife and I composed for the church that has everybody's name on it I do that at the I do that in the evening time because that's the prayer that my wife and I do together and on that prayer on that prayer there's a place where it says I thank you for the day that you've given us and that's where that's where we give all of our thanks I give my thanks for the things that I can remember my wife gives her thanks for the things that she remembers and panote gives the thanks for the things that he remembers and I go through there and I have a little book that I write the the

42:35 the names like right now I have you guys in in the book because we haven't updated the prayer list yet so I have everybody's names there I've been praying for you guys every single day and then you go through your intercessory prayers and then there's a couple of prayers that my wife does at night the Holy Spirit prayer and the prayer for our children I the prayer in that that Archangel book I do the one in the morning from my CH I do the one for my children in the morning she does it at night so we repeat it the Holy Spirit one I do in the morning she does the Holy Spirit one at night B does the one for the parents and he does the evening prayer uh from from Vespers at night and then again we do we personally do 300 uh prayer rope not prayer knot rope every every morning and every night I do 300 myself and my wife has her own set of

43:23 prayer her has her own prayer rule in the morning so some of the things I repeat there's a specific set of Psalms that I read every day I read the 23rd psalm or the 22nd Psalm depending on if you're reading it out of the septu agent the Lord is my shepherd I shall not want he makes me to die down Green Pastures it reminds me that God is in control right I read Psalm 27 or 26 I read Psalm 51 every single morning I read Psalm 71 or 70 or and 91 and 90 those are my prayer and I also put on for years I've been putting on from the book of Ephesians the armor of God I do that every every morning and every night before we go to bed so some of those prayers yes repeat them the ones that are applicable for you for the day some of the spiritual fathers will give you a

44:10 set prayer rule I try to let everybody tailor it to themselves and I help you tweak it along the way you know because I don't want you know some of the I don't know if my way is better I don't know maybe their way is better and time will see I I have changed things as I've learned along away but yeah I mean some of those prayers I repeat twice a day y doing the Lord's Prayer every day that's that's an essential I also do the morning prayers out of the Orthodox Study Bible which has the Creed every day I try to get our son to to uh read the Creed every day himself so because the more you do those prayers the more you'll have it ingrained in your mind right you know and and you need to have it memorized some of those

44:56 things memorized yes how long and or well I guess yeah two different questions how long did it take you to get to that place where you've compiled all of those things as part of your prayer rule one two how many times have you tweaked it over the years I've tweaked it many times I don't have a set amount of numbers answering that first I wish I had a prayer rule growing up I didn't I did a quick prayer going getting up I I always did the armor of God I always did the sign of the cross when I got in my vehicle but especially for the last four or five years I think probably four years CO's really what pushed me forward to really draw closer to God it was a terrifying time right no matter if it I don't know if it was a

45:42 scam I don't know whatever whatever whatever but whatever the case is that's what really drove me forward and and and you know so the prayer rule has been in my life steadily for the last at least 3 or 4 years if not a little bit longer as you just said it though well I again I I every year I try to add something every year I try to add at least one prayer I try to add something to it so therefore the prayer steadily I I get to I get to pray a little bit longer and during during length like around noon between today I was a little bit late with it but we've been doing the cesma online uh for the Psalms I've been reading the Psalms out loud and doing a couple hymns that are in the book um we I I try to do

46:29 the Jesus prayer throughout the day uh so I try to do as much as I can and then uh and then when Co started as well we started doing that 6:00 service or we've been we've been streaming it now for almost 5 years where we uh we've been streaming I'm 11 every night you know the thing that I always I I'm flabbergasted is when I was in seminary every morning and every night we were at Chapel right 8:00 in the morning or throws 5:00 at night Vespers and then for whatever reason as soon as you graduate the only time a lot of these a lot of forgive me for making it sound like I'm judgmental a lot of people will only now pray on Sunday right why not why not do our services every day right so I tweak it all the time you know I I

47:18 last night I was I I started reading one of the prayers I normally don't read and I'm like wait a minute I should start reading this I'm I'm going to start adding that to my my you know it was the prayer about um the sanctity of life right typically I there's two prayers on the page and typically I just kind of scanned over it man that's one I think I'm going to add and I added that prayer make sense yeah I was just I was asking mainly for those that are sort of new to not you know not feel bogged down by the weight of of everything that you're saying well I got to do F 12 songs I I got to do this I got to do start with start with something you can do kind of like riding a bike you you don't just

48:03 you don't just go hit a mountain trail you'll freaking crush your skull on a tree in two seconds and again yes let me preference that anybody that's been sitting with me you know that I'm not going to you know that I never immediately give you a prayer rule that's going to be like the one I'm doing right now all right I'm going to start you off slow right at least do the morning prayers takes you five minutes and every year you're G to start adding to that prayer right if you come up to me and say father I think I want to add a Psalm all right which Psalm do you want to do like I said I recommend Psalm 50 at least every day right but that's why I work with everybody individually and where they're at and work with them on their prayer rule but yes Jordan's

48:49 completely right just because I'm going over this you nobody should get overwhelmed on what I am saying it's something that you need to talk and especially es the people that are watching online that are going to watch this they need to go to their spiritual father and work with uh with him uh to set up their prayer rule uh father Josiah actually has a form trenum in California I found it yesterday he has a form that it gives all the cumans and it's a it's you you fill it out I'm going to look at it I might incorporate that as well too anybody else Christopher what if your prayers start to feel repetitive and like you don't feel like a connection to them because you just

49:34 been doing for so long well all I can tell you is if they're feeling repetitive you're not your your mind must be somewhere else because it's the same thing people have said about liturgy it just feels repetitive well if your heart's not if you're getting up in the morning and saying I'm going to spend time with you Lord right I you're putting God first you're going to God if you're in your back of your mind's like oh man this is a drag well yeah it's going to be a drag right but if you're going if you're going before God and you're like Lord I I am relying on your mercy I'm relying on your good and Faith your your faithfulness you I'm relying on you right and that's why that's why the prayer needs to be something personal for you you you need to find prayers

50:19 right yes I'll give you an outline but you find prayers that mean something to you you know why would I get bored of praying for you right I care about you I love you I'm not going to get bored of praying for you for the people of the church all right so that so the re if if if you're there that if you're still thinking not just you I'm I'm not attacking you Christopher at all but I if you're if if you if you're getting up in the morning oh I just got to do my prayers it's a check mark well yeah it's going to be boring you're not going to have a connection but if you're getting up and saying man I I am excited to spend my time with the King of the universe right get up at the right mindset get up at the right heart I'm about to spend time with God right no matter what you're

51:06 doing no matter how tired you are you get up and do it and sometimes you're going to go through those times of spiritual drought sometimes you're going to go through those times of rep repetition but that's stuff that the enemy also puts in your mind as well you push through all that stuff right when when you're like oh maybe I need to shake things up NOP obedience obedience obedience breathes humility and humility then is a gives you obedience um does that answer your question yeah do you uh incorporate prostrations in your prayer R and if so I was trying okay uh because I'm heavy it's hard for me to do it especially near my wall and that's why I was trying to do it but that's why I ended up also

51:52 in the emergency do you do you know how many we should do like if say for morning prayers you're doing prostrations how many prostrations should you do I mean A good rule maybe is like 12 or so you know you can do the Lord have you know Jesus Christ son to God have mercy me a sinner do a prostration and then you know obviously if you're if you're doing 500 of them and you're you know well you're you're kind of defeating the purpose right right but once you get built into built up to that I mean some of those guys do you know prostrations with no problem and you're young and you're much younger than I am and stuff like that I I look forward to doing them during Holy Week but like I said I can't do it so again that's something you and I can talk about and we can work into your prayer rules right I found sometimes it's hard

52:40 to settle down and I find out if I'll read something from the prologue of oate or the lives of the Saints to kind of get me the mindset y then I can pray yep yep and reading those is very is again the more you read about the church fathers and the Saints you'll you'll start receiving that mindset because you're you're going to be able to tell yourself this is possible Jordan well I I just you know going off of your question you know too it's like you you mentioned meditating and it's like you know if you get to that place where you feel like this is just repetitive the first thing you could say well I mean you'll never be a good basketball player if you're not shooting 100 200 300 400 three throws a day

53:26 that's just bare minimum that's the same shot same form you got to be shooting that shot that's just point blank you you'll never be a good basketball player if you don't have a good free throw but then second you know if you're meditating like what I mean by meditation I I I've tried to understand what you what you mean by it but my understanding is like you know chewing on the words like why why am I saying Lord have mercy mercy on me a sinner you know what does that mean for me like all of those words those are all different words you know Lord have mercy on me a sinner seven words you know all all have meaning and power you know so

54:12 it's like why what what's the point of it if you don't know the point of it then you might as well not do it and that's also why I went over the 50th ssal right so when you're reading it now you can go oh man I know what king d is talking about right have mercy on me oh God according to your steadfast love make it personal right I I if you're going through the motions you're you're not it's just going to be going through the motions sometimes you just go through the motions especially if you're going like I said through a hard time of your life you push through that stuff you know St I think it was St filler at or St John but he said you just got to keep going you just got to keep moving forward you got to keep doing what you need to do to get closer and closer to

54:58 God and again the boredom comes from our fast-paced life right we're used to constant stimulation and we need to slow things down and come back to Christ yes n it's always remind me about you know when it's repetition is the difference between when you read just reading the Bible when you do Bible study you read the Bible you just read the words but when you do Bible study you're trying to analyze every word of it and we know what we need to do the ly of all the every time we need to analyze word of it that's that's that's why every you know Bible study or Bible reading was always done in the synagogue and it was done together it wasn't just ever you by yourself right and you know

55:44 and and that's that's like I said that's why that's why I did the class on the Psalms that's why I do the that's why I do the uh the teaching liturgy so that way it makes it more you know and that's why when you first start out with a prayer rule you're not supposed to be doing a 2hour prayer rule because you're doing a two-hour prayer rule you're just doing it to get done but if you find a like I said the 50th song do the morning prayers really think about those words once you do that for a year you add another thing to it now you're adding a a little bit of a flavor to it right so that's why every year I what I always recommend my spiritual children add something to your prayer life during Lent you increase your prayer life during Lent and then throughout the rest of the year you stay

56:30 that way then the next year you increase it a little bit more keep it throughout through your life through or year after year after year you keep increasing increasing increasing a little bit at a time anybody else all right Lord God bless Protection keep you safe thank you for joining us blessed for [Music] [Applause] [Music]