A far corner of a Mosaic Studio, where little threads of various projects bind the artists together as a whole.
Happy Apodosis of Nativity and a Blessed Saint’s Day, Melania!
I recently came across this excerpt on prayer by +Archpriest John Adams, of Eternal Memory. The subject matter is too practical and too timely not to share anew, especially as we move forward into the New Year.
I want to talk of something very important – a matter of life and death, and this is prayer. There are generally considered to be two kinds of prayer. Private prayer and public prayer.
Prayer has been compared to breathing. Without this Breath, there is no Life. Prayers are like threads that go in every direction, binding us to the people we’re near to… each with the whole fabric. It unites the members with each other, with the whole body, uniting the body with the head.
Prayer has been called conversation with God. In prayer, we praise or ask for what we need, or we pray to give thanks. We pray for ourselves and we pray for each other.
Don’t take prayer lightly. Don’t say “I can’t think of anything else to do, so I’ll pray about it.” Don’t put it last, put it first.
If you say to someone, “Oh, I’ll pray for you.” Do it... You’ve made a contract.
(If you ask someone to pray for you, do update them when a situation resolves.)
And, you can pray for someone in secret, hoping for a reward later. Just as you don’t know that someone else is having a conversation with God (about you). What more could you do for yourself, or for someone else, than seek God’s help? That doesn’t mean you won’t have to do anything else, as you may have to do a lot.
In the Gospels, Christ says to Peter, “I have prayed for you.” Many times we read, He went apart, He went up into a mountain to pray, He lifted up His eyes. St. Paul writes in his epistles asking for their prayers. And, he gives his famous commandment, “Pray without ceasing.” Without ceasing – this is what we must try to do – to continue this conversation, to try to come back to it as often as you can remember – and then more often.
Read the morning and evening prayers from the prayer book, you may even have memorized them by now. But don’t let them just run through your mind without attention, and here in this atmosphere, ask for what you need; help with your work, your health, your family, your specific aversion at this time. And in the evening, take a moment to be thankful, take a moment to ask forgiveness.
Breathe in. Breathe out. This is private prayer.
