Ukrainian Orthodoxy		Orthodoxie ukrainienne

Our Special Ministry of Prayer and Intercession:
Experiencing God’s blessings

Dr. Alexander Roman alex@unicorne.org

It has become almost common parlance for people, even those without strong religious convictions or habits of spiritual practice, to say, “I’m praying for this or that.” Yet, what does it mean to truly pray as Christians and in accordance with the Will of God? How do we pray and support one another in prayer?

We all have special needs and bear suffering in our lives. We may even have to face excruciating difficulties and experiences of pain daily that are often made worse by a sense of deepening anguish and frustration that we might even blame God Himself for either giving us a particular difficulty or making us endure it for so long a time.

In recent months, I’ve come to know people who are truly weighed down by the sheer greatness of their pain and suffering that makes whatever difficulties I face in my life appear quite insignificant. Is it a “cop out” to tell such people to pray so that all will be well? We should not believe for a moment that that is the case.

Difficulties and moments of painful crisis are like death and taxes – we know they will occur in our lives, even if we’ve managed to escape major ones until now.

How can prayer help? Have me become too “with it” and “modern” to expect miracles in our lives? It all depends on how we think of miracles . . .

And we often imagine miracles to occur suddenly, like lightning from heaven. We probably too see miracles as something that occur without much effort from ourselves. They are something that God is expected to perform for us without our own cooperation and that of others.

But I’ve seen and experienced miracles that are not like that at all, miracles that occur slowly over time and that ultimately have to do with the miraculous change that occurs within our minds and hearts when Divine Love and the love of others is allowed to sink down into our being so as to transform and irradiate us with the healing warmth of its powerful touch.

Prayer, true prayer, is all about that. It is not a simple recitation of a prayer formula asking for a favour from God and ending with an “Amen” followed by a period of “now let’s see what happens.”

Certainly, the great Saints of the Church never accepted that kind of an approach to prayer in response to human needs.

The Ukrainian Orthodox Saint Jonah Otamansky of Odessa (+1924) for example prayed many all-night vigils over people and for people’s prayer requests. It was he who prayed over the crib of a blind child every night (meaning ALL night!) until the morning of the tenth day the child could see.

The great St Seraphim of Sarov asked his spiritual children to pray Our Father’s and Hail Mary’s according to the number of the Book of Psalms – 150 each – for all one’s relatives and friends, living and dead, and then to ask for one special thing that one truly needed – and it would be granted.

A medical doctor who visited Diveyevo during the height of the Soviet persecutions in Russia decided to pray St Seraphim’s Rule of Prayer while going around the monastery itself. And he brought an entire written list of what he thought he truly needed from God!

As he completed his prayers, a delicious sense of the Divine Presence enveloped him, like a warm blanket surrounding a sleeping baby, and he realized that he could actually do without any of the things he had written down on his list. He even went so far as to ask God to take away what he already had – but to allow him to always experience the sense of the Divine Presence he had come to know then and there. And this was granted to him . . .

“Seek ye first the Kingdom of God,” OLGS Jesus Christ admonishes us. We often feel alone and dejected in our personal crises because we have managed to wander away from God and no longer feel His Presence in our lives. And that is our fault, not God’s.

The resurrected Christ could, as the Gospels relate, go through closed doors and walls. But there is one thing Christ cannot penetrate and that is a human heart that shuts itself off to Him and will not listen to the sound of the Good Shepherd knocking at the inner door of one’s soul.

“Let Me in!” Christ tells us. “I know you are suffering! I know what suffering is all about! Let Me into your heart now with My healing Presence!”

In our suffering, we may choose to focus on ourselves and our inability to do anything about it. We can do that – and make things worse for ourselves as we plunge even further into despair and frustration.

Or we can lift our eyes up to Christ and the All-Holy Trinity surrounded in heaven by the Most Holy Mother of God and all the Angels and Saints and confess our trouble and our need for help.

Healing is always a process. So is the process of answered prayer. It requires effort from us that begins with the understanding on our part that we are truly dependent on others and on God especially for all that we have and all that we are. That makes great psychological sense, even apart from spiritual realities!

When we pray and begin the struggle of prayer, as the monastic Fathers referred to it, we need to recognize a few “rules” of the experience. First of all, prayer must be constant and continual. OLGS Jesus Christ asked His disciples in the Garden of Gethsemane why they couldn’t watch in prayer with Him for one hour. We’ve all heard or read that passage from scripture. Do we realize that Jesus was directing His words not only to them at that point in history, but to us living in the 21st century as well?

The aim of prayer is to bring us into the experience of the Divine Presence in the first instance. It is that Presence that begins the healing process within us of our painful memories, thoughts and feelings. And that takes both time and effort. It never ceases to amaze how when it comes to subjects like mathematics, computer science, social sciences et al. how everyone assumes that lots of effort is required in mastering and being able to apply them. Yet, somehow the same rules fall by the wayside when it comes to religion and its central exercise – prayer!

The substance of the prayer itself can be up to us. It can be Our Father’s and Hail Mary’s, it can be the Prayer of Jesus said slowly over and over again, allowing the healing, transfiguring power of the Divine Name to seep into our soul, it can be the Psalms with their dynamic inspiration that covers all human troubles and emotions, it can be reading prayerfully from the Scriptures or it can be prayers from the daily offices of the Church. The treasury of devotion of the Saints and the Fathers are likewise a great source of inspiring texts that help us in approaching God with our needs and troubles.

Once we’ve chosen our prayers, it is then that we need to spend time praying them. The Church’s ingenious system of, ideally, seven prayer periods daily helps sanctify time while punctuating the entire day with the well-springs of devotion. The Anglican William Law’s “Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life” is a great exposition of the value of hourly prayer for all!

Sometimes we may feel the need to pray a vigil. People in “crisis mode” often keep such vigils. Vigils were kept by people on the streets of New York City and elsewhere in the aftermath of 9/11 and other tragedies. Perhaps one’s parish will keep an All-Night Vigil and that is certainly a shared prayer experience not to be missed! Yes, there is the element of tiredness and even exhaustion. Prayer has a wonderful way of overcoming these in time. Time and silence . . . the two great supports of an effective prayer life!

Putting oneself in a prayerful context is likewise important. The icon corner, lamps and candles, the wearing and holding of Crosses during prayer, prayer beads and ropes, Holy Water and Saints’ Manna with relics . . . these are all the tangible elements of spiritual intimacy.

Praying with and for others is always a needed aspect of our lives of prayer as well. Whether in Church or in families, circles of friends and the like, such shared prayer for one another, together with loving advice and words of encouragement in difficult times, can fill us with a joy that transcends the mundane troubles of life – yes, like a lightning bolt!

So we also, on this site, announce our own spiritual ministry of prayer for any who would like to join with others in prayer. If you like, you can e-mail us at mail@ukrainian-orthodoxy.org with your own prayer requests and we can how we can pray together for you. The format of such a prayer that will be followed here will be the traditional 40 consecutive days of prayer for your particular need.

You can yourself begin to spend an hour a day in prayer for a period of 40 days, dedicating yourself to becoming more open to God’s Will for your life and seeking His Face in worship and adoration.

You can yourself begin this right this minute. You may also seek the advice and prayerful support of friends and in particular your parish priest.

And you can also write to us here and we will join with you in praying for your needs following the 40 day prayer format. There is no charge for this service. The spiritual rewards for one and all who participate in this endeavour are truly “Heavenly!”

When you do write, please let us know if you would like your requests made public or not.

Let us go forward together to experience God’s Presence and healing in our lives!

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