In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and
of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Glory to Jesus Christ.
Glory to God. The thoughts that I want to share
with you this morning are about prayer. As Orthodox,
we know there are two types of prayer for all
Christians and all peoples. Public liturgical
prayer and so -called private prayer. And it's
a private prayer that I want to focus on. I think
some of the temptations for Christians and people
in general is to think of prayer as something
that, well, that's what we do when we go to the
church or the synagogue or something. But prayer
should be characteristic of each and every day
in our life, saying private prayers, coming into
communion with God in prayer. Prayer for me and
for all of you, we're all beginners. We are all
novices in prayer. Nobody is, even the best prayers,
so to speak, will say that they are just beginners
in prayer. Indeed, many of the fathers refer
to the church as a school of learning to be in
communion with God. One of my morning prayers
is to say the prayer of the Optina elders. The
Optina elders was a group of Russian monks in
the 18th, 19th century monastery of Optina. And
the one phrase in there that I really try and
focus on every time I read it and say to myself
is we say, Lord, teach me. to pray, to hope,
to believe, to love, to endure, and to forgive.
Teach me to do all of these things. There are
four types of prayer. We praise God, we adore
him, we thank him for his many benefits, we admit
our sorrow and our sinfulness, Admit we express
our repentance. Then, of course, the one that
we more readily, I think, identify with this
prayer is petition, asking God for certain favors
and blessings in our life. What's important for
us in our private prayers is regularity. At least
every day we should say some type of prayer.
In our rich liturgical repertoire, we have morning
and evening prayers. Excellent. And I think also
for married couples and for families should pray
together. Say some kind of prayer together. Even
if it's only the Our Father. Or say some of the
morning and evening prayers. Family that prays
together stays together, as the old saying is.
And one thing that we've been doing, well, later
in our life, is saying some of the Psalms every
day. And I say a few verses. and then my matushka
says a few verses, and we alternate back and
forth like that. So that's a practice that we
found very inspiring, if nothing else, and it
gives us more and more familiarity with the Psalms,
which is really the Old Testament prayer book,
expressing all different types of human emotions
and needs. So I urge you especially to have familiarity
with and pray the Psalms. Also, in addition to
the prayers from a prayer book, scripture reading.
That's a prayer. Every day we have an epistle
and a gospel. You can look them up on the OCA
website or look at your church calendar. and
see what the daily readings are. The OCA website
also has the lives of the saints for that particular
day. That's worth looking into. Daily and regularity.
Also, what tradition calls Lectio Divina, or
spiritual reading. To get a book, whether it
is a life of a saint or reading about one of
the books of the scriptures, we have a whole,
you've got a library and all kinds of books in
the bookstore. I mean, there's no lack of information
that's available to us for spiritual reading,
especially during Lent. I think this is the point
here. that we're coming up to that period of
Lent. And Lent is a time when I think we should
do something over and above what we have been
doing. So of all the things that I've mentioned,
the possibilities, I imagine, well, to be honest
with you, I don't do every day each one of those
things. Many of you have even less available
time. than I as a retired person have. You have
got to go to work, you've got to raise your family,
you've got to help cook meals, whatever it might
be. But these are possibilities that are open
to us. And I would urge you very strongly of
the things that I've mentioned, if you do one
or two, or even if you do none of them, Pick
out something that you want to do more to be
in communion with God. And don't do it just during
Lent. Have it a practice that you begin during
Lent and you're faithful and consistent with
that even after Lent. I'll tell you what I'm
doing, and I thought of this a couple of days
ago, and I'm going to... actually make it a focus
of the Thursday evening Bible study. I'm going
to read the book of Jeremiah, which is preeminently
a prophecy book of prayer and repentance, because
Jeremiah was called by God to speak on his behalf.
That's what a prophet is, not foretelling the
future, but to speak on behalf of God. Yet he
called the Jewish people to repentance. In his
book of Jeremiah, and then he also is the author
of the book that comes right after Jeremiah,
which is the Lamentations. So he called the people
to repentance. Why? Because of the imminent danger
of the Babylonian Assyrian army. They were poised
to come in from the north. and attack Israel.
So he told the Hebrew people, return to the Lord
your God. Be close to him. Make your sacrifices
from the heart. Circumcise your heart, not your
flesh. All this kind of vivid imagery is in the
book of Jeremiah. But as we know, it really wasn't
100 % successful because The Assyrians and Babylonians
did come in from the north. They sacked Jerusalem.
They tore down the temple that Solomon had built.
And then as their trophy of war, they took off
with the Ark of the Covenant. The Ark of the
Covenant, symbol of God's presence among his
people. So they took off with that and it's...
Never been seen before until Harrison Ford found
it 20 or so years ago. Interesting movie. Good
points and bad points. But that was a symbol
of God's presence. And so all the Hebrew prophets
are calling you, change your ways, repent. The
message is not something new. It is an age -old
message. Precisely because people... who want
to be in communion with God occasionally slack
off. So it's a time to refocus our life, to make
God even more central to our life, individually,
as couples, and as family. Not only during Lent,
not only attending church services, I think for
Orthodox, we have such a rich liturgical life,
and of course you could say that really for all
Christians or all Jews, that praying is something
we do in church. No, no, no, no, no. That's one
aspect. Our church prayer and our private prayer
go hand in hand as means for us to... express
our love for God, and to come in closer and closer
communion with him. So let us make these plans,
these objectives, part of our time as we prepare
for Lent, during Lent, and for the rest of our
lives. Amen.