Pray now
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A first prayer
While you wait, begin
You need nothing: no app, no account, not even words of your own. Five movements, and every word below is the Church’s own.
- I
Stand, and be still
Stand before God and let the room go quiet. Make the sign of the Cross, right hand, three fingers joined: forehead, breast, right shoulder, left. You are not performing. You are turning to face Someone.
- II
Ask the Spirit to come
The Church begins nearly everything with this prayer, because we do not know how to pray until He teaches us.
O heavenly King, the Comforter, the Spirit of Truth, who art everywhere present and fillest all things, Treasury of good things and Giver of life: come and abide in us, and cleanse us from every stain, and save our souls, O good One.
Prayer to the Holy Spirit (Hapgood, Service Book, 1906; public domain) - III
The Trisagion, three times
The angels' own hymn, said three times. Slowly. It asks nothing except mercy, and it is enough.
Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal, have mercy on us.
The Trisagion hymn, traditional text (public domain) - IV
The prayer the Lord gave
Then the Our Father, the only prayer Christ Himself taught. Say it as though for the first time.
Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.
The Lord's Prayer, Matthew 6:9–10 (KJV, public domain) - V
Then carry one line with you
This is the prayer of the whole Orthodox life, said in the heart through the day, at the sink, on the road, in the dark. Repeat it slowly, without counting, without hurrying.
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.
The Jesus Prayer, traditional text (public domain)
That is a beginning, not a rule. A rule of prayer is received from your priest, fitted to your life. Pray this until you can ask him for one.
And then it keeps them with you
Orthros carries these prayers with the calendar, the fasts, and the Lives of the saints, free forever and quiet, with every text showing where it came from.
