Prayer & the Rule
Everything in Orthros is arranged to get you to prayer in two taps, and then to get out of the way.
The rule is received, not designed
Orthros begins with a question no prayer app asks: do you have a rule from your priest? If you do, the app writes it down and keeps it, and never suggests you outgrow it. If you don’t yet, a modest starter rule stands in, with a printable page to bring to your priest when you are ready.
GIVEN WITH A BLESSING
A rule kept this way is marked as blessed, and the app holds it as given. It will not nudge you to pray more, or shame you for praying less.
A rule fits best when it is given, not chosen.
THE PRAYER BOOK
The received texts, each with its source shown.
Morning & Evening Prayers
The prayers the Church says at the rising and the setting of the sun, the frame of an Orthodox day.
Preparation for Holy Communion
The canon and the prayers before, and the thanksgiving after, kept together, ready when you are.
The Psalter
All hundred and fifty psalms and the hundred-and-fifty-first, in twenty kathismata, prayed, not studied.
In Every Need
Sickness, grief, travel, the moment you are in, the Church has prayed through it before you.
Akathists, Canons & the Hours
The longer offices, for when the heart has room, carried offline, always to hand.
Those I Pray For
The diptychs, the living and the departed, remembered by name, kept only on your device.
The komboskini
Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me.
Thirty-three knots, or a hundred, or three hundred, the Jesus Prayer in Greek, Slavonic, Romanian, Arabic, or English. One soft pulse per knot, and the screen keeps still. Set a prayer intention if you wish; when the time has passed, the rope only says: stay as long as you like.
ONE PULSE PER KNOT · NO COUNTER, EVER
A lamp that keeps no grudges
Your vigil lamp is lit when you pray. Miss a day? You simply relight it. Nothing piles up while you are away, and there is no streak to break. A lamp is not a scoreboard.
- The journalOne line after prayer, “What stayed with you?”, locked behind Face ID if you wish.
- For confessionA private page that prepares. It does not absolve. Bring it to your priest; afterward, let what was spoken go.
- Father’s counselWhat your priest asked of you, kept sealed on your device. Live it gently, and bring it back next time.
NO ACCOUNT REQUIRED, EVER
All of it stays on your device and your own iCloud. Orthros has no servers to send it to.
Ways to pray
- Morning PrayersThe day begun with God, a few words at rising that set the whole day toward Him.
- Evening PrayersThe day laid down, a brief reckoning, and the placing of sleep, and life, in God's hands.
- The Jesus Prayer“Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner”, the whole Gospel in one breath.
- The KomboskiniA knotted cord of wool, the Jesus Prayer given a rhythm the hand can keep.
- Preparing for CommunionThe Cup approached with fear and love, prayer, fasting, and a cleansed heart.
- Prayers for Every NeedSickness, grief, travel, the moment you are in, the Church has prayed through it before you.
- The PsalterThe Church's first prayer book, the Psalms, prayed, not merely studied.
- The Trisagion“Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal, have mercy on us”, the words the Church begins with.
The prayers in this app are the porch;
the church is the house.
Orthros keeps you company between services, but prayer comes home at the Liturgy, among the people of God.
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