Christian prayer is not triumphant words in a sacred-vs-secular crusade, nor is prayer rationalist thoughts or emotional appeals to the second storey universe. Christian prayer is an actual participation, an encounter with the Incarnate Word. Prayer as synergy in the now of eschaton.
Perhaps how Christians pray is rooted, realized, actualized and based in the Ancient and Authentic Prayer-Life that is the Divine Liturgy. What Christians pray for can also be exemplified by the prayers connected to the Liturgy (essentially all of life becomes Liturgical because of that encounter in the Divine Liturgy).
How and what Christians pray is linked to an ancient principle in the Church: lex orandi est lex credendi - the law of prayer is the law of faith. That means that the words we pray - and how we pray them - shape what we believe and how we live out our beliefs.
We become what we pray.
The prayer of our Eucharistic worship is meant to make us become more like Jesus Christ. It is meant to make us the Eucharistic people that He intended us to be. In our Eucharistic celebration, our liturgical life, we join our own sacrifices to His. We make our lives a prayer of self-offering - as He did on the cross. In union with Jesus, we offer ourselves to the Father as a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving. "On behalf of all and for all."
Perhaps how Christians pray is rooted, realized, actualized and based in the Ancient and Authentic Prayer-Life that is the Divine Liturgy. What Christians pray for can also be exemplified by the prayers connected to the Liturgy (essentially all of life becomes Liturgical because of that encounter in the Divine Liturgy).
Below is one of the most beautiful prayers that are prayed in the Coptic Orthodox Rite, hope you find joy and peace from the words and their implications. May each of your prayers continue to grow from the Table and to the Table where we Glorify the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Who continues to teach us how to pray.
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We thank and entreat You, O Master and Lord Jesus Christ the Son of the Living and Eternal God, abiding in the light before all ages, light of light; Enlighten, O Lord, our minds and our hearts, and illuminate our understanding, so that we may understand Your life giving words. Raise us from the darkness of sin, which kills the soul. Make us worthy to be steadfast in good and beneficial works. At the time of Your awesome second coming, when You will judge the world, may we be worthy of hearing that voice which is full of happiness, joy, consolation, delight and grace from Your divine mouth, saying, "Come to Me, O you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom, which is prepared for you since the creation of the world".
Yes, O Lord our God, make us ready to be, at that day and that hour, without fear, without fault without disturbance, without failure and without deviation. Do not deal with us O Lord according to the multitude of our sins.
Pardon O Lord, all our vices, faults, mistakes and lapses.
Relieve us, and the whole world, O Lord, from death, inflation, plagues, destruction, eviction, the sword of enemies, the plots of demons, the danger of fire and drowning, the opposition of those who are evil, the intrigues of the shameless and the injustice of judges. Bring to failure the works of the stubborn againts us. For You are our Lord and God, have compassion on us. Do not cast us into the sea of destruction nor into the punishment of our ways. But rescue us, protect us, preserve us and raise us from boredom, anger, languish, and laziness. Do not let the enemy - the devil - overwhelm us with excessive hope, but alert our minds and awaken our hearts from the sleep of negligence and the wasting of life in vain.
O God, absolve our trespasses and forgive us our lapses; Do not remember our sins or our vices, Do not be angry with us and may Your anger not continue forever. Have mercy on us O Lord, have mercy on us, for we are weak and poor, drowning in the ocean of sin. Unto You we cry out; before You we worship; by You we confess; it is You whom we want. We do not lose hope, O my Master, in Your mercy, so do not close the door of Your mercy in our faces. But, out of Your goodness save us; lead us to Your mercy, and let us hear Your joyful voice.
O God, cleanse us and purify our hearts from wicked, unclean and bad thoughts. Remove from us O Lord, and from Your people, all dreams, fancies and devilish illusions. Raise us, O God, from every fall and catastrophe. Establish in us, O Lord patience, hope, love and the Orthodox faith. Count us among the sheep at Your right hand. Seat us with those who recline in Your Heavenly banquet.
Forgive us every trespass, guilt and sin; protect us within the fortress of Your luminous, angelic soldiers. For we have no Salvation except through Your mercy. Our reliance is on You, our faith is in You and our hope is in You. Accept from us O Lord, our supplications now, at this present time, and at all times.
And all those who have asked and bidden us to remember them in prayers, liturgies, unction of the sick and commemorations; Those who are alive and those who have departed; remember us O Lord, together with them, with kindness in the Heavenly Jerusalem, in the Kingdom of Heaven.
Blot out O Lord, our vices, and those who offend us, forgive them and us. Through Your mercy O Lord, save all our spirits. O Lord, save our souls. O Lord, save Your people, bless Your inheritance, shepherd and guide them forever. Save those who are in hardship, distress and sadness. Free those who are bound by the bonds of the devils. Satisfy the hungry with good things. Console the small in heart and spirit. Raise the fallen; Confirm the upright. Seek the lost. Support the widows and the orphans. Aid the needy. Give blessings to the fruits of the earth. Grant that the weather be favourable. Give growth to the plants, raise the waters of the rivers fully and bless the dew and the rain. Give satisfaction to those in need. Repay for those in debt. Gather together the fragments that are scattered. Accept the repentance of the penitent. Accept the confession of the confessors. Give understanding to the catechumens, and justice, O Lord, to the oppressed. Fill our hearts with joy, gladness, comfort, delight and grace that we too, having sufficiency in everything always, may abound in every good deed.
Bless O Lord, the crops with heavenly blessings. Bless, O Lord, the crown of this year with Your goodness. Bless, O Lord, the sower, the farmer the planter and the reaper, as You blessed the the children of Israel in the sixth year. Bless also O Lord, this gathering of ours, and all the gatherings of all the Orthodox people. Preserve for us the life and the reign of our honoured father, Pope.... Patriarch of this time. Save him, O Lord, and save his people from all catastrophes, trials and sorrows. Also his partners in the apostolic ministry, our fathers the Metropolitans, our fathers the Bishops, our fathers the Hegumens and our fathers the Priests, our fathers the Deacons, our brothers the Laymen, our fathers the Monks and those who came to attend and share with us in this prayer and all the prayers of the Orthodox people, now asking for the forgiveness of their sins, the past and the future, the personal and the impersonal, the sins committed by night, and the sins committed by day, the hidden and the manifest.
Preserve, O Lord, the welfare of the assemblies, the holy churches, the Orthodox wilderness, and the elders who dwell in them, those serving, those managing, and those living in them. Grant security, peace, love and reassurance among them. Subdue the evil enemy under our feet and their feet. Do not let him have any part in us or in them, neither by the left hand blow nor by the right hand blow, but preserve them with Your exalted hand and Your protective arm. Save us our Master, from evil temptations and from the snares set before us, the visible and the invisible. Remember, O Lord, our fathers, our mothers, our brothers, our sisters, our relatives, our teachers, our spiritual children, our children in the flesh and all the children of Baptism together.
Remember, O Lord, those through whose toil and effort we have eaten and drank, those who have sheltered us in their homes and given us food from their hands. Reward them O Lord and compensate them with the eternal for the temporal and the heavenly for the earthly. Fill their houses and their stores with every good thing. Reward them, O Lord, thirty, sixty, and a hundred fold, and with the forgiveness of their sins in the Kingdom of Heaven.
Remember, O Lord, those who have done good unto us and to our poor brethren, by all means of charity, because of their love for You and in honour of Your Holy Name; bless them. Remember, O Lord, those who care for the sacrifices, the oblations, the wine, the oil, the first fruits, the incense, the curtains, the vows, the books of readings, vessels, and all the utensils of the alter generally; Reward them, O Lord, for what they have offered with the forgiveness of their sins. Grant them, in this present age, a pleasant life and in the coming age, eternal life.
Remember, O Lord, our fathers and brethren who have fallen asleep, and reposed in the Christ. Graciously, repose, O Lord, all their souls of the bosom of our holy fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, in the land of the living, in the Paradise of Joy. As for us who are still struggling, aid us for the salvation of our souls; manage our lives according to Your gracious will.
Please O Lord, remember my insignificance, my humiliation, and my weakness; I the wretched sinner who am troubled and unworthy of standing between Your hands. Do not reject me because of the multitude of my sins and iniquities. Raise O Lord, a horn of salvation for Your people through the sign of Your life-giving Cross. We ask Your relief in hardships and Your aid in agony and humiliation. Save us, O Lord; Save everyone in hardships. Heal the sick of Your people.
Grant, O Lord, that Your people, the Christians, those present with us and those absent, may be blessed and absolved by Your divine mouth, from the rising of the sun to its setting, and from the North to the South.
Accept us unto You, as You accepted the right-hand thief when You were on the Cross, and granted him the Paradise of Joy.
Remember, O Lord, the orphans and the widows, the strangers, the disabled and those who have no one to remember them. Remember us, O Lord, with them, in the Heavenly Jerusalem. Remember, O Lord, those standing or sitting, those who are sleeping or lying in illness, those who are traveling by land, sea, air, on planes, through rough roads, through valleys, narrow paths, on mountain peaks, and hills, in caves, those who are in confinement and prisons, those who are in captivity and exile, and those who are bound with the bonds of wicked powers and demons. Return them and bring them all to the port safely, profitably and healthy in soul, body and spirit.
Grant, O my Lord Jesus Christ, that our prayers be acceptable before You without hypocrisy, pride, arrogance, being puffed up or in any fault. Aid us, O God, in doing Your will. Aid us in performing Your commandments. Aid us in the pangs of death, and that which is before, during and that which is after death, for You are a righteous God, long-suffering, and plenteous in mercy and compassion. O Lord grant that the door of Your Church be open before us throughout the ages, and unto the end of time.
Have mercy on us, O God, according to Your great mercy; Through the intercessions of the Lady of intercession, the essence of purity, generosity and blessings; our Queen, the pride of our race, the Holy blameless Virgin St. Mary, and the honoured martyr, the apostle and evangelist St. Mark, the preacher of the land of Egypt; all the angels, the fathers, the prophets, the apostles, the martyrs, the saints, the anchorites, the worshippers, the ascetics, and the labourers who have pleased the Lord with their good works, from Adam and to the end of ages.
To You, we bow down, O Holy Trinity; O Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, now and at all times, and unto the age of all ages. Amen.
Source: The Priest's Absolution (Coptic Orthodox Rite).
