Prayer for peace  :

We pray for Your peace and Your mercy in the midst of great suffering that people are now inflicting on each other.  Accept the prayers of Your church, so that by Your goodness peace may return to all peoples.  Lord our God, remember and have mercy on our brothers and sisters who are involved in every civil conflict.  Remove from their midst all hostility, confusion and hatred.  Lead everyone along the path of reconciliation and peace, we pray You, hear us and have mercy on us.  By the strength of Your mighty arm save Your people and Your Holy Church from all evil oppression; hear the supplications of all who call to You in sorrow and affliction.

Oh Lord, save Thy people and bless Thine inheritance, grant victory to the Orthodox Christians over their adversaries and by virtue of Thy Cross preserve Thine habitation.

Without Prayer, there is no Spiritual Life!
 

Prayer is always possible for everyone, rich and poor, noble and simple, strong and weak, healthy and suffering, righteous and sinful. The power of prayer is great. Above all, it brings the spirit of God. –St. Seraphim

A Prayer of Repentance

O Lord our God, good and merciful, I acknowledge all my sins which I have committed every day of my life, in thought, word and deed;  in body and soul alike.  I am heartily sorry that I have ever offended Thee,  And I sincerely repent; with tears I humbly pray Thee,  O Lord; of Thy mercy forgive me all my past  Transgressions and absolve me from them.  I firmly resolve, with the help of Thy Grace, to  Amend my way of life and to sin no more;  That I may walk in the way of the righteous and offer  Praise and glory to the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Prayer is a living reality, a personal encounter with the living God.  The Jesus Prayer is one way for attaining inner prayer.  The Jesus Prayer is usually said as follows:  LORD JESUS CHRIST, SON OF GOD, HAVE MERCY UPON ME.  The words ‘a sinner’ may be added at the end, or the prayer may be said in the plural, ‘have mercy upon us’; and there are other variations.  What is essential and constant throughout all the forms is the invocation of the Divine Name.  Think only of Jesus and say His Name slowly, softly and quietly.            

Being so very short and simple, the Jesus Prayer can be recited at any time and in any place.   It is a prayer that fits every stage in the spiritual life, from the most elementary to the most advanced.  So let us pray:                                           

LORD JESUS CHRIST, SON OF GOD, HAVE MERCY UPON ME.

St. Dimitri of Rostov (17^th century) states that “Prayer is turning the mind and thoughts towards God.  To pray means to stand before God with the mind, mentally to gaze unswervingly at Him and to converse with Him in reverent fear and hope.”  Theophan the Recluse (1815-1894) continues with:  “The principal thing is to stand with the mind in the heart before God.  This state of standing before God may be accompanied by words, or it may be ‘soundless.’  Sometimes we speak to God, sometimes we simply remain in His presence, saying nothing, but conscious that He Is near us.

The Homilies of St. Makarios develop the idea of the heart.  He states that “the heart governs and reigns over the whole body, and when grace possesses the ranges of the heart, it rules over all the members and the thoughts.  For there, in the heart, is the mind, and all the thoughts of the soul and its expectation; and in this way grace penetrates to all the members of the body…..Within the heart are unfathomable depths.