February 14, 2008
The daily journey in prayer, reading and meditation
It seems that every time I walk out of St. George Antioch Orthodox Church — whether on a Sunday morning or at my catechumen class — I come home with more and more books to read. And anyone who knows me well, I don’t exactly finish books in a timely fashion (let alone at all). How I will manage to keep up is but a mystery… fitting as I am pursuing Orthodoxy and they’re all about mystery.
First it was Becoming Orthodox: A Journey to the Ancient Christian Faith, all-around good read for recovering evangelicals. Admittedly, I have not finished the book in its entirety, but have made it through the bulk of the book and find it to be a good read. I do recommend it if you’re curious about Orthodoxy from the evangelical/westerner perspective — the author (and supporting contributors) were all former evangelicals themselves.
But then for my class, we bought the book Introducing the Orthodox Church: Its Faith and Life by A. M. Coniaris. I’ve only made my way through the first two chapters, as it’s a heavy read and requires you to ponder the subject matter. It’s not one of those books that you read lightly.
And as if it weren’t enough to read Introducing the Orthodox Church, I walked out of there this past Sunday with two more books. One woman loaned me an old folio-style booklet printed up, showing the correlation between the liturgy and its proper scriptural context. Most items in the liturgy have an average of a 4:1 ratio — an average of four scripture references to one line in the liturgy. It’s quite rich, both in historical and biblical context.
But before I could walk out the door, I was given another book to read that I have yet to crack open — a book that caters more towards the emotional, heart-centered side of things and not nearly as intellectually rich as the former books in my possession.
All these books aside, one small one has made all the difference in the world: Building a Habit of Prayer, a small, unassuming pamphlet that I got from the narthex section of the church for free. There’s nothing terribly profound about it, nothing that brings about secret insights to the Orthodox way of prayer, and certainly nothing to sneeze at in terms of volume of content. Instead, it’s a small pamphlet-style book that lays a foundation for prayer in the morning when you rise and at night before you retire, sharing a variety of prayers to pray, things to read aloud, and offering structure to your time of prayer and solitude with God.
As an evangelical, we were always told to have a prayer and “devotion” time with God — reading the word, praying, and maybe going through some devotion booklet. But to be honest, it seemed more like a free-for-all with little or no structure guidelines to follow unless you specifically bought a devotion book from the local religious bookstore.
I have been following this simple, unassuming prayer book for nearly a week now, and the difference in my life is noticeable for me — perhaps small, but still visible in my eyes. I find that when I draw near to God in the morning and the evening — after I rise and before I go to bed — and pray as guided by Orthodox tradition in this booklet, I find myself much more aware of how I conduct myself from day-to-day. I am much more cognizant of the things I say, what I do, and the attitudes that I hold with regard to certain situations going on in my life. And as a result, I do find myself turning to God more for the areas of my life that I am failing at miserably on my own — especially when it pertains to dealing with and relating to others at work or outside of work.
It must be qualified that I still consider myself as being the chief of the chief of the chief of sinners — Paul is an amateur by my standards — but this process of theosis is much more prevalent in my mind and in the outer workings of my life. It’s amazing what consistent prayer, reading and meditation [LOL, I almost accidentally typed "medication"] will do. I look forward to see how God will shape me in the years to come; I know I’ve a long way to go before I really start to have the resemblance of Christ.
Written and posted by Michael on February 14, 2008, 4:47 pm.
Filed under: Catechumen, Daily Walk, Orthodoxy, The Journey, Transformation
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Matt said,
February 15, 2008 @ 10:24 am
One of the main benefits I’ve found with having a prayer rule is that it keeps me actually praying. If you have to “make up” your prayers as you go along, when you don’t feel like praying, you’re likely to just not pray.
With a prayer rule, I have prayers to say even if I don’t feel like saying them. It seems that, more often than not, if I can stay disciplined enough to say my prayers even when I don’t feel like it, at some point, I will find myself praying. I believe I have, once or twice, had the experience of standing before my icons with no desire to pray, starting my rule of prayer anyway, and, by the time I’ve finished, not wanting to step away from the icon corner. Granted, I have also had the experience of reciting my whole rule of prayer, and still—Lord have mercy—not feeling very prayerful, but at least I tried, and at least I kept the discipline.
James said,
February 20, 2008 @ 8:11 pm
I hear ya man. I’ve probably read as many books since starting my trek towards the Orthodox church than I have in the last five years. I still don’t have a definitive prayer rule. That should probably be my next step. Don’t worry too much about being the chief of sinners. Saul of Tarsus has nothin on me either.