I am new to Eastern Christian prayer - where to begin?

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Dolores_IHS

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Hi there friends, I am interested in finding out more about Eastern Christianity, especially prayer and spirituality. I am a Catholic convert; it has been nearly three years since I was received into the Church and a lot has happened since. At the moment I am in a very arid place spiritually, and thought it would be nice to explore a different avenue of prayer without leaving my Latin (Roman) rite. (Unfortunately where I live there is no Eastern-rite Catholic churches anyway). What I love about Eastern prayer is the emphasis on awe and mystery – the prostrations, incense, chanting without instrument accompaniment, and icons, etc. It will be nice to have a more holistic way of prayer, both Eastern and Western. After studying a bit about Eastern vs. Western thought, I have come to believe we all need both in our lives.

Recently after researching online, I made two strings of Eastern Christian prayer beads, called chotki, which I then got blessed by my priest. They are both threaded on black wool; one is bigger with wooden beads separated into three sets of 11 with divider beads between, and a bead and tassel on the end (I LOVE what I learned - that the tassel is for wiping tears away!). The other one is bracelet-size for taking out with me; it has smaller black beads, also 3 sets of 11 with dividers and a little silver cross on the end. I have used the bigger one yesterday to pray the Jesus Prayer repetitively, and found it a blessing. Sometimes I find the regular Rosary tiring because the Hail Mary’s are longer and because of the meditations on the mysteries. (At the moment the words “discursive meditation” scare me off!) So I would like to try using the chotki more, as it is so simple and goes to the heart as well. I don’t know if there is any set way? But I got one way from internet which is quite nice.

Another thing I did, was put up three icons in photo frames in my room’s East-facing prayer corner; one well-known picture of the Trinity by a Russian iconographer which depicts the Trinity as three angels around a table. This I put in a gold frame in the highest spot above my “altar”. Then an icon of Jesus in a silver frame on the right next to my crucifix on the wall; and an icon of Mother Mary with Jesus, called the “icon of Peace” in a black frame on my altar on the left under the crucifix. (I heard that the most important ranking icons go on the right of the centre and the lesser on the left, that is why Jesus is on the right and higher than Mother Mary, and the Trinity is at the top).

Is there anything more you can share which will help me in my introduction to this way of prayer so I know where to start as a Westerner new to the East? How does the Eastern Divine Office differ from the Western one? What are the most common prayer postures of the East? And what are the most popular Eastern Christian everyday prayers? The only one I know is the Trisagion prayer.

Any help will be much appreciated!

Dolores
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Dolores_IHS said:
Hi there friends, I am interested in finding out more about Eastern Christianity, especially prayer and spirituality. I am a Catholic convert; it has been nearly three years since I was received into the Church and a lot has happened since. At the moment I am in a very arid place spiritually, and thought it would be nice to explore a different avenue of prayer without leaving my Latin (Roman) rite. (Unfortunately where I live there is no Eastern-rite Catholic churches anyway). What I love about Eastern prayer is the emphasis on awe and mystery – the prostrations, incense, chanting without instrument accompaniment, and icons, etc. It will be nice to have a more holistic way of prayer, both Eastern and Western. After studying a bit about Eastern vs. Western thought, I have come to believe we all need both in our lives.

Recently after researching online, I made two strings of Eastern Christian prayer beads, called chotki, which I then got blessed by my priest. They are both threaded on black wool; one is bigger with wooden beads separated into three sets of 11 with divider beads between, and a bead and tassel on the end (I LOVE what I learned - that the tassel is for wiping tears away!). The other one is bracelet-size for taking out with me; it has smaller black beads, also 3 sets of 11 with dividers and a little silver cross on the end. I have used the bigger one yesterday to pray the Jesus Prayer repetitively, and found it a blessing. Sometimes I find the regular Rosary tiring because the Hail Mary’s are longer and because of the meditations on the mysteries. (At the moment the words “discursive meditation” scare me off!) So I would like to try using the chotki more, as it is so simple and goes to the heart as well. I don’t know if there is any set way? But I got one way from internet which is quite nice.

Another thing I did, was put up three icons in photo frames in my room’s East-facing prayer corner; one well-known picture of the Trinity by a Russian iconographer which depicts the Trinity as three angels around a table. This I put in a gold frame in the highest spot above my “altar”. Then an icon of Jesus in a silver frame on the right next to my crucifix on the wall; and an icon of Mother Mary with Jesus, called the “icon of Peace” in a black frame on my altar on the left under the crucifix. (I heard that the most important ranking icons go on the right of the centre and the lesser on the left, that is why Jesus is on the right and higher than Mother Mary, and the Trinity is at the top).

Is there anything more you can share which will help me in my introduction to this way of prayer so I know where to start as a Westerner new to the East? How does the Eastern Divine Office differ from the Western one? What are the most common prayer postures of the East? And what are the most popular Eastern Christian everyday prayers? The only one I know is the Trisagion prayer.

Any help will be much appreciated!

Dolores
+
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I would recommend this book, Earthen Vessels by Father Gabriel Bunge OSB.

Otherwise, there are many other resources, but what you are then asking is to be introduced to a form of spirituality, which is a much broader topic.

You might like to read Spirituality of the Christian Eastby the late Tomas Cardinal Spidlik SJ [eternal memory!]. He was a giant in his field of study and I consider his works to be classic. The companion volume on Prayer is rather pricey and harder to obtain. His book Drinking from the Hidden Fountain is also a very helpful compendium of patristic prayer and thought.
 
Dolores_IHS said:
Hi there friends, I am interested in finding out more about Eastern Christianity, especially prayer and spirituality…

(Unfortunately where I live there is no Eastern-rite Catholic churches anyway). What I love about Eastern prayer is the emphasis on awe and mystery – the prostrations, incense, chanting without instrument accompaniment, and icons, etc. …

…Is there anything more you can share which will help me in my introduction to this way of prayer so I know where to start as a Westerner new to the East? How does the Eastern Divine Office differ from the Western one? What are the most common prayer postures of the East? …
Dolores
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Welcome, Delores.

If you look back over earlier threads here you will see a number of other places with recommendations for reading and prayer.

For a *basic *sense of where we come from, and including in relationship to the Latin Church I am a fan of the interviews Catherine Alexander did with the monks of Holy Resurrection Monastery “Who are Eastern Catholics?” PART 1 with Fr. Maximos of Holy Resurrection Monastery “Who are Eastern Catholics?” PART 2 with Fr. Maximos of HRM
as well as Eastern Catholic Theology Part 1 and Part 2 with Fr. Abbot Nicholas, and Fasting in the Byzantine Church Year and Feasting in the Byzantine Church Year with Fr. Moses

Are you aware of this Find-A-Parish resource for locating EC/OC Churches? If there are none anywhere near you, as you say, then if there any Orthodox parishes near you you might consider going there for services such as Matins, Vespers. especially as we are approaching Great Lent when there are many wonderful elements to the calendar. If you have Orthodox churches near you there may well be additional worship opportunities during Great Lent. They would surely have Great Compline a particular favorite of mine.

A classic reading for Great Lent is The Ladder of Divine Ascent by Saint John Climacus. Great Lent by Alexander Schmemann is a wonderful book to read at this time, and is available for free on googlebooks. Unfortunately not all the excellent footnotes are there on googlebooks. Most of The Lenten Spring: readings for Great Lent by Thomas Hopko is also on on googlebooks.

The Hours is a different question and not something you likely want to take on at home. I’d rather suggest a nice prayer book like The Publicans Prayer Book by The Melkite Greek Catholic Diocese of Newton, A Prayer Book for Orthodox Christians from Holy Transfiguration Monastery, and the Jordanville Prayer Book from Holy Trinity Monastery. I got the A Pocket Prayer Book, a small paperback prayer book, for $5 at a church festival last year and think it’s a really nice little prayer book for a great price. If there are Orthodox parishes near you they would have several of these (probably not the Melkite one 😉 ) and you could look at them and buy what you liked without paying shipping and keeping the tax dollars in your home community. 🙂 These also include the prayers of the Divine Liturgy.

This site lists additional prayer books and gives you a good idea of the contents of these prayer books .
 
I reccommend a great book called “The Art of Prayer: an Orthodox Anthology” Although it is not Catholic, it is still an eye opening for those who seek the Eastern path.
 
UnityofTrinity said:
I reccommend a great book called “The Art of Prayer: an Orthodox Anthology” Although it is not Catholic, it is still an eye opening for those who seek the Eastern path.
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I have this, and I agree with your recommendation. 🙂
 
Start by getting the Orthodox prayer book. A begin to say the prayers on a regular basis 👍
 
Dolores_IHS said:
Hi there friends, I am interested in finding out more about Eastern Christianity, especially prayer and spirituality. I am a Catholic convert; it has been nearly three years since I was received into the Church and a lot has happened since. At the moment I am in a very arid place spiritually, and thought it would be nice to explore a different avenue of prayer without leaving my Latin (Roman) rite. (Unfortunately where I live there is no Eastern-rite Catholic churches anyway). What I love about Eastern prayer is the emphasis on awe and mystery – the prostrations, incense, chanting without instrument accompaniment, and icons, etc. It will be nice to have a more holistic way of prayer, both Eastern and Western. After studying a bit about Eastern vs. Western thought, I have come to believe we all need both in our lives.

Recently after researching online, I made two strings of Eastern Christian prayer beads, called chotki, which I then got blessed by my priest. They are both threaded on black wool; one is bigger with wooden beads separated into three sets of 11 with divider beads between, and a bead and tassel on the end (I LOVE what I learned - that the tassel is for wiping tears away!). The other one is bracelet-size for taking out with me; it has smaller black beads, also 3 sets of 11 with dividers and a little silver cross on the end. I have used the bigger one yesterday to pray the Jesus Prayer repetitively, and found it a blessing. Sometimes I find the regular Rosary tiring because the Hail Mary’s are longer and because of the meditations on the mysteries. (At the moment the words “discursive meditation” scare me off!) So I would like to try using the chotki more, as it is so simple and goes to the heart as well. I don’t know if there is any set way? But I got one way from internet which is quite nice.

Another thing I did, was put up three icons in photo frames in my room’s East-facing prayer corner; one well-known picture of the Trinity by a Russian iconographer which depicts the Trinity as three angels around a table. This I put in a gold frame in the highest spot above my “altar”. Then an icon of Jesus in a silver frame on the right next to my crucifix on the wall; and an icon of Mother Mary with Jesus, called the “icon of Peace” in a black frame on my altar on the left under the crucifix. (I heard that the most important ranking icons go on the right of the centre and the lesser on the left, that is why Jesus is on the right and higher than Mother Mary, and the Trinity is at the top).

Is there anything more you can share which will help me in my introduction to this way of prayer so I know where to start as a Westerner new to the East? How does the Eastern Divine Office differ from the Western one? What are the most common prayer postures of the East? And what are the most popular Eastern Christian everyday prayers? The only one I know is the Trisagion prayer.

Any help will be much appreciated!

Dolores
+
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All devotions are the same in their essence Dolores. What counts is that you stick to that same devotion. I know a friend of mine who prays the rosary more because he finds the Jesus Prayer not to his liking. And he is Orthodox. I have been devoted praying the Chaplet of Divine Mercy. If there is one devotion you prefer then stick to it. The great saint from Spain, St.Josemaria Escriva wrote " have only a few private devotions, but be constant in them." That been said I see by your own post that you love to do the " Jesus Prayer ". It is a fine and excellent devotion that has helped many. Keep at it and pray it especially when you visit an Adoration Chapel. One devotion I use and always recommend is the Akathist Hymn to the Mother of God written and composed by St.Romanus the Melodist. Find a time during the day to do this. I like the evenings when it is darker and I lit my candles before my Icons and Statues. I then proceed with my prayers and will always include Eastern and Western prayers together. For the Eastern devotion I will pray an Akathist Hymn and the Jesus Prayer and normally for the Akathist Hymn it is the one written by the Saint I have previously mentioned. I will always throw in plenty of Divine Mercy Chaplets and while I pray I am observing the Icons in the darkness under much candlelight. I will throw in some scripture readings and then I will read from a Church Father one from the West and one from the East. I will always find the time to talk to the Lord in my own words. I will then proceed to give intentions both mine and those who have requested them. I tend to spend alot of time begging God for Mercy on those who do not know Him. Eastern devotions can be a great plus for anyone who wants to engage in the discilpline of Daily prayers and meditation. Father John Corapi a great Catholic evangelist and priest has made it known that he owes his conversion and developement in his first 3 years to his study and prayers from the Eastern Church. It has made him a better Catholic. I wish you well.
 
My recommendation is to do two things.

(a) Buy a chotki (prayer rope) and pray the Jesus Prayer (“Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner”). Do not use any psychosomatic meditation or breathing techniques or anything like that (those should only be done under the close supervision of a spiritual director as they can easily lead to spiritual delusion when used improperly, as they can have strong psychological effects). Just say the Jesus Prayer 150 times; maybe precede it with a Trisagios or some of our other prayers. Or google the Rule of St. Pachomius.

(Here are some of our prayers that every Byzantine Christian knows:
“It is truly proper to glorify you, who have borne God, the ever-blessed, immaculate, and the Mother of our God. More honorable than the Cherubim, and beyond compare more glorious than the Seraphim, who without spot gave birth to God the Word, truly the Theotokos we magnify.”

“Most Holy Trinity, have mercy on us. Lord, cleanse us of our sins. Master, forgive our transgressions. Holy One, come to us and heal our infirmities for Your Name’s sake.”

“Heavenly King, Comforter, Spirit of Truth, everywhere present and filling all things, Treasury of Blessings and Giver of Life, come and dwell within us, cleanse us of all stain, and save our souls, O gracious one.”)

Then, if you’re ambitious,

(b) Go to metropolitancantorinstitute.org, go to “Publications”, and print off the Akathist Hymn to the Theotokos and Vespers. (Vespers is a lot to print - you might just print off Great Vespers, which is Vespers for Saturday.) This might be difficult to figure out if you do not have someone to show you, because our chant system (prostopinije for the Ruthenian Church) can be a bit difficult. All of our prayer except the chotki is chanted. The psalm tone is printed at the beginning of each document; on each paragraph where the text is simply written you hold the “D” until you reach the indented line, then chant on the “E” until the bold italicized word. One thing you should note is that there are certain prayers which are only allowed to be said by a priest - all litanies, and kontakia in the Akathist (because only a priest can proclaim the Alleluias), and the doxology after the Our Father (“for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages”). Skip the kontakia in the Akathist, replace all litanies with 12 “Lord Have Mercies” the first time and 3 “Lord Have Mercies” each subsequent time a litany appears, and on everything else chant “Through the prayers of the holy fathers, Lord Jesus Christ our God have mercy and save us” on the psalm tone instead of the written text. Instead of “Father, give the blessing” chant “O Lord, bless” on the same tone.

That sounds really complicated, and one of the fortunate or unfortunate things about our spirituality is that it is very strongly and heavily liturgically centered. Even the chotki is a bit peripheral to our spirituality. Unfortunately even our services without a priest (“reader’s matins” or a reader’s Vespers or Akathist) are a bit difficult to simply print off and sing without having ever heard prostopinije before. I am trying to learn to cantor Great Vespers (without a priest) and still having trouble adapting the tones to the text where no music is explicitly written out, and I am a Greek Catholic.
 
I’m with Hesychios that plenary indulgence makes no sense. Indulgences are primarily Western and since we don’t define the intermediary stage as particularly the Western “Purgatory” there is no need for them. By the way Western “Grace” is better defined as the Eastern “Energy” because the Eastern “Grace” refers more to God’s divine love for us and our love for him. Therefore through this label then Eastern “Grace” can never be lost since God will always love us, we can block his Grace but it will always be there for it is our yearning to come closer to God, we strengthen our “Grace” through God’s Energy which is His communication with us. This is at least the Byzantine teaching and tradition.

In reference to the op, Dolores I would suggest also reading some Eastern Theology books because in the East both Theology and Spirituality come hand in hand, in our tradition it would be folly to separate them. Anyways any Eastern Spirituality book you pick up will have Theology aspects just as any Eastern Theology book has Spirituality aspects.
 
Mojo674 said:
I’m with Hesychios that plenary indulgence makes no sense. Indulgences are primarily Western and since we don’t define the intermediary stage as particularly the Western “Purgatory” there is no need for them. By the way Western “Grace” is better defined as the Eastern “Energy” because the Eastern “Grace” refers more to God’s divine love for us and our love for him. Therefore through this label then Eastern “Grace” can never be lost since God will always love us, we can block his Grace but it will always be there for it is our yearning to come closer to God, we strengthen our “Grace” through God’s Energy which is His communication with us. This is at least the Byzantine teaching and tradition.
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It’s a recognition on the part of the Pope that our Marian devotion is just as “legitimate” as the Rosary, which also has a plenary indulgence with it. And I’m happy to accept whatever graces (understood in the “Western” sense - but Western terminology really isn’t that hard to understand) the Church is willing to give us.

And I don’t think that’s really an exclusively Western use of the term. I read this the other day in the new translation of the homilies of St. Gregory Palamas published by Mount Thabor (Christopher Veniamin’s translation). It’s from Homily 53, “On the Entry of the Theotokos into the Holy of Holies II”, on page 432 in the Veniamin edition:
For you did not become the keeper and store of graces so as to have them for yourself, but to fill the universe with grace. For the person in charge of inexhaustible treasures oversees their distribution. Why would you shut away your wealth as it never diminishes? Share it abundantly with us, O Lady, and if we cannot contain it, enlarge our capacity, and then lavish it upon us. For you alone did not receive by measure, as all things were given into your hand.
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That’s an interesting homily by Palamas. I only wished to clarify the Eastern and Western perspective because many do not know that we use Energy more for communication and grace for the divine love. It just all fits in with the Divine and Mystical Economia clearer that way in the East, rather than always taking the Western approach. Nothing is wrong with either since both are necessary and both end up with the same thing just a different approach rather from the literal/legal (Not legalistic) West or the mystical/movement (Since we are all trying to move closer to God) East.

Also that homily by Palamas is interesting since it speaks of the Theotokos who obviously will always have a greater capacity then us, since she bore God. His statement can be taken in the literal approach of grace given to us, or it can be taken as the Divine Love of God is so Vibrant in her that She would pour forth it to other people, and again Grace is another Energy of God. That is why it is complicated since Energy has a definition, but it also encompasses other things such as Grace which is a different Energy which in the East as I said will never be lost. But again I totally understand what you say Cecilianus, I was just taking the approach of indulgences don’t really go along in the Eastern Thought.
 
Mojo674 said:
That’s an interesting homily by Palamas. I only wished to clarify the Eastern and Western perspective because many do not know that we use Energy more for communication and grace for the divine love. It just all fits in with the Divine and Mystical Economia clearer that way in the East, rather than always taking the Western approach. Nothing is wrong with either since both are necessary and both end up with the same thing just a different approach rather from the literal/legal (Not legalistic) West or the mystical/movement (Since we are all trying to move closer to God) East.

Also that homily by Palamas is interesting since it speaks of the Theotokos who obviously will always have a greater capacity then us, since she bore God. His statement can be taken in the literal approach of grace given to us, or it can be taken as the Divine Love of God is so Vibrant in her that She would pour forth it to other people, and again Grace is another Energy of God. That is why it is complicated since Energy has a definition, but it also encompasses other things such as Grace which is a different Energy which in the East as I said will never be lost. But again I totally understand what you say Cecilianus, I was just taking the approach of indulgences don’t really go along in the Eastern Thought.
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Right. But of course, the indulgence was granted by the Pope, who is Western.
 
I was curious about something when it comes to prayer:

Is there a list of specific <don’ts> when trying to practice your prayers??.

Does anyone know? .
 
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