SSCORRE!
Saint Sophia Cathedral
Online Resources for our Religious Edification

Topic of the Week – Prayer for One Another

The love of the Elder Paisios for the whole world is well known. The Elder has helped a whole host of people before and after his physical death. But the question is from where did he receive his ability to help people and to perform miracles? He received this heavenly power through his fervent prayers to God.

The following prayer of his was given to a convent which had asked the Elder for a prayer rule that could be used by the nuns in their evening vigils. This directive was given to the nuns during the final years of his life. The main emphasis of this prayer is his profound love for all of humanity.

This prayer can be used by every Christian believer since it takes in all the issues of life that need our prayers. 

Even the children can understand it easily since it is expressed in simple words. It can be used by families during their evening prayers.

Elder Paisios said to pray this prayer every day and God will always be at your side.

 

Our Lord Jesus Christ:

Do not abandon your servants who live far away from the Church.

May your love convict them and bring them back to you.

Lord have mercy on your servants who are suffering from cancer.

On your servants who suffer either from small or serious ailments.

On your servants who suffer from physical infirmities.

On your servants who suffer from spiritual infirmities.

Lord have mercy on our leaders and inspire them to govern with Christian love.

Lord have mercy on children who come from troubled homes.

On troubled families and those who have been divorced.

Lord have mercy on all the orphans of the world, on all those who are suffering pain and injustices since losing their spouses.

Lord have mercy on all those in jail, on all anarchists, on all drug abusers, on all murderers, on all abusers of people, and on all thieves.

Enlighten these people and help them to straighten out their lives.

Lord have mercy on all those who have been forced to emigrate.

On all those who travel on the seas, on land, in the air,  and protect them.

Lord have mercy on our Church, the bishops, the priests and the faithful of the Church.

Lord have mercy on all the monastic communities, male and female, the elders and eldresses and all the brotherhoods of Mount Athos.

Lord have mercy on your servants who find themselves in the midst of war.

On your servants who are being pursued in the mountains and on the plains.

On your servants who are being hunted like birds of prey.

Lord have mercy on your servants who were forced to abandon their homes and their jobs and feel afflicted.

Lord have mercy on the poor, the homeless and the exiled.

Lord have mercy on the nations of the world.

Keep them in your embrace and envelope them with your holy protection.

Keep them safe from every evil and war.

Keep our beloved Greece (we can add here the USA) in your protective embrace day and night.

Embrace her with your holy protection defending her from all evil and war.

Lord have mercy on those who have been abandoned and have suffered injustice.

Have mercy on families that are going through trying times.

Pour your abundant love upon them.

Lord have mercy on your servants who suffer from spiritual and bodily problems of all kinds.

Lord have mercy on those who are despairing.

Help them and grant them peace.

Lord have mercy on those that have requested that we pray for them.

Lord grant eternal rest to all those who have passed on to eternal life throughout the ages.

 Taken from amphilochios.blogspot.com

 

 

Adult/Family:

“…And Christians must be armed with regular Holy Communion. It’s the Holy Communion that casts away the evil spirits and the fears. 

Christians must learn how to pray. The nonvaccinated ones for the vaccinated and vice versa. Did you understand what I said?

Have a prayer rope, those of you who did not get vaccinated, and say daily ‘Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on your servants who received the vaccine.’ And those who got vaccinated, let them repeat the same for us who did not get vaccinated, ‘Lord Jesus Christ, protect your servants, the non-vaccinated ones.’ 

How beautiful, is it not? For one to support the other. 

Kindness will attract the grace of the Holy Spirit, and of our Jesus Christ, and of our Heavenly Father.”

Excerpted from Pray For One Another // Metropolitan Neophytos of Morfou – Advice During These Difficult Times [9:13-10:16]

 

 

Preschool/Elementary School:

“There is a pious story in our country [Romania] about John the Apostle. He was praying a long time for a thief who lived somewhere in Asia, very far from him. He had heard about him. There was a thief who was robbing the caravans, and he felt very guilty about this. So he started to pray for him, because he said that every neighbor of mine who commits sins in crime is a part of me. Thus he decided to pray for him. Through his prayers this thief was converted. He did not know that John was praying for him, but the prayer worked. There are no bars for prayers….” [he means restrictions – like prison bars which restrict our physical movement but cannot restrict our spiritual prayers]  – Fr. George Calciu – Interview, Homilies and Talks, p130

Print out the prayer above from Saint Paisios and add this prayer to your daily prayers! It is a long prayer, but the more often you say it, the easier you will memorize it! There are many situations we are praying for in this prayer. When you say a prayer for a specific situation, try to think if you know someone personally who is in that situation. Do you know someone who is ‘suffering from small or serious ailments’? Or someone who has been ‘forced to abandon their homes and jobs and feels afflicted’? In addition to praying for everyone in that situation in general, you can pray for them by name. Make a list of all the people you want to pray for and keep it in your prayer corner so that when you say your prayers you do not forget them.

Elementary School:

“In my cell, from time to time, other inmates would pass under my window and cry, “People know you; people are praying for you.” Sometimes I had moments of great spiritual joy in prison. There is no explanation for this, you know. I was tortured, I was isolated, I was alone, I had no connection with the world. I felt sometimes completely lost in prison. I had no prospect of liberation. The only prospect for me was to die in prison. But I had some moments of spiritual joy. I did not laugh – it was something in me – a happiness in me. Not all the time, but from time to time. Afterwards, I heard that groups were praying for me all over the world, and I am sure that this joy was a moment of communion in prayer with these people, for there are no bars, no guards to stop prayer. Thus I had moments of spiritual joy.” – Fr. George Calciu – Interview, Homilies and Talks, p130

These words are from Fr. George Calciu, a devoted priest who was imprisoned by the communist regime in Romania in the mid 1960’s and his experience teaches us that prayer affects us, even if we do not know that people are praying for us, or even if we do know there are people praying for us but do not know who they are. His experience is a powerful testament to the magnitude of prayer to God. 

Print out the prayer above from Saint Paisios and add this prayer to your daily prayers! It is a long prayer, but the more often you say it, the easier you will memorize it! There are many situations we are praying for in this prayer. When you say a prayer for a specific situation, try to think if you know someone personally who is in that situation. Do you know someone who is ‘suffering from small or serious ailments’? Or someone who has been ‘forced to abandon their homes and jobs and feels afflicted’? In addition to praying for everyone in that situation in general, you can pray for them by name. Make a list of all the people you want to pray for and keep it in your prayer corner so that when you say your prayers you do not forget them.

Middle School/High School:

“When you are struck by other people’s suffering, and the contraction of their souls, so that you are induced to pray for them with a pitying and contrite heart, pray to God to have mercy upon them and to forgive them their sins, as you would pray for the forgiveness of your own sins–that is, implore God with tears to pardon them; likewise pray for the salvation of others as you would pray for your own salvation. 

If you attain to this and make it a habit, you will receive from God an abundance of spiritual gifts, the gifts of the Holy Ghost, Who loves the soul that cares for the salvation of others, because He Himself, the most Holy Spirit, wishes to save us all in every possible way, if only we do not oppose Him, and do not harden our hearts. The Spirit Itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.”
Excerpted from My Life in Christ, p31, Saint John of Kronstadt

Read the quote above in the Adult/Family section by Metropolitan Neophytos. Why does he exhort us to pray for two groups of people specifically? What is special about these two groups of people? [Hint: what percentage of people in the world make up these two groups?] Is it possible that our hearts may have become hardened against other people due to worldly politics and agendas? How does that affect our prayers for them? What happens when our soul does not care for the salvation of others? Why does Saint John of Kronstadt say that the Holy Spirit saves us when we do not harden our hearts?Incorporate Saint Paisios’ prayer above into your daily prayer life!

---