ORTHODOX DAILY PRAYERS
ST. TIKHON’S SEMINARY PRESS
ORTHODOX DAILY PRAYERS
ST. TIKHON’S SEMINARY PRESS
1982
Printed
with the blessings
of
His Grace,
the Right Reverend
HERMAN
Bishop of Philadelphia
and
Eastern Pennsylvania
TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
THE PRAYERBOOK
The present Prayerbook contains the mostbasic daily prayers of the Orthodox Christianas they have been transmitted to us essentiallyby the Russian Church, although the otherOrthodox Traditions in this matter are verysimilar.
In this book, we will find the Psalms of theHoly Prophet King David, the prayer whichOur Lord Himself taught His holy disciples,prayers of the desert fathers, prayers of thegreat hierarchs and teachers of the Church, aswell as the prayers of more recent fathers.
The publication of such prayers does notlimit the free expression of the Christiansoul to the Creator, the Most-holy Theotokosand the Saints. On the contrary, by readingthese prayers we learn how to pray. Theybecome models for our own, personal prayers.Often, we would like to pray but, distracted bythe bustling world around us, or troubled byfear or sorrow, we do not even know how tobegin. We then begin with the Prayerbook[2]and find that not only much of what we wantedto say is included in the prayers of the fathers,but that afterwards, we find words of our ownto continue the outpouring of our soul.
There is yet another gift in the Prayerbook.As Orthodox Christians we are all members ofthe same Body. We express and partake ofthat oneness in the services of the Church,especially in the Divine Liturgy. Through thePrayerbook, this oneness is brought into ourhomes or any place that an Orthodox Christianreads it. Our own prayers are carried to theThrone of God on the wings of prayers thathave been used by the People