Praying to the Trinity

Zoxsasi

Hi,

I know that we have some masses where we have a Fraction directed to the Father, and one fraction for the Son, and the other for the Holy Spirit.

I'm not sure who authored these liturgies, but I'm sure you've seen them.

When we pray (personal prayer) - who should we direct our prayers to? Which person in the Trinity should we direct our prayers to?

I remember hearing once someone say that it was complete folly to direct your prayers to the Father, switch to the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Is that right?

When we pray, should we pray to the Son of God - Jesus Christ? or should we pray to the Holy Spirit?
or should we pray to the Father?

It seems to me, that all prayer should be to the Father, simply because even Christ asked us to address our prayers to the Father.

What do you think?

peterfarrington

It would seem to me that we should follow the patterns given to us in the Agpeya and in the Liturgy.

The prayers of the Agpeya are addressed to God the Father, and to the Son, and sometimes to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit together, and occasionally to the Holy Spirit.

I would therefore suggest that there is no need that all our prayers be addressed to the Father, nor is there anything wrong with addressing the Divine Persons of the Holy Trinity in turn during our prayers, since this is the model found in the Agpeya.

Father Peter

Zoxsasi

[quote author=Father Peter link=topic=10528.msg127948#msg127948 date=1295859840]
It would seem to me that we should follow the patterns given to us in the Agpeya and in the Liturgy.

The prayers of the Agpeya are addressed to God the Father, and to the Son, and sometimes to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit together, and occasionally to the Holy Spirit.

I would therefore suggest that there is no need that all our prayers be addressed to the Father, nor is there anything wrong with addressing the Divine Persons of the Holy Trinity in turn during our prayers, since this is the model found in the Agpeya.

Father Peter


Thank you.

dzheremi

I remember hearing once someone say that it was complete folly to direct your prayers to the Father, switch to the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

What does this mean, "switch to"?

I had written a lot more on this, but first I want to ask: If you pray only to the Father, then when do you address the Holy Trinity in your prayer? I am not Orthodox, so maybe I have it wrong, but it seems to me that the reality of the Trinity is that it is uncreated and indivisible, so closing out any person of it seems not only wrong, but impossible. Jesus did teach us to pray to the Father (and so we pray exactly His words in the 'Our Father'), and He also taught us that when we have seen Him we have seen the Father. So does this give us the permission to also pray to Christ specifically, in your view?

Personally, in spontaneous prayer I start and end by invoking the Holy Trinity. It is what I have seen Orthodox priests do, and they know better than I do so I feel comfortable following their example. On a personal level, it helps me focus on who I am talking with, so that anything I say in prayer from beginning to end is within the context of a prayer to all of the Trinity. I also address things to a particular person of the Trinity, as is appropriate. I think that's totally fine, as long as we remember that the Trinity is indivisible, so that we don't start thinking strange thoughts like "okay, today I pray to the Father...maybe I'll get around to Jesus and the Holy Spirit some other time!" and then maybe never remember to do so. I'm not trying to be funny; that is a real danger and something I have experienced. I grew up in a Protestant church which was trinitarian, but 99% of all prayers or even mentions of God in Church were in the name of Jesus Christ, with the remainder to the Father (pretty much only when we prayed the 'Our Father'). The Holy Spirit was mentioned basically never. So I grew up with a very unbalanced and uninformed/confused view of the Trinity. I guess I try to subconsciously make up for that now.