Prayer isn't an activity done a certain amount of times in the day like a lot of people think. It's like having a conversation, you don't try to do it a certain amount of times a day.
Whenever you have nothing to do while you are doing your daily routine just pray. Using the Jesus prayer is a good way to constantly be praying, just repeating over and over again "My Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me a sinner.", or you can just repeat a phrase over and over like "I thank God the beneficient". This is a good thing to do while you are walking to your next class or when you are walking by yourself.
Don't ever get into bed without praying. Also when you wake up the first thing you should do is thank God for having a new, fresh start, and pray that you will make Him happy this day.
Also, when you pray, a common habit is to try and use really big words and sound really nice and sophisticated. This isn't wrong, but when you aren't speaking naturally you are usually focusing on impressive groups of words rather than on what you are saying. In Matthew Jesus tells us that those kinds of prayers with the vain repetition of words aren't accepted. Yes, that's right, some prayers might not be accepted and that is because you don't mean what you are saying and you are just saying words without meaning and feeling.
When you feel like you are distracted, then just pause for a second and get back on track. The devil does many things to make people get distracted. Pope Shenouda once wrote that it is surprising how many things you notice when you are praying that you wouldn't have if you were doing something else. This shows us that the devil is trying to attack us especially while we are praying.
So keep alert and most importantly mean what you say. You don't know how happy God is when you make the effort to pray and you mean what you are saying.
so 'beneficient' isn't a big word? ;) i agree with everything u say except i would say, 'thanks, God u r awesome and so good to us and we don't deserve any of it, it's just so amazing that we can even pray to u and u listen.' which is sort of what 'beneficient' means. :)
[quote author=mabsoota link=topic=12958.msg152497#msg152497 date=1330279273] so 'beneficient' isn't a big word? ;) i agree with everything u say except i would say, 'thanks, God u r awesome and so good to us and we don't deserve any of it, it's just so amazing that we can even pray to u and u listen.' which is sort of what 'beneficient' means. :)
Lol, thx for pointing out that flaw in my post. I don't think i explained it right. I meant don't TRY to use big words. Let it be natural. I meant like, sometimes people TRY to use big words to sound more complicated. My main point was not to focus so hard on using words not natural to you that you forget what you are praying about, which is what you were trying to do in the first place.
it sounds much better in arabic (is saleh) - it's quite a normal word, so maybe it looses something in translation. i found in church sometimes normal arabic gets translated into great grandfather's english ;)
[quote author=George_Mina_Awad link=topic=12958.msg152572#msg152572 date=1330400813] Both with it and without it.
Hehe, the funny thing is, once you pray with it, you always will pray with it even if u don't have the agpeya. You will start to find some phrases from it be incorporated in your prayers. It's a beautiful thing.
so u r making progress :) sometimes i start the same prayer 3 times coz i'm thinking of something else half way through :-[ then i finishing praying it and then tell God what i am worrying about so that i stop worrying about it :)
Yea that happens to me too. But Pope shenouda also said that sometimes when you pray you tend to think about things that you dont think about during the day that is the devil trying to trick you
[quote author=marinacopt link=topic=12958.msg152605#msg152605 date=1330470170] Yea that happens to me too. But Pope shenouda also said that sometimes when you pray you tend to think about things that you dont think about during the day that is the devil trying to trick you
True, I had a friend who used to joke around and tell me you want to come up with a new invention? Just go pray, and it will come up to you during prayers.
Yea that happens to me too. But Pope shenouda also said that sometimes when you pray you tend to think about things that you dont think about during the day that is the devil trying to trick you
I am not sure if it will help or make it even worse, but you can try listening to the agbeya being chanted while praying. That will slow you down, but it may make you wonder off. You should give it a try. It is beautiful. http://www.agpeya.org/
Thank you I was actually looking for an audio of the first and eleventh hour coz I'm usually on te bus and if ireland it get us sick so hopefully I can transfer to my iPod Thank you so much God bless you
Comments
Whenever you have nothing to do while you are doing your daily routine just pray. Using the Jesus prayer is a good way to constantly be praying, just repeating over and over again "My Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me a sinner.", or you can just repeat a phrase over and over like "I thank God the beneficient". This is a good thing to do while you are walking to your next class or when you are walking by yourself.
Don't ever get into bed without praying. Also when you wake up the first thing you should do is thank God for having a new, fresh start, and pray that you will make Him happy this day.
Also, when you pray, a common habit is to try and use really big words and sound really nice and sophisticated. This isn't wrong, but when you aren't speaking naturally you are usually focusing on impressive groups of words rather than on what you are saying. In Matthew Jesus tells us that those kinds of prayers with the vain repetition of words aren't accepted. Yes, that's right, some prayers might not be accepted and that is because you don't mean what you are saying and you are just saying words without meaning and feeling.
When you feel like you are distracted, then just pause for a second and get back on track. The devil does many things to make people get distracted. Pope Shenouda once wrote that it is surprising how many things you notice when you are praying that you wouldn't have if you were doing something else. This shows us that the devil is trying to attack us especially while we are praying.
So keep alert and most importantly mean what you say. You don't know how happy God is when you make the effort to pray and you mean what you are saying.
;)
i agree with everything u say except i would say, 'thanks, God u r awesome and so good to us and we don't deserve any of it, it's just so amazing that we can even pray to u and u listen.'
which is sort of what 'beneficient' means.
:)
so 'beneficient' isn't a big word?
;)
i agree with everything u say except i would say, 'thanks, God u r awesome and so good to us and we don't deserve any of it, it's just so amazing that we can even pray to u and u listen.'
which is sort of what 'beneficient' means.
:)
Lol, thx for pointing out that flaw in my post. I don't think i explained it right. I meant don't TRY to use big words. Let it be natural. I meant like, sometimes people TRY to use big words to sound more complicated. My main point was not to focus so hard on using words not natural to you that you forget what you are praying about, which is what you were trying to do in the first place.
i found in church sometimes normal arabic gets translated into great grandfather's english ;)
...and how should I pray?
With the Agpeya :)
Both with it and without it.
Hehe, the funny thing is, once you pray with it, you always will pray with it even if u don't have the agpeya. You will start to find some phrases from it be incorporated in your prayers. It's a beautiful thing.
sometimes i start the same prayer 3 times coz i'm thinking of something else half way through :-[
then i finishing praying it and then tell God what i am worrying about so that i stop worrying about it :)
Yea that happens to me too. But Pope shenouda also said that sometimes when you pray you tend to think about things that you dont think about during the day that is the devil trying to trick you
True, I had a friend who used to joke around and tell me you want to come up with a new invention? Just go pray, and it will come up to you during prayers.
Thank you so much God bless you