Getting started with a daily prayer rule

[HabteSelassie]

Greetings in that Divine and Most Precious Name of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!

I have an Agpeya, and it is the main book I use. It is truly wonderful, and it is small enough to be carried everywhere.

Isn't it? After a while when the prayers have been memorized, you can just carry around a small pocket New Testament with the Psalter with you and need nothing more.  

This is a wonderful thread.  There are so many thoughtful and helpful posts regarding a daily prayer rule.  

Prior to, and since becoming Orthodox, I acquired several prayer books to use for daily prayer.

I think another very helpful prayer routine is to find a melody from the Church to chant and accompany the texts prayers and Psalms rather then just to recite or read them.  As Saint Augustine said, "They who sing  pray twice."  The chanting really brings the meditation of prayer into full effect, and lifts us momentarily out of the mundane towards the Divine.  Learning to sing the prayers and Psalms in the melodies of my Ethiopian Orthodox tradition was perhaps one of the most life changing aspects of my Orthodox living, and it continues to literally reverberate across my life every new day I rise up and sing in prayer from my Agpeya.


The Ethiopian Se'at

Stay Blessed,
Habte Selassie

[Hermogenes]

The Lord’s Prayer
Our Father, Who art in the heavens, hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.  Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.

Where exactly is the thanking element?

Gratitude is one of the most important components of a spiritual life, IMHO, and the key ingredient for a joyful life of any kind. We look for opportunities to be grateful--the light turns green just as you get to the intersection; the subway pulls into the station just as you reach the bottom of the stairs; you make it all the way down Second Avenue on one light. You're wondering how you're going to get the door with all the stuff you're carrying, and someone steps out and opens it. These are little everyday things, and of course we express our gratitude for the major things, such as our faith, our lives, our Savior who loved us so much! I have found that cultivating the habit of gratitude in small things makes it easier to remember to thank God for the big things. And it helps me not to take anything for granted--like the fact that I have a bed, and shoes. I tend to take a lot for granted. so I really need this kind of exercise. There are a number of thanksgiving psalms, too, which you can seek out.

[Hermogenes]

Wouldn't praying the Small Compline be a good starting point for a prayer rule.

Oh yes!

[Hermogenes]

http://www.northumbriacommunity.org/pray-the-daily-office

I'm not sure if I would recommend that. They look to be some independent group without any link to a canonical Orthodox body. :/

In Christ,
Andrew

Yes, they are. They are "interfaith," but I believe the founders were/are Anglicans. Seems like a nice group, and the book is a wonderful book, all things considered, but it isn't Orthodox.

I love and use the Agpeya, but I am wondering if it is really a resource I'd recommend to someone who has just converted? Except if they are in the Coptic jurisdiction, of course. I feel the same about my own personal favorite prayer book--the Old Orthodox Prayer Book. Unless a person has converted to an Old Believer church, it might be more confusing than helpful at the start.

One book I believe doesn't get the attention it deserves is the Liturgikon published by the Antiochian Archdiocese. Considering the breadth of material it contains, it is very reasonably priced; the English is quite readable (unlike some Holy Transfiguration and Jordanville texts); and it covers the important parts of the liturgical day and year. If I were only going to recommend one book, this would be it.

[WPM]

Everyday I usually focus on my prayer corner and daily rosary.

[Hermogenes]

Everyday I usually focus on my prayer corner and daily rosary.

Which, of course, isn't an Orthodox prayer, unless you mean a choki. 

[Aindriú]

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/pray-always/id467806204?mt=8

New EO prayer App

[Altar Server]

Everyday I usually focus on my prayer corner and daily rosary.

Which, of course, isn't an Orthodox prayer, unless you mean a choki. 

actually it is western rite

[JamesR]

I have not officially developed one although recently I have been following the prayers from the red Antiochian prayer book along with reciting five or six Psalms in order from my OSB to go with it.

[Tommelomsky]

I got a question as i have developed a prayer rule (i am a non-practicing catholic inquiring and hope if God wills it to some day become orthodox) and developing a prayerlife after this model: http://www.orthodoxprayer.org/Daily%20Prayer%20Basics.html. But i got two questions:

1) Should i add the daily scripture readings into it or should i read them after prayers in morning/evening (sometime during the day).
What do you that has been orthodox for years or your entire life recommend?

2) Is the daily scripture readings universal or do they change from church to church? I attend a russian orthodox parish in Oslo, Norway
and the orthodoxy is at a very small level here.

Blessings.

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