Prayer books

[Vlad]

What prayer books to you folks use. I have a load of Catholic ones but since I am making the jump to Byzantium I was wondering anyone can recommend any good prayerbooks. So far I have a used copy of the Jordanville prayerbook. Are there any others out there?

Thanks

God Bless

[Marc1152]

What prayer books to you folks use. I have a load of Catholic ones but since I am making the jump to Byzantium I was wondering anyone can recommend any good prayerbooks. So far I have a used copy of the Jordanville prayerbook. Are there any others out there?

Thanks

God Bless

The Jodanville prayer book is excellent but it's on the long side. Another popular prayer book for those who want something a bit less rigorous is the Antiochian Prayer book
( the little Red Prayer Book) .

[Vlad]

Thanks, I'll have to look into that.

[Riddikulus]

I have Daily Prayers for Orthodox Christians published by Holy Cross Orthodox Press.

[Irish Hermit]

The Jordanville Prayerbook  is THE one!   

Even the Moscow Patriarchate purloined the Jordanville Prayerbook (in its Russian form) just after Perestroika and printed it by the hundreds of thousands as the best choice of Prayerbook for the Russian faithful.  They knew the best when they saw it.

Here's a message on another thread

http://www.orthodoxchristianity.net/forum/index.php/topic,21496.msg324791.html#msg324791

[Quinault]

I just picked up one by St. Tikhon's press that is very cool; "Orthodox daily prayers."

http://www.stspress.com/detail.aspx?ID=3046

[Douglas]

My wife and I use: St Philip's Prayer Manual and Common Discipline which is published by the Fellowship of St John under the Antiochian Archdiocese. It is essentially the Jordanville Prayerbook but broken up by the days of the week and shortened for convenience sake. Many of us are very busy in the secular world and find it difficult to pray the Morning and Evening prayers as set forth by the Jordanville Prayerbook. This manual breaks it into smaller portions by taking the same prayers and assigning them to different days of the week. I've been using this prayer manual since it came out about sixteen years ago. It's pretty beaten up.

[Altar Server]

I have "Prayer Book In Accordance with the tradition of the Eastern Orthodox Church" Published by St Arseny of Konevets Press Blessed for use by His Eminence Archbishop Job for use within the OCA diocese of the Midwest also blessed by his Eminence Archbishop Seraphim for use within the Archdiocese of Canada.

[88Devin12]

Wonderful prayer book with many great prayers, sayings on prayer by Saints and even Akathists...

Prayer Book: According to the Orthodox Tradition:
http://www.allsaintsofalaska.ca/prayerbook
http://www.orthodoxsource.com/products/Orthodox-Prayer-Book.html?setCurrencyId=4

[Schultz]

I use the The Old Orthodox Prayer Book from the Old Ritualist community in Erie, PA.  I just like the way they translated the prayers more than the Jordanville translation.  

[Michael L]

The are many good prayer books out there. The two I personally own are the Jordanville and Old Rite Prayer Books. IMHO the Jordanville prayer book is by for and away the best. Do not be afraid of its length. Posters make sound much longer than it actually is. My Spiritual Father assigned these daily prayers to my wife and I as a prayer rule. The first time I prayed them I too thought that it was too much. I was use to doing a bare minimum. However, once I made it a habit, I could not go without them.  Here are links to Morning Prayers and Prayers Before Sleep.

Also, here are mp3's of the prayers as read by a monk at the Hermitage of the Holy Cross. Morning Prayer Audio and Prayer Before Sleep Audio. The audio reading for morning prayer is 18 minutes long and the evening prayer is 12 minutes long. That is a total of 30 minutes of prayer a day. I know many of us are busy with work, school, and family but certainly 30 minutes a day is not too long to dedicate to our Lord. Especially when we think about how much TV we watch and how much time we spend on forums. LOL. Give these prayers a shot!!

[Douglas]

but certainly 30 minutes a day is not too long to dedicate to our Lord.

That's a judgment call and certainly unwarranted. It's not simply a case of 30 minutes is certainly within your reach. There are many other considerations to be made that factor into the length and cannot (and should not) be made part of this thread. The bottom line is: one's priest and/or spiritual father should be giving the person proper guidance in terms of what prayer book to use and how many prayers to apply to his/her rule rather than any one of us. You find the Jordanville prayerbook right for you and you have direction from your priest to use it. That's good. I choose another prayerbook which makes use of these same prayers but spreads them out. As to the reasons I do this, it has nothing (absolutely NOTHING) to do with my commitment, or lack thereof, to the Lord.

[Michael L]

but certainly 30 minutes a day is not too long to dedicate to our Lord.

That's a judgment call and certainly unwarranted. It's not simply a case of 30 minutes is certainly within your reach. There are many other considerations to be made that factor into the length and cannot (and should not) be made part of this thread. The bottom line is: one's priest and/or spiritual father should be giving the person proper guidance in terms of what prayer book to use and how many prayers to apply to his/her rule rather than any one of us. You find the Jordanville prayerbook right for you and you have direction from your priest to use it. That's good. I choose another prayerbook which makes use of these same prayers but spreads them out. As to the reasons I do this, it has nothing (absolutely NOTHING) to do with my commitment, or lack thereof, to the Lord.

Douglas,

I meant no malice to you are anyone else. I am sorry if I offended you , but I did not want anyone to get the impression that the Jordanville Prayerbook is too long as and inconvenient to pray as was posted on this thread already. I can not judge your commitment. I was trying to motivate others to give these prayers a try, yes, with the guidance of the Spiritual Father.

Please forgive me.

[pensateomnia]

Just FYI: Another popular, shorter option for daily prayers are those contained in the back of the Orthodox Study Bible.

While I like several aspects of the Jordanville prayer book, I don't care for the translation. It is also bound rather poorly, and the typesetting is inferior. That's why I tend to use Holy Transfiguration's prayer book: http://store.holycrossbookstore.com/943405017.html Definitely worth the $14. It's still not as good as just going with the Greek though!

[Douglas]

Douglas,

I meant no malice to you are anyone else. I am sorry if I offended you , but I did not want anyone to get the impression that the Jordanville Prayerbook is too long as and inconvenient to pray as was posted on this thread already. I can not judge your commitment. I was trying to motivate others to give these prayers a try, yes, with the guidance of the Spiritual Father.

Please forgive me.

I forgive. Please forgive me. May God forgive us both.

My point was that what might be "right" for one (in terms of length and even wording) might not necessarily be best for another. We're all different and have different responsibilities and characteristics (i.e. young children in the home, attention deficit syndrome, newly illumined spouses with little or not background whatsoever in terms of praying... and so forth). 18 minutes (depending of course on how one speaks) might actually be too long from some folks (it would be for us). That's why the St Philip's manual works better in our situation, spreading (as it does) the Jordanville prayers over the entire week rather than combining them all together in one day. Hey... it's just another option. Take care.

[Douglas]

Wonderful prayer book with many great prayers, sayings on prayer by Saints and even Akathists...

Prayer Book: According to the Orthodox Tradition:
http://www.allsaintsofalaska.ca/prayerbook
http://www.orthodoxsource.com/products/Orthodox-Prayer-Book.html?setCurrencyId=4

Looks like an interesting prayerbook BUT the website (second link) does not allow one to Check Out. I've sent a message to them informing them of this problem. Thanks for the tip.

[Marc1152]

The are many good prayer books out there. The two I personally own are the Jordanville and Old Rite Prayer Books. IMHO the Jordanville prayer book is by for and away the best. Do not be afraid of its length. Posters make sound much longer than it actually is. My Spiritual Father assigned these daily prayers to my wife and I as a prayer rule. The first time I prayed them I too thought that it was too much. I was use to doing a bare minimum. However, once I made it a habit, I could not go without them.  Here are links to Morning Prayers and Prayers Before Sleep.

Also, here are mp3's of the prayers as read by a monk at the Hermitage of the Holy Cross. Morning Prayer Audio and Prayer Before Sleep Audio. The audio reading for morning prayer is 18 minutes long and the evening prayer is 12 minutes long. That is a total of 30 minutes of prayer a day. I know many of us are busy with work, school, and family but certainly 30 minutes a day is not too long to dedicate to our Lord. Especially when we think about how much TV we watch and how much time we spend on forums. LOL. Give these prayers a shot!!

The Holy Cross CD's are good to have. They offer morning and evening prayers and also pre-communion prayers. They are chanted in a mono-tone so a friend of mine says they are by "Robo-Monk"

If youre late for work and have missed  prayers, they are a good plan B for the car.

[Ionnis]

Is the Holy Transfiguration Monastery prayer book similar to the Jordanville prayer book?  I like the Jordanville prayer book, but I hate the references to the toll houses.  I also dislike the form of English used in the Jordanville prayer book.  Any suggestions?

[Irish Hermit]

Many of us are very busy in the secular world and find it difficult to pray the Morning and Evening prayers as set forth by the Jordanville Prayerbook.

The evening prayers in the Jordanville Prayerbook are less than 15 minutes.  That doesn't seem too long unless people are dead beat at the end of a busy day.

I can think of some of our parishioners, hardworking people, who do the prayers, add on a Canon or Akathist and also add on some Jesus Prayer.  They just have to skip the 10:30 evening news on TV.  Some nights they don't manage this if they have had to have people for dinner or go out to a restaurant until late.

[Douglas]

Well, Father.... we all have different outlooks. Mine is simply that the prayers (and the wording.. I'm not overly fond of this as well) are simply a bit too long from my wife and me. We like the prayers spread out over the entire week rather than crammed into one morning and one evening. This appears to be fine with our spiritual father.

[Irish Hermit]

Well, Father.... we all have different outlooks. Mine is simply that the prayers (and the wording.. I'm not overly fond of this as well) are simply a bit too long from my wife and me. We like the prayers spread out over the entire week rather than crammed into one morning and one evening. This appears to be fine with our spiritual father.

I can see that dividing them this way lightens the burden.  If the 15 minutes evening prayers are divided among the days of the week, that amounts to 2 minutes each evening which should not be troublesome.  From my own viewpoint as a parish priest I would not be happy with a 2 minute prayer period in the evenings except as the exception on very busy evenings. 

[Quinault]

Well, Father.... we all have different outlooks. Mine is simply that the prayers (and the wording.. I'm not overly fond of this as well) are simply a bit too long from my wife and me. We like the prayers spread out over the entire week rather than crammed into one morning and one evening. This appears to be fine with our spiritual father.

Hopefully the goal is the expand your prayer rule though right?

[Altar Server]

I would say it would be but the decision is up to the spiritual father.

[Vlad]

Thanks for the suggestions everyone. I find that I love the Jordanville but the morning prayers can take awhile if I need to get to work. I'll have to look into that one that splits the prayers up. Thanks you all.

God Bless.

[Alveus Lacuna]

Just let Douglas do it how he does it.  I use the Jordanville prayerbook. and honestly I probably only motivate myself to do the evening prayers twice a week, and I never do the morning prayers.  By the way, I sing part of the evening prayers, as well as add in personal devotions such as private spontaneous prayers and usually some recitation of the Jesus Prayer before I begin to get my mind in the right frame, so the whole process of doing the Jordanville evening prayers takes me about 40 minutes.  That's probably why I only do it about twice a week. 

My point is no one should be commenting on his prayer rule.  Who cares if he does it for five minutes a day?  I'm not even up to daily prayer yet.  Everybody is just doing the best they can.  I say leave him alone about it.

[Riddikulus]

^Amen.

[Irish Hermit]

I would say it would be but the decision is up to the spiritual father.

My sincere apologies.  I suppose that I am so used to advising parishioners about their prayer rule that I carried that role over onto the forum where it was out of place.  Of course everybody must do whatever their own spiritual father advises.

In the case of the "Jordanville" Prayerbook which dates from Russian practice before the Revolution, it is "standard issue" for all Russian parishioners both in Russia and in the West.

[Andrew21091]

The prayer book I'm always an advocate for is the Old Orthodox Prayer Book which Schultz posted. I really like the set up of it and the prayers flow really nicely. It also has the Hours included which the Jordanville does not. And it supplicatory canons to Christ, two to the Theotokos (Akathist canon and supplicatory), two to the Guardian Angel, for the sick, two for the departed (for one person or several departed), the Paschal canon, and the canon before holy communion along with pre and post communion prayer. For the order of communion, the canon is longer in the old rite prayer book than in Jordanville and instead of ten pre-communion prayers as the Jordanville has, the Old Rite one has 18. The prayer book also has troparia and kontakia for the Resurrection and for the days of the week and it also includes ones for major feasts. The Old Orthodox Prayer Book also has interesting instructional materiel concerning the Sign of the Cross, bows and prostrations, fasting, communion, other rules of piety, and an interesting explanation of the Old Believer prayer rope called the lestovka and it also has a chart on how services can be replaced with readings from the Psalter and with Jesus Prayers. All the instructional material is based on Old Rite practices so on the article for the Sign of the Cross, they teach that one should do it using to two finger positioning of the hand rather than the three used by the Orthodox Church today.

Out of any prayer book, I choose the Old Rite one since there is a lot more included in it and it is really nice.

[Nazarene]

What prayer books to you folks use. I have a load of Catholic ones but since I am making the jump to Byzantium I was wondering anyone can recommend any good prayerbooks. So far I have a used copy of the Jordanville prayerbook. Are there any others out there?

Thanks

God Bless

Since you're coming from a Roman Catholic background and already own the Jordanville Prayer Book, you might want try the Publicans Prayer Book (if you don't already have it). Review from the "Byzatine Ramblings" blog:

Of Prayer Books - II (Publicans Prayer Book)

For a modern English equivalent to the Jordanville Prayer Book, one can use the recently-published Publicans Prayer Book from Sophia Press. Indeed, the Publicans Prayer Book is, to some extent, a Melkite version of the Jordanville Prayer Book. The complete morning and bed-time prayers seem to be modern English updates of the Jordanville originals. However, there are significant and welcomed differences.

While omitting the ‘public’ liturgical material found in the Jordanville volume, the Publicans Prayer Book packs in a complete Menologion, with Troparia for every day of the year, including the common Troparia for saints not having their own Troparion. It also features complete preparatory prayers and Canons for Holy Communion and Confession, Prayers and Canons for various needs, and a collection of quotations from the Church Fathers and much more. The appendices includes topics on the Christian home, fasting practices and aids for living the spirigual life.

The Publicans Prayer Books is an astounding accomplishment. In the past, Sophia Press publications have been plagued by typographical errors. This volume is beautifully presented with no typos found. The binding is sturdy, appearing to be sewn, with a burgundy leather cover, gilded-edged pages and five ribbons for place marking. The pages themselves are sturdy, slightly cream coloured, with a red border. Prayer text is nicely sized in a pleasing font, with rubrics and instructions in red. Here and there iconic images grace the pages.

With only one intercession for the Pope, the Publicans Prayer Book could serve quite well for Orthodox Christians as well as Melkites and Eastern Catholics. Indeed, the Publican's Prayer Book may prove to be the twenty-first century's main competition to the Jordanville Prayer Book in the hearts of many. I only hope that Sophia Press not limit its publication to a single run as this book has enduring potential - and I'm not saying that only because it was published by my Eparchy's publication arm.

Link: http://byzantineramblings.blogspot.com/2009/05/of-prayer-books-ii.html

Otherwise here are the two most comprehensive lists of Orthodox Prayer Books I've come across online:

http://www.orthodoxprayer.org/PrayerBooks.html

and

http://orthodoxwiki.org/Prayer_book

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