Prayer

Prayer

Prayer is a pious conversation with God, through which we pour out the feelings of our soul, thus glorifying God’s perfection and thanks to the immense goodness of God. The Holy Fathers say that prayer is the mother of all good deeds, the guardian of the purity of the flesh, the sure fence against all cunning and enemies. We pray to God and glorify Him in various ways. Sometimes we pray in our souls quietly and silently, and sometimes loudly and eloquently, as in a time of communal worship, sometimes we complete our prayer by kneeling, methanizing, worshiping, etc. Here the Lord teaches us how to pray.

We bow east, pray east, when in church we look east, baptize to turn east, not without reason, not by accident. Since God is the light of the mind (Jn. 1: 5) and Christ in the Scriptures is called the East (Zech. 6:12), it is natural to dedicate the East to Him for worship. And also the Divine Scripture says that paradise, the garden of Edam, the place where the first man was settled, was in the east. Looking east we worship in search of our ancient fatherland.

The Lord Jesus Christ ascended the hay of heaven ascending eastward, and will come again in the same way: For as the lightning proceeds from the east and turns blue to the west, so will the coming of the Son of Man. (Mt 24:27) Expecting him, we bow east.

This is an unwritten tradition left over from the apostles, as well as many other things left to us through the tradition.