"O angel of Christ, holy guardian and protector of my soul and body, forgive me everything wherein I have offended you every day of my life, and protect me from all influence and temptation of the evil one. May I never again anger God by my sins. Pray for me to the Lord, that He may make me worthy of the grace of the All-Holy Trinity, and of the blessed Mother of God, and of all the saints. Amen." - Taken from The Divine Liturgy Service Book in English, Church Slavonic, and Serbian, 3rd ed., 2011, based on the existing and church-approved liturgical texts compiled by V. Rev. Bozidar Dragicevich, M.A. with the blessings of His Grace Right Reverend Bishop of New Gracanica and Midwestern America Longin. #Angels #GuardianAngel #JesusChrist #MotherofGod #God #saints #HolyTrinity #Forgiveness #Sinner #VocalPrayer #prayer #Evil

For some, it seems odd that we should pray for the dead. "After all," they say, "the Lord will take care of them one way or another." But this just doesn't make any sense. At a higher level, if we take at all seriously Christ's prayer "that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me" (John 17:21) - then we can reasonably assume that God has made it possible for us to remain continually connected to Him and to each other through the power of His Divine Energies. As the consecration of the Eucharist demonstrates, the past, present, and future become as one through the power of the Holy Spirit. At a more personal, human level this means that we must find ways to offer ourselves to God and each other. And the most basic form of that human self-gift is the genuine, deeply personal prayer. So, intercessory prayers for the living and the dead are a natural and necessary fulfillment of the relationship we hold with each other and with God. So next time you pray, please remember those who have died. The following vocal prayer will guide you what to say. Of course, any prayer about death provides a natural meditation on your own mortality and on the world to come. "Remember, O Lord, our parents, relatives and friends, who have fallen asleep in the hope of resurrection, and all those who have ended their lives in piety and faith; forgive them all their transgressions, both voluntary and involuntary, committed by them in word, deed, or thought. Set them in bright places of light, in places of green pasture, in a place of rest where all pain, sorrow, and sighing have fled away, and where the light of Your countenance shines and gladdens forever Your saints. Grant unto them and unto us Your Kingdom and participation in Your ineffable and eternal blessings, and to delight in Your unending and blessed life. For You are the Life, the Resurrection, and the Repose of Your servants who have fallen asleep, O Christ our God, and we render glory to You, with Your eternal Father, and with your All-Holy Spirit, good and life-giving, now and ever, and unto ages of ages. Amen." - Taken from The Divine Liturgy Service Book in English, Church Slavonic, and Serbian, 3rd ed., 2011, based on the existing and church-approved liturgical texts compiled by V. Rev. Bozidar Dragicevich, M.A. with the blessings of His Grace Right Reverend Bishop of New Gracanica and Midwestern America Longin. #Death #VocalPrayer #IntercessoryPrayer #Lord #Father #JesusChrist #HolyTrinity #HolySpirit #PrayerfortheDeceased #Faith #Sin #Sinner #Healing #Suffering

Our modern culture seems to have an obsession with the macabre, but a serious aversion to understanding the dynamic link between life and death, especially the deeper interconnectedness of body, mind, and spirit in the context of salvation. Thus, it comes as little surprise that many people avoid discussions about, let alone enjoin themselves in prayers involving their own death. Below is a vocal prayer that can aid you in talking with God about wanting to follow His will in this life and living with Him in the next. As you can surmise, a prayer like this can launch you into a deeply silent meditation about the eternity that awaits us. After reading the prayer slowly and deliberately, you could then concentrate on the highlighted portions to open yourself to the stillness that God hopes for you. "O gracious God, Whose mercy is illimitable; Who for our salvation has suffered the passions, wounds, and death upon the cross, I fervently beseech You: grant that I die not until I please You in all matters, and partake of Your Most Holy Body and Your most Pure Blood. Set me on the path of salvation, and at the time of my death preserve my wretched soul, and drive away from it the dark images of the crafty demons, and make me worthy to inherit everlasting glory. For You are the King of Peace, and the Savior of our souls, O Christ our God, and to You we ascribe glory, together with the Your Father, Who is from everlasting, and Your All-Holy and good and life-giving Spirit, now and ever, and unto ages of ages. Amen." - Taken from The Divine Liturgy Service Book in English, Church Slavonic, and Serbian, 3rd ed., 2011, based on the existing and church-approved liturgical texts compiled by V. Rev. Bozidar Dragicevich, M.A. with the blessings of His Grace Right Everend Bishop of New Gracanica and Midwestern America Longin. #Prayer #PrayerforaBlessedDeath #Salvation #VocalPrayer #MeditativePrayer #secretmeditation #Death #Sin #God #JesusChrist #HolyTrinity #HolySpirit #Eucharist #Evil

The following is a vocal prayer that aids you in imploring God for your own healing. With themes such as life, death, suffering, recovery, joy, anger, acceptance, and, ultimately, salvation, this prayer (and the condition in which you find yourself) offers ample opportunity for meditation. After reading the prayer slowly and deliberately, you could then concentrate on the highlighted portions to open yourself to a deeper and more silent concentration. "O Lord Jesus Christ our Savior, the Physician of our souls and bodies, who became Man and suffered death on the cross for our salvation and through Your tender love and compassion did heal all manner of sickness and affliction: do, O Lord, visit me in my suffering, and grant me grace and strength to bear this sickness with which I am afflicted with Christian patience and submission to Your will, trusting in Your loving kindness and tender mercy. Bless, I pray to You, the means used for my recovery, and those who administer them. I humbly pray to You: look upon my weakness, and deal not with me according to my sins, but according to the multitude of They mercies. Have compassion on me, and let mercy and justice meet, and deliver me from the sickness and suffering I am experiencing. Grant that my sickness may be the means of my true repentance and amendment of my life according to Your will, that I may spend the rest of my days in Your love and fear; that my soul, being helped by Your grace and sanctified by Your Holy Sacraments, may be prepared for its transition to eternal life, and there, in the company of Your blessed saints, may praise and glorify You, with Your eternal Father, and life-giving Spirit. Amen. - Taken from The Divine Liturgy Service Book, 3rd ed., 2011, based on the existing and church-approved liturgical texts compiled by V. Rev. Bozidar Dragicevich, M.A. #Lord #JesusChrist #Patience #Illness #HolySpirit #Compassion #Suffering

The following is a straightforward vocal prayer asking for the healing of someone else. "O Lord our God, Physician of our souls and bodies, look down upon Your servant (insert name here), and cure him/her of all infirmities of the flesh, in the Name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, with Whom You are blessed, together with Thy Most Holy, gracious and life-giving Spirit, now and ever, and unto ages of ages Amen. - Taken from The Divine Liturgy Service Book, 3rd ed., 2011, based on the existing and church-approved liturgical texts compiled by V. Rev. Bozidar Dragicevich, M.A. #PrayeroftheSick #Lord #God #Illness #HolySpirit #soul #Body #VocalPrayer

We have a tendency to shy away from prayer when we feel bad about ourselves. Sometimes we think we can't talk to God or ask Mary and the Saints for help because we feel dirty, ashamed, guilty, or that we just can't live up to God's promises. The truth is that God is loving and merciful and He knows what already ails us even before we ask His help in changing. Granted, at some point we have to change the very thing that troubles us most. But the way to that permanent change always goes through prayer. It's the place and process that gives us supernatural support for our natural ailments and personal failings. There's a particularly simple vocal prayer to the Most Holy Mother of God that lovingly asks her to help heal that which afflicts us like a disease. What's beautiful about this prayer is that it can be a plea for healing from something physical, psychological, intellectual, relational, or spiritual. It's simple enough and direct enough that when you read it repeatedly, ever more slowly each time, it can launch you into a silent meditation on the loving forgiveness of God, on the afflictions taken on by Christ for us, on the omnipresent desire of the Holy Spirit to sanctify us, and the tender disposition of the Mother of God who desires to hold us close within her veil. Here it is: "Heal me, O Most Pure Theotokos, and heal the sickness that afflicts my soul, making it worthy of your kindness and your care, and by your fervent intercession grant me health, I pray." #MotherofGod #Theotokos #God #JesusChrist #VocalPrayer #MeditativePrayer #Healing #Disease #Sin #Sinner #saints #Spirituality #HolySpirit

There are parts of Christianity, which tend to diminish - if not completely deny - the role of the Mother of God in the salvation of the world. This is truly and deeply sad because they forget that through her exclamation, "Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be done according to your word" (Luke 1:38), all of humanity gained the most intimate of intercessors before Christ. It goes without saying, of course, that we can and do pray directly for the intervention of our Lord, God, and Savior Jesus Christ. But sometimes we feel like we need help; for the very reason of the guilt we feel knowing that God remains loving and merciful while we persist in our sin and brokenness. Thus it is deeply comforting (at both natural and supernatural levels) to know we can run into the loving arms of the woman who was the birth-giver of the Savior and implore her to intercede for miraculous changes in our own lives. So, be not afraid. Turn your eyes toward the Heavenly Kingdom and make up your own heart-felt, personal vocal prayer. It could go something like this: "Mary, Mother of God, Most Holy Theotokos, come to me in my time of distress. Take me under the protection of your veil and intercede for me before your Son and our God." She will answer you! There's proof of this in the billions of personal stories people have told over the last 2,000 years. Some have even been recorded for us to remember. During the month of July, for example, we commemorate a time in the 9th century when the Greek Christians begged the Mother of God to protect them from the not-yet-converted-Russians, who had sailed into the Bosporus to invade Constantinople. Specifically, the Christians took from their church in Blakhernae (a city nearer to the coast than Constantinople) the robe of Mary, which had been given in the 5th century to a Christian emperor by a Jewish virgin living near Nazareth, whose family had been the caretaker of the robe since the 1st century when Mary had given it to a trusted friend. After dipping the robe in the water, convinced of the protection that God would give them through Mary's intercession, the Russians became curious about the deep faith they witnessed and chose to negotiate with local officials instead of invading and killing them. The point of stories like these is NOT to say we need relics to prove that God is real. Rather, it is to say that faith and prayer matter! Go to Mary, the Theotokos, the Birth-Giver of God, ask for her protection and intercession. She will give it to you. . #MotherofGod #Theotokos #God #SacredScripture #StLuketheEvangelist #Lord #JesusChrist #Faith #IntercessoryPrayer #VocalPrayer

God knows we are weak and sinful, but He will lift up all of us to find the happiness that comes from doing His will. In the ninth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, St. Luke tells us that Saul was "still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord" (9:1). Yet, only a few lines later, we read that God is asking Ananias to go see "Saul of Tarsus, for behold, he is praying" (Acts 9:11). Ananias expresses concerns about ministering to Saul because of his reputation for killing Christians. "But the Lord said to him, 'Go, for he is a chosen vessel of Mine to bear My name before Gentiles, kings, and the children of Israel. For I will show him how many things he must suffer for My name's sake'" (Acts 9:15-16). What so often gets understated about this passage is that Saul was praying. While it was specifically to restore his sight he lost on the journey to Damascus, Saul's vulnerability before God and his pleas for help, made it possible for him to receive what God needed Him to have. Keep praying. God listens. #God #Sin #Sinner #Happiness #ActsoftheApostles #StLuketheEvangelist #StPaul #Lord #prayer #VocalPrayer #continualprayer #Conversion

When we go astray from Christ and ignore the work of the Holy Spirit there is still great hope for us. Consider what is happening in the Gospel According to St. Luke: "And the Lord said, 'Simon, Simon! Indeed Satan has asked for you, that he may sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, that your faith should not fail; and when you have returned to Me, strengthen your brethren'" (Luke 22:31-32). What is going on here? First, even though Peter, the exemplar of faith (Matthew 16:18), lived part of his life in an ongoing, experiential contemplation of Christ, his fear overtook him such that he was capable of betraying Jesus three times. Thus, he understands the difficulties you face in prayer. Second, Jesus prayed for Peter! It's awe-inspiring and humbling to think that the ever-living God will join you in your own prayer. Despite knowing that Peter would betray Him - and regardless of the sins God knows you're going to commit - He makes whole what is broken in you. In Peter's case, Jesus tells him simply to get back to work when this period of sin and betrayal comes to an end. The lesson here is to keep trying and keep asking. God knows your weaknesses better than you do; and He still loves you. Implore St. Peter for his help, He will strengthen you along the way. #JesusChrist #HolySpirit #Hope #StLuketheEvangelist #Lord #StPeter #Evil #Faith #ContemplativePrayer #continualprayer #Fear

The Apostles know what you're going through. They literally walked with Jesus for three years and still suffered the difficulties of vigilance in prayer. Think about this. Saints Peter, James the Greater, and John the Theologian were so close with Jesus that He offered them the glorious gift of witnessing the Transfiguration (cf. Matthew 17:1-8; Mark 9:2-8; Luke 9:28-36; and 2 Peter 1:16-18). He further granted them the honored yolk of praying with Him at Gethsemane. But it was also because of the three of them - because of their sorrow and sleepiness in the Garden - that Jesus explains to us, "The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak" (Matthew 26:41). God knows we struggle to begin praying and within prayer once we have started. But He encourages us nonetheless. For great things will happen in and through us when we "rise and pray" (Luke 22:46). Without it, we will continue to "enter into temptation'" (Luke 22:46). Ask for the intercession of the Apostles. They will help you. #StPeter #StJames #StJohntheEvangelist #Apostles #StLuketheEvangelist #StMark #SacredScripture #God #JesusChrist #continualprayer #MeditativePrayer #ContemplativePrayer

No matter how scared, worried, weak, lost, sinful, or unworthy you feel - the angels will strengthen you in your prayer; just like they did for Jesus on the Mount of Olives. "Then an angel appeared to Him from heaven, strengthening Him" (Luke 22:43). Trust. Heaven will help. #Angels #JesusChrist #prayer #VocalPrayer #MeditativePrayer #StLuketheEvangelist #SacredScripture #Sin #Sinner #Heaven #Trust #Fear

Mainly because we run from God. At one level, we're comfortable in our delusions and we don't want to disavow ourselves of them. At another level, we carry with us shame and guilt. At a third level, we fear that God will reject us. And, quite frankly, we don't want to be accountable for becoming something more. The best, and really the only, remedy for our inner barriers is to believe two things with all our heart and soul. First, God didn't create, redeem, and/or sanctify us only to want to condemn us. In other words, He created us out of love, and extends to us every mercy. Not to mention, of course, that Christ walked in our very shoes and knows first hand the difficulties of being human. Thus, He wants to hear from us (for prayer is the divine language) and gather us to Him (for authenticity in prayer is a proof of your desire to be with Him in eternity). Second, God knows you ("Even the hairs of your head are all counted," Matthew 10:30). He knew you before you were born, sees all of your struggles now, and wants to heal you of all your wounds. So, reach out in earnest with your vocal prayers. Then, sit back and let Him invade your soul. This is contemplation. This is the prayer of the mind in the heart. #ContemplativePrayer #God #SacredScripture #StMatthew #Creator #Redeemer #Redemption #Sanctifier #HolyTrinity #Sin #VocalPrayer #JesusChrist