3 prayers that everyone should know

There are many different prayers in the Orthodox Church that were composed by the Holy Fathers and ascetics many years ago and have become common to all believers. However, there are three basic prayers that everyone should know, namely:

1. The Lord’s Prayer or “Our Father”

2. “God-bearing Virgin, rejoice”

3. The Creed

These three texts form the basis for ordinary daily prayer to God. Let us dwell on each of these prayers in more detail to find out what their importance is to Christians.

“Our Father”

Prayer “Our Father” is still called the Lord's Prayer because the text of this call to God was given by Jesus Christ Himself during His life on the earth. We know this from the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, which detail that Christ himself gave his disciples this prayer at their request to teach them to pray. On this place there is the Church, which is called the Church of Our Father, since its text is engraved there in 140 languages, including Ukrainian. 

“Our Father” is a key prayer for all Christians, as it is the only prayer the Savior himself has given us, and besides, we ask the Heavenly Father for the coming of the Kingdom of God, where there is no evil and injustice. This short prayer consists of an appeal to God, seven requests to Him, and His glorification at the end. In the requests we ask God the Father:

• that hallowed be His name

• for His kingdom to come

• that His will be everywhere

• for daily bread

• for forgiveness of sins

• don’t lead as to the temptation

• to deliver us from all evil.

Among the texts of Christian worship, the Lord's Prayer occupies the most important place: each liturgy it is chanted by the priests and the people. The text of the prayer "Our Father", printed on a special table, you can buy in the online store "Axios".

“God-bearing Virgin, rejoice”

The prayer “God-bearing Virgin, rejoice”, as the name implies, is addressed to the Blessed Virgin Mary and it is a chanting of the words of the archangel Gabriel spoken by him to the Virgin during the Annunciation. As the Apostle Luke writes about this event, the archangel addressed Mary with a greeting: “Blessed are you among women…” (Luke 1:28). Subsequently, the words "God-bearing Virgin, rejoice" were added to these words and the ending: "... and praised the fruit of thy womb, because it was the Saviour of our souls that thou borest." For the first time in writing, this text of prayer appears in the XII century, although it appeared much earlier in the oral tradition. The famous song "Ave Maria" is the Latin version of this prayer to the Virgin.

In Orthodox tradition, the prayer “God-bearing Virgin, rejoice” is chanted three times during the Saturday evening service. In addition, Saint Seraphim Sarovsky at the beginning of the 19th century introduced to the practice the special “Theotokos Rule” - that is, to say the prayer “God-bearing Virgin, rejoice” daily 150 times. Saint Seraphim advised to pray in this way, both monks and laymen.

The Creed

The Creed is the twelve basic dogmas of Christianity that are preached at each worship service and are part of the morning prayer. In essence, it is a list of what every Christian believes. This text was created on the basis of the tenets of Christianity adopted in the First (325 AD) and the Second (381 AD) Ecumenical Councils. These ordinances relate to the equality of all the Three Persons of the Holy Trinity: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, as well as the saving mission of the Lord Jesus Christ, who came down to earth for the salvation of humankind. The importance of this prayer is that it briefly conveys all the deep foundations of the Christian religion. Therefore, in reading the Creed, each of us openly professes our faith in these truths, seeking to receive the Kingdom of Heaven for this profession. Because by the word of the Savior, those who openly acknowledges Him before men, also will receive the acknowledgement from him before His Father (Matt. 10:32). The Creed is a rather complicated prayer. The best way to study it is using the special tablets with its text, which you can buy in our store.

So, we have looked on the three most important prayers that every Christian needs to know. They are short in volume but at the same time important in content and strength. There are many prayers in the Orthodox tradition, but as we read them, we will not forget that the Lord does not look at their numbers, but with what heart we make our prayer.