www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life Prayer Prayers for metanoia.

Please remember me in your prayers during this Theophany season. I am experiencing some bad struggles with the faith and with commitment to living out the faith in my life. I need to turn back to the Lord but do not have it in me right now to effect a real metanoia. May God grant me His grace to turn my life around, especially in those areas most in need of conversion.

Thank you and God bless you all!

Lord, Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on us, sinners.

Kyrie Eleison!

Dear Peregrinus:

In the Latin parish I belong to I have had the task of writing weekly petitions for the Prayers of the Faithful for the past ten years.

I will add this one to my prayers for you and whoever else is struggling

For those who struggle with the Faith, may they have Christ's grace, His strength, and a sense that He continues to love them, let us pray to the Lord.

Please know that you are not alone. It only seems that way sometimes. Many of us, your brothers and sisters, have had periods when it seems that there is not enough strength to go on or have been tempted to give it all up as a lost cause. I've had more than a few such periods. I will commit to pray for you.

May the newborn Lord shine His Light into your heart and into your life, give you a renewed sense of the reason He came to be with us this season, and bring you out of this spiritual slump strengthened with new resolve to follow Him.

BOB

P.S.: Remember that the Lord comes looking for us. He is the One Who seeks us out. I was once told that each of us should remember that if no one else needed Him and no one else would respond to Him, He would come for you or me with just the faintest indication from us that we wanted Him in our lives.

Thank you all for your prayers and kind words for me.

God is truly merciful!

John

Brother Peregrinus,

I will pray for your faith to be replenished and strengthen.

Peace and strength in Our Lord Jesus Christ

Dear Peregrinus,

Being in the midst of a metanoia right now, I will pray for you earnestly. While it is exceptionally difficult to deal with the tremendous amount of sorrow you will feel, it brings with it a peace like none other. May your tears cleanse you and bring you closer to God!

In Christ,
mikey.

Dear Peregrinus:

May God's blessings be with you always on your solitary flight to the beckoning horizon of metanoia.

In falconry, we are shown that a peregrine falcon always comes back to roost on the master's outstretched hand.

AmdG

John:

There is a hymn that haunts me when I am in the midst of a period of struggle in my spiritual life.

"God is with us, understand this . . . and submit yourself, for God is with us."

I first heard this and sang it in the Russian Orthodox Church during my undergraduate years. But it comes back time and again during tough periods.

God will not let you go. Ask for His help and ask for it often. Testing periods lead to deeper faith in the Faith.

The new convert or the one newly awakened to Christ finishes his initial "high" and goes into the next period sometimes described as spiritual dryness. That's to see if this is a "summer romance" with the Lord and the Faith or if this is something like marriage: you're in it for the long haul.

Even after one is moving along with the Lord there are periods when this testing comes back. It's like marriage: sometimes it's two steps forward and one back; sometimes it's one forward and two back; sometimes it seems like there is a long retreat. But love pushes on because the One loved is worth the struggle and much much more.

Your brothers and sisters here will keep you in prayer. That's what the Communion of Saints is about. We pick up each others crosses and slog along together.

BOB

Dear Peregrinus,

There is a wonderful Confession in the Way of the Pilgrim that we should all take time to read through once in a while.

It goes to the root of our sinfulness.

So many of us don't have real compunction and sorrow for our sins - and aren't bothered by it.

As you are bothered by it, know that this is a special Grace from God and be thankful for it.

Spend time praying the Jesus Prayer as Dmitri, our New Orleans connection, has said.

The Jesus Prayer has a wonderful way of stripping off the layers of self-justification and tepid spirituality until we are left with our own naked self before the Face of Almighty God.

If you can, say 1,000 prayers in a day.

Alex

Dear Alex,

Thank you for your prayers and kind advice.

I am actually doing a bit better as I was able to get to confession yesterday and renew my commmitment to the faith.

Coincidentially, I was also able to pray the Jesus prayer on my chotki before an icon of Christ the Pantokrator. I think the chotki only has 100 knots so I have a ways to go before I reach the 1000 mark that you recommended!

God bless you.

John

Dear John,

Do as many as you wish, Friend!

The nun who did my chotki added a small leather cord to it with ten moveable beads.

So every time one does 100, one can move a bead etc.

This is called a "martyria" in Greek.

One can use an abacus, a pencil and paper, or even have a set number of beads in one dish and move one over to another every time one does 100 Prayers.

St Paul of Thebes prayed in this way. He walked around with two leather bags hanging on either side of him and placed beads or little stones from one to the other for each of his prayers.

People used to have "rosary bags" to hide their rosaries as they fingered them in prayer as they walked about.

Soon, distances between towns and villages were measured in terms of how many rosaries one could say when walking from one to another!

One would say that the Town of St Vincent was "11 rosaries away from here" and so one.

Alex

Dear Fellow Pilgrim,

May the Lord in His mercy bless us with the ablility to choose Life and to make that choice over and over again. May the Spirit speak to our hearts and guide us back to Him when we stray.

May He teach us to do as He says and, "Be still and know that I am God!" He comes to us in our vulnerability. May we learn to see Him there.

Steve

John:

A Byzantine prayer that has served me well may also help you.

Lord, I know not what to ask of You. You alone know what are my true needs. You love me more than I myself know how to love. Help me to see my real needs which are concealed from me. I dare not ask either a cross or consolation. I can only wait on You. My heart is open to You, visit me and help me for Your Great Mercy's sake. Strike me and heal me, cast me down and raise me up, I worship in silence Your Holy Will and Your inscrutable ways. I offer myself as a sacrifice to You. I put all my trust in You. I have no other desire than to fulfill Your Will. Teach me how to pray. Pray Thou Thyself in me. Amen.

BOB

I have read this prayer before. I don't recall where though. What a wonderful prayer it is. Do you know who wrote it, Bob?

In Christ through Mary Most Holy,
C of S