Christ is Born!
There is actually no set way or set of mysteries that the Orthodox Church has prescribed for the praying of the Rule of the Most Holy Theotokos. One may use the mysteries of the Western Rosary, the scriptural rosary and the like. St Seraphim of Sarov and St Seraphim Zvevdinsky (New Hieromartyr who was shot by the Bolsheviks in 1937) and others, including those of the Old Rite tradition, developed this set of mysteries for the 15 decades: Birth of the Theotokos, Entrance into the Temple of the Theotokos, Annunciation, Visitation, Nativity of our Lord, Meeting of our Lord in the Temple, Flight into Egypt, Finding in the Temple, miracle at the wedding in Cana of Galilee, the Theotokos standing under the Cross of her Son, the Resurrection, the Ascension, Pentecost, the Dormition of the Theotokos, the glorification of the Theotokos in Heaven as our Holy Protection. At Diveyevo, the Our Father heads every decade and at the end of the decade there follows the prayer: Open to us Your Mercy, O blessed Theotokos, so that hoping in You, we may not die, but be saved from all trouble by You, for You are the salvation of the Christian race.
But any format that you find helpful can be used as this is a private prayer. Also, I have seen Slavic Orthodox prayerbooks where it is recommended that one seek the blessing of one's confessor to pray this Rule of prayer.
In a book on monastic rules of prayer that Jordanville publishes (I have long since lent it to someone who didn't return it to me - but that's ok ), monastics there are given the rule of saying 150 Hail Mary\s with a prostration to the ground after each Hail Mary (this was the medieval rule for Western monastics where a genuflection followed each Hail Mary). as well as a prostration following each Our Father of the rule of 150 our Father's.
Alex
Last edited by Orthodox Catholic; 01/07/19 04:31 PM.
