Beginner's Guide to Developing a Healthy Orthodox Prayer Rule

Growing in the Orthodox Faith....

Cover of a popular Orthodox Prayer Book.

Becoming an Orthodox Christian through Baptism or Chrismation is the commencement (not conclusion) of a deep, lifelong spiritual journey. The commitment (covenant) you entered during conversion brings with it many sacred responsibilities, not the least of which is regular communication and communion with God through prayer and the sacraments.

For some, establishing a consistent prayer life may seem daunting, particularly if you are used to quick 5-minute (or less) improvised morning and evening prayers. Growing up LDS, daily prayer and scripture reading are almost “hammered” into you regularly and, at least for me, were considered an annoying obligation I got through as quickly as humanly possible. I felt like more stuff was getting added to my plate every day. Perhaps this was because, after 50 years of being LDS, I felt like my prayers were mostly unanswered, and I really didn’t get anything out of the practice. (Which is entirely my fault for my bad attitude.)

As an LDS, I don’t think my bedtime prayers averaged more than a few minutes. As an Orthodox Christian, my bedtime prayers now average 30-45 minutes (But I didn’t start at that, I worked my way up to it.) I went from feeling that prayer was an annoying obligation to looking forward to my bedtime prayers.

Prayer is essential for spiritual growth, which is why both LDS and Orthodox emphasize it. A healthy prayer rule is a lifeline, binding us daily to God, the saints, and our fellow believers. This guide hopes to offer guidance and direction to help you start, maintain, and grow, as well as a life-giving, sustainable prayer rule.

If you are new to Orthodox Christianity, you may have heard the term Prayer Rule, but if you come from an LDS background, you certainly have never heard of this before.

What Is a Prayer Rule?

A *prayer rule* is a set of daily prayers and spiritual practices designed to help you stay consistent and grounded in your relationship with God. In Orthodoxy, prayer is not just about asking for help but also about cultivating the presence of God within our lives. Prayer sanctifies us, heals us, and strengthens our souls.

St. Theophan the Recluse reminds us that prayer is “the breath of the spirit.” Physical bodies need oxygen, so our souls require prayer to live and grow in grace.

Here is some advice that my spiritual father gave me when I was first starting out - as I was preparing myself for baptism.

1. Get the Orthodox Prayer Book - become familiar with it, read through some prayers, and start small and slowly. Find some that resonate with you and start there. Yes, these are pre-written prayers, but improvising your own every single evening and morning can be tiring, and I often find myself running out of things to say, so I don’t think it hurts to have some help in the form of prayers written by the Saints of the Church.

   1. Using prayers from a Book does not mean that you cannot add your own LDS or Protestant-style improvised prayers into your prayer rule. I routinely do both.

2. Don’t go overboard and burn yourself out day 1. Start with something you feel confident you can do every day. Start slowly and start small with the objective to grow over time as you grow and change.

3. Build yourself an Icon Corner that you can use for contemplation, meditation and prayer. Note, You are not praying to the icons, they are just there to remind you that you are praying in the presence of God, The Holy Mother, and the Saints. I look at them to get myself in the right mindset and to connect with and feel love for the individuals portrayed in the icons.

   1. My icon corner has taken over the corner of my bedroom my wife used to practise Yoga. A soft yoga mat is on the floor in front of my icon corner. The icons are placed on a short shelf with some candles and an incense burner. I recommend the yoga mat if you are going to be kneeling and you have hard floors.

My additional advice:

3. Approach this as *your* prayer rule. It’s not a rule being imposed on you from somewhere else or by someone else. It’s a “rule” you get to make on your own and modify over time as necessary.

4. Don’t view the name “rule” in legalistic terms. Think of a “rule” more like a “ruler” where it is something you are using to measure your practice and progress. Somedays, you may fall short; some days, you may overachieve. That’s to be expected. It’s not a law that someone will punish you for not getting exactly right each time.

5. View it as a sacred time you are gifting to yourself, where you can have the space to unwind, relax, and reflect. This is the attitude that I adopted for daily meditation practice as a Buddhist, and I found it quite helpful.

6. View prayer as a practice, not a religious obligation. You are developing your practice when you pray or work on your prayer rule. Same mentality as Buddhist practice or yoga practice.

7. Put together a good playlist of orthodox music that puts you in a spiritual frame of mind and helps you calm down, take a breath, and be open.

8. If, for some reason, at the end of the day, you are just really too exhausted, truncate what you usually do and make it up tomorrow. The last thing I wanted to do was make my prayer rule an obligation that I needed to get through as quickly as possible. So when I really felt that I couldn’t follow it on a particular day, I would make it short and then go directly to bed. I didn’t want to condition myself to associate my prayer rule with feelings of extreme fatigue, annoyance, and obligation. If I did that, I’d be back where I was as an LDS - and we all know how well that went for me.

   1. This is one of the nice things about Orthodoxy: they are not legalistic. They are flexible and understand and respect the limitations of people and the pressures of daily life.

   2. That said, there have been nights where I was tired, knelt down to say my prayers, and fell asleep at some point. When I woke up, I picked up where I left off, or truncated them and then went to bed.

Wait a minute, a Prayer Book? Isn’t this “vain repetition?”