Establishing a “rule” of prayer
When a carpenter builds partition wall sections for a house, walls that will form rooms and bear the entire structure of the house from the foundation all the way up to the roof, the gravity of the earth along with a very simple ancient tool can be used to make sure the walls are erected in a straight manner that efficiently and effectively supports the building. This tool is called a plumb bob. Before laser levels, a heavy brass or stone weight that was hung from a string coming to a sharp point was used to determine what was straight or truly perpendicular to the ground or floor. From this true straight vertical a true straight horizontal can be established, ensuring true square corners in either the vertical or horizontal planes that would provide for the most rigid structure.
This very basic practice to determine “straight” forms the derivation among several languages for the root word that refers to “cane.” In ancient Greek the word is κανών. In Arabic the word is قانون ( qānūn ). And in Hebrew, the word is קנה (kaneh). From this lineage of word usage we understand canon as something by which another is measured, such as a measuring rod or rule, a carpenter’s line or measuring tape, even the means to measure the length of a jump in the Olympiad. The cane that grew along the river, that which we all learned had such a significant role to play in the establishment of civilizations, was the raw material for this reed or rod that helped to measure and to maintain a straight line.
The Orthodox Christian use of this term canon has a direct connection with the manifestation of divinity. The anointed One, the Messiah, He is the righteous and eternal judge and the One beside whom we all are measured. He is also the One by whom we all are made straight; for we are being baptized into Christ and are putting on Christ so that it is no longer we who live, but it is Christ who lives in us.
The Church offers us the way by which to live our lives so that this deifying work is accomplished in us, and the needful effort is our work that produces holiness, the work that reveals more and more the evidence of our maker and redeemer in us. While that work encompasses many disciplines, one of them, perhaps the most important one, is prayer. In order to “pray ceaselessly” we have to make the effort simply to pray; to orient ourselves toward the God of heaven and earth, and to love that God with all of our being. This is prayer; to offer our adoration through awareness of God, orienting mind and body before our Creator.
Given the world and our flesh, the myriad fractured lives made evident in our age by chronic distraction and the avoidance of any cane or reed by which we are to be measured, many are seeking God, and are coming to hear and to ponder such a thing as a “rule of prayer.” This is a good thing. A problem that emerges, however, is the misunderstanding of the term “rule.” The first thoughts about this phrase often are guided by the perception or desired conclusion that Orthodox Christianity is “rigorous Christianity,” where everything is more lengthy, more demanding, and from that perspective “rule” is heard as expectation, obligation, requirement, or as effort exerted as an end unto itself. Certainly, there are times in our lives where we need a good reed swat to urge us to spend a moment in adoration, to be reminded to pray, thus to have a rule as a motivation. That necessity is not being overlooked or disparaged by noticing this tendency toward rigor.
But, when one accepts “rule” to be a means by which we are transformed, as a means by which we are putting on Christ, and by which we are being changed by and into His glory, not as an end unto itself, then it is our Christ likeness that shows us to be adorers of our God. The One who taught us to pray is the One who prays in us by the Holy Spirit. We are the ones who must measure up to Christ. Christ is the perfect vertical and is the rule by which we are measured.
This is how the Orthodox Church has come to understand the wall made with a plumb line, the wall on which the Lord stood, holding a plumb line. The Lord proclaims that He will set a plumb line in the midst of Israel. He has mitigated their transgression twice before without their repentance. Now, the Lord is going to establish the reed, the rod, the measuring line by which the nation would be judged (Amos chapter 7). The Orthodox Church understands this canon (plumb line) to be the Messiah, by whom we will be judged, and the One against Whom we are measured. His example and teaching of prayer is what we seek to emulate, and it is also the pattern against which we will be examined.
This Christ, the eternal Word of the Father, the One who was and who is and ever shall be, becoming incarnate, emulated the life of prayer. Whether going into the wilderness, up onto a mountain, into a garden, or just away from his followers, taking time to orient his flesh in adoration before the Father, Jesus showed his disciples that no one was exempt from this necessity. He said to His disciples, when you pray say, “Our Father, who art in the heavens.” This instruction by His example while being fully God and fully human, established the plumb line by which we are measured; it made the vertical axis of our existence as creatures the criterion for our life, our very being.
And so, we must pray. We must emulate the One who emulated the divine communion of love that is within the Holy Trinity. Without prayer, the foundation of our life is shifting sand. A prayerless day is a day that is void of life because it is void of love for the source of life, it is a testimony of love only for ourselves. Adoration of the Holy Trinity through prayer is our step away from selfishness, and a step toward true fellowship and communion with our God.
When our understanding is that Christ is the “rule” or the measuring rod by being the example for us in everything, not singularly by giving a rule to follow, but by commanding the rule while also being the “rule” by his own action, then we might have a good place from which to establish a rule of prayer. Such a rule will be an emulation of Christ. Again, that does not take away the importance of establishing a routine that we are compelled or obliged to follow. Because, try as we may, we find it difficult to pray, to stop and adore the Creator, to love the Lord with all of our being. Especially, such an effort is made difficult when our zeal to follow a rule as an end in itself creates a lengthy or arduous rule, or we ask our priest to establish a rule for us that is like what we imagine a monastic rule of prayer to be. The moments of the day that could contain a spoken petition, or word of gratitude, or even silence from which the Jesus Prayer could flow, all these moments are passed over to prefer the way we think we must pray in order to satisfy the rule, to pray “by the book.” When the Morning Prayers or Evening Prayers seem to be too long, and we find it difficult, even impossible to offer them over consecutive days, we confess our transgression, but tend to despair that we are unfaithful servants. The temptation to have a “rule” to show how serious we are about prayer, thus the longer the better, creates an expectation we find difficulty accomplishing.
Some hope for us is found in the measuring rod that is Christ, who would have us to take advantage of the various moments that might not be as we rise from bed, or as we prepare to sleep (while those are indeed good times to pray), but as we go through the day itself. Imagine our Lord passing by a hillside and saying to His disciples, “wait here while I go up this hillside to pray.” When does that hillside present itself in our lives? Sometimes it might happen for us that a garden, a creek, a dense wood, or a quiet empty room, gives us a minute to say, “Our Father.” Many of us spend an hour or more each day driving to or from work. If that drive is solitary, instead of listening to all kind of distraction that draws one toward selfish motivations, allow for the silence of the automobile to become filled with, “Our Father.” When a mundane task around the house tempts one to self pity and the false imagination that life would be better somewhere else, say “Our Father” while doing the task.
The Orthodox Christian Prayers, published by St. Tikhon’s Monastery Press (2023), contains a very helpful section, “Some Short Prayer Rules.” This is not offered to replace the other classic moments of the day for the hours of prayer practiced over nearly two millennia. It is offered as a means to keep a rule, to emulate the Rule Who Is, Jesus Christ, “especially when the time for prayer is short.” Among the rules offered, from such emulators of Christ as St. Pachomius of Tabennisi, St. Theophanes of New Lake (including a prayer of St. Mardarius), there is a rule attributed to the teaching of St. Seraphim of Sarov that directs: “Upon arising from sleep and going to bed, ‘Our Father’ thrice, in honor of the Holy Trinity. Then, ‘Rejoice, O Virgin Theotokos’ thrice, and the Symbol of Faith [‘I believe in One God…’]. Throughout the day the Jesus Prayer and other prayers.” [prayers such as: Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me, a sinner, and save me who am fallen; Lord Jesus Christ, save me whom am sinking, as thou didst save Peter; O Lord, our Savior, save me, a sinner; Only-begotten Son of God, have mercy on us, and save thy world; Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy on us and on thy Church and thy world.]
Such suggestions of a “short rule” will pridefully be rejected by some as not being rigorous enough, not being long enough. Since the rules are originating from such masters of the ascetic struggle, maybe the rejection of them will be seen to be unreasonable. In addition to these suggested short rules, there is also the practice of reciting the “O Heavenly King” and Trisagion through Our Father, then adding the Prayer of the Hours (“O thou who at every season and every hour…”) at 6:00am, 9:00am, 12:00noon, and 3:00pm. Consulting the Horologion (Book of the Hours) and any other typical published Prayer Book with your priest will help to fill out the abbreviations above.
Following the Rule, who is Christ, we will be shown the way to pray, and by attempting to do what we are able, the habit of prayer will slowly replace other habits. By expanding the moments of the day that we might be inclined to pray, we may find it possible not to be overcome by the heavier discipline of lengthy prayer, or our shame for not accomplishing it. Both short and long rules will be our help in time of trouble. Draw an arrow from both quivers and send a prayer that will lay low the adversary.
by, Fr. David Arnold
