Apart from private or home prayer,
which is said in private, according to the words of the Savior, When you pray,
go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father Who is in secret;
and your Father Who sees in secret will reward you (Matt. 6:6), as a Christian
one must also participate in church prayer, conducted during Divine Service,
before the gathering of the faithful. The importance and significance of this
type of prayer at the Divine Services is stressed in the Gospels. The Lord
Himself, during His earthly life, used to visit the Temple of Jerusalem, as
well as the synagogue, and pray therein. He often prayed, not only in solitude,
but also before the people, and the first Christians were day by day, attending
the temple together (Acts 2:46). Therefore our Holy
Orthodox Church — our Mother — strictly commands her children to attend Divine
Services, which is particularly essential to our salvation.
By its very significance church
prayer is incomparably higher than prayer said at home, for as St. John Chrysostom
tells us, a single “Lord, have mercy” uttered in church together with the congregation
of believers, is worth a hundred prostrations during lonely home prayer. Why is
this so? Because our Lord said: For where two or three are gathered in My name,
there am I in the midst of them (Matt. 18:20).
Some say that it is not essential to
go to church to pray, that one can pray just as well at home. “Beware, for you
deceive only yourselves,” warns St. John Chrysostom. “You can, of course, pray
at home, but you cannot there pray as you can in church, amidst so many people,
speaking to God as with one voice. When you pray to the Lord alone you will not
be heard as soon as when you pray together with your brethren, for together
with them your prayer is great: you pray in unanimity, concord, a union of love
and of prayer with the officiating priests. That is why the priests stand
before us, that the prayers of the people, who are weak in spirit, may be
united with their stronger prayers and thus be uplifted to Heaven. Such prayer
has much greater power, is far more bold and effective than private prayer
recited at home. During church prayer it is not only people who lift up their
voices, but Angels, too, come to the Lord with prayer, and the Archangels also
make their devotions to Him.”