Thanksgiving prayers are special. They are born in the depths of the heart of a believer. Such a prayer not only speaks words of gratitude to the Saints or the Lord himself. It inspires the believer, fills his soul with peace, and his thoughts with righteousness. Such prayer serves as a basis for strengthening the faith of others.
The prayer of gratitude to God for help is especially inspiring, because it is much easier for a person to experience, and others to understand this feeling, if it is born in response to the attention and support of the Almighty. However, the concept of gratitude in Christianity is much broader than gratitude.
What is gratitude?
Gratitude is the basis of the creed, it is no less important than humility or non-resistance. This feeling leaves no room in the soul for resentment, sorrow, envy, anger, hatred and other vices that eat away a person from the inside.
Gratitude, not only the feeling that is born in the heart after helpin worldly concerns and affairs. In relation to the Almighty, it is constantly present in the thoughts of the believer. This is the state of the soul of a person in which he abides every moment.
Thank you for what?
What to be thankful for - initially not quite the right approach to prayer. Orthodox thanksgiving prayers, like Catholic or Protestant ones, are pronounced not only for something, but also in spite of something. In fact, this is a daily gratitude to the Almighty for everything - a new day, rain or sun, food on the table, shelter over your head, clothes and shoes, the he alth of children and loved ones, peace in the country and much more. The only correct answer to the question of what you need to thank the Lord for is: “For everything.” For everything there is. For everything that doesn't exist. For what happened, and, most importantly, for what did not happen.
Faith, like prayers of thanksgiving, does not imply specifics, it is irrational from the very beginning and is based on something much more than logic and understanding of the nature of things. But, unfortunately, a person is not perfect, and such an ability to be grateful is initially understandable and not close to everyone. However, any feeling is given to every person from birth, you just need to find it in yourself and let it develop. Thanksgiving prayers that are said daily, and those that express gratitude to the Holy Saints and the Almighty for help in worldly chores and worries, can help with this.
It is not necessary to order prayers in churches. To begin with, you can try to silently thank the Lord forfood sent or for every day lived.
What kind of prayers are there?
Thanksgiving prayers in Russian, as in any other language, are very diverse and do not have a clear division into points.
The Almighty and the Holy Saints are addressed both in personal prayer and when ordering a special service. A prayer service is not at all a way for the church to earn money, it is a chance given to a believer to express the fullness of his overwhelming feelings. It is not at all necessary to order prayers, this is done according to the inner call, the command of the heart. That is, when a person wants to do this, it is to order a prayer service, and not to stand by the icon with a candle. Coming to the temple and ordering a thanksgiving service just because it is customary, necessary, supposed, should not be.
There are also prayers read daily. These are prayers of thanksgiving for Holy Communion, and appeals to the Holy Saints and Intercessors, and to the Lord himself, and to the Most Holy Theotokos. Although their texts are available in finished form, this does not mean at all that the words should be learned by heart and recited like a poem at a school exam. Prayer must pass through the heart, even everyday prayer, which, when brought up in the faith, becomes a habit just like the word “hello.”
However, when an adult person comes to the Lord, ready-made texts are more likely to help him than they are an axiom of a spoken prayer. Not everyone can express in their own words, even to themselves, in their thoughts, what they want. In these cases, ready-madeprayers.
What is a prayer service?
This is a special kind of worship performed in temples. The most common, that is, in demand among parishioners, are considered to be:
- water consecrated;
- with akathist;
- thank you;
- pleading.
Prayers with an akathist include reading the glorifications of the Holy Saints, any religious holiday, or the Mother of God, or the Almighty himself in a special sequence.
Thanksgiving prayers are read in turn after the end of the liturgy.
Is there an order in reading prayers?
When a clergyman reads a prayer service ordered by a parishioner, a certain traditional sequence is observed. At its core, this sequence briefly reflects the same list of readings that make up the entire service. Prayer includes:
- canon or beginning;
- troparion;
- litany;
- reading texts from the Gospel;
- prayer.
The difference between thanksgiving prayers is not very significant, these services are carried out in accordance with all the rules. The only difference is that their prayer of thanksgiving to the Lord God, the Saints or the Mother of God ends with a mention of what the parishioner is grateful for. The clergy willingly read such prayers, since they are a clear example of the fact that everyone is rewarded according to his faith, and not just according to his deeds. That is, this is a kind of demonstration for those who do not have strong faith, who are tormented by doubts orfor parishioners who pray diligently, but without a soul, just because it is necessary.
What is the most common prayer?
The most common words of appreciation for believers are:
- Jesus Christ;
- Holy Mother of God;
- To Nicholas the Wonderworker;
- blessed old woman Matrona of Moscow;
- to your Guardian Angel.
Often there are prayers of thanksgiving for Holy Communion in churches. However, this is very arbitrary, since there is no way to take into account the thoughts of people standing in front of the icons, they are known only to God.
Prayer to the Lord Jesus
Prayer to Jesus Christ, thanksgiving or any other, the most demanded by both the parishioners and the clergy. It is not surprising that there are much more varieties of such prayers than texts addressing Saints, Angels or the Blessed Virgin.
Indeed, to whom does even an unbelieving atheist turn when he is in great despair? To the Lord Jesus. Pray to God as your heart dictates. It is absolutely not necessary to memorize the words of prayers, moreover, they are not sent down from above, but compiled by clergymen. However, prayer is a support for the soul. A ready-made prayer is the first step in faith, a support on the path to spiritual peace and harmony for a person. Therefore, it is also impossible to simply deny them.
A prayer of thanksgiving to the Lord God, said daily, can be like this:
“God Almighty, thank you for the gift of the day. I ask you to fill it with light andmercy, bestow happy good feelings on my soul and cleanse my thoughts of filth. I thank you, Lord Almighty, for your mercy and I pray to guide me on the true path, protect me from the Evil One and his intrigues. I thank you, Lord Almighty, for daily bread, shelter and water, for the light and cares of the day that you bestowed. Amen.”
Prayer to Jesus Christ, thanksgiving and glorifying the Lord, can be like this:
“Lord Jesus, I thank you for my well-being and I no longer grumble, but rejoice. Thank you, Lord, for the pacification of my passions and peace in the house. I praise you, Lord Jesus, now and forever and ever. I praise you, for you gave me good friends, opened my soul to people and pacified pride. I praise you, Lord, for you gave me a piece of bread and shelter, guided me in life and filled my heart with joy. I thank you, Lord, and praise you. Amen.”
How do they pray for Holy Communion?
Such thanksgiving prayers are part of the service in the temple and have a certain sequence. The order of this type of prayer is:
- praise the Lord;
- thanks Jesus;
- prayer of Saint Basil the Great;
- reading the petition of Simeon Metaphrastus;
- appeal to the Almighty "for the remission of sins";
- words to the Blessed Virgin Mary;
- remembrance of the Trinity;
- troparion (to the one to whom the liturgy was held, as a rule, John Chrysostom);
- communion of parishioners.
That is, such prayers are not performed independently. However,while attending the service, you need to understand what exactly is happening in the temple, so you need to know what is included in the prayer for Communion.
How do they pray to the Mother of God?
The thanksgiving prayer to the Most Holy Theotokos is not much different from a similar appeal to the Lord. The Blessed Virgin is thanked both daily and in a fit of gratitude for her help in recovery, solving problems, getting rid of misfortunes. You can pray in your own words, and with the help of ready-made texts. Orthodoxy, unlike Catholicism and the Protestant branch of Christianity, is loyal to its own comprehension and reinterpretation of ready-made prayers, since this indicates that the parishioner comprehends the words of the text.
The thanksgiving prayer to the Most Holy Theotokos can be like this:
“Most Holy Mother of God, I thank and glorify you for your mercy and intercession before the Throne of the Lord. For filling the soul with joy and satisfying sorrows and sorrows. For the he alth of my children and parents. For warmth in the house and peace on my land. For the satiety of my stomach and well-being. I thank and glorify you, Blessed Mother of God, for delivering my family from blasphemous thoughts, for saving me from filth and misfortunes sent by the Evil One. I thank and glorify you, Blessed Mother of God, for protection from sin and unkind deeds, for removing greed from my mind, for the purity of my thoughts and aspirations. For the piety of my children's deeds and the piety of my parents. Thank you and praise you, Holy Mother of God. Amen.”
How to pray to NicholasWonderworker?
This saint is the most revered and beloved among the people, not only in Russia, but all over the world. There are a lot of prayers to him, however, as a rule, in every temple next to his icon-painting image, you can always hear a whisper or a quiet speech that does not follow any prescriptions and comes straight from a person’s heart.
The thanksgiving prayer to Nicholas the Wonderworker, uttered at the beginning of the last century in churches, sounded like this:
Nikolai Ugodnik, father. Nicholas the Wonderworker, father. Thank you earthly, low bow. For your great help, for your attention. May thy name be glorified. The path of the afflicted, who remain in your mercy, will not overgrow to you. Thank you, great intercessor, Nikolai Ugodnik, father. Amen.”
A prayer of thanksgiving to Nicholas the Wonderworker can be like this:
“Our good shepherd, intercessor in the eyes of the Lord, merciful mentor, St. Nicholas. I beg you to hear my thanksgiving, servant of God (name). Just as you heard my plea for help and responded to it. I thank you, Holy Pleaser, for your great care, thankfulness and invaluable help. I thank you for a good life and the resolution of grave worries, deliverance from bad thoughts and salvation from misfortunes. I thank you, Saint Nicholas, for the gift and I pray you not to leave me, the servant of God (to them), with your mercy and attention. I beg you with gratitude for intercession before the Lord and the purification of my path and thoughts. I thank you, Saint Nicholas, both now and forever. Amen.”
How to pray to the guardian angel?
Prayer of Thanksgivingto the guardian angel is somewhat different from similar appeals to the Lord, the Mother of God and the Saints. The difference lies in the fact that before the pronunciation of thanksgiving words, it is customary to praise and express gratitude to God, and only after that turn to your heavenly intercessor and patron.
A thanksgiving prayer to a guardian angel might be:
“I turn to you, the servant of God (name), in an earnest prayer with gratitude for great help and mercy. I thank you, warrior of Christ, for your care and attention to earthly and worldly misfortunes. Thank you for deliverance from sorrows and troubles, for he alth and resolution from the heavy burden of worries that blackened my sinful thoughts. Glory be thy name, both now and forever. Amen.”
How do they pray to the old woman Matrona?
Matrona of Moscow is a blessed old woman, a saint who has glory, who stepped not only beyond Moscow, but also beyond the borders of Russia. Prayers are offered to her from the coast of the Arctic to the Mediterranean Seas, from the East to the lands of Western Europe. Of course, in the West, immigrants from Russia pray to the old woman.
A thanksgiving prayer to Matrona can be like this:
“Blessed Matronushka, marked by the Lord. Hear and accept my prayer, servant of God (name). I turn to you, All-Seeing and All-Hearing, with great gratitude and light in my soul, with pure thoughts and goodness in my heart. I thank you for delivering me by the Lord God from my sorrows and sufferings, through your great and merciful intercession. Thank you, Holy Matronushka, for strengthening my faith and deliverancefrom doubts, the healing of my sick body and the cleansing of my soul from demonic filth. Thank you, Holy Seer, for the great help, for preventing me, the servant of God (name), from getting bogged down in the bustle of the world and forgetting about the spiritual light. I pray you to preserve the purity of my thoughts, to guide me, the servant of God (name), along the path of charitable deeds, to avert misfortune and demonic deprivation from my house and children. Amen.”
When praying to the Holy Matrona, one should not forget that all the strength of the blessed old woman came from the Lord God. Blind from birth, Matrona never engaged in traditional healing or medicine, did not know a single folk herb and was completely helpless in everyday life. However, the miracles she performed were comparable only to the power possessed by the life-giving icons. The matron raised the bedridden patients to their feet and healed the sick only by the power of prayer to the Lord God. This woman's faith worked the miracles that made her a Saint, not psychic powers or anything like that.
That is why, praying to the Matrona, you need to ask her not for help, but for intercession before the Lord. It is not the elder herself who helps the suffering, but the Lord, who listens to the great faith of the Moscow Saint. The same applies to all other prayers to other Saints, both pleading and grateful.
