Orthodoxy Live July 13, 2025

Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. This is Orthodoxy Live with Fr. Evan Armitas, a live interactive call-in program where your questions about the Orthodox faith are addressed. Fr. Evan is the priest at St. Spirit and Greek Orthodox Church in Loveland, Colorado. Call in your question at 1-855-AF-RADIO. That's 1-855-237-2346. Here now is Fr. Evan.

Good evening and welcome to Orthodoxy Live, your live call-in show about the Orthodox faith, her teachings, and her traditions. My name's Father Evan. We're streaming to you live here on Ancient Faith Radio. It's June 13th. uh 2025 welcome to the program i'd love to hear from you tonight and as always you can reach me um while we're on air by dialing 1-855-237-2346, 1-855-AF-RADIO. And whatever questions are on your mind, I'd love to discuss them with you.

If you're unable to call into the program, many of you still write to me at orthodoxylive at ancientfaith.com. If that's too hard to remember, ask. at ancientfaith.com. I get those questions. Don't always get a chance to get to them. I keep thinking we need to do a couple of special editions where I just go through the mail, you know, an orthodoxy live mail session.

because there's so many questions that come in. It's just hard to get to them all. I apologize if your question hasn't been answered. But I do hear from listeners who say, hey, Father, I didn't get my question answered, but I've been spending time going through the backlog of episodes, going back, gosh, 13 years, listening to the various callers and questions that have come in throughout the years.

If you don't know how to do that, you just subscribe to this as a podcast. And of course, you can go back, whatever service you use to listen to podcasts and check out the more ancient. podcast here on Ancient Faith Radio. A couple of things to just share with you. One of them is, you know, not that my youngest child ever listens to this program. He's a teenage boy.

He just turned 14 on Saturday. But maybe one day, as the years go by, he'll be listening back to his buh-bye, as he calls me, on air. And so I wish my sweet son, Spirit, on happy 14th birthday. In addition, in my parish today, we received Father Benedict Anderson, who served for many years as a Roman Catholic priest, monk.

in a monastery in Ireland and moved back to Colorado to care for his aging father who was sick with cancer and connected with our parish and spent the last several years praying and worshiping with us. slowly discerning God's will for him and eventually coming to the decision that he wanted to continue his priesthood in the Orthodox Church. And so Archbishop L. P. La Foros of America, along with Metropolitan Constantine of Denver, received him. And he was received by Chris Mason.

this past weekend at our parish of St. Spiridon and then served today as First Liturgy along with myself and the other clergy here at St. Spiridon's and will soon be assigned to a parish that he'll be serving. here in the metropolis of denver but we wish father benedict many years and god's blessings as he continues his ministry in in the lord's vineyard um so and again

Again, you're listening to Orthodox Live here on Ancient Faith Radio. It's July 13th, 2025, just after the top of the hour, and welcome to the program. One last announcement before we get to... the first question of the program is that if you are streaming with us, you can stream with us on YouTube or Facebook and you'd like to ask a question, you can do that in the chat box and our producer.

will get that question over to me. So the first question that comes in tonight is from Sarah, who is asking her question via YouTube.

And it's the following. Father Evan, regarding the terrible disaster in Texas, why doesn't God protect those girls? The answer I give myself is we don't know why he didn't stop it. He must have a higher purpose for it. Is that right? You know, Sarah, one of the things that we've talked about often on this show is the nature of suffering. how it has entered into creation, and whether or not this came up again last week in the program, whether or not God is truly caring for his creation.

and what is happening here. And one of the perspectives that the Church has presented is understanding the nature of the fall as something that occurs not only within... the human race, you know, and our own disobedience towards the law of love and the teachings of God towards love and relationship, you know, relationships of love, but also... It occurs in creation. And that creation itself has been disfigured. And we see that often in creation. Creation does no longer operate.

in a completely peaceful way. Some of that has been aided by human involvement, and some of that is just part of the disfigured natural order. you know, mudslides and hurricanes and tornadoes. These are not God's intent. But if you will, God has introduced this sort of risk when he created. because he wanted his creation to be free and to respond to him and his action of creation by remaining in love.

and obedience to God's plan and design for his creation. And when that does not occur and did not occur, it has sort of led to this destructive reality. Now, there are times... where we also understand something that occurs either to a person or in history in which God has acted. And God has acted in a way that we might see as punitive. It's sort of like me with teenage daughters at some point. Anything I would do that would restrict them was seen as a punishment.

You need to be in by 9 o'clock on a school night. It was not a punishment. It was a restriction. But there are other times where there is a punishment. Perhaps a child has done something and there needs to be a consequence for them to learn. So the learning is therapeutic. It leads to them growing as a human being. This happens all the time. And that does occur where God corrects us or he utilizes something that has occurred to us for correction. I don't think we can say...

any of what I've just said applies to what occurred in Texas. No, this was a disaster, really a horrific event. And the proper response is to say, this is not God's will. nor His design. Do we understand or believe that, you know, God, as He has demonstrated throughout the Scriptures and, if you will, throughout the life of the Church, that He... will take what is tragic and do whatever he can to make what's tragic turn into a victory. Yes, we see that.

you know, in the death and resurrection of Christ. And this is how God operates. Yet what happened is a tragedy, not God's will, and the loss of life and of, you know, health and property. is not according to God's providence or will. And we should respond by rendering aid and prayer, by literally... those who are on the ground helping, those of us who can't be there by sending money or supplies, by offering prayer and support.

And there is an element that we just cannot understand, and I don't think we ever will, as to what happened there and what does happen throughout the world until... Like in the story of Job, we come face-to-face with the Lord God, and our answer will be found in Him. All right. Again, you're listening to Ethoxy Life here on Ancient Faith Radio. The number to call is 1-855-237-2346, 1-855-AF-RADIO.

I apologize. Whenever we're talking about suffering and sickness and death and tragedy, our answers, you know, often are hollow. We try to respond in our mind with some sort of answer that makes sense to us. But really our answer is always going to be found in the response of love. as we've seen Christians do through the centuries, just like we saw maybe with the first responders in 9-11, as people rush out, we rush in. We respond with sacrificial love to serve and to help.

We just had a team return from a work trip in Tennessee related to the events that occurred there and the disasters that occurred. over a year ago, and we have another team going, and that's how we respond, right? And that's how God himself responds by coming alongside those in need, right? All right, so again, questions.

coming in from YouTube, and this is from Paula. Paula writes, I have a question about the relics of saints. Why is it that they don't leave them where they are buried? What's the significance of putting them around the world? When we think about relics, now for some people who've never heard of relics, let's explain. The church does have... in her possession, the relics of saints, and that is often their remains, you know, bones, or for some saints whose bodies do not...

seek corruption or decompose. We have their bodies. It can often be what is sometimes called a secondary relic, you know, the vestments of, let's say, a priest, saint, or the possessions. of one of the saints of the church. We often have locations, you know, St. Bridget's Well, or, you know, a place where... a holy person lived, like the cell of someone like St. Arsenios the Great, or their home, you know, for St. Nektarios of Vellena.

His little apartment, his little home at the monastery that he lived the last days of his life is something we can go and visit, a pilgrimage site. Now, the understanding that we have... from scriptures and from the life of the church is that God sanctifies his creation.

enters into his creation. This is somewhat related to the first question of tonight. He enters into his creation and he reclaims it. And he... exhibits his truth, his beauty, his love, his grace in people, in their lives, often even in a place that God visits. and demonstrates his loving presence and his creation. And these places and these people become, if you will, a touchpoint.

by which and through which we are edified in faith towards God, and God communicates His grace. We see this in the New Testament. When Christ himself is walking through a crowd and a woman reaches out to touch the hem of his garment and is healed. We see the same occur in the Acts of the Apostles. Even the shadow of Peter brings healing to the sick. Or items that St. Paul blesses are brought and laid on the sick and they recover.

We see this in Christ's use of, let's say, the well at Bethsaida, right, that he sends the blind man there to wash and be made clean. if you will, and receive a site. And throughout salvation history, we've erected places, you know, temples, you know, churches. or pilgrimage sites where people go and really encounter God. We do that even in our homes. We set a place aside where God...

And each of us go to pray, even a private place inside our home. And we might even, within that space, place a cross. And the cross is, if you will, a visual. reminder and we might even venerate that cross by giving it a kiss just as we might treat our bibles with respect and honor And if we're Orthodox, we may go to the church, and while we're at church, we might receive a flower, let's say, from the tomb of Christ, you know, when we celebrate Good Friday.

We might bring that flower home and place it within our prayer space as a remembrance of God's presence in that divine service and our reaction to it. The saints themselves, as to the question is, you know, how is it that the Church sends out their relics throughout the world, and why would it do that? The saints gave themselves over, if you will.

um to the church and we see very early on that the church celebrated its services over their tombs you know in the catacombs and um this became the place where the Christian community gathered to remember the complete offering of oneself to God. That's what God asks of us, right? To offer ourselves up as a living sacrifice.

This is mentioned in the scriptures as well. And what part of ourselves? Do we just give a small portion? Do we hold anything back? The idea is no, we give ourselves completely. the Lord speaks in rather dramatic fashion about this. You know, if you consider his statements about holding back our love. and placing other things before him. Or even his warnings about clinging to sin and how we should be ready to sacrifice whatever it is that causes us to sin.

Even if it's a body part, he says, you know, our hand or our eye. So, you know, the saints gave everything for the love of Christ and this gift of themselves. you know is received by christ and his church which is his body of which he is the head and we continue to recognize this gift and if you will

through Christ's grace and their gift, we share this gift throughout the world. And the saints offer themselves, even in death, completely over to Christ and His Church. And so it's one of the reasons why... Their relics are found throughout the world. And it edifies us, right? Now, of course, God does not need to work through a place or a person. He doesn't have to. You know, a well, a church, a saint, a relic, none of it. But God chooses to.

You know, he chooses to send his grace that way, just as he chooses to encounter us directly as well. But he's made glorious in his saints, right? And their love of him, their martyric death often, it's upon this that the church has been built. We can't forget that. Maybe we do in the modern day. But of course, if you will, it is the blood of the martyrs that watered the church and led to its growth. And that continues to this day. So thanks for the question.

All right. Seems like it's a YouTube day. And that happens sometimes here on the show where we are hearing more and more from people who are streaming with us on YouTube and not necessarily people who are calling in live. If you do want to get in to the program, 1-855-237-2346. Here's another question from one of our YouTube listeners today, and it is, why are new icons placed in the altar when purchased? How long are they supposed to stay there, and is that required?

Well, this is connected to the previous question about relics. When we think about space, and I've said this before in the program, we can often think about space. in our own homes in a way that differentiates the importance of a space. Like, you know, the dinner table is probably a little bit more important than the broom closet. St. Paul makes the same distinction in his writings when he's talking about the human body. And it's true for our churches as well, that when we attend a church...

There is, of course, the nave where the faithful are gathered in prayer. And then behind... The icon screen in an Orthodox Church is an icon screen where the Holy Table is. That's the place upon which we set our offering to God and ask for Him to consecrate and sanctify it.

for us to receive of the body and the blood, right, from the bread and the wine that we offer. And so it's not uncommon, and it has been practiced, that people will bring... items that they're going to use in their homes for their prayer, maybe a cross, a prayer rope, an icon of the Lord to be placed in the altar. as a way of recognizing that there is God's action. If you think about today, in many churches, we don't find altars anymore.

This would have, of course, been incomprehensible to the apostles and to the church. And they understood the altar. as a place upon which one's sacrifice was laid and a place upon which God sanctified the offering and therefore the sacrifice and the people.

And then people received from that altar the sacrifice that had been placed. This is all over the Old Testament, certainly continues in the New. And so you... purchase an icon and you place it in there, an offering to God near his altar of sacrifice upon which he descends to consecrate and sanctify the gift that has been offered, and then you receive it back.

And this is a way of participating in the worship of our God and of the sacrifice of the altar. And it's a way in which God, if you will, visits his people. And we take that to our home. Now, typically, an item like an icon is brought into the altar for 40 days, which is, again, a number we find in the Holy Scriptures. And it's left there for 40 days. And then often a priest will offer a blessing over that upon the altar and then return it to the person who's brought it. All right. We've got...

Additional questions coming in. We're just coming up to the bottom of the hour. Let's take a quick break, and we'll be right back with Orthodoxy Live. Orthodoxy Live with Father Evan will be back in a moment. In the meantime, lines are open at 1-855-AF-RADIO. That's 1-855-237-2346.

This is Fr. Evan Armitas, priest at St. Spirit on Greek Orthodox Church in Loveland, Colorado, and the host of the Ancient Faith Radio, Sunday night call-in show, Orthodoxy Live. I am pleased to announce today the release of my first book for Ancient Faith Publishing, titled Toolkit for Spiritual Growth, A Practical Guide to Prayer, Fasting, and Almsgiving.

It seeks to provide a guide to the three basic and primary disciplines of Orthodox spirituality. Through these disciplines, Christ opened for us a path that frees us from the disordered way of life. has become normal for many, even though their hearts and minds tell them otherwise. Please join me in exploring the three-legged stool of Orthodox spiritual practice, prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. Books now available at store.ancientfaith.org.

And the title once again is Toolkit for Spiritual Growth. I look forward to sharing it with you. God bless. Father Evan is ready for your call, and our lines are open at 1-855-AF-RADIO. That's 1-855-237-2346. Here once again is Father Evan.

Well, welcome back to the program and it's nice to have you with us this evening. You know, I want to share with you a question that came in from Alex, who has written in from Edinburgh in Scotland, and he writes, Hi, Father. Can you tell me? If it's possible for Orthodox Christians to pray the rosary that is done by Roman Catholics to the Virgin, or should we just focus on the Jesus prayer? Well...

For those of you who are unfamiliar with any of those terms, the term Jesus prayer relates to a prayer sometimes also called the prayer of the heart. that has been said for millennia by Christians, and it goes like this, Lord Jesus Christ, this is the long version, Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy upon me, a sinner.

And it's repeated, often with the use of a prayer rope, sometimes prayer beads. And the prayer beads or rope can be of different length, has a different number of beads on it. And this prayer imitates the prayers found often in the life of Christ where we hear someone cry to the Lord, Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me.

A sinner, you know. And so this prayer can also be done in a shortened form. Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy upon me. Right? So that's the Jesus prayer. What is often known as the Rosary. is a prayer that we find in the Gospel of Luke. And so this prayer is a prayer that has turned into... Something used in devotion. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you. Blessed are you among women. Blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus Christ. This prayer is found.

within Luke's Gospel. Okay? And we can pray that prayer just as we pray many parts of the Scripture. Now... Here's the Trojan horse. I wanted to answer this question because it relates to something that's actually in the book that I just wrote. which is a sequel to the book that was just advertised, Toolkit for Spiritual Growth 2. And in the section on scripture, which is the first chapter of this sequel, I talk about...

not just reading the scriptures, but praying the scriptures. This is something that we maybe have forgotten. But, you know, the scriptures are prayed. We often are reciting scripture. prayer and so the statement found in the gospel is a prayer just as we we see Let's say in the Gospel of Matthew, the Lord offering a prayer to his disciples, known as our Father. And we can pray these prayers, just as we might find hymns.

in the scriptures, that we continue to pray, like, you know, the hymn of baptism that's found in Galatians, right? Or... Very common to our experience, maybe, is the prayers of the Old Testament found in the prayer book of the Old Testament, the Psalms. So, yes, of course we can pray. those words of Scripture. Now, there is a distinction in how a Roman Catholic will pray the rosary that we don't necessarily, or don't use, I should say.

Not necessarily we don't use, but rather we can just simply pray it. Now, the Orthodox Church also prays and places this prayer in Him. what is known as the Magnificat, also found in Luke's Gospel, where Mary responds to what has occurred by the descent of the Holy Spirit and the conception of Christ. with the following words my soul magnifies the lord and my spirit has rejoiced in god my savior for he has regarded the lowly estate of his maidservant

For behold, henceforth all generations shall call me blessed. For he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name. And his mercy is on those who fear him from generation to generation. He shone strength with his arm.

He has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. He has put down the mighty from their thrones and exalted the lowly. He has filled the hungry with good things and the rich he has sent empty away. He has helped his servant Israel in remembrance of his mercy. as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham, and to his seed forever. These verses found in the first chapter begin in verse 46, and they continue all the way through verse 55.

And if you attend an Orthodox prayer service in the matins or the Orthodox service in the morning, this is sung. We also sing the Beatitudes. And these are prayers. These are sung prayers, hymns, right? And so we shouldn't shy away from praying the scriptures.

Even if we're reading a passage that is not typically utilized, like, for example, the 50th Psalm, which is utilized in almost every service of the church, you know, have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy great mercy, you know, that saint. King and prophet David wrote, we can still learn and pray scriptures and should, right? An example of that is, Lord, I believe, help my unbelief.

Or, Lord, I'm not worthy that I should come under the roof of my house, but only say the word, and I shall be made well. You know, the first of those uttered by the man whose son was seized by... A sickness and the Lord healed. We find this after his transfiguration. Or the centurion who responded in the Gospel of Matthew to Jesus' death. or response to come and heal his servant, right? These can become our prayers, if you will. So thank you, Alex, for asking the question. All right.

This also comes in from one of our YouTubers. If Jesus goes to the Father in order to send the Spirit, then how do you not agree with the Filioque? So, the Filioque... is a theological statement made in the West. One of the things that we need to understand when addressing the idea of the filioque is that when the Church was...

was one, was unified. The creed, as it was developed within the church in response to a... desire to be cataphatic, in other words, to express with clarity the faith received by revelation of God through the preaching of the apostles. through the preservation of the saints, the fathers, and the Church, the creed did not include the filioque. That's just a historical fact. That is true for over a thousand years.

So much so that even within the West, the creed, as it was agreed upon in the ecumenical councils, was placed on plaques. and placed on the doors and pillars of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. The filioque introduced by bishops and... the faithful in Spain eventually spread within the West in a very...

sort of turbulent way was eventually adopted in the Roman Catholic Church. But it is not the original creed. It is not the creed of the ecumenical councils. And so it is a development, a theological era. It does not agree with Scripture. You know, the Scriptures do not say that the Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son. Rather, in the Gospel of John, I believe it's the 15th chapter, it might be verse 40.

I'm going from memory here. It says that the Spirit proceeds from the Father. That's it. It's possible that for some there's a confusion over this eternal procession of the Father, or the Spirit from the Father, and sort of the mission of the Spirit being sent into the world.

by the Son. You know, the Father sends, if you will, or the Spirit proceeds from the Father. Let me say that correctly. The Spirit proceeds from the Father, and we see in the baptism of Christ, it comes to rest upon the Son, and then the Son sends. the Spirit into the world, to draw all men to Him. But that's not the same thing as eternal procession. And, you know, really there isn't time here to go into all the theological...

problems that arise with a confirmation of the idea of the filioque. But even, I would say to my beloved, brothers and sisters who are Roman Catholic to reclaim their own history and to recognize that the Filioque is not Roman Catholic history. Rather, it is development. and in medieval Roman Catholicism and beyond that is not original to the Roman Catholic faith. And it is a turning away from their original proclamation and affirmation. And certainly it's not.

a proclamation or a teaching of the Unified Church and of the Church of the Seven Ecumenical Councils. So thanks for the question. All right. We're continuing here. with YouTube tonight. Again, if you want to call into the program, you can do so at 1-855-237-2346. All right, this comes in from Dr. Autumn.

She writes, why do we say in the creed that the son will come again to judge the living and the dead? They've capitalized and. Do we have to wait for the second coming to be judged?

What happens to those before then who have died? It's a good question, Autumn. Well, there is the understanding, and it's interesting that this question follows that about the filioque, where we have taken... the summation or the symbol of our faith, and we have in a cataphatic way, that means with clarity expressed what it is we believe, we have stated that the Lord returns to judge the living and the dead.

Where do we get that? Well, we get that from the Lord's words. Matthew 25, verse 31 through verse 46. When the Son of Man comes again in glory... That's a statement that Christ makes. And so the creed, as I was pointing out with this idea of, if you will, procession, the creed has to stay... connected to the scriptures. And what the Lord says is in verse 32, all the nations will be gathered before him and he will separate them one from another.

Now, the understanding that we have there, of course, is that, you know, if all the nations are assembled, the Lord is... having before him all those who are living on earth, right? But we also have, if you will, the reading from... St. Paul, who talks about the Lord's return, and this is read at the funeral service of the church, where those who are living...

shall not precede those who have passed, but both shall be caught up in the clouds to join the Lord. There is the understanding that the second coming brings about the judgment of the living and the dead. Right. And this is in the scriptures. It's also what the church has proclaimed since the time of the apostles, that there is this time of the second coming in which the living and the dead are judged.

We also see reference to this in other places of the New Testament scriptures. I think we can easily say that is true also of readings in the Old Testament. Almost too many to cite right now and hear on this program. But, you know, the second coming brings about the judgment.

the, if you will, eternal destination of the righteous and the sinner. And when we ask the question, well, what about... you know, those who've died prior to the Second Coming, what's going on with them, what we can tell from Scripture is that there is this, if you will, temporary, we say that, you know, with lots of asterisks, because if you will, St. Paul is one who is with the Lord. So if you will, he has run the race, he's received the crown.

He has been declared, if you will, righteous. He is a saint and the great apostle, right? So there's no question in the church that St. Paul... is with Christ, and to be with Christ is to be in the kingdom, right? He's not in a place of separation from the Lord. Yet even St. Paul, he will, if you will, be present. You know, when the second coming occurs. And at that time, as we teach and believe, his soul and his body shall be reunited.

And he writes about this, you know, like I said, in the reading that we use within the Orthodox funeral service. So, even the righteous... will, if you will, be present at the second coming. Now, are they judged, if you will, like the sinner is? Not in the same way, no.

here we can take our cue from the words of our Lord, and I think John 5, you know, the hour's coming, and now is when those who are here in the graves shall hear the voice of the Son of Man, and they shall pass from death into life. In other words, for those whose lives have been lived in faithfulness to Christ, to His teachings, they don't undergo...

you know, the judgment in the way the second coming, you know, and the judgment that accompanies it, you know, again, if you look at Matthew 25, you know, we hear that the righteous are told by the Lord. In a very interesting way, I want to pull up the actual passage. So give me a second here. It says that the Lord turns to... the righteous. And he says, then the king, that's Christ, will say to those on his right hand, to be on the right hand of God is to be of the righteous.

Come, you blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. We see no judgment in that statement. Rather, he goes on to... express their acts of love and obedience for i was hungry and you gave me food i was thirsty and you gave me drink i was a stranger and you took me in i was naked and you clothed me i was sick and you visited me i was in prison and you came to me um

And the righteous answer, you know, Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you thirsty, give you drink or stranger and take you in or naked and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and come to you? And, you know, in a sense, they. while on earth, have already become heavenly creatures. They're already acting with, if you will, in accordance with the teachings of the Lord. And so there's this very, if you will, gentle transition from this life to the next.

You know, there's not a rupture, if you will. So we're going to keep going. I'm going to jump to the phones really quick because I think we have Nick again. Is it Nick? Yeah, Nick, welcome. Are you calling from... The UK, right? Yeah. Good evening, Father. I don't need to be a stalker of your show, but I don't think I'm being up this late. I just saw a notification, and I do have a bit of a burning question, if I may.

Yes, I don't want to waffle. My wife lovingly wrote me a little bit about talking too much last time. She loves your answer, by the way. And I did just want to ask, when you were in England, did you ever get to go to, this isn't my question, but did you ever get to visit St. John the Baptist Monastery in Essex by any chance? I didn't. Yeah, when I was... in england as a young person i didn't even know about that monastery and um to my own shame

Later in life, I visited London a couple of years ago, but it was a very brief trip. We were just on an overnight on our way to Barcelona to visit my daughter who was in school there. So we really just kind of did the sights in London and didn't venture past, but God willing one day. Okay. I mean, it'll be good.

who created their new chapel, which was a vision of St. Sovereign of Essex, who founded the monastery, and it's beautiful. So I hope you get to do that. Anyway, so just jumping into my question here is, it's regarding our... our personal prayers outside of liturgical prayers. There's a lot that I've read that's been said about liturgical prayers, but not so much about how to conduct our personal prayers and specifically about composing them.

So, I mean, the first question that came to mind is where do our liturgical prayers come from? So the prayers are in our prayer books. Do they go through some sort of like approval or like endorsement process? And then for context, during my sort of spiritual peaks and troughs, I've started making notes about things that I want to remember to orient myself each day after my morning prayers. And I typically draw on...

liturgical prayers and scripture. For example, one of the things that's really touching for me is the story of when St. Peter walks out to the Lord and he starts drowning and the Lord reaches out to him and saves him. I always think about that when I... I feel like my faith is maybe not as strong as it should be. I have this vision of Christ coming to save me. And I started writing these things down, and they unintentionally started...

So I made like a prayer and I started reciting them as a prayer. And it was very edifying. But at the same time, I felt like I'm kind of treading on maybe something that's a bit delicate here because... You know, we have liturgical prayers for a very good reason, and I just wanted a bit of guidance as to does the Church have anything to say about this, and should I be careful of anything? Yeah, that's a great question.

For those who are listening to this question about prayer, a suggestion. I write a bit about that in the first book on prayer, fasting, and almsgiving and talk a little bit about. the use of set prayer, liturgical prayer, or the prayers of the Church, and then the idea of using our own words in prayer and what that relationship looks like.

And so the response that I will all give, Nick, is to say, and I talk about this a bit in the book, when the disciples come to the Lord and they say, teach us to pray. it's interesting that the Lord gives them a prayer. He doesn't simply say, oh, just whatever's on your mind. or whatever is stirring up in your heart, or whatever you feel, pray. He gives them a prayer, right? Now, we also see that the Lord himself, along with his...

Disciples used the Psalms. This was the prayer book they knew and has always been the prayer book of the Church. And they used hymns. They went to the temple to pray, which was a very liturgical service. And they went to the synagogues to pray. And so orderly prayer and prayer that... was shaped around set prayers, was the way of Christ and his apostles, and became the way of the early church. We see that in Acts, specifically 2.42, where they...

continued in the prayers. The English translation often just says prayer or prayers, and it should say the prayers. In other words, we see also, you know, St. Paul, I mean, St. Peter praying the hours.

which is, again, something that the Church has preserved. We pray the hours, and there are certain psalms and prayers that are set. So, to the question of where did the prayers come from, we can say, Well, we have prayers in Scripture that have been utilized from the time of Christ forward that we continue to use. Prayers of the church, the liturgy, continued to, if you will, fill out. The church added, through a process of...

the Spirit's movement. You know, this wasn't just, you know, some people going, oh, this sounds like a good idea. Let's throw this in there. But rather being guided by the Spirit, it added additional hymns. and petitions, which are small prayers, and then longer prayers that are in accordance with the teachings of the Lord and in accordance with the Scriptures and the received tradition of the Apostles. So it's not like these are happening in a vacuum or disconnected from the received tradition.

So the liturgy, as it's developing, is developing within the context of what was received. And there is, if you will, a filling out of the liturgical prayers. Now the Church, because the Spirit is still active, is not done adding prayers and hymns. We see that in...

you know, a beloved prayer of Metropolitan Philaret of Moscow. Your Lord grant that I might greet the coming day in peace. You know, it's a well-known prayer. We see even in the beloved monastery that you mentioned, you know, the use of prayer in such a way, you know, the recitation of the Jesus prayer and the way that it was done was unique, you know, or even sort of the prayerful discourse.

of of of of the saint right and and if you've read you know his works and his disciples works right you see that right that the church isn't if you will uh calcified And it's prayer, right? And so your prayers, you know, the prayer book that you have, may include recent compositions by saints. that have come into, if you will, the common use of the people. And in that common use, if you will, been...

What's the word? Recognized as prayers of Christ and his church. Now, it's not uncommon for myself included. to latch onto a direction we find in the scriptures and begin to utilize that within our own personal prayer, like you described. And that's a component of prayer. It doesn't supplant or replace that form and liturgical structure, but rather it enhances it, right? It's said in the midst of it.

It's not our beginning point. It's not our end point. Right? It's in the midst. Because we want it to be conditioned by the prayer of the church. Because prayer is always, even when we're doing it on our own, a corporate act. You know, I don't pray in my home something that is contrary to what is prayed in the church and vice versa. Right? There's a symbiotic relationship.

But that symbiotic relationship also has a hierarchy to it. What I pray in the church and what has been, if you will, received by the church and then preserved by the church, precedes... Even my personal prayer, right? I don't say, well, what the church is saying isn't correct, but what I'm praying is, right? So even that... extemporaneous or composed element of prayer is going to be in accord with the prayer of the Church and the received traditions of the Church.

You know, sometimes people say to me, Father Evan, you know, I'll be with them, and they'll say, offer a prayer. And I don't have a prayer book, you know, in my back pocket that I pull out always. Sometimes I just offer a prayer. And they'll look at me and they'll say, how did you come up with that? And I'll say, well, listen, if you live your life in the prayers of the church, right, the psalms, the hymns,

the divine services, the writings of the saints, your language becomes the language of Christ. You know, you're not going to use a different phrasing, right? You adopt it as your own. even when it is a prayer of your heart. You see what I'm saying? It's an outgrowth of a life of relationship with Christ and His body, the Church, that is quite natural and easy.

You know, so it just flows out of you. Now, the prayers that I might utter are really the babblings of a fool compared to, you know, of course, what the psalmists have written. what the Lord himself has given, and what the great saints of the Church have codified and written down, right? Nonetheless...

One wouldn't hear the prayer that I offer and go, ah, it's not recognizable. That doesn't fit, right? It's within, you know, and I'll give you a simple way of recognizing that, you know, you may go. somewhere and someone would say, you know, Nick, could you offer a prayer and you might do something as simple as in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, right? Well, you call upon the Trinity.

And then you say whatever you're going to say, like, you know, Lord bless the day and preserve those who are sick and, you know, visit those who are troubled, raise those. who are suffering, right? That's all phrasing that comes from the life of the church as revealed to us by the apostles. And so, in a sense, you're composing a prayer, but are you? I mean, in a sense, you're really in an accord. And when our prayer doesn't match, then we repent of it, you know, move on. Anyway.

Nick, thanks so much for calling again. Thank you, Father. It was a pleasure to talk to you. Same. Good night. Tell your wife hello. Okay.

We've reached the top of the hour. I know we've got another caller on the line. And if our producer could let them know, please call in next week and we'll bring them on first in the program. I apologize. My voice is still recovering from a rather bad illness. And for those of you who wrote in, I see some additional questions from YouTube and Facebook. Forgive me that we didn't get to all of them.

But we will preserve these questions and try to get to them on another program. For Ethoxi Live and Ancient Faith Radio, I'm Fr. Evan. Good night to you all, and God bless.