In the Orthodox Church it is said that we pray what we believe and believe what we pray. The text of our written prayers not only help with our communion with God through words of praise, thanksgiving, repentance, supplication, and intercession, but also brings to remembrance the Gospel message of Christ, the Apostolic teachings, and our faith.
This part of our website gives the text of some of the prayers of the Orthodox Church.
The publication of such prayers does not limit the free expression of the Christian soul to the Creator, the Most-holy Theotokos and the Saints. On the contrary, by reading these prayers one can learn how to pray. They become models for our own, personal prayers. Often, we would like to pray but, distracted by the world around us, or troubled by fear or sorrow, we do not even know how to begin. We then begin with the a prayerbook and find that not only much of what we wanted to say is included in the prayers of the fathers, but that afterwards, we find words of our own to continue the outpouring of our soul.