Regardless which faith you have and if you sometimes meet with other like-minded believers to pray, worship, work together etc or not, I'm interested in how you live your faith on your own in daily life.
For example, do you pray? How? Do you have any set times for it? Just at home or anywhere? Any rituals...? Do you maybe carry anything symbolic that reminds you of your faith?
How does it permeate your day?
Anything that comes to mind!
Most important thing is that I am obedient to my duties throughout the day, whether at work or at home, and I try my best to be caring and useful to the people I am around. Having good, positive, thoughts and a peaceful, joyful attitude is a big part of this, as our thoughts and attitudes affect the people we are around. Building relationships and community is also very important.
Praying for my 'enemies' (people I have a hard time getting along with) is a very important part of my spirituality, as it teaches me to love those who hate me and to not harbor resentments. I pray for friends and family as well.
I take a regular moral inventory of myself and confess that to my priest and others whom I can trust. I also do my best to turn away from bad habits and repent from my sins. Being honest with yourself and feeling sorrow for your sins, but joy because of God's forgiveness, is what makes repentance possible. Exposing my sins to others forces me to recognize them as reality and not to sweep them under the carpet and justify my wrongful actions. Repentance involves the recognition that, without God, I cannot do any good work, so I am always learning how to let go of my will and ask for God's strength and direction. Repentance also involves righting my wrongs and being honest and upfront about my errors with anyone affected by them (unless my confession would injure them in some way).
I try to keep a constant awareness of God's presence. This promotes moral behavior, joy, peace, and humility if I also ask for God's help to do good at all times in my heart.
I go to Church when there is a service offered and I can get to it (traffic here is bad).
I pray 8 times a day, according to the Russian Orthodox practice, which involves a lot of reciting the Biblical Psalms. I also spend some time meditating on the 'Jesus Prayer'. The standard set times for prayer are 12 AM, 3AM, 6AM, 9AM, 12PM, 3PM, 6PM, 9PM, but I do not follow this schedule exactly because I need uninterrupted sleep to perform well at work. I pray at home at my icon corner morning and evening, and I pray some shorter prayers during my breaks at work.
Rituals during prayer involve burning byzantine incense during prayer, crossing myself, making prostrations and performing bows at certain parts of prayer services, chanting certain prayers (I know byzantine chant, znamenny chant, and obikhod chant). The incense are symbolic of my prayers rising to God as a sweet sacrificial fragrance.
I read the Bible and the Lives of the Saints on a daily basis in order to apply the lessons therein.
I fast from meat and dairy on Wednesdays and Fridays and during the fasting seasons of the Church calendar. Fasting promotes a sense of morning for sins in the heart and also improves self-discipline in abstaining from luxurious foods. Wednesday is for the betrayal of Christ, Friday is for the Crucifixion of Christ. the greatest fasting season is Lent, followed by the Christmas (Nativity) fast, each of which is 40 days long, thought the fasting rules for lent are stricter than for Christmas.
I keep icons of Jesus, Mary, and the Saints on my desk, and I keep a cross on me at all times.
I Cross myself when praying in the Eastern Orthodox manner as a means of dedicating my whole self to God.
Exercise has become a form of prayer and ascesis for me, as well, as it curbs the bodily passions, requires self-discipline, and is good for prayer since I do repetetive, long distance sports.
