Orthodox Prayer book for beginners?

[LizaMarie]

Forgive me if this has been asked before, but what is a good prayer book for beginners, inquirers who want to try to pray the Orthodox way?

 

[FenderTL5]

For a simple straight forward, daily prayer book, the 'little red' Antiochian pocket prayer book works well (link to it in a bookstore)
I carry one of these in my backpack every day. My Godfather gave me a larger Russian Prayer book but it didn't travel quite as well and the book began to fray around the edges.

I keep one of these (linked) in my prayer corner at home.

 

[FenderTL5]

The pocket prayer book is also online at the Antiochian Archdiocese website (here's the linkage)

 

[~Anastasia~]

There are also apps with prayers, if you use apps. The one I use most often is called Pray Always. It misses some features I wish it had, but it might be helpful.

 

[LizaMarie]

Thanks Fender and Anastasia!

 

[Lukaris]

Also: My Daily Orthodox Prayer Book by Fr Anthony Coniaris

https://www.amazon.com/My-Daily-Orthodox-Prayer-Book/dp/B0010AYQN6

 

[ArmyMatt]

the Antiochian prayer book is great, as is the Greek one. I recommend also a Psalter for use as well.

 

[LizaMarie]

Thanks Lukaris and Army Matt! Where can I get a Psalter?

 

[Ioustinos]

Thanks Lukaris and Army Matt! Where can I get a Psalter?

One of the most used Psalters is from HTM (Psalter, The Holy Transfiguration Monastery Store) and there is also a pocket version of this also. I own a copy and use it sometimes, but I find their translations to be very odd and wooden at times. I use their prayer book primarily, but I have a hard time using their Psalter because of the wording.

The Psalter I like to use is from Holy Myrrbearer's Monastery (Kathisma Psalter with Canticles [922] - $15.00 : Holymyrrhbearers). The language is more modern and hence easier to read, at least for me, and its spiral bound which is nice.

Both of these are not very expensive - $22 for the HTM and $15 for Holy Myrrbearers. Others may have other Psalters they recommend.

 

[Kyrilllos el Antony]

Forgive me if this has been asked before, but what is a good prayer book for beginners, inquirers who want to try to pray the Orthodox way?

Antiochian here.

Our jurisdiction has a little red prayerbook, but I think Jordanville is better, and the old version is freely available online. I don't like it that much, because most of the material is sourced from other books which I own, which are more complete. Like the Akathists; I have a Book of Akathists, I forget the name of the compiler, and the text of the divine liturgy, I have that in the form of several Liturgikons, and an Horologion (the Horologion is the prayer book used for actual services in the Church; you can use it as your own prayer book, but its not the easiest option for beginners).

My favorite though is Praying In the Orthodox Tradition; it is completely unique. It has a forward by Kallistos Ware, and is divided into the usual hours, but the prayers, ehich are simple and beautiful, are taken from priests prayers from the Liturgy, Matins, and various sacramental services from the Barberini Codex, ancient prayers that used to be a part of the main Eastern Orthodox liturgy but which have either been modified or removed as time goes by, and which were always said by the priests silently.

Also, the other option is to pray the Psalms. For this, I like A Psalter for Prayer by Jordanville Press (Holy Trinity Monastery, ROCOR). This contains the Psalms and intermediate prayers, as well as the Eastern Orthodox, original version of the Athanasian Creed.

The Oriental Orthodox, who we are not in communion with, but I am one of those who supports reunion, have two prayer books I really like, which are extremely easy to use. The Syriac Orthodox have the Shimo, meaning "Simple", it consists of prayers for different times on each day of the week. The Shimo is used for their liturgical prayer for most of the year, except in Lent, Holy Week, Pascha, and other major festivals, when they use another book called the Fanqitho. That book has not been translated into English, but Gormidas Press translated the Shimo. A paperback costs $50 or so, but I've seen it online for free. There is also a simplified version hosted on the website sor.cua.edu, but I find that version to be too heavily abbreviated.

The Copts have an even more user friendly prayer book called the Agpeya. It is absolutely invariant, used the same way every day except Holy Week. In it, most of the Psalms are contained, and Coptic monks will pray all of them; in parishes, a deacon will tell each person which psalms to read for each of the hours (usually each person reads three psalms). If using the Agpeya on your own, you can work out with your spiritual father how many psalms to read.

Get permission from your spiritual father or geronda before using these Oriental Orthodox books; you want trust and understanding, and some people from some jurisdictions like ROCOR, the Serbian or Georgian churches might be upset if you used the Oriental Orthodox books. For that matter, get permission no matter which prayer book you use. You want your spiritual father to help you define your rule of prayer; you want a dialogue with him, and it is important that he knows what prayers you are saying so he can help you best if you have a crisis.

I also like the Book of Common Prayer for daily prayer; its Psalter was used as the basis for the Psalter for Prayer published by Jordanville, but corrected against the Septuagint, since we dont really use the Masoretic psalter in the Eastern church. However the book with the most user friendly Psalter, without any editing of the Psalms to remove "imprecatory verses," the 1662 English book, contains a lot of material contrary to the beliefs of the Eastern Orthodox Church. The services of Morning Prayer and Evening Prayer (Choral Evensong) I think are devoid of offense, as is the Masoretic Psalter (its merely incompatible with the Byzantine Rite versification and numbering of the Psalms), but the Holy Communion and other sacramental services and the catechism are all wrong. However, the Antiochian Western Rite Vicarate has published a modified partial BCP which addressses these problems. It is available as a free download if anyone wants a link, along with the ROCOR Western Rite Orthodox Prayers of Old England, which are pretty easy to use, if obscure. There is also a St. Colman's Prayerbook used by Antiochian Western Rite communities in Australia and New Zealand, on the same site.

Unfortunately, there is no Orthodox Western Rite book that is as well organized as the Anglican Book of Common Prayer. St. Tikhon, the martyred Patriarch of Moscow killed by the Soviets, led a committee which developed a list of errata or corrections that the Book of Common Prayer would need before being used in Orthodox services, as part of a process which ultimately led to the reception of a small number of high church Anglicans into ROCOR, and a slightly larger number into Antioch. Our Western Rite Vicarate names one of its two Divine Liturgies, the one based on the Anglican Holy Communion service, after St. Tikhon. However, no one ever bothered to go through and fix the entire Book of Common Prayer from beginning to end based on his committee's plans. It would be nice if they did, because the Anglican BCP is the most user friendly prayer book, and contains all of the liturgical material historically used by Anglicans until the 1960s, when it began to be replaced or augmented at many parishes by "alternate service books."

So, you will likely wind up with a library of a few prayer books, but its worth it, because they are very beautiful. Orthodoxy is hard, but rewarding.

 

[ArmyMatt]

Thanks Lukaris and Army Matt! Where can I get a Psalter?

they are pretty common, so I would start with your local parish bookstore. if there is one thing we Orthodox like to write, it's Psalters.

 

[Petros2015]

I found this online recently

Orthodox Prayers

I think this is the prayer book that I have and use

https://www.amazon.com/Prayer-Book-...coding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=QKDRVQ4E1RZ022GFC5ZK

and it's well underlined at this point.

The morning and evening prayers in that book, I have also found on youtube. Lately I've been plugging in ear buds on my phone and listening, praying with them, and it's helped me to feel closer a lot, like I'm in my own service with someone.

 

[Lukaris]

Also: My Daily Orthodox Prayer Book by Fr Anthony Coniaris

https://www.amazon.com/My-Daily-Orthodox-Prayer-Book/dp/B0010AYQN6

Hey, I just want to mention that the prices on the amazon link I posted seem crazy. I bought that book for around $10; there must be a better deal in case you are considering it.

 

[LizaMarie]

Thank you Lukaris, (Yes Amazon prices are crazy sometimes,)Petros 2015 for the videos!!, Army Matt,Kyrillios El Antony(I once strongly considered becoming Episcopalian before returning to my Lutheran church but I couldn't bear the extreme liberalism and ACNA churches are even rarer in North America than Eastern Orthodox ones.)and Loustinos!! You've all been very helpful and given me a lot to chew on.
It's been a long journey for my former Baptist now Lutheran husband and lifelong Lutheran(and Calvary Chapel attendee) me. And we were strongly looking at the Roman Catholic Church because as I started to study Church history, I realized that Sola Scriptura wasn't logical and really doesn't exist, ( there was a Church long before the NT canon of Scriptures, and the big thing Apostolic succession which some Lutherans MAY have, But the EO and RC have for certain. And just so much more, which would take me pages to explain. Which of course got us looking at the RC, as there really is no Orthodox presence around here at all.(Well for 80 miles anyway) and I have a devotion to Mary(the Theotokos)and always have had. Protestants really ignore Mary, probably in reaction to some of the RC doctrines, (Immaculate conception, ect) And many things about the RC were really a sticking point for my husband, but I was willing to accept them to be in a true Apostolic Church that went back to the apostles. Also the strong Pro-life witness they have. But I've had such an attraction to Orthodoxy as well, have done some reading and when my Mother was sick in the hospital right before her death in Sioux City, there was a beautiful Orthodox church right next door to the hospital(we never went inside, alas)And I had a dream about 5 years ago I was standing outside an Orthodox church looking inside(Admittedly I was reading Kallistos Wares The Orthodox church at the time.)
But anyway here I am telling my husband we should join the RC, now all of a sudden I'm saying "Umm, no maybe we should be Orthodox" lol.
Can't blame him for saying "What!?"
I have read some things to him about doctrine and showed him some EO videos,
and last night he said- "I like what I'm seeing in the EO a lot better than in the RC." So He is just wary of the long distance and he doesn't want to quit our family church-but still-some progress!!

 

[Anhelyna]

I've held back suggesting my favourites for obvious reasons as I'm EC.

My prayers books are the Jordanville one - that was my first , and a few years later I got the Old Orthodox Prayer book. Both are now well used

My Psalter is The Psalter according to the Seventy published by the Canadian OCA and that is well used

 

[LizaMarie]

Thanks Anhelyna!! I just want to say I really like TAW.

 

[Anhelyna]

Glad you feel at home in TAW - I'm a long time visitor [ though I can't be a full member of TAW ] and consider it as my Home Forum

 

[LizaMarie]

Antiochian here.

Our jurisdiction has a little red prayerbook, but I think Jordanville is better, and the old version is freely available online. I don't like it that much, because most of the material is sourced from other books which I own, which are more complete. Like the Akathists; I have a Book of Akathists, I forget the name of the compiler, and the text of the divine liturgy, I have that in the form of several Liturgikons, and an Horologion (the Horologion is the prayer book used for actual services in the Church; you can use it as your own prayer book, but its not the easiest option for beginners).

My favorite though is Praying In the Orthodox Tradition; it is completely unique. It has a forward by Kallistos Ware, and is divided into the usual hours, but the prayers, ehich are simple and beautiful, are taken from priests prayers from the Liturgy, Matins, and various sacramental services from the Barberini Codex, ancient prayers that used to be a part of the main Eastern Orthodox liturgy but which have either been modified or removed as time goes by, and which were always said by the priests silently.

Also, the other option is to pray the Psalms. For this, I like A Psalter for Prayer by Jordanville Press (Holy Trinity Monastery, ROCOR). This contains the Psalms and intermediate prayers, as well as the Eastern Orthodox, original version of the Athanasian Creed.

The Oriental Orthodox, who we are not in communion with, but I am one of those who supports reunion, have two prayer books I really like, which are extremely easy to use. The Syriac Orthodox have the Shimo, meaning "Simple", it consists of prayers for different times on each day of the week. The Shimo is used for their liturgical prayer for most of the year, except in Lent, Holy Week, Pascha, and other major festivals, when they use another book called the Fanqitho. That book has not been translated into English, but Gormidas Press translated the Shimo. A paperback costs $50 or so, but I've seen it online for free. There is also a simplified version hosted on the website sor.cua.edu, but I find that version to be too heavily abbreviated.

The Copts have an even more user friendly prayer book called the Agpeya. It is absolutely invariant, used the same way every day except Holy Week. In it, most of the Psalms are contained, and Coptic monks will pray all of them; in parishes, a deacon will tell each person which psalms to read for each of the hours (usually each person reads three psalms). If using the Agpeya on your own, you can work out with your spiritual father how many psalms to read.

Get permission from your spiritual father or geronda before using these Oriental Orthodox books; you want trust and understanding, and some people from some jurisdictions like ROCOR, the Serbian or Georgian churches might be upset if you used the Oriental Orthodox books. For that matter, get permission no matter which prayer book you use. You want your spiritual father to help you define your rule of prayer; you want a dialogue with him, and it is important that he knows what prayers you are saying so he can help you best if you have a crisis.

I also like the Book of Common Prayer for daily prayer; its Psalter was used as the basis for the Psalter for Prayer published by Jordanville, but corrected against the Septuagint, since we dont really use the Masoretic psalter in the Eastern church. However the book with the most user friendly Psalter, without any editing of the Psalms to remove "imprecatory verses," the 1662 English book, contains a lot of material contrary to the beliefs of the Eastern Orthodox Church. The services of Morning Prayer and Evening Prayer (Choral Evensong) I think are devoid of offense, as is the Masoretic Psalter (its merely incompatible with the Byzantine Rite versification and numbering of the Psalms), but the Holy Communion and other sacramental services and the catechism are all wrong. However, the Antiochian Western Rite Vicarate has published a modified partial BCP which addressses these problems. It is available as a free download if anyone wants a link, along with the ROCOR Western Rite Orthodox Prayers of Old England, which are pretty easy to use, if obscure. There is also a St. Colman's Prayerbook used by Antiochian Western Rite communities in Australia and New Zealand, on the same site.

Unfortunately, there is no Orthodox Western Rite book that is as well organized as the Anglican Book of Common Prayer. St. Tikhon, the martyred Patriarch of Moscow killed by the Soviets, led a committee which developed a list of errata or corrections that the Book of Common Prayer would need before being used in Orthodox services, as part of a process which ultimately led to the reception of a small number of high church Anglicans into ROCOR, and a slightly larger number into Antioch. Our Western Rite Vicarate names one of its two Divine Liturgies, the one based on the Anglican Holy Communion service, after St. Tikhon. However, no one ever bothered to go through and fix the entire Book of Common Prayer from beginning to end based on his committee's plans. It would be nice if they did, because the Anglican BCP is the most user friendly prayer book, and contains all of the liturgical material historically used by Anglicans until the 1960s, when it began to be replaced or augmented at many parishes by "alternate service books."

So, you will likely wind up with a library of a few prayer books, but its worth it, because they are very beautiful. Orthodoxy is hard, but rewarding.

The fasting would be the hardest thing for me, but my husband would benefit from it as he hasa health issues and he already quit dairy.

 

[Lukaris]

I just found that much of the Antiochian "little red" is online, see: Orthodox Prayers | Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese.

I also wanted to add that if EO churches are far off there is a slight chance an Oriental Orthodox Church may be present. The EO & OO are not in communion but we are almost the same in doctrine. Many of us in both churches laity can barely understand what separates us but I also do not want to trivialize something like that either.

 

[ArmyMatt]

Thank you Lukaris, (Yes Amazon prices are crazy sometimes,)Petros 2015 for the videos!!, Army Matt,Kyrillios El Antony(I once strongly considered becoming Episcopalian before returning to my Lutheran church but I couldn't bear the extreme liberalism and ACNA churches are even rarer in North America than Eastern Orthodox ones.)and Loustinos!! You've all been very helpful and given me a lot to chew on.
It's been a long journey for my former Baptist now Lutheran husband and lifelong Lutheran(and Calvary Chapel attendee) me. And we were strongly looking at the Roman Catholic Church because as I started to study Church history, I realized that Sola Scriptura wasn't logical and really doesn't exist, ( there was a Church long before the NT canon of Scriptures, and the big thing Apostolic succession which some Lutherans MAY have, But the EO and RC have for certain. And just so much more, which would take me pages to explain. Which of course got us looking at the RC, as there really is no Orthodox presence around here at all.(Well for 80 miles anyway) and I have a devotion to Mary(the Theotokos)and always have had. Protestants really ignore Mary, probably in reaction to some of the RC doctrines, (Immaculate conception, ect) And many things about the RC were really a sticking point for my husband, but I was willing to accept them to be in a true Apostolic Church that went back to the apostles. Also the strong Pro-life witness they have. But I've had such an attraction to Orthodoxy as well, have done some reading and when my Mother was sick in the hospital right before her death in Sioux City, there was a beautiful Orthodox church right next door to the hospital(we never went inside, alas)And I had a dream about 5 years ago I was standing outside an Orthodox church looking inside(Admittedly I was reading Kallistos Wares The Orthodox church at the time.)
But anyway here I am telling my husband we should join the RC, now all of a sudden I'm saying "Umm, no maybe we should be Orthodox" lol.
Can't blame him for saying "What!?"
I have read some things to him about doctrine and showed him some EO videos,
and last night he said- "I like what I'm seeing in the EO a lot better than in the RC." So He is just wary of the long distance and he doesn't want to quit our family church-but still-some progress!!

glory to God! keep up the journey! it's rough at times but worth it