pieties

Short, Useful Prayers

More short prayers Orthodox Christians frequently use or find good for repetition, from our Holy Fathers:
  • “All shall be saved, and I alone shall be condemned.”
  • “It is my fault.”
  • “Lord, Thou knowest I am the least of all, but I am Thine, save me.”
  • “Lord, I am not worthy that Thou shouldst come under my roof, but speak the word only, and my soul shall be healed.”
  • “Lord, open Thou my lips, and my mouth shall show forth Thy praise.”
  • The Jesus Prayer: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, have mercy on me the sinner.”
  • The Jesus Prayer for others and to avoid presumption: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, have mercy upon ___ and by his prayers save me.”
  • “Lord, save __ and, by his prayers, save me.”
  • “Lord, Thou knowest Thy sheep; I am one of the goats. Save me.”
  • “Lord have mercy.”

Remembering the Saints in All Things

Comment: Remembering the saints in everyday, mundane things is an old custom of all Orthodox worldwide, and is sometimes obscured today by the modern megachurch approach to piety. It is good to take a lesson from the Celts in this, who remind us of something older, and more universal – more catholic – than the passive prayers, passive pray-ers, and passive saints we might sometimes imagine for ourselves. – DD

Prayer at the Guarding of Flocks

May Mary the mild keep the sheep,
May Bride the calm keep the sheep,
May Columba keep the sheep,
May Maolruba keep the sheep,
May Carmac keep the sheep,
From the fox and the wolf.

May Oran keep the kine (cattle),
May Modan keep the kine,
May Donnan keep the kine,
May Moluag keep the kine,
May Maolruan keep the kine,
On soft land and hard land.

May the Spirit of peace preserve the flocks,
May the Son of Mary Virgin preserve the flocks,
May the God of glory preserve the flocks,
May the Three preserve the flocks,
From wounding and from death-loss,
From wounding and from death-loss.

— Carmina Gaedalica

Pieties among the Celts

Comment: Celtic prayer consistently shows a recognition of God in all things, in the mundane, and likewise the practice of the pieties, the “taking of pains”, in little things to remember God. These days those ways are sometimes thought to be a merely Russian or Eastern or particular ethnic thing. Nothing could be farther from the truth, as the prayers of these Celts, among the eldest of the world’s Orthodox, show us. – DD

Prayer at Smooring The Fire

I smoor (smother) the fire this night
As the Son of Mary would smoor it;
The compassing of God be on the fire,
The compassing of God on all the household.

Be God’s compassing about ourselves,
Be God’s compassing about us all,
Be God’s compassing upon the flock,
Be God’s compassing upon the hearth.

Who keeps watch this night?
Who but the Christ of the poor,
The bright and gentle Brigit of the kine (cattle),

The bright and gentle Mary of the ringlets.

Whole be house and herd,
Whole be son and daughter,
Whole be wife and man,
Whole be household all.

— “Little Book of Celtic Prayer ” by A Duncan.

The First Piety: Prayer

Some examples of pious prayers from the prayer books: 

Entering a Church: I will enter Thy gates with thanksgiving and Thy courts with praise.

Leaving a Church:  Lord, Now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace, O Master, according to Thy word, for mine eyes have seen Thy salvation, which Thou hast prepared before the face of all peoples; a light of revelation for the Gentiles, and the glory of Thy people Israel.  

Before Meals: The eyes of all hope in Thee, O Lord, and Thou givest them their food in due season, Thou openest Thy generous hand and fillest every living thing with good will.

After Meals: We thank Thee, O Christ our God, that Thou hast sated us with the good things of Thine earth: do not deprive us also of Thy heavenly Kingdom.

When about to fall asleep: Into Thy hands O Lord, Jesus Christ, my God, I commend my spirit; bless me, save me, and grant unto me ever-lasting life. Amen.

Effort and Talk

“Let us seek to discover the things of heaven through the sweat of our efforts, rather than by mere talk, for at the hour of death it is deeds, not words, that must be displayed.” · St. John Climacus

The Pieties

The pieties are the small things we do that amount to the constant movement and adornment of our Faith.

The pieties are the teachers of our souls and bodies.

The pieties are the slayer of the passions.

While it is not up to us to point or belittle, even in attitude, others who do not keep the pieties we have come to know, it is our certain goal to learn and be taught by the pieties into the fulness of the fulness of the Faith. When a catechumen or a new Orthodox Christian comes to the Divine Liturgy, and asks when and how to venerate the holy things, when and how to bow or make prostrations or cross oneself, I always tell them to find the old people, especially the old women, and especially those from the old country, the ones with their heads covered, and do what they do. With this practice one will seldom learn anything improper and will learn far more that is pious and appropriate to the fulness of worship.

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