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In
Orthodox Christianity Worship and Prayer are are two interrelated
activities.
Community
worship is a group activity of believers, offering prayer to
God according to our 2,000-year old liturgical tradition.
Personal
prayer is an individual activity of a believer, offering
prayer to God according to our 2,000-year old devotional
tradition.
Community
worship is called ”Liturgical Worship” or “Liturgical Prayer.”
Our
English word liturgy derives from the Greek
λειτουργία (leitourgía), which literally means “work for
the people” or “public service.”
Orthodox
Liturgical Worship is the activity of the faithful gathered in the
local church to glorify and praise, as well as to supplicate and
thank God according to the “services.”
These
latter have been “handed down” (tradition) from the 1st-century
Apostolic era and thus have their origins in the Biblical worship
of the Hebrew people.
Personal
prayer is a daily activity, consisting of Morning and Evening Prayers,
reading the Holy Scriptures, and reciting the “Jesus Prayer.”
Morning
and Evening Prayers can be found in the many excellent Orthodox
Prayer Books.
Personal
Prayer is further discussed on our
“Daily Prayer”
web page, which also contains links to texts of
Morning
and Evening
Prayers.
An
important aspect of Orthodox Daily Prayer is to follow the words
of Saint Paul to “pray without ceasing” (cf. 1 Thessalonians 5:17)
by reciting the Jesus Prayer.
Read
more about the concept and meaning of Orthodox worship in the
following articles:
The Orthodox Understanding of Liturgical Worship
Orthodox Worship is Experiential: The Experience of the Kingdom of Heaven and the Transformation of Man
The Daily Cycle of Worship and Prayer
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