a morning prayer
There is a particular set of Orthodox prayers that I say every morning upon waking—my morning prayers. I have said them enough by now that I know them by heart. They come easily to my lips as I kneel in my little prayer corner, and they accompany me throughout the day, certain phrases rising in my heart and mind when I need them most.
Lately, one of these prayers has been particularly meaningful, and particularly important. It is known as the prayer of Saint Philaret:
“O Lord, grant me to greet the coming day in peace. Help me in all things to rely upon Your holy will. In every hour of the day reveal Your will to me. Bless my dealings with all who surround me. Teach me to treat all that comes to me throughout the day with peace of soul and with firm conviction that Your will governs all. In all my words and deeds, guide my thoughts and feelings. In unforeseen events, let me not forget that all are sent by You. Teach me to act firmly and wisely, without embittering and embarrassing others. Give me strength to bear the fatigue of the coming day with all that it shall bring. Direct my will, teach me to pray, and You, Yourself, pray in me.
Amen.”
This has been a transformative prayer for me since I first learned it just over a year ago. Some days I am able to trust and embody it, other days I fall short. But still I pray the words morning after morning, and little by little I find that I am changed by them.
If there’s anything that these last two years have taught me, it’s that unforeseen events can and will happen, all the time. And still, we are called to peace of soul. The days will fatigue us, and still we are called to rely fully on the holy will of God.
It is a sort of double affirmation. We can and must acknowledge the challenges or the hardships—or indeed the sufferings—that will surely befall us. But we also must recognize and grasp onto the grace we are given to weather these difficult moments. This is not easy, and so we pray it every morning, asking God to grant, to help, to reveal, to bless, to teach, to guide, to remind, to give, to direct, and to pray in us. It is a daily surrendering of control, a daily alignment of our will to the will of God, a daily reminder that we who follow the way of Christ are to live in peace, no matter the turmoil that will inevitably come.
“Acquire a spirit of peace,” says Saint Seraphim of Sarov, “and thousands around you will be saved.”
May we take this peace upon us, every morning of our lives, and may it bear good fruit for the entire world.
Amen, amen, amen.