{"id":4727,"date":"2016-12-11T10:00:55","date_gmt":"2016-12-11T15:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/?p=4727"},"modified":"2016-12-08T10:24:26","modified_gmt":"2016-12-08T15:24:26","slug":"the-spirituality-of-the-christian-east-20161211","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/?p=4727","title":{"rendered":"The Spirituality of the Christian East &#8212; 20161211"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/ladder.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-2421\" src=\"http:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/ladder.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"258\" height=\"327\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/ladder.jpg 258w, https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/ladder-237x300.jpg 237w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 258px) 100vw, 258px\" \/><\/a>Step 28 on John\u2019s <em>Ladder <\/em>is PRAYER. Prayer is by nature, according to St. John, a dialog and a union of man with God. Its effect is to hold the world together. It achieves a reconciliation with God. It is a bridge across temptation, a bulwark against affliction. Prayer is future gladness, action without end, wellspring of virtues, source of grace, hidden progress, food for the soul, enlightenment of the mind, an axe against despair, sorrow done away with and hope demonstrated.<\/p>\n<p>For most Christians, prayer is something we do at certain times of day, and it is an important part of Christian life. But for the saints, prayer is not merely a part of life, it IS their life: it imbues their very being and is present in every action.<\/p>\n<p>Many think of prayer as \u201cspeaking to God,\u201d but as St. John points out, prayer is not a monologue, but a dialogue.<\/p>\n<p>So how can we learn to converse with God? In other words, how can we learn to pray? This is not a strange question to ask. When Christ\u2019s disciples asked Him to \u201cteach us to pray,\u201d as John also taught his disciples, He respond with the prayer, Our Fa-ther.<\/p>\n<p>Ever since then, the Lord\u2019s Prayer has held a central place in Christian worship. This prayer teachers us to pray not only be giving us words to say, but by showing us how we should approach the act of prayer and how and what we should pray for:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Praise and Adoration<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>\u201cHallowed be Thy Name\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Hope and Expectation<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>\u201cYour Kingdom come\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>The Acceptance of God\u2019s Will<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>\u201cYour will be done on earth as it is in heaven.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Praying Only for Our Common Needs<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>\u201cGive is this day our daily bread\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Praying for forgiveness<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>\u201cAnd forgive us our sins as we forgive others\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Praying for Help<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>\u201cLead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Step 28 on John\u2019s Ladder is PRAYER. Prayer is by nature, according to St. John, a dialog and a union of man with God. Its effect is to hold the world together. It achieves a reconciliation with God. It is &hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/?p=4727\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4727","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-spirituality-of-the-christian-east"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4727","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4727"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4727\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4728,"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4727\/revisions\/4728"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}