by Bishop Anthony Michaels, Antiochian Orthodox Church (U.S.)
If I were to offer to conduct the London Symphony Orchestra not really knowing the movements and melodies, the timing and talents of the musicians, even Beethoven's Ode to Joy might make the people cry for the wrong notes struck and the mistakes made. Even an exquisite artistic achievement like that finds the sour note when someone who does not know what he is doing tries to present it.
Our prayer books have all kinds of prayers: prayers taken from the Psalms in the Bible; prayers that Jesus taught Himself; prayers of the Apostles and holy Fathers who knew exactly how to pray, and what to pray for. That's why when we use these prayers, prayers for all occasions in our lives, in the collection in our prayer books, we will strike just the right chord for what we want God to hear from us, and the music of our message will harmonize with the heavenly melodies God hears all the time. Our needs will get through, and God will listen carefully.
I may have been well intentioned when I thought I could conduct the classics with the use of the London Symphony Orchestra, but even all of their expertise and talent couldn't help me. I need training. So it is with prayer. We need to know what to pray for, how to pray, what is needed before we start to pray. The great desert Fathers said that prayer is the highest form of art and the hardest to master. We have to leave out all the noise and confusion, the cares and anxieties that usually preoccupy our thoughts. We have to stand quietly in God's presence, ready to listen to Him after He hears our prayer, It would be hard to carry on more than one conversation at a time on the phone. Yet, if we reflect for a moment, we expect God to give us all His attention when our attention, in our thoughts, even when we are praying, is scattered all around. We have to put Him on "call waiting," Often we are forced to say "God, can You call later? Then we can talk without all these interruptions."
The set prayers in our prayer books take the guess work out of prayer. We can trust that the words and feelings, the thoughts and devotion, contained in those beautiful prayers are godly, because they were composed under the grace of the Holy Spirit by holy men and women who, themselves, were full of grace. Let these prayers teach us to pray for our own needs.
That's the point too. People always complain that God does not hear their prayers. I believe He does hear their prayers, but He knows when and how to answer them. Because sometimes we ask and pray for the wrong things. St. James, in his letter in the New Testament, says: "You ask and you do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions." (Jas. 4.3) Sometimes what we need for our salvation is the exact opposite of what we ask for. It's a good thing God does not give us everything we want. Experience tells us that in many ways we are thankful, as we look back on things, that God was wise enough not to answer our prayer in all the particulars that we thought we needed at the time.
Let prayer be a conversation with God. We need to get to know Him. We should spend some time with Him. Then we will know what best to say and do and request. That's what that little red prayer book is for. Use it with hope and reverence: it's God's personal and private phone number that He gives only to those who are close to Him!