ORTHODOX PRAYERS BOOK
FR. PETER GREGORY +++
Wrote in JANUARY, 1995

Glory be to God the Father, and The Son and The Holy Spirit, Amen

When mind and heart are united in prayer and the soul is wholly concentrated in a single desire for God, then the heart grows warm and the light of Christ begins to shine and fills the inward man with peace and joy. We should thank the Lord for everything and give ourselves up to His will; we should also offer Him all our thoughts and words, and strive to make everything serve only His good pleasure.
St. Seraphim of Sarov
Saint Seraphim of Sarov (Russian: Серафим Саровский) (July 19, 1759 - January 2, 1833), born Prokhor Moshnin (Прохор Мошнин), is one of the most renowned Russian monks and mystics in the Eastern Orthodox

Prayer is a great weapon, a rich treasure, a wealth that is never exhausted, an undisturbed refuge, a cause of tranquility; the root of a multitude of blessings and their source.
St. John Chrysostom
St. John, named Chrysostom (golden-mouthed) on account of his eloquence, came into the world of Christian parents, about the year 344, in the city of Antioch. His mother, at the age of 20, was a model of virtue. He studied rhetoric under Libanius, a pagan, the most famous orator of the age

Prayer is a conversation directly with God, being always with God, having one's soul united with Him and one's mind inseparable. A person becomes one with the angels and unites with them in perpetual praise and longing for God.
St. Symeon of Thessaloniki
A prominent ecclesiastical Saint, at the end of the Byzantine period and Archbishop of Thessaloniki in 1416/17–1429, a crucial period in the city’s history, St Symeon opposed both historical alternatives for the city’s fate at that time (whether, that is, it should be handed over to the Latins or the Turks and espoused a third solution, which was resistance until death in order to preserve political and religious freedom. The positions Saint Symeon took up against the West, and particularly against the Latin innovations, which he believed had adulterated the teaching and practice of Christianity, were extremely important at the time

They helped to strengthen Orthodox consciousness and to maintain tenacious adherence to the unmodernised continuity of the tradition of the apostles and the saints. Saint Symeon’s anti-Latin positions, were explained by theological and historical reasons and means; he stood fast with an attitude of grace and gentleness, and peace-loving nature. He revoked major innovations introduced by the Latins, the major theological points of dispute (filioque, primacy of the Pope, azymes, Epiclesis, and Purgatory), together with other lesser innovations in ecclesiastical and everyday life. Lastly, there are St Symeon’s views on the question of whether the Latins constituted a church or a heresy and thence to the question of the union of the two churches, eastern and western

to be continued