Prayer Corner

Prayer to Our Lord by Monk Antiochus of Pandectis

Grant us, O Master, repose of body and soul as we go to sleep, and preserve us from the gloomy sleep of sin and from every dark and passionate pleasure of the night.  Quell the attacks of the passions; quench the fiery darts of the veil one which are treacherously directed against us.  Put down the rebellions of our flesh, and lull to sleep our every earthly and material thought.  And grant us, O God, a wakeful mind, a chaste thought, a sober heart, and gentle sleep, free from every satanic fantasy.  Raise us up at the hour of prayer, confirmed in Your commandments and having with ourselves a steadfast remembrance of Your judgments. Grant us to hymn Your glory all the night long, that we may sing, bless and glorify Your most honorable and majestic Name of Father, Son and Holy Spirit, now and ever and forever.  Amen.

He who wishes to inherit the kingdom of heaven, yet does not patiently endure what befalls him, shows himself...ungrateful... For he was created by God's grace, has received all things in this world, awaits what is to come, and has been called to reign eternally with Christ, who has honoured him, in spite of his nothingness, with such great gifts, visible and invisible, to the extent even of shedding His most precious blood for him, not asking anything from him at all except that he should choose to receive His blessings.

- St. Peter of Damaskos, from Twenty-Four Discourses no. 6, The Philokalia Vol. 3 edited by Palmer, Sherrard and Ware; Faber and Faber pg. 226