Prayer for the night - why you need it and how to pray properly

Prayer is needed by any person primarily to maintain one's health - spiritual and physical. For this, there are special prayer rules - morning prayer and prayer for the night. Any prayer is a serious work, so you need to teach yourself not to start breakfast without reading the morning prayers and go to bed without the night after night.

Archimandrite George wrote that no other prayers can replace the morning and evening. As food is food for the flesh, so prayer is food for the reinforcement of the soul. The morning rule and prayer for the night can take only about 20 minutes, and the benefit to the soul from them will be simply invaluable.

Prayer can sound in many ways. It can be "Our Father ...", "Theotokos, Virgo ...", Jesus' prayer, akathists or psalms. You can pray in your own words, simply from the heart of turning to God with sincere repentance, gratitude, praise and blessing.

Very important is the regularity of prayer, its permanence. At the same time, when reading the same words, it is necessary to watch that they are not depreciated, not pronounced formally, without attention. After all, prayer first of all is a conversation with God, a meeting with the Almighty Loving Father. This is a dialogue in which we are not just talking. So, it is necessary to learn and remain silent for a while in prayer so that our heart can listen to the depth of God.

Any prayer, including prayer for the night, presupposes absolute honesty. There should not be anything fictitious or insincere in it. You do not need to choose specific words or topics to communicate with God. We need to pray for what lies on our heart. But the main meaning of prayer is not some kind of request, but a meeting with the Lord, an opportunity to open up to His presence in our lives.

One should try to pronounce not only the morning prayers and prayers for the night, but pray throughout the day. Prayer, like a tuning fork, tunes all life and all the activities of a Christian. It protects from bad thoughts and actions, helps to find the right way out of difficult situations and gives strength and understanding how to live by the will of God.

Jesus taught us to live and think only about today, for "every day has enough care." Therefore, before going to bed it is important to stop and think over the past day, repent of your unseemly acts, thank God for the gifts that He gave us today in kindness. In the vanity of the day, we often do not notice these great gifts and it seems that there is nothing to thank us for. But look back - each of us is given a lot from life. When someone smiled or did a good deed for us, it is God's gift. And if we were able for someone to be kind and useful today - this is also the mercy of God, because the desire to do good deeds, a heartfelt opportunity for this can only give the Lord.

Never fall asleep in anger or resentment. The Bible teaches us about this: "Let the sun go down in your anger." Nobody knows how many days of life are let to us and our loved ones, so the desire to reconcile tomorrow can never come true.

Test your conscience every time at the end of the day. If there was something bad - you need to put up and repent, so as not to stack the stones of resentment and anger in your heart. This is a very heavy load, you do not need to carry it on your next day.

And one more important moment in the evening prayer - we entrust our life, our sleep and our awakening to the will of the Lord. By his grace, we and our loved ones can wake up tomorrow and go on the next day of life. To all His holy Will.

We pray not only to almighty God, but we also hope for the protection of the Mother of God and all the saints, for they are our heavenly patrons and protectors. It is also necessary to contact the Guardian Angel - with a request to protect us from temptations and not letting go of God's way.

Here is an example of how the Orthodox prayer is built for the night:

"Lord God Almighty, Everlasting God, Most Merciful and Humane, forgive me, please, all that I have sinned in front of You today with deed, thought or word. Give me a peaceful and peaceful sleep. Send me your angel, the guardian of my soul, that he cover me and protect me from all evil. Thank You, Lord, for this day and for all your gifts and benefits. Thank You, Lord, for everything that happened, for all that is, and for everything that will be. I give glory to the Father and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit now and ever, and to the ages of ages. Amen".

Let us learn to pray so that it reaches the heart and ascends to heaven to God. Let us ask the Lord, the Mother of God and all the saints, that they teach us to pray with all our heart, because without prayer it is impossible to live, and without God and without the Church, it is impossible to be saved. Peace to you.