I put the word "Christian" in quotes to indicate that I am an espionage novelist who happens also to be a Christian. I don't write my novels to proselytize, but at the same time, some of my characters (though not all) share my world view. As a former spy myself, my espionage novels include authenticity of trade craft, but my spy still tries to go to Church on Sunday, as do I.
At my Eastern Orthodox Church every Sunday before our main service, called the Divine Liturgy, I sing aloud a collection of prayers and psalms known as the 3rd and 6th hours. I pray “Lord have mercy” numerous times in the course of those hours. In fact, at two points I pray "Lord, have mercy" 40 times in a row. To honor the cultural diversity of our community, I pray them ten in English, ten in old church Slavonic, ten in Romanian, and ten in Greek. But, if you weren’t raised in a liturgical tradition, you might wonder why any prayer should require repetition. I mean, God surely heard us the first time, right? Why repeat anything? Keep in mind that repetition is quite biblical! Take a look at Psalm 136:1-2: O give thanks to the Lord for He is good, for His steadfast love endures forever. O give thanks to the God of gods, for His steadfast love endures forever. And, if you know your Bible, you know this is not the end of it. The phrase “for His steadfast love endures forever” will be repeated a total of twenty-six times in this Psalm! Jesus taught us to pray with persistence. And Praying with persistence implies that we will pray with repetition! Here’s an example. Once, when Jesus was approaching Jericho, a blind man heard the crowd and asked what was going on. When he learned that Jesus of Nazareth was passing by, he cried out: Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me! (Luke 18:38) But people rebuked him and told him to be quiet. And he cried out again, repeating his original prayer: Son of David, have mercy on me! (Luke 18:39) Only then did Jesus stop, ask him what he wanted, and heal him of his blindness. He would not have been healed if he had not simply repeated his prayer! And He didn’t avoid repetition by using different words, as if repetition were necessarily wrong in prayer. The liturgical repetition of a simple prayer such as “Lord have mercy” is a fully biblical concept. Sometimes, while praying, I repeat my petitions for that day. And I add the 40 fold praying of Lord of mercy every day to my prayers as well. I need God’s mercy. And so I ask for it. And I ask for it again. Repeatedly...
I’m an Eastern Orthodox Christian. In our Sunday service, we pray repeatedly “Lord have mercy.” We pray this over and over again after the priest petitions God on a number of matters. As an example, the priest prays, for the peace of the whole world, for the well being of the churches of God, and for the unity of all, let us pray to the lord. But our response is not, lord hear our prayer. It is, Lord have mercy. Why should we ask God’s mercy so much. In this video I will explore this topic. The word mercy translates the Hebrew word (raḥamim) The word itself is plural, though usually rendered by the singular English word “mercy.” But I like to translate this word as the plural “mercies.”, It is derived from the common Semitic root that conveys the concept of “compassion” and “gentleness.” The Hebrew word for womb (reḥem) is from this same root. Our first instinct is usually that the word “mercy” is primarily associated with the forgiveness of sin. We have done something wrong, for which we deserve punishment. And so we ask for “mercy,” meaning that we pray not to receive so harsh a response as we deserve. And that meaning of “mercy” is indeed found in the Old Testament. For instance, we read in Psalm 79:8: Do not remember the iniquities of the forefathers against us; may your mercies (raḥameka) come quickly to meet us. But “mercy” in the Bible goes way beyond just asking for forgiveness of sin. Many verses point to the idea that, when you seek mercy, you can also be asking for some protection, blessing, or guidance. Mercies for Blessings The Bible describes “mercy” (raḥamim) as being the source of blessings: According to all that the LORD has granted us, and His great goodness to the house of Israel, which He has granted them, according to His mercies (raḥamav). (Isaiah 63:7) Notice also the following, from Psalm 199:77: And may your mercies come to me, that I may live.” Mercies for Guidance We also read in the Old Testament that, when the king of Babylon had troubling dreams, he was about to kill all the wise men who could not interpret these dreams to him. Daniel asked his three friends: ...to seek mercies of the God of heaven concerning this mystery, so that Daniel and his companions might not perish with the rest of the wise men of Babylon. Then to Daniel, in a vision of the night, the mystery was revealed. (Daniel 2:18-19) Two very important things happen in this passage from the Book of Daniel. Notice that Daniel and his friends “seek mercy” about a mystery. And then the answer comes from God. So this is an example of seeking mercy meaning the same thing as praying for guidance on an important matter. But notice also that the prophet Daniel here does not consider just praying on his own to be enough. He asks three friends to also “seek mercy” from God. When it comes to prayer, there is apparently strength in numbers. And so, asking for God’s mercy is a way to simply ask Him to grace us with whatever he knows we need. We can and should ask for mercy when we have sinned. We can ask for mercy when we need guidance. We can ask of God petitions for blessings in our lives and then ask him to grant us those things, by his mercy. And we can sum up all groanings within our hearts with the simple prayer, Lord have mercy. Kyrie eleison. doamne miluieste, ya rabb raHam, hospodi pamoluiste, Lord have mercy, Lord have mercy, Lord have mercy...
Criticisms of Saint Intercession: We should have no mediator except Christ This claim stems from the same misunderstanding of the term “praying to Saints” that I explore in another video. In short, the verb “to pray” has only recently in the history of the English language come to mean “ask God for something.” And in that sense, we don’t “pray” to saints at all. Let me again state for the record. Saint Intercession is one human asking another human to pray for them. Granted, it is a living human asking a dead human to pray. But I describe in another video that the Bible itself presents us with examples of people on earth directly addressing those in heaven. It is certainly true that the Bible describes Jesus as the only Mediator between Man and God: For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all. (1 Timothy 2:5-6) If one human asking another human to pray is a rejection of Jesus’ role as our sole Mediator, let’s call out those who are guilty of this error. St. Paul himself, in 1 Timothy 2:1. That’s right, just four verses before he declared that there is only one mediator between God and men, Jesus Christ, St. Paul, a human, asked other humans to pray: First of all, then, I ask that supplications, prayers, petitions, and thanksgivings be offered for everyone. (1 Timothy 2:1) The fact that St. Paul himself, a human, asked other humans to pray just four verses before the statement that Jesus is the only Mediator between God and Man should convince everyone that merely asking another human to pray has nothing at all to do with Jesus as Mediator. That wasn’t the only time St. Paul asked people to pray for himself and others, which, some would say, was a rejection of the concept of Jesus as Sole Mediator which he himself asserted in 1 Tim 2:5-6: Brethren, pray for us. (1 Thess 5:25) Be steadfast in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving; and pray for us also. (Col 4:2-3) Again, my point is that St. Paul himself abundantly asks people to pray for other people. One human asking another human to pray for them is not a rejection of the concept that Jesus is the Sole Mediator between God and Man. A human asking a deceased human for prayer is no more a violation of this than the next candidate guilty as charged. Moses. When the people of Israel sinned, and God sent snakes among them, they came to Moses and declared: We sinned when we spoke against the LORD and against you. Pray that the LORD will take away the snakes. (Numbers 21:7) And Moses prayed for them. And then God declared: Make a snake and put it on a pole. If anyone who has been bitten looks at it, he will live. (Numbers 21:8) Notice that Moses does not reply to their request for prayer that he should not be a mediator between them and God. And notice that God hears Moses’ prayer and grants the people grace within their punishment. God does not tell Moses that he will not hear his prayer because the people should have only prayed directly to him. In other words, God does not at all reject the idea that one human should be the prayer intermediary for other humans. Whether the deceased can hear us is a separate matter I discus in another video. But that the fact that someone is deceased does not somehow make asking them to pray for us a denial that Jesus is the Mediator between God and man for our salvation.
Criticisms of Saint Intercession: The practice is actually directly condemned in the Bible (Necromancy) Now this claim is true if, and only if, Saint Intercession, as it is practiced in the Catholic and Orthodox Churches, is accurately described and then specifically condemned. But in reality, the verses frequently quoted as condemning Saint intercession are not talking about saint intercession at all. The Bible does indeed condemn the practice of necromancy, that is to say, consulting dead spirits in order to gain supernatural knowledge. This condemnation is found in Isaiah 8:19-20: When they say to you, “Consult (דרשו; dirshu) the mediums and the wizards who chirp and mutter.” Should not a people consult (ידרש; yidrosh) their God instead of the dead on behalf of the living? The Hebrew original of this passage makes it clear that what is condemned is specifically the practice of “consulting” the dead, that is to say, seeking (darash) knowledge and information from them. The Hebrew Bible elsewhere condemns any contact with other practitioners of black magic who presumably engage in the same forbidden practices (Ex 22:18; Lev 19:26; Deut 18:10-11). But addressing someone who is dead, asking them to pray for us, is simply not the same thing as practicing necromancy, seeking information from the realm of the dead. If merely speaking to the dead is the same thing as necromancy, which is condemned in the Bible, then Jesus Himself would be guilty of the sin of necromancy (and liable to execution by stoning, Lev 20:27). At the Transfiguration, Jesus spoke with Elijah and Moses (Matt 17:3). Elijah had been assumed into heaven and was arguably not dead. But Moses died (Deut 34:5). And then Jesus spoke with him. If merely speaking to the dead, under any circumstances, is necromancy, then Jesus would a necromancer. Look, he’s obviously not. And that’s the point. The assertion that asking the faithful departed to pray for us is the necromancy condemned by the Bible is simply not true. Asking a dead person to pray for us is just that. A Valid criticism of the practice would focus on the question of whether they can hear us at all, which I address in another video. But accusing those who ask the dead to pray of the sin of necromancy, an entirely different practice, is sadly beneath Christian charity. Christians should be able to differ in some beliefs and practices without declaring one another horrible sinners for the difference.
Criticisms of Saint Intercession: The practice of Saint Intercession is not described in the Bible Now, a claim such as “addressing the dead is not depicted in the Bible” is quite an absolute statement. If there is, in fact, a verse somewhere that includes an address of the those in heaven, people who oppose Saint intercession should at least grant that it is a biblical option for those who choose to practice it. It turns out that the angels are directly addressed in the Bible. We read in Psalm 103:20: Bless the LORD, O you His angels, you mighty ones who do His word. Now, one could argue that addressing the angels in the book of Psalms is poetic, with no theological implication to be implied. Indeed, we also read in Psalm 148:2-3 another invocation of angels but also of inanimate objects: Praise Him, all His angels, praise Him, all His host! Praise Him, sun and moon, praise Him, all you shining stars! But remember, if the claim was that there is no example whatsoever in the Bible of directly addressing someone in heaven, these verses alone, make that false. These verses should mean that people who don’t practice Saint intercession at least accept that those who do are not being anti-biblical when they do so. The Faithful Departed Are Addressed in the New Testament! What if the Bible itself gave us an example of addressing, not just the angels, but the blessed departed of our faith? Read the following from the Book of Revelation 18:20, which describes the scene after the destruction of Babylon: Be glad over her, O heaven, O saints, apostles, and prophets, for God has given judgment for you against her. This a clear example in the Bible advocating a direct address, not of angels poetically, but of the faithful dead of the Church. The parallel between “O heaven” and “O saints, apostles, and prophets” makes it unmistakable that this passage is depicting a direct address to the departed heroes of our faith. So, far from providing absolutely no evidence whatsoever that those in heaven should be directly addressed, the Bible does provide examples of the practice.
Making Your Prayers Go Viral Introduction While singing a prayer I've sung a hundred times, I noticed something interesting. And the implication of my observation is that, within the Communion of Saints, there is a way to multiply our prayers way beyond our own personal power. And this is something which Christians may have not fully taken advantage of. The secret to "making your prayer go viral" on the ears of God has been hidden in plain sight within the official liturgies of the Christian Church. Prayer in Numbers We ask other people to pray for us because Scripture teaches us that if one prayer is good, two prayers are better! We can see a biblical example of this principle when the Prophet Daniel asked his three friends to "seek mercies" from God that he could interpret the troubling dreams of the King of Babylon (Daniel 2:18-19). And the mystery was then revealed to Daniel in a dream. Why did Daniel not just pray on his own? If God wants to grant the prayer, just one person praying should be sufficient, right? And yet he asked three others to pray as well. St. Paul in his epistles also asks other christians to pray for him. And this clearly teaches us that when it comes to prayer, there is strength in numbers. Asking Others to Ask Others to Pray for us When we have a pressing need in our lives, we pray to God directly, of course. But we also reach out to friends and family to pray on our behalf as well. And there may have been times in which you asked a friend not just to pray for you, but also to ask their own circle of friends and family to pray for you as well. While we trust that God answers our prayers according to what we really need, Jesus also taught us to be persistent in prayer. He tells us to be as persistent as the widow who so bothers a judge that he eventually grants her justice merely to be rid of her. That’s how persistent we are to be. The implication is that there are things God would grant us, but only after we have prayed with great persistence and also multiplied our prayers through the help of others. That is why asking others to pray for us and even asking others to ask yet others is a reasonable and faithful practice. But what if we could take this to another level. To a higher level? Asking Saints to Ask Other Saints to Pray for us? Christians ask their family and friends to pray for them. Those of us in the Catholic and Orthodox communions also ask our family and friends who have fallen asleep to pray for us as well. I’ve posted some videos on this channel that defend the practice of saint intercession from the bible. Here's my controversial claim. If we believe that the faithful departed can, by the power of God hear our requests that they pray for us, could we not ask them to ask others in Heaven to pray for us as well? Would this not be just the same thing as asking a friend to ask other friends? Here's why I'm thinking this is indeed a perfectly valid practice. I believe the implied request that a departed Saint ask other Saints to pray is actually contained in the official liturgies of the Church. Every Sunday, before the Divine Liturgy begins, I sing aloud the Third and Sixth Hours of Prayer for my congregation. And here's what I noticed is contained within the prayers of the Third Hour: O Birth-Giver of God, you are the true vine who has put for the Fruit of Life. We pray you, intercede, O Lady, with the Apostles and all the Saints, that our souls may receive mercy. Θεοτόκε, σύ εί η άμπελος η αληθινή, η βλαστήσασα τόν καρπόν τής ζωής, σέ ικετεύομεν, πρέσβευε Δέσποινα, μετά τών Αποστόλων, καί πάντων τών Αγίων, ελεηθήναι τάς ψυχάς ημών. In the words of this prayer, we ask Mary to intercede for us. But we additionally ask Mary to intercede for us "with the Apostles and all the Saints." Note that this prayer does not include us directly asking "the Apostles and all the Saints" to pray for us. The implication here is that we are asking Mary, not just to pray for us but to enlist the Apostles and all the Saints to pray for us as well. And why not? If she can hear what we ask, we can ask her to pray for us. And we can ask her to ask others to pray for us. The way I have personally included this within my own prayer life is to ask certain Saints to ask those most like them to pray for me. And so, for instance, when I ask my namesake Saint Andrew to pray for me I say, “Saint Andrew, intercede for me with all your brother apostles that I receive mercy. I ask St. Irenaeus bishop of Lyon to pray for me every day. I made him a character in my time travel adventure novel In Saecula Saeculorum. In the course of writing that novel I came to have a particular devotion to him and relationship with him. And so I daily say “Saint Irenaeus, pray for me with all your brother bishops that I may receive mercy. That's the idea. Now, keep in mind, asking others to pray for us is meaningless if we are not primarily praying for ourselves. My prayer time is overwhelmingly spent in direct prayer to God. I pray for my beloved dead. And I do ask them and certain Saints to pray for me. And now, in imitation of this prayer from the 3rd Hours I ask them to ask others. But that time is a fraction of the time I am directly in Communion with my Creator. And so, as we pray to our Father directly, and as we ask friends on earth and friends above to both pray for us and ask still more on our behalf, may our prayers multiply before our Loving God, who will grant us, according to His good will those things that we truly need.
In this video, I describe the practice of Ancestral Intercession, asking our departed family to pray for us precisely because, as our blood and kin, they love us and will pray mightily on our behalf.
While singing a prayer I've sung a hundred times, I noticed something interesting. And the implication of my observation is that, within the Communion of Saints, there is a way to multiply our prayers way beyond our own personal power. And this is something which Christians have not fully taken advantage of. The secret to "making your prayer go viral" on the ears of God has been hidden in plain sight within the official liturgies of the Christian Church.
Prayer in Numbers
We pray.
And we ask other people to pray for us because Scripture teaches us that if one prayer is good, two prayers are better!
We can see a biblical example of this principle when the Prophet Daniel asked his three friends to "seek mercies" from God that he could interpret the troubling dreams of the King of Babylon (Daniel 2:18-19). And the mystery was then revealed to Daniel in a dream. Those of us in the Catholic and Orthodox communions ask our family and friends to pray for us. But we also ask our family and friends who have fallen asleep to pray for us as well. If you are interested in reading a scriptural defense of this practice, please read this post.
Asking Others to Ask Others to Pray for us
The definition of something "going viral," whether it be a YouTube video or web post, is that the item in question is "shared" by people so much that the spread of it goes well beyond the promotional efforts of the person who created it. When we have a pressing need in our lives, we pray to God directly, of course. But we also reach out to friends and family to pray on our behalf as well. And I'll bet that you've asked a friend not just to pray for you, but also to ask their own circle of friends and family to pray for you. Again, we ask others to pray for us knowing that there is indeed "strength in numbers" when it comes to prayer. If there were not, then why would St Paul ask others to pray? (1 Tim 2:1; 1 Thess 5:25; Col 4:2-3) Asking Saints to Ask Other Saints to Pray for us? Here's my controversial claim. We believe in the Communion of Saints. And a part of that is the ability to ask those who have fallen asleep, our immediate relatives and heroes and saints of our Faith, to pray for us. And we do so out of the hope that their proximity to God makes their prayers for us all the more powerful:
Powerful in its effects is the prayer of a Righteous Man (James 5:16)
If we believe that the faithful departed can, by the power of God (not by their own energy), hear our requests that they pray for us, could we not ask them to ask others in Heaven to pray for us as well? Would this not be just the same thing as asking a friend to ask other friends?
Here's why I'm thinking this is indeed a fully valid prayer form. I believe the practice of asking a departed Saint to ask other Saints to pray for us is actually contained in the official liturgies of the Church. Every Sunday, before the Divine Liturgy begins, I pray/sing aloud the Third and Sixth Hours of Prayer for my congregation. And here's what I noticed is contained within the prayers of the Third Hour:
O Birth-Giver of God, you are the true vine who has put for the Fruit of Life. We pray you, intercede, O Lady, with the Apostles and all the Saints, that our souls may receive mercy.
Θεοτόκε, σύ
εί η άμπελος η
αληθινή, η
βλαστήσασα τόν
καρπόν τής
ζωής, σέ
ικετεύομεν,
πρέσβευε Δέσποινα,
μετά τών
Αποστόλων, καί
πάντων τών
Αγίων, ελεηθήναι
τάς ψυχάς ημών.
In the words of this prayer, we ask Mary to intercede for us. This is the same thing as asking a living family member or friend for prayer. But we additionally ask Mary to intercede for us "with the Apostles and all the Saints." Now, this prayer does not include us directly asking "the Apostles and all the Saints" to pray for us. The implication here is that we are asking Mary, not just to pray for us but also to ask the Apostles and all the Saint to pray for us as well.
And why not? If she can hear what we ask, we can ask her to pray for us. And we can ask her to ask others to pray for us.
The way I have personally included this within my own prayer life is to ask certain Saints to ask those most like them to pray for me. And so, for instance, I ask my Patron Saint Andrew to pray for me and I ask him to ask his Brother Apostles to pray for me. I could theoretically ask each of the Apostles by name to pray for me. But each of us has only so much time in the day to pray! Through the Communion of Saints, God has given us the ability to multiply our petitions, always, of course, praying for ourselves first, but also asking other to pray for us. And even asking others to ask others. I ask St. Irenaeus of Lyon to pray for me every day. He is a character in my time travel adventure novel In Saecula Saeculorum. Because of that, I have a particular relationship with him. I ask him also to ask all his Brother Bishops to pray for me. That's the idea. Now, keep in mind, asking others to pray for us is meaningless if we are not primarily praying for ourselves. My prayer time is overwhelmingly spent in direct prayer to God. I pray for my beloved dead. And I do ask them and certain Saints to pray for me. And I ask them to ask others. But that time is a fraction of the time I am directly in Communion with my Creator.
And so, as you pray to God, as you ask others to pray, consider whether, based on what I have shown here, you could not also ask those in the presence of God to ask still others, that our prayers may thrive and multiple before our Loving God.
We are told that the two men went up to the Temple "to pray."
Now, prayer is ultimately any communication Man directs toward God.
But basically, true prayers boil down to one of two things. There are prayers where we thank or praise God and there are also prayers where we ask God for things.
1) Prayers of Thanksgiving and Praise. I can say, "I thank you, Lord, for all your goodness to me." And I have just prayed. I can say, "I praise you, God, that I am wonderfully made." And I have prayed.
And this is exactly what the Pharisee did. He prayed, "I thank you, God, that I am not like these other men--extortioners, unrighteous, adulterers, or even like this tax collector."
I'm going to suggest that, despite how this prayer might sound arrogant, it's not really all that terrible a thing to pray. It is a sad and unfortunate fact that those raised in poverty or other disadvantage do tend toward crimes, sins, and vices more so than others. That is not to excuse crime, sin, or vice, but it certainly means I can reasonably thank God for the blessings of the stable and loving environment in which I was nurtured as a child. That's all the Pharisee was really doing. It's the same thought expressed in the famous quote by John Bradford, when seeing a group of prisoners led to execution, "There but for the grace of God go I."
He closes his prayer with the news that he fasts twice a week and tithes. These are good things. The Orthodox Church commends fasting twice a week to us. And every Church would love their people to donate more. Two percent would be fantastic. Tithing would be a dream.
2) Now we come to the Publican. He offers a prayer of the second type. He asks God for something. "God, be merciful to me, a sinner."
And then we immediately learn that only the Publican went home justified. And by justified, it means forgiven, brought into correct relationship with God.
What exactly did the Pharisee do wrong? I'm suggesting that his prayer was not really wrong at all. But when he told God about his fasting and tithing, he wasn't praying. Fine as they are, God already knew those things.
So why did the Pharisee not receive forgiveness?
For the simple fact that he never asked for it.
This week, the Church forbids us to fast, lest we imitate the Pharisee. And let us more importantly imitate the Publican and be ever ready to repent of our sins and ask God for mercy, trusting in his faithfulness to forgive.
