A Rule of Prayer

The habit and flow across days and hours and seasons is paramount, more than any one occasion of prayer.

Give priority to forming the habit of Vespers in the evenings and Matins in the mornings, while remembering the other times – the “minor hours” – with at least a single prayer each. Then grow from there.

Try to keep the normal times of prayer to help order your day, but don't be anxious when you are early or late, or need to skip times; simply pray and move forward.

Get to the know the psalms of each hour and, when time is short or attention weak, pray just the one or two you need, or just the one or two passages that you need. Take a similar approach with the canons and other long prayers.

Over time, get to know by heart more and more of the common prayers, so they become part of you.

Be neither perfectionist nor discouraged; when you falter, get up and move forward.

Pray before an icon if possible, whether physical or on your phone. On feast days, it can be helpful to find one suitable for the day.

Pray at a church or your icon corner when possible, or at your desk, in a cab, at a coffee shop, in a park, walking down the street with earphones – anywhere you happen to be and can set aside a few focused moments.

In general, at each occasion of prayer, if there is a choice, prioritize the special prayers appointed for major feasts, then the appointed prayers for the days of the week, and finally those for the saints of the day. Also prioritize the prayers for the saints for whom you have a devotion.

Stand and pray with your whole body, making the customary bows and signs of the cross (including whenever invoking the Trinity). Kneel for penitence.

Singing can energize, even if just a simple monotone chant, when reading or speaking can tire.

Listening silently to recordings – or using the Speechify app when there's no recording – is helpful sometimes.

Be attentive; do not rush; pray less but more attentively. Setting a timer for whatever time is available can be helpful for focusing and guiding you on much to pray and how much to skip ahead.

Don't let the length of the full orders of prayer put you off. Skip forward without hesitation; pray at least one prayer within each order, even if for just a minute or less, and keep building the habit, and encountering the various prayers over time.

Begin and end sessions of prayer with “Through the prayers of our holy fathers...,” and remember also your priest who prays for you, and your parish. Your private prayer is to be grounded in the public worship of the Divine Liturgy on Sundays and the great feasts.

Celebrate the feasts and keep the fasts, and use the variations in the daily prayers for feasts and fasts to carry you along in a seasonal rhythm.

At set times and throughout the day and night, pray the Jesus Prayer. It can be helpful to pray the Jesus Prayer after a liturgical prayer, to ground your private prayer of the heart in the liturgy and life of the Church.

Prayer and life are a marathon, not a sprint; establish daily order step by step and finish the race to the end.