All the major religions in the world seem to have promoted hourly prayers at regular intervals. Traditional Judaism has had three prayers a day-- morning, noon, and evening. There were two six-hour gaps at the day time and one 12-hour gap at night. Jesus and the apostles as well as the early Christian church followed this tradition. Later in the third and fourth centuries when monasticism evolved, the church fathers introduced prayers seven times a day-- with a gap of three hours during the daytime and a gap of six hours after midnight. Following this tradition, Islam religion also developed five or six times of prayer a day with two six-hour gaps and four three hour gaps. Hinduism promotes prayer at least two times a day-- morning and evening, that is with 12-hour gaps. Sikhs have prayer three times a day-- morning, evening and at bedtime.
Why is this tradition of praying several times a day so common and widespread across religions? It is obvious that prayer and/or meditation has been treated as a mental exercise in all these religions. Nowadays we give importance to physical exercises all over the world, for we are aware of the importance of keeping our body healthy. But unfortunately we don’t give as much importance to keeping our mind healthy, and mental exercises are not popular in our world. However, our ancestors developed mental exercises to develop and maintain mental health.
Our ancestors knew that our mind is driven by our feelings/emotions, which in turn are fueled by our attention and thoughts. So they developed exercises to keep the mind concentrated, freeing it from thoughts and feelings. They knew that keeping the mind focused was essential for a successful life. In the absence of such mental exercises, our mind can easily be subdued by temptations for pleasures, wealth, and power. That is perhaps why they developed prayer/meditation several times a day regardless of what religion they belonged to.
The church fathers of the early centuries developed liturgies for the hourly prayers including hymns, prayers, and scripture readings, which were meant as a help or guide to pray/meditate. Later generations, that inherited the liturgies, began to recite whatever was in the liturgy book without knowing the purpose of the hourly prayers. The next generations couldn’t see any connection between their life and the hourly prayers. They even saw them as a hindrance to their busy life schedule. However, claiming to be the keepers of their heritage, they decided to keep the hourly prayers in an altered form. They began to recite the prayers of seven times in two or three times a day. The Syrian Christians follow this tradition in their monasteries and seminaries. However, unfortunately, most of the Syrian Christians have forsaken the practice of hourly prayers in their homes. Many of them don’t pray even once a day in their homes.
The hourly prayers were seen by our fathers as a plane that takes us to heaven. But the later generations lost the purpose of hourly prayers, and they don’t use it to fly to heaven. Claiming to be the proud keepers of their heritage, they move on laboriously pulling this plane along with them using a rope. Some of them, becoming aware of this foolishness, decided to move on without pulling this plane along with them. That is what the Christians who decided to discard the traditional liturgy did. However, the traditional churches still move on laboriously pulling this plane forward without recognizing its purpose.
What this writer is sharing here is the conviction that the burden we have been laboriously pulling forward is actually a powerful plane that can carry us to heaven. Once we realize the real purpose of the hourly prayers, we will be able to use them appropriately. If we recite everything in the liturgy from beginning to the end, it is nothing but a burden. It is then nothing but a meaningless ceremony that wastes our time. Instead if we can free our thoughts and feelings, and if we can gaze at God keeping our mind still, it is a powerful plane that carries us to heaven. We need to return to such hourly prayer tradition of our fathers.
We need to bring back the exercise of centering our mind. We may use the liturgy as a guide and help. However, reciting liturgy disregarding its original purpose is nothing but a lip-exercise, and not a mental exercise. It is not only foolishness but also dangerous. It is as foolish as walking on dragging a plane. Who would walk across a desert laboriously dragging a plane? Reciting prayers over two hours daily without using them to fly to heaven is as foolish as that. Substituting the real use of prayer for mechanical recitation is also dangerous. When you drag a plane along, you lose the opportunity to fly it. Also when you have to drag a plane, you can’t even walk at normal walking speed. The use of liturgy without knowing its purpose slows down the spiritual progress tremendously. No wonder several new churches decided to get rid of liturgy.
How can a student, sitting in his classroom, pray at noon? Does he have to leave his classroom to pray? Or does he have to recite all the noon liturgy when he gets home from school? I don’t think so. This is what I think he can do. He needs to free his mind for a moment from all thoughts and feelings, and gaze at God. If he can do it, it is great! He does not need to recite all the liturgy in the book. A moment’s real prayer serves the purpose.
How can a student going to sleep at 10 at night pray at midnight? No one would expect her to rise at midnight to recite the liturgy. All she needs to do is this: when and if she wakes at night, if she can center her mind, and gaze upon God for a moment, that is good enough as midnight prayer.
But it need not be so all the time. We should be able to spend some time for singing hymns, reading scriptures, and for meditation in the morning and in the evening. Spending some time to free our mind from our thoughts and feelings and gazing at God will help us to stay focused in our life. Begin by spending five minutes in the evening. If you enjoy it, and finds it useful, increase the time to ten minutes. You may also spend a few minutes in the morning. If prayer appears a burden to you, I suggest not to pray. Real prayer, like a plane, is a device to make our journey of life faster and successful and easier. If prayer appears a burden, make an effort to understand its purpose. Try to understand how saints, spending hours in prayer, became powerful men and women of God.
This is how the common people may have their prayer life. But the prayer life in the monasteries need not be so. Monasteries are places for prayer, and the inmates of monasteries should be able to do the hourly prayers in the prescribed times.
They don’t need to combine various times of prayer at all. At six O’clock they need to pray the morning prayer. At 9 O’ clock they need to pray the prayer of that time. At noon, the noon prayer. At 3 in the afternoon, the prayer of that time. At six in the evening, the evening prayer only. At 9 in the evening, the prayer at the time of sleeping only. At midnight, the midnight prayer. This is what our fathers did in the ancient monasteries. This can be done in the modern monasteries too, for prayer is the primary thing they are supposed to do. What matters is praying with its real purpose. They really have to free their minds from their thoughts and feelings, and have their gaze upon God. If prayer does not serve its real purpose, the time spent on prayer or the frequency of prayer is of no worth.
Once the real purpose of hourly prayers is really understood, it can be done appropriately and effectively. There can be some flexibility according to convenience in where the hourly prayer is done. All the inmates don’t need to gather in the chapel for all hourly prayers. They should have the freedom to do the prayers where they are at that time. For example, they should be free to do the 9 pm and 12 midnight prayers in their bedrooms. They may do the 9 am and 3 pm prayers at their places of activities. They may get together in the morning, noon and evening in the chapel for hourly prayers, and then they need to eat together their breakfast, lunch or supper.
Our seminaries act like monasteries, and the students have to spend two to three hours reciting prayers everyday. I think seminary is the ideal place to experiment with the forms of prayer. Instead of putting the hourly prayers together, they may start practicing the seven hourly prayers in seven times. Each hourly prayer need not exceed 15 minutes. Thus the total time spent a day for prayer amount to an hour and forty-five minutes. For some of the hours they may get together in the chapel, and for some others they may be allowed to do in private in their own rooms. For example, the ones before they go to sleep and the one during midnight may be done in their own rooms. Also the one at 9 O’ clock and the one at 3 O’ clock may be done in their classrooms. Such modifications will let them use hourly prayers with their real purpose, and not as a burden.
A man went overseas to work. He was promised very high salary in gold coins, and he was excited to receive gold coins every month. He accumulated a lot of gold in three years. At the end of the contract period, he came back home with all his gold coins in big boxes. He imagined being the richest man in his country. He took some gold coins to the market to be converted to his currency. Alas! They were all fake coins. They appeared gold, but were not real gold. All the gold he earned was of no value. In our monasteries the inmates pray two to three hours everyday. They do it week after week and year after year. Almost 10% of their entire lifetime they spend for prayer. When all of their prayer is accumulated, how much is it worth? The simple question we may ask is this: is it real prayer or fake prayer? Reciting liturgy is not the same as prayer. Let us really pray all the seven times a day. Let us use the liturgy as a guide and help. Not as a substitute.
If reciting the hourly prayers is a burden now in the monasteries, it is because it is done laboriously without knowing its purpose. Prayer is supposed to make our life easier and meaningful. But actually the hourly prayers as it is done now are adding to the burden of life. (Mat 23:4). As Jesus said about Sabbath, prayer is for man, not man for prayer. For Jesus, prayer was a vehicle that made his life purposeful and powerful. Without knowing how to use a vehicle, it becomes a burden. Today we have liturgy, but it is not serving its real purpose, because we don’t know why we pray and how to pray.
Back to Contents Page
No comments:
Post a Comment