Our Prayer for Others

Prayer for the Church, the Clergy, Our Brethren, and Our Enemies

Introduction

Prayer for others is one of the clearest marks of a Christian heart. A person who prays only for himself remains confined within the narrow circle of his personal needs. But a person who prays for others begins to live ecclesially—that is, not as an isolated individual, but as a member of the Body of Christ. Prayer then becomes a work of love, a ministry of invisible philanthropy, a mystical offering of the heart on behalf of every human being.

In the Divine Liturgy, the Church does not pray only for those present. She prays for the peace of the world, for the stability of the holy Churches of God, for priests, hierarchs, rulers, travelers, the sick, captives, the departed, those who mourn, the poor—for all. Even in the liturgical texts we find petitions for “pious and Orthodox Christians,” revealing that the prayer of the Church is always universal and communal.

The Orthodox tradition teaches that personal prayer is a continuation of the prayerful state of the Church, a “liturgy after the Liturgy,” and that prayer in words must become an act of love, philanthropy, and service to one’s neighbor. This phrase summarizes our entire theme: prayer for others is not a mere sentiment; it is ecclesial life continued in the heart of the believer.

1. The Theological Foundation of Prayer for Others

Prayer for others is founded upon the truth that God is the Father of all and that man is not saved individualistically. Salvation is personal, but not private. No one belongs only to himself. The believer lives within the Body of Christ, and the joy, pain, fall, repentance, and need of one concern all.

Prayer for another person is a confession that the other is not a stranger. Even if he is far away, even if he is indifferent, even if he is an enemy, he remains a person created according to the image of God. Saint Justin Popović, within the Orthodox tradition, writes that the love of Christ impels us to live for others, and that we are saved “through our neighbor,” through evangelical care for him.

Prayer for others is the spiritual form of this care. When we cannot help practically, we can stand before God for the other person. When we do not know what to say to someone who is suffering, we can say his name before God. When the other person does not listen to advice, we can beg God to illumine his heart. Prayer does not abolish action; it deepens it.

2. Why Is It Important to Pray for Other People?

First, because prayer for others cleanses the heart from self-love. A person who prays only for his own needs risks making even the spiritual life part of his egoism. But when he begins to remember the sick, the poor, the suffering, the clergy, and those who have hurt him, his heart begins to expand.

Second, because prayer for others is participation in the intercession of Christ. Christ, upon the Cross, prayed for those who crucified Him. Prayer for enemies reminds us that Christ, while enduring the sufferings of the Cross and mockery, prayed: “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”

Third, because prayer for others reveals that we truly believe in the grace of God. If we believe that God is able to heal, illumine, comfort, and bring someone back, then we do not limit ourselves to human solutions. We bring the other person before God.

Fourth, because prayer for others heals us as well. When I pray for someone who has wounded me, God softens my own heart. The Church encourages us to say a short prayer for the one who slanders or despises us, and she notes that then a first peace comes within us, even if at first the prayer is said with effort and against the habit of the mind.

3. Prayer for the Church

Prayer for the Church is a fundamental duty of the believer. When we say, “For the peace of the whole world and for the stability of the holy Churches of God,” we are not uttering a merely formal phrase. We are asking God to preserve the Church from schisms, errors, persecutions, coldness, internal divisions, worldlymindedness, and negligence.

Prayer for the Church should include asking God:

• To preserve Orthodoxy undefiled.

• To grant peace to the local Churches.

• To heal divisions, suspicions, nationalisms, and passions.

• To strengthen confessors, the persecuted, monastics, and missionaries.

• To enlighten the shepherds.

• To renew the parishes.

The Orthodox tradition connects prayer for the Church with unity and brotherly love, noting that prayers for unity reveal the desire of Christians to fulfill Christ’s commandment of brotherly love.

However, we must be careful: prayer for the Church must not become a substitute for condemnation. It is one thing to pray for the problems of the Church with pain and humility; it is another to use prayer as an indirect accusation against those whom we dislike. Prayer for the Church must be pure, free from hatred, and full of repentance.

4. Prayer for the Clergy

The clergy greatly need our prayer. The priest stands before the Holy Altar and commemorates the people. But the people, too, must commemorate the priest. The priest is not bodiless. He has labors, temptations, sorrows, responsibilities, weaknesses, and burdens. Prayer for him is an act of ecclesial maturity.

We should pray:

• For the bishop, that he may rightly divide the word of truth.

• For priests, that they may serve the Liturgy with the fear of God, purity, discernment, and love.

• For deacons, that they may serve with humility.

• For spiritual fathers, that they may have illumination and a fatherly heart.

• For monastics, that they may preserve prayer for the world.

• For young clergy, that they may not be crushed by fatigue.

• For fallen or struggling clergy, that God may have mercy on them.

In the patristic tradition, Saint John Chrysostom, interpreting the exhortation of the Apostle Paul that supplications be made for kings and rulers, emphasizes that if the priest is called to pray for public rulers so that wars and disturbances may cease, how much more should private individuals live with a spirit of prayer and peace.

Prayer for the clergy also protects us from the passion of judgment. Whoever truly prays for the priest finds it difficult to speak evil of him. Whoever remembers the bishop in prayer will not easily turn him into a subject of gossip. Prayer does not mean that we deny problems, but that we bring them before God with pain and not with malicious delight.

5. How Can We Pray for Other People?

We can pray for others in many ways.

First, by the simple commemoration of names. In the morning or evening prayer rule, we can say: “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on Your servant…” or “Remember, O Lord, my parents, children, the sick, and the afflicted.” Simplicity has great power.

Second, with the prayer rope. For someone who is suffering, we can say a few prayers: “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on him/her…” Much imagination is not needed. What is needed is steadiness.

Third, by commemoration in the Divine Liturgy. We can submit names of the living and the departed for the Proskomedia. This is one of the deepest forms of prayer, because it places the person within the Eucharistic memory of the Church.

Fourth, with fasting and almsgiving. Prayer for others becomes stronger when accompanied by works of love. The Orthodox tradition, as we have seen, teaches that prayer in words must be clothed with the prayer of good works, philanthropy, and love of neighbor.

Fifth, with the Paraklesis, the Akathist Hymn, and the Psalms. The Orthodox tradition preserves a rich treasury of supplicatory services, through which the believer brings the pain of another person before the Theotokos and the saints. In the Small Paraklesis Canon, we encounter psalmic petitions for salvation, mercy, guidance, and deliverance from enemies, showing that the Church prays with the full depth of human need.

6. Prayer for the Sick, the Afflicted, and the Departed

Prayer for the sick is an act of compassion. When we say, “Lord, heal,” we are not asking only for bodily restoration; we are asking for illumination, patience, repentance, inner strength, and consolation. Sometimes God grants healing of the body; at other times He grants strength to bear the illness. But He always gives grace when prayer is offered with faith and humility.

For the afflicted, we pray that sorrow may not swallow up their hearts. Pain can become either a path toward God or an occasion for bitterness. Our prayer asks that suffering may become a path of repentance and not of despair.

For the departed, we pray because love does not stop at the grave. The Church commemorates the departed because she believes in the communion of the living and the dead in Christ. Prayer for them is an act of hope in the mercy of God.

7. We Pray for Our Enemies

Here we reach the summit of Christian prayer. Christ did not ask us only to pray for those we love. He asked us to pray for our enemies. This surpasses natural morality. The natural heart wants to bless friends and curse enemies. The Christian heart learns to ask for salvation even for the one who wounds it.

Saint John Chrysostom says clearly: “Pray for your enemies, and thus you will become like your Father who is in heaven.” He adds that if we cannot make the sun rise or the rain fall, we can at least refrain from slander, insult, and revenge.

The Orthodox tradition, through Saint Silouan the Athonite, gives one of the deepest criteria of spiritual life: a person cannot love his enemies without the grace of the Holy Spirit; therefore, he must pray for them. Silouan says that when someone hurts us, we must immediately pray for him, and that the soul does not find peace unless it asks the Lord for the gift of love for all.

The tradition preserves prayers for enemies that reach a deep evangelical tenderness: “Give me a clean heart and one ready to forgive”; “I will bless the one who curses me”; “If my enemy hungers, I will give him bread; if he thirsts, I will give him water.” Saint Nikolai Velimirovich prays: “Lord, bless my enemies; I too bless them and do not curse them.”

8. What Does It Mean Practically to Pray for My Enemy?

It does not mean that I justify evil. It does not mean that I deny injustice. It does not mean that I permit abuse or lawlessness. It means that I do not desire the destruction of the other person, but his repentance and salvation.

One may pray simply:

• “Lord, have mercy on the person who wounded me.”

• “Lord, enlighten him and enlighten me.”

• “Lord, do not allow hatred to reign within me.”

• “Lord, grant him repentance, and grant me humility.”

• “Lord, as You had mercy on me, have mercy on him also.”

At first, such a prayer may seem cold, difficult, almost impossible. Yet grace works through perseverance. Saint Silouan insists that love for enemies is a gift of the Holy Spirit and not a psychological achievement.

Prayer for enemies first changes us. It entrusts them to the mercy of God. It frees us from hatred. When I cease seeking revenge, it does not mean that I become weak; it means that I become free.

9. Prayer for All: The Universal Heart of the Church

Orthodoxy knows no small heart. The heart of the Church has room for all: friends, strangers, the sick, the poor, clergy, sinners, enemies, the living, and the departed. Prayer for all is not abstract humanism, but a Christological truth. Christ died for all. The Church prays for all.

The tradition of Saint Silouan summarizes this universal spirit: the soul that has been taught to pray by the grace of God loves all creation with compassion, and especially man. The tradition speaks of prayer that continues in acts of philanthropy and love. The liturgical tradition prays unceasingly “for all men and all women.”

Conclusion

Prayer for others is a work of love, the fruit of ecclesial consciousness, and a path toward the healing of the heart. We pray for the Church because we are her members. We pray for the clergy because they carry a heavy ministry and need grace, illumination, and protection. We pray for our brethren because their pain is also our own. We pray for our enemies because Christ taught us to love beyond nature.

Our prayer for others does not always immediately change outward circumstances. But it changes the heart. It widens it, purifies it, and makes it ecclesial. And when the heart becomes ecclesial, it begins to hold everyone before God.

The simplest and truest prayer can become:

Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on Your Church.

Strengthen Your clergy.

Have mercy on our brethren.

Enlighten those who love us and those who hate us.

Give us a heart that prays for all. Amen.