Tuesday, November 19, 2013

The Prayer Rule of St. Pachomius



St. Ignatii Brianchaninov writes in his book on the Jesus Prayer: "An angel of God taught St. Pachomius the Great a rule of prayer for the vast community of monks dependent on him. The monks under the spiritual direction of St. Pachomius had to perform the rule every day. Only those who had attained perfection and the unceasing prayer connected with it were freed from the obligation to perform the rule. The rule taught by the angel consisted of the Trisagion, the Lord's prayer, Psalm 50, the Symbol of Faith (Creed) and one hundred Jesus Prayers. In the rule, the Prayer of Jesus is spoken of like the Lord's Prayer, that is, as prayers generally known and in general use."

You can find the text of the rule of St. Pachomius by clicking here.

This prayer rule consists of prayers that an Orthodox Christian should commit to memory, and the rule itself is simple, and easily memorized. One great advantage to memorizing this prayer rule is that if you are ever without a prayer book, you can use this prayer rule in the place of your morning or evening prayers. You can easily do this prayer rule while driving too, and so if your schedule makes it difficult to do either your morning or evening prayers, you can do this prayer rule while on your way to or from work or school.