Chapter 136

Example of a Prayer Rule

You wish to have a prayer rule. A good desire. Your previous rule was good too; but since you have grown unaccustomed to it, here is a new one.

Evening and morning perform the morning prayers and the prayers before sleep. Attach to them brief prayers—24 from St. John Chrysostom the Divine, which are found among the prayers before sleep, repeating each one 5 times. Then invoke all the saints: apostles, prophets, hierarchs, martyrs and women martyrs, venerable fathers and venerable mothers, and all of every kind who have pleased God by their good works. Generally, that is; but by name: the Lord Jesus Christ, the Mother of God, your Guardian Angel, the saint whose name you bear, the saints whose icons are in the monastery; the saints whom you venerate according to your circumstances, as for instance St. Tikhon and others. Conclude with commemoration of the living and the dead for whom you pray.

(Letter 377. Vol. 3, p. 10–11)