Private Prayer Must Be Our Daily Bread

In the Preface to the Orthodox Christian Prayers prayer book, there is a wonderful little paragraph that echoes many of the responses I have heard to our COVID-19 quarantine. I have noticed that many responses, from Met. Tikhon to Bishop Alexis, from Abbot Sergius to Archimandrite Zacharias, have emphasized that this quarantine is a time to turn to God in prayer. I would warn against counting out their opinion because they are monastics and unlike us in the world, but the common monastic response is no accident: these are men whose spiritual life is not dependent on going to church services, but rather on the foundation of prayer and communion with Christ in the "secrecy of their room".

 The prayer book has this encouraging word for us:

 "As disciples of Christ and his imitators, Orthodox Christians pray together at church, offering the services of Vespers, Matins, the Hours, and above all the Divine Liturgy. We may also pray in small groups outside of church, with our family or friends. But we also pray, each of us, in the secrecy of our room, in the presence of God who 'sees in secret' (Matt. 6:4). While corporate prayer might take place not more than two or three times a week, private prayer must be our 'daily bread': a daily response to the hunger not of our stomach but of our heart."

 As we are isolated here at home, let us ask our Lord Jesus Christ to give us our daily bread, and he will surely answer.

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