Why Do We Pray the Agpeya?
Why Do We Pray the Agpeya?
Question:
Why do we pray using the Agpeya? Is not prayer from the heart better? Why, then, do we not suffice with it?
Answer:
Prayer with the Agpeya does not prevent personal prayer in which you open your heart to God and speak to Him with honesty and clarity. Likewise, personal heartfelt prayer does not prevent praying the Agpeya, nor does it replace it, for these prayers have many benefits, among which we mention the following:
The prayers of the Agpeya remind you of holy occasions that you might not remember in your personal prayers. You remember the Nativity of Christ in the Morning Prayer, His Crucifixion in the Sixth Hour Prayer, His death in the Ninth Hour Prayer, and His Second Coming at Midnight. You remember the coming of the Holy Spirit in the Third Hour Prayer, death and judgment in the Prayer before Sleep, and God’s mercies toward sinners in the Sunset Prayer.
The prayers of the Agpeya contain all types of prayer: they include prayers of supplication, whether for yourself or for others, whether living or departed. They also include prayers of contrition, confession of sin, and asking for forgiveness. They include prayers of thanksgiving, as well as prayers of glorification and praise. It is rare for a person to attend to all these elements together in his own prayers.
The Agpeya includes details that a person may not be able to gather all together in his prayers. For example, at the end of every prayer we say to the Lord: “Sanctify our souls, purify our bodies, set aright our thoughts, cleanse our intentions, heal our diseases, forgive our sins, and deliver us from every evil grief and heartache. Surround us with Your holy angels, that we may be guarded and guided with their camp…” Would you, in your personal prayer, say all this together in one single petition? …
The prayers of the Agpeya—through all this and more—appear as a spiritual school that teaches you how to pray, teaches you the manner of addressing God, and the way of reverence in speaking to Him and arranging your words in prayer: that you begin first by thanking Him for His many mercies (in the Thanksgiving Prayer), then humble yourself confessing your sins (in Psalm 50), and after that present your many requests.
The prayers of the Agpeya ensure that they are according to the will of God, because in the Psalms and the Gospels you address God with the words of God, and the rest were composed by the holy fathers according to the will of the Lord.
In the prayers of the Agpeya there is an element of teaching and guidance that explains to you what you ought to do. For example, in the Morning Prayer you begin with a passage from the Epistle to the Ephesians in which the Apostle Paul says: “…that you walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, with all humility and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of perfect peace.”
Thus, it explains to you how to deal with people. Added to this is the first Psalm, in which the psalmist calls you to stay away from the way of sinners and the counsel of scoffers, along with other Psalms that carry further exhortations.
The prayers of the Agpeya include the Psalms, which are the deepest prayers. They were used in the Apostolic era, as the Scripture says: “Whenever you come together, each of you has a psalm” (1 Corinthians 14:26). It also says: “Speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord” (Ephesians 5:19).
An article by His Holiness Pope Shenouda III – Al-Keraza Magazine – Fifth Year – Issue Three – 19 October 1974.
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