The Agpeya, Vol. 2
This lecture speaks about the Agpeya as a scriptural, model prayer in the Coptic Orthodox spiritual life: its legality, its advantages, and its spiritual elements. The speaker explains how the Agpeya gathers the Psalms, the Gospel, and the prayers of the hours to teach the believer how to pray.
The main idea
The Agpeya is not merely requests but a hymn of love and longing to God, and an instructional reference for the Church. It contains love for God, the house of God, the Word of God, the saints and the angels, and teaches the soul longing for the face of the Lord and clinging to Him.
Elements of prayer in the Agpeya
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Love and longing: the recitations of the Psalms and prayers express a yearning for God and a request for His face.
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Reverence and prostration: a call to prostrate and revere before the holiness of God.
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Praise and glorification: magnifying God’s attributes and contemplating His greatness.
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Dialogue and disputation with God: supplication and explicit mention of states, and sometimes arguing asking for His justice or mercy.
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Confession and contrition: confessing sin and asking for mercy.
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Thanksgiving and acknowledgment of God’s grace: declaring gratitude for God’s grace and His responses.
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Request for guidance and knowledge: asking to understand the ways of the Lord and His teachings.
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Reliance and waiting: learning trust in God and awaiting His good providence.
Ecclesial and doctrinal dimension
The Agpeya brings together biblical texts (Psalms, Gospel, Epistles) and presents the faith’s truths — the Trinity, the incarnational theology, the status of the Virgin and the saints — which makes it a continuous school of doctrine and spiritual life. It is also a communal and ecclesial prayer that makes the believer feel part of the Body of Christ with angels, saints, and all creation praising with the Church.
Practical conclusion
The Agpeya is training in prayer: it teaches the believer love and longing, reverence, supplication, and gratitude. Whoever memorizes and recites it nourishes himself spiritually and lives the Church’s teachings practically; it is not a routine rite but a life of prayer that forms the heart in knowledge of God and walking in His ways.
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