Prayer in Tewahido

Source : Riitta Känkänen's Facebook Album 

Among all the Creation, only men and angels will live for eternity. These two races will praise God and enjoy His love forever, in fact, they drive satisfaction from /feed on/ prayers in Heaven.
The Lord Himself spoke of the life of men in heaven
as "For in the resurrection they[men] neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven."Matthew 22:30
Praising the Lord is the very fulfillment of our joy in eternity and the very reason of our Creation. We hope to join the perfect mass of angels in heaven to praise our Creator. However, when we talk about praying [here on Earth], it comes to our mind the associated physical stresses and the hardships against our material interests. We labor to train ourselves for prayer, at a cost. Then it may seem, this 'stress' will follow us in heaven too. But in heaven its not like that. Being a spiritually enlightened, our soul feels the presence of the Lord, and starve to call His lovely name, the very Authority who created her.


Prayer was recognizably powerful in the old times, but its magnificence seems to be neglected by contemporary theologians. The value of prayer is beyond measure. The fruits of a pure prayer will prevail not only in this material world, but for eternity too. Because once God visits a wo/man who humbly prayed, He never rejects for eternity. In John 6:37, the Lord Himself promised it, "him that comes to me I will in no wise cast out".


Besides the eternal hope, however, prayer brings  earthly peace. Even some Christians, hesitate to believe, the power of prayers to change the social, natural, political and medical problems. Whatsoever problem is happening in the current social, political, environmental or any discipline on global/local/ scale is a reflection of God's judgement for our deeds. If we live according to the Biblical morality, we will eat the fruits of our righteousness. If we pervert our deeds, then we will suffer from the judgement of our lusts. Think that when each of us are doing good deeds/according to the Biblical laws/, then we are contributing towards the betterment of living conditions. At whatever scale and for any reason, when we are found violating against the Biblical morality, we are adding a fuel on the fire to the already chaos world. The same rule applies to prayers. When we pray, we are inviting calmness into Earth - for God pours His peace via prayer communications. The global events like WWI, WWII, the Economic Crisis 2009 are all results of our cumulative sins. Let alone those global events, even very local crises like the tsunamis, famines, wars and conflicts, outbreak of epidemic diseases etc are all related to our sinful life. If we repent not, we do perish with such disasters too. Our Lord Himself taught the following "4 ...those eighteen, on whom the tower in Siloam fell, and slew them, think you that they were sinners above all men that dwelled in Jerusalem? 5 I tell you, No: but, except you repent, you shall all likewise perish." Luke 13. Prayer has the power to divert these disasters which came forth as a result of our sinful lives.


The concept of repentance is mostly misused to justify our sins. Whatever sin is done, there will follow judgement, which may extend into eternal rejection, unless we repent. Even if we may repent, however, we will suffer on earth, as a result of our sins. The two Biblical righteous patriarchs Jacob, son of Isaac, and king David are both clear examples. Jacob deceived his father /of course for good/ to receive his blessing - Genesis 27. He then, was deceived by his uncle Laban - Genesis 29:21-30. While king David helped to the death of Uriah, 2 Samuel 11. King David was later suffered for his mistakes - his daughter, Tamar, defiled by his son, Amnon. Even his another son Absalom conspired to dethrone him, 2 Samuel 15, had it not God visited him with mercy. God judges every sin, even these two saintly fathers, whose faith was witnessed by God Himself.


The Tewahido Church has its tradition of praying, collection of prayer books and prayer hours. In principle, there is no greater prayer than continuously meditating (staying tuned with) about God (ተዘክሮተ-እግዚአብሔር), thinking His salvation for the children of men, the life of His Saints, and the coming life God has prepared for mankind. We can stay tuned with Godly messages in every possible reasons. There are many technologies to help us, like mp3 players, mobile phones, iPods, iPhones, computers, youtube, printed materials etc  for listening audio Bible, spiritual songs, even sermons etc, even as many as there are  so much commercial 'theaters' to attract our attention. Let the fool use the technologies for listening metal music, but we can use them for nourishing our soul with the word of God.


Prayer is divided into two: private prayers- which we do privately and mass prayers - like liturgy, seatat, mahlets, singing prayers - done in masses. A typical and devout Christian is advised to pray privately seven times a day like king David, "Seven times a day do I praise you because of your righteous judgments." Psalm 119:164,i.e. every three hour in the 24hr cycle.  However the length and level of meditation may vary according to our capabilities. It may feel uncomfortable and burdensome,  at least for us beginners. In this instance its nice to remember an Ethiopian proverb, "In steps, an egg walks with legs". Because the way to perfectness is long, we have to train ourselves to keep meditating with the Lord, as much as we can. Specially, in times of fasting like the Great Lent, its good to heighten our prayers to receive more blessing with respect to the season. We do fast with the Lord in desert - by praying we recall the Lord's temptation in the desert, we do strive to win against the evil powers who are trying to detach us from Him.


The Tewahido Church has prepared prayers for every event, before/after meal, before bedtime, morning prayers, each day of the Great Lent, repentance, prayers using prayer beads ...etc. Its advisable to remember some of the prayers by heart. Psalms is the most common and most advisable prayer book. Most priests do remember the Psalms book by heart. The advantage of attending Tewahido mass prayers like Liturgies is that, most of them are compiled from many items like Hymn of Mary, Psalms, Gospels, OT and NT prayers, Creeds, Faith of Fathers, Homilies etc.


The Ethiopian saintly patriarches and matriarchs Saint Teklehaimanot, Saint Gebre Menfes Kidus and St. Kristos Semira are known for their inspiring prayers.The lovely father Kyrillos VI, pope of Coptic Church before pope Shenouda, is the modern figure of prayer, who demonstrated the real power of prayer in this century.


May God send His mercy to the people of Japan. Amen.
Melkam Tsom and forget me not in your prayers!