In the Lord's Prayer, we, children, asked Heavenly Father for everything we needed for a prosperous life; only each one asked for everything, not for himself alone, but for all of us; They said to God this way: give us the bread we need; forgive us our sins; don't bring us to misfortune. But each of us, children, has our own special needs, so can’t we ask God to help each of us separately with what we need? Of course, this is also possible; God loves us so much that He allows each one to ask Him for one or another favor. And even, the more often we appear before the Face of God, the more we express our needs to God, the more God shows us certain mercies. God loves, children, when in the morning, even before the start of our everyday affairs, we stand before Him and tell Him everything we need; then from the very beginning of the day He takes us under His special care and gives us help and protection in every difficult matter and in every dangerous case of life.
And you, children, although you have lived a little in the world, you already know how difficult it is to do good deeds, you also know that by nature man is so weak that without God’s help he cannot live happily and prosperously, not only a day, but also an hour, even a minute. Moreover, each of us has an evil invisible enemy - the devil, who only knows what to persuade us to evil deeds in order to forever destroy and deprive us of eternal bliss, which the Savior, with His suffering, prepared in heaven for all good and pious people. And no one for us, children, except God, can be a faithful helper in the fight against the devil: God created us, He cares about children and is ready to help us in every good deed; we only need to believe in God, hope in His mercy and love for us sinners, thank and glorify Him for all the mercies that we receive from Him. In the prayer that the Holy Church has established for us to read in the morning, each of us expresses all this to God. Cross yourself, children, and say your morning prayer with me in conversational language that we understand:
Lord Lover of Humanity! Rising from sleep, I hasten to You and try to do Your deeds with Your mercy, and I pray to You, help me always and in every matter, deliver me from earthly misfortune and from the devil’s help for evil, save me and lead me into Your eternal Kingdom. Since You are my Creator, Trustee and Giver of all good, all my hope is in You, and I glorify You now, and always, and forever. Truly so.
In this prayer we called God the Lord Lover of Mankind, that is, the Lord who is merciful, kind, who loves us all, who does not deny us, His servants, anything necessary and useful for us. In the words: I hasten to You and try to do Your deeds with Your mercy, we tell God that, asking His help for good deeds, we at the same time try ourselves, with our own strength, to live as He commanded us; We don’t think that as soon as we ask God for help in prayer, good deeds will happen by themselves, without our work. God helps a person when he cannot cope with something with his own labors, but even during the labors of God, a person always needs God’s help in every matter. God promised to give this help to a person when he asks Him about it in a heartfelt prayer, which is why it is said further: I pray to You, which means: I ask You for help, since You allowed me to ask You when I alone, with all my efforts, cannot do something good.
And in what exactly a person needs God’s help, we express this to God in the morning prayer like this: deliver me from earthly misfortune, that is, from various earthly troubles, such as illness, death of close relatives, fires, insults, attacks on us by evil people and other things that often do not depend on us and that we cannot remove from ourselves on our own. Deliver me from the devil’s help for evil, because the devil, with various crafty suggestions, draws me from good to bad deeds and thus can destroy me forever, that is, deprive me of Your eternal Kingdom. You Yourself, the Lover of Mankind, save me with Your invisible and strong hand, help me not to succumb to the crafty temptations of the spirit of evil and lead me into Your eternal Kingdom, undefiled by evil deeds. With the words of prayer: since You are my Creator, Trustee and Giver of all good, we express to God why we ask Him for help and hope to receive it.
After all, God, as the Creator, knows what we need His help with, what good we can do on our own and what we cannot do, and, as a caring Trustee, He will give us help when it is needed. Each of us must only, with the hope of God’s mercy, ask for help from God and glorify His endless mercy towards us sinners. At the end of the prayer we express to God this way: all my hope is in You, and I glorify You now, and always, and forever.
In church morning prayer is read differently than in spoken language. The words of the prayer: Master Lover of Mankind are said in the church way: Master Lover of Mankind. Having risen from sleep, I hasten to You in a churchlike manner: having risen from sleep, I have come running. I try to do Your works with Your mercy in a churchly way: I strive for Your works with Your mercy. I pray in the church way it says: I pray. (Repeat the first part of the morning prayer with the children.) Help me always and in every matter in the Church: help me at all times, in every thing. Deliver me from earthly misfortune, in church terms: deliver me from all worldly evil things. The devil's help for evil is said in the church: the devil's haste. (Repetition of the second part.) Since You are my Creator, Trustee and Giver of all good, in the church it is said: You are my Creator and Provider and Giver of all good. All my hope in the Church is in You: all my hope is in You. And I glorify You now, and always, and forever. Truly this is true in the Church’s way: I send glory to You now, and ever, and unto ages of ages. Amen.
How do we ask God for everything we need in the Lord's Prayer? Is it possible for us to ask God each for ourselves? When does God help us in everything? What should we do in the morning before the business of life begins? Why do we need Divine help? How can we thank God for helping us in everything?
What do we express to God in morning prayer? Why do we call God the Lord and Lover of Humanity? Why do we tell God that we are trying to do His works? Why do we say: I pray to You? What is meant by earthly misfortune? What is under the devil's help? Why do we call God Creator and Trustee? Why do we glorify God? - Repeat everything we ask God for in morning prayer. Does this prayer sound so churchly? What words are spoken in the church way only with the ending of the word changed, and what words are said completely differently than in colloquial speech? (Memorization of morning prayer in Church Slavonic should occur in parts.)