The Apostle Paul, explaining the dignity of prayer, says: I will pray with the spirit, and I will also pray with the mind (1 Cor. 14:15). He Himself (i.e., the Savior), in the days of His flesh, with strong crying and tears, offered prayers and supplications (Heb. 5:1). And since you are sons, God sent the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying: Abba, Father! (Gal.4:6). Through Him we will offer sacrifices and praises, that is, the fruit of lips that glorify His Name (Heb. 13:15). Because one believes with the heart, leading to justification, and confessing with the mouth, leading to salvation (Rom. 10:10). Always make your requests known to God by prayer and supplication, with gratitude, and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Jesus Christ. (Phil.4:6-8).
What a high, holy dignity of prayer! What an omnipotent power! But the same Apostle says that: one dry, inanimate Letter kills, but the Spirit gives life! (2 Cor. 3:6): this means that praying through only oral prayers, mechanically memorized from childhood, and pronounced without the participation of the mind and understanding of their exact meaning, and therefore without warming the heart with them and without drawing the soul to the mental Throne of God, is not only useless and leads to a well-deserved reproach: These people honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me (Mark 7:6); but it is also criminal, and exposes the one praying in this way to terrible condemnation: Cursed be everyone who does the work of God with negligence! (Jer. 48:10).
Scripture (Sacred) is inspired by God, continues the Apostle, and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction and for instruction in righteousness, so that a person may be complete and equipped for every good work (2 Tim. 3:16-17); and adds, in another place, that there is no bond to the word of God (2 Tim. 2:10); but since one who does not understand the meaning of the words of the teaching is in relation to him as if he were a stranger, then in disgust of this: you too, zealously desiring spiritual gifts, try to be enriched by them for the edification of others (members of Christ's Church). Therefore, you who speak in an unknown tongue, pray and interpret! I would rather say five words with my mind, so as to instruct others, than ten thousand words in an unknown language! (1 Cor. 14:11–14, 19). This can be applied to the situation of the majority of those who pray closed prayers, in relation to the meaning of which they become strangers.
The lack of knowledge of the Slavic language, in which all the prayers are set out, the lack of interpretations of them in a common language, and the scattering of these latter in modern publications, inaccessible to the majority of Orthodox Christians, still leaves many of them in the impossibility of applying to themselves the conviction of the same Supreme Apostle that: The Word of God is living and active, and the edge of a two-edged sword: it penetrates to the division of soul and spirit, the compositions and brains - and judges the feelings and thoughts of the heart (Heb. 4:12).
To somewhat fill this gap and to serve those who need it, we decided to compile a collection of the most important prayers, with their Slavic text, Russian translation and explanation; deliberately adhering in the latter to frequent references to the Gospel, the Apostolic Acts and the Epistles, in view of the fact that by frequent reference to these references, in the totality of their general meaning with everything preceding and following, inquisitive readers will perhaps be convinced that: God, the Father of Glory, will enlighten the eyes of our hearts, so that we may know what is the hope of His calling, and how rich is His glorious inheritance, and how excellent is the greatness of His power in us! (Eph.1:17).