What is Prayer?

What Is Prayer? is an open inquiry for anyone drawn to the question of prayer — what it is, how it changes us, and how it may teach us to love God and one another more deeply. I begin from within the Orthodox Christian tradition, which is my spiritual home, while listening with care to saints, priests, monastics, people of other faiths, poets, artists, scientists, friends, and ordinary lives shaped by prayer. Come as you are — with your questions, your longing, your faith, and even your doubts.

More necessary than breathing

In Reflection II of the What Is Prayer? series, Rev. Fr. Romanos Karanos, Ph.D. reflects on St. Gregory of Nazianzus and St. Paul’s call to “pray without ceasing,” inviting us to understand prayer not merely as something we do, but as the remembrance of God becoming as natural to the soul as breathing is to the body.

Mariam Haddad

7 days ago1 min read

Begin where you are

What is prayer? Hieromonk Savvatey (Ageyev), Acting Abbot of St. Demetrios of Thessaloniki Monastery, offers a gentle reflection on the return of the mind to the heart, perseverance in prayer, and beginning exactly where we are.

Mariam Haddad

Jun 301 min read

Devotional graphic introducing the “What Is Prayer?” series, with an icon of Christ, a candle, an Orthodox cross, and the words “An inquiry into the heart of our conversation with God.”

Come as you are: an invitation to prayer

What is prayer? Welcome to an inquiry rooted in the Orthodox Christian faith and opened in love to every sincere seeker. Come with your questions, experiences, convictions, and even your disagreements—but come without weapons in your hands.

Mariam Haddad

Jun 252 min read