Origen recommends prayer in six stages. He doesn't name the first step, but we can sum it up with the monastic term, recollection. Entering a "holy place set aside and chosen in our own house, if possible," we take a few moments to "cast away all temptation and troubling thoughts and remind ourselves so far as we are able of the Majesty whom we approach." We "put away all malice" by turning toward the God of justice, releasing all our "debtors" as we lift our hearts to the God of mercy.
The second stage is praise. Standing and facing east, "a symbolic expression of the soul's looking for the rising of the true Light," we lift our hands and eyes, representing in the body "characteristics befitting the soul." Origen suggests Psalm 104, "Bless the Lord, O my soul, O Lord my God, you are very great." "See how frequently the topic of praise is found scattered in Scripture," he says.
Third comes thanksgiving; we thank God for blessings general and specific. And as an example Origen gives David's prayer in 2 Samuel chapter 7, "Who am I, O Lord God, and what is my house, that you have brought me thus far...", which is interesting, because in the prayer David doesn't use "thank you" or "I give thanks" or any such phrase. Perhaps Origen thought it was a good example of combining individual thanks, "Who am I," with collective thanks, "and what is my house," and even more collective, "you established your people Israel."
After thanksgiving Origen recommends confession. We start by kneeling, "...kneeling is necessary when we are going to speak against our own sins before God, since we are making supplication for their healing and their forgiveness." Like the publican, we kneel not just in body but in spirit, with contrition, confessing our sins and asking God's mercy. "Deliver me from all my transgressions" (Psalm 39).
Next is petition, and Origen wants us to request the "great and heavenly things," like the fruits of the Spirit, for ourselves and those we know. Origen often quotes a non-canonical saying of Jesus, "Ask great things, and little things shall be added to you: ask heavenly things, and earthly things shall be added to you," much like, "Seek first the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added unto you."
Personally, I pray a lot for what Origen would classify as "earthly" or "base" material things, but Origen thoroughly applies to all areas of life the distinction between flesh and spirit. Take two of Jesus's relevant sayings: "Do not fear those who can kill the body but not the soul;" "Life is more than food, and the body more than clothes." Origen might collate these two verses into a kind of syllogism, "see how the soul is so much more valuable than the body, and the body so much more valuable than clothes...how much more valuable, then, is the soul than clothes! therefore do not pray for bodily clothes to wear or earthly food to eat, pray rather for the "essential bread" day by day (how he understands Lord's prayer), which is the bread of heaven (John), and pray for the clothes of "our heavenly dwelling" (2 Cor), for the perishable must put on the imperishable (1 Cor)."
The final stage is, once again, praise, "a doxology of God through Christ in the Holy Spirit." I'm assuming we stand back up at this point. "Having begun with praise it is right to conclude the prayer by ending with praise." Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.
I'd like to try out some Origen style prayers (somehow I'm reluctant to say Origenian), experimenting with familiar scripture. Hopefully not "heaping up empty phrases!"
Recollection
...on his law they meditate day and night...
...day and night...
Praise
Bless the Lord!
Praise the Lord, the truly Blessed One,
Wonderful Counselor,
the True Way,
enthroned in Glory.
Bless the Lord, Giver of the Law,
Stream of Living Water,
Ever-prospering Shoot of Jesse,
Producing fruit for Nourishment and leaves for Healing.
Praise the Lord, Whirlwind of Judgment,
Bane of sinners,
Guardian of the righteous,
Doom of wickedness.
Thanksgiving
Thank You Lord!
Thank you for blessing us
with your counsel, the solid rock of teaching,
leading us down the narrow way,
seating us humbly beside you on the mountain side.
Thank you for delighting us
by giving and fulfilling your Law,
offering us the water that quenches all thirst,
growing among us the mustard tree of the kingdom.
Thank you for threshing us
with the scorching wind of conviction,
with the sword of division and scepter of judgment,
with protection for the sheep and destruction for the goats. (poor goats!)
Confession
Have Mercy on us, Lord!
Forgive us, Lord, for resisting your blessing
taking bad advice and returning it in kind,
walking the wide and easy path to destruction,
sitting in scorn and judgment over our neighbors.
Forgive us, Lord, for despising your Law
idolizing mammon day and night,
preferring the bitter waters of resentment,
the rotten fruit of opulence, or withered leaves of avarice.
Forgive us, Lord, for pursuing wickedness,
hopelessly blown and tossed about in the wind,
humiliated and locked out of the congregation,
no one to look after us, headed for hell.
Petition
Help us, Lord!
Help us, Lord, to seek and receive your blessing
as doers of the word, and not hearers only,
guide our feet in the path of peace;
may we sit before you and choose the better part.
Help us, Lord, to delight in your Word,
keep it near to us, on our lips and in our heart;
Water and fertilize us like the fig tree, spread the manure!
That we might bear fruit worthy of repentance.
Help us, Lord, to turn from evil and do good.
Take us up in the Holy Wind of the Spirit,
that we may stand forgiven in Judgment, together with the saints.
Watch our steps and keep us from every wicked way.
Doxology
Praise God our Parent, who sets before us two ways, life and death, that we may choose life, punishing our sin for a season, and blessing our goodness into eternity.
Praise Christ our Savior, who crossed our wicked paths with love, who hung without hatred among the scornful rulers, who bloomed in Grace after the winter of death.
Praise Holy Spirit, voice we hear behind us, saying, "this is the way, walk in it;" fountain of water welling up to eternal life; wind that drives away sin and dances through the trees of righteousness.
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