God, and face your icons, or face East and with compunction, and without haste, make
four bows, or better, four prostrations. Do this with hope in God, and the sure belief that
He will receive your prayer, as He received the widow's two mites, and protect you
during the day, even if you fall into inattention and these prayers are the last you will say
for the entire day.
2 Most Holy Theotokos, save us.
3 Holy Saint ______ (your patron saint), pray to God for me.
4 Holy Angel of God, my guardian, pray to God for me.
attentions to the cares of the day. Even if the weakness of the flesh compels us to
abandon our prayer and rush into our day, perhaps not to return to our morning prayer, at
least we have begun the by giving our "first fruits" to God. Let us do these "few things",
four short prayers that take under a minute, so that in time, our heart will become aflame
with the love of God, and our Lord will say to us: ""Well done, thou good and faithful
servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many
things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord." (Mat 25:21)
A great article about the ranks of the angels is in the Menologion
program.
MICHAEL AND THE OTHER HEAVENLY BODILESS POWERSÁ-? (Nov 8 on the
church calendar (this occurs Nov 21 on the calendar hanging in JoeÁ-?s garage (the
Á-°civilÁ-? calendar)), there is a great description of this feast, with lots of background
information.
unholy holy Á?¦) , which has daily readings, synaxarion (short lives of
saints/description of feast days), and troparia and kontakia. Get this program!
I use it every day to read the daily readings, and, as often as I can, copy the text
and comment on it (see