must we read the agpia?

awad

i feel ahamed saying so but
I find praying in the agpia boring and
i dont get anything out of it?
is it necessary to pray in the agpia or the bible?

Copt4Life

Someone put a really good quote by a priest i believe it was saying something along the lines of if you cant pray routinely how will you be able to pray constantly and if you cant pray with the words that God Himself gave you. how will you learn to pray without them. Also, David the prophet & king, praised God with the psalms, so who better to take an example from you know?! Agbeya is not to subsititute ur own prayers tho...its just a really good way to add structure to your spiritual life. dont be ashamed with the question...even our priests recognize that it COULD be "boring" and by the way it can also be AMAZING (depending on where ur head is, etc) but praying with the agbeya may at first be sumthing u force urself to do and then you'll love it and get used to it later...just like for example learning a new language may first require to much effort and seem tedious and unnecessary since u can already communicate in another language but once u've taken the effort to learn, you have a tool that you can enjoy..and that will benefit u (m not ammazing with examples but i hope u get my point)...nice topic..better than A LOT of the ones lately...no offense ...lol

awad

thanks copt4life
very helpful

copt-icboy

During the times of the desert fathers, one monk had the same issue you bring up. He talked with his father of confession and told him that he doesn't feel he is gaining anything by reading the Bible. It is boring and he doesn't understand it.
So his father of confession took him out and gave him a filthy basket made out of palm leaves. Told him to go fill it with water and come back. This required him to walk a few miles to get to the well to draw the water. By the time he came back, the basket was empty. So his father of confession sent him again on the same mission, to fill the basket with water, and again, it came back empty (water would drain). After a few trips, the young monk tells his father of confession that it is useless trying to fill the basket with water. It will never hold the water. His father of confession agreed but told him to look at the basket now, did anything change. The young monk finally noticed that the basket was clean now from all the water that went thru it. This is kinda like the effect of reading the Bible and praying the agpya, you might think it is boring and you benfit nothing, but it works wonders in the back ground.
Also remember that Anba Bishoi (the saint) used to force himself to stay up to pray by tieing a rop haning from the cieling to his hair so he won't fall asleep. Some times we have to force ourselfs to do things spiritually to move to the next level.

Christi_03

great story Coptic boy! i was about to mention it!.... i love that story :D

agpeya prayer and bible reading is very important for spiritual growth. sometimes, the agpeya can help us say many things we wouldnt know how to say in our own words. even if that's not the case, its the words of the bible, for the most part, and who wrote the bible? the Holy Spirit! so basically we're using God's own words to talk to Him. its great communication!
prayer on your own is very important, but not as important as agpeya prayer and not complete without it.

take care & God bless!

battata

[quote author=Coptic boy link=board=1;threadid=1024;start=0#msg17527 date=1105043394]
During the times of the desert fathers, one monk had the same issue you bring up. He talked with his father of confession and told him that he doesn't feel he is gaining anything by reading the Bible. It is boring and he doesn't understand it.
So his father of confession took him out and gave him a filthy basket made out of palm leaves. Told him to go fill it with water and come back. This required him to walk a few miles to get to the well to draw the water. By the time he came back, the basket was empty. So his father of confession sent him again on the same mission, to fill the basket with water, and again, it came back empty (water would drain). After a few trips, the young monk tells his father of confession that it is useless trying to fill the basket with water. It will never hold the water. His father of confession agreed but told him to look at the basket now, did anything change. The young monk finally noticed that the basket was clean now from all the water that went thru it. This is kinda like the effect of reading the Bible and praying the agpya, you might think it is boring and you benfit nothing, but it works wonders in the back ground.
Also remember that Anba Bishoi (the saint) used to force himself to stay up to pray by tieing a rop haning from the cieling to his hair so he won't fall asleep. Some times we have to force ourselfs to do things spiritually to move to the next level.


i remember when abouna told us that story one time, its exactly about reading the Bible and praying the agepya. You may not always understand the Bible but it still cleanses you.

mmatt95

i remember a nice quote concerning agpia, maybe it was the one Copt4Life meant:

If we forget to pray, time will remind us

here's an article by HH who discusses all the advantages of the agpia, it's really good :)

http://www.coptichymns.net/mod-pagesetter-viewpub-tid-1-pid-381.html

pureplaya434

i agree with what everyone said you must read the agpia but the agpia should also be ajoined with simpler prayers from our heart heres a post i wrote about that..

hey guys watsup
neway we have this new bishop in town anba apakir (who is awesome) and actually he gave a talk about prayer and he said the best prayer is done from heart then out of an agpeya or anything else tehres a story like this which he told....

there was a monk in the desert (in egypt) who wanted to join a monastery (in egypt) and to join that monastery you had to know all 150 psalms by heart because whn they stood up to pray someone would assign each monk a psalm and he would pray it by memory (booklessly) so there was one monk which the abbot of the monastery especially liked and held high above all the other monks and teh other monks were jealous so they spyed on him a little and foudn out that he only knew one of the psalms so they asked teh abbot what to do with him and he said send him homeso they broughthim to the abbot and then the abbot sent him home and the monk said father its true i only know one psalm the abbot said eda7 inta betit7ac alena? the monk said sorry and before i leave can i take the (aileya) which is like the building where he lives and he sorta laughed and siad go ahead (as it was impossible for one man to carry a whole building) and so the man tied the building to his back and walked away and the whole building began to move (because he was a saint) and then the abbot ran after him and said he had made a mistake and to come back to the monastery but the monk said but father i only know 1 psalm he said its fine come back thats good enough

this story shows that the simple prayers are great but an official prayer is good as well but it is not the most important

aghape,
chris

P.S he told quite a few i still remmebr some if u ant ill post them just let me know

god bless you all
aghape,
chris