What is the difference between Praying Aloud and Praying in Silence

binC

Hello Friends!

Can you tell me the difference between praying aloud and praying in silence with its application? Please give me links of books, articles, preachings related with this.

Thanking you!
BinC

jojo204

Christ is risen!

I came across something connected to praying aloud in an Eastern Orthodox book titled 'The Scent of Holiness' by Constantina Palmer. Their belief on this topic is in accordance with the Oriental Orthodox Churches.

“Make the sign of the cross, Constantina,” Sister Thekla calmly suggested. “Why?” I asked in bewilderment. “Because you are very excited and the devil sees everything,” she said simply. I made the sign of the cross and struggled to better contain my enthusiasm. I had heard of this before— not expressing your emotions too outwardly so as not to give the evil one more ground than he needs in tempting you. But I must say, this did strike me as a little odd at first. However, it is more spiritually prudent to be measured when expressing any outward signs of emotion. This way the evil one has less ammunition, since he can only judge our thoughts and feelings based on what we externally reveal to him. He can neither see the future nor read our thoughts. Abba Arsenios describes it in this way: “The unclean spirits are capable of understanding the quality of our thoughts and logismoi (thoughts) not because they can penetrate into the soul, but rather because they carefully observe certain of our outward expressions or bodily movements.” And so temperance in displaying sadness, anger, frustration, hurt, and even enthusiasm guards us against the evil one’s wiles and temptations."

We obviously pray aloud in the Church services, Agpeya Prayers and personal prayers, and this is all good, and it helps with praying in silence.
The difference: “Silence is a mystery of the age to come, but words are instruments of this world.” - St Isaac the Syrian
Application: Try to use them at the time they are needed.

binC

Thank you very much for the reply; I have learned a lot.

The fathers say you need to pray mentally before you pray in spirit. You have to pray enough aloud to pray in silence. If I cannot walk properly why do I ask about flying? Pride!!

jojo204

[quote author=binC link=topic=14413.msg164559#msg164559 date=1368431340]
The fathers say you need to pray mentally before you pray in spirit. You have to pray enough aloud to pray in silence. If I cannot walk properly why do I ask about flying? Pride!!

So true.

It's okay to ask about things in the spiritual path binC :), it's one of the ways we learn.

P.S. I didn't mention in my last post how that excerpt is connected to praying aloud (unless it already made sense :) ). When we are praying, the evil one is also listening to our prayers and tries to meddle with the things we pray for or about. Try to be attentive to pray your personal prayers within yourself, but also if it's a bit hard at first, let it not prevent you from pouring your heart to God. That's a difference between praying aloud and in silence.

marmar357

I simply that praying aloud helps you to concentrate..

binC

If my mind is filled with random thoughts which are not peaceful, I usually pray in silence just reading from the prayer book. Then the words clean my mind and the prayer calms my thoughts. Actually I have to fight to concentrate on the prayers. Psalms are the best prayers to feel the love of God and have peace inside. When I pray aloud it is more of my surroundings and my outer life that I felt the effect like fighting temptation from people and the devil. This is just what I observed in the difference between praying aloud and in silence.