Prayer is not a romantic journey, but the hardest labor-feat, it is to be at the terrible judgment of God… Therefore, pray often (= constantly, as often as possible put yourself with fear and trembling-reverence before God-Love), endure in prayers with prudence and counsel, and in due time you will reap the harvest of Eternal Life!..
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We will say a few more words about the “Our Father” prayer. The disciples asked the Lord to teach them to pray and the Lord “said to them: when you pray, say: Our Father, who is in heaven, hallowed be Your name; Your kingdom come; Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our debts (sins) as we also have forgiven (not forgive, but have forgiven!) our debtors; and do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. Amen” (see Matt. 6:9-15, Luke 11:2-4. In the critical text of the Gospel of Luke, the “Our Father” prayer sounds differently, and there are fewer requests in it: “Father! Hallowed be Your name; Your kingdom come; Give us each day our daily bread; and forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who is indebted to us; and lead us not into temptation”).
The “Our Father” prayer (the model, the prototype of all prayers), like every true (in the Holy Spirit) prayer of the Church, is a tuning fork, a reminder, an alignment of desire towards the Goal, the one thing needed! (The words of the prayer express my desire, my awareness, my knowledge of the earthly and Heavenly reality. I must hear, understand, and comprehend the essence-content of the prayer myself (God-Love knows everything!)). The first alignment-reminder is to desire the one thing needed: the Kingdom of God, the acquisition of the Holy Spirit, unity with God (“Father, sanctify Your name in us and over us, establish Your Kingdom (which has already come and been given to us) in us, reign in our hearts, fulfill Your will in us and over us”). The second – everything necessary to achieve the goal, the Lord-Love has already given (at every moment we are in paradise, in the Kingdom of God, in the ocean of Divine Love), to remind oneself that I am at every moment (by God’s mercy, as a gift from God) in the best possible condition (and it will always be good, appropriate, the best); therefore, we pray “give us this day our daily bread” to not forget that I am Divinely Loved, constantly gifted with all necessary, essential – the paradisiacal conditions for salvation, for achieving-receiving the Kingdom of God, the Holy Spirit (from this awareness – “everything is good with me” come meekness and gratitude, humility and submission: I am nothing, but by God’s mercy endowed with all Heavenly and earthly blessings; I have all that is necessary with an abundance, and I produce so few fruits of repentance…). Next, I remind myself of the essence of spiritual life, what I need to do with the “essential” – prepare for baptism with the Holy Spirit, for receiving the Kingdom of God: care for mercy (“Father, forgive as I have forgiven”) and humility (“do not lead us into temptation, trial, test, but deliver us from the evil one, from all evil,” for I am weak). For only the merciful and humble will receive the Kingdom of God, the Holy Spirit, will be forgiven, will resemble the merciful God in the Holy Spirit. Therefore, whoever struggles for the acquisition of mercy and humility, thanking for everything (“everything is good, everything is for good, for healing”), for paradise, for “daily bread,” he brings the coming of the Kingdom of God into his heart-hypostasis; he prepares for the acquisition of the Holy Spirit by fervently (in joy-thanksgiving) fulfilling the will of God, God’s commandments (which are fulfilled in peace, meekness, humility, knowing that “everything is good with him,” that he is in paradise (outside of him is the Kingdom of God), having at all times “daily bread” – God’s Love-Mercy).
Prayer = desire for the Kingdom of God (unity with God in the Holy Spirit; desire for God, not for God’s!) + thanksgiving + mercy + humility! (And the most important of these three states is humility, from which thanksgiving and mercy flow!). This is the essence of all the prayers of the Church, this is what the prayers of an Orthodox catechumen should consist of. If something is missing (the desire for the Kingdom of God, the desire for God, unity with God, self-giving to God, or thanksgiving (“give thanks for everything,” “rejoice always”), or mercy (“When you stand praying, forgive (mercifully accept one another), if you have anything against anyone, so that your Heavenly Father may forgive you your sins. If you do not forgive, neither will your Heavenly Father forgive your sins,” that is, there will be no communion with the (Merciful) God (see Mark 11:25-26)), or humility (“God gives grace only to the humble,” “When you have done everything commanded you, say: we are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty” (Luke 17:10), “I have sinned against heaven and against you, and I am no longer worthy to be called your son” (Luke 15:18-19), “he prayed, not daring to look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner!’” (see Luke 18:13)), then such a prayer is not a prayer of the Church, but a pagan mumbling, delusion. We are not talking about the verbal forms of prayer (words, rites, rituals…), but about the state of the spirit of the one who prays (he must be in humility, thanksgiving, mercy).