The Divine Liturgy
The Sunday gathering in which the Church offers thanksgiving and receives Communion.
The Divine Liturgy is the centre of Orthodox life. It has two movements: the liturgy of the word, with psalms, hymns, the Epistle and the Gospel, and the liturgy of the Eucharist, in which the gifts of bread and wine are offered and the faithful receive the body and blood of Christ.
Almost every line is Scripture or drawn from it. A first visit can feel unfamiliar — the services are sung, people stand, there is incense and movement — but nothing is hidden. Come, stand at the back if you wish, and let it happen around you.
Visitors are welcome at the Liturgy. Communion is received by Orthodox Christians who have prepared; everyone else is usually invited to receive blessed bread at the end.
A daily prayer rule
Short, regular prayer morning and evening, kept faithfully rather than heroically.
Orthodox Christians usually keep a rule of prayer: a fixed set of prayers said morning and evening, often before icons and a lit lamp or candle, standing.
The rule is meant to be small enough to keep every day. A beginner might pray the Trisagion prayers, the Lord's Prayer and a psalm, adding intercessions for family, the departed and those who have asked for prayer.
Many also use the Jesus Prayer — 'Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner' — repeated quietly through the day, which is the heart of the ascetic tradition of watchfulness.
Agree your rule with your priest or spiritual father. A rule you actually keep is worth more than an ambitious one you abandon.
Fasting
Simplifying food and appetite so that prayer, repentance and generosity have room.
The Church fasts on most Wednesdays and Fridays and through four seasons: Great Lent, the Apostles' Fast, the Dormition Fast and the Nativity Fast. The traditional fast sets aside meat, dairy, eggs, fish, wine and oil in varying degrees.
Fasting is never dieting and never a performance. It is training in freedom: learning that appetite can be governed, and turning what is saved toward the poor.
The measure of the fast is adjusted for health, pregnancy, age, illness and circumstance. This is a matter for your priest, not for guesswork or comparison with others.
Fasting from food without mercy toward people is, in the words of the Fathers, a fast the Lord does not accept.
Confession and Communion
Repentance and the Eucharist belong together in Orthodox practice.
Confession is made before God in the presence of a priest, who is a witness rather than a judge. It is medicine, not humiliation, and the counsel given is pastoral and particular.
Preparation for Communion usually includes prayer, fasting from the previous evening, reconciliation with those one has wronged, and — depending on local practice and one's own conscience — recent confession.
Frequency varies between traditions and parishes. Ask your priest what is expected where you worship instead of applying a rule you have read elsewhere.
Icons and the home
The household as a small church, ordered by prayer and blessing.
Most Orthodox homes have an icon corner: an icon of Christ and of the Theotokos, perhaps a patron saint, with a lamp or candle. Family prayers are said there.
Icons are venerated with a bow and a kiss, and the honour passes to the person depicted. They are not decoration, and they are not worshipped.
Homes are blessed with holy water, especially after Theophany, and the year is marked in the household by fasts, feasts, name days and prayers for the departed.
The body in worship
Crossing oneself, bowing, standing and prostrations — prayer with the whole person.
Orthodox Christians cross themselves right to left, joining the thumb and first two fingers to confess the Trinity, with the last two fingers folded to the palm for the two natures of Christ.
Worship is largely offered standing, with bows at certain moments and prostrations especially in Lent. Candles are lit as offerings and prayers.
None of this is mechanical. The body prays with the soul, because the person God saves is body and soul together.
If you are visiting, no one expects you to know the gestures. Standing quietly and attentively is enough.
Almsgiving and mercy
The third part of the ancient triad: prayer, fasting and almsgiving.
In the Fathers, almsgiving is not an optional extra to spiritual life but its test. What is saved by fasting is given away; what is received in prayer is spent on the neighbour.
Mercy is concrete: food, money, time, forgiveness, a visit to the sick or the imprisoned. Christ identifies himself with the person in need.