Can prayer only be addressed to God the Father?
In teaching his disciples to pray, and in his own prayers, the Lord Jesus Christ directed prayer to God the Father and, remarkably, he himself prayed to the Father for his own: “Simon, Simon… I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail” (Luk 22:31–32); “I am praying for them… and not for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word” (Joh 17:9, 20). There is, of course, a difference between the way God is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ (by eternal generation) and our Father (by adoption), as the Lord himself indicates: “I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God” (Joh 20:17; cf. Rev 1:6; see Q319).
The Lord directed this model prayer to God the Father because the Father is the source, cause, and origin of all things; all praise and glory ultimately return to the Father as to the prototype, as the Apostle writes: “at the name of Jesus every knee should bow… and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Phi 2:10–11; see Q607). As St Basil explains: “How, if one and one, are there not two Gods? Because we speak of a king, and of the king’s image, and not of two kings. The majesty is not cloven in two, nor the glory divided; the sovereignty and authority over us is one, and so the doxology we ascribe is not plural but one: for the honor paid to the image passes over to the prototype” (St Basil the Great, On the Holy Spirit, 18.45; see Q017, Q024). This is the language of all Christian prayer: to the Father as origin, source, and cause, through the Son, in the Holy Spirit, the order (taxis) of the Holy Trinity itself.
This teaching of the great hierarch is often and aptly cited regarding the veneration of the holy icons: the Orthodox theology of the Holy Trinity and of the holy icons is one.
As the Scriptures teach, the co-eternal and uncreated Word of God, through whom and for whom all things were made, became flesh of the Virgin Mary (Joh 1:14; see Q139, Q150) and became man: Jesus of Nazareth, the Messiah and Savior. He is “the image (icon) of the invisible God” (Col 1:15; see Q043, Q114), as the Gospel teaches: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life: no one comes to the Father, except through me… Whoever has seen me has seen the Father” (Joh 14:6–10; see Q406, Q519).
It is only through his perfect Icon that God the Father, who “dwells in unapproachable light” (1Ti 6:16; see Q143, Q167), is known and honored: “all may honor the Son even as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him” (Joh 5:23). Therefore the Son receives worship (Rev 5:8–14; see Q167, Q319), to the glory of the Father; he has received “All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth” (Mat 28:18; see Q096, Q223), and is our Mediator (1Ti 2:5; see Q043, Q178), who, having interceded for his disciples during his earthly ministry (Luk 22:32; Joh 17; see Q359), continues to intercede now, after his Ascension: “he lives forever to make intercession for them” (Heb 7:25; see Q259, Q266); he has entered “into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf” (Heb 9:24; see Q225, Q542); “Christ Jesus… who is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us” (Rom 8:34). The Lord Jesus himself teaches: “If you will ask anything in my Name, I will accomplish it” (Joh 14:14).
Although all prayer, praise, thanksgiving, and glory ultimately refer to the Father, through Jesus Christ (Eph 5:20; see Q520), the risen Son of God also receives the petitions of his people, who are mystically united to his Body, the Church: “as they were stoning Stephen, he prayed, ‘Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!’ And kneeling down, he cried with a loud voice, ‘Lord, do not hold this sin against them’” (Act 7:59–60).
Likewise, the holy Apostle Paul pleaded with Jesus Christ: “Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it might depart from me, but he replied to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (2Co 12:8–9; cf. 1Co 16:22, “Maranatha!”; see Q226, Q411). The Apostle also uses the invocative or ‘May’ form of prayer, addressed jointly to the Father and the Son: “Now may our God and Father himself, and our Lord Jesus Christ, direct our way to you. May the Lord grant you to increase and overflow in love” (1Th 3:11–13); “may our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father… comfort your hearts and establish them in every good work and word” (2Th 2:16–17), the same form the Church uses in her dismissals.
Singing hymns to the Lord Jesus, itself a form of prayer, is encouraged by the same Apostle: “be filled with the Spirit. Speak to one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs! Sing and chant to the Lord in your heart, always giving thanks for everything in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ, even to God the Father” (Eph 5:18–20; see Q582).
The proper pattern of prayer is well illustrated in the Divine Liturgy, in which most prayers are addressed to the Father, and some are properly addressed to the Son, for the Church has always been the assembly of “all those who call upon the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ in every place, both theirs and ours” (1Co 1:2; see Q266, Q268).
Prayers addressed to God the Father are recognized by their language, and often by their concluding doxology: “…together with Your Only-Begotten Son, and Your all-holy, good, and life-giving Spirit.” Prayers offered to the great High Priest Jesus are likewise identified by their language, and by their doxology: “…together with Your unoriginate Father, and Your all-holy, good, and life-giving Spirit.”
Even as the Lord Jesus, a divine person, intercedes for us, so the Spirit, a divine person, intercedes and continues the work of Christ: “the Spirit himself intercedes for us with sighs too deep for words” (Rom 8:26; see Q390); “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth… He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you” (Joh 16:13–15; see Q024, Q035).
Here is a truth of immense importance: intercession belongs to the very life of God’s economy. The Son intercedes for us to the Father; the Spirit intercedes for us to the Father; and both are worshiped as God. Intercession, therefore, can never be a derogation from the honor of God, it is the divinely revealed shape of prayer itself, flowing to the Father as source and cause, through the Son, in the Spirit.
The divine Guide and Intercessor, “All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, distributing to each one individually as he intends” (1Co 12:11; see Q237), is therefore worthy, like the Son, of invocation and praise. Since it is the Holy Spirit who “will teach you in that same hour what you must say” (Luk 12:12), the Church wisely prays: “O Heavenly King, the Comforter, the Spirit of Truth, who are everywhere present and fill all things; Treasury of blessings and Giver of life: come and abide in us, and cleanse us from every impurity, and save our souls, O Good One.”
