Many, maybe most, Americans are sun loving folk and when we think ‘vacation’ we think ‘sun.’ We go to rest and relax in sunny climes and are greatly disappointed if we encounter clouds let alone rain. On the other hand, often the locals in these sun-worshiping locations are praying for rain. There is an old Arab saying: “All sun? Makes a desert.” It means not that sunny skies always will create desert conditions, but if all you ever have is sun and never any rain, you will end up with a drought and then a desert.
If we go back to the desert fathers, who lived in a climate of constant sun, they saw the sun as something other than a smiling yellow disc in the sky under which they vacationed and got a golden tan. They certainly understood how the sun can relentlessly punish the careless soul. And they resided in the desert and saw exactly what the desert is:
“Life in the desert meant something totally opposite of what we are inclined to think it was. The desert was a place of death, testing, repentance, and spiritual warfare. It was not a place of escape as much as a place of countercultural engagement. It was not a retreat but the frontlines of spiritual warfare. It is a place where the victory of Christ over sin, death, and the devil was proclaimed, fought, and won. Under the power of the risen Lord, it is where the heart was purified, the passions conquered, sin destroyed, and humanity renewed.” (Gary M. Burge and Brad Nassif, Bringing Jesus to the Desert, Kindle 262-65)
So keeping in mind what the desert represented to the monastics who fled there, and also how they experienced the desert sun, we might begin to understand their reading of verses like “the sun will smite/burn you by day” in Psalm 121:6.
“The Psalm says of those who are tempted by thoughts of pleasure, anger, love of praise and the like, that the sun burns them by day and the moon by night (cf. Ps. 121:6). Pray, then, to be sheltered by the cool and refreshing cloud of God’s grace, so that you may escape the scorching heat of the enemy.” (St. John of Karpathos, The Philokalia, Kindle Loc. 9260-63)
How many of us moderns would use the metaphor of a “cool and refreshing cloud” for God’s grace? Though perhaps those of us who have been baked and burned by this summer’s relentless heat wave – and certainly the farmers whose crops are being destroyed by the drought – can appreciate the beauty of a cloud, and welcome it as a metaphor for a blessing. In general we associate clouds with gloom, depression and darkness. The desert though can teach us to offer thanksgiving for the clouds that move over us in life.
Prayer means reconciliation with God. This in turn implies that there is a proper attitude for approaching God in prayer: humility, admitting one’s sins, seeking God’s forgiveness, repenting and thus making the effort to change one’s heart and way of life.
In prayer we bring ourselves to pray for the world, including those who have offended us or whom we don’t particularly like.
(1) O LORD, deprive me not of your heavenly blessings.
(1) O LORD, accept me in repentance.
(9) O LORD, implant in me the root of blessings – the fear of you in my heart.
Christ began His ministry by calling people to repentance:
“When you are praying, watch over yourself so that not only your outward man prays, but your inward one also. Though you be sinful beyond measure, still pray. Do not heed the Devil’s provocation, craftiness, and despair, but overcome and conquer his wiles. Remember the abyss of the Savior’s mercy and love to mankind. The devil will represent the Lord’s face to you as terrible unmerciful, rejecting your prayer and repentance; but remember the Savior’s own words, full of every hope and boldness for us: “Him that comes to me, I will in no wise cast out’; and ‘Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden’ – with sins and iniquities, and wiles and calumnies of the devil – ‘and I will give you rest.’” (St. John of Kronstadt, 
In the wisdom of Holy Tradition, we encounter an idea which St. John Chrysostom repeats in several of his writings [see for example 
“When you pray, endeavor to pray more for others than for yourself alone, and during prayer represent to yourself all men as forming one body with yourself, and each separately as a member of the Body of Christ and your own member, ‘for we are members one of another.’ Pray for all as you would pray for yourself, with the same sincerity and fervor; look upon their infirmities and sicknesses as your own; their spiritual ignorance, their sins and passions, as your own; their temptations, misfortunes, and manifold afflictions as your own. Such prayer will be accepted with great favor by the heavenly Father, that most gracious, common Father of all, with Whom ‘there is no respect of persons,’ ‘no shadow of alteration,’ that boundless Love that embraces and preserve all creatures.” (St. John of Kronstadt in 
Yet, maturity by definition means to have attained some fully developed state, and it seems as if the Synod of Bishops is acting in a mature way by seeing a(nother) serious problem and addressing it as is in their power to do. There is accountability in the Church, and the Synod has a responsibility to deal with problems that exist at the episcopal level in the Church. However much the OCA may be struggling with its stability and the office of the Primate, it is dealing with its problems in a mature way. The Synod is not being governed by fatalistic determinism which would say “there is a problem with the Primate but there is nothing that can be done about it, we will just have to suffer.” Rather they are taking an active role in guiding the OCA through difficult times. And they are doing it with a certain degree of transparency. They are not pretending there are no problems.
In Exodus 14:15, the fleeing Israelites find themselves in dire straits – trapped by a sea on one side and the pursuing Egyptian army on the other; they have nowhere to go and bitterly criticize their “liberator” Moses for having led them to their scandalous and inescapable situation. Moses boldly tells the tremulous people, “Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the LORD, which he will work for you today; for the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall never see again. The LORD will fight for you, and you have only to be still” (Exodus 14:13-14).No doubt, Moses believed every word he spoke, and he too intended to sit back and watch what God would do for them. But the LORD, who has a habit of demanding synergy at the darndest times, “said to Moses, ‘Why do you cry to me? Tell the people of Israel to go forward’” (14:15). The ball was in Moses’ court, not God’s. It was Moses’ move, not God’s. God is not going to do for His people what they have to do for themselves.
First, there must be a complete removal of all concern for bodily things. Then not just the worry but even the memory of any business or worldly affair must be banished from within ourselves. Calumny, empty talk, nattering, low-grade clowning – suchlike must be cut out. Anger and the disturbance caused by gloominess are especially to be eradicated. The poisonous tinder of carnal desire and avarice must be pulled out by the roots. …
“To pray fervently is given by God. To pray as well as we can is within our own power. So let us offer to God this weak, insufficient, dry prayer, as the only one we are capable of, like the mite of the widow in the Gospel. And ‘God’s strength will flood thy impotence; and the prayer that is dry and distracted but frequent and resolute, having become a habit, having grown to be thy second nature, will turn into a prayer meritorious, luminous, full of flame.’ (Mark the Ascetic)” (in 
“Thus prayer may become either a house built on sand or a house built on a rock. Those build on sand who pray without faith, absently, coldly; such prayer is scattered of itself, and does not bring any profit to him who prays; those build on a rock who, during the whole time of their prayer, have their eyes fixed upon God, and pray to Him as to a living person, conversing face to face with them.” (
“Be careful not to let your prayer become weaker than the pain of the cancer.” (Archimandrite Zacharias, 
Fraternized 