Hello Forum,
I thought it would be nice to share our favorite prayers. I think we need some uplifting spiritual motivation to help each other through these last weeks of Great Lent. I think that repentance is the main focus during this time (and should be throughout the year). I feel that this prayer is one of many, that St. Ephraim expresses so deeply about repentance. I can't help but be touched by these words. It makes me feel the need to change my ways.
Stretch forth, O Lord, Thy hand to me who lie in the dust and help me. For I want to get up, but cannot. The burden of sin has crushed me; evil habits hold me chained to the earth, and I am altogether like the paralytic. I vow to change my ways and I fast, but everything remains the same. I am zealous to glorify Thee with my lips, but I have no zeal to please Thee with deeds.
How dare I ask forgiveness of my former sins when I have made no attempt to abandon my former love of sin? Or how shall I shed the old man, when I have not cut off my desire for sinful seductions?
O Lord, raise up me, a paralytic; rouse me who sleep; resurrect me deadened by sin. Save my miserable soul from death, O Lord who hast authority over life and death. Before the end comes, exterminate all sin in me; and grant, O Lover of mankind, that I might shed heartfelt tears for the cleansing of the stains of my soul all through my short life, that then I might be saved under the shelter of Thine omnipotent hand, when every soul shudders before Thine awesome glory.
O Master, hearken unto me and accept the supplication of Thy sinful and unworthy servant. Save me freely, according to Thy Grace, for Thou art a kindhearted and man-befriending God, and to Thee do we send up glory, thanks and adoration, to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
- A Spiritual Psalter or Reflection on God by St. Ephraim the Syrian - The St. John of Kronstadt Press (1989)
In Christ,
Joanna