BOOK OF PRAYER
Tenets of Prayer Prayer
1 Prayer 2 Prayer
3 Prayer 4 Prayer
5 Prayer 6
Prayer 7 Prayer 8
Prayer 9 Prayer 10
Prayer 11 Prayer
12 Prayer 13 Prayer
14
Prayer 15 Prayer
16 Prayer 17 Prayer
18 Prayer 19 Prayer
20 Prayer 21 Prayer
22
Prayer 23 Prayer
24 Prayer 25 Prayer
26 Prayer 27 Prayer
28 Prayer 29 Prayer
30
Prayer 31 Prayer
32 Prayer 33 Prayer
34 Prayer 35 Prayer
36 Prayer 37 Prayer
38
Prayer 39 Prayer
40 Prayer 41 Prayer
42 Prayer 43 Prayer
44 Prayer 45 Prayer
46
Prayer 47 Prayer
48 Prayer 49 Prayer
50 Prayer 51 Prayer
52 Prayer 53 Prayer
54
Prayer 55 Prayer
56 Prayer 57 Prayer
58 Prayer 59 Prayer
60 Prayer 61 Prayer
62
Prayer 63 Prayer
64 Prayer 65 Prayer
66 Prayer 67 Prayer
68 Prayer 69 Prayer
70
Prayer 71 Prayer
72 Prayer 73 Prayer
74 Prayer 75 Prayer
76 Prayer 77 Prayer
78
Prayer 79 Prayer
80 Prayer 81 Prayer
82 Prayer 83 Prayer
84 Prayer 85 Prayer
86
Prayer 87 Prayer
88 Prayer 89 Prayer
90 Prayer 91 Prayer
92 Prayer 93 Prayer
94
Prayer 95 Colophon
Prayer 1
Speaking with God from the Depths of the Heart
A
The voice of a sighing heart, its sobs and mournful cries,1
I offer up to you, O Seer of Secrets,2
placing the fruits of my wavering mind 3
as a savory sacrifice on the fire of my grieving soul 4
to be delivered to you in the censer of my will.
Compassionate Lord, breathe in
this offering and look more favorably on it
than upon a more sumptuous sacrifice5
offered with rich smoke. Please find
this simple string of words acceptable.
Do not turn in disdain.
May this unsolicited gift reach you,
this sacrifice of words6
from the deep mystery-filled chamber
of my feelings, consumed in flames
fueled by whatever grace I may have within me.7
As I pray, do not let these
pleas annoy you, Almighty,
like the raised hands of Jacob,
whose irreverence was rebuked
by Isaiah,8 nor let them seem like the impudence
of Babylon criticized in the 72nd Psalm.
But let these words be acceptable
as were the fragrant offerings
in the tabernacle at Shiloh9
raised again by David on his return from captivity
as the resting place for the ark of the covenant,
a symbol for the restoration of my lost soul.
B
Because your stern judgment
echoes mightily in the valley of retribution,10
contradictory impulses in my soul
brace for battle like clashing mobs.
Crowds of thoughts strike each other, sword
against armor, evil against good,
ensnaring me for death, as in other times,
when your grace had not rescued me –
that grace of Christ, which Paul,
chosen among the apostles,
taught was greater than the law of Moses.11
For as the Scripture says, “The day
of the Lord is upon us,” 12
and in the narrow valley of Jehoshaphat 13
on the banks of the Kidron,14
those small battle grounds
foreshadow on earth
victory in the life to come.
Thus, the kingdom of God in a visible form
has come already, charging me
on truthful testimony with wrongs
graver than those of the Edomites,15
Philistines and other barbarians –
wrongs that brought down the hand of God.
And whereas their sentences were measured in years,
my transgressions will be punished without term.
As the prophet and the parable-teller warned,
the dungeon and shackles16
are already at my threshold to show me
here and now my eternal disgrace.
Only you can work the miracle
to make life possible for a soul
so imperiled by doubt,
O Atoner for all, exalted beyond saying
in your boundless glory on high
forever and ever.
Amen.
___________________
1. Cf. Ps. 6:7; See, also, Ps. 38:9-10, (“For my soul is filled with
torment, and there is no cure for my body. I am tortured and laid low in the
extreme, and I groan with the sighs of my heart.”); Rom. 8:26 (“Likewise
the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we
ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with sighs too deep for words,
and he who searches the hearts of men knows what is in the mind of Spirit,
because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.”).
But See Is. 6:10.
2. Ps. 44:21.
3. Ps. 42:6 (“Why are you cast down, my soul?”); also incanted
by the deacon during the Ascension to the Altar at the beginning of the Armenian
Divine Liturgy.
4. Ps. 39:3.
5. Ps. 51:15-20, Am. 5:22.
6. Cf. Divine Liturgy, Hymn of the Angels “Hreshtakayin” (“myriads
of angels worship youa, yet it was pleasing to you to receive praise in a
mysterious voice from human beings.”).
7. Ps. 92:14 (“They [the righteous] shall still bring forth fruit in
old age; they shall be fat and flourishing.”); Cf. Pr. 11:25 (“The
liberal soul shall be made fat; and he that watereth shall be watered also
himself.”); See Lev. 1:8-13; For “fat as a choice offering,”
See, Lev. 4:8-9 (“and the fat that is upon them”); Philip. 4:18
(“I have all and abound: I am full . . . an odor of sweet smell, a sacrifice
acceptable, well-pleasing to God.”); Lk. 6:46 (“For the good man
out of the good treasure of his heart produces good . . . for out of the abundance
of the heart his mouth speaks.”); But see, Is. 6:10.
8. Is. 1:15.
9. 2 Sam. 6:17.
10. Jl. 3:14.
11. Acts 13:39, Rom. 8:2-3.
12. Jl. 2:1, 3:14.
13. 2 Chr. 20:16, 20:26-27.
14. 2 Chr. 15:16.
15. Is. 14:26-29, Jer. 47:1, 49:7-18.
16. Is. 24:17, Jer. 48:43.
Acknowledgements: |
Source:
St.
Gregory of Narek © 2002, Thomas J. Samuelian. Published with the permission of the author. |
See also: |
Biography
of Grigor Narekatsi (in Armenian) |