ArmenianHouse.org - Armenian Literature, History, Religion
ArmenianHouse.org in ArmenianArmenianHouse.org in Russian

Grigor Narekatsi

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 16

Speaking with God from the Depths of the Heart

A

Yours alone, God, in heaven, exalted and generous,
yours is the power, and yours, forgiveness.
Yours is healing and yours, abundance.
Yours are the gifts and yours alone grace.
Yours atonement and yours protection.
Yours is creation beyond knowing.
Yours are arts beyond discovery.
Yours are bounds beyond measure.
You are the beginning and you are the end.
Since the light of your mercy is never obscured
by the darkness of indignity,
you are not subject to disease in any form.
You are too lofty for words, an image beyond framing,
whose being is immeasurable,
the breadth of whose glory is unbounded,
the reach of whose incisive power is indescribable,
the supremacy of whose absoluteness is uncontainable,
the compassion of whose good works is unflagging.

You turned, according to the Prophet,1
the shadow of death into dawn.
You willingly descended into Tartaros,
the prison of those detained below,
where even the door of prayer was sealed
to free the captive and damned souls
with the commanding sword of
your victorious word.

You cut the bindings of wretched death
and dispelled the suspicion of sin.2
Turn toward me, trembling in the confines
of my squalid cell,3 fettered by sin,
mortally wounded by the Troublemaker’s arrows.

B

Remember me, Lord of all, benefactor,
light in the darkness, treasure of blessing,
merciful, compassionate, kind, mighty,
powerful beyond telling, understanding, or words,
equal to all crises, you who are, in the words
of Jacob, always ready to do the impossible.4
O fire that clears away sin’s underbrush,
blazing ray that illumines every
great mystery, remember me, blessed one,5
with mercy rather than legalisms,
with forbearance rather than vengeance,
with lenience rather than evidence,
so that you weigh my sins with your kindness
and not with judgment.
For by the first, my burden is light,
but by the second, I am damned forever.

C

Now, cure me, O kindness,
even as you did the ear of the one
who attacked you.6
Take away the whipping winds of death
from this sinner, so that the calm of
your almighty spirit might rest in me.
Unto you all glory, now and forever.
Amen.

___________________
1. Am. 5:8.
2. Zech. 9:11.
3. Jer. 38:6.
4. Gen. 35:1.
5. Heb. 4:12, Wis. 24:25.
6. Lk. 22:51.

 

Acknowledgements:

Source: St. Gregory of Narek
Provided by: Thomas J. Samuelian

© 2002, Thomas J. Samuelian. Published with the permission of the author.

See also:

Biography of Grigor Narekatsi (in Armenian)
The Christ-Child ( translated by Alice Stone Blackwell )

Design & Content © Anna & Karen Vrtanesyan, unless otherwise stated.  Legal Notice