Categories: orthodox-life, prayer
Date: 26 February 2010 10:55:16
O Lord and Master of my life, take from me the spirit of sloth, despondency, lust of power, and idle talk; But grant rather the spirit of chastity, humility, patience, and love to your servant. Yea, O Lord and King, grant me to see my own transgressions, and not to judge my brother or sister; for blessed are You unto the ages of ages. Amen.As Fr Alexander Schmemann writes in his wonderful book Great Lent: Journey to Pascha, "this short prayer can be termed the Lenten Prayer". Fr Alexander's writing on this prayer in Great Lent can be read here: he truly does explain the greatness of this Lenten prayer in its words and structure, and practically its meaning for us today. The word "despondency" is probably my current focus [though the rest are being battled too], particularly given my last post. But God is gracious; thank you and thanks be to God for your kind comments and prayers, and thanks be to God for the encouragement I received from many others today, in particular our priest who, and I pray this is not succumbing to pride, said my sermon was a good and practical explanation of the Orthodox doctrine of theosis[*]: which meant a great deal and encouraged me. Still rather nervous, but I am slightly more at ease. I think I will cut it down a bit in words, as I may add more things when delivering it [yes: I know this admission of verbosity will surprise you all! ;)], but the vote of confidence was a blessing to my fearful soul. Through the grace and mercy of God I pray, in accord with St Ephrem's Lenten Prayer, that I will not let despondency, despair, take over; but rather, in humility, understand, truly understand and accept, that God is in control, and that, in the words of Fr Alexander, "...seeing and accepting things as they are and therefore seeing God's majesty and goodness and love in everything." [*] from that article: "... the process of transformation of a believer who is putting into practise ... the spiritual teachings of Jesus Christ and His gospel. In particular, theosis refers to the attainment of likeness to or union with God, that is the final stage of this process of transformation and is as such the goal of the spiritual life."