Kneeling Prayers of Pentecost
a 24 June 2019 posting on the website
of
Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church
Sunday of Pentecost is one of the most important days
of the year in the Orthodox Church. The highlight of Pentecost Services are
the Kneeling Prayers, usually done at the end of the Pentecost Liturgy. During
the fifty days after Easter we do not kneel, and we wait to kneel for the first time at these Kneeling Prayers on Pentecost
Sunday. They are profound and can teach us how to pray to God the
Holy Trinity. The prayers show us that our lives are indeed lived
under the gaze and grace of the Holy Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The
three prayers are offered here in shortened versions.
The First Prayer
Incomprehensible, unsurpassable Lord, you dwell in light unapproachable and you
are the Creator of everything that exists. You are the Father of our Lord
and Savior Jesus Christ, who for us and for our salvation came from heaven and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit and of the
Virgin Mary. He showed us and enabled us to offer you prayers by
the bending of our knees and our hearts. Hear us in your great
mercy and love as we call upon you on this day of Pentecost, on which we remember how the Lord Jesus, after his ascension
and sitting at your right hand, sent the Holy Spirit upon his holy disciples and apostles.
They were filled with your inexhaustible grace and began speaking with other tongues and prophesying, proclaiming your
greatness. Hear us who pray to you and remember us. Turn back the
captivity of our souls and receive us as we return to you. We have sinned, yet we have been cast upon your mercy from our
childhood. Our days have been spent in vanities and thus we have been deprived
of every defense. Embolden by your compassion, we call out: Remember not
the sins of our youth and ignorance, and cleanse us of our secret sins. When
our strength fails, do not forsake us. Help us to return to you before it’s
too late. Measure our sins according to your compassion, and look down upon
all of us assembled here today. Visit us with your goodness.
Deliver us from the power of the devil. Preserve our lives in your commandments.
Gather us all into your Kingdom. Forgive those who hope in you. Purify us by your Holy Spirit, and destroy the traps set for us by the Enemy.
The First Prayer is addressed to
God the Father. He is the source of life, including the life of Trinity. So all our payers ultimately end up in the heart of God our Father. Here in this
opening prayer, we recognize the great gift of God’s goodness to us and for
our salvation. – namely our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God. It is always good and needful for us to remember
in our own prayers Jesus Christ as the greatest gift by God to us. You may
want to personalize the portions that I have highlighted and include them in your own prayers by replaying the plural pronouns
with the singular if you are only praying for yourself or keep the plurals if you are praying for your family and other loved
ones.
The
Second Prayer
Lord Jesus
Christ, you gave your peace to us, and you are always present to us, giving us the gift of the Holy Spirit.
You sent down this grace in a manner most clear upon your disciples and apostles, and opened their lips with tongues
of fire. Through them, and others, the nations of the world have received
the knowledge of God and have heard the message, each in their own language. We
have been enlightened by the light of the Spirit, and we have been freed from delusion and darkness.
Through the distribution of tongues of fire, we have been taught to worship one God in Trinity.
You, O Christ, are the radiance of the Father and the exact image of his nature; you are the fountain of wisdom and
grace. Open our lips and teach us how to pray.
Order our lives and make known to each of us the way in which we should walk.
May the Spirit of wisdom cover all my reasoning, and may my foolishness be overcome by the Spirit of understanding. Overshadow my deeds with the Spirit of reverence and the fear of God,
and renew a right spirit within me. Establish my faltering mind with
your guiding Spirit so that I may be guided every day by your good Spirit toward what is useful, to keep your commandments,
and always to remember your fearful and glorious second coming. You, Master,
promised us that whatever we ask in your name shall be freely given to us by your Father, the Eternal God.
Therefore, we supplicate your goodness, that you guard us into your
salvation, for you sinlessly became the merciful partaker of our nature, to become atonement for our sins.
Sanctify us now by your saving power. Against you, you only, do we sin: but you alone we also adore.
We know not how to worship a strange god, nor how to stretch our hand to any other god.
O Master, may our prayer rise as incense in your blessed Kingdom.
The Second Prayer is addressed to Jesus but emphasizes the role of the Holy Spirit
in keeping us united to Jesus Christ and his commandments. It is a beautiful prayer and there is hardly any need to highlight
any portion of it But do take notice that when looking to the Holy Spirit
in our lives the focus is on how the Spirit is the source of wisdom and understanding.
Never hesitate to ask the Lord to illumine and enlighten your life with the Holy Spirit.
The Third Prayer
O Christ, ever-flowing fountain of life, Creator coeternal
with the Father, you fulfilled the whole dispensation of our salvation. You
destroyed the bonds of death and the bolts of Hell and you trampled down the multitude of evil spirits.
You offered yourself as a blameless victim, giving your immaculate body as a sinless sacrifice so that we may have
eternal life. You descended into Death and broke down its bars, opening the
way to the light for those who sat in darkness. You are the wisdom of the
Father, the Helper of the oppressed, the Enlightener of those who sat in darkness and the shadow of death.
You are the Lord of glory, the beloved Son of the Father. Light everlasting
from Light everlasting, the Sun of righteousness. Hear us and give rest to
the souls of the righteous who have preceded us in faith. You are the Maker
of life and Master of the end of life. Quicken with the hope of resurrection
those who have fallen asleep in faith. You are the Master of our coming into
this world and our going out from it, and you are the giver of resurrection at your second coming.
Because you shared in our flesh, you are a Helper to us in our need and temptation, and you will also judge us with
no partiality. There is no death for your servants, O Lord, when we go forth
from the body and come unto you, but a change from things most sorrowful unto things most blessed and sweet and joyous. Forgive us, O Sinless One, of all the things which we have committed in your sight
and grant us a good and peaceful end as you prepare for us your Kingdom.
The Third Prayer opens with theological
statements about Jesus Christ. Theology is not just for theologians. Perhaps
we can all become more comfortable with theology if we make theological prayers like this one part of our personal spirituality
at home. Remembering what God has done for us, why we call Jesus Christ
our Lord and Savior, and why the Holy Spirit was sent to us, is important to us becoming mature Christians who will not be
shaken or blown by the winds of change and controversy. The final section
of this prayer is a beautiful meditation on death and the importance of praying for our loved ones who have gone ahead of
us to eternity. Though we have memorial services in our church, it is always
appropriate to remember our loved ones in our own private prayers.
Finally, you may have noticed that even though Pentecost commemorates the descent
of the Holy Spirit, none of the prayers is addressed directly to the Holy Spirit.
As a matter of fact, there is only one commonly used prayer in our Orthodox tradition that is addressed directly to
the Holy Spirit. This prayer opens the Service of Matins an many other services
in our church and it should be part of every person’s prayer life. You
may even learn to sing it as you open your day.
O Heavenly King, the Comforter, the Spirit of Truth
who art everywhere and fillest all things. Treasury of Blessings, and Giver
of Life: Come and abide in us, and cleanse us from every impurity, and save our souls, O Good One.
