From Fr. Angelo
THE LENTEN PRAYER OF ST EPHREM THE SYRIAN
(excerpts from Fr. Schmemann’s book Great Lent – Journey to Pascha)
Of all the Lenten hymns and prayers, one short prayer can be termed the Lenten Prayer. Tradition ascribes it to one of the great teachers of spiritual life – St. Ephrem the Syrian.
O Lord and Master of my life! Take from me the spirit of sloth, faint-heartedness, lust of power, and idle talk.
But give rather the spirit of chastity, humility, patience, and love to Thy servant. Yea, O Lord and King!
Grant me to see my own errors and not to judge my brother; For Thou art blessed unto ages of ages. Amen.
This prayer is read at the conclusion of the Pre-Sanctified Liturgies during Lent with a prostration following each petition. This short and simple prayer presents the “negative” (vices) and “positive” (virtues) of repentance and constitutes, so to speak, a “check list” for our individual Lenten effort. The aim of the prayer is to recognize the spiritual dis-eases which overtake us as busy schedules and worldly distractions move us further away from the brightness of the previous year’s Pascha…