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Prayers

The churching prayer

The priest says this first prayer of the 40-day blessing at the church door, as the mother bows her head with her baby in her arms.

Picture: Ambrogio Lorenzetti, The Presentation in the Temple, 1342

The words of the prayer

Plain English

Lord God Almighty,Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,through Your Word You made every creature,those with reason and those without,and brought all things from nothing into being.

We pray to You and ask You:by Your will You have kept Your servant (name) safe;cleanse her from every sin and every impurityas she comes to Your holy Church,so that she may be worthyto receive Your holy Mysteries without condemnation.

Bless also the child born of her:help them grow, make them holy,and give them understanding, self-control and good sense.For You brought them into beingand showed them the light our eyes can see,so that at the time You have setthey may be made worthy of spiritual light tooand be counted among Your holy flock,

through Your only-begotten Son,with Whom You are blessed,together with Your all-holy, good and life-giving Spirit,now and ever and for ever and ever. Amen.

Traditional wording, 1906

O Lord God Almighty, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,Who by Thy word hast created all things,both men endowed with speech and dumb animals,and hast brought all things from nothingness into being,we pray and implore Thee:Thou hast saved this Thy servant, N., by Thy will.Purify her, therefore, from all sin and from every uncleanness,as she now draweth near unto Thy holy Church;and make her worthy to partake, uncondemned, of Thy Holy Mysteries.

And bless Thou the child which hath been born of her.Increase him (her); sanctify him (her); enlighten him (her);render him (her) chaste, and endow him (her) with good understanding.For Thou hast brought him (her) into being,and hast shown him (her) the physical light,and hast appointed him (her) to be vouchsafed in due time spiritual light,and that he (she) may be numbered among Thy chosen flock.Through Thine Only-begotten Son, with Whom, also, Thou art blessed,together with Thine all-holy, and good, and life-giving Spirit,now, and ever, and unto ages of ages. Amen.

Plain English by Wiser Walk, from the Church Slavonic, with Isabel Hapgood’s 1906 translation beside it. How the wording is made. Traditional wording: Isabel F. Hapgood, Service Book of the Holy Orthodox-Catholic Apostolic Church, 1906.

When it is said

Today the 40-day blessing often takes place on a Sunday, so the whole parish can share the joy of welcoming the new baby.

The priest makes the sign of the cross over the baby, then says this prayer over mother and child together.

Where it comes from

No author known

Where it comes from

It opens the prayers for a mother 40 days after a birth in the Book of Needs, the priest’s book of services for life’s big moments. No writer is named. The Slavonic Book of Needs carries these prayers, and so does the Greek edition that Jacques Goar printed in Paris in 1647.

J. Goar, Euchologion sive Rituale Graecorum (Paris, 1647); The Slavonic Book of Needs on Azbyka.ru

Why 40 days?

The number comes from the Law of Moses, which kept a mother away from the sanctuary for 40 days after the birth of a son (Leviticus 12:2-4). Mary and Joseph kept that law with the infant Jesus (Luke 2:22). The Church keeps the same 40 days for a baby girl as for a boy.

Metropolitan Saba (Isper), Service of Entering the Newborn into the Church after Forty Days

What the words mean

“Cleanse her from every sin”

The prayer asks God to cleanse the mother from every sin and impurity, so that she may receive the holy Mysteries, the Church’s name for Holy Communion. The priest asks God to cleanse him in the same way, in a quiet prayer at the start of every baptism.

G. V. Shann, Book of Needs (1894), the Office of Holy Baptism; The Churching of Women, OrthoChristian.com

The Scripture in it

Through Him all things were made, and without Him nothing was made that has been made.

John 1:3 Echoed All things were made through the Word, as the prayer’s first lines say.

Bible text: Berean Standard Bible, public domain.

In Church Slavonic

Господи Боже Вседержителю, Отче Господа нашего Иисуса Христа,

все естество словесное же и безсловесное словом Твоим создавый,

и вся от несущих во еже быти приведый,

Тебе молимся, и Тебе просим:

Твоею волею спасл еси рабу Твою, имярек,

очисти от всякаго греха, и от всякия скверны,

приходящую ко святей Твоей Церкви,

да неосужденно сподобится причаститися святых Твоих Таин.

И от нея рожденное отроча благослови, возрасти, освяти, вразуми, уцеломудри, удобромудрстви:

яко Ты привел еси е, и показал еси ему свет чувственный,

да и умнаго сподобится света, во время еже определил еси,

и сопричтется святому Твоему стаду,

Единородным Твоим Сыном, с Нимже благословен еси,

с Пресвятым и Благим, и Животворящим Твоим Духом,

ныне и присно, и во веки веков, аминь.

From the Slavonic Book of Needs (Trebnik), Prayers for a woman after forty days, on Azbyka.ru.

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Berean Standard Bible