Prayers

Orthodox prayers for bitterness and resentment

Prayers for bitterness, when you have tried to forgive but the hurt stays and your heart is growing hard.

Picture: Peter von Cornelius, Joseph Reveals Himself to His Brothers, 1816–17

5 prayers

When the grudge stirs again

Prayer of St Dorotheos

Plain English only: no traditional English wording is given for this prayer

With your whole heart, for the one who hurt youO God, help my brother and methrough his prayers.

St Dorotheos of Gaza, a monk of the 500s, likened a grudge to a wound that has closed over but bleeds again when struck. For that moment he gave this line, prayed for the one who hurt you.

Plain English by Wiser Walk, from the Greek, checked against the Russian translation; no public-domain English translation was found. How the wording is made.

Where it comes from, and the Greek

When your heart has gone sour

Whom have I in heaven (Psalm 73)

When my heart grew bitterand I was pierced deep inside,I was foolish and did not understand;I was like a beast before You.

Yet I am always with You;You hold me by my right hand.You guide me with Your counsel,and afterward You will take me into glory.

Whom have I in heaven but You?And besides You, I want nothing on earth.

My body and my heart may fail,but God is the Rock of my heartand my portion for ever.

Traditional wording, 1611

Thus my heart was grieved, and I was pricked in my reins.So foolish was I, and ignorant: I was as a beast before Thee.

Nevertheless I am continually with Thee: Thou hast holden me by my right hand.Thou shalt guide me with Thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory.

Whom have I in heaven but Thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside Thee.

My flesh and my heart faileth: but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever.

Its first line owns up to a heart grown bitter. The rest turns to God: You hold my right hand, and I want nothing on earth besides You.

Plain English by Wiser Walk, from the Hebrew, with the King James Version beside it. How the wording is made. Traditional wording: The King James translators, The King James Version, 1611.

Where it comes from, and the original

When you keep replaying the wrong

Prayer before the Lord’s Prayer

Master, make our souls and bodies and spirits holy.Touch our minds, and search our consciences.

Drive out of us every evil thought and every lustful one,every shameful desire and imagining,every unseemly word,all envy, conceit and hypocrisy,all lying, all deceit,every temptation of everyday life,all greed, all craving for praise,all malice, all rage, all anger,every grudge, all slander,all love of money and all laziness,and every stirring of flesh and spiritthat is foreign to Your holy will.

And make us worthy, Master, Lord, Lover of mankind,with boldness and without condemnation,with a clean heart and an enlightened soul,with unashamed faces and lips made holy,to dare to call on You, the holy God in heaven, as Father,and to say:Then say the Lord’s Prayer

Traditional wording, 1886

Sanctify also, O Lord, our souls, and bodies, and spirits,and touch our understandings, and search our consciences,and cast out from us every evil imagination,every impure feeling, every base desire, every unbecoming thought,all envy, and vanity, and hypocrisy, all lying, all deceit,every worldly affection, all covetousness, all vainglory,all indifference, all vice, all passion, all anger, all malice, all blasphemy,every motion of the flesh and spiritthat is not in accordance with Thy holy will:

And count us worthy, O loving Lord,with boldness, without condemnation, in a pure heart,with a contrite spirit, with unshamed face, with sanctified lips,to dare to call upon Thee, the holy God, Father in heaven,and to say,

The priest prays it just before the Lord’s Prayer in the Liturgy of St James. Among the things it asks God to drive out of us are rage, anger and every grudge.

Plain English by Wiser Walk, from the Greek (the prayer’s second half) printed by the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, with William Macdonald’s 1886 translation beside it. How the wording is made. Traditional wording: William Macdonald, Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 7, 1886.

Macdonald’s English agrees with the manuscripts in F. E. Brightman’s Greek of 1896, so it has “unbecoming thought” for “unseemly word” and “a contrite spirit” for “an enlightened soul”, and no “love of money”. The plain English follows the Greek printed today. His “malice” is the word given here as “every grudge”.

Where it comes from, and the Greek

When hatred has taken root

Prayer for love grown cold

O Lord our God, in Your mercy, as You are good,look on the ground of our heart.Love has dried up in it,and the thorns of hatred, self-love and countless sinshave grown thick over it.

Let fall on it a drop of the grace of Your All-holy Spirit,and water it richly,so that it may bear fruit.Out of a burning love for You,let it bring forth the fear of You, the root of all virtues,and a tireless care for our neighbour’s salvation.Let every passion be rooted out,and every kind of wickedness, and all hypocrisy.

Earnestly we pray to You, the Giver of all good things:hear us quickly,and in Your love for mankind have mercy.

Master, You gave Your disciplesYour commandment to love one another.By the grace of Your All-holy Spirit,truly renew it in our souls and in our hearts,so that we may never care only for our own good,but always strive to please You,and to care for the salvation and the good of our neighbours.

We pray to You, our merciful Benefactor:hear us and have mercy.

Traditional wording, 1999

O Lord our God, in Thy mercy, as Thou art good,look down upon the ground of our heart in which love has dried up,cruelly overgrown with the thorns of hatred, self-love, and innumerable transgressions.

And as Thou art the Source of all good, fervently we entreat Thee:having released a drop of the grace of Thy Most-holy Spirit,richly bedew it that it may bear fruit,and make it increase, out of burning love for Thee,the root of all virtues—the fear of Thee—as also vigilant solicitude for the salvation of our neighbor,and the uprooting of all passions, evils of various forms, and hypocrisy,and as the Lover of Mankind quickly hearken and have mercy.

O Master Who gavest a new commandment to Thy disciplesthat they should love one another,renew this by the grace of Thy Most-holy Spirit acting in our souls and hearts,that we will never become selfish,but always endeavor to please Theeand strive for the salvation of our neighborand pay close attention to that which is beneficial,we pray Thee, the merciful Giver of all that is good,hearken and mercifully have mercy.

It looks honestly at a heart where love has dried up and the thorns of hatred have grown thick. Then it asks God to let His grace fall on that ground and water it, so that it may bear fruit.

Plain English by Wiser Walk, from the Church Slavonic, with St Tikhon’s Monastery’s English beside it. How the wording is made. Traditional wording: St Tikhon’s Monastery, The Great Book of Needs, Volume III, 1999.

St Tikhon’s prints these petitions for a Divine Liturgy served for the increase of love. Its second petition has “a new commandment”, where the Slavonic printed here has “Your commandment”.

Where it comes from, and the Church Slavonic

For a new heart

Have mercy on me, O God (Psalm 51)

Have mercy on me, O God, in Your great mercy;in the greatness of Your compassion, blot out my offence.Wash me thoroughly from my wrongdoing,and cleanse me from my sin.

For I know my wrongdoing,and my sin is always before me.Against You alone have I sinnedand done what is evil in Your sight,so that You are proved right in what You sayand win Your case when You are judged.

Indeed, I was conceived in wrongdoing,and my mother carried me in sins.Indeed, You have loved truth;You have shown me the hidden and secret things of Your wisdom.

You will sprinkle me with hyssop, and I will be clean;You will wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.You will let me hear joy and gladness;the bones that were brought low will rejoice.

Turn Your face away from my sins,and blot out all my wrongdoings.Create in me a clean heart, O God,and renew a right spirit deep within me.

Do not cast me away from Your presence,and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.Restore to me the joy of Your salvation,and hold me firm with Your guiding Spirit.

I will teach wrongdoers Your ways,and the godless will turn back to You.Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God,the God of my salvation,and my tongue will rejoice in Your righteousness.O Lord, You will open my lips,and my mouth will declare Your praise.

For if You had wanted sacrifice, I would have given it;You take no pleasure in whole burnt offerings.A broken spirit is a sacrifice to God;God will not despise a broken and humbled heart.

In Your good pleasure, O Lord, do good to Zion,and let the walls of Jerusalem be built.Then You will delight in a sacrifice of righteousness,in offerings and whole burnt offerings;then they will offer young bulls on Your altar.

Traditional wording, 2011

Have mercy on me, O God, according to Thy great mercy;and according to the multitude of Thy compassions blot out my transgression.Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.

For I know mine iniquity, and my sin is ever before me.Against Thee only have I sinned and done this evil before Thee,that Thou mightest be justified in Thy words, and prevail when Thou art judged.

For behold, I was conceived in iniquities, and in sins did my mother bear me.For behold, Thou hast loved truth;the hidden and secret things of Thy wisdom hast Thou made manifest unto me.

Thou shalt sprinkle me with hyssop, and I shall be made clean;Thou shalt wash me, and I shall be made whiter than snow.Thou shalt make me to hear joy and gladness;the bones that be humbled, they shall rejoice.

Turn Thy face away from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities.Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.

Cast me not away from Thy presence, and take not Thy Holy Spirit from me.Restore unto me the joy of Thy salvation, and with Thy governing Spirit establish me.

I shall teach transgressors Thy ways, and the ungodly shall turn back unto Thee.Deliver me from blood-guiltiness, O God, Thou God of my salvation;my tongue shall rejoice in Thy righteousness.O Lord, Thou shalt open my lips, and my mouth shall declare Thy praise.

For if Thou hadst desired sacrifice, I had given it;with whole-burnt offerings Thou shalt not be pleased.A sacrifice unto God is a broken spirit;a heart that is broken and humbled God will not despise.

Do good, O Lord, in Thy good pleasure unto Sion, and let the walls of Jerusalem be builded.Then shalt Thou be pleased with sacrifice of righteousness, with oblation and whole-burnt offerings.Then shall they offer bullocks upon Thine altar.

Show the whole prayer

David prayed this psalm in repentance, and the Orthodox say it in their morning prayers. In it he asks God for a new heart: “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit deep within me.”

Plain English by Wiser Walk, from the Greek the Orthodox Church prays, with the Jordanville Prayer Book beside it. How the wording is made. Traditional wording: Holy Trinity Monastery, Jordanville, Prayer Book, 2011.

Where it comes from, and the Greek

Scripture for this

¹⁴Pursue peace with everyone, as well as holiness, without which no one will see the Lord. ¹⁵See to it that no one falls short of the grace of God, and that no root of bitterness springs up to cause trouble and defile many.

Hebrews 12:14-15 A root of bitterness springs up, causes trouble and defiles many. The passage begins with the cure, to pursue peace with everyone.

Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against any of your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD.

Leviticus 19:18 The verse with “love your neighbour as yourself” begins by forbidding revenge and grudges.

²⁶“Be angry, yet do not sin.” Do not let the sun set upon your anger, ²⁷and do not give the devil a foothold.

Ephesians 4:26-27 Paul sets a limit on anger. The sun must not set on it, and the devil must get no foothold.

It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no account of wrongs.

1 Corinthians 13:5 Paul lists keeping no account of wrongs among the marks of love.

¹⁹But Joseph replied, “Do not be afraid. Am I in the place of God? ²⁰As for you, what you intended against me for evil, God intended for good, in order to accomplish a day like this—to preserve the lives of many people. ²¹Therefore do not be afraid. I will provide for you and your little ones.” So Joseph reassured his brothers and spoke kindly to them.

Genesis 50:19-21 Joseph’s brothers sold him as a slave. Years later he did not repay them, but comforted them: you meant evil, God meant it for good.

I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.

Ezekiel 36:26 God promises to take away a heart turned to stone and give a new heart, a heart of flesh.

Bible text: Berean Standard Bible, public domain.

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