When it is said
It is said at the end of Vespers on the evening of Forgiveness Sunday, the last Sunday before Great Lent.
One by one, people kiss the icon and bow to the ground before the priest, asking his forgiveness. He bows to each in return and asks for theirs. Then everyone asks forgiveness of one another while the choir sings hymns of Pascha.
The custom rests on Jesus’s words in that day’s Gospel, that if you forgive others, your Father in heaven will forgive you too.
Where it comes from
No author known
The priest asks first
In Russian churches the priest who leads the parish asks first. He bows to the ground before everyone and says: “Bless me, holy fathers and brothers, and forgive me, a sinner, whatever I have sinned this day and all the days of my life, in word, deed and thought and with all my senses.” Everyone bows back and answers, “God forgives you, holy father. Forgive us sinners too, and bless us.”
Why “God forgives”
The answer names God before the one who forgives. It leaves the forgiving of sins to God, Who alone can forgive them, so that no one takes the part of the other’s judge. It is as if each one says, “Who am I to forgive you? I am a sinner just as you are.”
Into the desert for Lent
In the old monasteries of the Holy Land, many monks went out into the desert after the rite of forgiveness and stayed there all through Lent. They were not due back at their monastery until Lazarus Saturday, the day before Palm Sunday, and many did not live to return. Hymns of Pascha such as “Let God arise” were sung for them as the brothers forgave one another. These hymns are still sung at the rite today.
Azbyka.ru, Forgiveness Sunday; Isabel F. Hapgood, Service Book (1906), the feasts and fasts of the Church
What the words mean
“God forgives” or “May God forgive you”
English-speaking parishes word the answer in more than one way: some print “God forgives”, others “May God forgive thee”. Word for word, the Russian “Bog prostit” means “God will forgive”.
Greek Orthodox Cathedral of the Annunciation, Atlanta, The Messenger, Forgiveness Sunday; St Jonah Orthodox Church, Forgiveness Vespers; Azbyka.ru, Forgiveness Sunday
The Scripture in it
For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive yours.
Bear with one another and forgive any complaint you may have against someone else. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.
Bible text: Berean Standard Bible, public domain.
In Russian
Прости меня, грешного(ую).
Бог простит, и я прощаю.
From Azbyka.ru, a Russian Orthodox website, on Forgiveness Sunday.