When it is said
In the Orthodox Church these verses are read at the Liturgy on the Thursday of the tenth week after Pentecost, as part of 2 Corinthians 1:1-7.
Anyone may say them as a blessing of God, at any time.
Where it comes from
Author known
Written after a crushing trouble
A few lines later Paul explains what lay behind these words. In the province of Asia he and his companions were under a burden far beyond their strength, so that they despaired even of life. Paul says it happened so that they would trust not in themselves but in God, Who raises the dead. And God rescued them (2 Corinthians 1:8-10).
2 Corinthians 1:8-10
Comfort that came with Titus
Later in the same letter Paul shows how God’s comfort once reached him. When he came to Macedonia he had no rest. There were conflicts all around him and fears within. Then God, Who comforts the downcast, comforted him by the arrival of his companion Titus (2 Corinthians 7:5-6).
2 Corinthians 7:5-6
What the words mean
The word for comfort
Paul’s Greek word for comfort is paraklesis. Together with its verb it appears 10 times in five verses (2 Corinthians 1:3-7), and the King James Version turns it into both “comfort” and “consolation”. The same word names the Paraklesis, the Orthodox service of prayer for the living.
The Patriarchal Greek text, on Elpenor (ellopos.net); Paraklesis, Wikipedia
The Scripture in it
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, Who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.
Bible text: Berean Standard Bible, public domain.
In Greek
Εὐλογητὸς ὁ Θεὸς καὶ Πατὴρ τοῦ Κυρίου ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ,
ὁ Πατὴρ τῶν οἰκτιρμῶν καὶ Θεὸς πάσης παρακλήσεως,
ὁ παρακαλῶν ἡμᾶς ἐν πάσῃ τῇ θλίψει ἡμῶν,
εἰς τὸ δύνασθαι ἡμᾶς παρακαλεῖν τοὺς ἐν πάσῃ θλίψει
διὰ τῆς παρακλήσεως ἧς παρακαλούμεθα αὐτοὶ ὑπὸ τοῦ Θεοῦ.
From the Patriarchal Greek text of 1904, on Elpenor (ellopos.net).