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Prayers

The kneeling prayer of Pentecost for the departed

These are the closing lines of the third prayer read at Pentecost Vespers, while everyone kneels. They ask rest for the departed.

Picture: Isaac Levitan, Above Eternal Peace, 1894

The words of the prayer

Plain English

Hear us, the lowly and wretched, as we pray to You,and give rest to the souls of Your servantswho have fallen asleep before us,in a place of light, a place of green pasture,a place of refreshment,where all pain, sorrow and sighing have fled away.

Give their spirits a place in the dwellings of the righteous,and count them worthy of peace and relief.

For the dead will not praise You, O Lord,nor are those in hades free to give You thanks;but we, the living, bless You and pray to You,and bring You prayers and sacrificesthat ask Your mercy for their souls.

Traditional wording, 1906

Hear us, Thy humble ones, who make our supplications unto Thee,and give rest to the souls of Thy servants who have fallen asleep,in a place of light, a place of verdure, a place of refreshmentwhence all sickness, sorrow and sighing have fled away:

And speedily establish Thou their souls in the mansions of the Just;and graciously vouchsafe unto them peace and pardon;

for the dead shall not praise Thee,neither shall they who are in Hell make bold to offer unto Thee confession.But we who are living will bless Thee, and will pray,and offer unto Thee propitiatory prayers and sacrifices for their souls.

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

Hapgood translated from the Church Slavonic books rather than the Greek. A few of her words here, such as “speedily” and “pardon”, have nothing matching them in the Greek.

When it is said

The priest reads the third kneeling prayer at Vespers on the day of Pentecost, after the deacon calls everyone to their knees.

Anyone might pray its closing lines at home for someone who has died.

Where it comes from

Author by tradition

The first kneeling since Easter

Orthodox Christians do not kneel in church from Easter until Pentecost. Following the first Council of Nicaea, they do not kneel on Sundays either. At Vespers on the day of Pentecost they kneel for the first time since Easter, while three long prayers are read.

Church of the Mother of God, Mays Landing; N. R. Antonov, quoted by Azbyka

A prayer for those in hades

Earlier in the prayer the Church calls on Christ as the One Who went down into hades (the place of the dead), broke its bars and showed a way up to those below. Just before these closing lines it says that on this feast He accepts prayers for those held in hades, and gives us great hope that relief will be sent down to them. Then it asks rest for those who have fallen asleep.

The Greek text (glt.goarch.org); Hapgood, Service Book (1906)

The Scripture in it

It is not the dead who praise the LORD, nor any who descend into silence. But it is we who will bless the LORD, both now and forevermore. Hallelujah!

Psalm 115:17-18 Quoted The dead do not praise the Lord, but the living bless Him.

For there is no mention of You in death; who can praise You from Sheol?

Psalm 6:5 Echoed Who can praise You from the grave?

So the redeemed of the LORD will return and enter Zion with singing, crowned with everlasting joy. Gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee.

Isaiah 35:10 Echoed Sorrow and sighing will flee.

Bible text: Berean Standard Bible, public domain.

In Greek

Ἐπάκουσον ἡμῶν τῶν ταπεινῶν, οἰκτρῶν δεομένων σου,

καὶ ἀνάπαυσον τὰς ψυχὰς τῶν δούλων σου τῶν προκεκοιμημένων,

ἐν τόπῳ φωτεινῷ, ἐν τόπῳ χλοερῷ, ἐν τόπῳ ἀναψύξεως,

ἔνθα ἀπέδρα πᾶσα ὀδύνη, λύπη, καὶ στεναγμός,

καὶ κατάταξον τὰ πνεύματα αὐτῶν ἐν σκηναῖς Δικαίων,

καὶ εἰρήνης καὶ ἀνέσεως ἀξίωσον αὐτούς,

ὅτι οὐχ οἱ νεκροὶ αἰνέσουσί σε, Κύριε,

οὐδὲ οἱ ἐν ᾍδῃ ἐξομολόγησιν παρρησιάζονται προσφέρειν σοι,

ἀλλ' ἡμεῖς οἱ ζῶντες εὐλογοῦμέν σε καὶ ἱκετεύομεν,

καὶ τὰς ἱλαστηρίους εὐχὰς καὶ θυσίας προσάγομέν σοι ὑπὲρ τῶν ψυχῶν αὐτῶν.

From Pentecostarion, Sunday of Pentecost, Vespers, the third kneeling prayer, its closing lines (glt.goarch.org).

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Berean Standard Bible