When it is said
It is sung at Matins and at the Liturgy on Forgiveness Sunday, the last Sunday before Great Lent.
The Jordanville Prayer Book also prints it, among the hymns of Lent and the weeks before it.
Where it comes from
No author known
Forgiveness Sunday
The last Sunday before Great Lent is Forgiveness Sunday, which is also called Cheesefare Sunday. By tradition it is the last day Orthodox Christians eat dairy food until Easter. That day the Church remembers Adam and Eve being sent out of Paradise. In the evening people gather for Forgiveness Vespers and ask one another’s forgiveness before the fast begins.
OrthodoxWiki, “Forgiveness Sunday”; OCA, Sunday of Cheesefare
A kontakion
A kontakion began as a long sermon in verse, with every stanza ending on the same refrain. Today only the opening stanza and the stanza after it are sung at Matins, and the opening stanza alone at the Liturgy. No author is named for this one.
What the words mean
Who is “the fallen one”?
The last line is Adam’s cry. The stanza sung after the hymn shows him sitting outside Paradise and weeping as he beats his face with his hands. He cries out in the same words, “Merciful One, have mercy on me, the fallen one.” The stanzas that follow end on that cry as well.
A word from the Word
The Greek plays on one word, logos. It asks the Word of the Father, the name John’s Gospel gives to Christ, to give the one who prays a word of their own.
The Scripture in it
I proclaim righteousness in the great assembly; behold, I do not seal my lips, as You, O LORD, do know.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
Bible text: Berean Standard Bible, public domain.
In Greek
Τῆς σοφίας ὁδηγέ, φρονήσεως χορηγέ,
τῶν ἀφρόνων παιδευτά, καὶ πτωχῶν ὑπερασπιστά,
στήριξον, συνέτισον τὴν καρδίαν μου Δέσποτα.
Σὺ δίδου μοι λόγον, ὁ τοῦ Πατρός Λόγος·
ἰδοὺ γὰρ τὰ χείλη μου, οὐ μὴ κωλύσω ἐν τῷ κράζειν Σοι·
Ἐλεῆμον, ἐλέησόν με τὸν παραπεσόντα.