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Prayers

The prayer before the kiss of peace

A prayer from the Liturgy of St James, for the moment just before the people greet one another with the kiss of peace.

Picture: Raffaellino Bottalla, The Meeting of Esau and Jacob, 1636–41

The words of the prayer

Plain English

God and Master of all,make us worthy of this hour,unworthy as we are,O Lover of mankind,

so that, free from all deceitand all hypocrisy,we may be united with one anotherby the bond of peace and love,and be made firm by the holinessthat comes from knowing You,through Your only Son,our Lord Jesus Christ.

With Him You are blessed,together with Your all-holy,good and life-giving Spirit,now and always, and for ever and ever.Amen.

Traditional wording, 1886

God and Sovereign of all,make us, who are unworthy, worthy of this hour,Lover of mankind;

that being pure from all deceit and all hypocrisy,we may be united with one anotherby the bond of peace and love,being confirmed by the sanctification of Thy divine knowledgethrough Thine only-begotten Son,our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ,

with Whom Thou art blessed,together with Thy all-holy, and good, and quickening Spirit,now and ever, and to all eternity. Amen.

Plain English by Wiser Walk, from the Greek, 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 Greek text reads “our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ”, where the Greek printed here has “our Lord Jesus Christ”.

When it is said

In the Liturgy of St James the priest prays it in a low voice at the Creed. Then he greets the people with “Peace to all”, and the deacon asks them to greet one another with a holy kiss.

The Orthodox Church serves this Liturgy only now and then, for example in Jerusalem on 23 October, the feast of St James.

At home, someone who has fallen out with a friend might pray it for the two of them.

Where it comes from

No author known

The Liturgy of St James

The Liturgy of St James bears the name of James the brother of the Lord, remembered as the first bishop of Jerusalem. By the early 400s it was the main service of Holy Communion in Jerusalem and Antioch. Most scholars date the form we know to the late 300s. Its oldest manuscript is a book from the 800s that was used in Damascus.

“Liturgy of Saint James”, Wikipedia; The Divine Liturgy of St James in Church Slavonic, translator’s foreword

Why a kiss?

Talks to the newly baptized in Jerusalem explain the kiss of peace. They are credited to St Cyril, the city’s bishop in the 300s. In them the kiss is no greeting between ordinary friends. It joins souls and asks for full forgiveness. The talks tie it to Jesus’ command to make peace with a brother before bringing a gift to the altar, and call it “reconciliation, and for this reason holy”.

Cyril of Jerusalem (attributed), Mystagogical Lectures 5.3, in Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, 2nd series, vol. 7 (1893)

The Scripture in it

… and with diligence to preserve the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.

Ephesians 4:3 Echoed Paul’s call to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace

And over all these virtues put on love, which is the bond of perfect unity.

Colossians 3:14 Echoed Paul’s love that binds everything together in unity

Rid yourselves, therefore, of all malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander.

1 Peter 2:1 Echoed Peter’s call to put away all deceit and hypocrisy

Bible text: Berean Standard Bible, public domain.

In Greek

Ὁ πάντων Θεὸς καὶ Δεσπότης

ἀξίους ἡμᾶς ἀπέργασαι τῆς ὥρας ταύτης τοὺς ἀναξίους, Φιλάνθρωπε·

ἵνα καθαρεύοντες ἀπὸ παντὸς δόλου καὶ πάσης ὑποκρίσεως

ἑνωθῶμεν ἀλλήλοις, τῷ τῆς εἰρήνης καὶ τῆς ἀγάπης συνδέσμῳ,

βεβαιούμενοι τῷ τῆς Σῆς θεογνωσίας ἁγιασμῷ

διὰ τοῦ μονογενοῦς Σου Υἱοῦ, Κυρίου δὲ ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ,

μεθ’ Οὗ εὐλογητὸς εἶ σὺν τῷ παναγίῳ καὶ ἀγαθῷ καὶ ζωοποιῷ Σου Πνεύματι,

νῦν καὶ ἀεὶ καὶ εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας.

From the Divine Liturgy of St James, Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America (glt.goarch.org).

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Berean Standard Bible