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Prayers

Prayer for a newborn, on the eighth day

The Church’s prayer for a newborn. A priest says it on the eighth day, when the baby is given a name, asking God to sign the child with His light.

Picture: William-Adolphe Bouguereau, Maternal Admiration, 1869

The words of the prayer

Plain English

O Lord our God,we pray to You and we ask You:let the light of Your facebe marked on this Your servant (name),and let the Cross of Your only-begotten Sonbe marked in their heart and in their thoughts,so that they may flee the emptiness of the worldand every evil snare of the enemy,and follow Your commandments.

And grant, O Lord,that Your holy name may stay upon themand that they may never deny it,when in good time they are joined to Your holy Churchand made perfect by the awesome Mysteries of Your Christ;so that, living by Your commandmentsand keeping unbroken the seal given to them,they may receive the blessedness of Your chosen onesin Your kingdom,

by the grace of Your only-begotten Sonand His love for mankind.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, 1894

O Lord our God, to Thee we pray, and on Thee we call,Let the light of Thy countenance be signed on this Thy servant (or, on this Thine handmaid), (name),and be he signed with the cross of Thine only-begotten Son in his heart and understanding,that he may flee the vanity of the world and every evil device of the enemy,and may keep Thy commandments;

and grant, O Lord, that Thy holy name may remain upon him unrenounced,when at the fitting time he shall be conjoined with Thy holy church,and be perfected with the terrible mysteries of Thy Christ,that, living according to Thy commandments and preserving the seal unbroken,he may attain unto the blessedness of Thine elect in Thy kingdom,

through the grace and love to man of Thine only-begotten Son,with Whom Thou art blessed,together with Thy most holy, and good, and life-creating Spirit,now and ever, and to ages of ages. Amen.

Plain English by Wiser Walk, from the Church Slavonic, with Shann’s 1894 translation beside it. How the wording is made. Traditional wording: G. V. Shann, Book of Needs of the Holy Orthodox Church, 1894.

Shann’s “terrible mysteries” uses “terrible” in its old sense: awe-inspiring.

When it is said

A priest says it on the eighth day after a baby is born, when the baby is given a name. The old books have the baby carried to the church and held at its doors.

The priest marks the baby with the cross on the forehead, the mouth and the chest, and reads this prayer. Then he takes the baby in his arms and sings the hymn of the Meeting of the Lord.

Parents can pray it at home too, with the baby’s name.

Where it comes from

No author known

The eighth day

Luke’s Gospel tells that Jesus was given His name on His eighth day. The Church’s Book of Needs gives a baby a name on the same day. The baby is brought to the church doors. There the priest marks the baby with the cross on the forehead, the mouth and the chest, and says this prayer over the new name.

Luke 2:21; G. V. Shann, Book of Needs of the Holy Orthodox Church (1894)

The hymn that follows

After the prayer, the priest takes the baby in his arms. Standing at the church doors, or before the icon of the Mother of God, he makes the sign of the cross. Then he sings the hymn of the Meeting of the Lord. It greets the Mother of God, and old Simeon, who took the infant Jesus in his arms in the Temple.

The Book of Needs, Prayer for naming a baby on the eighth day, on Azbyka.ru (in Slavonic and Russian); G. V. Shann, Book of Needs of the Holy Orthodox Church (1894)

What the words mean

A prayer that looks ahead

The baby has a name but is not yet baptized. So the prayer looks ahead. It asks God to keep His name on the child until, in good time, the child is joined to the Church and receives its Mysteries, the Church’s sacraments. Then it asks that the child keep “the seal unbroken” for life.

G. V. Shann, Book of Needs of the Holy Orthodox Church (1894)

The Scripture in it

When the eight days before His circumcision had passed, He was named Jesus, the name the angel had given Him before He was conceived.

Luke 2:21 Echoed Jesus was given His name on the eighth day. The Church names a baby on the same day.

Many ask, “Who can show us the good?” Shine the light of Your face upon us, O LORD.

Psalm 4:6 Echoed “The light of Your face”: the psalmist asks God to lift it up upon His people.

Bible text: Berean Standard Bible, public domain.

In Church Slavonic

Господи Боже наш, Тебе молимся и Тебе просим, да знаменается свет лица Твоего на рабе Твоем сем, [или: на рабе Твоей сей,] имярек, и да знаменается Крест Единороднаго Сына Твоего в сердце и в помышлениих его, во еже бегати суеты мiра, и от всякаго лукаваго навета вражия, последовати же повелением Твоим.

И даждь, Господи, не отречену пребыти имени Твоему святому на нем, совокупляемем во время благопотребно святей Твоей Церкви, и совершаемем страшными тайнами Христа Твоего: да по заповедем Твоим жительствовав, и сохранив печать нерушиму, получит блаженство избранных во Царствии Твоем,

благодатию и человеколюбием Единороднаго Сына Твоего, с Нимже благословен еси, с Пресвятым и Благим, и Животворящим Твоим Духом, ныне и присно, и во веки веков, аминь.

From the Slavonic book of needs (the Trebnik), on Azbyka.ru, a Russian Orthodox website.

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Berean Standard Bible