Sign Up My Profile
Prayers

The prayer for love grown cold

Two petitions of a Russian service for the increase of love, asking God to water a heart where love has dried up.

Picture: Thomas Faed, Faults on Both Sides, 1861

The words of the prayer

Plain English

O Lord our God, in Your mercy, as You are good,look on the ground of our heart.Love has dried up in it,and the thorns of hatred, self-love and countless sinshave grown thick over it.

Let fall on it a drop of the grace of Your All-holy Spirit,and water it richly,so that it may bear fruit.Out of a burning love for You,let it bring forth the fear of You, the root of all virtues,and a tireless care for our neighbour’s salvation.Let every passion be rooted out,and every kind of wickedness, and all hypocrisy.

Earnestly we pray to You, the Giver of all good things:hear us quickly,and in Your love for mankind have mercy.

Master, You gave Your disciplesYour commandment to love one another.By the grace of Your All-holy Spirit,truly renew it in our souls and in our hearts,so that we may never care only for our own good,but always strive to please You,and to care for the salvation and the good of our neighbours.

We pray to You, our merciful Benefactor:hear us and have mercy.

Traditional wording, 1999

O Lord our God, in Thy mercy, as Thou art good,look down upon the ground of our heart in which love has dried up,cruelly overgrown with the thorns of hatred, self-love, and innumerable transgressions.

And as Thou art the Source of all good, fervently we entreat Thee:having released a drop of the grace of Thy Most-holy Spirit,richly bedew it that it may bear fruit,and make it increase, out of burning love for Thee,the root of all virtues—the fear of Thee—as also vigilant solicitude for the salvation of our neighbor,and the uprooting of all passions, evils of various forms, and hypocrisy,and as the Lover of Mankind quickly hearken and have mercy.

O Master Who gavest a new commandment to Thy disciplesthat they should love one another,renew this by the grace of Thy Most-holy Spirit acting in our souls and hearts,that we will never become selfish,but always endeavor to please Theeand strive for the salvation of our neighborand pay close attention to that which is beneficial,we pray Thee, the merciful Giver of all that is good,hearken and mercifully have mercy.

Plain English by Wiser Walk, from the Church Slavonic, with St Tikhon’s Monastery’s English beside it. How the wording is made. Traditional wording: St Tikhon’s Monastery, The Great Book of Needs, Volume III, 1999.

St Tikhon’s prints these petitions for a Divine Liturgy served for the increase of love. Its second petition has “a new commandment”, where the Slavonic printed here has “Your commandment”.

When it is said

In church, they are read aloud after the Gospel.

The service is held when someone asks for it.

At home, anyone might pray them for a marriage, a family or a friendship where love has grown cold.

Where it comes from

No author known

Where it comes from

The words come from a Russian service “for the increase of love and the uprooting of hatred and all malice”. Its Gospel reading is Jesus’s new commandment to love one another (John 13:34-35). Five requests follow the Gospel. This prayer gives the first two, which ask for a dried-up heart to be watered and for that commandment to be renewed in us.

The Russian book of molebens, on Azbyka.ru

First written for the Liturgy

St Tikhon’s Monastery prints the same requests in English as additions to a Divine Liturgy served for the increase of love. They first stood in a priest’s prayer book, among services composed in southern Russia to be added to the Liturgy. The Russian service book that holds them now says the Church’s rule leaves no room for extra requests at the Liturgy, so the book gives them a short service of their own.

St Tikhon’s Monastery, The Great Book of Needs, Volume III (1999); The Russian book of molebens, its preface, on Azbyka.ru

Among prayers for family quarrels

A Russian prayer book opens its prayers for “family discord” with this service’s two short hymns, before its prayers to the martyrs Gurias, Samonas and Habibus. The hymns ask Christ to make us love one another without pretence and to set our hearts on fire with love for Him.

Prayers in family discord, Azbyka.ru prayer book; The Russian book of molebens, on Azbyka.ru

The Scripture in it

A new commandment I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you also must love one another.

John 13:34 Quoted Christ’s commandment to love one another, which the second petition asks Him to renew.

… as I also try to please everyone in all I do. For I am not seeking my own good, but the good of many, that they may be saved.

1 Corinthians 10:33 Echoed Paul seeks the good of many rather than his own, so that they may be saved, as the second petition asks.

Bible text: Berean Standard Bible, public domain.

In Church Slavonic

Господи Боже наш, милостивно яко Благ призри на изсохшую в любви землю сердца нашего, тернием ненависти, самолюбия и неисчетных беззаконий люте оляденевшую,

и каплю благодати Пресвятаго Твоего Духа испустив, богатно ороси сию, да будет плодоносна

и возрастит от горящей к Тебе любви корень всех добродетелей, страх Твой, и о спасении ближняго неленостное попечение, всех же страстей и многообразных лукавств и лицемерия искоренение,

прилежно яко всех благ Дателя молим, скоро услыши и человеколюбно помилуй.

Заповедь Твою любити друг друга давый Твоим ученикам, Владыко, обнови сию благодатию Пресвятаго Твоего Духа действительно в душах и в сердцах наших,

да николиже о своей токмо пользе, но всегда о благоугождении Тебе и о спасении и пользе ближних наших попечение творити потщимся,

молимся Тебе, Благодателю Милостивый, услыши и помилуй.

From the Russian book of molebens, in Church Slavonic, on Azbyka.ru.

Close to this

All prayers

Suggest a correction

Berean Standard Bible