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Prayers

Prayer for those who have left the faith

A line of the Russian Orthodox morning prayers, said with a bow. It asks God to enlighten those who have left the faith and count them in His Church.

Picture: Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, The Return of the Prodigal Son, 1667–70

The words of the prayer

Plain English

Those who have fallen away from the Orthodox faithand are blinded by ruinous heresies:enlighten them with the light of knowing You,and count them in Your holy, apostolic and catholic Church.A bow

Traditional wording, 1891

Enlighten with the light of Thy knowledgeall them that have seceded from the orthodox Faith,and are blinded by perilous heresies,and unite them to Thy holy, apostolical, and catholic Church.

Plain English by Wiser Walk, from the Church Slavonic, with Shann’s 1891 translation beside it. How the wording is made. Traditional wording: G. V. Shann, Euchology: A Manual of Prayers of the Holy Orthodox Church, 1891.

When it is said

The Russian morning prayers include a short prayer for the living. For those who have the time, the prayer books give a longer list in its place, each line said with a bow.

This line comes from that list. You can say it at any time, for anyone you love who has walked away from God.

Where it comes from

No author known

No known author

No one knows who wrote it. It belongs to the list of petitions for the living in the Russian prayer books. G. V. Shann put it into English in his Orthodox prayer book of 1891, among his “Diptychs, or Remembrancer”, with a bow after it. The Jordanville prayer book, an English Orthodox prayer book of today, keeps it among the morning prayers.

G. V. Shann, Euchology (1891), Diptychs, or Remembrancer; Jordanville Prayer Book, Morning Prayers

Last among the living

The morning list prays first for the whole Church, then for family, friends and the suffering, and even for those who hate us. This line is the last of the prayers for the living, and after it the list turns to the departed.

Azbyka.ru, Morning prayers; G. V. Shann, Euchology (1891), Diptychs, or Remembrancer

What the words mean

“Catholic” means whole

“Catholic” here is not the name of one church. As in the Creed, it means whole. Orthodox teaching explains it as “full, complete, whole, with nothing lacking”. The prayer asks that those who have left be counted again in that whole Church.

Orthodox Church in America, The Orthodox Faith: The Church

The Scripture in it

The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, Who is the image of God. For we do not proclaim ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, Who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made His light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

2 Corinthians 4:4-6 Echoed Paul on minds that are blinded, and on God shining in our hearts the light of the knowledge of His glory.

Bible text: Berean Standard Bible, public domain.

In Church Slavonic

Отступившия от Православныя веры

и погибельными ересьми ослепленныя,

светом Твоего познания просвети

и Святей Твоей Апостольстей Соборней Церкви причти.

From the Russian morning prayers, the longer prayer for the living, on Azbyka.ru, a Russian Orthodox website.

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Berean Standard Bible