When it is said
Today the service books give it to the funeral of a priest. After the Gospel reading, the deacon says “Let us pray to the Lord”, and the priest says this prayer.
Its words fit anyone who mourns. In the Greek book, only the word “priest” beside the name of the one who has died makes it a priest’s prayer.
Where it comes from
No author known
In the oldest Greek prayer book
The Barberini prayer book, copied in the 8th century, is the oldest Greek service book with prayers for the departed. It holds seven of them. The first is “O God of spirits and of all flesh”. The second is this one, headed as a prayer for the afflicted, or for those who mourn. It begins “Lord, Lord, the consolation of the afflicted”.
One of the oldest
In the old manuscripts it usually comes with “O God of spirits”, said while the people bow their heads. Scholars count it among the oldest prayers for the departed. A few manuscripts make it a prayer over a priest who has died, and the printed Greek book keeps it for a priest’s funeral.
Fr Stefanos Alexopoulos, on the funeral service in the Greek service books (2007, in Greek)
What the words mean
What is Abraham’s bosom?
The prayer asks that the one who has died rest in Abraham’s bosom. Those words come from a story Jesus told. A poor man named Lazarus died, and the angels carried him to Abraham’s side. The prayer asks the same rest for the one who has died.
Luke 16:22
Joy or comfort?
The Greek begins by calling Christ “the consolation of the afflicted”. The Church Slavonic, the language of the Russian service books, says “the joy of the sorrowing”. This page follows the Slavonic, as Shann’s translation of 1894 does.
Fr Stefanos Alexopoulos (2007, in Greek); The Great Book of Needs in Church Slavonic, on Azbyka.ru
The Scripture in it
Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
One day the beggar died and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s side. And the rich man also died and was buried.
Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in Me will live, even though he dies.”
Bible text: Berean Standard Bible, public domain.
In Church Slavonic
Господи сил, скорбящих радосте, и плачущих утешение, и всех в малодушии сущих заступление сый;
плачем усопшаго содержимыя, Твоим благоутробием утешив, всякую болезнь, слежащую в сердцах их, исцели,
и раба Твоего, имярек, в надежде воскресения жизни вечныя усопшаго, в недрех Авраамлих упокой.
Яко Ты еси воскресение, живот и упокоение раба Твоего, имярек, Христе Боже наш, и Тебе славу возсылаем, со безначальным Твоим Отцем, и Пресвятым, и благим, и животворящим Твоим Духом, ныне и присно, и во веки веков, аминь.