When it is said
It is a prayer for home, at any hour.
It suits the moment when you have done all you can and the rest is in God’s hands.
Where it comes from
Author by tradition
St Dimitri of Rostov
St Dimitri was born near Kyiv in 1651 and became a monk and a priest. From 1684 he spent some 20 years compiling the Lives of the Saints for every day of the year. In 1702 he became bishop of Rostov, with the rank of Metropolitan. He died in 1709 owning little except books and manuscripts, and in 1757 the Russian Church numbered him among the saints.
Orthodox Church in America, the life of St Demetrius of Rostov
Where the prayer comes from
A Russian prayer book prints the prayer under St Dimitri’s name. Its only note points to a collection called Rare Prayers of Great Russian Saints, published with a bishop’s blessing. Neither says which of his writings the prayer first appeared in.
Azbyka’s prayer book (in Russian); Rare Prayers of Great Russian Saints, on Azbyka (in Russian)
A line from the Hours
The plea “by the ways You know, save me” is word for word a line of the short prayer the Church says at the end of the service called the Third Hour. The Slavonic book of hours credits that prayer to St Mardarius.
The Scripture in it
He saved us, not by the righteous deeds we had done, but according to His mercy, through the washing of new birth and renewal by the Holy Spirit.
Bible text: Berean Standard Bible, public domain.
In Church Slavonic
Спаси́ мя́, Спа́се мо́й, по Твое́й бла́гости, а не по мои́м де́лом!
Ты́ хо́щеши мя́ спасти́, Ты́ ве́си, ко́им о́бразом мя́ спасти́: спаси́ у́бо мене́, я́ко хо́щеши, я́ко мо́жеши, я́ко ве́си: и́миже ве́си судьба́ми спаси́ мя́!
А́з на Тя́, Го́спода моего́, наде́юся, и Твое́й во́ле Свято́й себе́ вруча́ю: твори́ со мно́ю е́же хо́щеши!
А́ще хо́щеши мя́ име́ти во све́те: бу́ди благослове́н.
А́ще мя́ хо́щеши име́ти во тьме́: бу́ди па́ки благослове́н.
А́ще отве́рзеши ми́ две́ри милосе́рдия Твоего́: добро́ у́бо и бла́го, А́ще затвори́ши ми́ две́ри милосе́рдия Твоего́: благослове́н еси́, затвори́вый ми́ в пра́вду.
А́ще не погуби́ши мя́ со беззако́ниями мои́ми, сла́ва безме́рному милосе́рдию Твоему́.
А́ще погуби́ши мя́ со беззако́ниями мои́ми, сла́ва пра́ведному суду́ Твоему́: я́коже хо́щеши, устро́й о мне́ ве́щь!
From Azbyka’s prayer book (Molitvoslov), from the collection Rare Prayers of Great Russian Saints.