When it is said
A Russian prayer book gives it as a prayer “in life’s failures,” followed by the psalm “Unless the LORD builds the house” (Psalm 127:1).
It suits the day a plan falls through, a business fails or a job is lost.
Where it comes from
Author known
From his diary
St John of Kronstadt kept a diary, and extracts from it were published as My Life in Christ. This prayer is entry 521 in its first volume. An English translation by E. E. Goulaeff came out in 1897 with St John’s approval.
E. E. Goulaeff, My Life in Christ (1897); Azbyka’s prayer book, prayers in life’s failures (in Russian)
A priest of the poor
John was born in 1829 to a very poor family in Sura, a village in the province of Archangel. From 1855 he served as a priest at St Andrew’s Cathedral in Kronstadt, a naval base near St Petersburg. He gave the poor his last coins, and people often saw him come home barefoot because he had given his shoes away.
Orthodox Church in America, the life of St John of Kronstadt
The Scripture in it
Jesus declared, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”
Bible text: Berean Standard Bible, public domain.
In Russian
Сла́ва Тебе́, Го́споди, О́тче наш, прему́дрый Испыта́телю любви́ моея́ к Тебе́ и к бли́жнему моему́.
Не оставля́й меня́ без искуше́ний, – а́ще прему́дрости и пра́вде Твое́й уго́дно и благопотре́бно бу́дет, – ни еди́ного дня живота́ моего́;
да насади́тся, да утверди́тся, да очи́стится и возвы́сится любо́вь моя́ к Тебе́ и к бли́жнему моему́, и да не явлю́ся на суде́ Твое́м тощ пред Лице́м Твои́м.
From St John of Kronstadt, My Life in Christ, vol. 1, no. 521, as Azbyka’s prayer book prints it.