When it is said
A Russian prayer book prints it among its prayers for blasphemous and other unwanted thoughts that come during prayer.
It takes a few seconds and can be said each time such a thought returns, in prayer or out of it.
Where it comes from
Author by tradition
St Theophan the Recluse
Theophan was a Russian bishop who lived from 1815 to 1894. In 1866 he retired to the Vysha Hermitage, where he spent his last years reading and writing. He is best known for his letters and books on the spiritual life, and he helped translate the Philokalia, the Fathers’ writings on prayer, into Russian. The Russian Church recognized him as a saint in 1988.
Where the prayer comes from
A Russian prayer book took these words from a Symphony of Theophan’s works, a Russian collection of his sayings arranged by subject. A second collection gives the advice around them. Theophan told someone tormented by blasphemous thoughts first not to be troubled, and never to think the thoughts were their own. Then they were to turn to the Lord with this prayer. Neither collection names the letter or book it came from.
Azbyka, prayers against blasphemous and other thoughts at prayer; Dushevny lekar, compiled by Dmitry Semenik, on blasphemous thoughts (Azbyka, in Russian)
The Scripture in it
Jesus put before them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. But while everyone was asleep, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and slipped away. When the wheat sprouted and bore grain, then the weeds also appeared. The owner’s servants came to him and said, ‘Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?’ ‘An enemy did this,’ he replied. So the servants asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?’”
Bible text: Berean Standard Bible, public domain.
In Russian
Ду́шу мою́ открыва́ю пред Тобо́ю, Го́споди!
Ви́дишь, что я не хочу́ таки́х мы́слей и не благоволю́ к ним.
Все всева́ет враг.
Отгони́ его́ от меня́!