Sign Up My Profile
Prayers

The prayer of thanksgiving from the Liturgy of St Mark

The first prayer of the Liturgy of St Mark, the old liturgy of Alexandria. It thanks God for bringing us to this hour and asks Him to drive away all envy.

Picture: Pieter Jansz. Saenredam, The Mariakerk in Utrecht, 1638

The words of the prayer

Plain English

We thank You, and more than thank You,Lord our God,Father of our Lord and God and Saviour Jesus Christ,for everything, through everything and in everything,because You have sheltered us, helped us,upheld us and led usthrough all our life until now,and brought us to this hour.

And we ask and implore You,good Lover of mankind:grant that we may spend this holy dayand all the time of our life without sin,with all joy, health and salvation,with all holiness and the fear of You.

O God, drive away all envy,all fear, all temptation,every work of Satanand every plot of wicked people,from us and from Your holy, catholicand apostolic Church.Give us what is good and what will help us.

If we have sinned against Youin word or deed or thought,be pleased, as You are good and love mankind,to overlook it.O God, do not abandon us who hope in You.Lead us not into temptation,but deliver us from the evil one and from his works,by the grace, the mercies and the love for mankindof Your only-begotten Son,through Whom and with Whombe glory and power to You,with Your all-holy, good and life-giving Spirit,now and always, and for ever and ever.Amen.

Traditional wording, 1886

We give Thee thanks, yea, more than thanks, O Lord our God,the Father of our Lord and God and Saviour Jesus Christ,for all Thy goodness at all times and in all places,because Thou hast shielded, rescued, helped, and guided us all the days of our lives,and brought us unto this hour …

We pray and beseech Thee, merciful God, to grant in Thy goodnessthat we may spend this holy day and all the time of our lives without sin,in fulness of joy, health, safety, holiness, and reverence of Thee.

But all envy, all fear, all temptation, all the influence of Satan, all the snares of wicked men,do Thou, O Lord, drive away from us, and from Thy Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church.Bestow upon us, O Lord, what is good and meet.

Whatever sin we commit in thought, word, or deed,do Thou in Thy goodness and mercy be pleased to pardon.Leave us not, O Lord, while we hope in Thee;nor lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one and from his works,through the grace, mercy, and love of Thine only-begotten Son.Through Whom and with Whom be glory and power to Thee,in Thy most holy, good, and life-giving Spirit,now, henceforth, and for evermore.Amen.

Plain English by Wiser Walk, from the Greek of the Liturgy of St Mark as F. E. Brightman printed it in 1896, with George Ross Merry’s translation beside it. How the wording is made. Traditional wording: George Ross Merry, Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 7, 1886.

Merry’s “for all Thy goodness at all times and in all places” is a free rendering. The Greek thanks God for everything, through everything and in everything, and so does the plain wording.

When it is said

It is the first prayer of the Liturgy of St Mark, the old Communion service of the Church of Alexandria.

The priest prays it in a low voice after the deacon calls the people to pray, and the people answer its last words with “Amen”.

The liturgy is served in only a few places, on St Mark’s feast each year.

Where it comes from

No author known

The liturgy of Alexandria

The church historian Eusebius records the tradition that the evangelist Mark was the first sent to preach in Egypt and founded the first churches in Alexandria. The city’s Communion service came to carry his name. Its oldest full copy is a Greek manuscript of the 1100s, now in the Vatican Library.

Eusebius, Church History, book 2, chapter 16; Wikipedia, “Liturgy of Saint Mark”; F. E. Brightman, Liturgies Eastern and Western (1896)

The same prayer in the Coptic Church

The Coptic Church of Egypt has the same prayer near the start of its own liturgy. There too the priest thanks God for sheltering, helping and keeping us and for bringing us to this hour. Then he asks God to take away “all envy, all temptation, all working of Satan”.

F. E. Brightman, Liturgies Eastern and Western (1896), The Liturgy of the Coptic Jacobites, pp. 147-148

What the words mean

“This holy day”

In the Liturgy, “this holy day” is the day on which the Liturgy is served. An editor of the Ante-Nicene Fathers noted in 1886 that the words suggest the service was not, at first, held every day. J. Manning Potts’s Prayers of the Early Church (1953) printed a shorter form as “A Morning Prayer”, with “this day”.

Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 7 (1886), note to the Liturgy of St Mark; J. Manning Potts, Prayers of the Early Church (1953)

One line left out

This version leaves out one line that belongs to the moment in church. In it the priest thanks God for counting us worthy to stand before Him again in His holy place, asking forgiveness of our sins and mercy for all His people. The rest of the prayer is given whole, from its first words to the “Amen”.

F. E. Brightman, Liturgies Eastern and Western (1896), p. 113

The Scripture in it

… always giving thanks to God the Father for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Ephesians 5:20 Echoed Paul tells Christians to give thanks to God the Father for everything.

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.’

Matthew 6:13 Quoted The last request of the Lord’s Prayer.

Bible text: Berean Standard Bible, public domain.

In Greek

Εὐχαριστοῦμεν καὶ ὑπερευχαριστοῦμέν σοι Κύριε ὁ θεὸς ἡμῶν

ὁ πατὴρ τοῦ κυρίου καὶ θεοῦ καὶ σωτῆρος ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ

κατὰ πάντα καὶ διὰ πάντων καὶ ἐν πᾶσιν

ὅτι ἐσκέπασας ἐβοήθησας ἀντελάβου παρήγαγες ἡμᾶς

τὸν παρελθόντα χρόνον τῆς ζωῆς ἡμῶν

καὶ ἤγαγες ἡμᾶς ἕως τῆς ὥρας ταύτης …

καὶ δεόμεθα καὶ παρακαλοῦμέν σε φιλάνθρωπε ἀγαθὲ

δὸς ἡμῖν τὴν ἁγίαν ἡμέραν ταύτην καὶ ἅπαντα τὸν χρόνον τῆς ζωῆς ἡμῶν

ἐπιτελέσαι ἀναμαρτήτως μετὰ πάσης χαρᾶς ὑγείας σωτηρίας

καὶ παντὸς ἁγιασμοῦ καὶ τοῦ σοῦ φόβου.

πάντα δὲ φθόνον, πάντα φόβον, πάντα πειρασμόν,

πᾶσαν σατανικὴν ἐνέργειαν, πᾶσαν πονηρῶν ἀνθρώπων ἐπιβουλὴν

ἐκδίωξον ἀφ᾽ ἡμῶν ὁ Θεὸς καὶ ἀπὸ τῆς ἁγίας σου καθολικῆς καὶ ἀποστολικῆς ἐκκλησίας·

τὰ καλὰ καὶ τὰ συμφέροντα ἡμῖν ἐπιχορήγησον

καὶ εἴ τί σοι ἡμάρτομεν ἐν λόγῳ ἢ ἔργῳ ἢ κατὰ διάνοιαν

σὺ ὡς ἀγαθὸς καὶ φιλάνθρωπος παριδεῖν καταξίωσον

καὶ μὴ ἐγκαταλίπῃς ἡμᾶς ὁ Θεὸς τοὺς ἐλπίζοντας ἐπί σοι

μηδὲ εἰσενέγκῃς ἡμᾶς εἰς πειρασμὸν

ἀλλὰ ῥῦσαι ἡμᾶς ἀπὸ τοῦ πονηροῦ καὶ ἐκ τῶν ἔργων αὐτοῦ·

χάριτι καὶ οἰκτιρμοῖς καὶ φιλανθρωπίᾳ τοῦ μονογενοῦς σου υἱοῦ

δι᾽ οὗ [καὶ] μεθ᾽ οὗ σοὶ ἡ δόξα καὶ τὸ κράτος

σὺν τῷ παναγίῳ καὶ ἀγαθῷ καὶ ζωοποιῷ σου πνεύματι

νῦν καὶ ἀεὶ καὶ εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας τῶν αἰώνων.

Ἀμήν.

From F. E. Brightman, Liturgies Eastern and Western (Oxford, 1896), The Liturgy of St Mark, pp. 113-114.

Close to this

All prayers

Suggest a correction

Berean Standard Bible