When it is said
It belongs to the service of thanksgiving, a short service of prayer that Russians call a moleben. The service is held to thank God for an answered prayer, or for any of His gifts.
The service reads Paul’s call to give thanks always, for all things, and the Gospel of the ten lepers. Later the priest reads this prayer aloud. After it comes the Great Doxology, “Glory to God in the highest”. Russian books allow the Te Deum, “We praise You, O God”, instead.
Isabel Hapgood’s 1906 service book says every Orthodox Christian should know how to give thanks, “either privately in his own chamber or publicly in church”.
Where it comes from
No author known
A service just for thanks
Hapgood’s English translation gives the service its full name: a service “for an answer to prayer, and for every favour from God”. It opens with Psalm 118: “O give thanks unto the Lord, for He is gracious.”
The one who came back
The service’s Gospel tells of ten lepers whom Jesus healed. Only one came back, a Samaritan. He fell on his face at Jesus’s feet and thanked Him. Jesus asked: “Were there not ten cleansed? But where are the nine?” Like him, this prayer falls down before Christ to give thanks.
What the words mean
“Unworthy servants”
The prayer gives thanks “as unworthy servants”. These are the words Jesus told His disciples to use of themselves, in the same chapter of Luke as the ten lepers. Hapgood’s older English has “unprofitable servants”.
The Scripture in it
“So you also, when you have done everything commanded of you, should say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.’”
Bible text: Berean Standard Bible, public domain.
In Church Slavonic
Господи Иисусе Христе Боже наш, Боже всякаго милосердия и щедрот, Егоже милость безмерна и человеколюбия неизследимая пучина!
Ко Твоему величеству припадающе со страхом и трепетом, яко раби недостойнии, благодарение Твоему благосердию о Твоих благодеяниих, на рабех Твоих бывших, ныне смиренно приносяще, яко Господа, Владыку и Благодетеля славим, хвалим, поем и величаем, и припадающе паки благодарим, Твое безмерное и неизреченное милосердие смиренно моляще:
да якоже ныне моления рабов Твоих прияти и милостивно исполнити сподобил еси, и во предняя в Твоей и искренняго любви и во всех добродетелей преспевающих, Твоя благодеяния всех верных Твоих получити,
Церковь Твою святую и град сей от всякаго злаго обстояния избавляя и мир и безмятежие тем даруя,
Тебе со безначальным Твоим Отцем, и Пресвятым и Благим и Единосущным Твоим Духом, во едином существе славимому Богу, всегда благодарение приносити и преблагая глаголати и воспети сподобиши.
Слава Тебе Богу, Благодетелю нашему, во веки веков.