When it is said
Pray it while you look for a spiritual father, someone to guide you in the life of faith.
Symeon gave it as a model prayer for a disciple who is seeking such a guide.
Where it comes from
Author known
Who was Symeon?
Symeon was born in AD 949 and went to school in Constantinople. When he was 14 years old, he found a guide in Symeon the Pious, a monk of the Studion monastery. He prepared for a monk’s life under that guidance for several years and became a monk when he was 27 years old. He later led the monastery of St Mamas for 25 years and died in 1021.
The Orthodox Church in America, the life of St Symeon the New Theologian
What he taught about a guide
Symeon taught that a disciple should go to the guide God shows him and learn from him as if he were seeing and speaking with Christ Himself. He wrote that it is better to be called the disciple of a disciple than to live by your own will. This prayer asks for such a guide, so that by doing his will you do God’s.
St Symeon the New Theologian, Catecheses, 20, lines 45 to 62, as a 1987 address of the Monastery of Sts Cyprian and Justina at Fili quotes them
What the words mean
Why “the New Theologian”?
Symeon’s teaching on prayer and the spiritual struggle earned him the title “the New Theologian.” The Orthodox Church in America’s life of Symeon adds that the teaching was not his own invention. It was old teaching that had been forgotten over time.
The Orthodox Church in America, the life of St Symeon the New Theologian
The Scripture in it
Do I take any pleasure in the death of the wicked? declares the Lord GOD. Wouldn’t I prefer that he turn from his ways and live?
The true Light, Who gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.
Bible text: Berean Standard Bible, public domain.
In Greek
Κύριε, ὁ μὴ θέλων τὸν θάνατον τοῦ ἁμαρτωλοῦ ὡς τὸ ἐπιστρέψαι καὶ ζῆν αὐτόν, ὁ κατελθὼν διὰ τοῦτο ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς, ἵνα τοὺς κειμένους καὶ τεθανατωμένους ὑπὸ τῆς ἁμαρτίας ἐξαναστήσῃς καὶ Σὲ κατιδεῖν αὐτούς, τὸ φῶς τὸ ἀληθινόν, ὡς ἰδεῖν ἀνθρώπῳ δυνατόν, καταξιώσῃς,
πέμψον μοι ἄνθρωπον γινώσκοντά Σε, ἵνα, ὡς Σοὶ δουλεύσας αὐτῷ καὶ πάσῃ δυνάμει μου ὑποταγεὶς καὶ τὸ Σὸν ἐν τῷ ἐκείνου θελήματι ποιήσας θέλημα, εὐαρεστήσω Σοι, τῷ μόνῳ Θεῷ καὶ καταξιωθῶ Σου κἀγὼ τῆς βασιλείας, ὁ ἁμαρτωλός.