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Prayers

The priest’s prayer at confession

The prayer the priest reads at the start of an Orthodox confession, before you name your sins. It recalls how God forgave David and heard Manasseh.

Picture: Alexei Korzukhin, Before Confession, 1877

The words of the prayer

Plain English

O God our Saviour,through Your prophet NathanYou forgave David his sins when he repented,and You accepted the prayer of repentance of Manasseh.

With the love for mankind that You always show,accept also Your servant (name),who repents of the sins they committed.Overlook all that they did,forgive their wrongs,and pass over their transgressions.

For You, O Lord, have saidthat You do not desire the death of a sinner,but that he should turn back and live,and that sins are to be forgiven seventy times seven.As Your greatness has no equal,so Your mercy has no measure.If You kept a record of sins, who could stand?

For You are the God of those who repent,and to You we give glory,to the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,now and always, and for ever and ever.Amen.

Traditional wording, 1894

O God, our Saviour, Who, by Thy prophet Nathan,didst grant remission of his sins to the repentant David,and didst accept the penitent prayer of Manasse;

do Thou Thyself, in Thy wonted love to man,accept this Thy servant, (name),who lamenteth because of those iniquities which he hath wrought,overlooking all that he hath done,forgiving his unrighteousness,and passing-by his transgressions.

For Thou, O Lord, hast saidthat pleasure Thou hast not in the death of a sinner,but rather that he should return and live;and that sins shall be forgiven until seventy times seven.For as Thy greatness is incomparable,so is Thy mercy immeasurable.For if Thou shouldest mark transgressions, who should stand?

For Thou art the God of the penitent,and to Thee we ascribe glory,to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost,now and ever, and to ages of ages. Amen.

Plain English by Wiser Walk, from the Church Slavonic, with Shann’s 1894 translation beside it. How the wording is made. Traditional wording: G. V. Shann, Book of Needs of the Holy Orthodox Church, 1894.

When it is said

The priest reads it at the start of confession, before anyone names their sins. Before it come Psalm 51 and “Lord, have mercy” 40 times.

Often this opening part of the service is read once for everyone waiting to confess, and then each person confesses alone.

Greek parishes often hear confession without the written service, so you may not hear it there.

Where it comes from

No author known

“Christ stands here unseen”

After this prayer and one more, the Russian Book of Needs has the priest speak to the person confessing. Christ stands here unseen, he says, to hear your confession. So do not be ashamed or afraid, and hide nothing. The priest is only a witness. You have come to the physician, he ends, so do not leave unhealed.

G. V. Shann, Book of Needs of the Holy Orthodox Church (1894)

David and Manasseh

The prayer leans on two kings. When the prophet Nathan confronted King David over his sin, David said, “I have sinned against the LORD.” Nathan told him that God had taken his sin away. King Manasseh of Judah led his people into idol worship. When he humbled himself in captivity, God heard his prayer.

From an old Greek order

An old Greek order of confession is credited to St John the Faster, Patriarch of Constantinople from AD 582 to 595. It holds seven prayers for the forgiveness of the person confessing, and this is the third. Speaking to priests in Athens in 2013, Fr Theodoros Georgiou noted that in practice today the written order is not followed.

Holy Metropolis of Nea Smyrni, report of the priests’ meeting on confession, 14 November 2013 (in Greek)

The Scripture in it

Then David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the LORD.” “The LORD has taken away your sin,” Nathan replied. “You will not die.”

2 Samuel 12:13 Echoed Nathan tells David, who has confessed, that the LORD has taken away his sin.

And in his distress, Manasseh sought the favor of the LORD his God and earnestly humbled himself before the God of his fathers. And when he prayed to Him, the LORD received his plea and heard his petition. So He brought him back to Jerusalem and to his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the LORD is God.

2 Chronicles 33:12-13 Echoed Manasseh humbles himself in captivity, and God hears his prayer.

Say to them: ‘As surely as I live, declares the Lord GOD, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked should turn from their ways and live. Turn! Turn from your evil ways! For why should you die, O house of Israel?’

Ezekiel 33:11 Quoted God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but in their turning back to live.

Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother who sins against me? Up to seven times?” Jesus answered, “I tell you, not just seven times, but seventy-seven times!”

Matthew 18:21-22 Echoed Jesus tells Peter to forgive again and again, far beyond seven times.

If You, O LORD, kept track of iniquities, then who, O Lord, could stand?

Psalm 130:3 Quoted If You kept a record of iniquities, who could stand?

Bible text: Berean Standard Bible, public domain.

In Church Slavonic

Боже, Спасителю наш, Иже пророком Твоим Нафаном покаявшемуся Давиду о своих согрешениих оставление даровавый,

и Манассиину в покаяние молитву приемый,

Сам и раба Твоего (имя), кающагося о нихже содела согрешениих,

приими обычным Твоим человеколюбием,

презираяй ему вся содеянная, оставляяй неправды и превосходяй беззакония.

Ты бо рекл еси, Господи: хотением не хощу смерти грешника, но яко еже обратитися и живу быти ему,

и яко седмьдесят седмерицею оставляти грехи.

Понеже яко величество Твое безприкладное и милость Твоя безмерная.

Аще бо беззакония назриши, кто постоит?

Яко Ты еси Бог кающихся и Тебе славу возсылаем,

Отцу и Сыну и Святому Духу, ныне и присно и во веки веков. Аминь.

From the Russian Book of Needs (the Trebnik), the order of confession, as printed online on santosepulcro.co.il with a Russian translation.

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Berean Standard Bible