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Prayers

Swift and steady comfort

A short hymn sung at the Third Hour in Lent. It asks Jesus for quick comfort and begs Him to come near, as He was always with His apostles.

Picture: Raphael and workshop, Jacob’s Dream, 1518–19

The words of the prayer

Plain English

Give swift and steady comfort to Your servants, O Jesus,when our spirits lose heart.

Do not be parted from our souls in affliction;do not be far from our minds in times of trouble,but always come quickly to meet us.

Come near to us, come near, You Who are everywhere.As You were always with Your apostles,unite Yourself also to those who long for You, O Compassionate One,so that, joined to You,we may praise and glorify Your all-holy Spirit.

Traditional wording, 1891

A speedy and firm consolation give, O Jesus, to Thy servants when our spirits are distressed.

Depart not from our souls in affliction, nor stand far off from our minds in trouble, but for ever go before us.

Draw nigh unto us, draw nigh, Thou that art everywhere present.As Thou wast always with Thine Apostles, O Compassionate One, be Thou with us who long for Thee, that, being conjoined with Thee, we may hymn and glorify Thy most Holy Spirit.

Plain English by Wiser Walk, from the Greek, with Shann’s 1891 translation beside it. How the wording is made. Traditional wording: G. V. Shann, Euchology: A Manual of Prayers of the Holy Orthodox Church, 1891.

Where Shann has “be Thou with us”, the Greek asks Christ to unite Himself to those who long for Him.

When it is said

The Orthodox sing it at the Third Hour in Lent, after the Lord’s Prayer, in place of the hymn of the day.

It is short enough to say at any hour when you feel alone or God seems far away.

Where it comes from

Author by tradition

Why the Third Hour

On the day of Pentecost, Peter told the crowd the apostles were not drunk, since it was only the third hour of the day (Acts 2:15). The service called the Third Hour remembers that moment. In Lent it prays, “O Lord, Who at the Third Hour didst send down upon Thine Apostles Thy Holy Spirit: Take not the same from us.” This hymn belongs to the same service and also ends in praise of the Spirit.

The King James Version, Acts 2; Isabel F. Hapgood, Service Book (1906), the Third Hour

A stanza for Pentecost

These words are the first full stanza of a long hymn for Pentecost by St Romanos the Melodist, a writer of hymns who died after AD 555. In the old manuscripts, the first letters of its stanzas spell “of the humble Romanos”. Every stanza ends on “the All-Holy Spirit”. The Greek service books still print this stanza on the feast, after the hymn’s short opening verse.

J. B. Pitra, Analecta Sacra, volume 1 (1876), the hymn on Pentecost; The Greek Pentecostarion, the Sunday of Pentecost; Andrew Louth, “In No Way Parted”, The Visual Commentary on Scripture

The Scripture in it

Be not far from me, O God. Hurry, O my God, to help me.

Psalm 71:12 Echoed The psalmist asks God not to stay far off, and to hurry to help.

Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

James 4:8 Echoed Come near to God, and He will come near to you.

“and teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

Matthew 28:20 Echoed Christ’s promise to be with His apostles always.

Bible text: Berean Standard Bible, public domain.

In Greek

Ταχεῖαν καὶ σταθηρὰν δίδου παραμυθίαν τοῖς δούλοις σου, Ἰησοῦ,

ἐν τῷ ἀκηδιάσαι τὰ πνεύματα ἡμῶν,

μὴ χωρίζου τῶν ψυχῶν ἡμῶν ἐν θλίψεσι,

μὴ μακρύνου τῶν φρενῶν ἡμῶν ἐν περιστάσεσιν,

ἀλλὰ ἀεὶ ἡμᾶς πρόφθασον.

Ἔγγισον ἡμῖν, ἔγγισον ὁ πανταχοῦ,

ὥς περ καὶ τοῖς Ἀποστόλοις σου πάντοτε συνῇς,

οὕτω καὶ τοῖς σὲ ποθοῦσιν ἕνωσον σαυτὸν οἰκτίρμον,

ἵνα συνημμένοι σοι ὑμνῶμεν,

καὶ δοξολογῶμεν τὸ πανάγιόν σου Πνεῦμα.

From the Greek Pentecostarion, on the Sunday of Pentecost, on the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America’s liturgical texts site.

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Berean Standard Bible