When it is said
It is sung near the start of a moleben, a short service of prayer that the Russian Church holds for one person who hopes to marry.
At home you can say it for yourself, or with the name of a son, a daughter or a friend.
Where it comes from
No author known
A hymn from a service of 2022
The Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church approved the moleben for the gift of marriage for the whole Church on 27 May 2022. The service opens with a psalm and a litany. This hymn follows them, and the priest’s longer prayer for the person who hopes to marry comes at the end.
patriarchia.ru, the text of the moleben approved on 27 May 2022 (journal no. 46), archived copy; Молебное пение о даровании супружества (Azbyka.ru)
What the service asks
In the service’s litany, the Church prays that the person will find someone after their own heart, and live with the chosen husband or wife in love and one mind until death. The Gospel read at the service is Jesus’s promise “Ask, and it will be given to you” (Matthew 7:7-11).
The litany and the Gospel, in the moleben for the gift of marriage (Azbyka.ru)
What the words mean
Two lines from Scripture
The hymn calls God the Knower of hearts, as the first believers did in Acts 1:24 when they asked Him to show which man He had chosen. The line asking Him to satisfy their desires with good things takes its words from Psalm 103:5, which is Psalm 102 in the Slavonic Bible.
Psalm 102 in the Slavonic, in the Russian book of moleben services (Azbyka.ru)
The Scripture in it
And they prayed, “Lord, You know everyone’s heart. Show us which of these two You have chosen”
Who satisfies you with good things, so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.
Bible text: Berean Standard Bible, public domain.
In Church Slavonic
Творче и Сердцеведче, Боже наш,
пути наша любовию Отчею устрояяй,
подаждь рабу Твоему (рабе Твоей) супругу (супруга) по сердцу его (ея),
и исполни во благих желания их,
всячески ко спасению приводя,
да в вере и целомудрии славят Тя,
Едине Человеколюбче.