Prayers to Saint John of Damascus

A Prayer to our Venerable and God-bearing Father John

O our venerable and all-blessed father John, hearken to us who humbly fall down before thee and fervently entreat thine aid. Thou knowest our weakness, thou knowest our sins; yet is our ardor not hidden from thee. Beseech our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, that He grant us remission of our many offenses and set us on the path of the doing of His commandments. With thy supplications shield us from all temptations and tribulations; avert the sorrows and perils that assail us, and grant that we may pass the days of our life in health, peace, tranquility and the pleasing of God.Ask for us time for repentance and a good reply at the dread judgment-seat of Christ, that with thee and all the elect we may eternally glorify the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, unto the ages of ages. Amen.

Kontakion (Tone IV)

Let us hymn John, the honored and divinely eloquent speaker and hymnographer, the instructor and teacher of the Church, the opponent of the enemy; for taking up the Cross of the Lord as a sword, he hath cut down all the falsehood of heresies, and as a fervent intercessor before God he bestoweth forgiveness of transgressions upon all.

Ikos: Together let us cry out to the instructor, teacher and priest of the Church, as an initiate of ineffable mysteries: By thy supplications to God open our mouths and vouchsafe that we may speak the words of thy doctrines; for thou didst appear in the world as one who shareth in the Trinity, shining forth in the world like another sun, illumining all with thy miracles and teachings, like Moses ever instructing in the law of the Lord. And thou wast a luminary in word and deed, praying unceasingly, that forgiveness of transgressions be given to all.

Translated from Church Slavonic by Monk Joseph (Isaac Lambertsen).  
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