LENT with Gregory of Narek (20)

“Speaking with God from the Depths of the Heart”,
Written by St. Gregory of Narek, Armenian poet and monk,
Doctor of the Universal Church.

A thousand years ago St. Gregory of Narek (951-1005) set out, with much trepidation, on a sublime mission to translate the pure sighs of the “broken and contrite” heart into an offering of words pleasing to God. Beginning each prayer with the incantation “speaking with God from the depths of the heart,” he referred to himself as “a living book (Prayer 39b)” and to his book as a compendium of prayers for all times and nations – “a testament. its letters like my body, its message like my soul (Prayer 54e).” Thus, the man equated himself with the book, and ever since, the book has been equate with this saintly man. So the book like the man came to be known affectionately as Narek.

Prayer 41

A Son of the living God, blessed in all things,1
whose awesome birth by your Father passes
all understanding,
for whom nothing is impossible,2
before the dawning of the uneclipsed rays of the mercy of your glory
sins melt away, demons flee, transgressions are erased,
bindings are cut and chains undone.
The dead are born again, infirmities are cured,
wounds are healed, corruption is cleansed,
sadness withdraws, sighs retreat,
darkness flees, fog departs,
twilight vanishes, darkness lifts, the night passes,
alarm is banished, evil is destroyed, despair is exiled.
And your omnipotent hand rules, redeemer of all.

B You who came not to destroy our mortal souls, but to give them life,3
forgive my countless wrongs with your abundant mercy.
For you alone are in heaven beyond words, and on earth beyond understanding,
in the substance of existence unto the ends of the earth,
the beginning of everything and the completion of
everything in all ways, blessed in the highest.
Glory forever to you
with the Father and the Holy Spirit.
Amen.

1. Mt 16,16.
2. Lc 1,37, Gn 18,14.
3. Lc 9,56.

From
https://www.stgregoryofnarek.am