Prayer (Ephemeris 3)

Almighty, known to me by the worship of the mind alone, unknown to the wicked, and to none of the devout unknown, without beginning or end, older than all time that has been or will come; whose form and measure neither mind can grasp nor tongue declare; whom he alone may see, and hear face to face as you command, who has the right, and sits beside his Father’s right hand: he himself the maker of things, himself the cause of things’ creation, he himself the Word of God, the Word who is God, who went before the world he was to make; begotten in that time when there was not yet time; brought forth before the sun’s radiance and the ruddy Morning Star lit up the sky; without whom nothing was done; through whom all things were made; whose throne is in heaven; to whom, as he sits, the earth is subject, and the sea, and the unconquerable chaos of dark night; never resting, himself moving all things, quickener of what is inert; God from an unbegotten Begetter, who, offended by the deceit of a proud people, called the nations into the kingdom, to be worshipped by the better offspring of an adopted stock; whom our forefathers were allowed to see; and, his divinity seen, it was given them to have seen the Father too; who bore our contagions, and, having suffered the mockery of a dreadful death, taught that there is a way back to eternal life:

and that not the soul alone returns, but with the whole body enters the regions of heaven, and leaves the empty secret of the tomb closed over in the abandoned earth. Son of the highest Father, bringer of salvation to our age, to whom the Begetter handed on all his Father’s powers, holding nothing back from envy, and you are full of what was given, open the way for my prayers, and carry them to your Father’s ears. Grant, Father, a mind unconquered against all sins, and turn away the viper’s wickedness and its harmful venom. Let it be enough that the serpent destroyed Eve of old and joined deceived Adam to her: may we, the late seed of their descendants, the age foretold by truth-telling prophets, avoid the snares that the death-bringing snake entwines. Open the way that, after the bonds of the sick body, may carry me on high, where the milky path of the pure sky rises above the wandering clouds of the windy Moon, where the devout patriarchs departed, and where once, whole, caught up in a four-horse chariot, Elijah passed above the ether, and Enoch, who went before with his solid body. Grant, Father, the hoped-for breath of eternal light:

if I do not swear by stones as gods, and, looking up to the one altar of reverent sacrifice, I bring as offerings an unstained life; if I know you as the Father of the Lord and God, the Only-begotten, and him who was sent by the Two, the Spirit who hovered over the waters of the sea: grant, Begetter, pardon, and cleanse my tormented breast; if I seek you not in the entrails of cattle, not in blood poured out, nor guess at your divine will beneath hidden innards; if I keep from crime, though liable to error, and if I wish rather than trust to be proved good and pure: deign to accept a soul that confesses; if I loathe my perishing limbs, and silently repent, and deep dread tortures my senses and anticipates the late torments of Gehenna, and my wounded mind suffers its own ghosts: grant, Father, that these vows be made good by our prayer. May I fear nothing, desire nothing, and think this enough, what is enough. May I wish nothing shameful, nor be a cause of shame to myself. May I not do to anyone what at that same time I would not want done to me. May I not be harmed by a true charge, nor stained by a doubtful one. Little, it seems, separates the suspect and the truly guilty. Let me have no means of doing harm, but let a calm power of doing good be present. May I live on slender food and dress. May I be dear to friends,

and always a father, without wound to this name; may I not grieve in mind or in body; may all my limbs perform their quiet offices; nor, injured in any part, may my use of them miss anything lost. May I enjoy peace. May I live secure. May I think none of the earth’s wonders great. When my last hour comes, may a life of good conscience neither fear death nor wish for it. When by your indulgence I shall be seen pure of hidden faults, I shall despise all things, since my only pleasure will be to hope for your judgment. While it puts off its times, and the day delays, drive far away the savage ambusher, the snake with his alluring errors. These devout vows, though trembling with sorrowful guilt, Christ, you who can appease, plead for them before the eternal Father, Saviour, God, and Lord, Mind, Glory, Word, Son, true from true, light from light, abiding with the eternal Father, reigning for ever; whom the harmonious songs of David’s measured strains celebrate, as the air is struck with voices about to answer: Amen.