Speaking with God from the Depths of the Heart

A

Glorified God in heaven,
sole creator, lord of all,
awesome majesty,
compassion worthy of blessing,
mercy worthy of proclamation,
providence worthy of worship,
love of humankind worthy of celebration,
protection worthy of adoration,
exalted beyond understanding,
close to us by your choice,
unfailing refuge,
you comfort our hearts,¹
you make our grief disappear and reassure us
in our pain,
you end our despair and wipe away our debts,
you remedy our shortcomings, discipline our passions, and shape our words,
you rein in our tongues, regulate our breathing, and
control our speech,
you bring our thoughts together, discipline our will, and settle our emotions,
you calm storms and restore tranquility to the waves,
you hold the rudder of my impulsive will
and taming it with your wisdom,
you guide me back to you.
B

O ever exalted giver of gifts,
you are forbearing with lowly gentleness,
dwelling with fervor and untold miracles in the souls of the saints.²
O king of all beings, merciful one proclaimed by
the universe,
you are our forefather and originator of
the law of love.³
O path of life,⁴
you sweetly lead me, a learner, toward your
heavenly light.
O most steady outstretched hand,
you do not let me stumble to my destruction.
O image of hope,
you appear before praying human hands as
that truthful hope.
O refuge of peace,
you never lead us to the risk of condemnation.
O bestower of free grace,
you redeem us fully without compensation.
O generosity that knows no jealousy,
you adorn with your glory the base earth of
which I am made.
O brilliance without shadows,
who engulfs me, a miserable wretch, in the
radiance of your awesome majesty,
restore and make me flourish again.
O pardoner of our multiple sins,⁵
rekindling the former brilliance of those
deprived of salvation,
remake their splendor.
O Almighty,
you make it possible to reach the infinite heights.
O certain path,
you lead us toward the promised joy.
O yearned for bliss,
it is pleasing to give up the breath of life,
that I might find you, Living God.⁶
O unwavering will,
who is able to pardon me, a slave,
you deserve all praise.
O unerring balm of life,
who performs miracles even over those
completely without life.⁷
O undoubted creator of all,
who resurrects in the blink of an eye,⁸
those consumed by fire, blown to the winds,
or devoured in the jaws of beasts,
back into their undiminished physical being.
O brave nobility without equal,
in whom it is right to boast and
in whose glory we can bask.⁹

C

Look, Lord, from heaven, with cheerful sweetness
upon me, imperiled on all sides by destruction.
Calm my anxious sobbing.
Grant the ease of repose.
The deadly armies are mounted against me:
battalions of violent warriors armed with
all manner of demonic devices,
the barrage of ugly sins hateful to you,
the strokes of pain and destructive disease.
Repel them, take them away, cut them off, stop them,
drive them out, banishing them to a distant place, never to return.
Destroy them yet again
and erect the sign of your cross
as a destiny of life and beacon at my death
guiding me to your refuge,
O Salvation.

D

And through the invincible, infallible and irresistible
power of your awesome majesty,
may the secret snares of Satan be undone,
may his tools be snatched away and the
stumbling blocks removed,
may his traps be foiled,
may his ambush be discovered,
may his treachery be revealed,
may his nets be lifted away,
may his weeds be burned,¹⁰
may the wicked spells be cast out,
may the deceptive ropes of the hunter of death be cut,
may the liar's gossip be confounded.
may the troublemaker's weapons run out,
may the swords fall from the hands of the
bearer of death,
may the attacker's preparations be scuttled,
may the ropes of the tormentor come undone,
may the false appearances of the hypocrites
be unmasked,
may the heavy-handedness of the haughty be banned,
may the bands of marauders be dispersed,
may the hordes of thieves be banished,
may the masses of barbarians be expelled,
may the fortresses of the rebels be demolished,
may the tempests of the boastful be checked,
may the rainstorms of the tempter be dispelled,
may the frost of the divider evaporate,
may the horns of the wicked be broken,¹¹
may the pedestals of idols collapse,
may the bragging of the proud be shattered,
may the aggressors' confrontations be repulsed,
may the troops of Belial be destroyed -
both spiritual and physical,
may the invaders from one route be set to flight
in seven directions,¹²
may they fall into the pit they have dug for me,¹³
may the winters of discontent turn to summer,
may the ties that bind me to the tireless outlaw be cut,
may the kiss of the flatterer upon my forehead revolt me,
may the barrage of arrows from my tormentor cease,
may the boat of the trickster always be rocky,
may the teeth of the biter be ripped from their roots.

E

Through the blessed wood of life,
upon which you were bound,
incomprehensible God,
by the memory of those nails,
with which you were spread upon the instrument of death, creator of heaven and earth,
by your lordly blood, by which, as with a fishhook, you caught the great serpent,¹⁴
by the bitterness of the bile,
which you drank, pouring out the deadly
potion of the destroyer,
by the blessed recounting of your horrible torment,
through which you shamed and silenced
the impudence of the opponent,
by your name that cannot be understood or explained in any way, before which the natures of the visible and invisible, tremble with fear and awesome terror and are condemned,
may all these gifts of grace
be for me, who proclaim them,
protection, cure and pardon.

And for the serpent that brought the bitter
poison of death,¹⁵
by whom the universe was betrayed into evil,
may these bring the death for him.
May he be bound and taken captive,
subjected to the stroke of incurable torture.

May your mercy, O creator, toward me,
and the breath of my soul toward you,
be united inseparably as one.

F

And let whoever may read these requests
and supplications
of the voice calling out in prayer,
with the love of God,
whether old or young,
girl, boy or maid servant,¹⁶
may all equally receive, without distinction,
from you a portion of the blessing of forgiveness of sin,
and be restored to their former spotless purity,
sealed with your unchanging image.
You who are almighty, powerful, beyond telling,
beyond understanding, beyond comprehension,
look upon the cries of the sighing heart,
offered to you from the lips of all,
for your Father in heaven and doer of good,
for the Holy Spirit, co-equal in glory and giver of life,
through the intercession of your Mother of God,
and the prayers of all the saints.

For you created everything
and from you all things came into being,¹⁷
and you rule over all,
and to you is befitting glory from all creation.
You, one of the very essence of the timeless trinity,
infinitely glorified together,
forever and ever.
Amen.