The Prayer of Saint Mark of Ephesus for Divine Mercy and Repentance

Saint Mark was a man of prayer. Spontaneous prayers, supplications, and entreaties are often interwoven in his writings.

Here we will present the prayer he addressed to the Lord before departing for Italy, in which he begs the Lord to grant him repentance.

The prayer is as follows:

 

I, slothful even toward virtue and tyrannized by the assaults of the passions—what shall I do, O long-suffering Lord?

Shall I fall away from so great a gift of Thine, and shall the mystery of Thy gracious good pleasure be delayed in me?

May it not be so, O compassionate and man-loving God.

May I not be abandoned by Thee; may I not become a portion for the evil one unto perdition. But being entreated by the labors of Thy saints who have gone before, and receiving the intercessions of the holy angels—especially those of their sovereign, our Lady the Theotokos—grant me to direct my path toward Thee, not demanding of me the worthy fruit of repentance, but that which is possible.

Cast into my hardened heart Thy fear, and through it, purify and soften my whole being to compunction unto love.

And when my body departs, grant me rest in the tabernacles of Thy saints, and vouchsafe that I may be filled with eternal glory and divine vision, for blessed art Thou unto the ages. Amen.

 

(To be read every night by the faithful, after the Supplicatory Canon to Saint Mark, or after Compline and the Salutations to the Most Holy Theotokos, whom Saint Mark especially revered and in whose honor he composed eight Supplicatory Canons).

 

Greek source: https://apotixisi.blogspot.com/2025/01/blog-post_37.html