Life’s lessons: Beatitudes



Prayers that St. Ephraim the Syrian offered up to God.


Prayer of St. Ephraim the Syrian 

O Lord and Master of my life, take from me the spirit of sloth, despondency, lust for power and idle talk. (full prostration) But grant unto me, Your servant, a spirit of chastity, humility, patience and love. (full prostration) Thus, O Lord and King, grant me to see my own faults and not to judge my brothers and sisters. For You are blessed unto the ages of ages. Amen. (full prostration) O God, cleanse me, a sinner (12 times, with bows from the waist) (Read the entire prayer through once more from the beginning, followed by a full prostration)

22 Life’s lessons: Beatitudes


Blessed is the man who has the fear of God in him, for the Holy Spirit calls him blessed, saying: blessed is the man who fears the Lord. 

Blessed is the man who has the love of God in him, for he bears God in himself. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God. 

Blessed is he who has attained endurance, for a long-suffering man is great in understanding. 

Blessed is he who is a stranger to anger and irritability, for anger does not beget a man of God's truth. 

Blessed is he who has loved meekness, according to the Lord's word: blessed are the meek. 

Blessed is he who has attained true obedience, for such a man imitates the Lord our Savior, Who was obedient even unto death. 

Blessed is he who is a stranger to envy and rivalry, for it was by envy that death came into the world. 

Blessed is he who does not defile his tongue with slander, for the heart of a slanderer is full of all manner of defilement. 

Blessed is he who has attained abstinence, for this one virtue is a buttress for all the rest. 

Blessed is he who is charitable to the poor, for he will find many to defend him at the judgement. 

Blessed is he who leads an exalted life yet maintains an humble persuasion: he imitates Christ and with Him he shall sit in glory.

Blessed is he who forces himself to perform all manner of good deeds, for the forceful shall capture the kingdom of heaven. 

Blessed is he who walks the straight path, for he will enter heaven bearing a crown. 

Blessed are all these, for they shall stand boldly before the Judge and receive a holy reward from His hands.


Prayer of Saint Ephrem the Syrian


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