Prayer by St. Ignatius Brianchaninov

 

O Lord! Grant us to see our transgressions so that our intellect would be completely drawn to attention to our own sins and stop seeing the sins of our neighbours and, in this way, we would see all our neighbours as good. Grant our hearts to abandon the ruinous attention to the failings of our neighbours, to unite all of our attention to the acquisition of purity and holiness commanded and prepared by You. Grant us to once again whiten our desecrated spiritual garments: they were already cleansed in the waters of baptism, and now they need, after being desecrated, cleansing with tears. Grant us to see, in the light of Your Grace, the multifarious ailments in us that are destroying the heart's spiritual movements and introducing into it carnal movements that are in enmity to the Kingdom of God. Grant us the great gift of repentance that precedes and gives birth to the great gift of seeing one's sins. Protect us with these great gifts from the chasms of self-delusion that open up in the soul from not taking notice of and not understanding the sinfulness of self-delusion, which is born from not taking notice of and not understanding voluptuousness and vanity. Keep us on the path to You with these great gifts and grant us to reach You, Who calls confessing sinners and those that refuse to call themselves righteous, and to eternally praise You in eternal blessedness, the One True God, the Redeemer of captives, the Saviour of the lost. Amen. St. Ignatius Brianchaninov

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