Prayer For Knowledge Of God And Love For Him

by St. Isaac the Syrian

“Make me worthy, O Lord, to know and love Thee, not with knowledge from the exercise of a scattered nous; but make me worthy of that knowledge whereby, beholding Thee, the nous glorifies Thy nature, in divine vision which robs the mind of awareness of the world. Account me worthy to be lifted above my will’s wandering eye which begets imaginings, and to behold Thee in the constraint of the Cross’s bond, in the second part of the crucifixion of the nous, which willingly ceases from its conceptual imaginings to abide in Thy continuous vision that surpasses nature. Implant in my heart an increase of Thy love, that it may be drawn back from this world by fervent love for Thee. Awake in me understanding of Thy humility, wherewith Thou didst sojourn in the world in the covering of flesh which Thou didst bear from our members by the mediation of the Holy Virgin, that with this continual and unfailing recollection I may accept the humility of my nature with delight.”

Hom.36 (Gk.),Hom.16 (Eng.)

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