A Prayer to Saint John Chrysostom
By St. Justin Popovich
By St. Justin Popovich
O MOST ELOQUENT supplicant of God among the human race, Holy Father John Chrysostom, behold, we come to you with our stammering prayers. Do not reject us, for in every stammered prayer of ours, behold, is our whole heart, behold, our sighs, behold, our cries! We pray to you, most great Saint: mercifully descend from your heights above the heavens into our poisonous lowlands, and heal us of every ailment of the soul, so that, with healthy souls, we may zealously serve your Lord and ours. Heal us also of every bodily ailment, if this is for our salvation, so that, with a healthy soul in a healthy body, we may strive in ascetic struggle and, with your all-powerful help, fight for the salvation of our soul; fight for the resurrection of our conscience from the dead; fight for the transformation of our sin-loving heart; fight for the deification of our devil-enslaved will, so that our will, guided by you, may desire and wish only what is Christ's, what is gospel, what is heavenly, what is eternal.
O most wondrous Saint of God, your holy relics are far from us, but through your love for Christ you are wholly beside the Lord Christ, and through your love for mankind you are wholly beside us. Therefore, we beseech you with all our heart: descend to us through your love, and set our souls ablaze with the fire of your love for Christ, so that they may burn forever with your love for Christ in both worlds, burn and never be consumed; and grant us your holy love for mankind, so that we too may love one another, and all earthly and heavenly creation, with holy love alone. O holy golden-tongued Evangelist, fifth Evangelist, we pray to you and implore you: guide and direct our souls by your holy gospel, and lead us onto the path that, through eternal Truth, leads to eternal Life. Our mind, sick and diseased, clouded and darkened by impure thoughts, evil thoughts, and sin-loving passions, mercifully heal, enlighten, and transform into the mind of Christ, just as you, while still living on earth, transformed your own mind into the mind of Christ through your holy ascetic struggles, and therefore explained to us more eloquently than all other men the wondrous mysteries of Christ, sown and spread throughout all God's creations, visible and invisible.
O our Christ-longing and Christ-empowered Father Chrysostom, throughout the ages and generations you have raised countless human souls from the dead through your holy books and your holy prayers. Raise our souls from the dead also through your holy instructions and your holy prayers, for, guided and directed by you, we shall be able to overcome every spiritual death that arises within us from our inward love of sin, or assails us from everything external. O, we know, we know, most holy heavenly Spiritual Father, that you are stronger than every death. We pray to you: make us conquerors of every death by first making us conquerors of every sin and every passion, for sins and passions are the sole bearers, forerunners, seed-sources, and causes of all spiritual deaths. Therefore, whether we wish it or not, in your boundless compassion, always destroy them within us, and thus secure for us victory over every death, so that even in this world we may live joyfully through the resurrectional grace of the risen Lord, which flows abundantly from you upon all who call upon you for help with all their heart.
O all-merciful and all-victorious Father Chrysostom, have mercy on me: descend from heaven into the abysses of my soul, into my dens of wild beasts, for every passion is a fierce beast, and my soul is full of spiritual beasts. O, descend among my wild lions and transform them into lambs! O, descend among my bloodthirsty wolves, thirsty for souls, and transform them into sheep. Hasten to my aid, for my raging beasts—my passions, ever hungry for my soul—will tear me apart.
O unsurpassed golden-tongued herald of the Good News, bring the Good News to me, a great sinner: descend into my frozen places with your tidings radiant with three suns, melt them, and warm me with heavenly warmth. My slothfulness—behold, this is my first frozen place; in it everything that draws me toward God, toward heaven, freezes. I beseech you, descend into it, warm my whole being, and raise me toward heaven, toward the Lord! My idleness—behold, this is my second frozen place, most holy Father and my divinely wise spiritual guide. Descend into it; all my thoughts have frozen, all my feelings, and through carelessness and idleness I am dying in the frost, without the sun. I beseech you, enter my soul, my frozen place, with the sun of your zeal, and warm me for faith, for zeal, for Truth, and for every virtue. Enter and melt my frozen places with the fire of your faith, your love, and your compassion. And thus raise me ever higher toward heaven, toward heaven, toward heaven, toward your wondrous Lord and mine! For although through my sins I have wandered far from the Lord, and the devil drives me through the wilderness of my foolish desires, nevertheless I believe that the all-good Lord will hear the holy prayers of His most beloved servant on behalf of me, a sinner, and by His wondrous mercy will return me to heaven, to Himself, to His heavenly Kingdom.
For although I have fallen many times, I have not fallen away from the Lord, for I hold fast to Him, if only through a sigh, if only through a tear, if only through a cry.
O all-merciful Father John Chrysostom, have compassion on me, the greatest of sinners: receive me forever into your holy prayers! Forgive me and help me, a great sinner! Raise me up, fallen and ruined as I am! Obtain for me the forgiveness of my sins! Heal my soul of all passions! Heal my mind of all illnesses! Heal my will of all weaknesses! Enclose me with your holy prayers as with a fiery armor, so that no passion may thrust me into spiritual death! Establish my mind in your Christ-mindedness! Establish my heart in your Christ-feeling! Free me, who am full of passions, from all passions through the help of holy virtues! Make me worthy to feel through you, think through you, will through you, act through you, believe through you, love through you, live through you, and become immortal through you! Fill me with love for Christ through your love for Christ! Grant me humility and patience! Pray within me, for me, and in my place! Transform me for salvation, for becoming Christ-like, for deification! Make me Christ-like, me who have been made devil-like! Make me compassionate, me who am insensitive and without compassion! Make me wholly virtuous, me who am full of vice! Always guide my soul! Always guide my will! Always guide my conscience! Always guide my thoughts! Always guide my feelings! Always guide my life, both in this world and in the world to come!—so that I too, the greatest of sinners, together with you, O Christ-loving Father Chrysostom, may unceasingly glorify our wondrous and incomparable Lord and God and Savior Jesus Christ, to whom belong all glory, honor, and worship, now and ever and unto all the ages. Amen! Amen! Amen!*
* This prayer was composed by the most-sinful Archimandrite Justin on the feast of Saint John the Merciful, November 12/25, 1960, at the Holy Monastery of Ćelije.
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
