Lord, I don’t know what to ask of You. You alone know what I need. You love me more than I can love myself.
Father, give to Your servant what I myself cannot ask for. I do not dare to ask for either the cross or consolation: I only stand before You. My heart is open to you; You see needs that I don’t know. See and create according to Your mercy. Strike and heal, bring me down and raise me up. I am in awe and silent before Your holy will and Your destinies, incomprehensible to me.
I offer myself as a sacrifice to You. I have no other desire than the desire to do Your will. Teach me to pray. Pray in me yourself! Amen.
***
On June 16, 1849, the seven-year-old daughter of the heir to the throne, the future Emperor Alexander II, Grand Duchess Alexandra Alexandrovna, died. They turned to Saint Philaret with a request to indicate some kind of prayer with which the inconsolable mother could strengthen herself.
The prayer sent to the empress later became known as the “Daily Prayer of Metropolitan Philaret,” and under this name it was repeatedly republished both before the revolution and in our days.
Meanwhile, its text does not belong to the saint at all. The prayer is a translation of Fenelon’s meditation on the text of the Gospel of Luke “Lord, teach us to pray...” (Luke 11:1)… Read more…
* Orthodox prayer book. - M.: Publishing house of the Moscow Compound of the Holy Trinity Sergius Lavra, 2012. - 768 p.