Like a healing source/ we flow to you, Ambrose, our father./ You faithfully instruct us on the path of salvation,/ with your prayers you protect us from troubles and misfortunes,/ in physical and mental sorrows comfort,/ and above all, teach humility, patience and love./ Pray to the Lover of Mankind/ and the zealous Intercessor// to save our souls.
Having fulfilled the covenant of the Shepherd/ Eldership, you inherited grace,/ your heart aching for all who flow to you with faith,/ and we, your children, cry out to you with love:/ Holy Father Ambrose, // pray to Christ God to save our souls.
Oh, great elder and saint of God, like our Father Ambrose, praise to the Optina and all Russia teacher of piety! We glorify your humble life in Christ, in which God has exalted your name while you were still on earth, especially crowning you with Heavenly honor after your departure to the palace of glory eternal. Accept now the prayer of us, your unworthy children (names), who honor you and call on your holy name. Deliver us by your intercession before the Throne of God from all sorrowful circumstances, mental and physical ailments, evil misfortunes, harmful and evil temptations. From the Great God, bring peace, silence and prosperity to our fatherland. Be the immutable patron of this holy monastery, where you yourself labored in success and pleased everyone in the Trinity to our glorious God. To Him belongs all glory, honor and worship, to the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, now and ever and unto the ages of ages. Amen.
Oh, our reverend and God-bearing Father Ambrose! Desiring to work for the Lord, you settled here, and you labored without laziness in labor, vigils, prayers and fasting, and you were a mentor to monastics, and a teacher to all people zealous. Now, after your departure from the earthly, before the Heavenly King, pray to His goodness to bless the place of your settlement, this holy abode, where with the spirit of love Your constant abiding, and all your people, with faith in the race of your relics who fall, fulfill their requests for good. Ask our merciful Lord to grant us an abundance of heavenly and earthly blessings, especially those for the benefit of our souls, and let us end this life in repentance. May He be worthy, and on the Day of Judgment will He be worthy of standing and enjoying His Kingdom forever and ever. Amen.
Oh, all-honorable elder than the glorious and wondrous Optina Desert, our venerable and God-bearing Father Ambrose, our Church is a good adornment and a gracious lamp, the heavenly light of all Illuminate, red and spiritual fruit of Russia and all the sunflowers, abundantly delight and amuse the souls of the faithful! Now, with faith and trembling, we fall before the celibate reliquary of your holy relics, which you have mercifully granted for consolation and help to the suffering, we humbly pray to you heart and lips, holy father, as the All-Russian mentor and teacher of piety, shepherd and doctor of our mental and physical ailments: look at your children who sin grievously in words and business and visit us with much and your holy love, which you gloriously succeeded in the days of earth, and especially after your righteous death, instructing in the rules of the saints and God-enlightened fathers, admonishing us in the commandments of Christ, were jealous of the least good until the last hour of your difficult monastic life; ask us, weak in soul and distressed in sorrow, a favorable and saving time for repentance, true correction and renewal of our life, in which we, sinners, are in vain mind and heart, indulging in inordinate and fierce passions, vice and lawlessness, of which there is no number; Take therefore, keep us and cover us with your blood, your many mercy, send us a blessing from the Lord, so that we may bear the good yoke of Christ in long-suffering until the end of our days, looking forward to the future life and the Kingdom, where there is no sorrow or sighing, but life and endless joy, abundantly flowing from the One, All-Holy and Blessed Source of immortality in the Trinity of the worshiped God the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit, now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen.
Memorial Day October 10/23
God-wise mentor, comforter and prayer book for Russia, St. Ambrose truly became the crown and decoration of the Optina eldership. Almost all of Orthodox Russia flocked to the door of his wretched cell for advice and consolation. Elder Ambrose became famous for his insight, the gift of healing bodily ailments and healing spiritual wounds. They pray to him for help in various everyday needs, for healing in illnesses, for the firm standing of the Russian people in the paternal faith, for good morals and the Christian upbringing of children.
*Minea is additional. October 10th.
** Optina Patericon. Applications. Prayers.