Prayer of St. Ephraim

The Orthodox pray the Prayer of St. Ephraim during Great Lent is normally added to either morning or evening prayers. The prayer is punctuated with prostrations.

Lenten Prayer of St. Ephraim

O Lord and Master of my life, take from me the spirit of sloth, despair, lust of power, and idle talk.

prostrate

But give rather the spirit of soberness, humility, patience, and love to Your servant.

prostrate

Yea, O Lord and King, grant me to see my own transgressions, and not to judge my brother, for You are blessed, unto ages of ages.

prostrate

Glory to You, O Christ our God and our Hope, glory to You.

sign the cross and bow

More Orthodox Prayers

Blog

Put Out Into the Deep: Christ Steps Into Our Boat

Fr. Geoff Harvey

September 27, 2026 10:00 AM

On the Sunday of the miraculous catch of fish, Fr. Geoff Harvey asks what a fishing boat, a temple and a human being have in common. Christ does not wait for our nets to be clean or our lives to be tidy — he climbs into the ordinary boat of our weary hearts, our homes and our work, and asks us to put out into the deep. Fr. Geoff draws out three things the Christian life asks of us: receive his presence, trust his word, and leave everything for his kingdom — closing with the urgency of the call to make the treasures of Orthodoxy available to Australians in English.

Take Up Your Cross: Giving Without Calculation

Daniel McInnes

September 20, 2026 10:00 AM

On the Sunday after the Elevation of the Cross, Daniel McInnes asks what it actually means to take up your cross and follow Christ. Our whole life — not just the Sunday part of it — is the cross we are given to bear, and bearing it well means giving to the people around us without calculating the cost or the return. Drawing on his work as a mathematician and on his days at the Defence Academy, he shows how the modern instinct to optimise everything fails in the places that matter most, and how even involuntary suffering trains us to give with our whole heart.

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