SO GOOD QUOTES

12. LET MY PRAYER COME BEFORE YOU

Behold, O Lord, I cry out to You from the depth of my heart. I bellow out to You as a child calling tearfully to his father, his aid. Likewise, I cry out to You, O compassionate one, O Omnipotent. It is a cry for help, a cry of faith, of hope, and of need—an adamant cry. This reminds me of the Egyptian poet, who in one of his poems explained the force of this cry:

“My voice is like the cry of one sinking, hollering out to a lifeboat. He cries, cries, cries, he cries out all he can—for his life.” It is a scream, not just a cry. A cry that attracts Your gentleness, O Lord.

I cry out to You, O Lord, for You to hear my prayer, for my prayer to come before You, for You to accept it, despite my sins and unworthiness, although I sense the familiarity between us is absent. All I want is for my prayer to reach You; I leave the rest to Your love-You who do not treat me according to my sins, but according to Your mercy. We know that requests reach You, even if we do not pray, as You preceded and said, “I have surely seen the oppression of My people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows. So I have come down to deliver them” (Ex 3:7-8). All this and they had not prayed yet!

“Lord, hear my voice!” (Ps 130:2). Help me feel that You have received my prayer, took note of it, and that my cry has reached Your ear; this is sufficient for me.

I pray, for You to hear my prayers; I will persist in prayer until I am certain. I am confident once You hear my prayer, You will act. For Your name’s sake, I await Your salvation. I wait until I receive Your aid, and until I earn Your forgiveness. What is this name on which I waited? Your name: the Savior. Of You, the angel of annunciation said: “And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins” (Mt 1:21). The word Jesus means Savior.H.H.

—H.H. Pope Shenouda III, Dialogue with the Divine