Praising and Glorifying

 

 

The prayer of praising and glorifying is the

most sacred type of prayer.

That’s because it is very special for God

alone, and far from all human requests.

In such prayer one praises God’s fine features

and glorifies Him for them.

And you can find many of those in David’s Psalms

where he says: “Sing to the LORD a new song”,

“Praise the LORD, all you Gentiles!”, “Sing to the

LORD, bless His name”, “Praise the LORD, O

Jerusalem!”, “Praise, O servants of the LORD”…

And sometimes the word “Bless” replaces the

word “Praise” and Prophet David, the praises singer,

says “Behold, bless the LORD, All you servants of the

LORD, Who by night stand in the house of the LORD!

Lift up your hands in the sanctuary, And bless the

LORD”.

One of the most famous praising prayers

that the bible mentions is:

The seraphim praise (Is 6), in which they say:

“Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; The whole

earth is full of His glory!". Here, there is no request at

all; and we have a similar one in our prayers, which is

the hymn of the Trisagion…

􀂙 It was also mentioned in the Revelation Book (Rev

15:2-4) that a group of heavenly people where

singing the words: “Great and marvelous are Your

works, Lord God Almighty! Just and true are Your

ways, O King of the saints! Who shall not fear

You, O Lord, and glorify Your name? For You

alone are holy. For all nations shall come and

worship before You, For Your judgments have

been manifested”… In all that there is no single

request. It is all praising and glorifying.

􀂙 Another example of it also is the Prophet David’s

saying: “Who is like You, O LORD, who is like

You? For there is none like You among all the

gods…!” Also the prayer by Solomon at the time

of consecrating the temple when he said: “LORD

God of Israel, there is no God in heaven above or

on earth below like You… Behold, heaven and the

heaven of heavens cannot contain You. How much

less this temple which I have built!” (1K 8:23,

27).

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In the prayer of praising and glorifying one

can meditate in the Lord’s greatness, the Lord’s

humility, the Lord’s love and the Lord’s strength

and ability..

Not only in that, but also in all God’s fine

characteristics.

A lot of the time we find most of the people, keep

asking for things as they pray. It is not a sin to ask

because the Lord himself said: “Ask and you shall be

given”. But it is a shame that all our prayers aim only

for asking the Lord for something and are free from

praising and glorifying the Lord for His loveable

characteristics.

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An example of meditating in God’s

Greatness, the prayer’s saying:

O Lord, who is higher than all, to whom heaven is

His throne and earth is His footstool. God who is

incomprehensible, immeasurable, almighty. God who

has all the knowledge, He who tests hearts and minds

and knows thoughts, He who knows all the hidden

and the manifest. You Lord are present everywhere,

you who fills all… You Lord who is the everlasting

alone, eternal, the creator of all…

We also in our prayers mention the Lord the

Pantocrator, the philanthropic…

And in the Holy Liturgy prayers we say:

“Before Whom stands the angels, the archangels, the

principalities, the authorities, the thrones, the

dominions and the powers” “You are He before whom

stands the Cherubim and the Seraphim, for whom six

wings for the one and six wings for the other”

“thousands of thousands and ten thousand times ten

thousands offer You service” “You, who are praised by

the invisible ones”.

In all that there is no request, and no shadow of

the human selfishness. It is recognition of God’s

greatness. And there are so many such prayers in the

Gregorian Holy Liturgy.

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In your prayers also you can meditate in

God’s humility:

You, O Lord, who allowed the dust and ashes to

talk to you. You who have ultimate greatness allowed

the dust to speak with You. And not only that, but

also allowed it to reproach You as You allowed our

father Abraham (Gn 18) and Prophet Moses (Gn 32).

􀂙 Even, Jeremiah the prophet said to you:

“Righteous are You, O LORD, when I plead with

You; Yet let me talk with You about Your

judgments. Why does the way of the wicked

prosper? Why are those happy who deal so

treacherously?” (Jr 12:1). Also Prophet David in

reproaching You said: “Why do You stand afar off,

O LORD? Why do You hide in times of trouble?”

(Ps 10:1)… These are words that no man can tell

to his human boss, who is still dust as he is.

􀂙 It is a great humility from You Lord to allow that

dust to talk to You even while he is in the state of

sinning and breaking your commandments! It is

even a humility from You that You have created

this human on Your image and on Your likeness

(Gn 1:26, 27).

􀂙 It is also humility from You that You gave

existence to creatures that never existed.

􀂙 We thank You, O Lord, for Your humility by

which You have incarnated.

􀂙 You have made Yourself of no reputation, taking

the form of a bondservant, and coming in the

likeness of men (Phil 2:7) all that because of Your

love and desire to save us.

􀂙 Your humility also was shown in Your crucifying

and Your act of redemption and allowing some

people to treat You in a way that does not go with

Your unlimited glory. And as we say in the

Gregorian Holy Liturgy “You gave Your back for

the thongs striking it and Your cheeks were left

for slapping.

10

You did not hide Your face from the shame of

spitting”!! And yet You did not allow fire to go

down from heaven to consume those deniers,

arrogant, violators…

􀂙 You Lord are humble, and if it was not for Your

humbleness we would have never been able to

talk to You.

􀂙 You Lord, are loving and You always give…

You continually give and give without us asking.

You even give more than what we ask for and

with generosity. We enjoy Your generosity… You,

the kind and tender God, the One caring for all.

Even for animals; You give them their strengths

and give food to the young ravens that cry to You.

You make Your sun rise on the evil and on the

good, send rain on the just and on the unjust and

satisfy all the living with Your favor.

You Lord granted us life and gave us care and

saving; You are the good shepherd who gives His

life for the sheep (Jn 10). You, redeemer; You,

savior; You, who looks for the lost sheep. You,

who rejoice for finding the lost coin. You, who

rejoice for the return of the sinner and his

repentance more than the ninety-nine righteous

men who do not need to repent! (Lk 15).

We thank You and praise Your name, O Lord,

You who forgive our sins.

You who erase our trespasses, You, who said that

You will no longer remember them. You, who allow

our sins to be washed to be whiter than snow. You, to

whom prophet David said: “You have not dealt with

us according to our sins, Nor punished us according to

our iniquities. But as far as the east is from the west,

So far have You removed our transgressions from

us.” (Ps 103).

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In our prayers we may as well meditate in

God’s power and ability.

We may say to Him: we praise you, O Lord, who

are powerful, You, who are the source of every

power, You, who have no limits for His ability, You,

who do wonders alone.

You, O Father, who dwell between the cherubim,

You, who walk on the wings of the wind. You, who go

about doing good, healing all kinds of sickness and all

kinds of disease among the people.

􀂙 We never forget Your benefits given to us…

􀂙 As we pray and say in the Psalm: “Bless the

LORD, O my soul; And all that is within me, bless

His holy name! Bless the LORD, O my soul, And

forget not all His benefits: Who forgives all your

iniquities, Who heals all your diseases, Who

redeems your life from destruction, Who crowns

you with lovingkindness and tender mercies, Who

satisfies your mouth with good things, So that

your youth is renewed like the eagle's…” (Ps 103).

􀂙 We praise You Lord, the powerful God, who let

manna and quails fall from the sky, broke open

the rock and gave water and sent Your angels to

rescue and make miracles.

􀂙 You who granted some of this power to your

apostles and saints. And gave us humans from

Your love abundance and Your strength

abundance. You gave us the Holy Spirit to dwell in

us. And gave is the Spirit gifts and how many

they are (1 Co 12)…

􀂙 We thank You, O Lord, who saved Daniel from the

den of lions, saved the three young men from the

fiery furnace, got the prophet Jonah alive out of

the fish’s belly, showed your benefits to all your

righteous men over all ages and kept safe

ascetics, anchorites and hermits in wildernesses

and deserts, rescued them from beasts and

livestock and sent them their food like You sent

food to prophet Elijah on the Carmel mountain.

We, O Lord, never forget Your lovingkindnesses,

that renew generation by generation and they are

new for us every morning…

􀂙 We praise you, O King of Kings, Lord of Lords and

Master of Masters. You, to whom the whole

universe subjects under Your power, O Strong

God…

􀂙 We praise You, whom life and death are in His

Hands, You, the source of life and the granter of

it, You who grant rising of the dead… You, the

source of every blessing.

􀂙 You, who have kingdom, strength, glory, blessing,

majesty, power before all ages and forever… You,

who has an eternal kingdom…

􀂙 You who will come back to judge the living

and the dead… You will come in Your glory, with

Your holy angels, and You will sit on Your throne

of glory, gather all people and separate the

wicked from among the just… And You will open

before them all the books and reveal all the

secrets, say to everyone “I know your works” and

reward everyone according to his deeds…

O Lord, who has prepared for us the heavenly

Jerusalem the tabernacle of God with men (Rev

21) with all its beauty, purity and happiness

dwelling inside.

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We praise you, O heavenly Father, who

never treated us as slaves but rather as sons.

And said: “No longer do I call you servants, but I

have called you friends” you even called us brothers…

We, Lord, raise our prayers to You. May our

petitions come before You. Receive them to You as

Your great mercies, as a real father who is passionate

with his children…

You, O Father, who have inscribed us on the

palms of His hands, and promised us safety…

We pray to You as a father, You who said: If a

mother forgets her nursing child, I will never forget

you…

We have tried Your love in the past, and we still

enjoy Your love in the present, and we will enjoy it in

the future… In you tender loving heart that has place

for all and is open for all…

You, the good shepherd, who said: ““I will feed

My flock, and I will make them lie down," says the

Lord GOD. “I will seek what was lost and bring back

what was driven away, bind up the broken and

strengthen what was sick… and feed them in

judgment.”” (Ez 34)… Yes, You will feed them in

green pastures and lead them to still waters…

We are the sheep of Your flock. We have got used

to the fact that you never leave us in need for any of

your passionate deeds, You, who is generous in Your

giving.

We praise You, O healing physician, You,

who said: Those who are well have no need of a

physician, but those who are sick… You who said

“I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to

repentance”… We stand in Your hands, asking for the

cure on Your hands…

You, O righteous God, You are the righteous

alone, the holy alone. You are the one who wants us

to be holy like You are… You know our nature. We ask

You to help our weakness and grant us Your grace…