The Ecumenical Christian Church U.K.

Common Prayers

The members of the Christian Church have always prayed since its origin. Often the prayers were extempore, but from time to time a really fine expression of prayer was formalized, and as the Church’s liturgies came to be generally used so the usage of extemporary prayer tended to dwindle in favour of what were seen as ‘the prayers of the Church’. The fashion for the extempore prayer only began again with the Reformation, when the prayers of ‘the Church’ were associated with Roman Catholic belief in the north and west of Europe. But there is much to be said for a formal and approved type of prayer which, in the right place and circumstance is of great spiritual value and help to many. Take, for instance, the Lord’s Prayer.

How often it is said at large gathering, in times of fear and terror, and in times of danger, bringing with it, even to the supposed unbeliever, a feeling of calm and sustaining care. However, because they are so well known and so frequently said, such prayers are very often slipped out by mouth, or even in thought, by rote without any real thought or appreciation. It is my hope that this short series on some of the most common such prayers, often from the Liturgies of the Churches (where, it has to be said, the mind often wanders from attention as the words, so well known, are mouthed) will enable us to think more deeply of what we are saying.

We will begin with one of my favourites (because this is, after all, a personal view) and that is the Kyrie eleison.

This simple two word prayer is a mighty power for the seeker of God. It is from the Greek of the original Great Church, long before the split between Roman and Orthodox occurred, when the language of Christianity was Greek. Not classical Greek – the Christians were much too humble to aspire to that - but Koine Greek, the language of the people, and of the whole Roman Empire.

Because it comes to us from those far off times it seems to me a pity to use a translation or even to drop it altogether as seems to be the way of modern liturgy. After all it’s only two simple words, easily remembered, spoken, and understood.

So let us look into it. The first word Kyrie ( pron; Key ree ay) is usually translated as ‘Lord’. Lord is a common word of address to God but what does it mean.? Originally it referred to ones feudal superior (and officially still does, though some of the more recently styled Lords make one wonder a bit!) so it has a very strong hierarchical flavour, which may not be quite what Jesus meant when he said ‘the first shall be last’ and ‘take the lowest seat’. 

Fortunately kyrie is also a demotic form of address to someone whose name you do not know, like our ‘Sir’, so we need not be distressed in its use on democratic grounds. It is a standard form of address even today to any man in Greece.

The second word eleison (pron; ay lay ee zon ) is usually translated ‘have mercy’, but this is because of our Augustinian hang-ups with sinfulness. The word comes from the same root as olive  - a well known Mediterranean comestible and healing plant, and the root word also implies healing and restoring massage – personal contact.

So what we are actually saying in this prayer is ‘ Hello sir, will you be good enough to heal me and restore me to health with your loving touch’ . Quite a mouthful for two words to carry.

However the value of those two words is that they can be easily used as a Mantram, a short phrase repeated over and over to concentrate the mind and repel unwanted thoughts.

 The use of this prayer in this way is fantastic, because it can be used anywhere and at any time, and it is not easy to lose track while saying it. And although it is deeply meaningful, because it is in a strange language in some way it strengthens  its effects, as has been shown by psychological studies of this and other short ‘meaningless’ mantras such as are used in  various meditation schools.Most of us know, or at least have heard of the ‘Jesus’ prayer ‘Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God have mercy on me a sinner’.  In Greek this is ‘ Κύριε Ἰησοῦ Χριστέ, Υἱέ τοῦ Θεοῦ, ἐλέησόν με τὸν ἁμαρτωλόν ‘ . The two words I have marked in red are the Kyrie eleison, so that we can say that this prayer is a short form of the Jesus Prayer.

In the Mass we also say ‘Christe eleison’. This is a much later Roman interpolation into the prayer in which it is repeated three times, to express the Trinitarian belief of Christianity, but simply because of Trinitarian theology it is not necessary to say the ‘Christe’ even in the triple repetition.  Jesus is there all the time! As are the Father and the Holy Spirit.