The Liturgy of the Faithful
Prayer of Reconciliation
In the Basilian Prayer of Reconciliation we understand that God created man in incorruption. However while God created this to live forever, it is an extra blessing that was conditional on man's preservation of God's image. If this image is lost or this daughter, man becomes in danger of returning to death. Death entered because of Satan's envy towards humans, which was then destroyed through the Cross.
This Prayer of Reconciliation, as the rest of the Liturgy of Saint Basil, is addressed to God the Father. In this prayer, the celebrant prays for the reconciliation of one another as Christ reconciled man with God.
Priest· St Basil
O God, the Great and the Eternal, Who formed man in incorruption; and death which entered into the world by the envy of the devil, You have destroyed by the life-giving manifestation of Your Only-begotten Son, our Lord, God and Saviour, Jesus Christ.
You have filled the earth with the heavenly peace, for which the host of angels glorify You saying, “Glory to God in the highest, peace on earth, and good will towards men.”
We are reconciling with heaven, with people, and with oneself. A person who does not know how to reconcile with oneself cannot reconcile with others or with God.
Uniting and reconciling the heavenly with the earthly, the people with the peoples, and the soul with the body.
— Excerpt from the Syrian Fraction
Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation,
— 2 Corinthians 5:18
And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.
— Romans 5:11
If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also.
— 1 John 4:20-21
The Prayer of Reconciliation is always placed at the beginning. We declare forgiveness and seek forgiveness from one another, acting upon the teachings of our Lord.
It is not fitting to present only bread and wine to God, but a pure heart.
Therefore if you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar, and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.
— Matthew 5:23-24
And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.
— Romans 6:13
The Prayer of Reconciliation focuses on the story of human salvation through which our Lord reconciled us. During this prayer, the priest approaches the altar and prays with bare hands, like Adam who became naked in Paradise after sin. After reconciliation, he puts on two altar cloths on his hands because he has clothed himself with the precious salvation of our Lord Jesus Christ.
For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.
— Romans 5:10
that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.
— 2 Corinthians 5:19
Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God.
— 2 Corinthians 5:20
having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.
— Colossians 2:14
In this prayer we express the glory of God manifested in the salvation of humanity through incarnation and the cross, and also the peace of God that has come to the earth.
The Priest takes the cloth on top of the veil and holds it aloft while a Deacon opposite holds up a cross. Holding up the corporal symbolises the breaking of the seal on the door of the Saviour’s tomb at the time of His resurrection; the cross reminds us that reconciliation with God came through the Cross.
and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity.
— Ephesians 2:16
Priest· St Basil
According to Your good pleasure, O God, fill our hearts with Your peace. Purify us from all blemish, all guile, all hypocrisy, all malice and remembrance of evil entailing death.
Make us all worthy, O our Master, to greet one another with a holy kiss, that without falling into condemnation, we may partake of Your immortal and heavenly gift in Christ Jesus, our Lord.
Through Whom the glory, honour, dominion and worship are due unto You, with Him and the Holy Spirit, the Life-giver, Who is coessential with You, both now and always, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.
On feasts and other joyous occasions, the Priest may pray the Liturgy of Saint Gregory.
This prayer of reconciliation, as the rest of the Liturgy of Saint Gregory, is addressed to
God the Son. In this prayer, the Priest prays for the reconciliation of one another as Christ reconciled man with God.
Priest· St Gregory
O You Who are, Who have been and Who will be forever; eternal, coessential, co-enthroned and co-creator with the Father; Who out of Your goodness alone brought man into being out of nothing and placed him in the paradise of joy. And when he fell by the guile of the enemy and by disobedience of Your holy commandment, You desired to renew him and to restore him to his original state.
Neither an angel nor an archangel, patriarch nor prophet, did You entrust with our salvation. But You, without change, were incarnate and became man, and became like us in all things except sin alone.
You became our Mediator with the Father, and broke down the middle wall of separation, and destroyed the old enmity. You reconciled the earthly with the heavenly, and made the two one, and fulfilled the economy in the flesh. And at Your ascension into heaven in the body, filling all with Your Divinity, You said to Your holy disciples and pure apostles, “My peace I give to you, My peace I leave with you.”
This peace, grant us now, O our Master; and purify us from every blemish, and from all guile, hypocrisy, evil, malice and the remembrance of evil entailing death.
Make us all worthy, O our Master, to greet one another with a holy kiss, that without falling into condemnation, we may partake of Your immortal and heavenly gift, through Your grace and the good pleasure of Your good Father, and the work of Your Holy Spirit. For You are the provider and giver of all goodness.
Unto You we send up the glory, honour and worship, with Your good Father and the Holy Spirit, the Life-giver, Who is coessential with You, both now and always, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.
During seasons of fasting, particularly the Great Fast and the Fast of Nineveh, he may pray the Liturgy of Saint Cyril.
This Prayer of Reconciliation, as the rest of the Liturgy of Saint Cyril, is addressed to God the Father. In this prayer, the Priest prays for the reconciliation of one another as Christ reconciled man with God.
Priest· St Cyril
O Author of life and King of the ages; God, unto Whom every knee bows, of those in the heavens, those on the earth, and those under the earth; unto Whom all are subject by the bond of service, bowing to the sceptre of His kingdom; unto Whom the hosts of angels give glory together with the heavenly orders and all rational natures, with an unceasing voice, declaring His Divinity.
You have taken pleasure in us feeble people of the earth, that we should also serve You, not on account of the purity of our hands, for we have not done good upon the earth, but rather desiring to give us, poor and unworthy as we are, of Your purity.
Accept us, O good One and Lover of mankind, as we draw near to Your holy altar, according to the abundance of Your mercy. Make us worthy of the heavenly peace which befits Your Godhead and is full of salvation, that we may give the same to one another in perfect love, and greet one another with a holy kiss.
Not with disdainful thoughts, but with thoughts given to Your fear, free from guile and the wickedness of the traitor; so that our conscience is not bound up in wickedness, but with eagerness of our souls and joy of our hearts, for we have the great and perfect sign of the love of Your Only-begotten Son.
Do not cast out us, Your servants, because of the defilement of our sins, for You know, as our Creator, that no one born of woman shall be justified before You.
Therefore, make us worthy O our Master, with a pure heart and a soul full of Your grace, to stand before You and offer unto You this holy, rational, spiritual and bloodless sacrifice, for remission of our transgressions and forgiveness of the sins of Your people committed in ignorance, for You are a compassionate and merciful God.
Unto You we send up the glory, honour, dominion and worship O Father, Son and Holy Spirit; both now and always, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.
The Priest may instead say the Prayer of Reconciliation to the Father by the Thrice-blessed John, Bishop of Bostra.
Priest· St Cyril
O God of love and giver of the oneness of heart, and the provider of the oneness of mind in virtue; who has granted us the new commandment through Your Only-begotten Son, that we should love one another just as You have loved us, though unworthy and lost, and gave Your beloved Son for our life and our salvation.
We ask You, O our Lord, to grant us, Your servants, all the days of our life on earth and especially now, a mind that does not remember former evil deeds, a conscience without hypocrisy, sincere thoughts, and a heart full of brotherly love; that as we greet one another with a spiritual kiss, we may flee from any likeness of Judas the traitor.
And having been reconciled to one another in purity in the likeness of Your holy disciples and apostles, we are cleansed and sanctified through the mediation of Your Holy Spirit.
Through the grace, compassion, and love of mankind of Your Only-begotten Son, our Lord, God and Saviour Jesus Christ, through Whom the glory, honour, dominion and worship are due unto You, with Him and the Holy Spirit, the Life-giver, Who is coessential with You, both now and always, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.
The celebrant may instead say the prayer of reconciliation to the Son by Saint Severus, Patriarch of Antioch.
Priest· St Gregory
O Christ our God, the awesome and incomprehensible Power of God the Father, Who sits upon the flaming throne of the Cherubim, and Who is served by the fiery hosts; and You Yourself, being God, are a consuming fire.
Because of Your ineffable coming down and Your love for mankind, You did not destroy the guileful traitor when he drew near to You. Rather, You greeted him with a kiss of friendship, drawing him to repentance with the knowledge of his audacity.
Make us worthy also, O our Master, in this awesome hour, with one mind and without the least trace of hypocrisy and any remnant of wickedness, to greet one another
with a holy kiss.
And bring us not to judgement, if we are not entirely clean, according to the pleasure of Your goodness, or because of the mire of sin and guile, and the remembrance of evil that kills.
But You, in Your ineffable and untold compassion, Who knows the frailty and the low sunken state of our nature, blot out all defilement of our transgressions, that this Mystery of Your Divinity may not be to us unto judgement or condemnation.
For You are He Who has the power to take away all sin, and to do away with the injustice and iniquity of wretched men, for You are the purity of the whole world.
Unto You is due the glorification in one voice from everyone, and the glory, honour, greatness and worship, with Your good Father and the Holy Spirit, the Life-giver, Who is coessential with You, both now and always, and unto the ages of ages. Amen