There are moments in every person’s life when it becomes scary, doubts arise about faith, and it seems that evil surrounds him. In days of turmoil, it is worth turning to our Lord with the words of the prayer for protection “ May God rise again,” which will heal the soul, fill it with peace and joy, and help eliminate doubts. It is also called the Prayer to the Holy Cross. Its text is small, but every word is filled with deep meaning and requires serious awareness.
Prayer to the Honest Cross “May God rise again”
(Text in Russian with accents).
May God rise again, and may His enemies be scattered, and may those who hate Him flee from His presence. Like smoke disappears, let them disappear; As wax melts in the presence of fire, so let demons perish on behalf of those who love God and sign the sign of the cross, and say in joy: Rejoice, Most Honest and Life-Giving Cross of the Lord, driving away and the demons have the power upon you of our Lord Jesus Christ, who descended into hell and trampled underfoot the power the devil, and who gave us Your Honest Cross to drive away every adversary. Oh, Most Honest and Life-Giving Cross of the Lord! Help me with the Holy Virgin Mary and with all the saints forever. Amen.
A few words about veneration of the Cross
The prayer “May God rise again” has another name - “Prayer to the Honest Life-Giving Cross of the Lord.” For Christians, the Cross on which the Savior was crucified is a symbol of the victory of sacrificial love over death. The Blood of Christ sanctified it and made it a banner of the Resurrection.
Icon “Exaltation of the Honest and Life-Giving Cross of the Lord”
The Cross began to be venerated back in apostolic times. Thus, in the letters of the Apostle Paul his mention is present in the text many times. Celebrations were established and prayers were composed in honor of the Cross. After all, worshiping the Cross means worshiping the Lord’s Voluntary Sacrifice. The reason for such veneration of this shrine was wonderfully outlined by St. John of Damascus in his work “An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith”:
“No other than that, as soon as by the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ death was abolished, ancestral sin was resolved, hell was deprived of its spoils, resurrection was granted, a return to original bliss was arranged, the gates of heaven were opened, our nature was seated at the right hand of God, and we became children of God and heirs . All this was accomplished by the Cross.”
The Russian Church has revered this shrine from time immemorial. Several days in the church calendar are dedicated to honoring the Life-Giving Cross. This is the Week of the Cross (3rd week of Lent), the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross and some other days. Every Wednesday and Friday during services, prayers dedicated to the Cross are said. In liturgical texts, the themes of the Cross, the Passion of the Lord, the Crucifixion and the Holy Resurrection of Christ are closely related to each other.
Interesting fact
- In the Orthodox tradition there are several types of crosses. The simplest and oldest is the four-pointed one, known since the times of early Christianity. The eight-pointed cross, which has two additional crossbars, has also become widespread: the upper one, which is a sign with the inscription “Jesus Christ - King of the Jews” and the lower one, which is a footrest for the Savior.
- Crosses installed on the domes of churches sometimes have a crescent moon at the base, which has nothing to do with Islam. The crescent is an ancient Byzantine symbol denoting royal dignity, and it was in this capacity that it came to Rus'.
- In Rus', before the church reforms carried out in the 17th century. Patriarch Nikon, on the reverse side of the pectoral crosses were engraved the words: “May God rise again and let His enemies be scattered!” And the Russian people, in all difficult circumstances, making the sign of the cross, said this prayer to the Honorable Cross.
Psalm 67 in Russian:
1 To the director of the choir. Psalm of David. Song. 2 Let God arise, and let His enemies be scattered, and let those who hate Him flee from His presence. 3 As smoke dissipates, You scatter them; As wax melts in the fire, so let the wicked perish at the presence of God. 4 But let the righteous rejoice, let them rejoice before God and triumph in joy. 5 Sing praises to our God, sing praises to His name, exalt Him who walks in the heavens; His name is Lord, and rejoice in His presence. 6 God is the father of the fatherless and the judge of widows in his holy habitation. 7 God brings the lonely into the house, frees the prisoners from their shackles, but the disobedient remain in the hot desert. 8 God! When You went out before Your people, when You walked in the wilderness, 9 the earth shook, even the heavens melted at the presence of God, and this Sinai at the presence of God, the God of Israel. 10 You, O God, poured abundant rain on your inheritance, and when it was exhausted from labor, you strengthened it. 11 Your people dwelt there; According to Your goodness, O God, You prepared what was necessary for the poor. 12 The Lord will give the word: there will be a great multitude of messengers. 13 Kings of armies flee and flee, but she who sits at home divides the spoil. 14 Having settled down in your inheritance, you became like a dove, whose wings are covered with silver, and whose feathers are pure gold: 15 When the Almighty scattered the kings in this land, it turned white as the snow on Selmon. 16 The mountain of God is Mount Bashan! high mountain - Mount Vasanskaya! 17 Why do you look with envy, O high mountains, at the mountain on which God is pleased to dwell and the Lord will dwell forever? 18 Dark chariots of God, thousands upon thousands; the Lord is among them at Sinai in the sanctuary. 19 You ascended on high, you took captivity captive, you accepted gifts for men, so that even those who resist could dwell with the Lord God. 20 Blessed be the Lord every day. God puts burdens on us, but He also saves us. 21 God is our God for salvation; in the power of the Lord Almighty are the gates of death. 22 But God will crush the head of His enemies, the hairy crown of the one who is stubborn in his iniquities. 23 The Lord said: {I will bring you back from Bashan, I will bring you out of the depths of the sea, 24 so that you may immerse your foot, like your dogs’ tongue, in the blood of your enemies}. 25 We saw your procession, O God, the procession of my God, my King in the holy place: 26 in front were singers, behind playing on instruments, in the middle were maidens with timbrels: 27 “In the assemblies, bless the Lord God, you are of the seed of Israel!” 28 There Benjamin the younger is their prince; the princes of Judah are their rulers, the princes of Zebulun, the princes of Naphtali. 29 Your God has ordained strength for you. Confirm, O God, what You have done for us! 30 For the sake of Your temple in Jerusalem, kings will bring You gifts. 31 Tame the beast in the reeds, the herd of oxen among the bullocks of the nations boasting of ingots of silver; scatter the nations who desire war. 32 The nobles will come from Egypt; Ethiopia will stretch out her hands to God. 33 Kingdoms of the earth! sing to God, sing praises to the Lord, 34 who walks in the heavens of heaven from everlasting. Behold, He gives His voice the voice of power. 35 Give glory to God! His greatness is above Israel, and His power is in the clouds. 36 You are terrible, O God, in Your sanctuary. The God of Israel - He gives strength and strength to [His] people. Blessed be God!
Interpretation of the prayer
The first lines of the prayer almost completely coincide with the first verses of the 67th Psalm of King David. Saint Athanasius the Great said that with the words of this psalm “the prophet depicts the coming of the Lord, the overthrow of His enemies and the end of spiritual captivity. Expresses God’s urging to carry out judgment on unclean demons, because by the coming of the Savior, demons are deprived of the power to torment people.”
According to the teachings of the holy ascetics of piety, turning to the Cross of the Lord, which protects Christians from enemy misfortunes, it is very important to understand whom the Church considers the enemies of God. For example, Blessed Theodoret instructs:
“This prayer is not against people, but against demons who enmity people.”.
And Archpriest Igor (Prekup), rector of the church of St. Sergius of Radonezh in Paldiski (Estonia), gives a more detailed explanation:
“It is very important to understand the Christian attitude towards enemies. Without in any way downplaying the role of vicious people in anyone’s sorrows and soberly assessing the possibilities of their free will, without releasing them from moral and legal responsibility for their choice and without denying the right of the individual and society to defend themselves from them, we are commanded to look at them soberly as , albeit voluntary, but still nothing more than conductors of evil, the source of which is evil spirits.
That is why the Apostle Paul exhorts us to remember that our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in high places (Eph. 6:12).
Attaching too much importance to what comes from people is a dangerous delusion. We must be aware that a person who follows the lead of demons is their first victim, and it is not a person who should be considered as the source of evil, but demons, who can harm us even without him, in particular, by instilling in us thoughts about our neighbor, causing us, albeit justified, but still sinful condemnation, hostility and cowardice.”
Saying the prayer “May God rise again,” believers trust in the power of the Life-giving Cross. The grace emanating from the Cross, according to the teaching of the righteous elders, is not autonomous - it comes from the Savior crucified on it. With this former instrument of execution, the Lord destroyed hell and undermined the power of Satan over people, so a person can disperse the machinations of evil spirits by the power of the sign of the cross.
A person who uses this remedy with faith invariably receives support from the Lord. Only in this case should a person’s life comply with God’s Commandments and should he walk in the paths bequeathed by the Holy Scriptures.
Priest of the Presentation Church Fr. Vladimir says the following about this: “The cross is a protective force. He is a protection. He is invincible. But only if a person resorts to it who likens his life to the life of Jesus Christ, and does not use the sign of the cross as a symbol unsanctified by a person’s life in the likeness of Christ’s Spirit. For those who follow the path that the Son of God walked, the Cross of Christ becomes priceless. Becomes a shrine. Becomes an invincible force that protects from enemies.”
Interpretation of the elements of prayer and its translation into modern Russian language
Not every person will be able to understand the content of Sunday prayer the first time. The reason for this is the language of the text, outdated words and expressions. If we translate them into modern Russian, we get the following:
- waste themselves (or go wild) - scatter, scatter;
- vrazi—enemies;
- besi - demons, dark forces;
- those who sign - those who impose the sign of the cross on themselves;
- verbos - speakers;
- most honorable - deeply revered, highly respected (not “very honest”!);
- trampled down the power of the devil - defeated the power of the devil;
- crucified - crucified on the cross;
- adversary - enemy, adversary;
- life-giving - resurrecting, life-giving.
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The phrase “he who descended into hell and trampled upon the power of the devil” deserves special attention. It conveys the idea that Jesus happened to go to Hell after death and remain there until his miraculous Resurrection. The Son of God was able to bring the saints out of the Underworld and send them to Paradise. Thus, he defeated the devilish force and destroyed it.
As a result, after a thorough analysis of the constituent components of the prayer, we get something like this version in modern Russian:
The translation of the short form of Sunday prayer in public Russian is:
Turning to the Cross, we turn to God Himself
Of course, it should be understood that when resorting to the help of the Honest Cross and saying a prayer appeal to it, Christians, mainly, appeal not to an inanimate object endowed with especially grace-filled power, but, first of all, to their Redeemer and precisely the Lord Jesus Christ They ask to protect them from the devil’s wiles and temptations.
Archpriest Sergius (Ryaboy), cleric of the St. Barbara's Cathedral in Pinsk, gives the following explanation:
“Turning to the Cross, we, of course, turn to God Himself. We do not consider the Cross to be a living person capable of thinking and feeling. This is simply a metaphor found frequently in Scripture. Turning to the Cross, we turn to the risen Our Lord.”
The prayer ends with invoking the help of the Holy Life-Giving Cross along with the intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos, because She is closest to others to Her Divine Son, and to all the saints who pleased God and received the boldness to intercede before His throne for the people living on earth. Their intercession is a great hope for Christians for help in the fight against visible and invisible enemies.
Sunday prayer to Jesus Christ and the Blessed Virgin Mary
On Sunday other prayers are also read.
Jesus Christ
A very effective prayer appeal is prayer to Jesus Christ.
Translated, it reads as follows:
“Our Father, you are in heaven! Let Your name be holy; let Your kingdom come; May Your will always be done, rule on earth and in heaven. Give us bread for the coming day; grant forgiveness for our debts, so that we may forgive them to those who owe us; save us from every sinful temptation, deliver us from the temptations of the evil one. I ask You to save me, Lord. I am Your creation, I ask for protection of my soul and body from all torment that happened in the past, is in the present or will happen in the future. Grant me peace and health, show your mercy to me. I ask for the protection of the Holy Mother of God and all the heavenly apostles and Saints. Grant, to Your creation, peace of mind and good health. Do this with your mercy so that I do not turn into a slave of sin, so that I do not experience fear in this life, so that I do not experience confusion in the name of Jesus Christ, God’s Son and our Lord. He is our true Lord and reigns in heaven in unity with the Holy Spirit forever and ever! Let it happen! May the peace of God always be with me! Grant me true faith in the royal heavenly world, which You, Lord, revealed to Your disciples. May You always be in my heart. Lord, stand between me and my visible and invisible enemies. And this will happen! I call you, Lord, into my world, comfort and save my soul. Let it happen! The Son of God, born of the Holy Virgin Mary, crucified on the Cross, saved the human world from sins. I ask, Lord, to have mercy on my body and soul. Let it happen."
Holy Mother of God
Prayers to the Most Holy Theotokos are very effective on Sunday.
The following prayer appeal is considered a strong Sunday prayer, protecting from enemies and troubles:
“Be my prayer appeal strong and sculpted. Let words be stronger than stone and damask steel, stronger than a sharp knife. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Lord Almighty, have mercy on me, a sinful Slave, have mercy, Almighty God and blessed Guardian Angel. The Virgin Mary prayed on the holy throne. Jesus Christ himself came to Her. The Most Holy Theotokos said that she had a prophetic dream. She dreamed of how Jesus Christ was crucified, the holy blood of the Son of God was shed, his hands and feet were nailed to the cross, a crown of thorns was put on his head. Whoever uses this Sunday prayer will be saved by the Almighty Lord from fire and flame, from water and from fierce beasts, as well as from any evil. Amen".
What do they ask for in prayers on Sunday, turning to the saints?
Turning to Jesus Christ and the Most Holy Theotokos in prayer on Sunday, believers always ask for the salvation of their souls. Sunday prayers are always cleansing in nature. Therefore, you need to repent of your known and unknown sins and ask for protection from all demonic temptations. In addition, if there is hopelessness in your soul, then you can specify your problems and express specific requests in prayer. If prayer words sound from the depths of the soul, then the believer will definitely be heard.
Author of the article:
Natalya Nadezhdina
The words of the prayer “May God rise again and His enemies be scattered” are accompanied by the sign of the cross
The text of the prayer “May God rise again” is included in the daily evening rule of Orthodox Christians.
In this regard, Archpriest Sergius (Ryaboy) gives the following instruction: “There is some addition to this prayer. When a Christian reads it during the evening rule, it is very useful to protect his bed with the Honorable Cross, that is, to cross it. And also cross your home to all directions of the world: North, South, West and East. By protecting ourselves, our home and our bed with the sign of the cross, we thereby devote ourselves entirely to God, His protection, which He gives us through His Life-giving Cross.”
Text in English
Let God arise, and let His enemies be scattered; and let those who hate Him flee from His face. As smoke vanishes, let them vanish; and as wax melts from the presence of fire, so let the demons perish from the presence of those who love God and who sign themselves with the Sign of the Cross and say with gladness: Hail, most precious and life-giving Cross of the Lord , for Thou drivest away the demons by the power of our Lord Jesus Christ Who was crucified on thee, went down to hell and trampled on the power of the devil, and gave us thee, His honorable Cross, for driving away all enemies. O most precious and life-giving Cross of the Lord, help me with our holy Lady, the Virgin Theotokos, and with all the Saints throughout the ages. Amen.
By saying May God rise again, we glorify Jesus Christ, who suffered martyrdom by being crucified on the Cross. By His sacrifice He delivered mortal people from eternal death in hell, opened the gates to Paradise and gave eternal life in the Kingdom of Heaven.
Try to read a prayer every day, God will protect your soul from the devil and give you happiness. May God rise again will help everyone with faith in the Lord to find the strength to do good deeds and love their neighbor as themselves. God help you!
