Artemy Slezkin All Christians who attend church services have obviously noticed the prayer that is repeated and sung the most often: “Lord have mercy!”, and also: “Lord have mercy on us!” Let’s think about it: who are “us”? Me and those standing in the church now? Me and my family? Or maybe all Orthodox Christians? It seems to me that these are all people without exception: good and evil, rich and poor, strong and weak, believers and non–believers. Lord, have mercy on all of us, Thy children, the people Thou hast created!
“Lord, have mercy on us” is our prayer for all mankind. It makes sense, because we are all brothers and sisters to each other by our human nature and by essence. We are all members of one big human family, and we must pray for one another. After all, no matter who we are: we all do need prayers of those who know us, as well as those who do not know us.
Answering the question of his spiritual daughter, St. Paisios the Hagiorite wrote:
“Pray as you perform your obedience: ‘Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on us!’, so that your prayer can help all people. This ‘have mercy on us’ covers all people, even those five or six ‘great ones’ upon whom the fate of the whole world depends… Pray that God will enlighten the wicked and they will do less evil, or that God will eliminate evil completely. Pray that He will enlighten the good and they will help people. Pray for those who want to work, but, being sick, cannot work; pray for those who are healthy, but cannot find work and are in need. Think about different cases and pray for them. When the mind rushes towards all people, the heart is wounded by pain, and prayer becomes heartfelt. There are so many people who need prayer all day long! Don’t waste your time...”
And here many people may be puzzled. Who am I to pray for all people, for the whole world? I myself need the Lord’s mercy, deliverance from the power of sin, and salvation from eternal perdition. If only I could be vouchsafed salvation together with my close ones by my prayers. It was the saints who could fervently pray for the whole world, but how long did it take them to acquire this prayer! I am nothing before the power of their souls!
True, we are not saints and we do not have their gifts. But let’s clear it up whether we, ordinary believers, should embrace the world with prayer or not. What should this great prayer be driven by? By love for people. This is the foundation of any prayer for someone. Love is a heartfelt desire for the good of our loved ones, and the supreme good for any of us is staying in God and the salvation of our souls from eternal perdition.
Thus, we must ask the Lord to save all people. First of all, let’s find out if it is God’s will and if it pleases Him that we ask Him for this. The Holy Scriptures say that God will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth (1 Tim. 2:4). If the Lord wants it, all the more do we need to want it—and wish our neighbors and all other people salvation.
Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them (Mt. 7:12). Do you want to be saved? Ask for salvation for other people around you, ask for everybody’s salvation.
There is the following prayer in the morning prayer rule:
“O my plenteously merciful and all merciful God, Lord Jesus Christ, through Thy great love Thou didst come down and become incarnate so that Thou mightiest save all.”
Did Christ voluntarily ascend to Golgotha only for the sake of those who believed in Him? For those who would follow Him? No! Christ was crucified for all of us and rose from the dead for all of us! It is another matter whether an individual person comes to believe in Christ and wants to be saved in Him or not. This is everyone’s personal business, but our task is to pray that everyone will believe and that everyone will be saved.
Thus, to pray for everybody is pleasing to God, but it requires very serious mental effort, and most importantly, our desire. And here all sorts of obstacles appear. From this it would proceed that we are supposed to pray for murderers, rapists, war criminals for whom another’s life has no value at all, drug dealers, robbers, racketeers, as well as for our personal enemies and ill-wishers, for those who we dislike and who poison the cloudless course of our lives with their very existence. It is easy to pronounce formally: “Lord, have mercy on us all, save us all!” But try to pray with a strained heart for those who are like a thorn in your flesh!
To this the meek Savior says:
But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; That ye may be the children of your Father which is in Heaven (Mt. 5:44-45).
And the Lord also says:
Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God (Mt. 5:9).
By praying for our neighbors, we sow peace in this world in which there is a scarcity of good. One will pray from the bottom of his heart, then another, the third, tenth—and the whole world will become a little better, more beautiful; and most importantly, we ourselves will be closer to God, more pleasing to God with our humble prayer, becoming His sons and daughters by grace.
As for prayer for criminals, fighters against God, atheists, sectarians and “other outcasts”: that’s who we need to pray for especially hard. It is difficult for us to put such people on the same level with ourselves, because pride says in us: “I am not a criminal, not a fornicator, not a molester, not a drug dealer, not an atheist—they clearly have more sins than me.” We cannot even bring ourselves to make the sign of the cross and pray for such types.
So, should we really make exceptions for some in our prayer for the whole world? Who gave us the right to judge others: who is better and who is worse? By doing so, we encroach on the prerogative of God, because it is only in His power to judge people about whom He knows absolutely everything. And what about Him? Let us recall an episode from the Gospel when the scribes and Pharisees brought to Christ a woman who had been caught in adultery.
They say unto Him, Master, this woman was taken in adultery, in the very act. Now Moses in the law commanded us, that such should be stoned: but what sayest Thou?... He lifted up Himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her (Jn. 8:4, 5, 7).
After these words, the Pharisees, condemned by their conscience, went away one after another, leaving Christ and the woman alone. After this Jesus, Who, being sinless, had the right to pass His harsh judgment, suddenly said:
Woman, where are those thine accusers? hath no man condemned thee? She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more (Jn. 8:10, 11).
We must imitate Christ, the embodiment of love for mankind, mercy and leniency towards the weaknesses and shortcomings of His creation—people. If the sinless Savior did not condemn someone who, according to the law, should have been condemned, then shouldn’t we, who commit many sins, treat our neighbors the same way?
Here is the art of all the arts!
Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven (Lk. 6:37).
We tend to forgive our own sins and not those of others. We do not see our sins because of our self-love, but we see sins in other people to the smallest detail; we condemn them and consider them inferior to us. But as Christians we are supposed to do the opposite: to see bad things in ourselves and repent of them, and not to notice evil in others, but view everyone as good, albeit weak. There are more sins in some, fewer in others, but everyone needs salvation from them, salvation from eternal perdition.
Here we cannot help but recall the Apostle Paul’s words: Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ (Gal. 6:2). Praying for others, especially for those who you detest, is bearing their burdens according to the law of love, the law of Christ. Let us get over ourselves, let us remember our neighbors in prayer with our hearts, remember absolutely everybody, and cover them with love. And the Lord will have mercy on us and remember us in His Kingdom.
If we attune ourselves like this, then it will be easier, simpler and more saving to pray for others. First, of course, we should offer up a penitential prayer to God for ourselves; then for our closest ones; and next—for the salvation of all people. And may we be moved by love for people in this prayer. We must love Christ in people, and love people in Christ. And then the Lord will grant us as a great gift prayer with which we will embrace the whole world, a prayer that will bring peace and joy into our souls…
