Prayers to the Most Holy Theotokos in front of Her icons called “Seeking the Lost” and “Joy of All Who Sorrow”

The Mother of God, as the mother of Jesus Christ, is revered by all Christians, and she is also the intercessor and patroness of all who ask. Many prayers have been written to the saint, which are read in a variety of situations, but the prayer “My All-Merciful Lady, Most Holy Lady” is considered one of the most powerful. This prayer is rarely found in prayer books, not all clergy approve of it and read it, its history is very unusual.

The history of the All-Merciful Prayer

Prayer appeared not so long ago, less than a hundred years ago, but this is not where we should start. In 1900, Sampson was born, who in 1917 was baptized with the name Sergius, in honor of St. Sergius of Radonezh. From the biography of the clergyman, the most interesting are the events of 1932. At this time, Sampson was the treasurer of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra, where he lived for ten years. He found peace and tranquility in serving the Lord, and the beauty of the Lavra delighted him. But those years were a terrible time for the church in Russia. At the beginning of 1932, the Cheka demanded from his father the keys to the storerooms and all the Lavra’s wealth, but Sampson refused to help them.

From that moment on, the terrible pages of his life began. He went through the “Tram” torture and 18 years of imprisonment in camps. It is believed that it was the prayer to the Mother of God “All-Merciful” that saved him and helped him survive in terrible times. This prayer was told to him by Seraphim of Sarov, who appeared to the clergyman in a dream the night before his arrest. Seraphim slowly read the text of the prayer to Sampson and ordered him to read it every day and distribute it, assuring him that this would save him in future trials. Daily reading of prayer in unshakable faith in the Lord helped Father Sampson go through all the hardships and survive in the inhuman conditions of the camps.

History of appearance

Before his arrest, Seraphim had an amazing dream. It was as if an old man had entered the room and quietly leaned over him and dictated a prayer to the Most Holy Theotokos, the All-Merciful. At the same time, the elder punished him that he would live only if he read this particular prayer. And he asked me to distribute it.

In the morning, shocked by the dream he had seen, he wrote down a prayer. A few hours after the dream, the father was arrested and sent to prison for almost 20 years in the camps. The father experienced many difficulties in life, but remembering his dream, he prayed zealously and only thanks to his faith and prayer he steadfastly withstood all the trials.

Text of the prayer “All-Merciful” by Seraphim of Sarov

My all-merciful Lady, Most Holy Lady, All-Pure Virgin, Mother of God Mary, Mother of God, Undoubted and my only Hope, do not disdain me, do not reject me, do not leave me, do not depart from me; intercede, ask, hear; see, Lady, help, forgive, forgive, Most Pure One!

The prayer “My All-Merciful Lady” is considered a Sunday prayer, so it is better to read it on a Sunday visit to the temple. In this case, you can put three candles in front of the icon of the Mother of God; your sincere request will definitely be heard by the saint.

When reading this prayer, they ask for help with serious illnesses, despondency and poverty. The Mother of God is asked for help in everyday affairs; sinners turn to her in moments of weakness. Often people turn to her after an abortion. The miraculous prayer “All-Merciful” saves when a feeling of helplessness and melancholy overwhelms the soul.

The old man's vision of God is an exceptional theme, as is the secret image of the old man. The Elder is an apocalyptic elder in white robes, with a long beautiful beard. A creature from the sphere of final judgment over the world, as if descending from the highest Jerusalem to earthly Calvary suffering. Surrounded by children, enemies, angels, angry demons, applauding seraphim, the Bush Queen, enemy networks; under the vile hum of the underworld and the solemn chorale of the heavenly powers, ascending to heaven at the end of their service. But on earth everything is confused... Elder Sampson’s father is a graduate of the General Staff Academy, a high-ranking military officer, Count Sievers. Ice is a famous Orthodox icon painter. Great-grandfather - Minister of Foreign Affairs at the court of Catherine II. My father’s spiritual swings were from Orthodoxy to Lutheranism. The son’s path is from Anglicanism to Orthodoxy. God's paths are inexplicable. The Most High has many monasteries; He finds the most suitable one for everyone. Who needs the tears of the stigmatist St. Francis of Assisi, to press the cross to the heart and share with every nerve the sorrows and crucifixion of the heavenly Sufferer, who needs the tears of repentance in an Orthodox cell... Mother of Edward (that was the name of Elder Sampson by birth), Anna Vasilievna Sievers, from a noble English family, carried her Anglican cross. She was like a pure angel, not of earthly origin. She received an excellent education: perfect knowledge of several languages, poetry, music, a romantic passion for Tennyson and Shakespeare... After graduating from the conservatory, she was betrothed to the Indian crown prince, but upon learning that he had a whole harem of concubines, she was horrified... To avoid marriage, she had to disappear (since According to Indian customs, she was in danger of imminent death). Anna's despair reached such a degree that she clutched at straws and, having crossed the English Channel ferry, by train and on crossbars, and sometimes just on foot, reached St. Petersburg. In Russia, Annushka's fear gradually subsided. She remembered her parents with tears, but understood: it was necessary to courageously accept the present as a cross from God. Having easily found a position as a governess, she served in a merchant's house until she married the colonel of the general staff, Count Sievers. The noble and generous count completely entrusted the upbringing of his children to his devoted, faithful and sensitive wife. And Anna Vasilievna devoted herself to children without reserve. She nursed each one, cared for her, swaddled her in clothes of maternal affection and care. Even on the way to Russia, at some provincial station, she had a vision of the cross, and Anna knew that she was going to the crucifixion. And although she did not acquire the old-age Orthodox faith of Edward, did not share the political convictions of her other son, Alexander, did not follow her daughter (art, painting, art workshops...), and remained alien to the red and pink tones and the outrages that were happening - she carried her Anglican cross by faith . Affectionate, well-mannered Anna did not put pressure on the children, and despite the fact that she gave them an excellent education and instilled faith in God, teaching them morning and evening prayers in three European languages, she did not consider herself a fanatical confessor of Christianity. She considered it her duty by faith to raise children in love and peace, in service to neighbors and the fatherland. Since childhood, Edward was a sensitive and spiritual boy. Together with his mother, he was fond of reading romantic novels from English history (Richard the Lionheart; the Thirty Years' War; Mary Stuart; intrigues of the royal court)... And in the courtyard soldiers in gray greatcoats were already marching, and sailors in leather jackets with huge ugly Mausers were already plotting something... And at times it seemed unthinkable to Edward to combine the cloudy, sublime world of his bright mother with the dull, tense, pre-apocalyptic reality of Russia at the beginning of the twentieth century! He found consolation in the bosom of the Mother of God. Having once visited one of the St. Petersburg churches, he remained there forever. Father refused to baptize him: Edik does not seriously know the Russian language and does not speak Orthodox dogma, and when asked what “hallowed be thy name” means, he hesitated and became confused... With his last money, twelve-year-old Edward buys Theophan the Recluse, becomes interested in the Philokalia, three times is studying “The Ladder” in the publication of Optina Pustyn. He is keen on Kireevsky and Khomyakov, and spends blissful hours every day in tender prayer with a candle in his hand. His heart glows like this warm candle, and the boy feels wonderful. A rain of unearthly blessings and rays of heavenly joy pour out on him during the Byzantine chorale. Edward approached Orthodoxy with the touchingness of a neophyte - zealously and ardently. Faith became the meaning of his life. Sharing neither Edward’s passion for Christ nor his love for the temple, icons, candles, and liturgy, the mother, by her nobility of nature, did not allow herself to authoritarianly interfere in her son’s life. In the evenings, in her free moment, Anna, sitting down on the sofa and resting her head in her hands, mourned, not knowing what: was she mourning herself or was she blessing her children, did she foresee a sad, blissful death? Edward soon left the house. His parents reluctantly gave him their blessing. He entered an Orthodox monastery. At baptism he was named Sergius, in monasticism first Alexander, then Simeon, and in the schema - Sampon. Like a terrible cloud, the red plague came and covered the head of the young novice Bishop Theophan the Recluse, his favorite teacher and author. Having burst into the monastery, the Latvian riflemen sentenced Alexander (his monastic name at that time) to death by hanging and wanted to deal with it immediately without trial, but someone interceded. Mistaking him for one of the great princes, they decided to end him by shooting. Six aimed at his lambish Orthodox heart, but the angels deflected the blow, and the lead pierced his right shoulder and elbow. Alexander lost consciousness from pain, and the bandits, deciding that it was over, left him lying in a pool of blood and with a red stream at his mouth. One of his acquaintances picked him up and, for camouflage, dressed him in a Red Army tunic, and brought him home. The mother began to nurse her son. Seeing his pectoral cross, she exclaimed: “Are you Russian? “I knew it,” she clasped her hands, “I betrayed my mother’s faith.” “Yes, mom, I’m Orthodox,” answered Edward. And Anna, forgetting about the conventions of time and faith, bandaged her son and was tormented by the fact that, God forbid, gangrene, that God forbid her beloved son, an Orthodox monk, would die... Anna would have accepted him in any way: taken from the cross, from whatever wound... Having come to his senses, Alexander explained to his mother that his faith was spiritually different, that he had made his choice and considered Orthodoxy the true heir of the Roman catacombs, the faith of the martyrs and sufferers for Christ. That only in the tenderly zealous Orthodox faith and the magnificent, indescribably beautiful divine service did he find peace, tranquility and himself. And although Anna was alien to her son’s words, she blessed him with tears in her eyes. Her Anglican heart served until the last according to Christian rules: “I was sick and you visited me”... (Matthew 25:36) Otherwise, the family silently boycotted “Orthodox hobbies.” The father was silent. The father's silence had an oppressive effect and advised the monk Alexander even more than an open dispute about faith. The brother remained indifferent, and the sister was interested in Suprematism, young Leineka, Mayakovsky, and did not part with the volume of Yesenin. And so the paths of this strange family diverged. Count Sivers died in the twenty-ninth. He died suddenly, collapsing with outstretched arms onto the knees of his son who had become a monk, as if asking for help and prayer, not realizing his guilt either in violating the royal oath or in serving the Reds... And since then, a deep, unhealed wound has remained in Simeon’s heart. There was no sincere dialogue between them. And although their relationship was pure and devoid of mutual condemnation, grumbling and reproaches, Simeon suffered deeply and prayed for his father. The brother of the future elder, also Alexander, later joined the White Army and was executed after terrible torture in the casemates of the St. Petersburg GPU, with the sentence “dangerous counter-revolutionary.” The heart of the sensitive Annushka Vasilyevna gave in from sorrows and loneliness, and in forty-two, during the blockade, having swallowed grief, serving the poor with her last strength, sharing the last crumb of bread, morning and evening prayers before the living God, asking for her sons and daughter, and her deceased husband, on one frosty February day she quietly gave her soul to God in an unheated room in a Leningrad communal apartment. No one knows what happened to her. She took communion with a cracker, washed it down with her own tears, lay down on the floor, leaned against a wooden bookcase, took the Gospel in her hands, squeezed the cross in her palms (no one could take these last precious relics from her) and, having prayed for the last time for her children and husband, she passed away in peace. to the Kingdom. ...In eternity they will meet in the same courtyard. The Bright Shepherd will shepherd them in wondrous meadows... And there will no longer be the Lutheran count, the Anglican mother and the Orthodox Edward-Simeon, the elder Sampon, the schema-monk, but they will be clothed in white robes and in rapturous bliss will appear in the wondrous splendor of the Lord. What Alexander-Simeon has not suffered! The elder spent several years on Solovki, where he was hung on a hook by his ribs, executed by a brutal death in some hellish underground labyrinth, doused with icy water in the cold. But the hair, frozen in ice, suddenly came away and a wonderful warmth spread through his heart... By the forces of angels, Simeon, defrosted, miraculously rose from the dead and, as he was, naked, returned to the barracks, covered himself with an old, dirty coat and fell asleep for several hours... Another time, a sadist - the head of the ELEPHANT decided to put an end to him with another execution: Simeon was placed in an underground chamber, where he and four other priests were tied to a terrible chair with hard rods and rats, trained specifically to gnaw on the human body, were released on them... Yes, shortly before his arrest, Elder Seraphim of Sarov appeared to him and gave him the prayer “All-Merciful” - this is what Simeon kept. The world of Solovki... Who will trace it and who will capture it?.. There are no white scrolls framed with mourning ribbon on it. The devil himself and the ruler of the underworld visited the guards of the Gulag and presented an image of sadistic torture and savagery, such as the earth had never seen. And we have to think about who is to blame if such spirits descend into the world, if it is considered normal to torture, mock, beat, saw in half, hang on a hook, give to rats to eat, pour water on naked flesh in the cold, throw from the hundred and fifty-step Sekirnaya staircase mountains, flatten, crush... Oh God! They do not do with a single albino laboratory rat what they do with the crown of Your creation!.. Of those known to me, two tyrants: church - Joseph Volotsky, and secular - Joseph Dzhugashvili-Stalin, officially and literally blessed and welcomed the tools of Beelzebub, in half price written off from the bottom of hell. What, for example, is the cost of the three-week “tram” that one of the great Solovetsky elders, schema-monk Sampson, endured! Holy sacrifices are stuffed into a small cell without windows or doors, like sardines into a barrel, so that you can’t even breathe. After which, this devilish ark is sealed, and people die from hunger and thirst, stuffiness, the stench of excrement... Here they defecate, here they pray, here they scream, here they go crazy - alive among the decaying corpses... And the old man, having entered and remembered who appeared to him on the eve of the arrest of St. Seraphim, let’s create “The All-Merciful.” All-merciful, my Lady, Most Holy Lady, All-Pure Virgin, Mother of God Mary, Mother of God, my undoubted only hope, do not disdain me, do not reject me, do not leave me, do not leave me, intercede, ask, hear, see, Lady, help , forgive, forgive, forgive, forgive... Most Pure One. And he was blissful and survived the “tram” and the “hellish machine” (which was practiced in Odessa against another TOC saint, Innocent of Baltsky. My hand will tremble to describe...). And the endless, going into eternity, creeping in a line from the Gulag somewhere into the underground worlds, into that sleepy night Stalinist Moscow beyond Moscow - “forgive, forgive, forgive...”, and warm tears... And the hellish “tram” chamber was warmed by the breath of Seraphim, and no one screams. Sampson calls for prayer, and they listen to him, and repeat after him clearly: “All-merciful, my Lady... forgive, forgive, forgive...” So there were a few alive left after a three-week hellish stay - the anticipation of heaven. Seraphim Pozdeev, Hilarion Troitsky... each could complement the mournful Gospel chronicle, the Solovetsky Gospel, the Solovetsky Eleon... Seraphim of Sarov not only appeared, but led Elder Sampson. And two hours before his arrest and imminent departure to Solovki, he dictated “The All-Merciful” to him in a subtle dream and said: “With this prayer you will stay alive. The Blessed Virgin will protect you. Spread it - our long-suffering people will be saved by it.” And the Kingdom was lit in the light, when the midnight prisoners, in discordant, varied, multi-chamber unanimity, cried out to their beloved Mother: All-Merciful, Lady, Our Mother, Most Pure... What can we compare the monstrous villainy of the Gulag with? Maximilian Kolbe was dying on death row in Auschwitz, where those doomed to starvation were locked up, not given food or water, not allowed out into the street, but no one limited their space! Auschwitz, compared to the Gulag, is Eden... But Solovki, compared to Moscow, is an earthly sky. The paths of fishing are inexplicable. And in what chronicle can you fit this: Elder Sampson hangs from a crossbar by a terrible, sharp hook with his edge and remains alive? One day Sampson's father also lost. They poured a barrel of ice water on the naked man in thirty-degree frost - and the elder survived... Seraphim of Sarov was in spirit an elder of the TOC - its direct guardian angel. And not the stauropegial Preobrazhensky male and so on. The monastery has survived to this day, and the Seraphim-Solovetsky monastery. Outwardly it is an ELEPHANT (Satanic Den of Rotten Scoundrels), but in the heart is a MOAN (Orphan Prison of Those Cloaked in Poverty) of God’s love... The era of “trams”, “MOANS”, “ELEPHANTS” has passed - a tragic night in the underworld, a night of co-redemptive prayer for the salvation of the world. And the first rays of morning light began to dawn over sovereign Russia. Elder Sampson was simple in character and inexplicably sincerely fell in love with Orthodoxy. It became his life, and it gave him unbearable pain to see schisms, divisions into Tikhonites, Sergians, Reds, Whites... The elder divided into widows, orphans, lonely, crying and well-fed, he did not condemn anyone. And his temporary connection with the red monasteries and abbots will not be counted as a sin to him. The purity of spiritual vision is above all mortal and conditional things. And although the elder loved to go to churches and was allowed to do proskomedia and confession, and was surrounded by many children who zealously followed each of his instructions, he lived a purely catacomb life. After the war, the elder released from the concentration camps from the prisoner's Seraphim-Solovetsky monastery was transferred to the Pskov Pechory, which belongs to the Moscow Patriarchate, under the command of the Red Father Augustine, and was assigned to guard the apples. His life in the monastery ended with the fact that, following a false denunciation from a nervous woman, he was defrocked and anathematized. The point was that the elder did not accept her advances and did not want to keep her beloved child with him. Based on the first denunciation to the GPU, the blackmailer gains the upper hand over the wise monks and the weak old man is found guilty of God knows what - fornication, heresy, ignorance, temptation... As punishment, the abbot, in the presence of all the brethren, exposed the monastic robes. They tried to burn the mantle in the fire, but it didn’t burn; Yes, they doused him with gasoline, and the smell emanated was fragrant... And although Sampson is pure like an angel, calm and peaceful like Solomon, he is driven out. Fairly battered in his altercations with the authorities of the Stalinist official church, deprived of his holy orders and stripped of his spiritual robes, the elder switches to the catacomb mode of service. I asked one of the regular metropolitans for permission to build a home church and received it (which in itself is miraculous - without the consent of the Red authorities!). The church was hidden in the depths of the courtyard and disguised as a thatched hut. Every day he liturgized in it with his right hand, shot through and hanging, capable only, in his words, of consecrating the Gifts and signifying children. The elder’s prayer is filled with the warmth of the saints... Years later, schema-monk Sampson dies surrounded by many of his faithful children.

Simeon's Teaching on the All-Merciful Prayer

How Father Sampson loved to sing in the choir!
How his heart was comforted by the remembrance of the dead at the proskomedia! Not having the opportunity to serve in the church in Pechory, the Solovetsky lamb mastered the “Jesus Prayer” in the marvelous apple orchard and performed the “All-Merciful.” According to the elder’s teachings, “The All-Merciful” helped him no less than “Jesus”; complemented her. Together, “Jesus” and “Theotokos” made up the wondrous integrity of the Marriage Supper. The Bride and Groom looked happily at the dear guest glorifying Them with equal honors. The elder could be called the creator of the “All-Merciful”. And what an absurdity! To this day, Seraphim’s favorite prayer is not listed in any of the modern prayer books. What contempt for the spiritual experience of the elder! “The All-Merciful” literally took shape in Seraphim’s heart; it was not just suggested from above, but little by little, by little tear, sang from hour to hour from Sampson’s heart, and like a wondrous gift he presented it to his children. A brief interpretation of this catacomb Seraphim-Solovetsky prayer of the TOC could be like this. To begin with, let’s say that the very structure and form of this prayer is unusual, its lively, sincere intonation, the mystical silent height that ascends to the higher worlds, its boundless openness, its laconic piercing... “ All-Merciful
” is the same for everyone, the Merciful Mother, Mater Misericordiae - name Most Pure, revered in all worlds and true churches of Christ.
How wonderful it is to begin the hymn glorification of the Most Pure One with this wonderful and Orthodox - “All-Merciful”, Most Merciful to all! — (1) infinitely merciful; (2) Her mercy exceeds human understanding, limits and capabilities; (3) The female hypostasis of the Lord: absolute mercy and suffering on the cross in response to sin, rebellion, fall, possession - Her language. The phrase “ My Lady
” is absolutely unique.
The traditional stamp has become “Mistress of Earth and Heaven,” but here it is “mine.” The second tier of prayer is personal, intimate - the All-Merciful One looks into my heart. How much warmth and love is put into this “Mistress”! Confessing the Mother of God as a personal Lady, more than as an Intercessor, Intercessor and Patroness, is a sign of special dedication, recognition of Her Sovereign (“Sovereign”) power over oneself. How many mystical names are hidden in this “Lady”! Guide me, instruct me, educate me, we flow under Your aegis... - this and an incomparably larger sum of customary prayers is invested in the unconventional “My Lady.” Recognition of the heavenly Queen as the Most Holy Lady confirms a personal, secret covenant. “ Mistress
” is a rare address to the Blessed Virgin in Orthodoxy.
Seraphim, undoubtedly, heard among the angelic voices this all-sung in different languages, in dozens of modes, in different languages: “Mistress!..” In Yugoslavia, Vicka Ivankovic and Maria Pavlovich, the goddesses from Medjugorje, call Her Gospa, which in Croatian is Lady. Amsterdam page: “Mistress of the peoples of the whole earth”... “Mistress” is also a feminine derivative of Master: the equal size of the Queen and the King, the introduction of the Mother of God into the Holy of Holies and the confessed slavery, reverent worship. How our heavenly Teacher rejoices when, falling at Her feet, following the solar Seraphim, we create for Her: “My Lady, Most Holy Lady!..” “ All-Pure Virgin
” - an indescribable purity that does not exist on earth.
The fragrant virginity of the heavenly worlds... All-perfect purity, not violated by the stain of sin, not stained by the filth of lust and temptation; the whole world is the universe of the Most Pure One. Incomprehensible purity, tasted by the heart, fragrant... “ Theotokos Mary, Mother of God
” is the Orthodox confession of faith from the time of the ecumenical councils, when the main names of the Most Holy Leva were approved against heretics - Theotokos (Theotokos) and the Mother of God.
The second part of the prayer consists of petitions - one more sincere, more beautiful, simpler than the other. And at the end of the prayer, the read “ forgive, forgive, forgive...
” flows into the silently contemplative heights of the name “Most Pure One” - walking in the light, clothed in the light. ...The 20th century will end, and who will say on whose side the truth is? Is it Alexey Simansky, patriarch of the official Russian Orthodox Church, or Gennady Sekach, patriarch of the catacomb TOC? The Book of God's judgments is on the side of those who profess love. He who scraped the last grains of it from his heart and gave it to his neighbors will be saved. Is it possible to stand before the heavenly Father when we judge our brothers in faith? Is it possible to condemn the saint of the Western Church, Maximilian Kolbe, whose feat is equal to those of Solovetsky? A pure Solovetsky Orthodox saint, Maximilian voluntarily goes to death row, where he must die of hunger in unbearable conditions, among the suffocating hellish stench of sewage. And the elder Simeon Sivers experiences the Red Dragon “tram” on himself - he is placed in a small room filled with believers, where they are kept for three weeks. And people stand interspersed with decaying corpses until they die in convulsions, in terrible agony... Simeon remains to live. Maximilian Kolbe, killed by injection by Auschwitz sadists, is the last person on death row to survive. How unhappy are Christians who are incapable of love! How doubly unfortunate are Christians who are blind to the inner treasures stored within them! “Do you know that you are the temple of God?” and “The Kingdom of God is within you,” taught our heavenly Master. Inside us is a temple with windows wide open, universal, eternal. And who is purer, better, higher before God: the great elder Sampson Sivers, clothed in the schema, Analav, the doll of kindness, executed three times and resurrected, possessing the gifts of clairvoyance, healing, shepherding, dearly loved by his children, a wanderer and a catacomb; Is it Annushka Sivere, a romantic Anglican who passed through her Solovetsky Golgotha ​​in Red Russia, or the noble military officer of Lithuanian origin, Count Sievers? Aren't they lying in the same cemetery, covered with a single Mother's mantle? And won’t they meet in eternity, where, forgetting about the transitory: about the Lutheran cross, about Anglican Calvinism, about the Orthodox sign and eldership, they will open their hearts to each other and clothe themselves in the heavenly light. There is not and cannot be happiness in the human soul until it stops condemning, submits to spiritual laws and puts on inexorably, and sometimes, against its will - through the suffering given to it - in white clothes. And not a single stain of sin will stick to them... and they will enjoy eternity. Archbishop John. "Living Lives". Moscow, 1998. Martyrdom Types of asceticism in the Russian Land (Contents) Ladder prayer of Elder Zechariah

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