“Burn thou the thorns of all my transgressions… Show me to be a Tabernacle of thy Spirit only, and in no wise the dwelling-place of sin.
Attributed to Symeon Metaphrastes, this beautiful prayer asks Jesus to make every evil deed and every passion flee from us as from fire. Symeon, who lived in the 10th century, authored a 10-volume Greek collection of saints’ lives. We know little else about him.
But he is honored as a saint in the Eastern Orthodox Church, and is celebrated November 9.
Here is one of his prayers, particularly appropriate for after receiving Holy Communion.
O Thou who willingly dost give thy flesh to me as food, Thou who art a Fire, consuming
the unworthy, consume me not, O my Creator, but rather pass through all my body parts,
into all my joints, my veins, my heart.
Burn thou the thorns of all my transgressions. Cleanse my soul, and hallow thou my
thoughts. Make firm my knees, and my bones likewise. Enlighten as one my five senses.
Establish me wholly in thy fear. Ever shelter me, and guard and keep me from every soul-
corrupting deed and word. Chasten me, purify me, and control me. Adorn me, teach me,
and enlighten me.
Show me to be a Tabernacle of thy Spirit only, and in no wise the dwelling-place of sin,
that from me, thy habitation, through the entrance of thy Communion, every evil deed and
every passion may flee as from fire.
As intercessors I bring to thee all the Saints, both the Angelic Leaders of the Bodiless
Powers, thy Fore-runner, and thy wise Apostles. And besides these, thine immaculate
and chaste Mother.
Do thou accept their prayers, my Christ, who art Compassionate, and make thy servant to
be a child of the light: For thou alone, Good Lord, are the sanctification and splendor of
our souls.
And to thee as God and Master, day by day, duly we all ascribe glory, now and ever and
unto the ages of ages.
Amen.
