Ephrem the Syrian

O Lord and Master of my life, give me not a spirit of sloth, vain curiosity, lust for power and idle talk, but give to me, your servant, a spirit of soberness, humility, patience and love.

Ephrem the Syrian (c. 306 – 373) was a Syriac deacon, prolific Syriac-language hymn writer and theologian of the 4th century. He is venerated by Christians, and especially Syriac Christians, as a saint.

Quotes

• The hutzpah of our love is pleasing to you, O Lord, just as it pleased you that we should steal from your bounty.
  • Hymns on Faith 16:5

• O Lord and Master of my life, give me not a spirit of sloth, vain curiosity, lust for power and idle talk, but give to me, Thy servant, a spirit of soberness, humility, patience and love. O Lord and King, grant me to see my own faults and not to condemn my brother: for blessed art Thou to the ages of ages. Amen. O God, cleanse me, a sinner.
  • "Prayer of Ephrem" as translated in The Lenten Triodion (1978) by Mother Mary and Archimandrite Kallistos Ware, p. 69
  • Variant translations:
  • O Lord and Master of my life, give me not a spirit of sloth, vain curiosity, lust for power and idle talk, but give to me, your servant, a spirit of soberness, humility, patience and love. O Lord and King, grant me to see my own faults and not to condemn my brother: for you are blessed for ever and ever. Amen. O God, cleanse me, a sinner.
    • As translated in Who's Holding the Umbrella (1984) by William E. Yaeger, p. 70

• Thy possessions have made thee a hollow image; they have ruined thee and left thee.
  • in A Spiritual Psalter (2004), p. 267

• 1. Awake, O my harp, thy cords, in praise of Mary the Virgin.Lift up thy voice, and sing the generation utterly marvelous of this virgin David's daughter, whi hath brought forth life to the world.

2. The lover with admiration wonders at her; whilst the curious searcher is suffused with shame and his ear is stopped up, lest he should dare to pry into the Mother who brought forth in virginity inviolate....

12. In Mary's womb became an infant He who from eternity is equal to the Father. He gave us part in His own greatness, and Himself made acquisition of our weakness. Mortal was He made along with us, that by infusing us His life, we might die no more.

16. Mary is the garden upon which descended from the Father the rain of benedictions. Form that rain she herself sprinkled the face of Adam. Whereupon he returned to life, and arose from the sepulchre-he who had been buried by his foes in hell.

20. Lo, a virgin is become a mother, preserving virginity with its seals unbroken...She is made God's Mother and is at the same time a servant, and the work of His wisdom.

21. The Virgin, who gave birth to the Only-Begotten, has nurtured God and Man, has become Mother of the hidden Little One, who of the Father was born perfect and is made an Ifant in her womb.

24. In Eden Eve became a debtor, and the debt whereby her posterity in their generation were doomed to death was written in letter large. The Serpent, that wicked scrivener, wrote it out, signed and gave it force with the seal of his fraud.

26. Eve was a debtor to sin. But for Mary the debt was reserved that the daughter might pay her mother's debts and tear up the handwriting that had handed on her mother's tears as a legacy to all generations.

27. Mary carried Fire in her hands and embraced Flame with her arms. To the Flame she gave her breasts to suck, to the Nourisher of all she gave of her milk, Who can poossibly tell of her?

30. Since Mary was the Virgin inviolate-prefigured by the blest land of Eden before its surface was torn by furrows-there blossomed from her bosom the Tree of life, the taste of which...gives life to souls.

45. Let the word of life be sent by Thy Majesty to the dwelling place of the dead, and say to Eve lying in the sepulchre: "Thy daughter, with virginity unimpaired, has brought forth the Child who will pay thy debt."

51. Blessed art thou, Mary, daughter of David; and blessed is the Fruit which thou hast given us. Blessed the Father who sent His Son for our salvation, and blessed the Spirit Advocate who has taught us her mystery. Blessed be His Name.

• Hymns on Blessed Mary, 18 (Lamy,2, 605-619; tr. based on Livius,pp. 427 ff.). As reported in Father Paul Palmer, SJ, Mary in the Documents of the Church, p. 16-18 (of 129), Lowe and Brydone (printers) Ltd, London L.W. 10, for Burns Oates and Washbourne Ltd, 28 Ashley Place, London, S.W.I. (with nihil obstat by E.A Cerny, S.S, D.D., and imprimatur by Franciscus P. Keough, D.D., Archbishop of Baltimore, given on 23 November 1951). OCLC 3286267.