‘Kurielaision’ – ‘Lord, have mercy on us’

‘KURIE ELEISON’ – is frequently repeated word in our worship, in Churches and in our personal prayers. They are repeated in litanies, which consist of short petitions, each of which ends with the words ‘KURIE–ELEISON’. There are many other services during which “Lord have mercy on us” is repeated many times, Constantly, Insistently, Repentantly, Consistently, lamentably and Earnestly (CIRCLE) to the extent that the word has permeated into Orthodox worship and prayer. Our prayers rise to the Triune God and showers of blessing and dews of God’s mercies are sprinkled on us all. Its simplicity belies in the depth of meaning, human frailty and sinfulness and brokenness of heart. The plea and tears encapsulates compassion and forgiveness. It is used as either as a cry of repentance or as a prayer for God’s mercy in all aspects of life. Kurie-Eleison is the gateway to God’s mercy is repentance, in the rich tapestry of Christian Worship, carrying profound meaning, historical significance, profound reverences, timeless melodies and enduring relevance. The sacred Christian phrase that has resonated through centuries of worship, reflecting the human yearning for divine mercy and grace, can be sung or chanted, spoken or cried. Kurie Eleison (Greek for ‘Lord have mercy on us’) is an incredibly old, even pre-Christian, expression used in all Christian liturgies. Kyrielaision has a rich history, a profound meaning and is a timeless phrase, requesting for mercy before a formal prayer as well a communal, congregational response during worship Orthodox as well as various Christian Churches. A more obvious precedent for Christian use was the occurrence of the same formula in the Old Testament –
Psalm 4: 1 – Answer me when I call to you, my righteous God. Give me relief from my distress; have mercy on me and hear my prayer.
Psalm 6: 2 – Have mercy on me, Lord, for I am faint; heal me, Lord, for my bones are in agony.
Psalm 9: 13 – Lord, see how my enemies persecute me! Have mercy and lift me up from the gates of death.
Psalm 51: 1 – Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion, blot out my transgressions.
Psalm 57: 1 – Have mercy on me, my God, have mercy on me, for in you I take refuge. I will take refuge in the shadow of your wings, until the disaster has passed.
Psalm 123: 3 – Have mercy on us, Lord, have mercy on us, for we have endured no end of contempt. Isaiah Psalm 33: 2 – Lord, be gracious to us; we long for you. Be our strength every morning, our salvation in time of distress.
Tobit 8: 4 – When the parents had gone out and shut the door of the room, Tobias got out of bed and said to Sarah, ‘Sister, get up, and let us pray and implore our Lord that He grant us mercy and safety.’
In all these places it seems already to be a seemingly liturgical exclamation.

In the New Testament, the form occurs repeatedly –
Matt. 9: 27 –  As Jesus went on from there, two blind men followed him, crying loudly, “Have mercy on us, Son of David!”
Matt 20: 30 – Have mercy upon us, O Lord, have mercy upon us, for we have had more than enough of contempt.
Mark. 10: 47 – When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout out and say, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”
Luke 16: 24 – He called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am in agony in these flames.
Luke 17: 13 – they called out, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!”
Luke 18: 13 – But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even look up to heaven, but was beating his breast and saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’
Luke 18: 38 – Then he shouted, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”

“Lord, have mercy”, “Kyrie eleison” or “Kurielaision” is found in the liturgical worship from at least the 3rd, 4th century and its use in Christian prayer may well be ancient. To ask for divine mercy is not to be seen as something gloomy and exclusively penitential. While the cry for mercy certainly involves sorrow for sin, it speaks also of divine forgiveness. It affirms that God’s loving kindness and compassion are greater than our brokenness and guilt.

The Theme of God’s Mercy is brought out in the Gospel reading of the Pharisee and the Publican. “God, be merciful to me the sinner,” prayed the Publican. His only plea was for mercy, Kurie Eleison! This is foundation of the most precious prayers of the Orthodox Church ­ the Jesus Prayer, that claims nothing but God’s mercy: “Lord Jesus, Son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner.”

The same theme is vividly seen in one of the most used Psalms in Orthodox worship services – Psalm 51. In this Psalm, David asks God’s mercy for his sins and proclaims that God’s steadfast love and mercy are greater than the sins of His creatures:“Have mercy on me, O God, according to thy steadfast love. According to Thy abundant mercy, blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin” (Ps. 51: 1-2). – Daivame Ninte Krupa pole enonudu karuna cheyaname….

Many people approached our Lord Jesus with this simple prayer, “Kyrie eleison“, “Lord, have mercy”:

• The Theme of God’s Mercy is brought out in the Gospel reading of the Pharisee and the Publican. “God, be merciful to me the sinner,” prayed the Publican. •His only plea was for mercy, Kyrie Eleison! (Lk. 18: 9 -14)
• The Canaanite woman whose daughter was tormented by a devil. She persisted in her plea for mercy until her daughter was healed. ²² Just then a Canaanite woman from that region came out and started shouting, “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is tormented by a demon.” (Matt. 15: 22)
• The man whose son was possessed by an evil spirit that threw him into the fire. He came to Jesus with the plea Kurie eleison. ¹⁵and said, “Lord, have mercy on my son, The prayer was answered, and his son was healed. (Matt. 17: 14 -21)
• The two blind men sitting by the road outside Jericho who cried out to Jesus, Kurie eleison. Have mercy on us, Lord, Son of David. That cry was heard by Jesus who healed both. (Matt. 20: 30, Matt. 9: 27)
• In Jericho, as Jesus and his disciples, together with a large crowd, were leaving the city, a blind man, Bartimaeus (which means “son of Timaeus”), was sitting by the roadside begging. He began to shout, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” (Mark 10: 46-47, Luke 18: 35)
• Jesus is left alone with the adulteress. Misery is left alone face to face with mercy. And she hears from the mouth of Jesus the words, “Neither do I condemn thee. Go and sin no more.” That is God’s mercy!
• The tax collector stood at a distance, not even looking up to heaven, beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner. (Luke 18: 13)
• As He was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy met him. They stood at a distance and called out in a loud voice, “Jesus, Master, have pity on us!” (Luke 17: 13)
• In all these instances Kurie eleison was a cry of sincere faith, that came from their hearts, a cry of desperate need and dependence on Jesus. It was prayer that people recited thoughtfully, sincerely – a cry from the heart. God will not despise such a prayer.
• When we pray ‘Kurielaision’ we are asking for us to continue to experience that salvation in Christ. The same theme of God’s mercy is expressed in the Gospel lesson of the Prodigal Son. The Prodigal Son, comes the merciful God, saying, I have sinned against Thee, I have wasted my whole life in a foreign land; I have scattered the wealth, which You gave me, O Father. “Receive me in repentance, O God, and have mercy upon me.”

“The word mercy in English is the translation of the Greek word eleos, has the same ultimate root as the old Greek word for oil, or more precisely, olive oil; a substance which was used extensively as a soothing agent for bruises and minor wounds. The oil was poured onto the wound and gently massaged in, thus soothing, comforting and making whole the ‘injured part. We see this in the Parable of the ‘Good Samaritan’, when smeared oil, to mollify the man’s bleeding wounds.

The Hebrew word which is also translated as eleos and mercy means steadfast love. The word ‘Kurie, eleison’ ­ would mean, ‘Lord, soothe me, comfort me, take away my pain, show me your steadfast love.’ ‘Eleos’ is defined as “mercy; kindness or good will toward the miserable and afflicted, joined with a desire to relieve them. Thus, mercy refers, to the infinite loving-kindness of God, and His compassion for His suffering children! It is in this sense that we pray ‘Lord, have mercy,’ with great frequency throughout the Divine Liturgy.”

This most repeated words in the liturgy are the prayer Kyrie Eleison, Lord, have mercy on us, is repeated, again and again, ten, twenty, thirty, forty, a hundred times. The Meaning of Kyrie Eleison is ‘Have mercy upon us, O God, according to your great mercy, we beseech you. Without this prayer Christianity would be a philosophy, a history, a code but not a religion that saves. This expression is appropriate, since we should not ask for anything except for mercy, as we have neither boldness nor access to offer anything as our own. So, as sinners and condemned through sin we cannot, nor dare not, say anything to our Loving Master except ‘have mercy.’ This mercy of God was shown to us in its full depth when Christ sacrificed for us on the Cross. The aim of such repetition is to imbue our hearts, our minds, our entire souls with the prayer, to focus our attention on prayer, that is important for our spiritual growth. This repetition, penetrates our consciousness and remains long in our memory, staying with us even as we leave the church for our everyday existences.

On the Feast of Pentecost in our Church, as it is truly clear in the message of Christ, repentance is the only way to attain the Kingdom of God. Receiving the renewal of Holy Spirit is the sign and expression of becoming a member in the Kingdom of God. The Church kneeling down and crying Kurielaision is the most genuine and powerful expression of real repentance. There is no other way to invoke the Holy Spirit than our real repentance and confession. In our litanical prayers, canonical prayers and in Sacramental prayers of Baptism and Ordination, the people respond by ‘Kurielaison‘. In the Nicene Creed Jesus and the Holy Spirit are addressed as your Lord. ‘Kurielaison‘ is confined to Church walls, but extends to individual moments for sincere, silent reflections and earnest prayers, yielding to express a constant need need of God’s mercy, encouraging a spirit of humility and yielding seeking God’s forgives.

We dare not stand before the throne of God and ask that we be given what we deserve. Our only cry is, “Lord, be merciful” And the miracle is that there is mercy. At the very heart of the universe beats the heart of God’s love. “I tell you,” said Jesus about the publican, “this man went down to his house justified rather than the other.” “Lord have mercy.” Just three words, but what depth of meaning do they hold. By calling God “Lord“, we confirm the rule of Triune God over the world, the mankind and most importantly, over ourselves, ‘servants’ of God, over those who speak these words – ‘Lord’.

Our service to God is far from perfect. Every day, every hour we flee from that blessed Servitude. We flee from perfect joy to the bottomless pit of sorrow. Then, we awake spiritually, we return to our senses, we begin to under- stand that we have nowhere to go, when we flee God, except to death. As King David said: “Whither shall I go from Thy spirit and from Thy countenance whither shall I flee?” (Ps. 139: 7). We return to God, after a momentary absence, or after many years of alienation. So, to reestablish our filial servitude to Him, the servitude from which we are constantly fleeing, we beg for forgiveness and repeat – have mercy, have mercy.

These minor words, these few words of prayer with which we can always pray in all places “Lord have mercy on us.” It is good to value them, cherish and nurture them. They are our praying beads made up of words and they link our hand with the right hand of the Lord. “Let us hasten to call forth His mercy by repentance and tears.”

“Lord, have mercy” is a short prayer that is important in Christian worship. It is a prayer from the heart about human need. God owes us nothing. Everything He gives comes from His mercy. Lord, have mercy”. A sacred Christian phrase that has resonated through centuries of worship, reflecting, the human yearning for divine worship.

In peace and tears, let us pray to the Lord, help us, comfort us, soothe us, save us and defend us!

Jesus Prayer is a short, repetitive that evolved from the prayers of desert fathers, “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God have mercy on me, a sinner”.