Day 18 No voice. No more. November

Macrina's Prayer

It is you, O Lord, who have freed us from the fear of death. You have made our life here the beginning of our true life. You grant our bodies to rest in sleep for a season and you rouse our bodies again at the last trumpet.

You have given in trust to the earth our earthly bodies, which you have formed with your own hands, and you have restored what you have given, by transforming our mortality and ugliness by our immortality and your grace.

You have delivered us from the curse of the law and from sin, by being made both on our behalf. You have broken the dragon's head - that dragon who seized man by the throat and dragged him through the yawning gulf of disobedience. You have opened for us the way of the resurrection, after breaking the gates of hell, and have destroyed him that had the power of death.

You have given as a token to those who fear you the image of the holy cross, to destroy the adversary and to bring stability to our lives.

Eternal God, for whom I was snatched from my mother's womb, whom my soul loved with all its strength, to whom I consecrated my flesh from youth now, entrust to me an angel of light, who will lead me by the hand to the place of refreshment, where the "water of repose" is, in the bosom of the holy patriarchs.

May you, who cut through the fire of the flaming sword and assigned to paradise him who was crucified with you and entrusted to your pity, remember me too in your kingdom, because I too have been crucified with you; from fear of you I have nailed down my flesh and have been in fear of your judgments.

May the terrible gulf not separate me from those whom you have chosen, nor may the malignant Enemy set himself across my path, nor may my sin be discovered in your sight, if having error through the weakness of our human nature, I have committed any sin in word and in deed.

May you who have power on earth to forgive sins, forgive me, that I may draw breath and that I may be found in your presence, "having shed by body and without spot or wrinkle" in the form of my soul, and that my soul may be innocent and spotless and may be received into your hands like incense in your presence.

A the time of her death, there was a procession from the monastery to the church and this included many local people, both lay and clergy. A bishop presided at her funeral and she is buried in the Church of the Holy Martyrs in modern day Turkey. She is considered one of the Cappadocian "Fathers" according to many church history scholars. Her brothers, St. Basil and St. Gregory of Nyssa were credited with much of her work.Gregory served as pope and was with her at the time of her death. He saw her stretch out her hands to Jesus and gently and barely audibly pray. For more of her story, see the work of Kevin Corrigan and Laura Swan's The Forgotten Desert Mothers.

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