"Every year during Great Lent, Orthodox Christians recite a short yet deeply poignant prayer attributed to Saint Ephrem the Syrian.
O Lord and Master of my life! Take from me the spirit of sloth, faint-heartedness, lust of power, and idle talk. But give rather the spirit of chastity, humility, patience, and love to Thy servant. Yea, O Lord and King! Grant me to see my own errors and not to judge my brother; For Thou art blessed unto ages of ages. AmenFriends and colleagues have asked if I know the original Syriac version of this prayer. I’m assuming it exists somewhere although I personally have not seen any references to a Syriac manuscript which contains the prayer in this form. Many of Saint Ephrem’s prayers have similar wording and structure. The attribution to Saint Ephrem is also very old.
Working from the English text, I translated the prayer back into Syriac. Please note that this is only an approximation of how the prayer would be written in Syriac and not the actual text by Saint Ephrem. I have also transliterated the Syriac text to demonstrate the pronunciation."
