Kyrie Eleison - Lord Have Mercy
“Kyrie Eleison” means “Lord, Have Mercy” in Greek.
When you start looking into Orthodoxy, you will see this phrase everywhere.
Where did it come from?
The Wikipedia entry is interesting. Here are a few notes I took away.
It’s a very ancient prayer. Earliest Christians adapted what they saw in Scripture to their own lives.
I’m consistently amazed at how Biblical are the traditions of Orthodox and Catholic Christians — traditions I used to see as those merely passed down by men!
The phrase is found throughout the Psalms — (4:1, 6:2, 9:13, 25:16, 27:7, 30:10, 31:9, 51:1, 86:16, 123:3).
In Matthew 15:22, the Canaanite woman cries out to Jesus, “Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David.” In Matthew 17:15, the father of a demon possessed boy pleads, “Lord, have mercy on my son.” In Matthew 20:30, two unnamed blind men call out to Jesus, “Lord, have mercy on us, Son of David.”
In Luke 18, in Christ’s parable, it is the tax collector who beats his chest and cries “God, have mercy on me, a sinner” who is forgiven, not the Pharisee, who believes he has no need of forgiveness.
I never knew this before, but this passage in Luke is likely the origin of the Jesus prayer. “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.”
In Western Christian traditions, the “Lord, have mercy” is used in liturgical responses.
One of my favorite ways to pray this prayer is through song. Here are some of my favorite versions.
It’s especially beautiful to see it adapted to different countries and cultures.
- Divna Ljubojevic — Serbian
2. Vineyard Worship — American
3. Ethiopian Version
4. Old Roman Chant
5. Bach in B Minor
6. Lebanese
7. Arabic — this is a fun one :)
