Kyrie

Kyrie, a transliteration of Greek Κύριε, vocative case of Κύριος (Kyrios), is a common name of an important prayer of Christian liturgy, also called the Kyrie eleison (/ˈkɪərieɪ ɪˈleɪɪsɒn, -sən/; Ancient Greek: Κύριε, ἐλέησον, romanized: Kýrie eléēson, lit. 'Lord, have mercy').Its emphasis is not on us (our sinfulness) but on God’s mercy and salvific action in Jesus Christ. It could just as accurately be translated 'O Lord, you are merciful!' Note that the sample tropes all mention what Christ has done for us, not how we have sinned. For example, “you were sent to heal the contrite,” “you have shown us the way to the Father,” or “you come in word and sacrament to strengthen us in holiness,” leading to further acclamation of God’s praises in the Gloria.We must make every effort to arouse the sense of community within the liturgy, to restore liturgy to the ecclesial plane, where individuals can take their proper place in it…. Liturgical piety involves a total turning from concern with one’s inner state to the attitude and feeling of the Church. It means enlarging the scope of prayer, so often narrow and selfish, to embrace the concerns of the whole Church and, indeed – as in the Our Father – of God.” Kyrie, a transliteration of Greek Κύριε, vocative case of Κύριος (Kyrios), is a common name of an important prayer of Christian liturgy, also called the Kyrie eleison (/ˈkɪərieɪ ɪˈleɪɪsɒn, -sən/; Ancient Greek: Κύριε, ἐλέησον, romanized: Kýrie eléēson, lit. 'Lord, have mercy'). The prayer, 'Kyrie, eleison,' 'Lord, have mercy' derives from a Biblical phrase. Greek ἐλέησόν με κύριε 'have mercy on me, Lord' is the Septuagint translation of thephrase חָנֵּנִי יְהוָה found often in Psalms (4:1,6:2,9:13,25:16,27:7,30:10,31:9,51:1,86:16,123:3) In the New Testament, the Greek phrase occurs three times in Matthew: In the Parable of the Publican and the Pharisee (Luke 18:9-14) the despised tax collector who cries out 'Lord have mercy on me, a sinner' is contrasted with the smug Pharisee who believes he has no need for forgiveness. Luke 17:13 has epistates 'master' instead of kyrios 'lord' (Ἰησοῦ ἐπιστάτα ἐλέησον ἡμᾶς), being less suggestive of the kyrios 'lord' used as euphemism for YHWH in the Septuagint.There are other examples in the text of the gospels without the kyrie 'lord', e.g. Mark 10:46, where blind Bartimaeus cries out, 'Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me.'In the biblical text, the phrase is always personalized by an explicit object (such as, 'on me', 'on us', 'on my son'), while in the Eucharistic celebration it can be seen more as a general expression of confidence in God's love.:293 Τhe phrase Kýrie, eléison (Greek: Κύριε, ἐλέησον), or one of its equivalents in other languages, is one of the most oft-repeated phrases in Eastern Christianity, including the Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Catholic Churches. The various litanies, frequent in that rite, generally have Lord, have mercy as their response, either singly or triply. Some petitions in these litanies will have twelve or even forty repetitions of the phrase as a response. The phrase is the origin of the Jesus Prayer, beloved by Christians of that rite and increasingly popular amongst Western Christians. The biblical roots of this prayer first appear in 1 Chronicles 16:34 ...give thanks to the LORD; for he is good; for his mercy endures for ever... The prayer is simultaneously a petition and a prayer of thanksgiving; an acknowledgment of what God has done, what God is doing, and what God will continue to do. It is refined in the Parable of The Publican (Luke 18:9–14), 'God, have mercy on me, a sinner', which shows more clearly its connection with the Jesus Prayer. Since the early centuries of Christianity, the Greek phrase, Kýrie, eléison, is also extensively used in the Coptic (Egyptian) Christian liturgy, which uses both the Coptic and the Greek language.