OF GREGOR

MONK OF THE NAREK CLOISTER

BOOK OF LAMENTATION

An ornamental horizontal divider with floral and scrollwork motifs.

DISCOURSE ONE

FROM THE DEPTHS OF THE HEART

CONVERSATION WITH GOD

A. The sound of the sighs of my heart’s groaning I offer up to you, O Seer of secrets. And having placed the fruit of the desires of my trembling mind into the fire of my soul’s affliction, I send it forth to you with the censer of my will. But do you, O Merciful One, smell and behold it—more than the holocaust offered in the smoke of anger. Receive this small, articulated composition of words for your pleasure, and not in anger. May it rise from the depths of the sensory chambers of my soul, swiftly reaching you as a voluntary gift of a rational sacrifice, burned by the power of the fat that is the abundance within me. And when I place myself in judgment with you, mingled with supplication, O Powerful One, let it not appear before you as the lifting of the hands of the wicked Jacob—according to the protest of Isaiah the prophet—or as the injustice of Babylon a symbol of pride and wickedness, which the parable of the seventy-second Psalm indicates. Rather, may it be as the shadowed, pleasing incense in the tabernacle of Shiloh an ancient sanctuary of Israel, which David the King and Psalmist established and restored for the ark of rest returned from captivity—which is a parable of the recovery of the lost soul—and may it be acceptable to your will.