Book of Prayers

A rectangular ink stamp oriented vertically in the right margin contains Armenian text, including "OF GRIGORY" and "OF THE HOLY SEE".

A WORD TO THE READER

The fruits of divine providence, appearing through the ages for the benefit of those born of the Armenian race, prompt a grateful mind not only to recognize the selection of diverse gifts with certainty, but also to recognize with respect those through whose hands these gifts are bestowed, and to receive them with modesty.

Rightly, among the number of heavenly gifts, one must also count the prayer-offering volume of our most blessed father, Grigor Narekatsi Gregory of Narek; a work indeed to which no equal has yet been found in other nations, standing high at the summit. And the pen of praise reminds one not only of the first cause—the divine source—but also of the second cause—the caretaker of the writing—who, with supreme glory, carries it to the likeness of the original holy men.

A new Moses has appeared, bringing to the Armenians from the high and honorable monastery of Narek these tablets of prayer, just as that ancient one brought the laws to Israel from the solitude of Sinai. He is the spirit-filled David of the Armenian Church, who with intellectual lyres passed before the spiritual ark, not moving bodily in the tabernacles of celebration, but stripping the secret sins of the soul bare for the sight of the world, of angels, and of men. He is the prototype for penitents, having genially composed songs of confession for the study of the repentant. He does not take the laments of others into his mouth, like Saul or Abner (2 Samuel 1:18, 4:34), but puts the frailty of his own self into song to be heard by God, with the hope of resurrection.

And what else is more familiar than for me to depict him in the ancient manner, both by name and by veneration? A new illuminator, a second Gregory, who bequeathed to us the boundary of prayer, as the first did for the faith. To the patriarch Jacob, a desirable Joseph. The text ends with a partially legible word "tsankali" (desirable).