Book of Prayers

...we have not noted the source and origin of every testimony from the Holy Scriptures that the blessed Vardapet frequently uses, so as not to drag things out excessively; rather, we have only ensured to make known those that are unfamiliar, whether due to their location or meaning, or those in which there was something worthy of knowing.

We have taken special care not to run greedily after foreign writings, or to tirelessly stir up issues for the sake of debate. We have not undertaken to build fortresses or battlements here, by which we might appear as scavengers of words or combatants. That we leave to other books. This is a book of interpretations, intended for examining the mind of the words with accuracy and for listening with truth-seeking discipleship. We desire that the holy Vardapet himself may speak his own words. We shall be the cud-chewers a metaphor for reflecting and meditating on the text of what is spoken, to take and give the taste of the word, and not to become grandiloquent in our own person by extracting doctrine from his mouth. For fear that the aspirational nature of the prayer forms, if changed into a doctrinal form, might lose its sweetness.

And now, having strengthened our minds with such reverence, and having raised our petitions to the same blessed intercessor himself, we shall follow his difficult-to-attain words. If we reach anything, it is by grace, and if we remain behind due to our inability to reach, our moderation is not unknown to us. Let the arena be given to others who are quick-witted.

But in our examination of the meaning of these prayerful words, we, the readers, should also learn and ask for the desires of their supplication from within, for this does not come under examination, nor is it shaped by words. As the taster of prayers, the Lambronatsi angel referring to Nerses of Lambron, expressed with certainty, explaining in his book of the Liturgy the prayers of the Holy Spirit, which are in chapter 50: He says, "It is incorporeal and immaterial, somehow, for the word of prayer to come into being. For it has its own yoke-mate and the salt of sweetness in its own yearning, the initial stirring of the soul, which the salt of the scriptures is always lacking; but to embody this with words was impossible, and to seek this without his own experience is impossible... But whoever has passed through his experience may know it." And after that, he adds, "To bring this down into words and narrate it is a degradation of grace, and to recognize it through learning is beyond the reach of the listener... Do not think to know or learn at all from outsiders, until the information of it springs forth from within you; and when you learn, then you are confirmed in yourself that you do not know."

And truly, I consider this sufficient reward for my sweat and rest for my labors, if in becoming informed about the meaning of these prayers and the information of their desires, I take the measure into myself. And in this are the intentions of my desires for those who are in need, and for those who are like myself; and I am not without hope of reception. For if the Vardapet, who was sent by God, was an intercessor on earth for his own evildoers (in chapters 55, 57, 77), how will he not overlook the worthy longing of his laborers in heaven?