A Prayer for Help Against the Serpent

Those who have escaped the dangers of the sea are often terrified of the sandbanks that stretch out in front of the harbor, or of the rocks that line the shore. It is the same with me. I have kept some of the heretics’ slanders for the end, and so, although I have reached the limit of the work I set myself, I am beginning to dread the close I had longed to reach. But as the prophet says, “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear what man can do to me.” So we will not fear the pits that crafty heretics have dug in front of us, or the paths thickly strewn with horrid thorns. They make our road difficult, but they do not close it, so what lies before us is the labor of clearing them away, rather than the fear of not being able to. For when they come in our way as we walk, feebly, along the right road, they frighten the walkers more than they hurt them. Our work, then, has more to do with clearing them away than with fearing how hard that will be. [a]

And so, laying our hands on that monstrous head of the deadly serpent, and longing to seize all the limbs tangled in the huge folds and coils of its body, again and again we pray to you, Lord Jesus, to whom we have always prayed. Give us words by opening our mouth “for the pulling down of strongholds, destroying counsels and every height that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing every understanding captive to your obedience.” For the one who has begun to be led captive by you is truly free. Be present, then, at this work of yours, and with those of yours who are striving for you beyond the measure of their strength. You make the feet of believers tread unharmed on serpents and scorpions, go upon the adder and the basilisk, and trample the lion and the dragon underfoot. Grant us to bruise the gaping mouths of this new serpent, and its neck swollen with deadly poison. And grant that, through the fearless boldness of steadfast innocence, the nursing child may play over the hole of the asp, and the weaned child may thrust his hand into the den of the basilisk. Grant us also, then, to thrust our hands unharmed into the den of this monstrous and most wicked basilisk. And if it has a lurking place or a resting place in any holes, that is, in the human heart, or has laid its eggs there, or left a trace of its slimy track, remove from them all the foul and deadly pollution of this most poisonous serpent. Take away the uncleanness their blasphemy has brought on them. With the winnowing fan of your sacred cleansing, purify the souls that are sunk in stinking mud, so that the “dens of thieves” may become “houses of prayer.” And in those souls which are now, as it is written, dwellings where hedgehogs and monsters and satyrs and all kinds of strange creatures live, let the gifts of your Holy Spirit, the beauty of faith and holiness, shine out.

Once you destroyed idolatry and cast out images. You made shrines of virtue out of the temples of demons, let the rays of shining light into the dens of serpents and scorpions, and made homes of beauty and splendor out of the dens of error and shame. So now pour the light of your compassion and truth on all whose eyes the darkness of heretical obstinacy has blinded, so that at last, with clear and unveiled sight, they may see the great and life-giving mystery of your incarnation. Then they will come to know that you were born as true man of that sacred womb of a pure Virgin, and yet will acknowledge that you were always true God.