Abbot Matthew Stark called to our attention these two Lenten prayers in a homily for Sunday (Lent IV), March 14, 2021.
 

Abbot Matthew Stark

As has been said this is Laetare Sunday, that is, “Rejoice Sunday.” The church rejoices because it is halfway through Lent; only three more weeks to go now, and so for whatever mortifications we have taken upon ourselves. And we look forward to the great feast of Easter. To mark this halfway point, we put aside the purple vestments for this, and the texts of the Mass that are sung are joyful in tone. Here is a prayer which some of you have heard me speak about, called the Lenten Prayer of Saint Ephraim the Syrian. Ephraim was a monk and a deacon in Syria. He died in 373. And this is a reminder to us: Syria, Egypt, North Africa, what we now call Turkey, were once great Catholic, Christian civilizations. The pope has reminded us of that by going to Iraq, which also was at that time a Christian center. All of that was wiped out, has been wiped out, and if you asked people (sort of the right thinking people in those days) why, it was because of the sins of Christians, like the sins of the Jews in the first reading. What about ourselves? Something to think about.

In any case, Ephraim the Syrian, the deacon, was a great teacher of the faith, a great poet, and he wrote a lot about the faith which has become part of the Christian tradition, Christian literature, and he is a Doctor of the Church, that is, he is considered one of the eminent teachers of the Christian church. His prayer, which is called a Lenten prayer, is used in the Eastern Rite churches (that is Greece, Russia, Syria) during the liturgies of Lent. It goes: “Lord and master of my life, take from me the spirit of sloth (laziness), faintheartedness, lust of power, and idle talk. But give rather the spirit of chastity, humility, patience, and love to your servant. Yes, O Lord and King, grant me to see my own errors, my own sins, and not to judge my brothers and sisters. For thou art blessed for ages and ages. Amen.” It seems to me that is a prayer that breeds the very essence of our Lord’s teaching in the gospel. That’s a rather well-known prayer. Dorothy Day used to carry it all the time in her wallet.

Here is another prayer by Saint Ephraim that we could all probably consider saying halfway through Lent. “Sorrow on me, Beloved (the beloved is God, Jesus), that I who am slow to learn and reluctant in my will, that I continue. Behold winter has come upon me and the infinite storm has found me naked and spoiled, and with no perfecting of good in me. I marvel at myself, O my Beloved, how daily I fail and daily do repent. I build up for an hour and an hour overthrows what I have built. At evening I say, tomorrow I will repent, but when morning comes, joyous I waste the day. Again at evening I say I shall keep vigil all night and I shall entreat the Lord to have mercy on my sins it. When the night is come, I go to sleep. Behold, those who receive their talent along with me strive by day and night to trade with it. They may win the word of praise and rule ten cities. But I, in my sloth (in my laziness), hid my talent in the earth and my Lord makes haste to come. And behold, my heart trembles. I weep the day of my negligence and know not what excuse to bring. Have mercy upon me, Thou who alone art without sin, and save me, Who alone art pitiful and kind.”