Oh, Most Holy Virgin, Mother of my Lord and Savior! All people flow to You and no one who flows away from You in vain, even if he asks for good. Am I the only one, a gray-haired sinner in prison, who will be forgotten by You? Will you not hear my only prayer? Will you not accept me, who comes running to You, under Your roof? Oh, I can’t imagine this happening! Indeed, You are the Mother of the Savior of perishing sinners. For since there is no other God except Jesus Christ, Thy Son, with the Father and the Holy Spirit in one Godhead, so there is no other at the throne of God the closest intercessor, like You, Mother of God! More motherly, Your prayer can do a lot for the goodness of the Lord. Before Him, all things are possible for You. For this reason, according to God, I place all my hope in You. For this reason, I preserve Your pure image in my prison, remembering Your closeness to all those who mourn and are imprisoned. Bring my sinful soul to repentance.
For my iniquities have exceeded my head: how much have I angered my God hitherto with lies, thefts, drunkenness, sedition, hard-heartedness, and lack of conscience. I sin continually in this prison with laziness, dreams, deceptions, disobedience, annoyance to my fellow prisoners and their corruption, theft and murmuring about my fate. To this day I have not had any tears, no tenderness, or I have cried simply from my annoyance. Reconcile me, O Most Blessed One, with God Your Son. Grant me to receive absolution for all my sins in the mystery of repentance, and to partake of the holy Body and Blood of Your Son. Help me from now on to hate my evil passions and fight stronger against sin; For now, even if I repent, little by little I do the same things, and I find myself lying before God. Ask me, Lady Theotokos, for the grace to end the rest of my life in firm repentance. Merciful to sinners, do not despise me, the first of them.
See my troubles, see my bitter life in this prison. Help me to endure my shame, cramped conditions and other prison hardships to the end, so that I don’t fall into despair, so that I don’t dare to blaspheme God’s providence, but only let me grieve and cry for my sins mine, only because of my sorrow for my children and relatives, I am separated from them, but I turn to consolation in prayer. Comfort my father and mother and relatives, who grieve for me, for them I am dead. Most of all, O humane-loving Mother, do not deprive your protection of my wife and child, whom I left behind like a criminal father, because they are not guilty of my sins. Nourish them and keep them healthy and God-fearing. Grant me, finally, to see freedom and kiss my family with tears of joy.
From the depths of my soul I cry to You, Queen of Heaven, from one image of You with the eternal Child, held in Your hand, feel the joy in my heart: do not deny me, be my Patroness in all my needs, in all my fear and despondency, day and night, in health and illness. Ease my mental and physical sorrows, for You are the joy of all who mourn. Be merciful to me not only here, but also there, in the eternal land. Do not leave me without Your intercession on the day of the terrible second coming of my Lord. Hey, Most Holy Theotokos! Then do not forget my faith in You, and my unworthy prayers before You. Yes, having been pardoned for eternity, I will thank You forever and glorify the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.