Heavenly King, Comforter, Soul of truth, Who is everywhere and fulfills everything, Treasure of good things and Giver of life, come and dwell in us, and cleanse us from all filth, and save, O Good One, our souls.
Heavenly King, Comforter, Soul of truth... Giver of life (vocative case) - O Heavenly King, Comforter, spirit of truth... Giver of life! Who is everywhere - You, Omnipresent (located everywhere): like - who; syy – existing, existing, located, abiding; and fulfilling everything - and filling everything with Himself, and also replenishing and improving everything; fulfill - (participle of the verb fulfill) - fill, complete, complete; The treasure of the good is the treasury, the source of all good (all good); in us - in us; Better (also vocative case) - Save, O Good One, our souls!
+ This is a prayer to the Holy Spirit as the Person of the Holy Trinity.
To the Heavenly King: The Holy Spirit, as God, reigns over the entire universe, so that everything is in His power and authority.
Jesus Christ called Him the Comforter and Spirit of truth in a secret conversation with his disciples at the Last Supper:
But the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, will teach you all things and remind you of everything that I have said to you (John 14:26).
But when the Comforter comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me (John 15:26).
When He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all truth... He will glorify Me, because He will take of Mine and declare it to you (John 16:13-14).
The Holy Spirit, having descended on the apostles after the Ascension of the Lord, comforted them in their separation from the Lord, and they rejoiced that He dwelt in them and began to guide them into all truth. In the same way, the Holy Spirit can comfort us in sorrow and misfortune and give us every good and knowledge of the truth.
Life to the Giver... These words of prayer correspond with the words of the 8th member of the Creed: And in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the Life-Giving... In the “Long Christian Catechism” of St. Philaret it is explained: “This should be understood in such a way that He, together with God the Father and the Son, gives life to all created things, and especially spiritual life to people.”
We turn to the Holy Spirit at the beginning of our prayers, since the gift of true prayer is also the gift of the Holy Spirit:
“Whoever thinks that he is praying in a real way without the Holy Spirit, even though he glorifies God with hymns, he is blaspheming Him, since he is unclean and has not yet made friends with God.”
Venerable Simeon the New Theologian
(Philokalia, vol. 5)
“The Holy Spirit teaches true prayer. No one, until he receives the Holy Spirit, can pray such a prayer that is truly pleasing to God. Because if someone, not having the Holy Spirit within him, begins to pray, then his soul is scattered in different directions, from one thing to another, and he cannot keep his thoughts on one thing, and moreover, he does not properly know himself, nor his needs, nor how to ask and what to ask from God, and he does not know who God is. But the person in whom the Holy Spirit dwells knows God and sees that He is his Father; knows how to approach Him and how to ask, and what to ask from Him. His thoughts in prayer are harmonious, pure and directed towards one object - God; and with his prayer he can definitely do everything.”
Saint Innocent, Metropolitan of Moscow
NOTE: From Easter to Ascension, instead of this prayer, the troparion of Easter is read:
Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, and giving life to those in the tombs. (Thrice)
From Ascension to Trinity, we begin the prayers of the cell rule (morning and at bedtime) with the Holy God, omitting all the previous ones.
This remark also applies to future bedtime prayers.
+ The prayer to the Holy Spirit is not read from Easter to Trinity - during the period when, after the Crucifixion and Resurrection of Christ, we symbolically await the Descent of the Holy Spirit. For the first time after the break, this prayer will be heard at the all-night vigil of the feast of Pentecost, or Trinity.
To the King, the Comforter, the Soul, the Giver, the Better - all these are forms of the vocative case, which is always used when addressing. When we say: Lord, God, Jesus Christ, Our Father, this is also the vocative case.
Treasure of the good: the good will give birth. plural case numbers avg. kind. In the Church Slavonic language, in the generalized meaning of a noun, neuter adjectives are often used, not only singular, as in modern Russian, but also plural: good - good, or all good things, rich - wealth, Holy of Holies - literally: The Holy of the Holy; good and useful to our souls...we ask the Lord (from the litany of petition) - we ask the Lord for good and useful (or: good and benefit) to our souls; You have shown me the unknown and secret of Your wisdom (Ps. 50:8) - the unknown (hidden) and secret (that is, the hidden secret) of Your wisdom You have shown to me.