O God, our God, invisible to the Cherubim and incomprehensible to the Seraphim and unapproachable to all the powers of heaven, who in Your inexpressible love for mankind and unfathomable goodness have united Yourself to our poverty and lowliness, and have bestowed on us Your sinful and unworthy servants the rule of priesthood: as You are good and bounteous in mercy, do You Yourself strengthen me, O Savior who loves mankind, as I prepare to make ready for the service of divine grace entrusted to me. For I come to stand before Your holy Altar which is fearsome and terrible, not trusting in my own power or purity, but trusting in the boundless ocean of Your compassion. For my sins will not triumph over the multitude of Your mercies.
Therefore I pray You, Master who loves mankind, clothe me, Your unworthy servant, with this priestly garment and grace of Your divine and All-holy Spirit. Enlighten the eyes of my mind that I may see the reflection of the brightness of Your grace; give clarity to my tongue to hymn You without fault; keep my intellect from wandering, free my mind from forgetfulness, preserve my entire in Your holiness and fulfil my petitions to You, holy Lord; receive my sacrifice as spotless incense and a divine burnt offering, and grant me the sweetness of Your beauty.
Send down an angel of light to concelebrate and strengthen me, that I may rightly proclaim the word of Your true wisdom and become worthy of receiving Your heavenly and immortal Mysteries; and that, enlightened through them in soul and body, I may be accounted worthy to enjoy Your eternal good things with those who have truly loved and followed Your ordinances. For You have said, O Master, that whatever anyone asks in Your name, he will receive it freely from God Your coeternal Father. Therefore I too, a sinner, beseech Your Deity as I put on my priestly vestment: Give to me unto my salvation whatever I have asked of You, O Lord.
For You love mankind, and are glorified together with Your Father who has no beginning, and Your All-holy and life-giving Spirit, now and ever and to the ages of ages. Amen.
+Prof Panagiotis Trembelas A vesting prayer from a 13th century manuscript, quoted by in The Three Liturgies according to the Athenian Code
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