522 HERMETIC LITERATURE
THE PRAYER OF
THANKSGIVING
1
This is the prayer they^2 offered:
We thank you,
every soul and heart reaches out to you,
O name free of trouble,
honored with the designation god,
praised with the designation father.
To all and all things come fatherly kindness and affection and love.
And if the instruction is sweet and simple,^3
it grants us mind, word, and knowledge:
mind, that we may understand you,
word, that we may interpret you,
knowledge, that we may know you.
We are happy,
enlightened by your knowledge.
We are happy.
You have taught us about yourself.
We are happy.
While we were still in the body
you have made us divine through your knowledge.
The thanksgiving of those approaching you is only this:
that we know you.
We have known you,
light of mind.
Life of life,
we have known you.
i. The Prayer of Thanksgiving: Nag Hammadi Codex VI,7 (pp. 63,33 to 65,7); translated from
the Coptic by Marvin Meyer.- In the present context, those offering the prayer must be the teacher and the student of the
Discourse on the Eighth and Ninth. - Here the Greek reads: "To all and all things you have shown fatherly kindness, affection, love,
and even sweeter action" (the verb "come" in the English translation given here is only implied
in the Coptic text).