Priest: Let us complete our prayer to the Lord.
People: Lord have mercy.

Priest: For the precious gifts here presented, let us pray to the Lord
People: Lord have mercy.

Priest: For this holy house and for those who enter it with faith, reverence, and the fear of God, let us pray to the Lord.
People: Lord have mercy.

Priest: For our deliverance from all affliction, wrath, danger, and distress, let us pray to the Lord.
People: Lord have mercy.

Priest: Help us, save us, have mercy upon us, and protect us, O God, by Your grace.
People: Lord have mercy.

Priest: For a perfect, holy, peaceful and sinless day, let us ask the Lord.
People: Grant this, O Lord.

Priest: For an angel of peace, a faithful guide, a guardian of our souls and bodies, let us ask the Lord.
People: Grant this, O Lord.

Priest: For forgiveness and remission of our sins and transgressions, let us ask the Lord.
People: Grant this, O Lord.

Priest: For all that is good and beneficial to our souls, and for peace in the world, let us ask the Lord.
People: Grant this, O Lord.

Priest: For the completion of our lives in peace and repentance, let us ask the Lord.
People: Grant this, O Lord.

Priest: For a Christian end to our lives, peaceful, without shame and suffering, and for a good account before the judgment seat of Christ, let us ask the Lord.
People: Grant this, O Lord.

Priest: Remembering our most holy, pure, blessed, and glorious Lady, the Theotokos and ever Virgin Mary, with all the saints, let us commit one another and our whole life to Christ our God.
Priest: To You, O Lord.

Priest: (in a low voice) Lord, God Almighty, You alone are holy. You accept a sacrifice of praise from those that call upon You with their whole heart. Receive also the prayer of us sinners and let it reach Your holy altar. Enable us to bring before You gifts and spiritual sacrifices for our sins and for the transgressions of the people. Make us worthy to find grace in Your presence, so that our sacrifice may be pleasing to You, and that Your good and gracious Spirit may abide with us, with the gifts here presented, and with all Your people.

Priest: Through the mercies of Your only begotten Son with Whom You are blessed, together with Your all holy, good and life-giving Spirit, now and forever and to the ages of ages.
People: Amen.

(The Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, pp. 12-14)

The petitions of completion recapitulate the petitions of the Great Litany and add to them six new petitions, more spiritual in nature, to which people respond “Grant this, O Lord.” We ask the Lord boldly, and we are confident that He will grant the petitions of “two or three gathered in [His] name” (cf. Matt. 18:20). Each of these petitions contains a reference to peace—in Greek eirene (pronounced ee-ree-nee). This shows how important is a peaceful state of mind for worshipping God. We cannot approach the Lord in an overexcited, emotional way, but only after receiving the peace from above that He grants.

Although Christ has died on the Cross for our sins, we are in constant need of cleansing ourselves from sin, hence the repeated mention of repentance. The life of a Christian is like a marathon race: it is not enough to have a good start, or even an outstanding first half—we need to finish well, and only then we will be able to give “a good account before the awesome judgment seat of Christ.”

The purpose of this litany is made clear by the silent prayer of the priest: to prepare us for the offering of the gifts. Only God is holy; the rest of us, clergy and laity, are sinners, but we cry out to God with all of our heart and we know that He hears us. Whatever we lack, He provides, so that we are made worthy to witness the great mystery that is about to take place.