United In Prayer - Beginning of Jonah's Fast, Nineveh Lent (Coptic Orthodox and Syriac Orthodox Churches)

“When my life was ebbing away, I remembered you, Lord, and my prayer rose to you, to your holy temple” (Jonah 2: 7)

In my distress I called to the Lord, and he answered me. From deep in the realm of the dead I called for help, and you listened to my cry. You hurled me into the depths, into the very heart of the seas, and the currents swirled about me; all your waves and breakers swept over me. I said, ‘I have been banished from your sight; yet I will look again toward your holy temple.’ The engulfing waters threatened me, the deep surrounded me; seaweed was wrapped around my head. To the roots of the mountains I sank down; the earth beneath barred me in forever. But you, Lord my God, brought my life up from the pit (from the Prayer of Jonah from inside the fish, Jonah 2: 1-6).