The prayer is simultaneously a petition and a prayer of thanksgiving; an acknowledgment of what God has done, what God is doing, and what God will continue to do. It is refined in the Parable of The Publican (), "God, have mercy on me, a sinner", which shows more clearly its connection with the Jesus Prayer. Since the early centuries of Christianity, the Greek phrase, "Kýrie, eléison", is also extensively used in the Coptic (Egyptian) Christian liturgy, which uses both the Coptic and the Greek languages.