Orthodox prayers for someone who died by suicide

These prayers ask God’s mercy for the one you lost and comfort for those left behind. Ask your priest about a funeral.

Picture: Isaac Levitan, Above Eternal Peace, 1894

3 prayers

For the one who died

Prayer of St Leo of Optina

Seek out, O Lord, the lost soul of Your servant (name).If it is possible, have mercy.Your judgments are unsearchable.Do not count this prayer of mine against me as a sin,but let Your holy will be done.

Traditional wording

O Lord, watch over the perished soul of my father,and if it be possible, have mercy upon him.Thy judgments are unfathomable.Do not consider this my prayer to be a sin,but may Thy holy will be done.

The Russian Church gives families these words of St Leo of Optina to pray at home, with a priest’s blessing. They ask God’s mercy and leave the one you love in His hands.

Plain English by Wiser Walk, from the Church Slavonic printed by the Russian Holy Synod in 2011, with an English translation from St Nicholas Orthodox Church in McKinney, Texas, beside it. How the wording is made. Traditional wording: St Nicholas Orthodox Church, McKinney, Gleanings from Orthodox Christian Authors and the Holy Fathers.

This English gives the prayer as St Leo first wrote it, for the disciple’s father. The plain wording follows the form the Russian Church prints, with a place for any name.

Where it comes from, and the Church Slavonic

If you are thinking of harming yourself, call or text 988 in the United States. If you are in danger right now, call 911 or your local emergency number. You do not have to carry this alone.

For the family

Prayer for the family after a suicide

Plain English only: no traditional English wording is given for this prayer

O Master, Lord, merciful and loving toward mankind,we cry out to You:we have sinned and done wrong before You.We have broken Your saving commandments,and we did not show the love of the Gospelto our brother or sister who despaired.

But do not rebuke us in Your anger,nor discipline us in Your wrath.O Master, Lover of mankind,ease and heal the grief of our hearts.Let the multitude of Your compassionsovercome the abyss of our sins,and let the depths of Your goodness, beyond all counting,cover the bitter sea of our tears.

Yes, O sweetest Jesus, we pray to You once more:give Your servants, the family of the one who took their own life,comfort in their sorrowand firm hope in Your mercy.

For You are a merciful God Who loves mankind,and we send up glory to You,with Your Father, Who is without beginning,and Your all-holy, good and life-giving Spirit,now and always and for ever and ever.

A priest prays this with the family in the rite of consolation the Russian Church approved in 2011. It asks Christ to ease their grief and give them “firm hope in Your mercy”.

Plain English by Wiser Walk, from the Church Slavonic of the 2011 rite. No English translation was found, so the English is our own. How the wording is made.

Where it comes from, and the Church Slavonic

When grief is heaviest

Out of the depths (Psalm 130)

Out of the depths I cry to You, O LORD.Lord, hear my voice.Let Your ears listen closelyto the sound of my pleading.

If You, LORD, kept a record of sins,O Lord, who could stand?But with You there is forgiveness,so that You may be held in awe.

I wait for the LORD, my soul waits,and in His word I put my hope.My soul waits for the Lordmore than watchmen wait for the morning,more than watchmen for the morning.

Israel, put your hope in the LORD,for with the LORD there is mercy,and with Him is abundant redemption.He Himself will redeem Israelfrom all its sins.

Traditional wording, 1611

Out of the depths have I cried unto Thee, O LORD.Lord, hear my voice: let Thine ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications.

If Thou, LORD, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand?But there is forgiveness with Thee, that Thou mayest be feared.

I wait for the LORD, my soul doth wait, and in His word do I hope.My soul waiteth for the Lord more than they that watch for the morning: I say, more than they that watch for the morning.

Let Israel hope in the LORD: for with the LORD there is mercy, and with Him is plenteous redemption.And He shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities.

The psalm cries to God out of the depths and ends on the hope that “with the LORD there is mercy”.

Plain English by Wiser Walk, from the Hebrew, with the King James Version beside it. How the wording is made. Traditional wording: The King James translators, The King James Version, 1611.

Where it comes from, and the original

Scripture for this

Trust in Him at all times, O people; pour out your hearts before Him. God is our refuge. Selah

Psalm 62:8 The psalm tells God’s people to trust Him at all times and pour out their hearts before Him.

²⁸“Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. ²⁹Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. ³⁰For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

Matthew 11:28-30 Christ calls all who are weary and burdened to come to Him for rest.

¹³As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear Him. ¹⁴For He knows our frame; He is mindful that we are dust.

Psalm 103:13-14 God has a father’s compassion. He knows how we are made and remembers that we are dust.

O, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments, and untraceable His ways!

Romans 11:33 Paul marvels that God’s judgments are unsearchable and His ways beyond tracing. St Leo’s prayer echoes him.

¹⁸Who is a God like You, Who pardons iniquity and passes over the transgression of the remnant of His inheritance—Who does not retain His anger forever, because He delights in loving devotion? ¹⁹He will again have compassion on us; He will vanquish our iniquities. You will cast out all our sins into the depths of the sea.

Micah 7:18-19 Micah praises God, Who delights in mercy and will again have compassion on us.

Bible text: Berean Standard Bible, public domain.

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