Orthodox prayers for your family and friends

Prayers for your whole family and your friends, for relatives living and departed, and for a friend in trouble.

Picture: Carl Larsson, Breakfast under the Big Birch, 1896

3 prayers

For everyone you love

Prayer for family and friends

Save, O Lord, and have mercyon my parents, my brothers and sisters, (name),my relatives,all who are close to my family,and my friends.Grant them Your good gifts,on earth and in heaven.A bow

Traditional wording, 1891

Save, O Lord, and have mercy upon my parents,brothers, and sisters, NN.,and my kinsmen in flesh,and all the neighbours of my family, and my friends;and grant Thy blessings unto themin this world, and in the world to come.

Russian prayer books set this line among the morning prayers, with a bow after it. It names everyone from your parents to your friends and asks God’s good gifts for them, on earth and in heaven.

Plain English by Wiser Walk, from the Church Slavonic, with Shann’s 1891 translation beside it. How the wording is made. Traditional wording: G. V. Shann, Euchology: A Manual of Prayers of the Holy Orthodox Church, 1891.

Where it comes from, and the Church Slavonic

For all your relatives

Prayer for parents and relatives

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

Sovereign Lord, almighty God,You made all things wonderfullyand created everything by Your design.You ordained that children should be bornof a man and a woman,and You commanded us to show love and affectionto our father and mother.

Merciful God, hear me as I cry to Youfor my father and for my mother.In Your providence You were pleasedto give me both of them, lowly as I am.

I cry to You also for my brothers and sistersand for all my family,who are joined to me, a sinner, by blood,both the living and the departed.You, the Lord God of all,know their names and their merits.

Protect them and defend them from all evil,and set them on the way of salvation.Do not let their days come to an enduntil You have forgiven their sinsthrough a true confessionand true amends for all their wrongs,so that when they have laid aside the bodyYou may make them worthy of a share in heaven.

Saviour of the world,You live and reign with God the Father and the Holy Spiritfor ever and ever. Amen.

This Latin prayer of about AD 800 comes from a book that bears the name of Alcuin of York. It prays for your father and mother and every relative, living or departed, and asks God to forgive them and make them worthy of heaven.

Plain English by Wiser Walk, from the Latin in Migne’s Patrologia Latina, without a closing section for those who gave alms to the community. How the wording is made.

Where it comes from, and the Latin

For a friend in trouble

Psalm 20

May the Lord hear you in the day of trouble;may the name of the God of Jacob shield you.May He send you help from the sanctuaryand uphold you from Zion.May He remember all your sacrificesand accept your burnt offering.

May the Lord give you what your heart desiresand fulfil all your plans.We will rejoice in your deliveranceand be lifted up in the name of the Lord our God.May the Lord fulfil all your requests.

Traditional wording, 1906

The Lord hear thee in the day of trouble;the Name of the God of Jacob defend thee:send thee help from the sanctuary,and strengthen thee out of Sion:remember all thy offerings,and accept thy burnt-sacrifice:

grant thee thy heart’s desire,and fulfil all thy mind.We will rejoice in thy salvation,and triumph in the Name of the Lord our God:the Lord perform all thy petitions.

St Athanasius advised Christians to pray this psalm over anyone they saw in trouble. It asks God to hear your friend, send help and give them what their heart desires.

Plain English by Wiser Walk, from the Greek the Orthodox Church prays (verses 1 to 5), with Hapgood’s Service Book beside it. How the wording is made. Traditional wording: Isabel F. Hapgood, Service Book of the Holy Orthodox-Catholic Apostolic Church, 1906.

The Greek says “we will be magnified”, where Hapgood has “triumph”.

Where it comes from, and the Greek

Scripture for this

Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in harmony!

Psalm 133:1 The psalm sings of how good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in harmony.

“But if it is unpleasing in your sight to serve the LORD, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living. As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD!”

Joshua 24:15 Joshua chooses for himself and his whole household to serve the Lord.

A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.

Proverbs 17:17 “A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.”

¹²This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. ¹³Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.

John 15:12-13 Jesus commands His friends to love one another as He loved them. No love is greater than laying down your life for your friends.

¹⁴... for this reason I bow my knees before the Father, ¹⁵from Whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name.

Ephesians 3:14-15 Paul kneels before the Father, from Whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name.

Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man has great power to prevail.

James 5:16 James urges Christians to pray for one another, because the prayer of a righteous person has great power.

Bible text: Berean Standard Bible, public domain.

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