Orthodox prayers for intrusive thoughts

The desert monk who gave these words told his hearers to shake a thought off, stand up and say them, and to do the same against any other thought.

Plain English by Wiser Walk, from the Latin of the Sayings of the Fathers, with Wallis Budge’s 1907 English of the Syriac beside it. How the wording is made. Traditional wording: E. A. Wallis Budge, The Paradise or Garden of the Holy Fathers, 1907.

Budge’s English follows the Syriac, which has “O Son of God”. The Latin has “Lord, Son of God”.

St Theophan the Recluse, a Russian bishop of the 1800s, gave these words to someone tormented by blasphemous thoughts. He told them first not to be troubled, and never to think the thoughts were their own.

Plain English by Wiser Walk, from the Russian of St Theophan the Recluse. How the wording is made.

St Anthony the Great prayed this in the desert when his thoughts would not let him be, and God sent an angel to show him what to do.

Plain English by Wiser Walk, from the Greek. How the wording is made.

St Augustine asks not to consent to his thoughts and not to linger in them, which is a different thing from never having them.

Plain English by Wiser Walk, from the Latin, with Haddan’s English beside it. How the wording is made. Traditional wording: Arthur West Haddan, revised by W. G. T. Shedd, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, first series, vol. 3, 1890.