Orthodox prayers for mental health

Prayers for mental health, for anyone living with a mental illness and the family who cares for them. Pray alongside a doctor’s care.

Picture: Arkhip Kuindzhi, Birch Grove, 1879

3 prayers

For a mind that is ill

Prayer for the sick in mind and body

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

Almighty and everlasting God,You drive away the sicknesses of minds and of bodies.

Show the power of Your helpto the sick among us,so that, helped by Your mercy,they may be restoredto every work of devotion to You.

Through Jesus Christ our Lord.

This prayer comes from an old Roman Mass for the sick. It names God as the One Who drives away sickness of the mind as well as the body, and asks His help for all who are ill.

Plain English by Wiser Walk, from the Latin of the Old Gelasian book (Wilson’s 1894 edition); there is no traditional English translation. How the wording is made.

Where it comes from, and the Latin

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.

On the hardest days

I will pour out my prayer

I will pour out my prayer to the Lord,and to Him I will tell my sorrows,for my soul is full of troubles,and my life has drawn near to the grave.

And like Jonah I pray:O God, bring me up out of the pit.

Traditional wording, 2011

I will pour out my prayer unto the Lord, and to Him will I proclaim my grief;for with evils my soul is filled, and my life unto hades hath drawn nigh,

and like Jonah I will pray: From corruption raise me up, O God.

The Orthodox sing this hymn in the Paraklesis, a service for every sorrow of soul. In words from the Psalms and Jonah, it brings God a soul full of troubles and asks Him to lift it up.

Plain English by Wiser Walk, from the Greek, with the Jordanville Prayer Book’s English beside it. How the wording is made. Traditional wording: Holy Trinity Monastery, Jordanville, Prayer Book, 2011.

Where the old wording has “hades” and “corruption”, the plain wording says “the grave” and “the pit”.

Where it comes from, and the Greek

For someone you care for

Troparion for the sick

O Christ, You alone are quick to help.Come quickly from on highand visit Your suffering servant (name).Free them from sickness and bitter pain.Raise them up to sing to Youand glorify You without ceasing,through the prayers of the Mother of God,O only Lover of mankind.

O Christ, You alone are quick to help.Come quickly from on highand visit me, Your suffering servant.Free me from sickness and bitter pain.Raise me up to sing to Youand glorify You without ceasing,through the prayers of the Mother of God,O only Lover of mankind.

Traditional wording, 1894

Thou that alone art quick to help, O Christ,make manifest from on high a speedy visitation to Thine ailing servant:deliver him from sicknesses and bitter pains,and raise him up, that, without ceasing, he may praise and glorify Thee,through the God-bearing one’s entreaties,O Thou sole Lover of mankind.

The Church’s short hymn for the sick asks Christ to free His servant from sickness and bitter pain. You can pray it with the name of a son, a daughter, a husband or a friend, or for yourself.

Plain English by Wiser Walk, from the Greek. How the wording is made. Traditional wording: G. V. Shann, Book of Needs of the Holy Orthodox Church, 1894.

Where it comes from, and the Greek

Scripture for this

¹O LORD, the God of my salvation, day and night I cry out before You. ²May my prayer come before You; incline Your ear to my cry.

Psalm 88:1-2 The psalmist cries to God day and night, and still calls Him “the God of my salvation”.

⁵The waters engulfed me to take my life; the watery depths closed around me; the seaweed wrapped around my head. ⁶To the roots of the mountains I descended; the earth beneath me barred me in forever! But You raised my life from the pit, O LORD my God! ⁷As my life was fading away, I remembered the LORD. My prayer went up to You, to Your holy temple.

Jonah 2:5-7 When his life was fading, Jonah remembered the Lord, Who brought his life up from the pit.

¹¹If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me, and the light become night around me”— ¹²even the darkness is not dark to You, but the night shines like the day, for darkness is as light to You.

Psalm 139:11-12 Even darkness is not dark to God, Who sees by night as well as by day.

A bruised reed He will not break, and a smoldering wick He will not extinguish, till He leads justice to victory.

Matthew 12:20 Matthew applies these words of Isaiah to Jesus. They describe a gentleness that will not break anyone who is already bruised.

Carry one another’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.

Galatians 6:2 Paul asks believers to carry one another’s burdens. That is the work of the family and friends who help someone live with an illness.

Bible text: Berean Standard Bible, public domain.

A psalm for this

O LORD, hear my prayer. In Your faithfulness, give ear to my plea; in Your righteousness, answer me.
Psalm 143:1

The Orthodox pray the Paraklesis in times of sorrow, and in the Greek books it opens with this psalm.

Psalm 143 Read the whole psalm, with St Athanasius’s advice on when to pray it.

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