Orthodox prayers for your parents

Orthodox prayers for your mother and father, for their health while they live and their rest after they die.

Picture: Ary Scheffer, Saint Augustine and Saint Monica, 1854

3 prayers

For your mother and father

Prayer for my parents

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

Lord Jesus Christ, my God,hear my prayer for my parents, (name).Grant them unity of mind and loveall the days of their life.Strengthen their bodies with health,so that they may serve Youwith works of mercy and the goodness of the Gospel.

Teach me always to obey my parents’ word.Free me from hypocrisy and deceitin the way I treat them.And at Your Last Judgmentdo not withhold acquittal from any of us.Amen.

A short prayer from the Russian prayer books, said with your parents’ names. It asks Christ to keep them in love and health all their days, and to teach you to obey their word.

Plain English by Wiser Walk, from the Church Slavonic of the Russian prayer books. How the wording is made.

Where it comes from, and the Church Slavonic

To honour them

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.

A Latin prayer of about AD 800, handed down under the name of Alcuin of York. It recalls God’s command to love father and mother, and asks Him to protect them, living or departed.

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

When a parent has died, in St Augustine’s words

St Augustine’s prayer for his mother

And so, my Praise and my Life, God of my heart,I set aside for a while my mother’s good deeds,for which I thank You with joy,and now I pray to You for her sins.Hear me through the Medicine for our wounds,Who hung on the tree,and Who sits at Your right hand and pleads with You for us.

I know that she showed mercy,and from her heart forgave her debtors their debts.You too, forgive her debts,if she ran up any in all the yearssince the water of salvation.Forgive her, Lord, forgive her, I beg You.Do not bring her into judgment.

Let mercy triumph over judgment,for Your words are true,and You have promised mercy to the merciful.It was You Who made them merciful,You Who have mercy on whom You have mercyand compassion on whom You have compassion.

And I believe You have already done what I ask.Yet accept, Lord, the freewill offerings of my mouth.

Let no one tear her away from Your protection.Let neither the lion nor the dragon come between her and You,by force or by trickery.For she will not answer that she owes nothing,so that the cunning accuser cannot convict her and seize her.She will answer that her debts were forgivenby Him to Whom no one will ever pay backwhat He paid for us, though He owed nothing.

So may she rest in peace with her husband.She married no one before him and no one after him.She served him, bearing fruit for You with patience,so that she might win him for You as well.

Traditional wording, 1886

I then, O my Praise and my Life, Thou God of my heart,putting aside for a little her good deeds,for which I joyfully give thanks to Thee,do now beseech Thee for the sins of my mother.Hearken unto me, through that Medicine of our wounds Who hung upon the tree,and Who, sitting at Thy right hand, “maketh intercession for us.”

I know that she acted mercifully,and from the heart forgave her debtors their debts;do Thou also forgive her debts,whatever she contracted during so many years since the water of salvation.Forgive her, O Lord, forgive her, I beseech Thee;“enter not into judgment” with her.

Let Thy mercy be exalted above Thy justice,because Thy words are true,and Thou hast promised mercy unto “the merciful;”which Thou gavest them to be Who wilt “have mercy” on whom Thou wilt “have mercy,”and wilt “have compassion” on whom Thou hast had compassion.

And I believe Thou hast already done that which I ask Thee;but “accept the free-will offerings of my mouth, O Lord.”

… Let none separate her from Thy protection.Let not the “lion” and the “dragon” introduce himself by force or fraud.For she will not reply that she owes nothing,lest she be convicted and got the better of by the wily deceiver;but she will answer that her “sins are forgiven”by Him to Whom no one is able to repay that pricewhich He, owing nothing, laid down for us.

May she therefore rest in peace with her husband,before or after whom she married none;whom she obeyed, with patience bringing forth fruit unto Thee,that she might gain him also for Thee.

Show the whole prayer

St Augustine wrote it for his mother Monica, years after she died. He asks God to forgive her and let her rest in peace with her husband, his father.

Plain English by Wiser Walk, from the Latin, with Pilkington’s 1886 translation beside it, leaving out a passage on her burial and the altar. How the wording is made. Traditional wording: J. G. Pilkington, The Confessions of St. Augustin, 1886.

Where Pilkington says “Let Thy mercy be exalted above Thy justice”, the Latin has the words of James 2:13, “mercy triumphs over judgment”.

Where it comes from, and the Latin

Scripture for this

Honor your father and mother, so that your days may be long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.

Exodus 20:12 The fifth commandment: honour your father and your mother, so that your days may be long in the land God gives you.

Listen to your father who gave you life, and do not despise your mother when she is old.

Proverbs 23:22 Listen to the father who gave you life, and do not despise your mother when she is old.

Then He went down to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them. But His mother treasured up all these things in her heart.

Luke 2:51 As a boy in Nazareth, Jesus went home with Mary and Joseph and was obedient to them.

²⁶When Jesus saw His mother and the disciple whom He loved standing nearby, He said to His mother, “Woman, here is your son.” ²⁷Then He said to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” So from that hour, this disciple took her into his home.

John 19:26-27 From the cross, Jesus gave His mother into the care of the disciple He loved, who took her into his home.

But if a widow has children or grandchildren, they must first learn to show godliness to their own family and repay their parents, for this is pleasing in the sight of God.

1 Timothy 5:4 Paul says that repaying one’s parents with care is pleasing in God’s sight.

Then Joseph fell upon his father’s face, wept over him, and kissed him.

Genesis 50:1 When Jacob died, his son Joseph threw himself on his father’s face, wept over him and kissed him.

Bible text: Berean Standard Bible, public domain.

Close to this

All prayers

Quiz What prayer do you need right now? A few honest taps about where you are, and a prayer of the Church for exactly that. 8 questions, about 3 minutes. Start

Suggest a correction