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Prayers

Orthodox prayers for sadness and depression

Prayers Orthodox Christians turn to when sadness will not lift, for days when you cannot find words of your own.

Picture: Giovanni Girolamo Savoldo, Elijah Fed by the Raven, about 1510

4 prayers

When your soul is cast down

Why are you cast down, O my soul?

As a deer longs for streams of water,so my soul longs for You, O God.My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.When shall I come and appear before God?My tears have been my food day and night,while all day long people say to me,“Where is your God?”

I remember these things as I pour out my soul:how I went with the crowdand led them in procession to the house of God,with shouts of joy and thanksgiving,a multitude keeping the feast.

Why are you cast down, O my soul?Why are you so troubled within me?Hope in God, for I will yet praise Himfor the help of His presence.

O my God, my soul is cast down within me,so I remember You from the land of the Jordan,from the peaks of Hermon, from Mount Mizar.Deep calls to deep at the roar of Your waterfalls;all Your breakers and Your waves have swept over me.By day the Lord sends His steadfast love,and at night His song is with me,a prayer to the God of my life.

I will say to God, my Rock,“Why have You forgotten me?Why must I go about mourning,oppressed by the enemy?”My foes’ taunts crush me to the bone,as all day long they say to me,“Where is your God?”

Why are you cast down, O my soul?Why are you so troubled within me?Hope in God, for I will yet praise Him,my Savior and my God.

Judge me, O God, and plead my caseagainst an ungodly nation.Rescue me from deceitful and unjust people.For You are God my stronghold.Why have You rejected me?Why must I go about mourning,oppressed by the enemy?

Send out Your light and Your truth;let them lead me.Let them bring me to Your holy mountain,to the place where You dwell.Then I will go to the altar of God,to God, my joy and my delight,and I will praise You with the harp,O God, my God.

Why are you cast down, O my soul?Why are you so troubled within me?Hope in God, for I will yet praise Him,my Savior and my God.

Traditional wording, 1611

As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after Thee, O God.My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God: when shall I come and appear before God?My tears have been my meat day and night, while they continually say unto me, Where is thy God?

When I remember these things, I pour out my soul in me: for I had gone with the multitude, I went with them to the house of God, with the voice of joy and praise, with a multitude that kept holyday.

Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted in me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise Him for the help of His countenance.

O my God, my soul is cast down within me: therefore will I remember Thee from the land of Jordan, and of the Hermonites, from the hill Mizar.Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of Thy waterspouts: all Thy waves and Thy billows are gone over me.Yet the LORD will command His lovingkindness in the day time, and in the night His song shall be with me, and my prayer unto the God of my life.

I will say unto God my Rock, Why hast Thou forgotten me? why go I mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?As with a sword in my bones, mine enemies reproach me; while they say daily unto me, Where is thy God?

Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise Him, Who is the health of my countenance, and my God.

Judge me, O God, and plead my cause against an ungodly nation: O deliver me from the deceitful and unjust man.For Thou art the God of my strength: why dost Thou cast me off? why go I mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?

O send out Thy light and Thy truth: let them lead me; let them bring me unto Thy holy hill, and to Thy tabernacles.Then will I go unto the altar of God, unto God my exceeding joy: yea, upon the harp will I praise Thee, O God my God.

Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope in God: for I shall yet praise Him, Who is the health of my countenance, and my God.

Psalms 42 and 43 are the Bible’s own words for a low soul. Three times the psalmist asks his own soul why it is cast down, and three times he answers, “Hope in God.”

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

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.

In despondency

Prayer of St Dimitri in despondency

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

O God, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,Father of mercies and God of all comfort,Who comforts us in all our sorrow!

Comfort everyone who grieves,everyone who is sad or in despair,everyone tossed about by a spirit of despondency.For every person was made by Your hands,made wise by Your wisdom,lifted up by Your right handand glorified by Your goodness.

But now we are visited by Your fatherly discipline,by sorrows that will pass.In Your compassion You discipline those You love;You show them mercy freelyand look upon their tears.

So, having disciplined us, have mercyand soothe our sadness.Turn our sorrow into gladness,and dissolve our sadness in joy.Show us how wonderful Your mercy is,O Master, wonderful in counsel,O Lord, Whose judgments are past understanding,Who are blessed in Your works for ever. Amen.

This prayer from the works of St Dimitri of Rostov asks the God of all comfort to comfort everyone who grieves or is tossed about by despondency, and to turn their sorrow into gladness.

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

Where it comes from, and the Russian

For yourself or anyone low

Comfort of the sad

Almighty, everlasting God,the Comfort of the sad,the Strength of all who struggle:let the prayers of everyone who cries outfrom any trouble at all come before You,so that all of them may rejoicethat Your mercy stood by them in their need.

Through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Traditional wording, 1857

Almighty and everlasting God, the Comfort of the sad, the Strength of sufferers,let the prayers of those that cry out of any tribulation come unto Thee;that all may rejoice to find that Thy mercy is present with them in their afflictions;through Christ our Lord.

This short prayer from the old Good Friday service of the Latin West calls God the Comfort of the sad. It asks that all who cry out in trouble find His mercy at their side.

Plain English by Wiser Walk, from the Latin, with William Bright’s 1857 translation beside it. How the wording is made. Traditional wording: William Bright, Ancient Collects and Other Prayers, 1857.

Bright’s “sufferers” stands for a Latin word for those who toil or are hard pressed, so the plain wording says “all who struggle”.

Where it comes from, and the Latin

When dark thoughts weigh you down

Prayer of St Anthony the Great

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

Lord, I want to be saved,but my thoughts will not let me.What shall I do in my distress?How can I be saved?

The hermit St Anthony said these few words in the desert when dark thoughts would not leave him. God sent an angel who worked and prayed by turns, and told Anthony to do the same.

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

Where it comes from, and the Greek

Scripture for this

The LORD is near to the brokenhearted; He saves the contrite in spirit.

Psalm 34:18 God is near the brokenhearted. A heavy heart does not keep Him away.

5Those who sow in tears will reap with shouts of joy. 6He who goes out weeping, bearing a trail of seed, will surely return with shouts of joy, carrying sheaves of grain.

Psalm 126:5-6 Tears are not the end. The psalm pictures a sower who goes out weeping with his seed and comes home with shouts of joy.

4while he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness. He sat down under a broom tree and prayed that he might die. “I have had enough, LORD,” he said. “Take my life, for I am no better than my fathers.” 5Then he lay down under the broom tree and fell asleep. Suddenly an angel touched him and said, “Get up and eat.” 6And he looked around, and there by his head was a cake of bread baked over hot coals, and a jar of water. So he ate and drank and lay down again. 7A second time the angel of the LORD returned and touched him, saying, “Get up and eat, or the journey will be too much for you.” 8So he got up and ate and drank. And strengthened by that food, he walked forty days and forty nights until he reached Horeb, the mountain of God.

1 Kings 19:4-8 Worn out, Elijah asked to die. God did not scold him. An angel brought him bread and water, and he slept.

Then He said to them, “My soul is consumed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with Me.”

Matthew 26:38 The night before He died, Jesus told His friends His soul was consumed with sorrow, and asked them to stay with Him.

In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know how we ought to pray, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groans too deep for words.

Romans 8:26 When you do not know how to pray, the Spirit Himself intercedes for you with groans too deep for words.

Bible text: Berean Standard Bible, public domain.

A psalm for this

Still I am certain to see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living.

Psalm 27:13

A Russian prayer book lists Psalm 27 among the psalms to pray in despondency.

Psalm 27 Read the whole psalm, with St Athanasius’s advice on when to pray it.

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Berean Standard Bible