When it is said
It covers any treatment, from a dose of medicine to an operation.
It is written in the first person, so it is the patient’s own prayer.
It is short enough to say in a hospital bed or in a waiting room.
Where it comes from
No author known
A prayer approved in 2019
No author is named for this prayer. The Russian Orthodox Church approved its text on 26 February 2019, by a decision of its Holy Synod. A Russian prayer book prints it among its prayers for the sick, under the title “Prayer on taking medicine or any other treatment”.
Which Scripture does it mean?
The prayer names God as the Maker of the doctor and of every kind of treatment, “as Scripture says”. The Scripture it means is the Book of Sirach, where the Lord created the doctor and made medicines out of the earth. There the sick are urged to pray to the Lord and also to give the doctor his place.
Sirach 38:1-15, quoted in “The Bible on doctors and medicine”, Azbyka
In Church Slavonic
Го́споди, Бо́же наш, созда́вый врача́ и разли́чная врачева́ния, я́коже рече́ Писа́ние,
во е́же неду́ги исцеля́ти и боле́зни облегча́ти дарова́вый!
При́зри ми́лостивно на мя, гре́шнаго, прости́ беззако́ния моя́ и грехи́,
исцели́ ду́шу мою́, те́лу же пода́ждь здра́вие врачева́нием сим,
да, восприи́м милосе́рдную по́мощь Твою́, послужу́ Тебе́ со вся́ким благодаре́нием.
Я́ко Ты еси́ Исто́чник исцеле́ний, и Тебе́ сла́ву возсыла́ем, Отцу́, и Сы́ну, и Свято́му Ду́ху,
ны́не и при́сно, и во ве́ки веко́в. Ами́нь.