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Prayers

Prayer for a sick person

One of the Orthodox Church’s oldest prayers over the sick. It asks God to touch the body, put out the fever and raise the sick person up.

Picture: John Bridges, Christ Healing the Mother of Simon Peter’s Wife, 1839

The words of the prayer

Plain English

Master Almighty, holy King,You discipline,but You do not put to death.You hold up those who are fallingand lift up those who are cast down.You heal the sufferings of the body.We pray to You, our God:in Your mercy visit Your servant (name),who is ill,and forgive them every sin,done willingly or unwillingly.

Yes, Lord, send down Your healing power from heaven.Touch their body, put out the fever,and calm the suffering and every hidden weakness.Be the Physician of Your servant (name).Raise them from the bed of pain and the couch of suffering,whole and well,and give them back to Your Church,pleasing You and doing Your will.

For it is Yours to have mercy on usand to save us, our God,and to You we give glory,to the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit,now and always,and for ever and ever. Amen.

Master Almighty, holy King,You discipline,but You do not put to death.You hold up those who are fallingand lift up those who are cast down.You heal the sufferings of the body.I pray to You, my God:in Your mercy visit me, Your servant,for I am ill,and forgive me every sin,done willingly or unwillingly.

Yes, Lord, send down Your healing power from heaven.Touch my body, put out the fever,and calm the suffering and every hidden weakness.Be a Physician to me, Your servant.Raise me from the bed of pain and the couch of suffering,whole and well,and give me back to Your Church,pleasing You and doing Your will.

For it is Yours to have mercy on usand to save us, our God,and to You we give glory,to the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit,now and always,and for ever and ever. Amen.

Traditional wording, 1894

Master Almighty, holy King,Who chastenest, and killest not,Who supportest them that are falling,and settest up them that are cast down,Who restorest the bodily afflictions of men;we entreat Thee, O our God,that Thou wouldest send down Thy mercy upon this oil,and upon them that are anointed therewith in Thy name,that it may be to them for the healing of soul and body,and for the cleansing and removal of every passion,and of every sickness and wound,and of every defilement of flesh and spirit.

Yea, O Lord, send down from heaven Thy healing power;touch the body; allay the fever; soothe the suffering;and banish every lurking weakness.Be the Physician of Thy servant, (name),raise him from a bed of suffering, and from a couch of ailmentwhole and perfectly restored,granting him in Thy church to be acceptable, and one that doeth Thy will.

For it is Thine to have mercy and to save us, O our God,and to Thee we ascribe glory, to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost,now and ever, and to ages of ages. Amen.

Plain English by Wiser Walk, from the Church Slavonic of the Russian prayer books, with Shann’s 1894 translation beside it. How the wording is made. Traditional wording: G. V. Shann, Book of Needs of the Holy Orthodox Church, 1894.

The traditional wording is the priest’s version from the service of anointing the sick, so it asks God to bless the oil. The Russian prayer books print a version for home. It leaves out the oil and asks mercy and forgiveness for the sick person instead. The plain English follows that version.

When it is said

Russian prayer books print it among the “Prayers for the sick”. It comes after the short hymn for the sick, as the first of two prayers to the Lord. So anyone may say it at home for someone who is ill, with their name.

Holy Unction, the service of anointing the sick, has seven Gospel readings, each followed by a prayer. This is the third. It comes after the reading where Jesus sends out the Twelve to heal. The next tells how He touched Peter’s mother-in-law and her fever left her. The prayer asks the same: that God touch the body and put out the fever.

Where it comes from

No author known

One of the oldest prayers of Holy Unction

This prayer and three others are already in Greek manuscripts of the 10th century, among the prayers for anointing the sick. The Orthodox Encyclopedia says its core, without the lines about the oil, has been the prayer most widely read over the sick from ancient times until now.

Orthodox Encyclopedia (Pravoslavnaya Entsiklopediya), Holy Unction

The lines about the oil came later

The lines in Holy Unction that ask God to bless the oil were once a separate prayer for blessing oil, later set into the middle of this one.

Orthodox Encyclopedia (Pravoslavnaya Entsiklopediya), Holy Unction

The Scripture in it

The LORD upholds all who fall and lifts up all who are bowed down.

Psalm 145:14 Quoted The prayer takes this verse into its first lines: You hold up those who are falling and lift up those who are cast down.

When Jesus arrived at Peter’s house, He saw Peter’s mother-in-law sick in bed with a fever. So He touched her hand, and the fever left her, and she got up and began to serve Him.

Matthew 8:14-15 Echoed The prayer asks God to touch the body and put out the fever. In Holy Unction, the anointing of the sick, this is the Gospel read next.

… unknown, yet well-known; dying, and yet we live on; punished, yet not killed …

2 Corinthians 6:9 Echoed Paul, on what he suffered as God’s servant: punished, yet not killed. The prayer turns his words into praise of God: You discipline, but You do not put to death. The Bible says why God disciplines: out of love, as a father does, and for our good (Hebrews 12:6, 10).

Bible text: Berean Standard Bible, public domain.

In Church Slavonic

Владыко, Вседержителю, Святый Царю, наказуяй и не умерщвляяй, утверждаяй низпадающия и возводяй низверженныя, телесныя человеков скорби исправляяй, молимся Тебе, Боже наш, раба Твоего (имя) немощствующа посети милостию Твоею, прости ему всякое согрешение вольное и невольное.

Ей, Господи, врачебную Твою силу с Небесе низпосли, прикоснися телеси, угаси огневицу, укроти страсть и всякую немощь таящуюся, буди Врач раба Твоего (имя), воздвигни его от одра болезненнаго и от ложа озлобления цела и всесовершенна, даруй его Церкви Твоей благоугождающа и творяща волю Твою.

Твое бо есть, еже миловати и спасати ны, Боже наш, и Тебе славу возсылаем, Отцу и Сыну и Святому Духу, ныне и присно и во веки веков. Аминь.

From the Russian prayer book’s “Prayers for the sick”, on Azbyka, with capitals for God.

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Berean Standard Bible