Orthodox prayers when hoping for a child

Prayers for a husband and wife who long for a child, and for the long days of waiting.

Picture: Jan Victors, Hannah Praying in the Temple, 1643

5 prayers and 1 to the saints

For a husband and wife

Prayer for the gift of children

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

Hear us, merciful and almighty God,and through our prayer send down Your grace.Look kindly, O Lord, on our prayer.Remember Your law that the human race should increase,and be our merciful Protector,so that, with Your help,the law You Yourself made may be kept.

By Your sovereign powerYou made all things out of nothing,and laid the foundation of all that is in the world.You made man in Your own image.By a high mystery You made the union of marriage holy,a foreshadowing of the mysteryof Christ’s union with the Church.

Look, O Merciful One, on these Your servants, (name),joined in marriage and begging for Your help.Let Your mercy be on them.May they be fruitful,and see their children’s childrento the third and fourth generation.May they live to the old age they long for,and enter the Kingdom of Heaventhrough our Lord Jesus Christ,to Whom belong all glory, honour and worship,with the Holy Spirit, for ever.

The prayer Russian Orthodox prayer books give to a married couple who have no children. Together they ask God for the gift of children, and say their own names in it.

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

When the grief runs deep

Hannah’s prayer for a child

O Lord, Lord God of hosts,if You will truly look on the affliction of Your servantand remember me,and give Your servant a son,then I will give him to You,to be Yours until the day he dies.He will drink no wine or strong drink,and no razor will touch his head.

Traditional wording, 1844

O Lord God of Sabaoth,if Thou wilt indeed look upon the humiliation of Thine handmaid,and remember me, and give to Thine handmaid a man-child,then will I indeed dedicate him to Thee till the day of his death;and he shall drink no wine nor strong drink,and no razor shall come upon his head.

Hannah made this vow in tears after years of longing for a child. These are her own words, kept in the Bible.

Plain English by Wiser Walk, from the Greek Old Testament (the Septuagint), with Brenton’s 1844 translation beside it. How the wording is made. Traditional wording: Lancelot C. L. Brenton, The Septuagint Version of the Old Testament, 1844.

Where it comes from, and the Greek

Through the long wait

Gelasian prayers for a child

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

O God, when Your servant Isaac prayed to You because his wife was childless,You were pleased to hear him and to let Rebekah conceive.In Your kindness, hear the prayers of Your servant (name) for a child,so that the hope they rested on Your mercymay be made firm by the gift they asked of You.Through our Lord Jesus Christ.

O God, You look with tender pity on the anxiety of those who cannot conceive,and even when they have given up hope, You wonderfully make them fruitful.Grant in Your kindness that Your servant (name),through the prayers of Your servant Gregory,may receive the child they cannot have by their own strength.Through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Almighty, everlasting God, You did not withhold a mother’s loveeven from the holy and ever-virgin Mary, who gave birth to our Redeemer.Grant in Your kindness that, through the prayers of the Mother of God,Your servant (name) may be granted to become a mother.Through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

O God, when Your servant Isaac prayed to You because his wife was childless,You were pleased to hear him and to let Rebekah conceive.In Your kindness, hear me, Your servant, as I pray for a child,so that the hope I rested on Your mercymay be made firm by the gift I asked of You.Through our Lord Jesus Christ.

O God, You look with tender pity on the anxiety of those who cannot conceive,and even when they have given up hope, You wonderfully make them fruitful.Grant in Your kindness that I, Your servant,through the prayers of Your servant Gregory,may receive the child I cannot have by my own strength.Through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Almighty, everlasting God, You did not withhold a mother’s loveeven from the holy and ever-virgin Mary, who gave birth to our Redeemer.Grant in Your kindness that, through the prayers of the Mother of God,I, Your servant, may be granted to become a mother.Through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Early Roman prayers to God, Who looks with tender pity on the anxiety of those who cannot conceive. A husband can pray them for his wife, or a wife for herself.

Plain English by Wiser Walk, from our own English from the Latin of H. A. Wilson’s 1894 edition. How the wording is made.

Where it comes from, and the Latin

For a couple you love

Prayer for a childless couple

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

O Master Almighty, holy King,You discipline, yet You do not put to death.You hold up those who are fallingand raise up those who have been thrown down.You set right the bodily sufferings of mankind.We pray to You, our God:visit Your servants (name) in Your mercy.Forgive them every sin, whether deliberate or not.Send down Your healing power from heaven,heal hidden illnesses,give them the fruit of the womb,and let them receive the blessing of children.

Yes, O Lord Jesus Christ our God,do not count our prayer as sin,for we know the words You spoke through the prophet:As far as heaven is from the earth,so far are My ways from your ways,and your thoughts from My thoughts.Yet we also know what You Yourself said:Be fruitful and multiply.And again You said:Ask, and it will be given to you.So, trusting in Your mercy,we dare to ask that Your servants (name)be freed from barrenness and given the blessing of children.For You are the Source of healingand the Saviour of our souls, O Christ our God,and to You we give glory,together with Your Father, Who has no beginning,and Your all-holy, good and life-giving Spirit,now and always, and for ever and ever. Amen.

Show the whole prayer

From a service the Russian Church approved in 2022 for couples who have no child. A parent or a friend can pray it with the couple’s names, asking God for healing and a child, humbly, knowing His ways are higher than ours.

Plain English by Wiser Walk, from our own English from the Church Slavonic. How the wording is made.

Where it comes from, and the Church Slavonic

A few words to say together

Have mercy on our barrenness

Blessed Fruit, born without marriage,bless the wombs of us who are married.Have mercy on our barrenness,wonderful Child born of a virgin!

Traditional wording, 1898

Blessed Fruit born without marriage,bless the wombs of us that are married;have mercy on our barrenness,Thou wonderful Child of Virginity!

In a 4th-century hymn by St Ephrem the Syrian, childless wives hold the newborn Christ and say these words to Him. They are short enough for any moment of the day.

Plain English by Wiser Walk, from J. B. Morris’s 1847 English of the Syriac, as revised in 1898. How the wording is made. Traditional wording: J. B. Morris, revised by John Gwynn, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, vol. 13, 1898.

Where it comes from, and the original

To the Mother of God · On 9 December

Troparion of the Conception of the Theotokos

Today the bonds of childlessness are loosed,for God has heard Joachim and Annaand clearly promises them that, beyond all hope,they will have a child of God,from whom He Himself, the One nothing can contain,was born and became a mortal man,after He had told an angel to cry out to her:Rejoice, full of grace, the Lord is with you!

Traditional wording

Today, the bonds of barrenness are loosed,for God, hearkening unto Joachim and Anna,doth manifestly promise unto them who, beyond all expectation,will give birth to the divine maiden,from whom the Infinite One Himself, becoming a man, shall be born.And He commandeth the angels to cry unto her:Rejoice, thou who art full of grace, the Lord is with thee!

The main hymn of 9 December, when the Church remembers that Anna conceived Mary. It sings that God heard Joachim and Anna and promised them a child beyond all hope.

Plain English by Wiser Walk, from the Greek, with a traditional English Menaion beside it. How the wording is made. Traditional wording: an unnamed translator, English Menaion for 9 December, All Saints Eastern Orthodox Church.

This English has “barrenness” where the Greek has “childlessness”, and “the angels” where the Greek has one angel.

Where it comes from, and the Greek

Scripture for this

⁶Both of them were righteous in the sight of God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and decrees of the Lord. ⁷But they had no children, because Elizabeth was barren, and they were both well along in years.

Luke 1:6-7 Luke calls Zechariah and Elizabeth righteous before God, and yet they had no child. Waiting is no mark against you.

Later, Isaac prayed to the LORD on behalf of his wife, because she was barren. And the LORD heard his prayer, and his wife Rebekah conceived.

Genesis 25:21 Isaac prayed to the Lord for his wife Rebekah, who had no child. A husband or wife can pray this way for the other.

Trust in Him at all times, O people; pour out your hearts before Him. God is our refuge. Selah

Psalm 62:8 Pour out your heart before God and trust Him at all times. Every feeling of the wait can be brought to Him.

You have taken account of my wanderings. Put my tears in Your bottle—are they not in Your book?

Psalm 56:8 David asks God to keep his tears in a bottle, sure they are already in God’s book. No tear of the wait goes unseen.

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 the wait leaves you unable to pray, Paul says the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groans too deep for words.

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