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Summary
- Short prayers cover hurtful words, betrayal, childhood wounds, forgiveness that will not come, shame, anxiety, deep sorrow, loneliness and times when there are no words to pray.
- Psalms 13, 22 and 42 are prayers of people in emotional pain; Jesus said in Gethsemane, “My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death” (Matthew 26:38).
- The 1928 Book of Common Prayer’s “For a Person under Affliction” draws on Lamentations 3:33, “he doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men.”
- The Orthodox irmos “I will pour out my petition unto the Lord” (in Russian, «Молитву пролию ко Господу») opens the sixth ode of the Supplicatory Canon to the Mother of God, sung “in every sorrow of soul.”
- Orthodox teaching applies Holy Unction to “spiritual ills—grief, despondency, and the like,” according to Hapgood’s 1906 service book.
- Anyone in danger or thinking of suicide can call or text 988 in the US or call Samaritans on 116 123 in the UK and Ireland.
Bibliography (Click to show)
- Scripture quotations are from the King James Version (1611), text of Project Gutenberg eBook no. 10 (Psalm 13:1–2, 5; 22:1; 25:16; 27:10; 42:11; 55:12–13; 56:8; 147:3; Isaiah 53:3; Lamentations 3:33; Matthew 26:38; 27:46; John 14:27; Romans 8:1, 26; Ephesians 4:32; James 5:16; 1 Peter 5:7). https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10
- The Book of Common Prayer (Protestant Episcopal Church in the U.S.A.), Standard Book of 1928. Morning Prayer, prayer “for all Conditions of Men,” pp. 18–19; Prayers and Thanksgivings, “For a Person under Affliction,” pp. 45–46. PDF facsimile: https://www.artisticdailyprayers.org/uploads/3/0/1/6/30164961/bcp1928std.pdf
- Hapgood, Isabel Florence, trans. Service Book of the Holy Orthodox-Catholic Apostolic (Greco-Russian) Church. Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin, 1906. The Requiem Office for the Dead, Canticle VI, p. 451; Appendix B, notes on Holy Unction, pp. 607–608. https://www.ponomar.net/data/hapgood.pdf
- “Канон молебный ко Пресвятой Богородице, поемый во всякой скорби душевной и обстоянии” (Supplicatory Canon to the Most Holy Mother of God, sung in every sorrow of soul and in hardship), Ode 6, irmos. Pravoslavie.ru. https://pravoslavie.ru/105663.html
- 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. https://988lifeline.org/
- Samaritans. “Contact Samaritans.” https://www.samaritans.org/how-we-can-help/contact-samaritan/
- Фонд поддержки детей, находящихся в трудной жизненной ситуации. Детский телефон доверия 8 800 2000 122. https://fond-detyam.ru/
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