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Summary
- The shortest prayers for help in the Bible include “Lord, help me” (Matthew 15:25), “Lord, save me” (Matthew 14:30) and “make haste to help me, O LORD” (Psalm 70:1); Psalm 86 is a full prayer for help.
- Traditional prayers come from the 1928 Book of Common Prayer (“In Time of Calamity”) and the 1888 Catholic Manual of Prayers (“In any Tribulation” and the Memorare).
- Orthodox Christians answer the petitions of the Great Litany with “Lord, have mercy”; Catholic and Orthodox Christians ask Mary’s prayers, while most Protestants pray to God alone.
- Short prayers cover a pile-up of problems, fear, money, sickness, a hard decision, temptation, forgiveness, grief, family trouble and times with no words.
- Crisis lines: 988 in the US, Samaritans 116 123 in the UK and Ireland, and the church-run TelefonSeelsorge in Germany (0800 111 0 111, 0800 111 0 222 or 116 123).
Bibliography (Click to show)
- Scripture quotations are from the King James Version (1611), text of Project Gutenberg eBook no. 10 (Exodus 2:23–24; Psalm 34:6; 40:17; 50:15; 70:1; 86:1–7; 121:2; Isaiah 41:13; Matthew 7:7; 14:30–31; 15:25; Luke 18:13; 22:42; Romans 8:26; 2 Corinthians 1:8–10; Hebrews 4:16). https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10
- The Book of Common Prayer (Protestant Episcopal Church in the U.S.A.), Standard Book of 1928. Prayers, “In Time of Calamity,” p. 41. PDF facsimile: https://www.artisticdailyprayers.org/uploads/3/0/1/6/30164961/bcp1928std.pdf
- A Manual of Prayers for the Use of the Catholic Laity, prepared and published by order of the Third Plenary Council of Baltimore. New York: Catholic Publication Society, 1888. The Office of Prime; Occasional Prayers, “In any Necessity” and “In any Tribulation,” p. 166; Memorare, pp. 381–382; Collect “O God, our refuge and strength,” p. 752. https://archive.org/details/AManualOfPrayers1888
- Hapgood, Isabel Florence, trans. Service Book of the Holy Orthodox-Catholic Apostolic (Greco-Russian) Church. Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin, 1906. Great Vespers, The Great Litany, p. 5. https://www.ponomar.net/data/hapgood.pdf
- TelefonSeelsorge Deutschland. Home page and “Über uns.” https://www.telefonseelsorge.de/
- 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. https://988lifeline.org/
- Samaritans. “Contact a Samaritan.” https://www.samaritans.org/how-we-can-help/contact-samaritan/
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