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Summary
- Short prayers follow a son through his life: birth, starting school, the teenage years, leaving home, looking for work, choosing a wife, becoming a father and living far away.
- Further prayers ask for honesty, kindness, courage and health, help when he is anxious or low, and help when he will not listen.
- The 1928 Book of Common Prayer’s birthday prayer asks God to watch over “thy child, O Lord, as his days increase”; the 1888 Catholic Manual of Prayers gives a parent’s prayer of thanks.
- Jacob’s blessing of Joseph’s sons, “bless the lads” (Genesis 48:15–16), is a blessing a parent can still say.
- Russian Orthodox parents often ask Saint Spyridon of Trimythous, a fourth-century shepherd-bishop of Cyprus who lent to the needy, to pray for a son’s work; this is popular devotion.
- A son who talks about ending his life needs help now: 988 in the US, Samaritans 116 123 in the UK and Ireland, 8 800 2000 122 in Russia.
Bibliography (Click to show)
- Scripture quotations are from the King James Version (1611), text of Project Gutenberg eBook no. 10 (Genesis 48:15–16; Joshua 1:9; 1 Samuel 1:27; Proverbs 13:20; 18:22; Luke 2:52; Colossians 3:23). https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10
- The Book of Common Prayer (Protestant Episcopal Church in the U.S.A.), Standard Book of 1928. Forms of Prayer to be used in Families, “For a Birthday,” pp. 597–598. 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. “A Parent’s Prayer,” p. 453. https://archive.org/details/AManualOfPrayers1888
- Butler, Alban. “St. Spiridion, Bishop and Confessor” (December 14). The Lives of the Saints, vol. 12, December. 1866. https://www.bartleby.com/lit-hub/lives-of-the-saints/volume-xii-december/st-spiridion-bishop-and-confessor/
- “Спиридон Тримифунтский.” Википедия (feast day, 12/25 December). https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Спиридон_Тримифунтский
- Правмир. “Молитвы святому Спиридону Тримифунтскому.” https://www.pravmir.ru/molitvy-svyatomu-spiridonu-trimifuntskomu/
- 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. https://988lifeline.org/
- Samaritans. “Contact a Samaritan.” 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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