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Summary
- The 1928 Book of Common Prayer’s “For a Sick Person” (p. 45), the 1888 Catholic Manual of Prayers‘ prayer “For the Sick” and a hymn from the Orthodox service of Holy Unction are quoted in full as prayers for a sick brother.
- Short prayers cover a test or operation, a night in hospital, fear, his doctors and nurses, slow recovery, a brother without faith, the family and thanks when he is better.
- Martha and Mary sent Jesus word of their brother Lazarus in one sentence: “Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick” (John 11:3).
- Catholics can ask a priest for the Anointing of the Sick, Orthodox Christians for Holy Unction, and Protestants for their pastor or elders to pray, all following James 5:14–15.
- Orthodox families give the names of the sick to the priest to be remembered at the Liturgy, on notes headed “For health”; Orthodox Christians also ask the healer Panteleimon to pray, while most Protestants pray to God alone.
- No prayer works by its wording alone: Matthew 6:7 warns against “vain repetitions,” and the Catholic Catechism calls wearing charms “reprehensible” (paragraph 2117).
Bibliography (Click to show)
- Scripture quotations are from the King James Version (1611), text of Project Gutenberg eBook no. 10 (Deuteronomy 18:11; Psalm 41:3; 56:3; 103:2–3; 121:4; Proverbs 17:17; Isaiah 40:31; Lamentations 3:25; Matthew 6:7; Mark 2:3–12; John 11:3, 5, 17; 2 Corinthians 1:4; 2 Timothy 1:7; James 1:5; 5:14–16; 1 John 4:18). https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10
- The Book of Common Prayer (Protestant Episcopal Church in the U.S.A.), Standard Book of 1928. Evening Prayer, “A Collect for Aid against Perils,” p. 31; Prayers and Thanksgivings, “For a Sick Person,” p. 45; Visitation of the Sick, “Unction of the Sick,” p. 320. 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. Occasional Prayers, “For the Sick,” p. 171; The Visitation of the Sick, p. 496. 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. The Office of Holy Unction, pp. 336–337 and 341; Appendix B, “Holy Unction,” pp. 607–608. https://archive.org/details/ServiceBookOfHolyOrthodoxChurchByHapgood
- Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd ed. Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1997. Paragraphs 1514–1516. https://www.vatican.va/content/catechism/en/part_two/section_two/chapter_two/article_5/ii_who_receives_and_who_administers_this_sacrament.html ; paragraphs 2111 and 2117. https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P7E.HTM
- Orthodox Church in America. “Prothesis.” The Orthodox Faith, vol. 2, Worship. https://www.oca.org/orthodoxy/the-orthodox-faith/worship/the-divine-liturgy/prothesis
- Orthodox Church in America. “Greatmartyr and Healer Panteleimon.” Lives of the Saints, July 27. https://www.oca.org/saints/lives/1985/07/27/102099-greatmartyr-and-healer-panteleimon
- St Elisabeth Convent, Minsk. “Проскомидия” (Proskomedia). https://obitel-minsk.ru/treby/proskomidiya
- Westminster Confession of Faith (1646), chapter 21, section 2. https://thewestminsterstandard.org/the-westminster-confession/
