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Summary
- Short prayers cover a wife who is discouraged, worn out, anxious, sick, grieving or recovering from a birth, and a husband who has hurt her or whose wife has left.
- Five blessings to say or send include Numbers 6:24–26 and Psalm 3:3, “the lifter up of mine head.”
- Traditional prayers are quoted from the 1888 Catholic Manual of Prayers (“A Husband’s Prayer,” pp. 450–451) and the 1928 Book of Common Prayer’s marriage service (p. 303).
- In 1 Samuel 1, Elkanah’s words could not lift Hannah’s grief; after she prayed, “her countenance was no more sad.” Isaac “intreated the LORD for his wife” (Genesis 25:21).
- 1 Peter 3:7 tells husbands to honor their wives “that your prayers be not hindered.”
- A low mood that will not lift needs a doctor as well as prayer; after a birth, NIMH treats severe mood changes or those lasting more than two weeks as possible postpartum depression.
Bibliography (Click to show)
- Scripture quotations are from the King James Version (1611), text of Project Gutenberg eBook no. 10 (Genesis 25:21; Numbers 6:24–26; 1 Samuel 1:8, 10, 18; Psalm 3:3; 90:17; 94:19; Proverbs 18:22; 31:28; Ecclesiastes 4:10; Jeremiah 17:14; Matthew 11:28; Romans 12:15; Ephesians 5:25; Colossians 3:19; 1 Peter 3:7). https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10
- 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 Sacrament of Matrimony: “A Husband’s Prayer,” pp. 450–451. https://archive.org/details/AManualOfPrayers1888
- The Book of Common Prayer (Protestant Episcopal Church in the U.S.A.), Standard Book of 1928. The Solemnization of Matrimony, p. 303. 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 Rite of Holy Matrimony, p. 297. https://www.ponomar.net/data/hapgood.pdf
- National Institute of Mental Health. “Perinatal Depression.” https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/perinatal-depression
- 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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