Mental disorders are a broad group of diseases accompanied by personality and behavioral changes. Their manifestations are quite varied. First of all, they capture a person’s mental activity, but given that the causes of such pathologies are not only social, but also physiological, the treatment of mental disorders requires an integrated approach.
Who should we pray for the healing and health of children? Prayers
Now I myself am in a difficult situation and my baby is very sick. When it comes to you personally, everything becomes blurry, you get lost, words are confused and it seems that the angel and the Lord will not hear you.
First of all, you need to turn to the Lord himself. Below will be one of the most powerful prayers to the Lord for the healing of the child: before the operation, during treatment.
And of course, after that we turn to the Most Holy Theotokos herself. Her mercy and help are invaluable. Many miracles were performed through prayers before her icons. She will always hear and intercede. I hope my prayers too. The main thing is to believe sincerely, to keep this faith in your heart. After all, you shouldn’t forget. that the Mother of God was initially an ordinary mother with her problems and experiences. And she will protect and cover with her cover whoever turns.
Below you can see the “Quick to Hear” icon:
This ancient miraculous icon is located on the well-known Mount Saint Athos. But there are many miraculous copies: in Moscow Biryulyovo Church of St. Nicholas and in the Church of the Archangel Gabriel. The holiday in honor of her is very soon in November and there I will talk about her in more detail. And now whoever has the opportunity, pray in front of this miraculous face for the healing of children. They pray in front of this icon in the most difficult situations and when you find yourself in a situation where you need help urgently! Unfortunately, I don’t have the opportunity to come to the icon, but I will pray to her and believe in a miracle.
Mother's prayers are the most powerful and miraculous. Therefore, we need to pray tirelessly for children in order to protect them from adversity and serious illnesses.
Prayer to the Most Holy Theotokos “Quick to Hear”
There are also saints to whom they pray for the healing of children:
Mother Matrona, Nicholas the Wonderworker, Sergius of Radonezh and many others.
No matter what trouble comes, you don’t need to lose strength and lose faith. It's hard, especially when it comes to your child. Everyone, take care of yourself and your loved ones. To whom it is not a burden, pray for God’s servant Anastasia. Thank you
Source
People with mental disorders do not want to talk about their illness.
It's amazing how many mentally ill people are open to talking about their illness. One woman I met in church spoke about her experience of discriminatory treatment by believers. In fact, it all really depends on the person’s character - some like to talk about everything, others are not very sociable. And if you meet a talkative person, he will bless you with a lot of stories about his struggle with the disease. Just accept everything as it is, one wants to communicate, the other doesn’t. Be open to conversation - that's enough.
Rules for relatives
When there is a person in the family who suffers from a mental disorder, the way of life changes. He needs constant care, especially if he is a child. To establish better contact and help, you need to follow simple rules.
When praying for a sick person, you must sincerely ask God for his healing. You need to be patient every day, because this will help the patient recover.
In order for daily prayer to be more effective, it is necessary to carry out activities to strengthen it. For this purpose, prayer services are ordered in the church.
People with mental disorders are extremely unpredictable and difficult to relate to.
I know many people who have successful careers, great families and yet have some kind of mental disorder. When the disease manifests itself, they can become unpredictable. But it's not normal, and many patients have a plan in case it's not normal, such as telling a family member and adjusting their medications.
Give the person a chance - assume that he will be hopeful, will communicate well with people and will not be late for meetings. Show grace and understanding when people struggle with illness. Some mentally ill people may have difficulty communicating. Use your opportunity to connect with people who have more problems in their lives than you.
Prayer to Tikhon
If there is a relative in the family whose mind is clouded by illness, it is necessary to pray to Tikhon of Zadonsk. This saint was the author of many books that still carry wisdom today. He had the gift of healing and clairvoyance. People came to him for help in a variety of cases:
Tikhon did not refuse help to anyone, so even after his death people continued to offer prayers to him. To heal a mentally ill person, it is necessary to read the following prayer every day:
“O all-praised saint and saint of Christ, our Father Tikhon! Having lived as an angel on earth, you, like a good angel, appeared in your long-ago glorification: we believe with all our souls and thoughts that you, our merciful helper and prayer book, through your honest intercessions and grace, abundantly given to you from the Lord, ever contribute to our salvation. Accept therefore, blessed servant of Christ, even at this hour our unworthy prayer: free us through your intercession from the vanity and superstition that surrounds us, the unbelief and evil of man; strive, speedy representative for us, with your favorable intercession to beg the Lord, may He add His great and rich mercy to us sinners and unworthy His servants (names), may He heal with His grace the unhealed ulcers and scabs of our corrupted souls and bodies, may He dissolve our petrified hearts tears of tenderness and contrition for our many sins, and may He deliver us from eternal torment and the fire of Gehenna; May He grant to all His faithful people peace and quiet, health and salvation, and good haste in everything, so that having lived a quiet and silent life in all piety and purity, let us be worthy to glorify and sing the all-holy name of the Father with the Angels and with all the saints and the Son and the Holy Spirit forever and ever."
It is better to read this prayer to help in healing every morning before the sun rises. Before this, you need to wash your face with holy water and wipe the face of a mentally ill person. The prayer can be read while holding a sick relative's hand. You need to pray sincerely, so that every word is imbued with a request. Without this, you can’t expect your health to be restored.
Love your neighbor (with mental illness) as yourself
Prejudice against mental illness is what drove the pastor and church leadership to negatively assess my condition. In light of this, God's people have an invitation from the Lord. In Mark 12:31, Jesus tells us, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” I think that the church’s welcoming attitude towards the mentally ill is a good illustration of this commandment.
Be open to new knowledge about mental disorders. Prepare to have potentially strange conversations with church newcomers who have this condition. You won't regret refusing to stay in your comfort zone all the time. Stories of struggle, resistance and redemption will be a blessing to you. And if you are lucky, you can become one of the heroes of another story about how a person overcame an illness and became part of the Church.
Petition to Athanasius of Athos
To heal a mentally ill person, you can use several types of prayers. This way their effect will be summed up and the result, which is the healing of the soul, will be achieved much faster.
Other people may be to blame for mental illness and mental defeat. The health of an individual, especially the state of his mind, is a subtle matter that can be destroyed under the influence of magic. This can happen due to damage or the evil eye. Even strong love spells can upset the balance in mental health.
To remove possible witchcraft spells, it is necessary to offer a prayer to Athanasius of Athos. This is the saint who founded the great temple on Mount Athos. He developed asceticism and showed how a hermit should live in order to serve the Lord.
People offer him prayers, and he helps everyone who asks him for it. Prayers for mentally ill people, which are read to Saint Athanasius, sound like this:
“Reverend Father Athanasius, a great saint of Christ and a great miracle worker of Athos! In the days of your earthly life, you taught many on the right path and wisely guided you into the Kingdom of Heaven, comforted the sorrowful, gave a helping hand to those who fell and was a kind, merciful and compassionate father to everyone, you now, residing in Heavenly lordship, especially multiplying your love for us, the weak , in the sea of life we distinguish between those in need, tempted by the spirit of malice and their passions, warring against the spirit. For this reason, we humbly pray to you, holy father: according to the grace given to you from God, help us to do the will of the Lord in simplicity of heart and humility, to defeat the temptations of the enemy and dry up the fierce sea of passions, so that we will calmly pass through the abyss of life and through your intercession to the Lord we will be worthy of achieving the promised us of the Kingdom of Heaven, glorifying the Beginningless Trinity, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, now and ever, and unto ages of ages. Amen".
Work: Prayers of a missionary, or How to pray for non-Orthodox?
For the first time in Russian, a collection of prayers is being published. Nicholas (Velimirovich) (1880–1956), dedicated to turning to the true faith of those who have not yet known Christ, as well as containing petitions for those who need special prayerful care.
Predaniye.ru is the largest Orthodox multimedia archive on the RuNet: lectures, speeches, films, audiobooks and books for reading on electronic devices; freely available to everyone.
- From the translator
- Prayer for children
- Prayer for rulers of nations
- Prayer for the mentally ill
- Prayer for those who do not venerate the saints[1]
- Prayer for atheists (atheists)
- Prayer for the Jews
- Prayer for Muslims
- Prayer for Parsis (Zoroastrians)
- Prayer for the Russian people[2]
- Prayer for the Chinese people
- Prayer for the Japanese people
- Applications
- Prayer to the Mother of God for the conversion of the lost saint. Gabriel of Novgorod[3]
- Prayer to St. Serapion Kozheozersky about the conversion of unbelieving loved ones
- Prayer to the holy martyr. Andronik Nikolsky[4]
- Prayer for the missionaries of St. Makaria (Glukhareva)[5]
- Another prayer
From the translator
“Your grief over the unbelief of some people betrays your love for God…. pray for them. And you will become a missionary. Let your first missionary rule be prayer for those who have fallen from the faith,” St. Nicholas (Velimirović) advised in one of his letters.
In the 1930s, he published the magazine “Mali Missionar” in his diocese, in which he published a collection of special prayers he had prepared - for people who had lost their faith, for atheists, Jews, Muslims and many others. In your hands is the first edition of the collection in Russian. This work shows well not only the missionary thinking of St. Nicholas, but also his view of non-Christian worldviews, pagan peoples, politics, raising children, mental illness, and even the events of Russian history of the 20th century.
“The Missionary’s Prayers” was written in modern Serbian, without archaisms, and therefore was translated into Russian, and not into Church Slavonic.
According to established church practice, petitions for non-Orthodox people are permissible only in the private, cell prayers of a believer.
All prayers of St. Nicholas are dedicated to the conversion of those non-Orthodox who are still alive. He has no prayers for those who died outside the Church, but the saints allowed them to pray for such in private with the hope of alleviating their suffering, as evidenced by the life of St. Macarius the Great. Since God definitely says that “anyone who is not born of water and the Spirit cannot enter the kingdom of God” (John 3:5), and that “he who does not have the Son of God does not have life” (1 John 5:12), The opinion that even without conscious unity with the Orthodox Church and without sincere faith in Christ a person can achieve heaven is contrary to the truth. According to St. Ignatius (Brianchaninov) “whoever recognizes the possibility of salvation without faith in Christ renounces Christ and, perhaps, unwittingly falls into the grave sin of blasphemy.”
Let us quote here the words of St. Joseph of Optina on prayer for non-Orthodox:
“Our Orthodox Church allows us to pray... for heretics and schismatics, so that they turn to the Orthodox faith before the end of their lives... To pray for non-Orthodox Christians with church-public prayer, on an equal basis with Orthodox Christians, that is, to remember their names in churches in the same way as the names of Orthodox Christians are mentioned, contrary to the teachings and decrees of our One Holy Catholic Apostolic Church. That's what we say, that's what we do. And this is not at all out of hatred for non-believing Christians and not because we do not wish them well, but because our unauthorized or unauthorized prayer for them will be displeasing to God and useless for their souls, and will turn into sin for those praying for them...
Orthodox Christians can pray for non-Orthodox Christians - living and dead - through private prayer at home; but not to pray arbitrarily - not as we please - (so as not to incur the wrath of God instead of favor), but according to the instructions of people experienced in spiritual life...
He can, for example, pray in the following sense: “Have mercy, Lord, if possible, on the soul of Your servant (name), who has departed into eternal life in apostasy from Your Holy Orthodox Church! Your destinies are unsearchable. Do not make this my prayer a sin for me. But Thy Holy will be done!”
We do not know, and it is not open to anyone, how much benefit such a prayer can bring to the soul of a deceased unfaithful Christian. But experience has proven that it moderates the burning heartfelt grief of the prayer book for the soul of a person close to him, although he did not die in Orthodoxy.”
Deacon Georgy Maximov
Prayer for children
All-merciful Lord Jesus Christ, Who Himself was a child and Who loves and blesses children, have mercy and save the children of our time - so that the unbaptized may be baptized, and the baptized may be confirmed in faith in You, the eternal Truth, and in love for You, Who is ineffable Love.
Save, Lord, those children whom unbelieving parents poison with atheism and turn away from You, the only Savior.
Save, O All-Merciful One, also those children whom evil teachers, without God and soul, alienate from You, their Creator, and make them like puppies.
Save, Lord, those children whose pure souls are polluted by all sorts of immorality on the street and in the theater - save them from the uncleanness of the streets and spectacles.
Save, O All-Merciful One, those children who, having lost their parents, fell into the hands of harsh guardians or evil stepfathers or stepmothers - save them from hearing blasphemous speeches and from seeing evil deeds.
Save, O Son of God, the sons of the sons of men, who are dragged here and there for various physical training and activities, but are not given the main occupation - [growing] in Your holy law, in right thoughts, in mercy and in all deeds of goodness and truth.
So that, through the prayers of Your servant Saint Stylian, the children of this age will grow up and be ripe for the sonship of Borgias and heavenly citizenship, for their eternal salvation, and for Your glory and thanksgiving. Amen.
Prayer for rulers of nations
All nations are Your verbal flocks, the Word of God. They are Your property, and You alone know best how to manage them.
Everyone knows better how to manage his own property than someone else’s. The rulers of the nations of the earth manage the property of others, for they manage what is Yours.
Give understanding, O Lord, to the rulers of the nations of the earth, so that they may rule according to Your holy will;
- to lead the nations along the path that You have indicated;
- to turn them away from what is evil before You;
- to take care of them with fear, realizing the greatest good is that You entrusted this to them. Power is a great temptation, and there are few who can withstand it. Only those who realize that they are Thy servants, [standing] at Thy footstool, endure.
There are many people who abuse their power over nature. There are also many who abuse power over their peers.
Every person is weak, Lord, and is ready to give in to selfishness and pride. And pride destroyed many angels, not to mention people.
For the sake of Thy love and Thy people, O Creator, fill the rulers of the people with the fear of Thy judgment. And for their sake and their salvation, do not be angry, Lord, but support them with Your Spirit of power, wisdom and holiness. So that they may save their souls by helping to save Your peoples, looking to You day and night as a Ruler over rulers. Through the prayers of Saint Alexander Nevsky, Saint Stephen of Devon and other righteous servants of Yours who were in power, have mercy, O All-Merciful One, and hear our prayer. Amen.
Prayer for the mentally ill
Eternal and incomprehensible Mind, Who sowed seeds from His mind in angels and people, Who with His thought embraces the entire created world and provides good wisdom for every creature, hear our prayer for our mentally ill brothers.
Doesn't a man without a mind become a handful of dust, which he carries here and there, without meaning and without purpose, without distinguishing good from evil and living from dead?
You are righteous, O highest God, and in truth you allow torment on people for their unrepentant sins. But in truth You will judge at Your Last Judgment, and now have mercy on those whose mental suffering the sons of perdition, who are at enmity against You and people, rejoice most of all.
Since every year the number of people who boast of their intelligence, covering Your name with contempt, increases, the number of those who, having lost their reason, fill up the asylums of the insane increases.
You give intelligence so that people know that intelligence comes from You. You take away the mind so that people can see that the mind is Yours. Great Giver of gifts, show Your mercy to the maddened, and for the sake of the terrible sacrifice of Your Son on the cross for the entire human race, restore the minds of the insane, and through this lead them and their relatives to repentance. So that they would more appreciate and cherish the wonderful gift of mind with which You have adorned people and elevated them above every other creation in the world.
Through the prayers of the Most Holy Theotokos, Saint Niphon and Saint Naum, have mercy and save, O Lord, our mentally ill brothers, so that they too may glorify You as the triune eternal light, together with every intelligent creation in heaven and on earth, forever and ever. Amen.
Prayer for those who do not venerate the saints[1]
We pray to You for those fellow tribesmen and companions of ours who refuse to honor the memory of Your saints and who, without fear of You and without shame before their Orthodox ancestors, declare to the whole world that they do not honor Your saints.
Will not the King turn his face away from the one who turns his face away from the king’s children? Will the Tsar really honor one who does not honor the royal children? Lord, our fathers glorified with prayers, alms and songs those of Your sons and daughters from the human race who completely fulfilled Your will on earth, and whom You glorified for this in heaven. And it pleased You to be glorified by our fathers, and therefore Your saints, by Your power and mercy, were protectors and helpers of our fathers throughout the centuries. But now you see, King of saints, how some of their descendants turn away from their age-old protectors and helpers, and rely only on their insignificance, like the godless who rely on their weak idols. Turning away from Your saints, they also turn away from You, great and terrible God, and all this is due to their pride and stupid ignorance.
You said, O Christ, to your first saints: “he who receives you receives me” (Matthew 10:40). And whoever does not accept the saints of God into his soul and into his home does not accept God either.
But, through the prayers of all Your saints, Lord, overshadow with Your Spirit all these who have fallen from Your holiness and are carried away by the spirit of malice onto the path of destruction.
And make it, O All-Powerful One, that Your saints may again become dear to them, as they were dear to them in childhood. Make it possible for the praise of Your glorious saints to sound again in their souls and homes. So that all veneration of the saints may be for Your glory, Eternal God, and for our salvation in Your heavenly kingdom forever and ever. Amen.
Prayer for atheists (atheists)
Every existence, O God, testifies to Your existence more clearly than a clock about a watchmaker, and a city about city planners, and a song about a singer, and a word about language and reason. You are clearer than the sun, O omnipotent Lord our God, but the atheists do not know about You; and even more bitter: in the malice of their hearts they do not even want to know about You. They buried their heads in the ground like an ostrich in the sand, and shouted: we don’t see Him, we don’t know Him, He doesn’t exist! I spoke to them words about You, the creator of words and speech, and they laughed. I showed them mercy in Your name, but they were angry. I reminded them of the words of the prophet: “The ox knows its owner” (Is. 1:3), how is it that you people do not know your Lord? - and they answered: There is no Lord!
A river, cut off from its source, dries up. The hearts of the atheists have dried up, their minds have dried up, they have gone mad. Fear gripped me that my neighbors who live next to me will drown in hell.
O Source of life, tell me, Thy servant, how can such death make a nest in the living human soul?
O eternal Sun of truth and truth, how can such darkness fall on the human mind that it cannot recognize and understand the beginning and ending word of all beings in the world? Isn’t it so, Lord, this [happened]: sin after sin, like thread after thread, until a thick veil was sewn together, which hid You for them?
But do not allow, Lord, for the king of darkness to completely take possession of Your creations; roar with Your power and shine with Your rays, so that those who have fallen asleep and intoxicated by hell will awaken! Do what only You know and can, so that my neighbors, the most unfortunate of all Your creations, will repent.
For my neighbors will be beautiful when they repent and come to know You through the prayers of Your holy servant Moses Murin, when, like the prodigal sons, they turn from the company of pigs to the company of angels.
Oh, how sonorous and harmonious the song of Your glory will be when all Your repentant sons sing it together with the believers [on earth] and the army of angels in heaven, which day and night glorifies and magnifies the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, the only living God. Amen.
Prayer for the Jews
God, You carry out everything that You think or say in Yourself, You carried out the threat of the Jews, and according to Your word You left their house empty, and scattered them [themselves] among all the nations of the earth. For their fathers, like evil winegrowers, beat up Your prophets, crucified Your only begotten Son on the cross, stoned the apostles, and put to death many saints and righteous people with a bitter death.
And to this day they, like sons of disobedience, walk through the world, as if [driven by] the whip of a curse, opposing the Gospel of the Messiah and Savior of the world - everything as Your great Apostle Paul predicted about them.
By their opposition to the Truth they serve to strengthen the jealousy of Thy faithful, O Christ, which they [themselves] have not yet been given the opportunity to see. But, Lord, now fulfill the word of Your apostle, Who prophesied that in the last times the scales would fall from the eyes of Israel and You would turn away wickedness from Jacob (see: Rom. 11:25).
Has not the time come when You will remove the veil from the eyes of the children of Israel, and they will receive their sight and begin to see as they should, and will recognize You as the Light of lights and the Judge of the righteous?
Remember, Lord, the righteousness of those of their fathers who were faithful to You, foreseeing in spirit Your coming and dying with the hope of seeing Your face!
Through the prayers of Your holy prophets and the righteous of the Old Testament, hasten, O Lord, the enlightenment and conversion of the people of Jacob, so that this people, having become friends with the baptized peoples, glorify You, the only true Messiah and Savior of the world, risen and raising the dead, with the Father and Your Holy Spirit, forever and ever. Amen.
Prayer for Muslims
You are one God, and there is no other God besides You. That's what we Christians say, and that's what Muslims say too.
But the Muslims reached halfway and closed the gates in front of them. They closed the gates to the holy truth that You, God, are trinity in the unity of Your spiritual existence. And they closed the gates before the testimony of Your visit to the world through Your incarnate Wisdom, as well as before the testimony of Your love for people, shown on the cross.
As far as the month is high above the earth, Islam is higher than idolatry. But the month does not have light in itself, but shines with the reflected light of the sun, so Islam, in what it has light [in itself], borrowed from the truth revealed to the world by Your Son Jesus Christ.
You wanted. God, in Your goodness, so that man would not be a slave, but a son of You, and so that he, like a son, would learn the divine secrets of Your being and Your love. The Islamic “prophet” turned the slaves of stone idols into slaves of the one God, and Your Son Jesus made the slaves Your sons.
Our Three-Bright God, have mercy on all the Mohammedan peoples, for they too believe in Your mercy. They lived long enough as slaves before You; now make them Your sons.
Move them with Your Holy Spirit, that they may know and see their Savior in Christ. Open the gates that are closed halfway, so that they can see heaven opened by Christ and their heavenly Father in heaven.
So that many millions of Muslim souls with many millions of Christian souls unite in the thought of You, in love for You and in glorifying You, the only living God in the Trinity light, through the prayers of all the saints who [from ancient times and] to this day have passed from Islam to Christianity , and who now glorify You in heaven in the choir of Your angels and saints. Amen.
Prayer for Parsis (Zoroastrians)
Lord, You are the Sun of truth, You are the consuming fire, You are the eternal intelligent light and are clothed in light as in a robe. You are the light that does not burn or go out, in which there is no change, and You are the Father of the faithful true light.
But, Lord Giver of Light, the descendants of the luminous Adam fell into darkness and darkened their eyes, so that they could not see beyond the created sun and natural fire. And, since they did not see You, the Creator of fire, they began to call created fire their god.
Fire is not to blame for this. Fire doesn’t even know that some people deify it. The fire does not see its fans and does not hear their prayers. Fire does not know that it is created, much less that it is [supposedly] a creator. He doesn’t know when it will be lit or when it will be extinguished. He knows nothing, does not see, does not hear, does not feel, does not think. And yet the Parsis worship him as a god; intelligent people consider fire more intelligent than themselves!
And You, the All-Seeing and Long-suffering One, have seen this throughout the centuries!
Put an end to such humiliation of the descendants of Adam, our brothers in Adam. You, Christ, who saved Adam from hell, hasten and save his fire-worshipping descendants before they descend into hell. So that the Parsis may know You, the Light of light, the Light of reason, love and life - through the prayers of Your martyr, your companion Jacob the Persian. So that they too, having entered the family of Christian nations, glorify and thank You forever and ever. Amen.
Prayer for the Russian people[2]
All-wise God, Whose judgments are incomprehensible and ways inscrutable, mercifully hear and hear our prayer for Your Russian Orthodox people.
Thou hast allowed grievous torment to fall on Thy most faithful servant, just as the torment was allowed to fall on Thy first apostles, on the prophets and the righteous. All naked and wounded, Your servant was thrown to rot, like the once righteous Job, so that Satan would laugh at him and his neighbors would revile him. This torment is severe, and man is weak; God bless you! Raise up Your servant and heal his wounds.
We know, O Lord our God, that in Your wise providence You allow suffering to befall Your chosen ones, so that they, like gold in fire, may be purified by the fire of suffering from [everything] earthly and shine brightly. But do not allow, God of mercy and love, that Satan laugh for a long time, and the hypocrites revile Your crusading Russian people for a long time.
We know that you allow troubles to the holiest souls for the sake of their greater glory, and to sinners and vile ones - for fear and trembling. We know, Christ, that Your glorious resurrection took place after reproach, torment on the cross and death. Therefore, in the light of Your suffering, we look at the darkness of Russian suffering and expect to [see] its resurrected glory.
Just as for the paralytic Bethesda there was no person who could help him until You came, so now for the great Russian people in the whole world there is no person who could help them without You, our God and our Savior.
Good Lord, do not delay Your help, for You are quick to help. Do not put it off and do not refuse, but like the merciful Samaritan, turn to the Russian people, who suffered from robbers and were beaten all over, stretch out your hand to them, heal their wounds, and return them health, strength and glory. So that this most faithful servant of Yours may glorify You even more in the future than He glorified You in the past - You, His Savior with the Father and the Holy Spirit forever and ever. Amen.
Prayer for the Chinese people
All-seeing God, Sun of suns, Who with Your gaze embraces everything created in heaven and on earth, You alone know the number of the angelic army, as well as the number of ants in the sand, birds in the air and fish in the water - we pray to You, pour out Your mercy on the Chinese people, the most populous of Your people on earth.
Lord, You gave the Chinese people great wisdom in life, so that they knew how to cultivate the land, conduct trade, obey authorities, honor their parents, take care of their home and love order in everything.
But this wisdom leads a person only to the grave, which is not far from every mortal.
The Chinese people lack that eternal Wisdom of Yours, O Lord, which was embodied on earth in Your Only Begotten Son, which leads the soul beyond the grave and introduces it into the Kingdom of Heaven.
O good Creator, Boundless Love, how can Your love have a limit without spreading to many millions of Your great Chinese people? No, not at all! But You, by Your miraculous providence, have determined the time in which the Chinese people will come and worship the cross of Christ and receive into themselves the most pure blood of Christ and the power of Your Holy Spirit.
Hasten the onset of this time, Most merciful. Help the missionaries of the cross and resurrection in the land of China. Open the gates of Your grace for China in spite of our sins. So that the land of the yellow people may resound with songs and exclamations from countless lips: “Thy Nativity, O Christ our God” and “Christ is risen from the dead”! Most Holy Trinity, do this according to the prayers of all the apostles and evangelists. Let it be so. Amen.
Prayer for the Japanese people
Eternal God and Creator of the heavenly and earthly peoples, who give life to everything by Your will and embrace everything with Your mercy, open the soul of Your Japanese people, so that they may receive the Good News of Your Son and our Lord Jesus Christ.
A great and powerful people, a people of strong will and ready to sacrifice, like few other nations. Why do such people remain ignorant of the Truth even nineteen centuries after the star shone over Bethlehem and the angelic song sounded over the manger of Your Son, the Herald and Incarnator of the eternal and holy Truth?
Your Japan, Lord, already knows about the existence of the spiritual world; knows about the spirits of his ancestors; but does not know about You, who is the God of spirits and all flesh. They erect temples to their ancestors, but they do not erect sanctuaries to You, the Creator of their ancestors. They make sacrifices to creatures, and do not offer them to the Creator.
Our soul grieves, O Christ, that such a people do not yet know the gospel of Your visit to the human race; does not know about Your sacrifice, about Your love and about Your resurrection. In the land of the “rising sun,” the sun has not yet risen. Thou Who turned Saul into Paul by Thy one appearance on the way to Damascus, turn the land of the “rising Sun” into the land of the rising Sun by Thy miraculous power, which is most abundant from eternity.
We confess and acknowledge, Lord, that the land of Japan has not yet been baptized because of our sins. The great sins of Christians have blocked and are blocking the path of Your great Japanese people into the kingdom of Your light and life.
But through the prayers of Saints Cyril and Methodius, hasten, O Christ, and save the Japanese people, for whom You remain to this day an unknown Provider and Giver. May the nation's praise of the one, living, omnipotent, trinity in unity, forever and ever, be heard in the land of Japan. Amen.
Applications
Prayer to the Mother of God for the conversion of the lost saint. Gabriel of Novgorod[3]
Oh, All-Merciful Lady, Virgin and Lady Theotokos, Queen of Heaven! By Your Nativity You saved the human race from the eternal torment of the devil: for from You Christ was born, our Savior. Look with Your mercy on this (name), deprived of God’s mercy and grace, intercede with Your Mother’s boldness and Your prayers from Your Son, Christ our God, so that He may send down His grace from above on this perishing one. O Most Blessed One! You are the hope of the unreliable, You are the salvation of the desperate, may the enemy not rejoice over his soul!
Prayer to St. Serapion Kozheozersky about the conversion of unbelieving loved ones
O most wonderful and glorious, our Father Serapion! Having rejected the evil faith of your parents, and being jealous of the love of Christ, you have taken up the feats of repentance, labor and abstinence, for this sake you have appeared as a vessel of Divine grace: glorified by the Father, disgraced by Christ, sanctified by the Holy Spirit; In the same way, we cry out to you: ask us from the Lord for the correction of our hearts, so that we can learn to do the will of the Most High God and love the Kingdom of Heaven more than earthly goods, and may our neighbors and relatives in the flesh, through your prayerful intercession, lead the all-merciful Lord out of the darkness of pernicious delusion, may he enlighten with the light of the true faith, may he be considered holy by His Church, may he guide him on the path of righteousness; to Him be due honor and worship to the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, now and ever and unto ages of ages, Amen.
Prayer to the holy martyr. Andronik Nikolsky[4]
Lord, soften the hearts of all people, especially those who believe and believe in You; You yourself enlighten our mental eyes of the heart, let us comprehend Your power, the sweetness of communication with You and the heights of prayer to You; let everyone sincerely try to come to Your temple to pray to You, and whoever really has no time, let him, at least at home, sincerely regret that he is not with others before You; and so sincerely sigh before You, asking for Your grace.
And those who, through the action of Satan, have weakened in faith or even fallen away, by Your wise means for the purpose, direct them again to Your flock, put, by the force of the circumstances of their life, into their hearts sincere repentance and bold, albeit humble, prayer before You with sincere desire return to You; Lord, this is Your business, and we are only Your servants, unworthy workers in Your field. Act through us, as the real ruler of this matter, and give us Your grace, enlightening, making us wise, rousing us to Your work; Grant sincerity to every deed and word of ours first of all, and then fertilize it with Your grace, so that Your power will be clear to everyone, both faithful and unfaithful, and may they sincerely confess Your holy name.
Prayer for the missionaries of St. Makaria (Glukhareva)[5]
Lord, grant to Your servants to speak Your Word with all boldness; stretch out Your hand to heal and to perform signs and wonders in the Name of Your Holy Son Jesus.
Another prayer
God! Enlighten the lost (names), convert them to Thy holy Church and save them by Thy omnipotent Grace! Keep us in Orthodoxy and the true faith, for blessed art thou unto the ages of ages. Amen.
Notes
1. Literally: “about those who deny the glory of God” - a pious Serbian custom of family name days on the day of remembrance of the patron saint of the family. This refers to non-church or liberal-minded people who consider church customs outdated.
2. The prayer was written in the 1930s, when Russia was ruled by communists, persecutors of faith.
3. This and the following prayers are taken from scurvy: priest Daniil Sysoev. Marriage to a Muslim. M., 2007. Ps. 230–231.
4. The prayer is taken from the book: Hieromartyr Andronik (Nikolsky). A year in Japan //Creations. book 1. Tver, 2004. P. 313.
5. Taken from: Thoughts on ways to successfully spread the Christian faith among Jews, Mohammedans and pagans in the Russian state. Archimandrite Macarius Glukharev. St. Petersburg, 1894.
Words to Saint Nicholas
Saint Nicholas the Pleasant can heal people. People have been praying for his health for several centuries. If there is a man or woman in the family who has mental health problems, you can pray to the Pleasant for them. He always comes to the rescue.
They ask for Saint Nicholas when there is practically no hope left, and all the methods of traditional and alternative medicine do not help. Then you need to go to church and pray before the face of the saint.
To speed up the healing of mental illness, priests recommend reading prayers not only in a temple or church, but also at the patient’s bedside. This should be done at least once a day. For diseases of the nervous system, it is recommended to read prayer three times a day. After each reading, it is necessary to wash the patient’s face with holy water.
Mother's prayers for the health of children are the most powerful and effective
The most powerful prayer for the health of children is the prayer that comes from the very depths of a mother’s heart. Why specifically maternal? Because only the mother knows her child 9 months longer than other people. Because there is a close, inextricable connection between mother and child. When a baby is sick, his mother is sick along with him, but her pain is stronger, since she is sick in spirit. In moments when a child suffers from illness, Orthodox prayers for the health of the children can come to the mother’s aid.
Holy helpers to the mother of a sick child
Of course, if a child is ill, you should not neglect traditional drug treatment - medicine has now made enormous progress and is able to cope with many, even serious diseases.
We should not forget about faith, about the holy heavenly helpers - their support and assistance can alleviate the patient’s condition and speed up his healing. The best way to appeal to higher powers has always been, is and will be sincere prayer.
Orthodox prayers simply must be read during illness. The Lord is the main helper to the mother of a sick child, for His possibilities are limitless. God also has his own companions - these are saints who know how to heal body and soul. Therefore, you can turn to the Almighty with a request for health through His saints - the Creator listens to their opinion and through them provides His help.
In addition to the Lord himself, most often with prayer for the health of children they appeal to:
A mother’s prayer for health (no matter for her son or daughter), directed to the listed saints, has truly miraculous powers and can sometimes become the only salvation in a critical situation.
