What is happening?
Every occasion below has cited guidance on how different traditions meet that moment, what tends to help, and when the right answer is to call someone rather than read anything. 17 of them also carry prayers taken from named editions and checked against them.
Nothing here has been signed by a reviewer credentialed in the tradition it comes from. Each page says so before you read a word of it. How that works.
Right now, today
These may need a person before they need words.
If someone is Catholic or Orthodox and near death, call a priest now, before anything else. A hospital chaplaincy can reach one at any hour, and can find clergy for any tradition.
- Dying and the end of lifeThe last hours, and what each tradition asks be done at them.
- Before surgeryThe hours before an operation, for the patient and for those waiting.
- Serious illnessA diagnosis that changes the shape of a life.
- Pregnancy and infant lossA grief that many traditions mark differently from other deaths, and some barely mark at all.
In the days ahead
Something is being planned, and there is time to prepare for it.
Something you are carrying
No deadline, and no less real.
- Grief and mourningAfter a death, including the formal mourning periods traditions set.
- Health and healingIllness, recovery and the wish for someone to be well.
- Anxiety and distressFear, worry and the nights that do not end.
- FaithHolding on to belief, and finding it again.
- Spiritual lifePractice, doubt and the ordinary work of belief.
- PeacePeace of mind, peace in a household, peace between peoples.
- Love and relationshipsPartners, families and the repair of what is strained.
- Fertility and conceptionHoping for a child.
- Work and provisionWork, money and having enough.