The hours before an operation, for the patient and for those waiting.
Cited background on how traditions meet this moment, with no ritual instructions. The texts further down come from named editions and were checked against them; none has yet been signed by a reviewer credentialed in its tradition. How that works.
Surgery has a strange devotional geography: a pre-op bay with a curtain for a wall, a corridor where the trolley pauses, a waiting room where a family sits with bad coffee and a phone set to loud. People reach for words in all three places. Patients look for something to say the night before, families for something to hold during the operation, nurses and chaplains for language that fits a stranger's tradition. The traditions themselves take the moment seriously. Catholic teaching calls anointing fitting just before a serious operation, not a deathbed measure. Jewish practice carries the Mi Sheberach to the bedside before and after surgery. A Muslim patient may be weighing prayer times against an anesthetic, a Sikh patient a steel kara against a surgical checklist. And a large share of patients want no religious language at all, only steadiness.
Words matter here because control has just changed hands. The patient signs consent, counts backward, and everything that follows belongs to other people. Prayer, blessing, mantra, or plain honest speech is one of the few acts still available to the person on the trolley and to the people who love them. What follows maps how major traditions meet the hours before an operation, what hospital chaplaincy can actually do, and why the waiting room is its own moment, so that a family member, friend, or nurse can ask the right question instead of guessing. It stays at the level of awareness: the prayers themselves belong to the traditions and the people who pray them.
Across traditions
Awareness-level notes: what this moment tends to involve, tradition by tradition. Each links to its background page.
The Anointing of the Sick is often assumed to be a deathbed rite; Catholic teaching says otherwise. The Catechism states that the fitting time arrives once illness or old age brings danger, that it is fitting to receive the anointing just prior to a serious operation, and that the sacrament can be repeated if a condition worsens or returns. Only a priest can anoint, so families usually arrange it through the parish or the hospital's Catholic chaplain before the day of surgery.
Holy Unction, the Orthodox mystery of anointing, is offered for the sick in body or mind whatever the gravity of the illness, and Orthodox teaching states plainly that it is not last rites. Its purpose is described as healing and forgiveness, held within the prayer that God's will be done. A patient facing surgery may ask their priest for unction or for bedside prayers beforehand; how and when it is served varies by jurisdiction and parish.
Protestant practice before surgery is congregational rather than fixed: no rite is required, and what happens depends on the church. Common requests include a pastoral visit or call the night before, prayer at the bedside in pre-op, and a name added to the congregation's prayer list. Some churches practice prayer for healing with anointing or laying on of hands; others keep to spoken prayer alone. The useful question is what the patient's own congregation does, and whether they want their pastor told.
The Mi Sheberach, the Jewish prayer for healing, asks for healing of soul and healing of body, and it has traveled from the synagogue Torah service into the hospital: it is now said before and after surgery by relatives, chaplains, and sometimes the clinicians in the room. When the patient cannot be in synagogue, a relative may be called to the Torah and the prayer offered by name. After recovery from danger many say Birkat HaGomel, a public thanksgiving. Practice varies by movement.
Salah continues through illness, and the tradition accommodates the sick: clinical references note that bedridden patients may pray in bed, and that prayer takes only a few minutes and calls for privacy without interruption. Around surgery, a patient may want to pray or complete ablution before premedication, to know prayer times relative to the anesthetic, or to have help finding the direction of Mecca. Family members often offer du'a, personal supplication, at parting. Observance varies by school and individual, so ask rather than assume.
Hindu practice is too varied for one script, which is why care guidance tells staff to discuss religious observance with each patient. Prayer and meditation matter to many Hindus, with no fixed times, morning and evening preferred, and prayer possible anywhere, including a hospital bed. Sacred threads, certain chains, and tulsi beads carry religious meaning: guidance is that they should not be removed for an examination or procedure without permission. Some patients want a pandit, a Hindu priest, involved when illness is serious.
No single rite marks the hours before surgery, and practice differs by school, culture, and family: what one patient does with a mala or a chant, another meets with breath and silence. Patients who keep a meditation or chanting practice may want quiet, undisturbed minutes before sedation more than conversation, and family or community members sometimes chant for the patient from home or a temple. The reliable move is to ask what practice, if any, the patient keeps.
For an initiated Sikh the five articles of faith are worn constantly, and the operating theatre is where that commitment meets hospital protocol. Guidance from Sikh organizations asks staff to approach the articles with consultation and flexibility rather than removal: the kara, a steel bracelet that often cannot slide off the wrist, can usually be taped in place for surgery. Families may also ask the gurdwara for Ardas, the Sikh petitionary prayer, and practice varies by family and level of observance.
Hospital chaplaincy exists for precisely this hour. Professional chaplains serve patients and families of all faiths and none, many departments run around the clock with on-call coverage overnight, and support prior to, during, and after surgery is named as core work, alongside prayer for healing and ritual and sacramental support. A chaplain can pray in pre-op, sit with the family during the operation, find a prayer room, or contact the patient's own clergy. Any nurse can make the request.
Needing no prayer does not mean needing nothing. Hospital spiritual care departments state that they serve people of no faith, and a pre-surgery visit can be conversation, practical reassurance, or quiet company. In the UK, the Non-Religious Pastoral Support Network has accredited over 150 pastoral carers who work alongside chaplains in hospitals and other institutions, offering a secular ear for fear, hope, and meaning. In the waiting room, presence, honest updates, and one named point of contact do the work that liturgy does elsewhere.
Texts from their published editions
Each text below comes from the edition named under it and was checked twice, independently, before it appeared. Neither check was a person. Where the two disagreed by even one character, the text is not shown here. That is a claim about wording only: these are not selected or endorsed for any particular situation, and nobody credentialed in the tradition has signed them. Older spelling is kept as the edition prints it. The full record, including the texts we held back because the two transcriptions disagreed, is at the verification record.
EL que habita al abrigo del Altísimo, morará bajo la sombra del Omnipotente.
Diré yo á Jehová: Esperanza mía, y castillo mío; mi Dios, en él confiaré.
Y él te librará del lazo del cazador: de la peste destruidora.
Con sus plumas te cubrirá, y debajo de sus alas estarás seguro: escudo y adarga es su verdad.
No tendrás temor de espanto nocturno, ni de saeta que vuele de día;
Ni de pestilencia que ande en oscuridad, ni de mortandad que en medio del día destruya.
Caerán á tu lado mil, y diez mil á tu diestra: mas á ti no llegará.
Ciertamente con tus ojos mirarás, y verás la recompensa de los impíos.
Porque tú has puesto á Jehová, que es mi esperanza, al Altísimo por tu habitación,
No te sobrevendrá mal, ni plaga tocará tu morada.
Pues que á sus ángeles mandará acerca de ti, que te guarden en todos tus caminos.
En las manos te llevarán, porque tu pie no tropiece en piedra.
Sobre el león y el basilisco pisarás; hollarás al cachorro del león y al dragón.
Por cuanto en mí ha puesto su voluntad, yo también lo libraré: pondrélo en alto, por cuanto ha conocido mi nombre.
Me invocará, y yo le responderé: con él estaré yo en la angustia: lo libraré, y le glorificaré.
Saciarélo de larga vida, y mostraréle mi salud.
Casiodoro de Reina and Cipriano de Valera, 1909 revision. 1909. Published 1909, before 1929, US public domain, and distributed as public domain by ebible.org. Later Reina-Valera revisions such as RVR1960 are in copyright and are not used here. Source
Out of copyright in the United States on the basis stated here, and free to reuse there. Please keep the citation with it.
One of the Songs of Ascents, a short psalm of protection for one setting out or in danger. Used in Jewish practice at times of travel, illness and childbirth, and included in some funeral and memorial orders. Often paired with Psalm 130 in visits to the sick.
Sefaria, from the Unicode/XML Leningrad Codex at tanach.us, 2026. Tanach.us states that all biblical Hebrew text on its site may be viewed or copied without restriction, and Sefaria labels this version Public Domain. Retrieved and verified 2026-09-02. Cite as: Psalms 121:1-8, Tanach with Nikkud, a digital edition of the Leningrad Codex, via Sefaria.org. Source
Out of copyright in the United States on the basis stated here, and free to reuse there. Please keep the citation with it.
Wording and scope vary between editions and between communities, so each edition here is named and this entry makes no claim about which form is right in a given setting. The two columns do not cover quite the same span: the Hebrew opens with the psalm's superscription, “A Song of Ascents”, which the English published here does not carry, because the two transcription passes over the JPS volume agreed only from the first verse proper.
One of the Songs of Ascents, a short psalm of protection for one setting out or in danger. Used in Jewish practice at times of travel, illness and childbirth, and included in some funeral and memorial orders. Often paired with Psalm 130 in visits to the sick.
English · The Authorised Daily Prayer Book, with a New Translation, seventh edition, 1904Read twice, independently
I lift up mine eyes unto the hills : whence will my help come ?
My help is from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth.
He will not suffer thy foot to slip : he that guardeth thee will not slumber.
Behold, he that guardeth Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.
The Lord is thy guardian : the Lord is thy shade upon thy right hand.
The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night.
The Lord shall guard thee from all evil ; he shall guard thy soul.
The Lord shall guard thy going out and thy coming in, from this time forth and for evermore.
Simeon Singer. Eyre and Spottiswoode, London, 1904. Seventh edition, published 1904, before 1929, US public domain. The work first appeared in 1890 and the translator died in 1906, so it is also clear in life-plus-70 jurisdictions. Source
Out of copyright in the United States on the basis stated here, and free to reuse there. Please keep the citation with it.
Sefaria, from the Unicode/XML Leningrad Codex at tanach.us, 2026. Tanach.us states that all biblical Hebrew text on its site may be viewed or copied without restriction, and Sefaria labels this version Public Domain. Retrieved and verified 2026-09-04. Cite as: Psalms 121:1-8, Tanach with Nikkud, a digital edition of the Leningrad Codex, via Sefaria.org. Source
Out of copyright in the United States on the basis stated here, and free to reuse there. Please keep the citation with it.
Wording and scope vary between editions and between communities, so each edition here is named and this entry makes no claim about which form is right in a given setting. The two columns come from different publishers: Singer's prayer book prints its own facing Hebrew, and the Hebrew shown here is a Masoretic edition rather than Singer's, which is why it is named separately above. The Hebrew also opens with the psalm's superscription, “A Song of Ascents”, which the English published here does not carry.
A prayer that God answer in the day of trouble. It stands near the end of the weekday morning service, and it is customarily said for a person in danger, including for a woman in labour.
Sefaria, from the Unicode/XML Leningrad Codex at tanach.us, 2026. Tanach.us states that all biblical Hebrew text on its site may be viewed or copied without restriction, and Sefaria labels this version Public Domain. Retrieved and verified 2026-09-17. Cite as: Psalms 20:1-10, Tanach with Nikkud, a digital edition of the Leningrad Codex, via Sefaria.org. Source
Out of copyright in the United States on the basis stated here, and free to reuse there. Please keep the citation with it.
Wording and scope vary between editions and between communities, so each edition here is named and this entry makes no claim about which form is right in a given setting. The English keeps the line breaks of one digitisation of the 1917 volume. The second, which it was checked against, stores each verse as running text, so it confirms the words and cannot confirm where a line ends.
Ayyub, after long illness, calls to God: harm has touched me, and you are the most merciful of the merciful. It is the Quranic prayer most associated with sickness.
Tanzil Project (https://tanzil.net/), served by alquran.cloud, 2026. Not public domain, and the first licensed edition in this corpus. Tanzil grants permission to copy and distribute verbatim copies provided the source is named and tanzil.net is linked, and forbids altering the text. Both conditions are met here. Retrieved and verified 2026-09-17. Source
Licensed, not public domain: copy it only word for word, and name and link the source as its terms require. The terms.
The Arabic is published without an English rendering. The securely public-domain English translations are nineteenth-century orientalist work that no Muslim community uses devotionally, and setting one beside the Arabic would present it as the meaning of the prayer. Recitation in Islamic practice has conditions this entry makes no claim about; what is verified here is the wording of the edition named below. The verse is given whole, as the edition prints it, including the words that introduce the prayer, because this text is used on condition that it is not altered, and a verse cut short is altered.
A song of ascents used across Protestant and Anglican practice at departures, surgery, travel and deathbeds. It appears in the monthly Prayer Book psalm cycle and in most Protestant funeral and hospital orders, and it is among the psalms most frequently chosen by families asked to pick one.
I will lift vp mine eyes vnto the hills : from whence cometh my help.
My help cometh even from the Lord : who hath made heaven and earth.
He will not suffer thy foot to be moved : and he that keepeth thee will not sleep.
Behold, he that keepeth Jsrael : shall neither slumber nor sleep.
The Lord himself is thy keeper : the Lord is thy defence vpon thy right hand.
So that the sun shall not burn thee by day : neither the Moon by night.
The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil : yea it is even he that shall keep thy soule.
The Lord shall preserve thy going out, and thy coming in from this time forth for evermore.
Church of England, 1662. Published 1662, long before 1929, US public domain. UK Crown patent applies within the United Kingdom, so this edition is used here on the US basis only. Source
Out of copyright in the United States on the basis stated here, and free to reuse there. Please keep the citation with it.
Ask, then arrange, then wait well. Asking: one open question, such as whether any spiritual or religious support would be wanted before the operation, beats every assumption; the answer may be a priest, a prayer mat, or a firm no. Arranging: anything that needs clergy, Catholic anointing above all, is far easier the day before than in a pre-op bay at dawn, and any nurse can page the on-call chaplain at any hour. Religious items are part of the arranging: karas, sacred threads, tulsi beads, and similar articles should not be removed without permission, and guidance for staff favors taping or repositioning over removal. Waiting: the waiting room is its own vigil, so offer presence rather than commentary, agree on who receives the surgeon's updates and who relays them, and let people pray, read, scroll, or sit silent without managing them. Afterward, remember that several traditions have words for survival and recovery too, and the person may want them.
When to call someone instead: When the patient wants what only clergy can bring, call clergy: a priest for Catholic anointing or Orthodox unction, or the patient's own rabbi, imam, granthi, or pandit at the bedside. Parishes and congregations can often send someone the evening before a scheduled operation. When time is short, when surgery is moved up, or when nobody knows who to call, ask any nurse for the on-call chaplain: chaplaincy runs around the clock in many hospitals, serves people of all faiths and none, and can contact the patient's own community. Call a chaplain too when fear or family conflict has outgrown what any text on a page can help.
Need your own words right now? The composer assembles a short prayer for before surgery from human-written lines, with or without religious language, free and without sending anything you type to anyone.
Questions people arrive with
Can a Catholic be anointed before surgery, or is anointing only for the dying?#
Anointing before surgery is explicitly provided for. The Catechism of the Catholic Church states that it is fitting to receive the Anointing of the Sick just prior to a serious operation, and that the right time arrives whenever illness or age brings danger, not only at the point of death. The sacrament can also be repeated if illness returns or worsens. Because only a priest can anoint, families usually contact the parish or the hospital's Catholic chaplain before the day of surgery rather than on the morning itself.
Tell anyone on the care team, a pre-op nurse is enough, or ask the hospital operator for the chaplain on call. Many hospitals staff chaplaincy around the clock, with on-call coverage overnight, and describe support before, during, and after surgery as part of the role. Chaplains serve people of all faiths and none, and they can also contact the patient's own clergy or faith community if that is who the patient actually wants at the bedside.
What happens with Muslim daily prayers when surgery is scheduled?#
Salah is prayed five times daily in set windows, so an operation and recovery can overlap one or more of them. Islamic practice includes recognized accommodations for the sick: clinical references note that bedridden patients may pray in bed, and how prayers missed under anesthesia are handled afterward is a question patients take to their own scholars. What helps practically is to ask whether the patient wants time and privacy to pray before going to theatre, and to offer help with finding the direction of Mecca.
The prayer most often requested is the Mi Sheberach, the prayer for healing, which asks for healing of soul and healing of body. Traditionally offered during the synagogue Torah reading, it is now also said at the bedside, including before and after surgery, by family members, chaplains, and sometimes clinicians. Some families also recite Psalms while they wait. After recovery from danger, some Jews say Birkat HaGomel, a blessing of thanksgiving, in the presence of the community. Customs vary by movement.
What can I say to someone going into surgery if neither of us is religious?#
Plain speech carries the moment fine: that you are here, that you will be in the waiting room, that you will handle the phone calls and the dog and whatever else is circling their mind. Spiritual care departments explicitly serve people of no faith, and in the UK accredited non-religious pastoral carers work in hospitals alongside chaplains, so secular support is an established request, not an awkward one. Presence, specifics, and a named person waiting tend to matter more than any formula.
Nearby moments
Health and healing: Illness, recovery and the wish for someone to be well.
Serious illness: A diagnosis that changes the shape of a life.
Peace: Peace of mind, peace in a household, peace between peoples.
Sources
The claims above rest on the following. Where practice varies, the variation is stated rather than resolved.
Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraphs 1514 to 1516, Libreria Editrice Vaticana. States that Anointing of the Sick is not only for those at the point of death, that it is fitting just prior to a serious operation, that it may be repeated, and that only priests administer it.
Holy Unction, in The Orthodox Faith, Volume II: Worship, Orthodox Church in America. Describes Holy Unction as the sacrament of healing of soul and body for any illness, physical or mental, and states explicitly that it is not last rites and not reserved for extreme cases.
Mi Sheberakh: May the One Who Blessed, My Jewish Learning. Explains the Jewish healing prayer's request for healing of soul and body, its place in the Torah service, and its use at the bedside before and after surgery by family, chaplains, and clinicians.
Cultural Competence in the Care of Muslim Patients and Their Families, StatPearls, NCBI Bookshelf. Clinical reference on the five daily prayers in hospital: privacy and non-interruption during prayer, help with ablution, assistance finding the direction of Mecca, and that bedridden patients may pray in bed.
Health Care Providers' Handbook on Hindu Patients, Queensland Health, republished by the Asian American Health Initiative, Montgomery County. Institutional guidance: prayer and meditation matter to many Hindus, with no set times and prayer possible in bed; sacred threads, chains, and tulsi beads should not be removed without permission; staff should discuss observance with each patient.
Spiritual Care Services, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. A representative hospital chaplaincy description: chaplains serve persons of all faiths or no faith, are available 24/7 with on-call coverage, offer support prior to, during, and after surgery, and are requested through the care team.
Humanist Pastoral Support, Humanists UK. Describes the Non-Religious Pastoral Support Network: over 150 accredited non-religious pastoral carers working in hospitals, hospices, prisons, and universities, offering support from a secular perspective alongside chaplains.
Content last changed 6 October 2026. Dates come from this page’s own revision history, not from the last time the site was deployed.
