Health and healing: prayers in Protestant Christianity

Texts from their published editions. Guidance on what this tradition does at this moment is on the occasion page, and background on the tradition is at /traditions/protestant.

Texts from their published editions

Each text below was transcribed from the edition named under it and checked twice, independently, against that edition. Where the two transcriptions 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 General Thanksgiving

Two short prayers among the Occasional Prayers and Thanksgivings of the 1662 Book of Common Prayer. The General Thanksgiving, composed by Edward Reynolds for the 1662 revision, is used for recovery from illness and for deliverance generally. The Prayer of St Chrysostom closes Morning and Evening Prayer and is the usual ending for small gatherings and hospital prayer.

English · The Book of Common Prayer, 1662, 1662

Almightie God, Father of all mercies, We thine vnworthy servants do give thee most humble and hearty

thanks for all thy goodnes, and loving kindness to vs

and to all men [ particularly to those who desire now to offer vp their praises, and thanksgivings for thy late mercies vouchsafed vnto them] We bless thee for our creation,

preservation, and all the blessings of this life, but

above all for thine inestimable love in the redemption of the world by our Lord Jesus Christ, for the

means of grace, and for the hope of glory. And

we beseech thee give vs that due sence of all thy

mercies that our hearts may be vnfeignedly thankfull, and that we shew forth thy prayse, not only with

our lips, but in our lives, by giving vp our selves to

thy service, and by walking before thee in holiness

and righteousnes all our dayes through Jesus Christ

our Lord, to whom with thee and the holy Ghost be

all honour and glory world without end. Amen.

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

Psalm 121 (Coverdale)

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.

English · The Book of Common Prayer, 1662, 1662

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

Nothing here has been signed by a reviewer credentialed in this tradition. When that happens, reviewed prayers appear above these, and these stay where they are, as an anthology. How that works.