Prayers for Health: for Yourself, Your Children and Parents

Svichka.org · Updated 2026-10-07 · 8 min read

A prayer for health does not need special words, and it does not depend on how many texts you know by heart. Below are short prayers you can read at home or in a hospital room: for yourself, for your children, for your mother and father, for your husband, for a grandparent, and before surgery. After them, how to pray in church and what to do when nothing seems to change.

In this article: Prayer for your mother · Prayer for a child · Before surgery · Prayer to the Theotokos

When People Pray for Health

People pray when they fall ill themselves or when someone close to them does. This happens in sickness, before surgery, during treatment, and in recovery. Parents pray for children, children for parents, wives for husbands, and women pray during pregnancy. Prayer does not replace a doctor and does not work as a charm. There is no special stronger prayer you buy for more money. The price does not make it work, and neither does the number of words. What matters is that the request is honest and that you bring it before God with trust, whether you are the one who is ill or the one who is standing beside a sick person and asking for help.

Praying at Home: How to Start

People pray before the icons, in the morning or in the evening, as they are able. They light a candle or an oil lamp. A few minutes is enough. You can say the person's name and put the request in your own words. A fixed place and a fixed time help you not to forget. You can also pray on a bus, or in a hospital room. The point is not to create a perfect setting but to turn your attention to God and to the person you are carrying in your heart. If you have never prayed before, start small and keep it simple, and let the habit grow quietly over time rather than trying to do everything at once.

Praying in Church: the Note and the Moleben

In church you hand in a note with the names in the genitive case, marked for health. The names are the ones given at baptism. A note usually holds up to ten names. A moleben is served once, while a sorokoust for health is forty liturgies in a row. The donation is voluntary. The candle for health is placed before the icons of Christ or the Theotokos. If you are unsure how to write the names or where to hand in the note, you can ask the woman behind the candle box, and she will show you what to do. Nobody expects you to know everything on your first visit.

In Your Own Words

Your own words are not weaker than a printed text. Name the person, say what you are asking for, and give thanks. Short is better than long and memorised. You can pray in silence when you have no strength to speak. What matters is not the formula but that the request is honest. God hears the intention of the heart even when the words are few and awkward. If you are crying or cannot find the right phrases, that is not a failure. It is enough to say the name and to mean it. A single sentence said with attention can carry more than a page read without thought.

Prayer for Your Mother

People pray for a mother when she is ill, and also for no particular reason, asking for her health and long years. Often they add a word about her hands and her heart. A mother is both the one who gave birth and the one who raised you. You can name her as she was baptised and ask simply that God keep her, strengthen her, and grant her peace. If she is far away, the prayer crosses the distance. If she is near, it changes how you look at her when you next see her. There is no need to wait for a crisis to remember her before God.

Prayer for Your Father and Parents

Pray for your father separately from your mother, naming each of them. People often ask for strength, health and calm at work. If your father has already died, you pray for him as for the departed. Naming him alone matters because each person stands before God as himself, not only as part of a family. You can ask that his burdens be lighter and that he find rest after a long day. If your relationship with him is difficult, the prayer does not require you to pretend otherwise. You can bring the truth of it and ask for what is needed, including patience for yourself.

Prayer for a Child

Parents pray for children every day, not only in illness. They ask that the child grow up healthy, not fall ill, study well, and stay out of trouble. Use the name given at baptism. The prayer of parents for their own child carries particular weight. This is not about saying the right words but about the daily habit of placing your child before God and letting that shape your care for them. You can pray in the morning before school, in the evening after the day is done, or in a quiet moment when the house is still. The child does not need to know every time you pray.

Prayer for a Sick Child

When a child is ill, pray briefly and often rather than at length once. Alongside prayer there is a doctor and there is medicine. Refusing treatment is not a feat of faith. In church, hand in a note for the child's health and ask for a moleben. You can also pray at the bedside in a few words, asking for healing and for strength for the child and for yourself. Do not be afraid to keep it simple. The goal is not to say everything at once but to stay close to God through the days of illness, including the hard nights when you are tired and frightened.

Prayer for Your Husband

People pray for a husband when he is ill, when he travels, and when his work is heavy. They ask for health, strength and calm. They also pray when things are tense at home, asking for patience and peace enough to go around. Naming him before God is a way of carrying the marriage in prayer rather than only in worry. You can ask that he be protected on the road, that his work not crush him, and that the two of you find a way to speak to each other with less sharpness. The prayer does not fix everything at once, but it changes the one who prays.

Prayer for a Grandparent

People pray for the oldest in the family when walking is hard, when something hurts, and when the days are lonely. They ask for health, a clear mind and quiet days. A grandmother or grandfather is often the first person who taught us to pray, so they get their own prayer. You can name them and ask that their remaining years be peaceful and that they not feel forgotten. If you live far away, the prayer is a way of being present. If you live nearby, it may also move you to visit, to call, or simply to sit with them without rushing.

Before Surgery and in Hospital

Before an operation, both the patient and the family pray. They ask that the doctors' hands be guided and that there be strength to endure. In church, hand in a note for health and ask for a moleben. You can also ask a priest about confession and communion before going into hospital. A short prayer in the ward matters too. The waiting before surgery is often harder than the surgery itself, and prayer gives you something to do with that time. You can pray for the surgeon, for the nurses, and for the person beside you in the next bed who is also afraid.

Prayer in Pregnancy

People pray for a woman expecting a child, for her health and the child's, and for a calm birth at its proper time. It is usual to hand in a note for health and to give thanks. The Church has prayers to be said before and after childbirth. These prayers accompany the months of waiting and the days that follow, when the body is tired and the heart is full. You can pray in your own words as well, asking for protection and for patience, and giving thanks for the life that is growing. The prayer does not remove every difficulty, but it keeps the mother and child held before God.

Prayer to the Theotokos

People ask the Theotokos for health more often than anyone else, because she intercedes for people. The prayer Rejoice, O Virgin Theotokos has been known since ancient times. It is read morning and evening, and separately in illness. A candle for health is placed before her icon. Many people find it easier to pray to her when they are anxious, because she is close to the human experience of fear and loss. You can read the prayer as it is written or say it in your own words. The point is not the number of repetitions but the trust with which you turn to her.

When Nothing Changes

Prayer is not a guarantee of recovery, and it does not replace treatment. Illness is not a punishment for sins, and it does not help to think of it that way. Keep treating and keep praying, rather than one instead of the other. A conversation with a priest helps you look at illness more calmly, and you can go to confession and communion. It is good to give thanks for what you still have, even in a hospital. When nothing changes outwardly, the prayer may still be changing you, giving you patience and a quieter heart to face what comes next.

What We Do and What We Do Not Do

We light a candle in a church for your name and intention, pray along with you, and send you the photo on Telegram or WhatsApp. If the request arrives before 6 pm Kyiv time, the candle burns the same day. We do not have a priest, so we do not serve a moleben, a sorokoust or a panikhida. A priest at a parish does that. Our part is the visible candle and the prayer beside you. As of October 2026 we have lit more than two hundred candles. If you need a priest, we will point you toward a parish rather than pretend to be one.

📷 Photos from the church: what your candle looks like

Candles on the kanun: this is the photo you receive

We do not send stock images. Every photo is a candle we actually placed on the kanun in the church, taken the same day. That is why you see the date and time in the message.

If your request arrives before 6 pm Kyiv time (18:00), the candle burns the same day and the photo comes that evening. Later requests are lit the next morning.

Common questions

How do I pray for health if I do not know any prayers?

In your own words. Name the person, say what you are asking for, and give thanks. You can also read a text from this page out loud or under your breath.

Does prayer replace medical treatment?

No. Prayer goes alongside the doctor and the medicine, not instead of them. Refusing treatment is not a feat of faith.

Can I pray for the health of someone who does not know about it?

Yes. Praying for another person does not need their consent. In church you can hand in a note for the health of a baptised person without telling them.

How many days should I keep reading a prayer for health?

As many as you need. Many read for forty days in a row. The Church has the sorokoust for health, which is the commemoration of a name at the Liturgy for forty days.

Which prayer should I read for a child's health?

The short prayer for a child on this page, using the name given at baptism. Read it daily, not only when the child is ill.

What should I read before surgery?

The short prayer before surgery and the prayer to the Theotokos. In church, before going into hospital, hand in a note for health and ask for a moleben.

When will the photo of the candle arrive?

If the request arrives before 6 pm Kyiv time, we light the candle the same day and send the photo that evening. If it comes later, the candle burns the next day.

Is it free?

Yes. The candle is free and there is nothing to sign up for. A donation is possible, but it is entirely up to you.

Other prayers and services Prayers for the departed · Sorokoust and Panikhida · Candle for the departed · Prayers before sleep · Protective prayers · The Lord's Prayer · Candle for health

More on each of them Prayer for your mother · Prayer for your father · Prayer for your daughter · Prayer for your son · Prayer for a child · Prayer for your husband · Prayer for your grandmother