Matins
The Litany of the Sick
Priest
The sick among Your people…
You have visited them with mercies and compassions; heal them. Take away from them and from us all disease and all sickness; the spirit of sicknesses drive away. Those who have lain long in sickness, raise up and comfort.
Those who are afflicted by unclean spirits, set them all free. Those in prisons or dungeons, those in exile or captivity, and those held in bitter bondage, O Lord, set them all free and have mercy upon them. For You are He Who loosens the bound and raises the fallen; the hope of those without hope and the help of those who have no helper; the comfort of the faint-hearted and the harbour of those in the storm.
All souls that are distressed or bound, grant them mercy, O Lord; grant them rest; grant them refreshment; grant them grace; grant them help; grant them salvation; grant them forgiveness of their sins and their iniquities.
And for us also, O Lord: the sicknesses of our souls, heal, and those of our bodies, cure. O true Physician of our souls and bodies, the overseer of all flesh, visit us with Your salvation.
We pray this litany during Matins because the dawn of the day symbolises hope and optimism. The sunrise everyday means that God gives us a new opportunity for repentance, life, productivity, and improving our conditions. With the new sunrise, we left our prayers up to our brethren who are sick and travelling so that optimism and hope are renewed in them through healing and their safe return to their homes. Here the Church expresses with profound spiritual beauty, the spirit of fellowship and empathy.
It is of the nature of the Church that we are all together. The sign of our membership in the one Body is feeling for one another.
And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; or if one member is honoured, all the members rejoice with it.
— 1 Corinthians 12:26
Now all who believed were together, and had all things in common
— Acts 2:44
Illness hinders a person from fellowship with the Church in terms of fasting, energetic prayer, gathering in the Holy Church for Eucharist or Liturgy, preaching, and teaching. So we pray for them in the sacrament Unction of the Sick, as well.
We pray for those tormented by unclean spirits. And we also pray for those tormented psychologically due to imprisonment, exile, captivity, being held in bitter bondage of Satan, people, or ego. The Church rejoices in the freedom, comfort, joy, and stability of people, and pray for everyone, not forgetting anyone.
It’s worth remembering that the Litany of the Sick and the sacrament of the Unction of the Sick do not negate the role of the physician and medical treatment.
Honour the physician with the honour due him,
— Wisdom of Sirach 38:1-4
And also according to y our need of him,
For the Lord created him.
Healing comes from the Most High,
And he will receive a gift from the king.
The physician's skill will lift up his head,
And he shall be admired in the presence of the great.
The Lord created medicines from the earth,
And a sensible man will not loathe them.
And keep in touch with your physician,
— Wisdom of Sirach 38:12
For the Lord created him;
And do not let him leave you,
For you need him.
However, it is also not appropriate to rely solely on human efforts, forgetting our Almighty God, who grants healing. We turn to physicians, praying to God for healing.
There is a clear connection between healing and forgiveness.
Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.
— James 5:14-15
Afterward Jesus found him in the temple, and said to him, “See, you have been made well. Sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon you.”
— John 5:14
Then behold, they brought to Him a paralytic lying on a bed. When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, “Son, be of good cheer; your sins are forgiven you.”
— Matthew 9:2