Prayers for a Sick Child

There is no harder prayer than this one. When your own body is sick you can bargain with it, push through it, tell yourself it will pass. When it is your child, none of that works. You would take it from them if you could, and you cannot, and that is the whole of it.

The prayers on this page are written for that. Some are long enough to sit with in a quiet room. Most are short, because parents of sick children are rarely in a quiet room. There are prayers here for a baby, for a child in hospital, for a night of fever, for a daughter, for a son, for a grandchild, and for the parents themselves, who are usually the last people anybody prays for.

Use them as they are written or change the words until they sound like you. God is not marking them.

A Miracle Healing Prayer Short and Simple Prayers For a Sick Baby For a Child in Hospital Through a Night of Fever For a Sick Daughter For a Sick Son A Mother’s Prayer For a Sick Grandchild For a Child in Pain For the Parents A Catholic Prayer Bible Verses What to Say How to Pray Questions

A Miracle Healing Prayer for a Sick Child

This is the prayer most people are looking for when they come here. It asks plainly for healing, without hedging it, and it also asks for the grace to keep trusting God in the time before an answer comes. Both halves matter.

Lord Jesus,
You healed children. Parents came to You with the worst thing in their lives and You did not send them away, and You did not tell them their fear was unreasonable. I come to You the same way.
I ask You to heal [name]. Not partly, and not eventually. I ask You to reach into their body where I cannot reach and make them well.
Guide every doctor and nurse who touches them. Let the treatment work. Let the scan be clear. Let the fever break tonight.
And in the hours between now and the answer, hold me steady. Do not let my fear turn into despair. Do not let me stop asking.
You are able. I am asking. Have mercy on my child.
Amen.

When to use it: Any hour. Many parents pray this one out loud at the bedside, which sounds harder than it is and is usually the version that helps most.

Short and Simple Prayers for a Sick Child

For the days when you cannot manage more than a sentence, which is most of them. Each of these is one breath. Repeating one short prayer a hundred times is not lesser praying. It is what people actually do.

• Lord, heal my child.
• Jesus, put Your hand on [name] tonight.
• Father, You made this body. Please mend it.
• Lord, take the pain and give them sleep.
• God, be with my child in the places I cannot go.
• Jesus, let the little ones come to You, and let mine come back well.
• Lord, guide the doctors’ hands today.
• Holy Spirit, breathe strength into my child.
• Father, hold them until morning.
• Lord, I trust You with my child. Help me keep trusting You.

A Prayer for a Sick Baby or Newborn

A sick baby cannot tell you what hurts, and that silence is its own particular torment. This prayer is for the parents of an infant, a newborn, or a baby in special care.

Heavenly Father,
My baby is so small, and so new, and cannot tell me what is wrong. But nothing about them is hidden from You. You knitted this child together and You know every part of what is failing.
Put Your hand on [name]. Steady their breathing. Settle their body. Let them feed, let them rest, let them grow.
Bless the nurses who check them through the night, and the doctors who make the decisions I do not understand.
Where I feel useless, remind me that being here is not nothing.
Lord, You gathered children in Your arms and blessed them. Gather mine.
Amen.

If you are also praying for a safe pregnancy or a longed for child, there is a separate page of prayers for a baby.

A Prayer for a Sick Child in the Hospital

Hospital time runs differently. The waiting is the hardest part, and it is the part nobody prepares you for.

Lord God,
We are in this hospital again, and I know the corridor by heart now, and I am tired in a way that sleep does not fix.
Be in this room. Be with [name] in the tests, in the needles, in the long stretches where nothing happens and I am supposed to sit calmly.
Give wisdom to the consultant. Give kindness to whoever comes in next. Let somebody today explain something to me clearly.
Take the fear out of my child. Whatever they are picking up from my face, replace it with peace.
And when I have nothing left to say to You, take that as a prayer too.
Amen.

When to use it: Before a procedure, or in the corridor afterwards. If surgery is ahead, there are also prayers for surgery.

A Prayer for a Child with a Fever, Through the Night

Lord,
It is the middle of the night and my child is burning up and I have checked on them four times.
Break this fever. Cool their body. Let them sleep through until morning without waking frightened.
Give me a clear head. Show me if this is the night to call someone, and let me not talk myself out of it.
Keep watch over this room while I cannot keep my eyes open.
Amen.

If you are worried about a child’s fever, please call your doctor or an out of hours service. Praying and calling are not alternatives to each other.

A Prayer for a Sick Daughter

Father,
I bring You my daughter. You know her, the whole of her, the parts of her that make me laugh and the parts that worry me even when she is well.
She is not herself right now, and it frightens me to see it.
Heal her body. Bring back her appetite, her colour, her voice, the noise she makes around this house that I never appreciated until it stopped.
Where she is frightened, comfort her. Where she is brave, let her not have to be brave for my sake.
Lord, she is Yours before she is mine. Please give her back well.
Amen.

A Prayer for a Sick Son

Lord Jesus,
My son is unwell and he is playing it down, or he is too small to say, and either way I am the one carrying it.
Reach into his body and heal what is wrong. Give him strength back. Give him the ordinary things: a good night, a proper meal, an afternoon where he forgets he is ill.
Guard his spirit as well as his body. Do not let this make him afraid of his own health.
Make me the parent he needs this week rather than the parent I am when I am frightened.
Heal my son, Lord. I am asking You plainly.
Amen.

A Mother’s Prayer for a Sick Child

Mary watched her own son suffer and could not stop it. Whatever else that means, it means this prayer is not being offered to somebody who does not understand it.

Lord,
I carried this child. I know their breathing in the dark. I know when something is wrong before anyone tells me, and something is wrong now.
I have done everything I know how to do and it is not enough, and I hate that.
So I am handing them to You, which I am told is the right thing and which feels like the hardest thing.
Heal my child. Hold my child. Be closer to them than I can be.
And Lord, be honest with me: give me strength for the version of this I am actually in, not the version I keep hoping for.
Amen.

A Prayer for a Sick Grandchild

Grandparents pray a double prayer. One for the child, and one for their own son or daughter, who is now the parent standing in the hospital corridor.

Lord God,
I am praying for two people tonight.
For my grandchild [name], who is sick: heal them, Lord. Make them well and let them be a child again, with nothing more serious on their mind than what is for dinner.
And for my own child, who is now the parent watching this: hold them up. Give them sleep. Give them people around them who show up rather than only send messages.
Show me how to be useful here. Keep me from advice they did not ask for. Let me be the steady one in the room.
Amen.

More prayers for a grandchild who is sick, for a new grandbaby and for their protection: Prayers for Grandchildren.

A Prayer for a Child in Pain and Suffering

Merciful God,
My child is in pain and I cannot take it from them. That is the thing I cannot get past.
Ease it. Whatever You can do that I cannot, do it. Let the medicine work quickly. Let there be stretches of relief long enough to rest in.
Be present in the pain itself, in the part of it that nobody else can reach.
And take the hardness out of my heart. I have started to be angry at people who do not deserve it. Give me back some gentleness.
Amen.

A Prayer for the Parents of a Sick Child

Almost nobody prays this one for themselves. If you are reading this page for a friend rather than for your own child, this is the prayer to pray.

God of all comfort,
I pray for the parents keeping watch tonight. For the one sleeping upright in a chair. For the one on the phone to work explaining again. For the one who has stopped crying in front of people and does it in the car instead.
Carry them. Give them rest that is not just collapsing. Give them one good hour tomorrow.
Keep their marriage from cracking under this. Keep the other children from feeling forgotten.
Send them practical help, and send it from people who do not need thanking.
And where their faith has gone quiet, do not hold it against them. Hold them instead.
Amen.

There is more along these lines in our prayers of encouragement and strength and our prayers for comfort.

A Catholic Prayer for a Sick Child

Almighty and everlasting God,
the eternal salvation of those who believe in You, hear us on behalf of Your servant [name], who is sick.
Look upon this child with the same tenderness with which Your Son looked upon the children brought to Him. Restore health to their body, peace to their mind, and joy to their heart.
Through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Health of the Sick, and of all the saints, grant healing according to Your will and comfort to all who love this child.
Through Christ our Lord, Amen.

Saints commonly asked to intercede for a sick child

The Church does not name a single official patron for sick children, but a few saints are asked for again and again in this situation.

Our Lady, Health of the Sick. A title of the Blessed Virgin Mary used in the Litany of Loreto, and the one most often invoked in Catholic prayers over the sick.

St. Gerard Majella. Widely honoured as the patron of mothers and children, and the saint most associated in popular devotion with prayers for a sick or endangered child.

St. Raphael the Archangel. The archangel named in the Book of Tobit as the one sent to heal, and traditionally invoked for the sick and for travellers.

St. Nicholas of Myra. Patron of children, and asked for their protection generally rather than for one illness.

St. Peregrine. Traditionally invoked in cases of cancer, including in prayers for cancer.

St. Gerard, you who cared for mothers and their children,
take my prayer to the Lord for [name], who is sick.
Ask that this child be healed and restored, and that we who love them be given patience and hope for as long as this lasts.
Amen.

More in the same tradition: Catholic prayers for healing.

Bible Verses for a Sick Child

These are the verses parents come back to. Several are worth writing on a card and leaving where you will see them at three in the morning.

The Lord sustains him on his sickbed; in his illness You restore him to full health.Psalm 41:3

The verse most quoted over a sick bed, and it is worth noticing that the sustaining comes first. God is described as present in the illness, not only at the end of it.

Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.Matthew 19:14

Jesus was interrupted by parents bringing their children to Him and He took their side against the people telling them not to. That is the posture you are praying into.

See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father.Matthew 18:10

A promise about children specifically, and about their being watched over in a way that does not depend on you being awake.

Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward.Psalm 127:3

He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.Psalm 147:3

Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him.James 5:14

Scripture’s own instruction for illness: do not carry it alone, and ask other people to pray. Most parents wait far too long to do this.

Cast all your anxieties on Him, because He cares for you.1 Peter 5:7

The prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up.James 5:15

Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?”John 11:40

Spoken at a grave, to a family who thought it was too late. It is in this list on purpose.

What to Say to a Parent Whose Child Is Sick

If you are here for a friend, this is probably what you actually came for. A short message sent today is worth more than a perfect one you never send.

Name the child. “Praying for Maya tonight” lands. “Praying for your situation” does not.

Say it without asking for an update. Every message that ends in a question is one more thing they have to answer at midnight.

Offer one specific thing. “I am leaving dinner on your step Thursday, do not answer the door” is help. “Let me know if you need anything” is a task disguised as an offer.

Keep going after week two. The messages stop long before the illness does. Being the person still texting in month three is the whole job.

Do not explain it. No reasons, no silver linings, no stories about someone else’s child who had the same thing. Just say you are with them.

Lines that are safe to send as they are:

• Praying for [name] today, and for you. You do not have to reply.
• The Lord sustains him on his sickbed. Holding onto that verse for [name] tonight.
• I have no words that help, so I am just praying and I am not going anywhere.
• Thinking of you at 3am as well as at 3pm.
• May God give [name] healing, and give you rest tonight.

How to Pray for a Sick Child

Ask plainly. Ask for healing, in words, without softening it in advance. The parents in the Gospels did not qualify their requests, and Jesus never corrected them for it.

Use the child’s name. Out loud if you can. It changes how the prayer feels and it is what children remember later.

Pray for the people treating them. Doctors, nurses, the person reading the scan. This is one of the most concrete things you can pray and it is usually skipped.

Pray at fixed points, not when you feel able. Every time you wash your hands. Every time you leave the ward. Feelings will not carry a long illness. A habit will.

Let other people pray too. Tell your church. Ask for the anointing of the sick if you are Catholic. James 5 makes this an instruction rather than a suggestion.

Say the ugly part. If you are angry with God, pray that. The Psalms are full of it. Prayer that leaves out the true thing does not last long.

Sending a Prayer for Your Child to Jerusalem

Everything above you can pray where you are, and it counts exactly the same. This part is only if you want it.

Our team is based in Jerusalem, and we take written prayer requests into the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the church built over the site of the crucifixion and the resurrection. Your prayer is carried there and prayed by hand. If you ask for a photograph, it is taken in the Chapel of St. Helena, inside the church.

Parents send prayers for their children more than for anything else. For a lot of people, writing the child’s name down and sending it somewhere is the thing that makes the praying feel like an act rather than a worry.

Send a prayer for your child to Jerusalem

Questions About Praying for a Sick Child

What is the best prayer for a sick child?

The best prayer is the one you will actually say. For most parents that means a short prayer repeated often rather than a long one said once: “Lord, heal my child” is a complete prayer. If you want a fuller one, the miracle healing prayer at the top of this page asks plainly for healing and also asks for strength in the waiting, which is the part most people need help with.

What is a good short prayer for a sick child?

“Jesus, put Your hand on [name] tonight.” It takes one breath, it names the child, and it is short enough to pray while doing something else. There are ten more like it in the short prayers section.

What Bible verse should I pray over a sick child?

Psalm 41:3 is the one most parents return to: “The Lord sustains him on his sickbed; in his illness You restore him to full health.” Matthew 19:14 is the other, because it shows Jesus welcoming children who were brought to Him by their parents, which is exactly what you are doing.

Which saint do you pray to for a sick child?

There is no single official patron of sick children. In Catholic practice the most commonly invoked are Our Lady under the title Health of the Sick, St. Gerard Majella as patron of mothers and children, St. Raphael the Archangel as the healing archangel, and St. Nicholas as patron of children. St. Peregrine is asked for in cases of cancer.

How do I pray for a sick child in the hospital?

Pray for the child, then pray for the people treating them, then pray for yourself, in that order. Praying for the doctors and nurses by role is specific and useful. Fix the prayer to a repeated moment such as leaving the ward, so it survives the days when you feel nothing.

What can I say to someone whose child is sick?

Use the child’s name, do not ask a question they have to answer, and offer one specific thing rather than “let me know if you need anything”. Five messages you can send as they are are further up this page.

Does prayer replace medical treatment for a child?

No. Prayer and medical care are not alternatives to each other. If your child is unwell, see a doctor, follow the treatment you are given, and pray alongside it. If you are worried about a fever, a change in breathing, or a child who is difficult to wake, contact a doctor or emergency service now rather than waiting.

What if my child does not get better?

Then you keep praying, and you let other people pray when you cannot. Scripture does not promise a particular outcome and this page will not either. What it does say repeatedly is that God is present in the illness and not only at the end of it. If you are in that place, our prayers for strength and hope were written for the long stretch rather than the crisis.

More Prayers for Healing and for Children

Prayers for Healing Prayers for the Sick Prayers for Our Children Prayers for Grandchildren Catholic Prayers for Healing Prayers for Surgery Prayers for Cancer Miracle Prayers Prayers for Comfort Prayers for Strength and Hope Prayers for Anxiety Prayers for a Baby Prayers for Our Family Bedtime Prayers Prayers for Healing a Friend