Tag Archive for "children and illness"

Yizkor after My Child’s Suicide

Posted on: January 25th, 2015 by Alden

The loss of a child to suicide is a difficult and painful journey. This is another yizkor prayer focused on the circumstances surrounding the death of a loved one. Optional language appears in [brackets]. Here’s a link to a prayer to be said by parents after a child survives a suicide attempt, called “My Child’s Suicide Attempt.” May all who struggle with thoughts of suicide find relief, speedily, and comfort in their hours of need.

Yizkor after My Child’s Suicide
Oh grief,
How deep was her/his pain,
That my child
Could take his/her own life?
God of old,
Grant a perfect rest under your tabernacle of peace
To ______________________ (name),
My son/daughter,
Whose life was cut off by sorrow,
By hopelessness, depression and despair,
Even in this darkness,
In this moment of inconceivable horror,
In this grief and void that seems beyond repair,
Help us to remember his/her wisdom, talents and skills,
Our times together,
Our joy, laughter and tears.
[Give me respite from this profound sense of guilt.]
In this hour of desolation,
Bring our family comfort and consolation
As we pray for him/her to find a new peace
In the world to come,
A peace he/she did not enjoy in this world.
May his / her soul be bound up in the bond of life,
A living blessing in our midst.

Postscript: For those of you who don’t know me well and might worry, I write many prayers on difficult subjects that are not directly from my own experience. This is one that I have not personally experienced. My other focused yizkor prayers include: “In Memory of an Organ Donor,” “At the Hand of Violence,” “For Those Who Die Young” and “After an Accidental Death.” Here’s a link to an annotated list of memorial and yizkor prayers.

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Photo Source: Ulrica Törning, as seen on Caring for Our Children Foundation

My Illness, My Children

Posted on: April 6th, 2014 by Alden

Here’s a prayer to be said by an ill parent worried about how witnessing the disease will impact his or her children. A challenge in writing this piece: striking a tone that encompasses the experiences of both younger and older children. This is the main reason for the built-in flexibility in structure and use of this prayer, providing optional inserts for meditation on each individual child’s needs in this time of stress, uncertainty and potential trauma. This prayer appears in my new book, Jewish Prayers of Hope and Healing.

My Illness, My Children
My G-d,
In the days ahead,
The weeks and the months,
I will face challenges as the result of _________ [insert type of surgery or name of disease].
My heart and my hopes,
My love and my questions,
Also turn toward my children.
How will the experience of my [surgery][illness][condition]
Shape their lives?
What will they learn?
What beliefs will they take in?

Grant me the ability to care for my children,
Even as they yearn to provide support and understanding for me.
Let me be a source of love,
A light of comfort,
A lamp of hope,
A well of blessings.

[Optional insert: Repeat the following paragraph for each child]
Bless my child ___________ [insert name]
Who _____________ [insert thoughts about what he/she is feeling now]
With _____________ [insert specific concerns and prayer for that child].

G-d of health and healing,
Watch over my children
In their hour of need.
Let our love for each other
Shine brightly through the days ahead,
A testimony to your Holy Name.

Postscript: There are a wide variety on health and healing at a time of critical illness in my new book, Jewish Prayers of Hope and Healing, including seven prayers about surgery, among them: “For Surgery” and “Upon Recovery from Surgery,”

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Photo Source: WikiMedia Commons

Posts Tagged ‘children and illness’

Yizkor after My Child’s Suicide

My Illness, My Children

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