Need Healing? Here's 4 Powerful Prayers for Peace, Healing & Harmony

The holiday season is a great reminder for many of us that the promise of peace from the Prince of Peace, Jesus Christ, has yet to be fulfilled in many of our families.

The Holy Family had circumstances beyond their control–namely, the attempted murder of the Christ Child–that could have disrupted their peace as family unit.

While we can’t always control the external forces working against us, we can pray for forgiveness, reconciliation, and healing from the physical, emotional, and spiritual wounds that keep us in bondage and distant from one another.

The Feast of the Holy Family is an excellent day to pray for peace in your family. And if you can pray together as a family, healing prayers will be quicker and more effective. (Matthew 18:20)

Litany of Healing for Families

Heavenly Father, I give you thanks, honor, glory, and praise for my family. I ask you, in the name of your son Jesus, to bless and protect each one of us and to help us be attentive to your plan for our lives.

I also ask you to preserve our health and to heal us individually and collectively as a family unit: spiritually, emotionally, and physically for your greater glory.

Remove all obstacles (any unforgiveness, negative inner vows we have made, oppressive ungodly spirits) preventing a harmonious spirit and cooperative behavior within our family.

I believe in You, Lord! Help my unbelief! May Your will be done!

From all habits of sin preventing a close relationship with you,
Heal my family, O Jesus.
From anything preventing a Spirit-driven life,
Heal my family, O Jesus.
From anything preventing acceptance of the the Father-God’s unconditional love he has for us as adopted sons and daughters,
Heal my family, O Jesus.
From anything preventing the peace, joy, goodness and unity that only You can provide,
Heal my family, O Jesus.
From anything preventing having the mustard seed faith that can move mountains,
Heal my family, O Jesus.
From all forms of selfishness and pride,
Heal my family, O Jesus.
From all inherited spiritual defects,
Heal my family, O Jesus.
From spiritual apathy,
Heal my family, O Jesus.
From all forms of addiction,
Heal my family, O Jesus.
From the effects of painful memories,
Heal my family, O Jesus.
From bondage caused by negative inner vows,
Heal my family, O Jesus.
From all the effects of broken relationships due to unforgiveness, adultery, divorce, and/or the various forms of abuse,
Heal my family, O Jesus.
From all unhealthy attachments,
Heal my family, O Jesus.
From all ungodly emotions, attitudes, and behaviors, (e.g. pettiness, manipulation, argumentativeness, jealousy, etc.)
Heal my family, O Jesus.
From all inherited emotional and psychological defects,
Heal my family, O Jesus.
From all emotional and psychological illnesses,
Heal my family, O Jesus.
From all inherited physical defects,
Heal my family, O Jesus.
From all physical afflictions and illnesses,
Heal my family, O Jesus.

Lord, increase the virtue of faith in my family.
Lord, increase the virtue of hope in my family.
Lord, increase the virtue of charity in my family.

Help us, Lord, to internalize the words of Joshua: “As for me and my household we will serve the Lord.” (Joshua 24:15)

Take healing a step further and meditate on Joshua 6:1-27.
Perhaps you will be the Joshua of your family–interceding and orchestrating the walls your family builds around one another to fall flat.

More Healing Prayers

A Prayer for Healing

Lord Jesus, you came to heal our wounded and troubled hearts. I beg you to heal the torments that cause anxiety in my heart; I beg you in a particular way, to heal all which are the cause of sin.

I beg you to come into my life and heal me of the psychological harms that struck me in my early years and from the injuries that they caused throughout my life.

Lord Jesus, you know my burdens.

I lay them all on your Good Shepherd’s Heart. I beseech you, by the merits of the great, open wound in your heart, to heal the small wounds that are in mine.

Heal the pain of my memories, so that nothing that has happened to me will cause me to remain in pain and anguish, filled with anxiety.

Heal, O Lord, all those wounds that have been the cause of all the evil that is rooted in my life. I want to forgive all those who have offended me. Lord, look to those inner sores that make me unable to forgive.

You who came to forgive the afflicted of heart, please heal my own heart.

Heal, my Lord Jesus, those intimate wounds that cause me physical illness. I offer you my heart. Accept it, Lord, purify it and give me the sentiments of your Divine Heart. Help me to be meek and humble.

Heal me, O Lord, from the pain caused by the death of my loved ones, which is oppressing me. Grant me to regain peace and joy in the knowledge that you are the Resurrection and the Life!

Make me an authentic witness to your Resurrection, your victory over sin and death, and your living presence among us. Amen.

Prayer to Our Lady Undoer of Knots

O Virgin Mary, faithful Mother who never refuses to come to the aid of your children;

Mother whose hands never cease to help because they are moved by the loving kindness that exists in your Immaculate Heart, cast your eyes of compassion upon me, and see the snarl of knots that exist in my life.

You know all the pains and sorrows caused by these tangled knots. Mary, my Mother, I entrust to your loving hands the entire ribbon of my life.

In your hands there is no knot which cannot be undone. Most Holy Mother, pray for Divine assistance to come to my aid.

Take this knot (mention need) into your maternal hands this day;
I beg you to undo it for the glory of God,
once and for all,
in the name of your Divine Son,
Jesus Christ.
Amen.

Holy Family, give us your peace.

Peace Prayer of St. Francis

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace:
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy.

O divine Master,
grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
Amen.

St. Francis of Assisi, pray for us!