irreverent prayers: talking to god when you’re seriously sick

Two pastors share their experiences with serious illness--and their candid, darkly humorous prayers for making it through.

Samantha Vincent-Alexander almost died from a septic leg infection. Elizabeth Felicetti underwent aggressive treatment for both breast and lung cancer in the space of a few months--and then the cancer came back. As Episcopal priests, they know well the typical prayers offered in times like these. But when you’re seriously sick, you need more than psalms and sentimentality.

You need to tell God how you really feel.

With vulnerability and wry humor, Felicetti and Vincent-Alexander share the prayers they wish they had when they were ill: thanksgiving for one-size-fits-all hospital underwear, curses against Tylenol, frustrated appeals when well-wishers call you brave or inspiring. At once faithful and brutally honest, these prayers offer readers a more candid way of communicating with the God who understands human suffering with an incarnational intimacy.

Talking to God when you’re fighting serious illness can feel impossible. But God can bear our doubt, anger, anxiety, and grief. This unconventional prayerbook helps readers access a deeper relationship with God in raw times--and offers them a place of solidarity and spiritual rest.

Elizabeth Felicetti is the rector of St. David’s Episcopal Church in Richmond, Virginia and the author of Unexpected Abundance: The Fruitful Lives of Women Without Children.

Samantha Vincent-Alexander is the rector of Christ Episcopal Church in Philadelphia and a coauthor of Grace in the Rearview Mirror.