Orthodox Christians pray to the Theotokos constantly. You’ll hear her name in almost every service, and most Orthodox keep a few short prayers to her memorized for daily use.
The most common prayer you’ll encounter is called “It is truly meet” (sometimes “It is truly right”). We sing it at every Divine Liturgy. Here’s the text: “It is truly meet to bless you, O Theotokos, ever blessed and most pure, and the Mother of our God. More honorable than the Cherubim, and more glorious beyond compare than the Seraphim, who without corruption gave birth to God the Word, we magnify you, the true Theotokos.” It’s short but packed with theology. We’re not worshiping Mary. We’re glorifying God for what he did through her, the Incarnation itself.
You’ll also hear simple invocations throughout services. “O Most Holy Theotokos, save us” is one of the shortest. When we say “save us,” we’re asking her to intercede for us before Christ. She prays for us. We don’t pray to her as if she’s divine, but we ask her prayers the same way you’d ask your grandmother to pray for you during a rough week at the plant.
The Akathist Hymn
The longest and most beloved prayer to the Theotokos is the Akathist Hymn. It’s ancient, probably from the sixth century, and it’s a masterpiece. Twenty-four stanzas arranged according to the Greek alphabet. The whole thing is chanted standing (that’s what “akathist” means, not sitting), and it takes about forty minutes.
The Akathist starts with the angel Gabriel’s greeting at the Annunciation and moves through the mystery of the Incarnation with this soaring, repetitive structure. Each stanza includes multiple “Rejoice” salutations. “Rejoice, O Unwedded Bride” is the refrain everyone remembers. It sounds strange at first if you’re coming from a Baptist background, but it’s celebrating the mystery that Mary remained a virgin while bearing a son.
We chant the Akathist during Great Lent, on certain feast days, and many Orthodox use it for private prayer when they need the Theotokos’s intercession. If you’ve never heard it, find a recording. The melody is haunting.
Daily prayers
Morning and evening prayers in Orthodox practice include brief prayers to the Theotokos. Most prayer books have a troparion (a short hymn) to her, and many Orthodox end their prayers with “O Most Holy Theotokos, save us” or something similar. There’s also a service called the Paraklesis, a supplicatory canon, that’s specifically addressed to her. Parishes often serve it during August before the Dormition, but you can pray it anytime. People use it when they’re sick, when family members are struggling, during hurricane season here in Southeast Texas when you’re watching the Gulf.
The Paraklesis is basically an extended plea for her help. It’s tender and honest. You’re asking a mother to intercede.
Why we pray to her
If you’re new to Orthodoxy, this might be the hardest part to understand. Praying to Mary feels wrong to a lot of Protestants. It did to me when I first encountered it.
But here’s the theology. When we call Mary “Theotokos”, God-bearer, we’re making a statement about Christ. The one born of her is truly God. That’s not just a title of honor. It’s Christology. And because she bore God in her womb, because she said yes to Gabriel, because she stood at the foot of the cross, the Church has always honored her above all other saints.
She’s not divine. We don’t worship her. That distinction matters enormously. The Church uses different words: we worship God alone (latria), but we venerate the saints (proskynesis). When we ask the Theotokos to pray for us, we’re asking a member of the Body of Christ, someone who’s more alive now than we are, to intercede. She’s our mother too. Christ gave her to us from the cross when he told John, “Behold your mother.”
The prayers aren’t magic formulas. They’re relationship. The Theotokos is part of the Church, the communion of saints that includes both the living and the departed. We ask her prayers because she’s close to her son and because she’s shown throughout history that she cares for us.
If you come to a service at St. Michael, you’ll hear her name again and again. In the litanies, in the hymns, in the dismissal. It might feel like a lot at first. But over time, you’ll find that these prayers aren’t distractions from Christ. They lead you to him. That’s what the Theotokos has always done, pointed people to her son. “Do whatever he tells you,” she said at Cana. She’s still saying it.
