Catholic prayers for someone struggling with addiction
Praying for someone in active addiction is one of the longest forms of prayer there is. There is no clear nine-day arc. There is no clear answer about whether they will be free. There is just the daily showing up, often in private, often without any visible result, often for years. Catholic tradition has language for this. St. Monica prayed for her son Augustine for seventeen years. He became a saint. She did not know that was coming.
What people pray when they don't know what to pray
From the PrayerTrain Catholic prayer library. Tap any prayer to see its full text and instructions.
Novena to St. Jude
St. Jude Thaddeus · 9 days
St. Jude is the Church's patron of impossible and desperate cases. Addiction is the modern situation his patronage was given for: the person you love is walking a road no one can walk for them, and the family is left to pray.
Prayer for Conversion of a Loved One
St. Monica
A direct prayer for the conversion of someone whose life is currently captive. Use it without expectation that the prayer will be answered on your timeline.
Serenity Prayer
God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change. Originally written for those in recovery; equally a prayer for the family who cannot fix the situation and cannot stop loving the person who is in it.
Surrender Novena
Don Dolindo Ruotolo · 9 days
The hardest sentence in the Surrender Novena, for a family member of someone in addiction, is the one that says: you do not turn to me, you want me to adapt to your ideas. Don Dolindo names the temptation to keep telling God how to fix the situation. The novena is nine days of practicing handing it back.
Rosary for Healing
Our Lady of Lourdes
Mary's intercession for the prodigal son is one of the oldest Catholic patterns. The Rosary, prayed daily, is not a magic formula. It is the discipline of staying on your knees while the situation runs its course.
The Memorare
St. Bernard of Clairvaux
St. Monica's prayer was, the prayer of the mother of Augustine, the prayer of every parent of someone in addiction. Short, fierce, repeatable.
What prayer is for
The Catholic Church does not tell families of those in addiction that the addicted person will get better if you pray hard enough. It tells them that prayer is a form of love that does not depend on the loved one's choices. You are praying not because it will fix the situation but because love does not stop being love when the loved one cannot respond to it.
More on this on our story.
Pray together with others
A PrayerTrain for someone in addiction can be set up anonymously. The recipient does not need to know their name is on a public page. Friends and family who are praying for them sign up quietly, by date, and you have a calendar of intercession that the loved one may never see and may not be ready to.
Frequently asked
Is it okay to pray for someone in addiction without telling them?
Yes. Catholic tradition has always made room for hidden intercession. St. Monica prayed for Augustine for years before he was ready to hear about it. Your prayer is a form of love that does not require the loved one's permission or awareness.
Should I share their name on a public PrayerTrain page?
Not unless you have asked them and they have said yes. Addiction carries enough shame already; a public page that names them without consent can wound rather than help. PrayerTrain has an anonymous option that lets a community pray for someone whose name stays private.
What if I have been praying for years and nothing has changed?
St. Monica prayed for Augustine for seventeen years. The prayer was not wasted. It was love continuing where the relationship could not. Catholic tradition does not measure prayer by visible outcomes; it measures love by faithfulness over time.
Should I pray with them or for them?
Both, when possible. Praying with someone in addiction (when they are willing) is a form of accompaniment that can hold a relationship together. Praying for them is what you do when they cannot pray themselves.