From the Lord's own prayer to the Hesychast invocation of His name, from the angel's salutation of the Virgin to the Spirit descending on a new ordination — the prayers given below are the inheritance of the universal Church.
The Essential Prayers
These are the prayers the Church teaches from infancy: the Lord's own words, the angel's salutation, the trinitarian Creeds, and the gesture by which a Christian marks every undertaking. From them all other prayers grow.
The Sign of the Cross
The gesture by which a Christian marks every prayer and undertaking — the trinitarian seal of every baptized soul.
The Our Father
The prayer Christ Himself taught the Apostles when they asked Him how to pray. The pattern and summary of all Christian prayer.
The Hail Mary
The angel Gabriel's greeting (Lk 1:28), Elizabeth's blessing (Lk 1:42), and the Church's petition. Recited 53 times in a single Rosary.
Glory Be
The lesser doxology — the Church's trinitarian acclamation, used at the conclusion of every psalm and after every Rosary decade.
The Apostles' Creed
The ancient baptismal creed of the Roman Church — twelve articles by tradition handed down from the Twelve Apostles.
The Nicene Creed
The Creed of the Council of Nicaea (325) and Constantinople (381), professed at every Sunday Mass and on every solemnity.
Act of Contrition
The penitent's prayer of sorrow — said before sleep, before confession, and at the moment of death.
The Litany of the Holy Name of Jesus
The Catholic litany on the Holy Name of Jesus — composed by Bernardine of Siena and John Capistrano in the 15th century and confirmed by Pope Sixtus V in 1585.
Acts of Faith, Hope, Charity, and Contrition
The four foundational personal acts of the soul's theological virtues — recited daily by traditional Catholic devotional practice in morning and evening prayer.
Marian Prayers
From the oldest surviving Marian prayer (the Sub Tuum Praesidium, c. 250 AD) to the Salve Regina, the Memorare, and the daily Angelus, the Church has woven its devotion to the Mother of God into the hours of every day.
Beneath Thy Protection
The oldest known Marian prayer — found on a third-century Egyptian papyrus, and still prayed in nearly every rite of the Christian Church.
The Memorare
A petition to the Blessed Virgin that no one who has ever sought her intercession has been unaided. Made popular by St. Bernard of Clairvaux.
Hail, Holy Queen
The closing antiphon of every Rosary — the Church's salutation to Mary as Queen, Mother, advocate, and our hope.
The Angelus
A meditation on the Incarnation prayed three times a day at the ringing of the church bell — at six, noon, and six.
Queen of Heaven
The Easter antiphon that replaces the Angelus from Easter to Pentecost — a hymn of rejoicing for the Resurrection of the Lord.
The Magnificat
Mary's hymn of praise at the Visitation (Lk 1:46–55) — the canticle sung at Vespers every evening of the year.
The Fatima Prayer
Taught by the Blessed Virgin to the three children of Fatima on July 13, 1917 — a petition for the conversion of sinners. Now prayed after every Rosary decade.
Litany of Loreto
The fifty-six invocations of the Mother of God prayed in the Holy House of Loreto from the 12th century, approved by Pope Sixtus V in 1587.
Act of Consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary
The act of consecration by which Pius XII consecrated the entire human race — and Russia in particular — to the Immaculate Heart of Mary on October 31, 1942, fulfilling the request given by the Virgin at Fátima in 1917.
Litany of the Immaculate Heart of Mary
The litany of invocations to the Heart of the Mother of God — gathered from the Fathers of the Church, the medieval Marian doctors, and the Fátima revelations of the twentieth century.
Hail, Star of the Sea
The medieval Marian Vespers hymn that gives Mary the title Stella Maris — the star by which sailors set their course across the night sea.
The Sorrowful Mother Stood
The 13th-century Passion sequence on Mary at the foot of the Cross — sung at the Stations of the Cross and on the feast of the Seven Sorrows.
Thou Art All Beautiful
The ancient Marian antiphon for the feast of the Immaculate Conception — drawn from the Song of Songs and Judith.
Eucharistic & Heart of Jesus
The Anima Christi, the Adoro Te of St. Thomas Aquinas, the Spiritual Communion of St. Alphonsus, the Divine Mercy Chaplet of St. Faustina — the Church's response to the Real Presence and the Heart that loved men to the end.
Soul of Christ
A 14th-century prayer to the soul, body, and blood of Christ — placed by St. Ignatius at the head of his Spiritual Exercises.
I Devoutly Adore Thee
St. Thomas Aquinas's hymn to the hidden God of the Eucharist — composed at the request of Urban IV for the new Feast of Corpus Christi.
Chaplet of Divine Mercy
Given by Christ to St. Faustina Kowalska in 1935 — prayed on rosary beads, offering the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Jesus to the Father.
Act of Spiritual Communion
A prayer for those who cannot receive the Eucharist sacramentally — taught by St. Alphonsus Liguori and indulgenced by Pius VI.
The Divine Praises
Recited after every Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament — a chain of acclamations against blasphemy, expanded several times over two centuries.
Litany of the Sacred Heart of Jesus
The thirty-three invocations of the Heart of Jesus, approved by Leo XIII in 1899 for the universal Church.
Pange Lingua / Tantum Ergo
St. Thomas Aquinas's Vespers hymn for Corpus Christi — the last two stanzas (the Tantum Ergo) are sung at every Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament.
Act of Consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus
The great act by which Leo XIII consecrated the entire human race to the Sacred Heart on the first day of the twentieth century — renewed annually on the Solemnity of Christ the King and prayed by individuals and families for their own consecration.
O Saving Victim
The Eucharistic hymn sung at the exposition of the Blessed Sacrament — composed by St. Thomas Aquinas as the closing two verses of the Verbum Supernum Prodiens.
The Litany of the Most Precious Blood
The Catholic litany on the Most Precious Blood of Jesus Christ — approved by Pope St. John XXIII on February 24, 1960.
O Sacred Banquet
The Eucharistic antiphon of the Vespers of Corpus Christi — composed by St. Thomas Aquinas in 1264 — summarizing the four dimensions of the Eucharist in a single line.
Penitential Prayers
The path of contrition is itself a kind of prayer. The Church gives her children the Confiteor before Mass, the daily Examen of conscience, and the Act of Contrition before sleep.
The Confiteor
The penitential rite of the Mass — the Church's communal confession to almighty God and the whole company of heaven.
The Daily Examen of Conscience
St. Ignatius's five-step daily review of the soul — the prayer he ranked above almost every other spiritual practice.
The Stations of the Cross
Fourteen scenes from the Passion of Christ walked in succession — the prayer in which a Christian retraces the Lord's path to Calvary.
The Apostolic Pardon
The Catholic plenary indulgence at the moment of death — granted by the priest at the conclusion of the Last Sacraments to a dying Catholic who has made their last Confession.
Prayers of the Saints
The St. Michael Prayer (Leo XIII), the Prayer of St. Francis, the Suscipe of St. Ignatius, Newman's meditation, Aquinas's prayer before study — many of the Church's most-loved prayers came from the pen or lips of a single saint.
Prayer of St. Francis (Peace Prayer)
'Lord, make me an instrument of your peace' — first printed in a French Marian magazine in 1912 and now perhaps the most widely-known Catholic prayer of the modern era.
The Suscipe of St. Ignatius
'Take, Lord, and receive all my liberty' — the final offering of self at the close of the Spiritual Exercises.
Newman's Meditation
Cardinal Newman's meditation on his vocation — that every soul has a unique work given by God that no one else can do.
Late Have I Loved You
The most famous passage of St. Augustine's Confessions — his cry of love to God whom he had sought everywhere except within.
St. Patrick's Breastplate
The 'Lorica' or 'Deer's Cry' — an 8th-century Old Irish prayer of binding Christ to oneself, attributed to St. Patrick of Ireland.
Act of Oblation to Merciful Love
St. Thérèse of Lisieux's offering of herself as a victim of God's Merciful Love — composed on June 9, 1895, two years before her death.
The Litany of St. Joseph
The Catholic litany to St. Joseph — approved by Pope St. Pius X in 1909 and expanded by Pope Francis in 2021 with seven new invocations.
Prayer of St. Thomas Aquinas before Study
'Grant me a keen intellect, a strong memory, method and facility in learning' — the prayer Thomas said before he dictated, wrote or preached; indulgenced by Leo XIII in 1880 and named by Pius XI in Studiorum Ducem.
Prayer of St. Thomas Aquinas before Holy Communion
'I come as one sick to the physician of life, as one unclean to the source of all mercy, as one blind to the light of the eternal sun' — the preparation for Communion printed in every Roman Missal since 1570.
Thanksgiving of St. Thomas Aquinas after Holy Communion
'Let it be unto me an armour of faith and a shield of good purpose' — the thanksgiving the Missal places after Mass under Thomas's name, ending with the 'unspeakable feast' of heaven.
Prayer of St. Thomas Aquinas for the Forgiveness of Sins
'Call me back fleeing from Thee, draw me when resisting, raise me when I fall' — a confession of sin against each Person of the Trinity, printed among the prayers before Confession.
Prayer of St. Ambrose before Holy Communion
'To Thee, O Lord, I show my wounds, to Thee I lay bare my shame' — the prayer the Missal assigns to the days of the week before Mass under Ambrose's name.
Prayer of St. Bonaventure after Holy Communion
'Pierce, O most sweet Lord Jesus, my inmost soul with the most joyous and healthful wound of Thy love' — the thanksgiving from the Missal that ends in a litany of what Christ is to the soul.
O Holy Lord, Father Almighty (Prayer of St. Bonaventure)
'That I may love Thee alone and always thirst for Thy love… that nothing but sin may sadden my heart.' A short Franciscan prayer indulgenced by Pius IX in 1874 under Bonaventure's name.
Lord Jesus, Let Me Know Myself (The Petitions of St. Augustine)
Twenty-two petitions in rhyme, each turning from self to God — 'Let me distrust myself, and trust in Thee' — indulgenced by Leo XIII in 1883.
Prayer of St. Benedict
'Grant me eyes to see Thee, a tongue to proclaim Thee, patience to wait for Thee, perseverance to look for Thee' — the short prayer preserved under Benedict's name in the works of Alcuin.
Prayer of St. Francis Xavier for the Conversion of Unbelievers
The missionary's own prayer: 'Remember that Thou alone didst create the souls of unbelievers… suffer not Thy Son to be any longer despised' — indulgenced by Pius IX in 1847.
Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi to the Blessed Virgin
'Holy Virgin Mary, there is none like unto thee born amongst women' — the antiphon Francis wrote for his Office of the Passion, prayed before and after every psalm.
Prayers of St. Clare to the Five Wounds of Our Lord
Five prayers, one to each wound — right hand, left hand, right foot, left foot, side — each closing with an Our Father and Hail Mary, composed by the first Poor Clare.
St. Gertrude's Salutation of the Five Wounds
'Hail, most precious wounds of Jesus… To you I commend myself, into you I plunge myself, that in your shelter I may be secure from the destroyer.' One sentence from the Herald of Divine Love.
Prayer of St. Gertrude to the Sacred Heart
'Consume my heart in that burning fire in which Thine is inflamed' — the prayer of the first great mystic of the Heart of Jesus, four centuries before Paray-le-Monial.
Prayer of St. Aloysius Gonzaga to the Blessed Virgin
'Into thy blessed trust and special custody… I this day, every day, and in the hour of my death, commend my soul and my body.' Indulgenced by Leo XIII in 1890.
Be Mindful of Us, O Blessed Joseph (Prayer of St. Bernardine of Siena)
The one-sentence prayer to St. Joseph with which Bernardine closed his sermon on the saint — read in the Office of St. Joseph's feast to this day.
Night Prayer of St. Alphonsus Liguori
'I place myself within the most sacred wound of Thy side, and under the protecting mantle of Mary my Mother' — the evening prayer of the Doctor of prayer, indulgenced in 1893.
Prayer of St. Alphonsus for a Visit to the Blessed Sacrament
The opening prayer of his Visits to the Blessed Sacrament, said before every visit: adoration, thanksgiving, reparation, and 'to adore Thee in all places in which Thou art least honoured and most abandoned'.
Prayer of St. Alphonsus to St. Teresa of Ávila
'Obtain for me too a spark of that holy fire' — one Doctor of the Church praying to another; indulgenced by Leo XIII in 1898.
Three Prayers of St. Thérèse: Love, Gratitude, Hope
'At the close of evening I shall appear before Thee with empty hands' — three short prayers from her own writings, gathered for evening prayer in 1925, the year she was canonised.
Veiled in the White Host (Prayer of St. Thérèse before the Blessed Sacrament)
'Thou couldst not stoop lower to teach me humility' — her prayer at the tabernacle, asking to be sent 'some humiliations each time that I shall attempt to put myself above others'.
Let Nothing Disturb Thee (St. Teresa's Bookmark)
'Nothing disturb thee, nothing affright thee; all things pass; God does not change; patience obtains all; whoever has God lacks nothing. God alone suffices.' The lines found in her breviary after her death.
O Eternal Trinity (Closing Prayer of the Dialogue of St. Catherine of Siena)
'Thou, O eternal Trinity, art a deep sea, into which the deeper I enter the more I find, and the more I find the more I seek' — the prayer with which Catherine ended the book she dictated in ecstasy.
Teach My Heart Where and How to Seek Thee (Prayer of St. Anselm)
'I do not seek to understand that I may believe, but I believe in order to understand' — the prayer that opens the Proslogion, before the argument for God's existence begins.
Behold the Cross of the Lord (The Brief of St. Anthony)
Four lines against every evil power, given by St. Anthony to a woman tormented by temptation, and carved by Sixtus V on the base of the obelisk in St. Peter's Square.
Lead, Kindly Light (The Pillar of the Cloud)
'One step enough for me.' The prayer Newman wrote at sea in 1833, becalmed and sick off Sardinia, twelve years before he became a Catholic.
Stay with Me, and I Shall Begin to Shine (Newman's 'Jesus the Light of the Soul')
'Make me preach Thee without preaching — not by words, but by my example.' The meditation Mother Teresa's sisters prayed every day, in Newman's own words.
Prayer for a Happy Death (Newman)
'Support me in that hour in the strong arms of Thy Sacraments, and by the fresh fragrance of Thy consolations' — Newman's prayer for the end, with its companion, his prayer for the light of truth.
Memorare to St. Joseph
'Never has it been heard that anyone ever invoked thy protection, or besought aid of thee, without being consoled' — St. Bernard's Memorare turned toward the carpenter, and indulgenced by Pius IX in 1863.
To Thee, O Blessed Joseph
Leo XIII's prayer, ordered in 1889 to be added to the Rosary through October: the Church in her struggle with the powers of darkness turning to the man who once carried the Child out of Herod's reach.
The Seven Sorrows and Seven Joys of St. Joseph
Seven pairs, each a grief turned inside out into a gladness — the doubt and the angel, the stable and the angels' song, the flight and the fallen idols — prayed on the Seven Sundays before his feast.
Guardian of Virgins (Virginum custos et pater)
Four lines to the man into whose keeping God placed Innocence itself and the Virgin of virgins, asking to serve them both 'with spotless mind, pure heart and chaste body'.
Prayer to St. Joseph, Patron of the Universal Church
Written for a Church that had just lost the Papal States and seen its Pope shut inside the Vatican: 'let it move thy paternal heart to see the mystical Spouse of Christ and His Vicar weakened by sorrow.'
Prayer to St. Joseph, Model of Workers
'To work conscientiously, putting the call of duty above my inclinations' — the prayer of the workshop, indulgenced by Pius X in 1907, half a century before the feast of St. Joseph the Worker existed.
Prayers in Honour of St. Joseph for the Dying
Three petitions, one to each Person of the Trinity, for ourselves and for everyone in the world who is dying at this moment — because Joseph died with Jesus and Mary beside him, and is patron of a good death.
The Thirty Days' Prayer to St. Joseph
The long one: a month of asking, built by walking through every sorrow of his life in turn — the inns of Bethlehem, the flight, the days when the Child asked for bread and he had none to give.
Prayer to St. Joachim
To the father of the Blessed Virgin and grandfather of Christ: 'thou wast chosen from among all the saints to co-operate in the divine mysteries, and enrich the world by bestowing on it the great Mother of God.'
Universal Prayer to St. Anne
'God the Father loves thee as the mother of His beloved daughter; the Son of God loves thee for having given Him a mother' — the grandmother of Christ addressed by the whole Trinity's reasons at once.
Prayer to Sts. Peter and Paul
'I elect you this day for my special protectors and advocates with God' — the rock and the vessel of election taken together, as Rome has always taken them, and as the Church keeps them on one feast.
Responsory of St. Paul (O grata caeli victima)
'All ye who groan beneath a load of ills oppressed, entreat St. Paul' — the Breviary responsory to the persecutor who became the teacher of the nations, with its refrain O victim dear to heaven.
Prayer to St. Paul the Apostle
'Imprisonment, scourging, stoning, shipwreck, and every kind of persecution' — the catalogue Paul himself wrote out in 2 Corinthians, turned into a request to accept our own troubles as divine favours.
Prayer to St. John the Apostle and Evangelist
To the disciple who leaned on Christ's breast at supper and was given His mother at the Cross: 'inflame me with a most ardent love towards Jesus and Mary.'
Antiphon and Prayer to St. Stephen
The first martyr, who died praying for the men who were killing him — and whose collect asks that the one who prayed for his persecutors may be our advocate.
Prayer to St. Nicholas of Bari
To the bishop the whole world knows by another name: 'comfort the sorrowing, provide for the needy, strengthen the weak-hearted, defend the oppressed, help the sick.'
If Thou Seekest Miracles (Si quaeris miracula)
The responsory of St. Anthony, written within a decade of his death: death, error, calamity, leprosy and demons flee; the sea obeys; fetters break; and lost things are found.
St. Anthony's Bread
A prayer with a debt attached: ask the favour, and promise bread for the poor if it comes. The oldest surviving way of turning a granted petition into somebody else's dinner.
Prayer to St. Anthony for Things Lost or Stolen
The most-said Catholic prayer that nobody prints in a missal — with the condition the leaflets usually leave off: if it be to the glory of God and the good of my soul.
Three Prayers to St. Dominic
Three prayers for the founder of the Order of Preachers — for the Church's treasures, for labourers in the vineyard, and for the Spouse he defended by praying all night before the altar.
Hymn to St. Francis of Assisi (O divi amoris victima)
'O victim of divine love, marked with five bleeding wounds' — the Breviary hymn of the Stigmata, asking that the fire which burned in him be lit in us.
Prayer to St. Clare of Assisi
To the girl who ran away from home on Palm Sunday night to be given the habit by Francis, and who never went outside the walls of San Damiano again for forty-one years.
Prayers to St. Philip Neri for Every Day of the Week
Seven prayers for seven days and seven virtues — humility, patience, purity, the love of God, the love of neighbour, detachment, and perseverance — each one a blunt confession of not having it.
Prayer to St. Philip Neri for a Happy Death
'Be to me an advocate and father at the awful moment of my passage to eternity' — asked of the man who spent fifty years sitting with the dying of Rome.
Four Prayers to St. Philip, by St. John Henry Newman
A novena Newman began and never finished — it breaks off after the fourth day — kept and printed exactly as he left it, unfinished, because that is what it is.
Prayer to St. Vincent de Paul
'Heavenly patron of all charitable associations and father of all the unfortunate, who in thy lifetime didst not reject anyone who had recourse to thee' — and a petition that names nine kinds of need in a row.
Prayer to St. Paul of the Cross
To the founder of the Passionists, who prayed for England for fifty years and did not live to see it: 'obtain a return to the Catholic Faith of all heretical nations, particularly England, for which thou didst pray so much.'
Prayer to St. Thomas Aquinas, Patron of Schools
'Who didst learn wisdom without guile and dost communicate it without envy' — the prayer Leo XIII indulgenced when he made Thomas patron of all Catholic schools.
Prayer to St. John of the Cross
To the poet who was imprisoned by his own brethren and wrote the Spiritual Canticle in the cell: 'thy thirst after sufferings was so burning that thy noble heart rejoiced in the midst of the sorest torments.'
Act of Consecration to St. Aloysius Gonzaga
The prayer of the young: 'The world and the devil lay snares for me; I feel the fire of my passions, I know the weakness and inconstancy of my age. Who can protect me if not thou?'
Three Prayers to St. Stanislaus Kostka
To the boy who walked six hundred miles from Vienna to Rome to enter the Jesuits, and died at eighteen of longing to see our Lady in heaven on the feast of her Assumption.
Prayers to St. Lucy
Three prayers on faith, hope and charity for the virgin martyr whose name means light, and a fourth for the light of our own eyes — 'that on the day of the general resurrection they may become radiant.'
Prayers to St. Agnes
To the child of twelve or thirteen whom Rome could not frighten — 'by that lively faith which animated thee from thy most tender years' — with the prayer of her feast, on which the lambs are blessed.
Prayer to St. Barbara for a Happy Death
Against the one death every Catholic used to dread — the sudden one, with no priest and no sacraments. Her patronage covers miners, gunners and anyone whose work can kill them without warning.
Prayer to St. Elizabeth of Hungary
To the queen who exchanged a throne for a hovel and a royal mantle for the habit of St. Francis, and who saw in the face of the poor the face of Christ.
Prayer to St. Blaise
The saint of the throat, asked for more than throats: that we may be able 'by word and deed, without fear of man, to defend the truths of faith'.
Holy Patroness of Those in Need (Prayer to St. Rita)
'Star of hope in the midst of darkness… in patience and fortitude as the patriarch Job' — the Augustinians' prayer to the saint of the impossible, with the invocations and the Memorare in her honour.
Prayer to St. Bridget of Sweden
A prayer for the reunion of the separated, made to the Swedish mystic whose own country left the Church a century and a half after her death: 'that the scattered sheep may return to the one true Shepherd.'
The Medal of St. Benedict and the Vade Retro
The most heavily lettered object in Catholic use, and what every letter on it stands for — including the exorcism in two hexameters that the faithful may say for themselves.
Prayer to St. Camillus of Lellis
To the soldier and gambler who lost everything at cards and spent the next forty years nursing the incurables of Rome — patron of the sick, of nurses, and of hospitals.
Liturgical & Canticle
The Te Deum, the Veni Creator Spiritus, the Magnificat and Benedictus and Nunc Dimittis — texts the Church has sung at her morning, evening, and night hours since the early centuries.
Thee, O God, We Praise
The great hymn of thanksgiving — sung at the end of the Easter Vigil, after every papal election, and at every Te Deum of state.
Come, Creator Spirit
The 9th-century hymn to the Holy Spirit sung at every ordination, every conclave, every papal coronation, and every solemn invocation of the Paraclete.
The Golden Sequence
Called the 'Golden Sequence' for its perfection — the medieval sequence sung at the Mass of Pentecost. Distinct from the Veni Creator.
The Litany of the Saints
The principal litany of the Catholic Church — chanted at every papal Mass, baptism, ordination, religious profession, dedication of a church, conclave, and at the Easter Vigil.
Praises to the Paschal Victim
The Easter sequence — sung at the Mass of Easter Sunday and through the Easter Octave — composed by Wipo of Burgundy around 1040.
Day of Wrath
The 13th-century sequence of the Last Judgment — for centuries sung at every Requiem Mass — attributed to the Franciscan Thomas of Celano.
The Great O Antiphons
The seven Magnificat antiphons of the seven days before Christmas Eve — each invoking Christ under a distinct messianic title from the Old Testament.
Eastern Christian
The Jesus Prayer of the desert fathers, the Akathist Hymn to the Mother of God, the Prayer of St. Ephrem, the Trisagion — the Eastern Churches in communion with Rome and the Orthodox tradition share these inheritances.
The Jesus Prayer
The continuous prayer of the desert fathers and the Hesychast tradition — 'Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.'
Akathist Hymn to the Most Holy Mother of God
The great hymn of the Eastern Church to the Theotokos — sung standing on the Saturday of the Fifth Week of Great Lent, composed in 7th-century Constantinople.
Prayer of St. Ephrem the Syrian
The penitential prayer of the Eastern Churches — prayed at every weekday service of Great Lent with prostrations, the most beloved Lenten prayer of the East.
Daily & Devotional
The small prayers that punctuate a Catholic day: the Morning Offering, the prayer to the Guardian Angel, the Three O'Clock Hour of Mercy, grace before meals, and the prayer for the faithful departed.
The Morning Offering
Offering the day's prayers, works, joys, and sufferings to the Heart of Jesus — the foundation of the Apostleship of Prayer.
Angel of God
The traditional prayer to the Guardian Angel — taught to children, recited daily by religious communities.
Eternal Rest
The Church's most common prayer for the dead — recited at every funeral, at every cemetery visit, and after grace at meals on All Souls' Day.
Daily Offering to the Sacred Heart
The classic Morning Offering of the Apostleship of Prayer — uniting the day's prayers, works, joys, and sufferings with the Sacrifice of the Mass and with the intentions of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
A True Letter of Our Saviour Jesus Christ
A popular devotional text of the Catholic folk tradition — the prayer card 'True Letter' that has circulated in Catholic homes, especially in the 19th and 20th centuries, with promises attached to those who keep and pray it.
Prayers to the Angels
Raphael the physician and companion of the road, Gabriel the messenger of the Incarnation, Michael the prince of the heavenly host, and the angel given to each of us: prayers, antiphons and the chaplet of the nine choirs, taken from the Raccolta and the Breviary.
Prayer to St. Michael the Archangel
Composed by Leo XIII after a private vision in 1884 and recited after every Mass until 1965 — now restored in many parishes for spiritual warfare.
Prayer to St. Raphael the Archangel
'Guide of those who journey by land or sea, consoler of the afflicted, and refuge of sinners' — the indulgenced prayer to the archangel of Tobit, physician of God, approved by Leo XIII in 1890.
O Heavenly Physician (Prayer to St. Raphael)
A short Latin prayer to Raphael as physician of soul and body and companion of the road, from a Catholic prayer book of 1901.
Commemoration of St. Raphael (Antiphon and Collect)
The antiphon, versicle and collect of the archangel's feast from the Roman Breviary — the Church's own liturgical prayer to Raphael, in Latin and English.
O Strength of God (Prayer to St. Gabriel the Archangel)
A short Latin prayer to the archangel of the Annunciation, asking him to be our advocate with Jesus and Mary and our strength in temptation.
Commemoration of St. Gabriel (Antiphon and Collect)
The antiphon, versicle and collect of St. Gabriel's feast from the Roman Breviary: 'O God, who among all the angels didst choose the Archangel Gabriel to announce the mystery of thine Incarnation'.
Prayer to St. Michael against Satan and the Fallen Angels (Leo XIII, 1888)
The long prayer of Leo XIII — not the short one said after Mass — describing the ancient serpent's war on the Church and calling on the archangel to 'make him captive in the abyss'. Indulgenced in 1888; the Raccolta's text.
The Chaplet of St. Michael (Angelic Crown)
Nine salutations to St. Michael and the nine choirs of angels, each with an Our Father and three Hail Marys, ending with four Our Fathers for Michael, Gabriel, Raphael and the Guardian Angel. Indulgenced by Pius IX in 1851.
Hymn to St. Michael (Te splendor et virtus Patris)
The Vesper hymn of Michaelmas, revised by Urban VIII from a hymn of Rabanus Maurus: Michael bears the standard, casts the dragon to hell, and we follow him against the Prince of Pride. With its antiphon and collect.
O Prince of the Heavenly Host (Prayer to St. Michael for the Hour of Death)
A Latin prayer to Michael in his three offices — defender of the Church, champion against Satan, and guardian of souls leaving this world — asking his protection 'especially at the hour of my death'.
I Beseech Thee, Angelic Spirit (A Medieval Prayer to the Guardian Angel)
A fifteenth-century prayer to one's guardian angel — waking and sleeping, by night and by day, on every road — asking him not to leave until he has brought the soul to the sight of its Creator.
Novenas
The novenas the Church has indulgenced and the faithful have kept: to the archangels, St. Joseph, St. Anne, St. Anthony, St. Jude, St. Rita, the Little Flower and many more, each with its prayers as the old manuals printed them.
Novena to St. Raphael the Archangel
Nine days with the archangel of Tobit — guide of travellers, physician of God, deliverer from the demon — using the prayer Leo XIII indulgenced in 1890, with the antiphon and collect of his feast.
Novena to St. Gabriel the Archangel
Nine days with the messenger of the Incarnation, 'that Jesus may be to us, indeed, a Saviour' — the 1897 manual's prayer, with the antiphon and collect of Gabriel's feast.
Novena to St. Michael the Archangel
The nine days before Michaelmas as the 1897 manual gives them: the hymn Te splendor, the antiphon 'Most glorious Prince', and the collect of the feast — indulgenced by Pius VII and, as a novena, by Pius IX.
Novena to the Holy Guardian Angels
Nine days before 2 October: 'teach us to love, to pray, to combat on earth, and rather obtain for us instant death than permit us to commit one mortal sin.'
Novena to St. Joseph
The nine days before 19 March: the indulgenced novena prayer with its sevenfold versicle for the seven sorrows and joys, and the Memorare to St. Joseph — 'never has it been heard that anyone ever invoked thy protection… without being consoled.'
Novena to St. Anne
The nine days before 26 July, with Leo XIII's indulgenced prayer to the mother of the Virgin and the manual's petition 'to obtain some special favour' — 'Good St. Anne, mother of her who is our life, our sweetness, and our hope, pray to her for us.'
Novena of Nine Tuesdays to St. Anthony of Padua
The oldest saint's novena still in use, begun at Bologna in 1617: nine Tuesdays of Confession, Communion and prayer before the saint's image, with the Si quaeris responsory and the closing prayer.
Novena to St. Patrick
Nine days before 17 March, in the words of an Irish Catholic of 1897: 'Remember that the cries of little children were the mysterious invitation thou didst receive to come among us.'
The Novena of Grace to St. Francis Xavier
4 to 12 March, ending on the anniversary of his canonisation: the novena begun in Naples in 1634 after the Jesuit Marcello Mastrilli was healed, with the indulgenced novena prayer and Xavier's own hymn 'O God, Thou art the object of my love'.
Novena to St. Jude the Apostle
The nine days before 28 October as an American manual gave them in 1897 — thirty years before the Claretian shrine made 'the saint of hopeless cases' a household name — with the litany and the prayer 'Glorious apostle, martyr and relative of Jesus'.
Novena to St. Rita of Cascia
Nine days, or nine Thursdays, to the 'saint of the impossible': the prayer Pius X indulgenced in 1906, the Augustinians' prayer to the 'holy protectress of those in utmost need', and the Memorare to St. Rita.
Novena to St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus, the Little Flower
The novena American parishes prayed in the year of her canonisation, 1925: a daily prayer for her confidence, a prayer for each day beginning with faith, and the collect of her Mass — 'Unless ye become as little children'.
Novena for the Holy Souls in Purgatory, by St. Alphonsus Liguori
A novena composed by a saint: nine days before All Souls, each with a consideration of one pain of purgatory and a prayer, and the daily litany 'O most sweet Jesus, through the bloody sweat… have mercy on them.'
Novena to St. Peter the Apostle
Nine days before 29 June to the fisherman who denied Christ three times and was given the keys: the 1897 prayer, and the responsory Si vis patronum quaerere — 'Seek ye a patron to defend your cause? Then one and all, without delay, upon the prince of the apostles call.'
Novena to St. Ignatius of Loyola
Nine days before 31 July, made the way he taught: put yourself in God's presence first, ask for nothing but what is to His greater glory and the good of your soul, and repeat the Anima Christi through the day.
Novena to St. Alphonsus Liguori
Nine invocations for the nine days, each asking the Doctor of prayer for one grace necessary for salvation — faith, hope, love, resignation, sorrow, charity, purity, devotion, and above all final perseverance and the grace always to pray for it.
Novena to St. Gertrude the Great
Nine days to the first great mystic of the Heart of Jesus, ending in the most honest petition any novena makes: if it is not His will to grant what we ask, obtain for us that we may rest content in what He wills.
Novena to St. Teresa of Ávila
Nine days before 15 October to the reformer of Carmel and first woman Doctor of the Church — with the Ten Wednesdays, which remember ten particular graces she received, the seraph's dart among them.
Novena to St. Charles Borromeo
Nine days before 4 November to the archbishop who put the Council of Trent into practice in one diocese and showed the rest of Europe how — 'the good pastor who, like thy divine Master, didst give up thy life for thy flock.'
Novena to the Fourteen Holy Helpers
The devotion the Black Death produced: fourteen saints invoked together, each against a particular terror, with one preparatory prayer for all of them and a concluding prayer that simply gives thanks.
Novena to One's Own Patron Saint
The novena with a blank in it, for the saint whose name you were given at baptism: nine days of asking the one person in heaven who has been assigned to you since before you could speak.
The Novena of St. Philip Neri, by St. John Henry Newman
Nine days, 17 to 25 May, written by one saint for another: Newman's novena to the founder of the Oratory he had joined, each day taking one of Philip's virtues and asking bluntly for it, because he has none of it himself.