Prayers
54 prayers of the Catholic tradition, in English, with a note on each saying what it is and when people pray it. Search by name, by another name for the same prayer, or by what you are actually facing.
Try a name like Memorare, another name for the same prayer like Salve Regina, or simply grief or before surgery.
6 prayers
Essential Prayers
The prayers the Church puts first, and the ones assumed by every other prayer here.
Daily Prayers
Prayers with a time attached to them — waking, eating, evening, the turning of the day.
- The Acts of Faith, Hope and Love
Three short prayers naming the three theological virtues, traditionally prayed together — and traditionally the prayers a Catholic makes when in danger or near death.
- The Morning Offering2 forms
Prayed on waking. It hands the whole of the coming day over in advance — the work, the difficulties and the ordinary parts — so that nothing in it is wasted.
- Angel of God2 forms
The prayer to one’s guardian angel — usually the first prayer a Catholic child is taught after the Hail Mary, and one many people go on praying all their lives.
- Grace at Meals2 forms
The blessing said before eating, with the shorter thanksgiving that follows it. Both forms are given here because the second is the half most people were never taught.
- Prayer at the Close of Day
Prayed last thing. It looks back over the day honestly — thanks for what was given, sorrow for what went wrong — and then lets it go.
- The Angelus2 forms
Prayed at six, noon and six — traditionally when the church bells rang. It stops the day three times to recall the Incarnation. In Eastertide the Regina Caeli replaces it, and that form is given here too.
Prayers to Our Lady
Prayers to the Blessed Virgin Mary. The Rosary is listed under Essential Prayers.
Prayers to the Saints
Asking particular saints and angels to pray with you and for you.
About these texts
Every prayer here is a received text of the Catholic tradition, reproduced from published sources that are named on each prayer's own page. None of them were written by us, and none have been reworded.
Where a prayer has a modern wording still under copyright — the Mass texts belonging to the International Commission on English in the Liturgy, for instance — we publish the older traditional wording instead and say so on the page. GraceBook is not a publisher of liturgical books, and nothing here should be taken as the text to be used in the liturgy.
Scripture passages are from the Douay-Rheims Bible in the Challoner revision. If you find an error in any text, tell us and we will correct it.