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.
9 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.
Prayers to Our Lady
Prayers to the Blessed Virgin Mary. The Rosary is listed under Essential Prayers.
- The Hail Mary2 forms
Two greetings from the Gospel — the angel’s and Elizabeth’s — followed by the Church’s own petition. The prayer the Rosary is built from.
- 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.
- The Memorare
A prayer of confident appeal, made when things are urgent. Its whole argument is that no one has ever asked Mary for help and been turned away.
- Hail, Holy Queen2 forms
Prayed at the end of the Rosary and sung at the close of the day in monasteries. It does not pretend life is easy — it calls this world a valley of tears and asks for help in it.
- We Fly to Thy Patronage2 forms
The oldest known prayer to Mary — found on an Egyptian papyrus from around the third century. Christians were praying these words while the persecutions were still going on.
- The Magnificat
Mary’s own words, spoken to Elizabeth and recorded in Luke’s Gospel. The Church prays it every single evening. It is a good deal more revolutionary than most people remember.
- The Litany of Loreto
A long chain of titles for Mary, each answered "pray for us". Prayed aloud with others it has a rhythm to it; prayed alone it is a slow way to think about who she is.
- Novena to the Immaculate Conception
A novena prayer to Mary under the title of her Immaculate Conception, asking for purity of heart and the favors requested in the novena. It is traditionally made from November 29 to December 7, ending on the eve of the solemnity on December 8.
- Novena to Our Lady of Perpetual Help
A short novena for a particular spiritual or temporal favor, asking the help of Our Lady of Perpetual Help and of St. Alphonsus Liguori. Each day has nine Hail Marys and three short prayers, and it can be made at any time of year.
Novenas
Prayers made over nine days, for a feast or for something you are asking for.
- Novena to the Immaculate Conception
A novena prayer to Mary under the title of her Immaculate Conception, asking for purity of heart and the favors requested in the novena. It is traditionally made from November 29 to December 7, ending on the eve of the solemnity on December 8.
- Novena to Our Lady of Perpetual Help
A short novena for a particular spiritual or temporal favor, asking the help of Our Lady of Perpetual Help and of St. Alphonsus Liguori. Each day has nine Hail Marys and three short prayers, and it can be made at any time of year.
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.