Catholic Prayers

Praying with set words

Catholics pray in their own words all the time, but they also share a small treasury of set prayers that every Catholic learns, usually as a child. These prayers are short, old, and easy to memorise, and Catholics believe they are a school of prayer, words that teach you how to pray while you pray them. This page gives the four most common ones in full, explains where each comes from, and then shows how they fit together in the Rosary.

You do not need a church, a priest or any money to pray any of them. They can be prayed anywhere, at any time, by anyone.

The Sign of the Cross

In the name of the Father,
and of the Son,
and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.

The Sign of the Cross is both words and an action. While saying the words, Catholics touch the forehead, then the chest, then the left shoulder, then the right shoulder, tracing the shape of a cross over themselves. Amen is a Hebrew word meaning “so be it” or “yes, this is true”, and it closes almost every Christian prayer.

Catholics begin nearly every prayer with the Sign of the Cross, and for two reasons. First, it names the Trinity, the Catholic belief that there is one God in three persons, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Saying it out loud settles the mind and makes clear who the prayer is addressed to. Second, it recalls baptism. Every Catholic was baptised “in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit”, so making the sign is a way of remembering who you belong to. The Catechism of the Catholic Church, the official summary of Catholic teaching, says a Christian begins the day, daily prayers and daily work with the Sign of the Cross (CCC 2157).

The Our Father

Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name;
thy kingdom come,
thy will be done
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
and forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us,
and lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
Amen.

Catholics believe this prayer was taught by Jesus himself, which is why it is also called the Lord’s Prayer. It appears in the Bible in Matthew chapter 6 and Luke chapter 11, when the disciples ask Jesus how to pray.

The old English words are simple once translated. Hallowed means treated as holy. Trespasses means sins, the wrongs we do. The prayer has seven requests. The first three are about God, that his name be honoured, that his kingdom come, and that his will be done. The last four are about us, our daily needs, forgiveness, protection from temptation, and rescue from evil. Notice the trade folded into the middle, we ask God to forgive us in the same breath that we promise to forgive others.

Catholics pray the Our Father together at every Mass, the main Catholic church service, and it anchors almost every Catholic devotion, including the Rosary below.

The Hail Mary

Hail Mary, full of grace,
the Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou among women,
and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary, Mother of God,
pray for us sinners,
now and at the hour of our death.
Amen.

The Hail Mary is the prayer most people associate with Catholics, and it is often the one visitors have the most questions about. It deserves the fullest explanation on this page, so here it is, piece by piece.

The first half is scripture

The opening lines are not something the Church composed. They are two greetings taken almost word for word from the Gospel of Luke.

The first greeting belongs to the angel Gabriel, sent to Mary to announce that she will bear Jesus. In Luke 1:28 the angel says, “Rejoice, you highly favored one! The Lord is with you. Blessed are you among women!” (World English Bible).

The second greeting belongs to Elizabeth, Mary’s relative, when the pregnant Mary comes to visit her. In Luke 1:42 Elizabeth “called out with a loud voice and said, ‘Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!’” (World English Bible).

So when Catholics pray the first half of the Hail Mary, they are repeating the Bible’s own words. An angel said the first line, and a Spirit filled Elizabeth said the second.

The name of Jesus, added after a great council

The Bible verses end with “the fruit of your womb”. The single word that follows in the prayer, Jesus, was added by the Church, and there is history behind it.

In the year 431, bishops from across the Christian world met at the Council of Ephesus, in what is now Turkey, to settle a dispute about who Jesus is. The council declared that Mary is rightly called Theotokos, a Greek word meaning God bearer, because the child she carried is God the Son made human. Catholics believe the title says more about Jesus than about Mary. Calling her Mother of God protects the truth that her son is truly God.

In the centuries that followed, the name of Jesus was added to close the biblical greeting, so that the entire first half of the prayer leads to him and rests on him. Catholics believe the Hail Mary is, from its first word to the name of Jesus, a prayer soaked in the story of the Gospel.

The second half, fixed in 1568

The petition half, “Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death”, grew gradually during the Middle Ages, and different regions used different endings. The complete prayer as Catholics say it today received its official form in the Roman Breviary of 1568, the Church’s official book of daily prayer, issued under Pope Pius V. Since then the words have been stable across the Catholic world.

What the Catechism teaches

The Catechism of the Catholic Church walks through the prayer line by line. It teaches that the words “full of grace, the Lord is with thee” describe God’s presence with Mary, that she is blessed among women because she believed God’s promise, and that in praying these greetings we make Gabriel’s and Elizabeth’s wonder our own (CCC 2676).

On the second half, the Catechism teaches that Catholics entrust themselves to Mary’s prayer. In its own words, “By asking Mary to pray for us, we acknowledge ourselves to be poor sinners” (CCC 2677). It adds that Catholics give her the present moment and the hour of their death, asking her to be there at the end as she was there at the death of her son (CCC 2677).

Why Catholics pray it, the plain answer

Look at the verbs in the second half. The prayer asks Mary to do exactly one thing, “pray for us sinners”. Catholics are asking Mary to pray for them, the same way you might ask a trusted friend, a parent or a gogo to pray for you. Asking someone to pray on your behalf is called intercession.

This is the heart of the matter, and it is worth saying plainly. Catholics do not worship Mary. Catholics believe worship belongs to God alone. Mary is honoured as the mother of Jesus, and honoured highly, but honour and worship are different things, and Catholic teaching has always kept them apart. The Hail Mary asks for her prayers. It does not adore her.

The Glory Be

Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son,
and to the Holy Spirit,
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end.
Amen.

The Glory Be is a doxology, a short burst of praise. It asks God for nothing at all. It simply praises the Trinity and says that God’s glory had no beginning and will have no end, which is what the old phrase “world without end” means. Catholics use it the way a song uses a final chord, to close a psalm, a decade of the Rosary, or a session of prayer on a note of pure praise.

How to pray the Rosary

The Rosary is the devotion that gathers all four prayers above into one. A devotion is a prayer practice done outside the formal church service. The Rosary uses a looped string of beads, also called a rosary, to count the prayers, which frees the mind to do the real work, quietly picturing scenes from the life of Jesus and Mary. Each scene is called a mystery. Catholics believe the Rosary is a way of looking at Jesus through Mary’s eyes.

Here is the traditional way to pray it, step by step.

1. Hold the crucifix at the end of the beads, make the Sign of the Cross, and pray the Apostles’ Creed, an early summary of Christian belief that most Catholics know by heart.
2. On the first bead, pray one Our Father.
3. On the next three beads, pray three Hail Marys. Traditionally these are offered for growth in faith, hope and love.
4. Pray one Glory Be.
5. Announce the first mystery of the day, for example “the first Joyful Mystery, the Annunciation”, then pray one Our Father on the next large bead.
6. On the ten small beads that follow, pray ten Hail Marys while picturing the mystery. A group of ten is called a decade.
7. Close the decade with one Glory Be. Many Catholics add the Fatima Prayer, “O my Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fires of hell, lead all souls to Heaven, especially those in most need of thy mercy.”
8. Repeat steps 5 to 7 for the remaining four mysteries of the day.
9. End with the Hail, Holy Queen, a closing prayer to Mary, and finish with the Sign of the Cross.

A full Rosary, five decades, takes about fifteen to twenty minutes.

The four sets of mysteries

There are four sets of five mysteries. Each day of the week has its traditional set, so over a normal week a praying Catholic walks through the whole life of Jesus.

The Joyful Mysteries, prayed on Monday and Saturday, cover the beginning of the story. The Annunciation, when Gabriel announces to Mary that she will bear Jesus. The Visitation, when Mary visits Elizabeth. The Nativity, the birth of Jesus. The Presentation, when Mary and Joseph bring the baby Jesus to the Temple. The Finding in the Temple, when the twelve year old Jesus is found among the teachers.

The Luminous Mysteries, also called the Mysteries of Light, are prayed on Thursday. Pope John Paul II added this set in 2002 to cover the public life of Jesus. The Baptism of Jesus in the Jordan. The Wedding at Cana, his first miracle. The Proclamation of the Kingdom of God. The Transfiguration, when Jesus is revealed in glory on the mountain. The Institution of the Eucharist at the Last Supper, when Catholics believe Jesus gave his body and blood under the signs of bread and wine.

The Sorrowful Mysteries, prayed on Tuesday and Friday, cover his suffering and death. The Agony in the Garden. The Scourging at the Pillar. The Crowning with Thorns. The Carrying of the Cross. The Crucifixion.

The Glorious Mysteries, prayed on Wednesday and Sunday, cover what Catholics believe came after. The Resurrection, Jesus rising from the dead. The Ascension, Jesus returning to the Father. The Descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. The Assumption, the Catholic belief that Mary was taken body and soul into heaven. The Coronation of Mary as Queen of Heaven.

The day scheme is a custom, not a law. Anyone may pray any set on any day.

When Catholics pray these in ordinary life

These prayers are not reserved for church. They are the background music of an ordinary Catholic life.

Many Catholics begin the day with the Sign of the Cross and an Our Father before the day gets loud. Families say grace before meals, usually a short blessing ending with the Sign of the Cross. At Sunday Mass the whole congregation prays the Our Father together, out loud, every single week. Some parishes ring a bell at midday for the Angelus, a short devotion built around three Hail Marys.

The Rosary tends to live in the quiet edges of the day. Some pray it early in the morning, some as a family in the evening, and many pray a single decade in transit, on the bus or in the taxi into town, with the beads in a pocket. October is traditionally kept as the month of the Rosary, and when a Catholic dies, family and friends often gather before the funeral to pray the Rosary together for them.

If you want to learn these prayers, any Catholic parish in Cape Town will gladly help, and no one will expect you to know the words already. Every Catholic was a beginner at them once.

Sources

Luke 1, World English Bible

World English Bible, official site

Catechism of the Catholic Church, The Way of Prayer, paragraphs 2663 to 2682

The Mysteries of the Rosary, Vatican website

Rosarium Virginis Mariae, Pope John Paul II, 2002

Hail Mary, Catholic Encyclopedia

How to Pray the Rosary, Rosary Center and Confraternity