A Beginner’s Book of Prayer
Other Loyola Press books by William G. Storey The Complete Rosary A Guide to Praying the Mysteries Novenas Prayers of Intercession and Devotion A Prayer Book of Catholic Devotions Praying the Seasons and Feasts of the Church Year A Catholic Book of Hours and Other Devotions Prayers of Christian Consolation
A Beginner’s Book of Prayer
@ An Introduction to Traditional Catholic Prayers Compiled by William G. Storey University of Notre Dame
© 2009 William G. Storey All rights reserved In accordance with c. 827, permission to publish is granted on May 29, 2009 by the Very Reverend John F. Canary, Vicar General of the Archdiocese of Chicago. Permission to publish is an official declaration of ecclesiastical authority that the material is free from doctrinal and moral error. No legal responsibility is assumed with the grant of this permission. Copyright acknowledgments appear on pages 171–173 and constitute a continuation of this copyright page. Interior design by Donna Antkowiak Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A beginner’s book of prayer : an introduction to traditional Catholic prayers / compiled by William G. Storey. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references. ISBN-13: 978-0-8294-2792-9 ISBN-10: 0-8294-2792-9 1. Catholic Church--Prayers and devotions. I. Storey, William George, 1923– BX2149.2.P73 2009 242'.802--dc22 2009010985 Printed in China 09 10 11 12 13 14 RRD/China 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi How the Book Is Organized. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xii A School of Prayer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiii Prayers for New Catholics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiv External and Internal Prayer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xv Second-Century Directions for Prayer. . . . . . . . . xvi
1. Foundations of Our Faith. . . . . . . . . . . .
1
The Gospel in Brief . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Word of God. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Word of Life. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Greatest Commandment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The New Commandment. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Gentle Mastery of Christ. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Shepherd Psalm. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Prayer of Commitment. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1 1 3 4 4 5 6 7
2. Basic Christian Prayers. . . . . . . . . . . . . .
9
The Sign of the Cross . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 The Apostles’ Creed. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 The Lord’s Prayer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 The Lesser Doxology. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 The Greater Doxology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Hail Mary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 v
The Angelus. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 The Queen of Heaven. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Acts of Faith, Hope, and Love. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 A Universal Prayer for Peace. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Grace at Meals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Daily Offering to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. . . . 17 Prayer of Abandonment to God. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
3. Morning and Evening Prayer . . . . . . . 21 A Brief Morning Prayer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Three O’clock Prayer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 A Brief Evening Prayer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Prayer in the Special Seasons. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Advent. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Christmastide. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 Lent. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 The Sacred Triduum. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 Eastertide: The Great Fifty Days. . . . . . . . . . . 58
4. Prayers to the Lord Jesus. . . . . . . . . . . . 67 Hymn to Jesus. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 Faith and Trust in Jesus. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 Jesus Help Me. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69 Peace Prayer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70 Jesus Needs Us. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70 Jesus My Friend. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 Invocations to Christ Our Lord. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
vi Contents
The Real Presence of Jesus. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 A Prayer before Holy Communion. . . . . . . . . . . . 73 Holy Communion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 For True Devotion to the Blessed Sacrament. . . 76 Prayer before the Blessed Sacrament. . . . . . . . . 77 Visit to the Blessed Sacrament. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77 Prayer in Full Faith. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79 To Our Most Holy Redeemer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79 Doxology. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80 A Prayer for Deliverance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80 Hymn to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. . . . . . . . . . . 81 The Jesus Prayer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 The Most Holy Name of Jesus. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
5. Devotions to Christ Crucified . . . . . . 85 The Holy Face of Jesus. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 Prayer to Jesus Crucified. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86 To Jesus Crucified. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 Christ Crucified. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88 Three Holy Cross Prayers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88 Prayer to Christ’s Wounds. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90 Hail, Sacred Heart of Jesus. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91 Litany of the Precious Blood . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92 The Paschal Mystery. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94 Easter Day. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95 Holy Father of Glory. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
Contents vii
6. Prayers to the Blessed Virgin Mary. . 99 We Turn to You (Sub tuum praesidium) . . . . . . 100 Hail, Holy Queen (Salve, Regina). . . . . . . . . . . 100 Salutation to the Blessed Virgin. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101 Memorare. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102 To Mary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102 To Our Lady of Consolation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102 To Our Sorrowful Mother. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103 To Our Lady of Guadalupe. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104 Prayer to Our Lady of Combermere . . . . . . . . . . 105 Litany of Loreto. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106 A Prayer to St. Joseph in Time of Need . . . . . . 109
7. The Holy Rosary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111 Suggestions for Praying the Rosary . . . . . . . . . . I. The Joyful Mysteries. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . II. The Luminous Mysteries. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . III. The Sorrowful Mysteries. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . IV. The Glorious Mysteries. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
111 112 114 116 119
8. Hymns and Prayers of Praise and Thanksgiving . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123 The Canticle of the Church . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123 Hymn of Praise. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125 The Divine Praises. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126 The Canticle of All Creatures. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126 Act of Praise (Psalm 117). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129 viii  Contents
Thank You Jesus!. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130 Prayer of Thanksgiving. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131 Litany of Praise and Thanksgiving. . . . . . . . . . . . 132
9. Prayers of Repentance and Forgiveness. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135 The Act of Contrition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135 I Confess (Confiteor) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136 May I Know Myself and Know You (Noverim me, noverim te). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136 For the Fullness of Our Baptism . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137 For the Gift of Repentance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138 For Repentance and Forgiveness. . . . . . . . . . . . 139 Prayer for Holiness. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140 Christ in the Universe. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141 The Seven Deadly Sins and Their Remedies. . . 142 For the Forgiveness of Sins. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145 Who Is There to Understand?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
10. Prayers for the Dead . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149 A Living Hope. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149 Dies Irae. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149 The Hope of Rising in Christ. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150 Prayers for the Faithful Departed. . . . . . . . . . . . . 151 For Our Dear Departed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152 Psalm 130 (De profundis) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153 Prayer for a Dead Child. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155 For Those Who Survive. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155 Litany of the Faithful Departed. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156 Contents  ix
11. Short Prayers for Daily Life. . . . . . . . 159 12. Resources for Prayer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163 Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167 Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171 About the Author . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
x  Contents
1. Foundations of Our Faith These prayers from Scripture center our prayer on the good news of Jesus Christ. We pray these words through the Holy Spirit, given us in baptism, who dwells in our hearts and prays in us continuously, even when we are not aware of it. When we consciously join the unceasing prayer of the Spirit, we enter a communion of prayer that lifts our hearts to the Father, to the holy ones who have gone before us, and to our fellow Christians across the world.
The Gospel in Brief God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life. John 3:16 nab
The Word of God This prologue to John’s Gospel is the foundation of our belief in the Incarnation, the central and distinctive doctrine of Catholic Christianity. This life-giving doctrine is the root of our hope, takes away all fear, and fills us with joy and gratitude for our membership in the people of God! 1 Go to loyolapress.com/store to purchase a copy of this book
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came to be through him, and without him nothing came to be. What came to be through him was life, and this life was the light of the human race; the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. He was in the world, and the world came to be through him, but the world did not know him. He came to what was his own, but his own people did not accept him. But to those who did accept him, he gave power to become children of God, to those who believe in his name, who were born not by natural generation nor by human choice nor by a man’s decision but of God. And the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us, and we saw his glory, the glory as of the Father’s only Son, full of grace and truth. John 1:1–5, 10–14 nab
2 Foundations of Our Faith Excerpt from Beginner’s Book of Prayer by William Storey
Prayer Lord Jesus, eternal Word of God, become flesh for our sake, we accept you and thank you for all we receive from you. By your gracious gift, we have every right to complete confidence in your love for us and, by believing in your name, have the power to partake of your divine nature. Blest are you, O Savior of the world, now and for ever. ~Amen.
The Word of Life We declare to you what was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the word of life— this life was revealed, and we have seen it and testify to it, and declare to you the eternal life that was with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. 1 John 1:1–3
The Word of Life 3 Go to loyolapress.com/store to purchase a copy of this book
The Greatest Commandment One of the scribes asked Jesus, “Which is the first of all the commandments?” Jesus replied, “The first is this: ‘Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is Lord alone! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” Mark 12:28–31 nab
Prayer Lord Jesus, teacher of holiness, your basic law is love of God and neighbor. Help us to build on these two foundations without evasion or scrupulosity until we are recognized as your disciples in spirit and in truth. Your reign is a reign for all ages. ~Amen.
The New Commandment At the Last Supper Jesus said to his disciples, “I give you a new commandment: Love one another. As I have loved you, 4 Foundations of Our Faith Excerpt from Beginner’s Book of Prayer by William Storey
so you also should love one another. This is how all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” John 13:34–35 nab God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them. 1 John 4:16
Prayer Lord Jesus, Teacher of Righteousness, you complete even the great commandments by giving us the new commandment of love. Help us to dedicate ourselves to loving and serving the Body of Christ in this world in order to find perfect bliss in the next. You live and reign for ever and ever. ~Amen.
The Gentle Mastery of Christ Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart and you will find rest for yourselves. For my yoke is easy, and my burden light. Matthew 11:28–30 nab The Gentle Mastery of Christ 5 Go to loyolapress.com/store to purchase a copy of this book
Prayer Father, we rejoice in the gifts of love we have received from the heart of Jesus your Son. Open our hearts to share his life and continue to bless us with his love. We ask this through Christ our Lord. ~Amen. Sacred Heart of Jesus, Roman Missal
The Shepherd Psalm In the ancient church, Psalm 23 was often prayed during the Easter Vigil as the newly baptized Christians emerged from the font, were sealed with the Spirit, and processed into the congregation of the faithful for the Holy Eucharist. It expresses our confidence in the Lord’s protection and encourages us to rejoice in our baptismal waters, the anointing of the Spirit, and our presence at the welcome table of the Eucharist and the eucharistic community.
The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I lack. In green pastures you let me graze; to safe waters you lead me; you restore my strength. You guide me along the right path for the sake of your name.
6 Foundations of Our Faith Excerpt from Beginner’s Book of Prayer by William Storey
Even when I walk through a dark valley, I fear no harm for you are at my side; your rod and staff give me courage. You set a table before me as my enemies watch; You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Only goodness and love will pursue me all the days of my life; I will dwell in the house of the Lord for years to come. nab
Psalm Prayer Lord Jesus, shepherd of your Church, we thank you for your guidance and protection from the beginning of our lives to the end. As the host of the eucharistic table, we feast in your presence as we wait for the welcome table of eternity. Your reign is a reign for all ages. ~Amen.
Prayer of Commitment Lord Jesus, our Messiah, the reflection of God’s glory and the exact imprint of God’s very being:
Prayer of Commitment 7 Go to loyolapress.com/store to purchase a copy of this book
We entrust our lives to you by renewing the promises of our baptism, our commitment to our Church community, and our desire to do your holy will, now and always, and for ever and ever. ~Amen.
8  Foundations of Our Faith Excerpt from Beginner’s Book of Prayer by William Storey