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The Prayers of the Church

Each prayer in its own words, with the dated sources behind it — where it came from, who first wrote it down, and how the Church received it. Documented history is shown as history; pious tradition, as tradition.

Adoro Te Devote

The private prayer of Eucharistic adoration traditionally ascribed to St. Thomas Aquinas — 'O Godhead hid, devoutly I adore thee'…
Eucharistic devotion · 2 sources

Alma Redemptoris Mater — Loving Mother of the Redeemer

The Advent antiphon of Our Lady — 'Loving Mother of the Redeemer' — its hexameters credited to the crippled monk…
Marian antiphon · 3 sources

Anima Christi — Soul of Christ

The beloved medieval prayer to the wounded Christ — of the first half of the fourteenth century, indulgenced in 1330…
Prayer to Christ · 3 sources

Ave Regina Caelorum — Hail, Queen of Heaven

The Lenten-season antiphon of Our Lady — 'Hail, Queen of Heaven' — found in manuscripts from the twelfth century, sung…
Marian antiphon · 3 sources

Lauda Sion Salvatorem

St. Thomas Aquinas's sequence for the Mass of Corpus Christi (c. 1264) — 'Sion, lift thy voice and sing' —…
Eucharistic sequence · 4 sources

Pange Lingua Gloriosi

St. Thomas Aquinas's Vespers hymn for the Office of Corpus Christi — 'Sing, my tongue, the Saviour's glory' — whose…
Eucharistic hymn · 3 sources

Regina Caeli — Queen of Heaven

The Eastertide antiphon of Our Lady — 'Queen of heaven, rejoice' — of unknown twelfth-century origin, which takes the place…
Marian antiphon · 3 sources

Sacris Solemniis

St. Thomas Aquinas's hymn for Matins of Corpus Christi — whose penultimate stanza, the Panis Angelicus, is among the best-loved…
Eucharistic hymn · 3 sources

Salve Regina — Hail Holy Queen

The great Marian antiphon of the Latin West — its uncertain eleventh-century origin, the tradition of St. Bernard, and its…
Marian antiphon · 4 sources

Te Deum

The great hymn of praise and thanksgiving of the Latin Church — sung at the end of Matins and on…
Hymn of thanksgiving · 4 sources

The Act of Contrition

The penitent's prayer of sorrow for sin — the act of contrition the Church requires of the penitent, defined by…
Prayer of penance · 3 sources

The Angelus

The threefold daily remembrance of the Incarnation, rung at morning, noon, and evening — grown from the monastic evening bell…
Marian devotion · 5 sources

The Apostles’ Creed

The ancient baptismal creed of the Latin Church — its roots in the profession of faith made at baptism, its…
Creed · 3 sources

The Athanasian Creed (Quicumque)

The great Western creed of the Trinity and the Incarnation — 'Whosoever will be saved' — composed in Latin in…
Creed · 3 sources

The Chaplet of Divine Mercy

The chaplet of mercy prayed on ordinary rosary beads, from the revelations recorded by St. Faustina Kowalska in 1935 and…
Devotion to Divine Mercy · 2 sources

The Chaplet of St. Michael

The 'Rosary of the Angels' — nine salutations honouring the nine choirs of angels, from a private revelation reported in…
Angelic devotion · 2 sources

The Glory Be (Gloria Patri)

The 'lesser doxology' — the Church's ancient hymn of praise to the Holy Trinity; its trinitarian form pressed into universal…
Doxology · 3 sources

The Hail Mary

The Church's great Marian prayer, woven from two Gospel greetings — the angel Gabriel's and Elizabeth's — with the petition…
Marian prayer · 5 sources

The Jesus Prayer

The short, ceaseless invocation of the Christian East — its roots in the Gospel cries for mercy, the unbroken prayer…
Prayer of the heart · 8 sources

The Litany of Loreto

The Litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary, named for the shrine of Loreto where it was in use. Of uncertain…
Marian litany · 4 sources

The Memorare

The Marian prayer of unshakable confidence — a fragment of a longer fifteenth-century prayer, long and wrongly called 'the Memorare…
Marian prayer · 4 sources

The Our Father

The prayer the Lord himself taught — given in the Sermon on the Mount and to the disciples who asked,…
The Lord's Prayer · 5 sources

The Rosary

The Marian prayer of a hundred and fifty Aves — its roots in the medieval Psalter of Our Lady, the…
Marian devotion · 11 sources

The Stations of the Cross

The Way of the Cross — fourteen stations retracing Christ's path to Calvary. Grown from the pilgrimage to the holy…
Devotion of the Passion · 5 sources

Veni Creator Spiritus

The Church's great hymn to the Holy Spirit — 'Come, Holy Ghost, Creator blest' — from the ninth century, most…
Hymn to the Holy Spirit · 3 sources

Veni Sancte Spiritus — the Golden Sequence

The 'Golden Sequence' of Pentecost — 'Come, thou Holy Spirit, come' — long held the loveliest of the medieval sequences,…
Sequence for Pentecost · 3 sources

Verbum Supernum Prodiens

St. Thomas Aquinas's hymn for Lauds of Corpus Christi — whose last two stanzas form the O Salutaris Hostia sung…
Eucharistic hymn · 4 sources