A Book of Prayers

Words for every hour.

The prayers the Church has said for centuries, each on its own page for quiet reading — and, at the end, a small gathering of household petitions for the troubles the old manuals never quite got around to. Adjust the text size on any page; star the ones you return to.

Several of these — the Creed, the Our Father, the Hail Mary, the Glory Be and the Salve Regina — are the prayers of the Rosary, where they are set in the order they are prayed, a plate to every mystery.

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Part the First

The Daily Prayers

The prayers a Christian is expected to know by heart — the ones taught at a mother’s knee and said again at the last.

The Sermon on the Mount, Carl Bloch, 1877 — public domain
Carl Bloch, The Sermon on the Mount, 1877 — public domain
Part the Second

To Our Lady

Prayers to the Mother of God, to whom the faithful have always turned when the road was long.

The Sistine Madonna, Raphael, 1512 — public domain
Raphael, The Sistine Madonna, 1512 — public domain
Part the Third

The Sacred Heart

A devotion of the Carmelite tradition, prayed upon a chaplet of thirty-three beads — one for each year of Our Lord’s earthly life.

The Sacred Heart of Jesus, Pompeo Batoni, 1767 — public domain
Pompeo Batoni, The Sacred Heart of Jesus, 1767 — public domain
Part the Fourth

For Protection

Against the dangers of the day, seen and unseen.

The Archangel Michael Defeating Satan, Guido Reni, 1636 — public domain
Guido Reni, The Archangel Michael Defeating Satan, 1636 — public domain
Part the Fifth

To the Saints

Novenas and devotions to the friends of God, whose intercession the faithful have implored since the age of the catacombs.

The Madonna and Child with Saint Anne, Masaccio and Masolino, c. 1424 — public domain
Masaccio and Masolino, The Madonna and Child with Saint Anne, c. 1424 — public domain
Part the Sixth

Household & Occasional Prayers

The Church keeps a patron for nearly everything, and grace does not consider a trouble too small to bring to it.

Saint Joseph and the Christ Child, Guido Reni, c. 1635 — public domain
Guido Reni, Saint Joseph and the Christ Child, c. 1635 — public domain
Plate of the day
The Angelus, Jean-François Millet, 1857–59 — public domain
Jean-François Millet, The Angelus, 1857–59 — public domain