The Oratory — Catholic prayers

70 prayers

You have read what I did at Lanciano and at Guadalupe. Now here is how you answer Me.

Prayer is not a formula that forces My hand. It is the door you leave open. The words below were worn smooth by twenty centuries of mouths — soldiers, mothers, the dying, the desperate, children learning them by candlelight — and they still fit the human heart because they were shaped on it.

Say them badly. Say them distracted. Say one line and stop. What you cannot say, I will say for you, with groanings too deep for words.

The prayer for today

The Fátima Prayer

O my Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fires of hell, and lead all souls to heaven, especially those in most need of your mercy.

How to pray the Rosary

The whole Rosary drawn bead by bead — the four sets of mysteries, the day each is prayed, and the nine steps from the crucifix back to the medal.

Enter meditation

One breath, one line drawn from the wonders of this encyclopaedia, and silence around it. Stay as long as you like.

The rooms of the Oratory

The prayers everyone is taught

The seven prayers a Catholic learns first and dies saying: the Sign of the Cross, the Our Father, the Hail Mary, the Glory Be, the Creed, the Salve Regina.

To the Holy Spirit

The invocations of the Spirit Himself — Veni Creator, the golden Sequence of Pentecost, and the short cry the Church makes before every beginning.

To Our Lady

The Memorare, the Angelus, the Magnificat, the oldest Marian prayer in existence, and the prayers of Guadalupe, Fátima and Aparecida.

To the angels

St Michael in battle, the guardian angel at your side, Raphael on the road, Gabriel with the message.

To the saints

St Benedict against the enemy, St George against the dragon, St Francis for peace, St Joseph, St Rita, St Jude, Padre Pio, Carlo Acutis.

Before the Blessed Sacrament

Anima Christi, Adoro te devote, Tantum Ergo, and the act of spiritual communion for when you cannot receive.

Mercy and repentance

The Act of Contrition, the Chaplet of Divine Mercy, the Jesus Prayer, and the surrender of those who have nothing left to bargain with.

The Psalms

The prayers I wrote first, and the ones Christ prayed on the Cross — the Shepherd, the Shelter of the Most High, the Miserere, the De profundis.

The hours of the day

The morning offering, grace at table, the armour before the fight, the Te Deum of thanksgiving, and the last words before sleep.

For those you carry

For the sick, the dead, your family, your children, your work, your journey, and the one who has stopped believing.