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Prayers

Fundamentals

Our Father, Hail Mary, Creed — the prayers every Catholic child learns first.

1. Our Father The prayer the Lord himself taught his disciples.
2. Hail Mary The angelic salutation, joining the Annunciation to the intercession of the Mother of God.
3. Sign of the Cross Brief confession of the Holy Trinity that opens and closes every Christian prayer.
4. Glory Be The minor trinitarian doxology that closes the psalms in the Liturgy of the Hours and each decade of the Rosary.
5. Apostles’ Creed The baptismal profession of faith of the Church of Rome, prayed at the start of the Rosary.
6. Nicene Creed The great profession of faith proclaimed at Sunday and solemnity Masses.
7. Come, Holy Spirit The classic invocation of the Holy Spirit, prayed before study, work and discernment.
8. Hail, Holy Queen The Marian antiphon that closes the Rosary and the Divine Office for much of the year.
9. Confiteor The opening penitential act of the Mass, by which we acknowledge our sins before God and the Church.
10. Angel of God The classic prayer of Catholic childhood, asking the protection of the angel God has given each baptised soul.
11. Eternal Rest The brief prayer for the faithful departed, antiphon of the Office of the Dead and the Requiem Mass.
12. Prayer to St Michael The defensive prayer against evil, composed by Leo XIII after a prophetic vision in 1884.