Catholic Prayers for Young People Quiz

Answer: The Sign of the Cross

The Sign of the Cross can be made before a prayer, after a prayer, or as a prayer by itself. The "Sign of the Cross" can refer to the prayer itself or to the gestures made when reciting the prayer. A Catholic makes the Sign of the Cross with the right hand, touching the forehead at "Father", the heart at "Son", and each shoulder with the "Holy Spirit". And so this prayer invokes all three Persons of the Holy Trinity.

When my father was an altar boy in the 1940s-50s, he learned the Latin version: "In nomine patri, et fili, et spiritu sancti. Amen." Nowadays, most Catholics use the vernacular, which means the language they normally speak to each other. Some in my father's generation and earlier also called the Third Person of the Trinity "Holy Ghost", but "Holy Spirit" is most common in the USA now.

Answer: gifts

This familiar prayer comes from the Gelasian Sacramentary, a book of prayers and rites written in the eighth century. (It is named for Pope Gelasius I, who lived in the 5th century, though he did not write the book as of course he had long passed). Substituting "thee" and "thy" with "you" and "your" is increasingly common, particularly when performed publicly.

Short though it may be, this traditional blessing contains three of the four kinds of prayer:
-- Petition (asking God for something): "Bless us, O Lord..."
-- Thanksgiving: "...and these, thy gifts, which we are about to receive from thy bounty..."
-- Praise: "through Christ our Lord. Amen."

(The fourth is "contrition", or repentance, sorrow for one's sins.)

Although this prayer comes from the 8th century, the custom of praying before a meal is ancient. Christ himself and his Apostles prayed over their meals, and even before the time of Christ, Jews prayed before and after their meals. And many early Church fathers, including Tertullian and St. Athanasius, wrote of the importance of "saying grace" before meals.

Answer: Mary

"Hail Mary, full of grace" was the archangel Gabriel's greeting when he informed the Blessed Virgin Mary she was to bear the Messiah. He told the Virgin Mary to name her child Jesus, which in Hebrew would have been "Yeshua" and meant "Yahweh is salvation". Afterward, Mary went to visit her cousin Elizabeth, who cried out to her "Blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb." (Because the prayer incorporates these two greetings, some less common names for the Hail Mary are the Prayer of the Announcement or the Prayer of the Greeting).

Here is the whole prayer as recited by Roman Catholics (Byzantine Catholics use a slightly different wording):

Hail Mary, full of grace,
the Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou amongst women,
and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary, Mother of God,
pray for us sinners,
now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

Answer: the "Our Father"

Most Catholic prayers are named or nicknamed for their first two or three words, and the "Our Father" (or "Pater Noster" in Latin) is no exception!

This is the version that most Catholics use, which appears in the Gospel of Matthew. The precise translation, however, (for indeed the Gospel was originally written in Greek) comes mostly from the Book of Common Prayer used in England during the reign of Henry VIII, in the mid-16th century:

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth, as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us;
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

When Catholics recite this prayer at Mass, the prayer stops at this point, Then the priest says, "Deliver us, Lord, from every evil, and grant us peace in our day...," Then the people respond with the final two lines of the prayer: "For the kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours, now and forever." These last words are called a doxology, which means an expression of praise to God. The doxology was added to the prayer at about 100 A.D., and Protestants typically say these last lines together with the original prayer. When Catholics recite this prayer to themselves, they leave out this addition and end with "deliver us from evil."

Answer: Glory Be

Some Catholics call this prayer the "Glory Be to the Father" or just the "Glory Be". Some Catholics call it by its Latin name, the "Gloria Patri". Some call it the Minor Doxology or Lesser Doxology. A doxology is a short, hymn-like verse which exalts the glory of God, which is exactly what the Glory Be does!

The "world without end" phrase is an old-fashioned way of saying "forever and ever", and it comes from a less-than-perfect translation of the original Latin prayer. In fact, in the 1960s, the Church changed "and ever shall be, world without end" to "always will be forever", and that is what is used in public worship. But many people still use the older version privately, and some children are still taught this one, as it has a more poetic ring.

Answer: both of these

In Catholicism, angels are considered to be unseen spiritual beings, created by God. They are mentioned frequently in Scripture and used to serve his plans. St. Basil wrote, "Beside each believer stands an angel as protector and shepherd leading him to life", and this is quoted in the Catechism (the official teachings of the Catholic Church). So some children are taught this prayer, and they find comfort even as adults when they recite it.

Some Catholic children, however, are not taught this prayer, and that is all right, too. The word angel simply means "messenger." Therefore, the most basic role of an angel is to assist in whatever God wants to communicate. A Catholic need not imagine or even think of the angels, for they don't want our attention for themselves; rather, they want God to have all our attention. Catholics believe that they are already collaborating with the angels when they listen to what God teaches through the Church's doctrines, through what they experience at Mass, and through their reading of Scripture.

Answer: Act of Contrition

The word "contrition" means "sincere remorse for wrongdoing" or "repentance", so an "Act of Contrition" is the most logical choice among the four kinds of prayers!

There is actually more than one Act of Contrition suggested in the Rite of Penance, which is why one often hears "an Act of Contrition" rather than "the Act of Contrition". My parents learned a traditional one, that begins with "O my God, I am heartily sorry for having offended Thee". Here is a modern version taught in religious education, inspired by Psalm 51:

Lord have mercy on me:
Do not look upon my sins,
But take away all my guilt.
Create in me a clean heart,
And renew within me an upright spirit.
Amen.

Answer: The Jesus Prayer

Another name for this prayer is "Prayer of the Heart". In the past this prayer has been more associated with Orthodox rather than Catholic churches, but in the late 20th century it began to be more common among Byzantine Catholics and then later Roman Catholics and taught to children. (I didn't learn this one until I went on a teen religious retreat.) The Jesus prayer is discussed in the Catechism of the Catholic Church (in paragraphs 2665 through 2669). No one knows exactly who invented this prayer, but it most likely arose in the Thebaid, which is a desert region near Thebes, Egypt -- perhaps by a monk named Evagrius Ponticus.

Answer: The Prayer of St. Francis

The prayer was probably not written by St. Francis of Assisi (1182-1266), but by anonymous author who lived much later than the good friar, perhaps one Fr. Esther Becquerel of France. It is usually titled the "Prayer of St. Francis" anyway, though an alternate name is the "Peace Prayer" or "Make me an Instrument of Your Peace".

As a young man, St. Francis of Assisi heard visions of God, telling him to "repair my church". He gave away his wealth, lived a life of poverty, and founded the Order of Friars Minor, also known as the Franciscans. St. Francis is the patron saint of animals, the environment, and stowaways, and Pope Francis named himself after this popular saint.

A friar, by the way, is different from a monk. A friar (or brother) goes out in the world to serve, while a monk is cloistered, which is to say, he stays in one place, his home, his monastery.

In a hymn commonly sung at Mass, the word "instrument" is changed to "channel". But here is the full prayer:

"Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love.
Where there is injury, pardon.
Where there is doubt, faith.
Where there is despair, hope.
Where there is darkness, light.
Where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master,
grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled, as to console;
to be understood, as to understand;
to be loved, as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive.
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life."


[This prayer text is from JesuitResource.org]

Answer: Apostles' Creed

A creed is a formal statement of belief. Please note that it is "Apostles'" (plural possessive) and not "Apostle's" as it refers to all apostles (preachers, messengers, propagators) of Christ, not just one, which is what all Catholics are called to be!

The Apostles' Creed has an interesting history. It was developed in 5th-century Gaul (now France), from the shorter Old Roman Creed, which itself came from the Rule of Faith of the 2nd century. This Rule had expanded on the Great Commission in Matthew 28:16-20, in which Christ commands his followers to teach and baptize all nations in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

The form of the Creed developed from questions addressed to those seeking baptism the early centuries of Christianity: Do you believe in God? Do you believe in Jesus Christ? Do you believe in the Holy Spirit? And so on. The Church still uses the questioning form in the Rite of Baptism. A longer version, called the Nicene Creed, is used during the Mass, where it is called the "Profession of Faith".

The Apostles' Creed was originally written in Latin. Here is the English translation authorized by the Vatican since 2011:

I believe in God, the Father almighty,
creator of heaven and earth.
I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord.
He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit
and born of the Virgin Mary.
He suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died, and was buried.
He descended to the dead.
On the third day he rose again.
He ascended into heaven,
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy catholic Church,
the communion of the saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting. Amen.