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Two

Catholic Prayers

1. How to Pray the Sign of the Cross

There are three common ways of making the Sign of the Cross. The most prevalent one in personal devotion is known as the large cross. We begin by touching the forehead with the tip of the right hand. Then we proceed to the middle of the chest and finally to both shoulders, first the left and then the right. While making the Sign of the Cross we say,

In the name of the Father,

and of the Son,

and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

The second form is called the small cross. This is the most ancient form of the gesture. Here the thumb is used to trace a cross on the forehead. Today, this form is used in both Baptism and Confirmation. In Baptism, the minister, parents, and godparents all trace the Sign of the Cross on the child. In Confirmation, the bishop or priest traces the cross with the oil of chrism on the forehead of the recipient.

The third form is used in extending a blessing. In this formula, the priest or minister traces the Sign of the Cross in the air and prays over the person or object that is being blessed.

In current practice in the Western Church, the right hand is slightly cupped as the Sign of the Cross is made — though there are variations. In the fifth century, the Church was plagued by a heresy that claimed Christ had only one nature. Partly in reaction to this heresy, people began to make the large cross by using two fingers. This was a sign of their belief in the two natures of Christ. Sometime later, in the East, people began to use the thumb, index finger, and middle finger, pressed together at the fingertips, to make the hand movement. Those three fingers together symbolized the Trinity and Unity of God, while the two fingers folded against the palm of the hand symbolized the two natures of Jesus Christ, both divine and human. This practice is still prevalent in the Eastern Churches.

“Holy God, Holy Strong One, Holy Immortal One, have mercy on us.”

— Common Invocation of the Eastern Churches

You may on occasion see someone kiss his or her fingers after completing the Sign of the Cross. This is common in Hispanic cultures. If you look closely, you’ll notice that person is making a second Sign of the Cross by placing the thumb across the index finger. The kiss that ends the gesture is a sign of devotion to the cross.

The cross has been the symbol of Christians from the first centuries. As St. Paul says in his letter to the Galatians: “May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world” (6:14, NABRE). Making the Sign of the Cross proclaimed belief in the faith.

In the Book of Revelation, the sacred author states that the faithful will be recognized by the “seal of God upon their foreheads” (9:4). Some commentators have identified this with the Sign of the Cross. In earlier ages, this scriptural connection was more explicit, as the gesture was called the “sign of Christ” and the “seal of the living God.”

A Gesture That Helps Us

Sometimes, baseball players make the Sign of the Cross before stepping up to bat. Is this superstition, habit, devotion, or a silent prayer? Depending on the attitude of the person, it can be any of these.

The Sign of the Cross can remind us of who we are. Christ has redeemed us through the cross. His sacrifice has given us new life. That fact influences our approach to all aspects of life, from waking up to playing sports. So, to make a Sign of the Cross before beginning our prayer, work, or any aspect of our daily activity gives us perspective. It can draw our thoughts to center on the person we have become in Christ and the relationship that we have with God.

Spiritual writers speak of the Sign of the Cross as a source of strength in times of temptation and difficulties. This is not to be taken in a superstitious way. Rather, the act is a silent prayer by which we place ourselves under the protection of the triumphant cross of Christ.

Many people bracket their prayers with the Sign of the Cross. We begin to pray by this gesture that acknowledges that we belong to Christ and that we come into God’s presence through the redemptive grace of the cross. The same sign ends our prayers as we put on the shield of faith to go forth to live the Christian life in the world.

The Sign of the Cross

“Bless yourself with the Sign of the Cross, to chase away the fiend with all his devils. For, as Chrysostom says, whenever the devil sees the sign of the holy cross, he dreads it as the staff with which he is beaten. And in this blessing you begin with your hand at the head downward, and then to the left side and believe that our Lord Jesus Christ came down from the head, that is from the Father into earth by His holy incarnation, and from earth into the left side, that is hell, by His bitter Passion, and from thence into His Father’s right side by His glorious Ascension.”

— Twelfth-century instructions to Bridgettine Nuns of Sion

“In all our travels, in our coming and going out, in putting on our clothes and our shoes, at table, in going to rest, whatever employment occupies us, we mark our forehead with the Sign of the Cross.”

— Tertullian

“My son, mark all your actions with the sign of the life-giving cross. Do not go out from the door of your house till you have signed yourself with the cross. Do not neglect that sign whether in eating or drinking or going to sleep, or in the home or going on a journey. There is no habit to be compared with it. Let it be a protecting wall round all your conduct, and teach it to your children that they may earnestly learn the custom.”

— St. Ephrem of Syria

“Blessed is our God at all times, now and always and forever. Amen.”

— Byzantine invocation used when making the Sign of the Cross

2. How to Pray the Basic Prayers: Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory Be

Memorized formal prayers can play an important part in your spiritual life. Three prayers especially have been held in high esteem through Christian history, and so they merit our special attention as we begin to pray. We must remember that prayer is a “raising of the mind and heart to God.” Specific words, therefore, have a secondary place. The simple pronunciation of the name Jesus, when said with meaning and devotion, can be more prayerful than the recitation of a book of prayers, if they are said with lack of recollection and intention.

Still, forms can be quite useful. When the heart or mind desires to call out to God, whether in joy or in sorrow, in petition or in difficulty, we’ll often find it helpful to join our thoughts and affections to words. Here, memorized prayers, especially the three we are considering, can come in handy.

Moreover, repeating these prayers does not diminish their value. No one ever tires of hearing a loved one say, “I love you.” Any prayer said with devotion is pleasing to God.

The Our Father, Hail Mary, and Glory Be are often the first catechism for children. From these prayers, Catholics young and old learn basic elements of our faith and learn how to honor God. Yet there is a depth to these prayers that can continue to teach and encourage us, no matter our age or stage of spiritual development. These are prayers we never outgrow.

The Our Father

This is the prayer that our Lord taught His disciples when they asked Him to teach them how to pray (see Mt 6:9-13 and Lk 11:2-4). It is sometimes called the perfect prayer because it contains so much in so few words: adoration, praise, petition, contrition. Tertullian, an early Christian, identified the Lord’s Prayer as “the summary of the whole Gospel.” The Catechism of the Catholic Church presents a long exposition on this prayer (nn. 2761-2865). All of our prayer can be considered an outgrowth of this single prayer:

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.

Amen.

As we begin to pray the Lord’s Prayer, we should pause to consider that we are children speaking to a perfect Father — a Father who always provides, a Father who never ceases to love, a Father always ready and willing to teach and to help. In our hearts, we consciously look toward the Father as we pray, for we are not just speaking words to the wind but to a Person.

The prayer begins, then, with the petitions for the glory of God, the coming of His kingdom, and the fulfillment of His will. We can add our own praise and adoration as we speak these words. The next four petitions present our desires to God. We ask Him to provide for our needs. We ask for healing and forgiveness of our sins and for victory in our struggle against evil.

At the end of the prayer, many early Christians added the phrase “for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.” The prayer concludes with “Amen,” which means “So be it,” words that emphasize our acceptance of all the petitions of the Lord’s Prayer.

“Our Father, Who Art …”

“To know how to say the Our Father and to know how to put it into practice — this is the perfection of the Christian life.”

— Pope St. John XXIII

“The Lord’s Prayer is the most perfect of prayers…. In it we ask, not only for all the things we can rightly desire, but also in the sequence that they should be desired. This prayer not only teaches us to ask for things, but also in what order we should desire them.”

— St. Thomas Aquinas

The Hail Mary

This is another prayer that is both scriptural and theologically significant:

Hail Mary, full of grace,

the Lord is with thee;

blessed art thou among 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.

The first sentence of the prayer is the greeting of the angel Gabriel to Mary at the Annunciation (Lk 1:28). By joining our voices with that of the angel, we acknowledge God’s saving plan, give glory to Jesus (the God-man), and pay honor to Mary, who is the mother of Jesus and, by extension, is also our mother and the mother of the Church. Remember, after all, that Jesus, while dying on the cross, gave Mary to be a mother to His beloved disciple (Jn 19:26-27). We are all Jesus’ beloved disciples now, and so she is mother to us all.

As we pray the Hail Mary, we should look to this loving mother. Sometimes it helps if we pray before an image of her. We can silently recall Mary’s response to the message of the Annunciation: “Let it be to me according to your word” (Lk 1:38). This can be our prayer along with her. As she accepted God’s will in her life, we pray with her and to her for the grace to yield willingly to God’s plan for our lives.

In the second half of the prayer, we place ourselves in the loving hands of our mother and ask for her intercession that we may triumph over sin and remain faithful to God, so that one day we may join her before the throne of the risen Christ.

“Full of Grace”

“By asking Mary to pray for us, we acknowledge ourselves to be poor sinners and we address ourselves to the ‘Mother of Mercy,’ the All-Holy One. We give ourselves over to her now, in the Today of our lives. And our trust broadens further, already at the present moment, to surrender ‘the hour of our death’ wholly to her care. May she be there as she was at her son’s death on the cross. May she welcome us as our mother at the hour of our passing (cf. Jn 19:27) to lead us to her son, Jesus, in paradise.”

— CCC, n. 2677

“By each Hail Mary we give our Lady the same honor that God gave her when He sent the angel Gabriel to greet her for Him.”

— From The Secret of the Rosary,

by St. Louis de Montfort

The Glory Be

So many of our prayers contain petitions and requests. The Glory Be is a short prayer in which we seek only to give glory to God as we proclaim the great mystery of the Trinity:

Glory be to the Father,

and to the Son,

and to the Holy Spirit.

As it was in the beginning,

is now, and ever shall be,

world without end.

Amen.

This simple prayer proclaims that God is one, and yet God is three Persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This is the most foundational truth of the Christian faith. The phrase “world without end” is an old-fashioned way of saying “forever.” Our God, one in three, is eternal and unchanging.

“The faith of all Christians rests on the Trinity.”

— St. Caesarius of Arles

Father, Son, and Holy Spirit

“The mystery of the Most Holy Trinity is the central mystery of Christian faith and life. It is the mystery of God in himself. It is therefore the source of all the other mysteries of faith, the light that enlightens them.”

— CCC, n. 234

3. How to Make a Morning Offering

The Catechism of the Catholic Church tells us, “The Tradition of the Church proposes to the faithful certain rhythms of praying intended to nourish continual prayer. Some are daily, such as morning and evening…. [These] are also basic rhythms of the Christian’s life of prayer” (n. 2698). As they rise from bed, many people will make the Sign of the Cross and recite a prayer that gives the day to our Lord. This action testifies to the fact we are the Lord’s and that we begin everything in and through Him.

In 1844, Jesuit Father Francois Xavier Gaulrelet penned a prayer that is still used to this day. The prayer is the Morning Offering to the Sacred Heart of Jesus:

O Jesus, through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I offer you my prayers, works, joys, and sufferings of this day for all the intentions of your Sacred Heart, in union with the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass throughout the world, in reparation for my sins, for the intentions of all my relatives and friends, and in particular for the intentions of our Holy Father. Amen.

The tradition of offering our day to God is an ancient practice, but Father Gaulrelet’s prayer formalized that intention in a memorable (and easily memorized) way. Through this prayer, we join our plea to the Eucharistic prayer of each Mass. The Mass is the liturgical re-presentation of the loving sacrifice of Jesus on Calvary. We, by the Morning Offering, unite our thoughts and actions to that one eternal sacrifice. This union grants rich meaning and value to every aspect of our day. In the Morning Offering, we also ask the intercession of our mother, Mary, as we pray through her Immaculate Heart. Our prayers are united with those of millions of Catholics all over the world who offer the same intention of prayer every morning.

Pope St. John Paul II said that the Morning Offering is “of fundamental importance in the life of each and every one of the faithful.” In the box on page 32 is a quote from Jesuit Father Walter Ciszek, who for years was jailed in communist prison camps. He had very little control over the outer aspects of his life. His daily sufferings often included torture and deprivation of food and water. Yet he lived by his Morning Offering and accepted everything from God’s hand, and he offered it all together with the suffering of Jesus. Communism has come and gone in Russia, but surely the holy offering of Father Ciszek still brings grace to the land.

Our Prayer United With the Vicar of Christ

The Morning Offering includes the intentions of our bishops and especially the intentions of the Holy Father as part of the prayer. The burdens carried by the Holy Father and the bishops are great. The faithful have an obligation to pray for them regularly. A good practice is to pray, each morning, specifically for the pope and the bishop of your diocese. Many people say an Our Father, Hail Mary, and Glory Be with the specific intention of the needs of the pope, and then pray another set specifically for their bishop.

Morning prayers can also be offered privately while preparing for the day (while shaving, bathing, fixing hair, and so on). Yet there is great advantage to saying at least some morning prayer, perhaps the Morning Offering, as a family. It sets the tone not only for the individual but also for the family. By so doing, we unite our corporate family life under the Lordship and merciful heart of Christ.

Get a Good Start

“The simple soul who each day makes a Morning Offering of ‘all the prayers, works, joys, and sufferings of this day’ — and who then acts upon it by accepting unquestioningly and responding lovingly to all the situations of the day as truly sent by God — has perceived with an almost childlike faith the profound truth about the will of God. The plain and simple truth is that His will is what He actually wills to send us each day, in the way of circumstances, places, people, and problems. The trick is to see that … every day.”

— from He Leadeth Me, by Father Walter J. Ciszek, S.J.

“Their work, prayers, and apostolic endeavors, their ordinary married and family life, their daily labor, their mental and physical relaxation … all these become spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. During the celebration of the Eucharist these sacrifices are most lovingly offered to the Father along with the Lord’s body. Thus as worshipers whose deed is holy, the lay faithful consecrate the world itself to God.”

— Dogmatic Constitution on the Church (Lumen Gentium), n. 34

Here is an alternate Morning Offering:

Most Holy and Adorable Trinity, one God in three Persons, I praise you and give you thanks for all the favors you have bestowed on me. Your goodness has preserved me until now. I offer you my whole being and in particular all my thoughts, words, and deeds, together with all the trials I may undergo today. Give them your blessing. May your divine Love animate them, and may they serve your greater glory. I make this Morning Offering in union with the divine intentions of Jesus Christ, who offers himself daily in the Sacrifice of the Mass and in union with Mary, his Virgin Mother and our Mother, who was always the faithful handmaid of the Lord.

4. How to Pray at Mealtimes

There is something special about sharing a meal. It is often a moment of peace in a hectic day, drawing together those who share in it.

Whenever we eat, whether alone or together, we want to acknowledge that God is present and ask Him to bless our food and those who partake of it. After everyone is comfortably settled at table, the prayer begins with the Sign of the Cross. The traditional mealtime prayer, often called Grace, is:

Bless us, O Lord, and these your gifts,

which we are about to receive from your bounty,

through Christ our Lord. Amen.

A Sign of the Cross normally ends the prayer.

One added value to this practice is that it helps us acknowledge God’s presence in all the aspects of our daily lives. It creates a sense of thankfulness and of the presence of God. Scripture directs us: “Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do everything for the glory of God” (1 Cor 10:31, NABRE).

Food nourishes our bodies, and it also reminds us that Jesus nourishes us spiritually through the gift of Himself in the Eucharist. He chose to make a family meal the central sacrament, the source and summit, of the Christian faith. Our moment of prayer at mealtime is an acknowledgment that, as our ordinary meal will eliminate our bodily hunger, we long for Jesus to satisfy our spiritual hunger through the Eucharist.

A Teachable Moment

The blessing before meals is a great teaching opportunity with children. They will learn both the prayer and the Sign of the Cross. They will also learn that faith in God is an important part of family identity. It is important to be consistent so that children realize: “As a Catholic family, we begin our meals with prayer.” Your meals ought to begin with Grace not only when your gathering includes just the family but also when you have company for dinner or when you’re eating at a restaurant.

Blessings at Meals

“Lord Jesus Christ, may our Lenten fasting turn us toward all our brothers and sisters who are in need. Bless this table, our good food, and ourselves. Send us through Lent with good cheer, and bring us to the fullness of your passover. Amen.”

— Meal Prayer for Lent

(from Catholic Household Blessings & Prayers)

“We joyfully sing your praises, Lord Jesus Christ, who on the day of your resurrection was recognized by your disciples in the breaking of the bread. Remain here with us as we gratefully partake of the gifts, and at the banquet table in heaven welcome us, who have welcomed you in our brothers and sisters, for you live and reign forever and ever. Amen.”

— Meal Prayer for Easter (from Catholic Household Blessings & Prayers)

5. How to Make an Act of Faith

Objectively, the word faith refers to the truths revealed by God in the Scriptures and through Tradition as preserved and handed on by the Church. That’s what we mean when we speak of the Catholic faith. Subjectively, faith is one of the three theological virtues, which also include hope and love. Faith, in this sense, is the virtue by which we accept what has been revealed by God. That’s what it means to say, “I have faith.”

To make an act of faith, then, is to recite a prayer that expresses your personal acceptance of all that the Lord has revealed to be true. This is something we all should do often, perhaps weekly or even daily if we feel the need. The traditional Act of Faith is:

O my God, I firmly believe that you are one God in three divine Persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; I believe that your divine Son became man and died for our sins, and that he will come to judge the living and the dead. I believe these and all the truths which the Holy Catholic Church teaches, because you have revealed them, who can neither deceive nor be deceived.

Faith is primarily a divine gift. When Peter made his profession of faith that Jesus is the Christ, Jesus said: “Flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven” (Mt 16:17). Apart from the action of God, faith is impossible for humanity. However, the Holy Spirit supernaturally bestows the gift of faith upon us. The Holy Spirit not only gives the gift; He also works in our will through grace so that we may respond.

“Faith is to believe what you do not see; the reward of this faith is to see what you believe.”

— St. Augustine

This points to the other aspect of faith: God gives the gift, but we must reply. It’s as if a friend gave you a new article of clothing. It does you no good unless you accept it and wear it. The gift of faith is free; we only need to put it on — and the Holy Spirit even helps us to get dressed!

The Catechism of the Catholic Church goes right to the point: “Believing is possible only by grace and the interior helps of the Holy Spirit. But it is no less true that believing is an authentically human act…. In faith, the human intellect and will cooperate with divine grace” (nn. 154-155). The act of faith, then, is a personal act by which we freely respond to the initiative of God.

Yet if we have made an initial profession of faith, why do we need to continue reciting creeds and praying the formal prayer called the Act of Faith? One reason is that our personal “yes” to God — our acceptance of His gift — is not merely a one-time event. Responding to faith is a constant, daily part of our Christian life. As we continue to actively receive the gift, God continues to give the gift to us. Our spiritual wardrobe gets filled with faith gifts as we continue to respond.

Also, faith needs to grow in understanding. St. Augustine wrote that “understanding is the reward of faith.” As we make statements of faith in prayer and meditate upon these truths, our intellect will come to embrace the truth more fully. We must remember, after all, that our faith is not primarily in statements and decrees, but in God. We believe in the Fatherhood of God, not as something dry and sterile, but rather as a lived reality that makes a profound difference in our lives. Belief that God is our Father changes our view of ourselves and of others. It affects how we relate to others and how we deal with difficulties. To pray and meditate about our faith allows us to grow in our understanding of the truth and in our love with the giver of truth.

Stepping Out in Faith

Most people will endure times when they struggle with faith. That is not unusual. Yet our struggles can lead us closer to God if we step up to Him from the foundation of the faith He has given us. The Gospel gives us a good illustration of this principle in the story of a man whose son was possessed by a devil (Mk 9:14-29). The man brought the boy to the disciples of Jesus with the request that they heal the boy, but the disciples were unable to do so. By the time Jesus joined the group, the father seemed to have been struggling with faith that Jesus could actually heal the boy. He even qualifies his request: “If you can do anything … help us.” Jesus responded by telling the father: “All things are possible to him who believes.” The father then responds with both a statement of faith and a prayer for the strengthening of that faith: “I believe; help my unbelief!”

We can follow the same pattern. When we struggle with some issue of faith, we can begin with a statement of faith. “Lord, I believe in You, in Your word, in Your church, and in Your love for me.” We then can ask for God’s grace in our struggles. “Lord, help my unbelief!”

Lord, I Believe in You

“But you, beloved, who possess this faith, or who have begun now newly to have it, let it be nourished and increase in you. For as things temporal have come, so long before foretold, so will things eternal also come, which are promised.”

— St. Augustine

“Having faith in the Lord is not something that solely involves our intelligence, the area of intellectual knowledge; rather, it is a change that involves our life, our whole self…. With faith everything truly changes, in us and for us, and our future destiny is clearly revealed … the meaning of life, the pleasure of being pilgrims bound for the heavenly Homeland.”

— Pope Benedict XVI

“If we Christians really lived in accordance with our faith, the greatest revolution of all times would take place. The effectiveness of our co-redemption depends on each one of us. You should meditate on this.”

— St. Josemaría Escrivá

6. How to Make an Act of Hope

“I sure hope I win the lottery!” Well, hitting the jackpot may or may not be a good thing. And that statement is at best wishful thinking. It certainly has nothing to do with the theological virtue of hope.

The virtue of hope is given to us at Baptism. Unlike the lottery, it is a sure bet. Hope is based on certainty because it is founded on Christ and on His promises. Do you want eternal life? No problem; Christ has overcome sin and death and provides a channel for relationship with the Father. Do you want truth? Christ has revealed the mind and heart of God. He has given the Holy Spirit to guide you in the ways of truth. Maybe you’d like to hit the jackpot and find both meaning and love. Well, as a baptized Christian, you hold the winning ticket. Christ has loved you first and granted you His sanctifying grace. You are on a path that leads to the ultimate prize: life eternal in Christ.

To make an act of hope, then, is to set your sight firmly on the goal, knowing in your heart that God will take you there, and asking Him to speed you along the way. Praying these prayers can help you to gain endurance, realistic optimism, and strength to go on. The traditional Act of Hope prayer is:

O my God, relying on your almighty power and infinite mercy and promises, I hope to obtain pardon for my sins, the help of your grace, and life everlasting, through the merits of Jesus Christ, my Lord and Redeemer.

You may want to say at this point: “If God freely gives me everything, what is hope about?” The lottery comparison can still help. You might have the winning ticket, but even that is useless if you neglect to cash it in. And if you lose that ticket — through your own carelessness — you forfeit the prize.

Our hope is sure because Jesus is fully trustworthy. Still, you and I are the other side of the hope equation. Through carelessness or bad will, we can fail to respond to God. We can reject the mercy of God and live only for ourselves. We can even be tempted to the sin of despair, totally rejecting hope in God’s love and power to save us. Then we’ve lost our ticket.

The virtue of hope is given freely to us at Baptism. But we cannot let it lie dormant. We must consciously live this virtue by actively placing our trust in God. Continual acts of trust strengthen our inner conviction that God loves us and provides for us. This conviction then leads us to rely more on God’s promise. Thus, hope is a virtue that can continue to put down deeper roots and bloom more beautiful flowers in our lives. To use another analogy: a muscle never used is still a muscle, but a muscle that is exercised has real power to work. Hope grows and becomes a greater influence in our lives as we exercise our trust in God — as we make acts of hope a vital part of our prayer.

Christian hope is the basis of joy and realistic optimism. Even when we are in difficult situations, hope assures us that we rest in God’s hands. We find solace knowing that He loves us and allows even suffering for our good. Christian hope gives us a perspective that goes beyond our immediate circumstances and allows us to see the horizon.

“My whole hope is nowhere but in Your exceeding great mercy.”

— St. Augustine

Building upon Hope

Through [Jesus Christ] we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in our hope of sharing the glory of God. More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. (Rom 5:2-5)

Here St. Paul shows us how hope develops in our lives. We start from a basis of hope founded in grace, and we anticipate “sharing the glory of God.” When suffering comes into our lives, Paul tells us to “rejoice” in the suffering. It’s not that suffering is pleasant, but that suffering accepted with hope and trust can lead us somewhere — to a share in the glory of God. Suffering can also foster our strength and endurance. Endurance, in turn, allows us to better handle other difficulties that come our way. Over time, that virtue becomes so rooted in our lives that it becomes a character trait that allows us to see life from the perspective of eternity. That’s hope.

If we struggle with a negative attitude and are prone to lack trust, there are many helps available to us. For example, we can read the lives of the saints. Many of them went through trials, but through all, they hoped and trusted in God. Their example can motivate us to greater trust. Whenever we find ourselves slipping into negativity, we can also consciously make an act of hope, in our own words or in the words of the traditional prayer. When we actively speak words of trust and hope, our feelings are more likely to catch up.

Our Hope is Sure

“[Christ] has now reconciled [you] in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and irreproachable before him, provided that you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the Gospel which you heard.”

— Colossians 1:22-23

“When the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of deeds done by us in righteousness, but in virtue of his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal in the Holy Spirit, which he poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that we might be justified by his grace and become heirs in hope of eternal life.”

— Titus 3:4-7

“Man’s great, true hope which holds firm in spite of all disappointments can only be God — God who has loved us and who continues to love us ‘to the end,’ until all ‘is accomplished’ (cf. Jn 13:1 and 19:30).”

— Pope Benedict XVI, Saved in Hope (Spe Salvi), n. 27

7. How to Make an Act of Charity (Love)

Charity, or love, is the most important gift God gives us at Baptism. Without divine love, which is His very life, we could never love as God requires us to love. For we must love perfectly, as He does.

Still, we have the responsibility to exercise the gift of divine love, through our life and our works, but also through prayers that explicitly express our love. Tradition calls these prayers Acts of Charity or Acts of Love. Here is the most popular form of this prayer:

O my God, I love you above all things, with my whole heart and soul, because you are all good and worthy of all love. I love my neighbor as myself for the love of you. I forgive all who have injured me and ask pardon of all whom I have injured.

The first object of our love must be God himself. We are called to love God above everything else — with our whole heart, mind, and soul. Love of God is called the queen of all virtues. All other virtues lead us toward God; only love unites us to God. And from divine love spring all other virtues.

How do we love God? First, by avoiding sin. When we love someone, we avoid doing things that displease our beloved. But more than that, we strive to do things that please that person. In the same way, we also show our love for God by keeping His commandments and doing good works.

Yet love of God is not all that is required of us. We must also love our neighbor, meaning everyone we meet — not only those who love us and do good to us. God asks us to love as He loves, and His love reaches out to everyone (see the Catechism of the Catholic Church, n. 1825). We love our neighbor not because she is a likable person, because she is similar to us, or because we get along well with her. We love our neighbor because God loves our neighbor and calls us to do the same.

“Love, and love alone, is the heritage and heart, motive and mainspring in the life of the Church.”

— St. Francis de Sales

We are to be a channel, an instrument, of God’s love to every neighbor. If we love others with the love of God, we bless them with a supernatural love. The Holy Spirit can work through us to embrace them with the love of God.

Isn’t it impossible to love everybody? Yes, it’s impossible for human beings, but all things are possible with God. Living divine love, activating the gift of Baptism, requires effort on our part. Sometimes it’s not easy to love with God’s love; we have to work at it. After all, some of those people included in “everybody” are people we don’t particularly like — and perhaps even people whom we want to hate.

How do we love someone who has injured a member of our family? How do we love those who wish evil upon us? We do it only by God’s grace. Divine love does not rely upon our emotions. It involves an act of our will. We have to say: “Out of love of God, I choose to love this person.” That’s one kind of act of love.

Sometimes on the news we see victims of crime who have forgiven the criminals who caused them to suffer — wounded them, stole from them, slandered them, defrauded them. Non-believers cannot comprehend how such forgiveness is possible. The natural human instinct seems to be revenge. Yet that is why Christian love is so powerful — it is so radically opposed to our angry instincts that it must have its roots in God. Throughout history, unconditional Christian love has inspired the conversion of many, including onetime murderers, persecutors, and torturers.

“He who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.”

— 1 John 4:16

We normally don’t wake up one day and perform some extraordinary act of love and sacrifice. We grow in love. Small acts of love open us to God’s grace and to greater acts of love. A smile, a helping hand, an encouraging word — all these activate God’s love in us. All these are acts of love.

If imitation is the greatest form of praise, then we truly praise God when we love as He would love. Jesus died for sinners — those who rejected Him. We lay down our lives so that the love of God may reach our neighbor.

Charity

Sometimes it’s prudent to abandon the use of an older term for one that’s more understandable to a new generation. For example, few people today use thee and thy in everyday speech and, accordingly, they substitute you and your in their prayers. But sometimes there is value in retaining an older word. There is a good argument for maintaining the traditional word charity rather than using the readily recognized word love. Ask people the meaning of love, and their working definition probably won’t mention God. Even dictionary definitions can fall far short of the Christian meaning.

So perhaps charity still serves us best. There is at least one dictionary’s definition of charity that includes “virtue” in one of the meanings: “The theological virtue defined as love directed first toward God but also toward oneself and one’s neighbors as objects of God’s love” (American Heritage Dictionary, 2015).

“Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.”

— Luke 6:27-28 (NABRE)

Abide in Love

“Acts of love … are the fuel with which the fire of divine love is kept burning in our hearts.”

— St. Alphonsus Liguori

“If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen.”

— 1 John 4:20

“It’s impossible to measure the love of God: it is without measure! And so we become capable of loving even those who do not love us: and this is not easy.”

— Pope Francis

“Love consists not in the extent of our happiness, but in the firmness of our determination to try to please God in everything, and to endeavor in all possible ways not to offend Him, and to pray Him ever to advance the honor and glory of His Son and the growth of the Catholic Church.”

— St. Teresa of Ávila

“Man’s love for God owes its origin, growth, and perfection to God’s eternal love for man…. Everything we have is God’s gift to us — above all, the supernatural blessings of charity. If they are ours by gift, why boast about them?”

— St. Francis de Sales

[Our Lord said to His disciples,] “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; even as I have loved you.”

— John 13:34

“No one should think that he observes this law [of charity] because he loves his neighbor. For he who loves others, but not for God’s sake, has not charity, even though he may think he has. True charity lies in loving our friend with and in God, and our enemy for God’s sake. He loves for God’s sake who loves even those by whom he is not loved.”

— Pope St. Gregory the Great

“Love is itself the fulfillment of all our works. There is the goal; that is why we run: we run toward it, and once we reach it, in it we shall find rest.”

— St. Augustine

8. How to Pray the Jesus Prayer

St. Paul tells us to “continue steadfastly in prayer” (Col 4:2; see 1 Thess 5:17) and to “be constant in prayer” (Rom 12:12). The Jesus Prayer is an ancient practice that aims to make prayer as regular and as constant as our breathing:

Lord Jesus Christ,

Son of God,

have mercy on me, a sinner.

This is the Jesus Prayer. It is intentionally short, so that it can be uttered in one breath, and can be uttered continuously, once with each breath. Its regular recitation ushers us into God’s presence.

A longstanding tradition in the Eastern Churches, the Jesus Prayer is also called the prayer of the heart. It provides a means of concentration, a point of focus for the inner life. Although the prayer is short, it is packed with meaning. It acknowledges Jesus as Lord, Savior, Messiah, God, and Son of the Father. It acknowledges that we stand as sinners before God, and that we seek His mercy.

A related Eastern tradition is the prayer of the name of Jesus. In biblical times, a person’s name had a sacred character. Note how often God changed people’s names based on the relationship they had with Him. Abram became Abraham; Jacob received the name Israel; and Saul, in the New Testament, became Paul.

God’s name was particularly sacred. God revealed himself to Moses as “I am.” As the names of the patriarchs revealed God’s relationship to them, so God’s name showed both His own nature and His relationship to the Israelites. “I am” was the one who lived eternally, and “I am” was the one relating to Moses and His people. God’s name was so revered that the devout Jew would neither write the name nor say it.

“Whatever you ask in my name, I will do it, that the Father may be glorified in the Son; if you ask anything in my name, I will do it.”

—John 14:13-14

In the New Testament, the name of Jesus was identified with His person and His power. Devils are cast out by the name of Jesus (Lk 10:17), and cures are worked by the power of the name (Acts 3). Christians were people of the name — followers of Christ. To invoke the name of Jesus was possible because of the relationship between Christ and His disciples. In saying “Jesus,” the disciple tapped into all that the name meant — Savior, King, Lord, Provider, and so on.

Because the Jesus Prayer focuses on the name of Jesus, the devout recitation of the prayer touches the depth of the relationship and power of the person behind that name, Jesus.

The Jesus Prayer is normally said slowly and in rhythm with one’s breathing. The person focuses on Jesus Christ while the words provide an entrance to prayer.

The Jesus Prayer is helpful always, but especially when there is tension and anxiety in life. The method itself has a natural calming effect. The Savior’s name brings comfort when, perhaps, it is difficult for us to find words. At the same time, Jesus hears our prayers and brings the supernatural peace that surpasses understanding.

Have Mercy on Me

“Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

— Philippians 2:9-11

“And a man lame from birth was being carried, whom they laid daily at that gate of the temple which is called Beautiful to ask alms of those who entered the temple. Seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, he asked for alms. And Peter directed his gaze at him, with John, and said, ‘Look at us.’ And he fixed his attention upon them, expecting to receive something from them. But Peter said, ‘I have no silver and gold, but I give you what I have; in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise and walk.’ And he took him by the right hand and raised him up; and immediately his feet and ankles were made strong.”

— Acts 3:2-7

“The invocation of the holy name of Jesus is the simplest way of praying always. When the holy name is repeated often by a humbly attentive heart, the prayer is not lost by heaping up empty phrases (cf. Mt 6:7), but holds fast to the word and ‘brings forth fruit with patience’ (cf. Lk 8:15). This prayer is possible ‘at all times’ because it is not one occupation among others but the only occupation: that of loving God, which animates and transfigures every action in Christ Jesus.”

— CCC, n. 2668

“And as he entered a village, he was met by ten lepers, who stood at a distance and lifted up their voices and said, ‘Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.’”

— Luke 17:12-13