Devotion
How to Pray a Litany
The call-and-response prayer of invocations: the litanies approved for public use, how a leader and people pray them, how to pray one alone, and when.
Guides
Loading the latest published content…
Loading the latest published content…
How to pray & practice
Step-by-step guides to the Rosary, the Divine Mercy Chaplet, Confession, and the spiritual life — steps first, then each prayer in a dropdown.
Devotion
The call-and-response prayer of invocations: the litanies approved for public use, how a leader and people pray them, how to pray one alone, and when.
Devotion
The nine-day form of prayer: what it is, how to choose one, how to fix the days so they end on the feast, and the novenas the Church itself keeps.
Sacraments
Simple, sustainable prayer for spouses: starting small, a morning offering together, grace at meals, a decade of the Rosary at night, Mass and confession together, and renewing your vows.
Rosary
Praying the Rosary with a short verse of Scripture before each Hail Mary, the method Saint John Paul II recommends in Rosarium Virginis Mariae for turning repetition into meditation.
Adoration
The rite of Benediction as the Church celebrates it: exposition with the O Salutaris, a time of adoration, the Tantum Ergo, the versicle and prayer, the blessing with the monstrance, the Divine Praises and reposition.
Guide
Praying for the holy souls in purgatory: why the Church does it, the Eternal Rest and the psalms, having a Mass offered, All Souls' Day and the month of November, the cemetery indulgence, and enrolling the dead in a society of prayer.
Vocation
Praying for priests, deacons and religious as a family or a parish: why the Church asks it, a daily prayer for vocations, a holy hour for vocations, praying for a named priest, the World Day of Prayer for Vocations, and encouraging the young.
Family
The traditional blessings before and after eating, how to lead them at home, with children, in public, and on feast days.
Devotion
The three-times-daily prayer of the Incarnation: the three versicles with their Hail Marys, the closing collect, and the Regina Caeli that replaces it in Eastertide.
Chaplet
The Chaplet of Saint Michael the Archangel: nine salutations to the nine choirs of angels, each with an Our Father and three Hail Marys, four Our Fathers for the archangels and the guardian angel, and the closing prayer.
Chaplet
The Chaplet of the Holy Face of Jesus: thirty-three invocations of 'Arise, O Lord' on the small beads, grouped for the five senses of Christ in his Passion, with the Glory Be on the large beads, prayed in reparation.
Chaplet
The Chaplet of the Precious Blood: seven mysteries of the Blood of Christ, from the Circumcision to the piercing of his side, with thirty-three Our Fathers for the years of his earthly life.
Chaplet
The Servite Rosary of the Seven Sorrows of Our Lady: an Our Father and seven Hail Marys for each sorrow, three Hail Marys in honour of her tears, and the closing prayer.
Advent
The nine days before Christmas, 16 to 24 December: what the novena is and why the Church encourages it, choosing a form rooted in the liturgy, the daily pattern of Scripture, prayer and antiphon, confession within the nine days, and the Christmas Eve conclusion.
Chaplet
The Chaplet of Divine Mercy, prayed on ordinary rosary beads in about ten minutes: the opening prayers, the Eternal Father and For the sake of His sorrowful Passion, the Holy God, and the full closing prayer.
Chaplet
The seven-decade Franciscan Crown of the Seven Joys of Our Lady, from the Annunciation to her Assumption and Coronation, with the two extra Hail Marys that complete the seventy-two.
Rosary
Step by step through the Rosary on an ordinary five-decade rosary: the opening prayers, the five mysteries with their decades, and the closing prayers.
Liturgy of the Hours
Morning, Evening and Night Prayer with a breviary or an approved app: what the Hours are, how the four-week psalter works, and the order of each Hour.
Advent
The seven ancient antiphons sung before the Magnificat at Evening Prayer from 17 to 23 December, each calling on Christ by a title from Isaiah: what they are, one for each evening, and how to pray them with the Magnificat.
Rosary
The family Rosary: leader and response, a place for every child, and how to keep it short, faithful and kind enough to last.
Devotion
Walk with Christ from Pilate's judgment seat to the tomb: how to open, what to say and do at each of the fourteen stations, and how to close.
Sacraments
Prayers and presence at a deathbed when no priest is present: short prayers the dying person knows, the psalms, the Litany of the Saints, the Divine Mercy Chaplet, the commendation, and the prayers said after death.
Sacraments
The parish programme, how to teach the Real Presence simply, the first Confession that precedes First Communion, the one-hour Eucharistic fast, how to receive, the day itself, and keeping Sunday Mass afterward.
Advent
The season of waiting: what Advent is and how its two halves differ, the wreath, confession before Christmas, the Advent readings and the Immaculate Conception, fasting from the rush, the O Antiphons and Christmas Eve.
Sacraments
What Confirmation is and does, the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, the parish preparation, choosing a sponsor and a name, going to Confession beforehand, the rite itself (renewal of baptismal promises, laying on of hands, anointing with chrism), and living as a confirmed Catholic.
Lent
An overview of the forty days: what Lent is for, how to choose your prayer, fasting and almsgiving, the dates to mark, when to go to confession, and how to keep going after you fail.
Sacraments
From engagement to the wedding day: contacting the parish in good time, the marriage preparation program, the documents, mixed marriages and dispensations, choosing the form of the celebration, confession, the rehearsal and the vows.
OCIA
The night of initiation for the elect: the Holy Saturday preparation rites, fasting and rest, what to bring and wear, the service of light, the Liturgy of the Word, Baptism, Confirmation and first Communion, and the beginning of mystagogy.
Sacraments
The sacraments the Church gives to the dying — Penance, the Anointing of the Sick, and Viaticum, the last Holy Communion — with the apostolic pardon and the prayers of commendation, and how to arrange them in time.
Sacraments
Infant Baptism from the first phone call to the parish to the day itself: the preparation session, choosing godparents, the documents to bring, what happens in the rite, the promises you will make, and raising the child in the faith afterward.