About Prayer Shelf

A shelf of traditional Christian prayers, kept in the words of the old prayer books.

The words

The prayers come from Catholic manuals such as the Raccolta and the Baltimore Manual of Prayers, the Book of Common Prayer, old hymnals and devotional booklets, and the Bible passages from the King James Version. Where the words people know today differ from the older ones, the older ones are kept: the St Michael prayer here asks him to be "our protection against the malice and snares of the devil". Every prayer names the book it comes from, and the source books can be read online.

Why some prayers are missing

A few well-loved prayers are newer and still under copyright, among them the Serenity Prayer, the Prayer of St Francis ("Make me an instrument of your peace"), the Divine Mercy chaplet and the popular St Jude novena, so they are not on the shelf.

Praying with the site

Read aloud uses the voice built into your phone or computer. Print card prints one prayer on its own, and large print makes the text bigger everywhere. Novenas remember your start date and the days you have prayed, on your device only (see privacy).