How to begin to pray in Latin.

PATER NOSTER, qui es in caelis, sanctificetur nomen tuum. Adveniat regnum tuum. Fiat voluntas tua, sicut in caelo et in terra. Panem nostrum quotidianum da nobis hodie, et dimitte nobis debita nostra sicut et nos dimittimus debitoribus nostris. Et ne nos inducas in tentationem, sed libera nos a malo. Amen.


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.



This prayer was given to us by our Lord Jesus Christ Himself when the apostles asked Him to teach them how to pray (Mt 6:9-13) and thus the prayer has been a part of the Church since the very beginning. The Didache (1st-2nd century) commends the prayer to be recited by the faithful three times during the day. In the latter part of the 4th century it became an official part of the Mass and was recited after the breaking of the bread. Later, Pope St. Gregory the Great, influenced by St. Augustine, moved it to just before the breaking of the bread where it has been ever since. Today, the Didache's tradition of reciting the prayer thrice daily continues in the Church with the Lord's Prayer being recited at Mass and then twice more during the Liturgy of the Hours, at Lauds and Vespers.

Prior to the Protestant Reformation, the Our Father was universally recited in Latin in the West by clergy and laity alike. The rather curious English translation we have today is due to Henry VIII's efforts to impose a standard English version across his realm. Catholics, not wishing to be overly conspicuous in a place very hostile to the Catholic Church at the time, adopted the translation in order to remain inconspicuous.


AVE MARIA, gratia plena, Dominus tecum. Benedicta tu in mulieribus, et benedictus fructus ventris tui, Iesus. Sancta Maria, Mater Dei, ora pro nobis peccatoribus, nunc, et in hora mortis nostrae. Amen.

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 in the hour of our death. Amen.

The Ave Maria is perhaps the most popular of all the Marian prayers. It is composed of two distinct parts, a Scriptural part and an intercessory part. The first part, the Scriptural part, is taken from the Gospel of St. Luke and joins together the words of the Angel Gabriel at the Annunciation (Lk 1:28) together with Elizabeth's greeting to Mary at the Visitation (Luke 1:42). The joining of these two passages can be found as early as the fifth, and perhaps even the fourth, century in the eastern liturgies of St. James of Antioch and St. Mark of Alexandria. It is also recorded in the ritual of St. Severus (538 AD). In the west it was in use in Rome by the 7th century for it is prescribed as an offertory antiphon for the feast of the Annunciation. The great popularity of the phrase by the 11th century is attested to in the writings of St. Peter Damian (1007-1072) and Hermann of Tournai (d.c. 1147). Later, probably by Pope Urban IV around the year 1262, Jesus' name was inserted at the end of the two passages.

The second half of the prayer (Holy Mary..) can be traced back to the 15th century where two endings are found. One ending, Sancta Maria, Mater Dei, ora pro nobis peccatoribus, is found in the writings of St. Bernardine of Siena (1380-1444 AD) and the Carthusians. A second ending, Sancta Maria, Mater Dei, ora pro nobis nunc et in hora mortis nostrae, can be found in the writings of the Servites, in a Roman Breviary, and in some German Dioceses. The current form of the prayer became the standard form sometime in the 16th century and was included in the reformed Breviary promulgated by Pope St. Pius V in 1568

Please visit this site for other prayers in Latin and English.

http://www.preces-latinae.org/index.htm