Quick Catholic prayer?

Hail Mary is good. Protestants don't say that prayer.
Our Father, is also good.
An Act Of Contrition.

Catholics are the only religion that I know of that make the sign of the cross. He could just mumble... "Bless me Father"

A quick Hail Mary would work, though if it were in 1870, it'd be in Latin--Ave Maria.

The Glory Be prayer is also short, but less dramatic.

I'm not a Catholic, but I thought the sign of the cross was accompanied by the words "In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost." Puma

Puma said:

I'm not a Catholic, but I thought the sign of the cross was accompanied by the words "In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost." Puma

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Only in formal prayer during Mass, it's not required.

JamieFord said:

A quick Hail Mary would work, though if it were in 1870, it'd be in Latin--Ave Maria.

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Latin is key.

Puma said:

I'm not a Catholic, but I thought the sign of the cross was accompanied by the words "In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost." Puma

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It is really "Holy Ghost", not "Holy spirit"? I always confuse this...thought a ghost was the sort of thing you'd expect to see in a haunted house


Ave Maria in Latin...I am not sure whether a peasant would speak Latin...did they learn the prayers by heart?

Menyanthana said:

It is really "Holy Ghost", not "Holy spirit"? I always confuse this...thought a ghost was the sort of thing you'd expect to see in a haunted house


Ave Maria in Latin...I am not sure whether a peasant would speak Latin...did they learn the prayers by heart?

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Any Catholic, noble or peasant, would know their prayers in Latin in your time period. Mass would have been totally in Latin so although someone might not really know Latin, they would know Church latin. They would, however, also most likely know basic prayers in their native tongue

Holy Ghost was commonly used until recent years when Holy Spirit has become more common. I'm 46 and grew up with "Father, Son, and Holy Ghost".

Since I also speak German, here are some prayers in German that might be of use to you:

The Sign of the Cross)

Im Namen des Vaters+, und des Sohnes, und des Heiligen Geistes. Amen.



(Our Father)

Vater unser im Himmel,

geheiligt werde Dein Name,

Dein Reich komme,

Dein Wille geschehe, wie im Himmel, so auf Erden.

Unser tagliches Brot gib uns heute.

Und vergib uns unsere Schuld,

Wie auch wir vergeben unsern Schuldigern.

Und fuhre uns nicht in Versuchung,

sondern erlose uns von dem Bosen.



Denn Dein ist das Reich und die Kraft

Und die Herrlichkeit in Ewigkeit.

Amen.



(Glory to the Father)

Ehre sei dem Vater

und dem Sohn

und dem Heiligen Geist.

Wie im Anfang, so auch jetz und allezeit und in Ewigkeit.

Amen.



(Hail, Mary)

GegruBet seist du, Maria, voll der Gnade,

der Herr ist mit dir.

Du bist gebenedeit unter den Frauen,

und gebenedeit ist die Frucht deines Leibes, Jesus.

Heilige Maria, Mutter Gottes,

bitte fur uns Sunder

jetzt und in der Stunde unseres Todes.

Amen.

Menyanthana said:

It is really "Holy Ghost", not "Holy spirit"? I always confuse this...thought a ghost was the sort of thing you'd expect to see in a haunted house


Ave Maria in Latin...I am not sure whether a peasant would speak Latin...did they learn the prayers by heart?

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In Catholism it is the Holy Ghost. Used to scare me when I was little..

Joycecwilliams said:

In Catholism it is the Holy Ghost. Used to scare me when I was little..

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I'm Catholic too and the recent usage in my parish has shifted to "Holy Spirit" more often than not.

Joycecwilliams said:

Hail Mary is good. Protestants don't say that prayer.
Our Father, is also good.
An Act Of Contrition.

Catholics are the only religion that I know of that make the sign of the cross. He could just mumble... "Bless me Father"

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Anglicans, at least the traditional High Church ones, also make the sign of the cross. They also have certain Orders that are celebate, are called priests and addressed as "Father". They also have convents. My sister was a novice at one but she wasn't cut out for the life.

We used to call it the Holy Ghost which I thought was pretty cool when I was a little kid some how equating the Holy Ghost with Casper the Friendly Ghost!

All "Ave Maria" means is "Hail Mary" so he probably wouldn't just say that. He might, however, say something like "Holy Mother', or "Mary, help me." or "Virgin, intercede for me now".

Could be like my friend's mom, who never cursed, but would exclaim, "Judas Priest!!!" I thought it was funny growing up. It always made me think of Rob Halford, clad in leather singing "Breaking the Law".

A prayer? Or a religious swear?


"Jesus Mary and Joseph!"

Short phrases/prayers used to be indulgenced. Things like,

O God, be merciful to me, a sinner
My Jesus, mercy
Mother of love, of sorrow and of mercy, pray for us.

Looking at them you can see how shock shortens them into what some call blasphemy.

They might mutter a quick Hail Mary/Ave Maria. It's not a long prayer--you wouldn't need to write it all out. Here it is:

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 nostri. Amen.

The Hail Mary's a pretty recognizable Catholic staple. I could probably say one in five seconds flat.

(I just timed myself. Four seconds, counting the Amen.)

ETA: You don't have to say in the name of the father, son, and holy spirit (I'm a young'un), but it generally accompanies the sign of the cross before and after prayer.

Or, you could just have him cross himself without having to say the prayer. This would probably be an automatic reaction to something frightening or to possible bad news. Or anything, actually.

As far as a 'short prayer', Catholics can pray very, very fast.

There's also another prayer:

In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost,
As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be,
World without end. Amen.

However, I think a short Mary prayer would probably be good here.

Hail holy Queen would be another, less-obvious prayer.

For a one-liner, there's a line in one of Aleksandr Blok's poems where an Orthodox peasant mutters 'Holy Mother of the Intercession'. That's a quality divine invocation, I always think.

StephanieFox said:

There's also another prayer:

In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost,
As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be,
World without end. Amen.

.

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That's the Glory Be and this is how it actually goes:

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.

"In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit" is called "Sign of the Cross", used with the accompaning gesture.

Or as I originally learned it, "In nominae Patris, et Fille, et Spirtus Sancti" (Latin)

If you're looking for a very short phrase, I've heard elderly people (as in, even older than I am) cross themselves and mutter "Mater Dei!" (Mother of God!) when they were frightened.

If he's sacred/nervous, what about Psalm 23?

(cutting to the chase)

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil:
For thou art with me;
Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me.
Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies;
Thou annointest my head with oil;
My cup runneth over.


Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the House of the Lord forever.

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I always thought the spirit/ghost thing different from church to church. My girlfriend grew up Catholic and I think she says spirit.

I'd think just a muttering for protection would do, and for a Catholic it would most likely be given to Mary, although if you want to have fun with it, you could toss in a different saint depending on the situation. Uh, been a long time since I went to church, but I seem to remember that St. Christopher was the saint of lost things, St. Joseph protects the home, and there's, uh, others.

Siddow said:

I'd think just a muttering for protection would do, and for a Catholic it would most likely be given to Mary, although if you want to have fun with it, you could toss in a different saint depending on the situation. Uh, been a long time since I went to church, but I seem to remember that St. Christopher was the saint of lost things, St. Joseph protects the home, and there's, uh, others.

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There's a St. Florian who is the patron saint of fire fighters...easy to remember, because of the prayer: "O heiliger St. Florian verschon mein Haus, zünd andre an", translating to "O holy Saint Florian, spare my house, kindle others".

I am sure, one can have lots of fun with different saints for every situation.

Siddow said:

I'd think just a muttering for protection would do, and for a Catholic it would most likely be given to Mary, although if you want to have fun with it, you could toss in a different saint depending on the situation. Uh, been a long time since I went to church, but I seem to remember that St. Christopher was the saint of lost things, St. Joseph protects the home, and there's, uh, others.

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While Catholics revere Mary, we're just as likely to just call on the Lord or Jesus.

Or possibly as Siddow mentions, a patron saint. There are patron saints for almost every occasion and occupation and event.

St. Christopher isn't a "real" saint any more but people do still wear his medals. He was the patron saint of travelers and thus often of drivers. On my 16th birthday, my mom got me a St. Christopher medal.

Patron saint of lost things is St. Anthony of Padua (I know - I occasionally lose things)

Some of the patron saints can be found here:

http://www.americancatholic.org/Features/saints/patrons.asp