About this collection
What this is
Christian-Prayers.com is a collection of 98 traditional Christian prayers from the Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican, Protestant, and ecumenical traditions. Each prayer is presented with its full text, the historical context behind it, when and how it is said, the variants that exist across traditions, and a citation to the primary source from which the text is drawn.
The collection covers the prayers that have shaped Christian worship across two millennia: the Lord's Prayer, the Hail Mary, the Nicene Creed, the Jesus Prayer, the collects of the Book of Common Prayer, the prayers of Martin Luther and John Calvin, the Lenten Prayer of St. Ephrem, the seven Penitential Psalms, and the prayers of the Christian year.
Who edits this
This collection is curated by LJ Marsden, editor of Christian-Prayers.com, working from verified primary public-domain sources. Each prayer is reviewed against its source before being published and is re-reviewed when any change to the text is made. Where prayers exist in multiple forms across traditions, each form is documented separately with its tradition, its date, and a brief note on which Christians use which version.
Editorial standards
We follow five editorial standards in compiling this collection.
- We use the earliest broadly-accepted public-domain English text of each prayer. Where multiple translations exist, we choose the form most commonly used in worship in the tradition that uses it.
- We document every variant of every prayer that exists across traditions. Where a prayer is said differently by Catholics and Protestants, or by Anglicans and Methodists, each version is listed with its tradition and its date.
- We do not paraphrase or modernize prayer texts. The words on each page are the words as they appear in the source we cite. Where archaic spelling or punctuation might confuse a reader, we preserve the original and clarify in the notes.
- We cite the primary source on every prayer. Where possible we link directly to a publicly-available scan, usually on archive.org.
- We correct errors. If a prayer text on this site differs from the text in your prayer book or liturgical edition, send the prayer name, the difference, and your source to hello@christian-prayers.com. We will check and correct within seven days.
Who it's for
Anyone who wants to read, study, or pray the words that Christians have prayed for generations. Students of theology and liturgy. Pastors and clergy preparing services. Families looking for a prayer for a wedding, a funeral, a newborn, or a meal. People in moments of difficulty looking for a familiar prayer. People who don't pray but want to know what these words say.
No accounts, no ads, no tracking beyond basic analytics. Just the prayers.
Why we built it
Because accurate Christian prayer texts are surprisingly hard to find online. Different websites give different versions of the same prayer with no explanation of which is correct or where the variants come from. We wanted a single collection that does the work of sourcing each prayer carefully, presenting each variant honestly, and trusting the reader to use what they need.