The Book of Tobit tells the story of young Tobias, guided on his journey by the Archangel Raphael, and his marriage to Sarah, a woman who had known great sorrow. On their wedding night, before anything else, the couple rose and prayed together, praising God as Creator of man and woman and asking Him for mercy and a long life together. The Church has long used this passage at weddings. It is a beautiful prayer for engaged couples, newlyweds, and married couples renewing their

St. Blaise was a bishop of Sebaste in Armenia who was martyred around the year 316. A beloved story tells how, on the way to prison, he healed a boy who was choking on a fish bone. Ever since, Catholics have turned to him for protection against illnesses of the throat, and on his feast, February 3, priests bless throats with two crossed candles blessed the day before on Candlemas. The blessing words below are the traditional formula; the priest says them while holding the can

This prayer is the traditional collect from the Mass for rain in the Roman Missal. It opens with St. Paul's words to the Athenians, that in God "we live, and move, and are" (Acts 17:28), and asks for enough rain to sustain our temporal life, so that we may seek eternal life with greater confidence. Farmers and rural parishes have prayed it for centuries in times of drought, and it recalls the prophet Elijah, whose prayer brought rain after three years of dryness (1 Kings 18;

Most Catholics know grace before meals, but the tradition also includes a thanksgiving after eating. This extended form thanks God for all His benefits and then adds a brief prayer for the faithful departed, a beautiful custom that remembers the dead every time the family rises from the table. Grace after meals is a natural way to close a family dinner, especially on Sundays, feast days, and holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas. It helps children learn gratitude and keeps

This longer grace joins the familiar "Bless us, O Lord" with a second line drawn from the Church's traditional table blessings: "May the King of eternal glory make us partakers of the heavenly table." The addition lifts our thoughts from the food in front of us to the banquet of heaven, which Jesus often compared to a wedding feast. Monasteries and religious houses have used similar blessings at their meals for centuries. Use this form for Sunday dinners, feast days, holidays

Sleep is one of God's quiet gifts, and night can also be a time of worry, loneliness, or restlessness. For centuries the Church has ended the day with Night Prayer (Compline), asking God for a peaceful night and a perfect end. This prayer comes from that tradition: it is the closing collect that asks God to visit our home and let His holy angels dwell there. Pray it at bedtime, alone or as a family, after an examination of conscience. It is a good prayer for anyone who strugg

During Benediction, adore and ask blessing from Jesus in the monstrance. The Prayer O God, Who under a wonderful Sacrament hast left us a memorial of Thy Passion; grant us, we beseech Thee, so to venerate the sacred mysteries of Thy Body and Blood, that we may ever feel within us the fruit of Thy Redemption. Who livest and reignest forever and ever. Amen. Blessed be God. Blessed be His holy Name. Blessed be Jesus Christ, true God and true Man. Blessed be the Name of Jesus. Bl

After the meal, linger a moment to thank God and remember those who have gone before us. Gratitude after eating is as traditional as the blessing before it. This form also asks rest for the faithful departed—a quiet work of charity at every table. The Prayer We give Thee thanks, O Almighty God, for all Thy mercies. Who livest and reignest world without end. R. Amen. Vouchsafe, O Lord, to reward with eternal life all those who do us good for Thy name's sake. R. Amen. V. Let us

"Bless us, O Lord, and these Thy gifts" is the English form of the old Latin table blessing, Benedic, Domine, nos et haec tua dona. It is probably the most familiar Catholic grace, the words countless families have said around the kitchen table for generations. Giving thanks before eating follows the example of Jesus Himself, who looked up to heaven and blessed the loaves before feeding the multitude, and who took bread and gave thanks at the Last Supper. Begin with the Sign

The Sign of the Cross is the first prayer most Catholics learn and the one we say most often. With a single gesture we profess the two central mysteries of the faith: the Holy Trinity, in whose name we were baptized, and our redemption through the Cross of Christ. Christians have made it since the earliest centuries; around the year 200, Tertullian wrote that believers traced the cross on their foreheads at every step and at every daily task. Make it when you begin and end yo