Why are we as a Church observing this Year of Faith? Pope Benedict XVI, at the start of this year, said that the world has become like a "spiritual desert," a place where the awareness of God has been largely lost.

In this desert where God is so often forgotten, the Pope is calling each of us to grow in our faith in God. In a world that has lost God, the Pope is also calling each of us to joyfully bear witness to others that there is a God who loves us and has saved us.

At the heart of our efforts in this year must be prayer.

The prayers listed on this page are an example and suggested way of taking part in the Year of Faith.

The prayers are arranged in three groups, with each group assigned to certain days of the week. You may wish to follow this order or simply pick one or two prayers and say them regularly throughout the year.

When we pray, our faith grows and is strengthened.

Our own prayers can pierce the heights of heaven and obtain for others the grace of faith and conversion. May this Year of Faith not be for us a missed opportunity, but a gateway that opens up into a renewed life in God for each of us, for our holy Church and for the whole world.

Mondays & Thursdays

Lord, increase our faith! (Luke 17:5)

Act of Faith

I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ his only Son, Our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried; he descended into hell; on the third day he rose again from the dead; he ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of God, the Father almighty; from thence he shall come to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body and life everlasting. Amen.

(The Apostles’ Creed)

Prayer to Be an Instrument in Leading Others to God

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.

Where there is hatred, let me sow love;

where there is injury, pardon;

where there is doubt, faith;

where there is despair, hope;

where there is darkness, light;

and where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love;

for it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;

and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

(Prayer of St. Francis)

Prayer for the Spread of Faith in God

O God, who sent your Son into the world as the true light, pour out, we pray, the Spirit he promised to sow seeds of truth constantly in people’s hearts and to awaken in them obedience to the faith, so that, being born to new life through baptism, all may become part of your one people.

Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen.

(From the Roman Missal)

Tuesdays & Fridays

Lord, I believe; help my unbelief! (Mark 9:24)

Act of Faith

Firmly I believe, and, truly, God is three, and God is one.

And I next acknowledge duly manhood taken by the Son.

And I trust and hope most fully in that manhood crucified.

And I love supremely solely Christ who for my sins has died.

And I hold in veneration, for the love of him alone,

holy Church as his creation and her teachings as his own.

Praise and thanks be ever given with and through the angel host,

to the God of earth and heaven, Father, Son and Holy Ghost.

(Hymn from the Divine Office; adapted text of Blessed

John Henry Newman)

Prayer to Be an Instrument in Leading Others to God

Dear Jesus, in the desert of this world, where so many wander lost and confused, help me to share my faith with others by sharing the joy I have found in knowing and loving you. Amen.

(Prayer based on a homily by Pope Benedict XVI)

Prayer for the Spread of Faith in God

O God, who would have all his children to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth, send forth, we beseech you, laborers into your harvest, and grant them with all confidence to preach the word; that everywhere your Gospel may be heard and glorified and that all nations may know you, the one true God, and him whom you have sent, Jesus Christ, your Son, Our Lord. Amen.

(A Prayer for the Missions from

A Catholic Prayer Book)

My God, I believe, I adore, I trust, and I love you. I beg pardon for those who do not believe, do not adore, do not trust and do not love you. (Repeat three times.)

(The Pardon Prayer from Fatima)

Jesus, Mary, I love you; save souls!

Jesus, Mary, I love you; save souls!

Jesus, Mary, I love you; save souls!

(Prayer of the Servant of God Sister Consolata Bertone)

Wednesdays, Saturdays & Sundays

Jesus, I trust in you.

Act of Faith

O my God, I firmly believe that you are one God in three divine Persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. I believe that your divine Son became man and died for our sins and that he will come to judge the living and the dead. I believe these and all the truths which the holy Catholic Church teaches because you have revealed them who are eternal truth and wisdom, who can neither deceive nor be deceived. In this faith I intend to live and die. Amen.

(From the Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church)

Prayer to Be an Instrument in Leading Others to God

Dear Jesus, help us to spread your fragrance everywhere we go. Flood our souls with your spirit and light. Penetrate and possess our whole being so utterly that our lives may only be a radiance of yours. Shine through us and be so in us that every soul we come in contact with may feel your presence in our soul. Let them look up and see no longer us, but only Jesus. Stay with us, and then we shall begin to shine as you shine, so to shine as to be a light to others. The light, O Jesus, will be all from you. None of it will be ours. It will be you shining on others through us. Let us thus praise you in the way you love best, by shining on those around us. Let us preach you without preaching — not by words, but by our example, by the catching force, the sympathetic influence of what we do, the evident fullness of the love our hearts bear to you. Amen.

(By Blessed John Henry Newman; adapted by Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta)

Prayer for the Spread of Faith in God

Eternal Father, turn your merciful gaze upon the souls of those who do not believe in you and of those who as yet do not know you but are enclosed in the most compassionate Heart of Jesus. Draw them to the light of the Gospel. These souls do not know what great happiness it is to love you. Grant that they may extol the generosity of your mercy for endless ages. Amen.

(By St. Faustina Kowalska, from the Novena to the Divine Mercy)

Provided by Father James King, a priest of the Diocese of Peoria, Ill. This is reprinted with permission from

The Catholic Post, newspaper of the Peoria Diocese.