98 Fun Facts About Prayer

The Lord's Prayer appears in which two New Testament gospels?

Matthew and Luke give different versions: Luke's is shorter and comes when a disciple asks, 'Lord, teach us to pray', while churches recite Matthew's longer one.

Jesus teaches the Lord's Prayer as part of which famous address?

The Sermon on the Mount offers it as a model of brevity: Jesus has just told his listeners not to heap up empty phrases, since God knows what they need before they ask.

The Lord's Prayer doxology 'For thine is the kingdom' is missing from which text?

The earliest manuscripts of Matthew end the prayer at 'deliver us from evil'; the doxology entered later copies, which is why the Latin Bible and Catholic tradition leave it off the prayer.

What is the Latin name of the Lord's Prayer, taken from its first two words?

Pater Noster means 'Our Father', and the rapid, mechanical way the prayer was often recited gave English the word 'patter'.

The rare Greek word 'epiousios' in the Lord's Prayer is usually translated into English as what?

Daily is the traditional rendering, but the word appears nowhere else in Greek, and the Latin Bible turns it into 'supersubstantial' in one gospel and 'daily' in the other.

How many obligatory daily prayers does Islam prescribe?

Five was a bargain, in the traditional telling: on his night journey Muhammad was first given fifty prayers a day, and Moses kept sending him back to ask for fewer.

Which Islamic prayer is performed directly after sunset?

Maghrib's call is the signal that ends each day's fast in Ramadan, so the evening meal, iftar, traditionally starts with dates the moment it sounds.

Muslims face the direction of which structure when performing salah?

The Kaaba in Mecca is a focal point, not an object of worship, and mosques everywhere mark its direction with a wall niche called a mihrab.

What is the name of the ritual washing required before Islamic prayer?

Wudu covers the face, arms, head and feet, but the same Quranic verse allows a dry substitute where there is no water: wiping the face and hands with clean earth.

Salah ranks where among the Five Pillars of Islam for Sunni Muslims?

Second: only the shahada, the declaration of faith, comes first in the hadith where Gabriel, appearing as a stranger in white, asks Muhammad to tell him what Islam is.

The Islamic call to prayer, delivered from a minaret, is called what?

Adhan won out over a bell and a horn: in the Sunni account, the first Muslims weighed both before settling on a human voice to announce the prayer.

Who is traditionally regarded as the first muezzin in Islam?

Bilal ibn Rabah had been enslaved until Abu Bakr bought his freedom; when a human voice was chosen to announce prayers, Muhammad told him to stand up and give the call.

In Sunni practice, the line 'Prayer is better than sleep' is added to the call for which prayer?

Fajr, the dawn prayer: the extra line nudges anyone tempted to stay in bed, and Shia calls to prayer leave it out.

On a Catholic rosary, what is each of the five main sets of Hail Marys called?

A decade is ten Hail Marys, and while saying them the person praying meditates on a single 'mystery', one event from the lives of Jesus and Mary.

Which pope added the Luminous Mysteries to the rosary in 2002?

John Paul II added the 'mysteries of light' from Jesus's public ministry because the older sets passed straight from his childhood to his Passion.

Tradition holds that the Virgin Mary gave the rosary to which thirteenth-century saint and founder of a preaching order?

Dominic is named by a tradition set at Prouille in France, but historians trace the story to the preaching of a Dominican friar some 250 years after his death.

The Hail Mary is built from two greetings to Mary recorded in which gospel?

Luke records both greetings, Gabriel's and Elizabeth's; the closing plea, 'Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners', was added by the Church centuries later.

The Hail Mary is central to which Catholic devotion, said three times a day to a bell?

The Angelus gave Millet's famous painting of two praying peasants its name: he first called it 'Prayer for the Potato Crop', then added a church steeple and retitled it when the buyer backed out.

Which Marian prayer do Catholics say three times a day during the Easter season only?

Regina Coeli, 'Queen of Heaven', takes over from Easter to Pentecost, and the pope's Sunday noon address from his window is renamed after it for the season.

Which Protestant theologian composed the Serenity Prayer in the early 1930s?

A twelve-step fellowship picked it up from a 1941 newspaper obituary and spread it worldwide.

Which organisation adopted the Serenity Prayer in 1941 and made it famous?

Alcoholics Anonymous members found it in a 1941 newspaper obituary and at first simply called it 'the AA prayer'.

'Make me an instrument of your peace' is credited to which saint?

Francis of Assisi never wrote it: the prayer first appeared, unsigned, in a small French Catholic magazine in 1912, almost seven centuries after his death.

Which British PM quoted 'Where there is discord, may we bring harmony' on the Downing Street doorstep in 1979?

Margaret Thatcher said the lines on the steps of No. 10 and credited them to a saint, but the prayer they come from first appeared, unsigned, in a French magazine in 1912.

The Shema, the central declaration of Jewish faith, begins with a verse from which book of the Bible?

Deuteronomy supplies the opening line, 'Hear, O Israel'; by tradition these are also a Jew's last words, as when Rabbi Akiva is said to have died reciting them under Roman torture.

What small case do Jews fix to their door frames, following the Shema's command?

A mezuzah hangs at a slant in many homes as a compromise: the medieval sage Rashi wanted it upright, while his grandson argued it should lie flat.

The Amidah, the core of Jewish services, is also called the Shemoneh Esreh, a name meaning what number?

Eighteen blessings gave the prayer its name, yet the weekday version has nineteen: one more was added in rabbinic times and the old name simply stuck.

The Mourner's Kaddish is recited for how long after the death of a parent?

Eleven months, not twelve: tradition held that only the wicked are judged for a full year, so children stop a month early rather than imply that of a parent.

Rather than Hebrew, most of the Kaddish is written in which language?

Aramaic was the vernacular most Jews spoke when the Kaddish took shape, and a prayer addressed to the whole congregation was said in words everyone knew.

Kol Nidre, chanted on the eve of Yom Kippur, is technically not a prayer but what?

A legal formula annulling vows, it covers only promises made to God, yet hostile Christian writers long cited it as proof that a Jew's oath could not be trusted.

Written prayers left at which holy site are cleared twice a year and buried?

The Western Wall's notes are pulled from between the stones before Rosh Hashanah and Passover, then given a ritual burial alongside old holy books rather than thrown away.

How many beads does a traditional Hindu or Buddhist japa mala usually have?

108 beads make one round, marked by an extra 'guru bead' that is never counted or crossed: on reaching it the user turns the string around and goes back the other way.

The 99 beads of an Islamic misbaha correspond to what?

The names of God number 99 in Islamic tradition; many strings carry only 33 beads, so worshippers run through them three times, repeating short phrases of praise after prayer.

Eastern Orthodox Christians count the Jesus Prayer on a knotted rope known by what name?

Komboskini is the Greek name for the rope, whose invention is credited to the fourth-century monk Pachomius as a way for monks who could not read to keep count of their prayers.

Which anonymous 19th-century Russian classic is narrated by a man learning the Jesus Prayer?

The Way of a Pilgrim begins when its narrator hears the words 'pray without ceasing' in church and sets off across Russia to find out how anyone could.

Which Christian movement is known for meetings for worship held in silent waiting, with no clergy or ritual?

The Quakers' traditional meeting sits in silence until someone feels moved to speak, though some Quaker branches now have pastors and hymns.

Which mantra is most commonly placed inside a Tibetan prayer wheel?

Om mani padme hum is written many times over on the scroll inside, and each turn is held to earn the merit of reciting every copy, so a fuller wheel is worth more per spin.

The Gayatri Mantra, one of Hinduism's most important prayers, comes from which Veda?

Rigveda's third book holds the verse, and a guru teaching it at a boy's initiation is said to give him a second birth, making him 'twice-born'.

Which Sikh guru composed the opening of the Ardas, Sikhism's set prayer?

Gobind Singh's opening verse calls on God and the nine gurus before him; later generations of Sikhs composed the long middle section, recounting the community's trials and triumphs.

The first Book of Common Prayer was published in 1549 during the reign of which English king?

Edward VI was still a child king when it appeared, and its English services, replacing the Latin Mass, helped spark an armed rising in Devon and Cornwall that summer.

Which edition of the Book of Common Prayer remains the official prayer book of the Church of England?

Its wording was little changed from Cranmer's, and phrases from it have entered everyday English.

In the traditional canonical hours, which office is the night prayer said before retiring?

Compline takes its name from the Latin for 'complete', as the office that completes the day, and in many monasteries the 'Great Silence' begins once it ends and lasts until morning.

Whose monastic Rule set seven daytime offices, citing 'Seven times a day I praise you'?

Benedict of Nursia found the line in Psalm 119, then justified a night office from another verse of the same psalm, 'At midnight I rise to praise you'.

The US National Day of Prayer is observed on which day?

The first Thursday of May was fixed by a 1988 law; before that each president chose the date, and the very first observance, in 1952, fell on the Fourth of July.

Which US president signed the bill creating a National Day of Prayer in 1952?

Harry S. Truman signed the resolution in April 1952, weeks after the evangelist Billy Graham stood on the Capitol steps and challenged Congress to create such a day.

The word 'amen' is most commonly translated into English as what?

So be it is the usual rendering of a Hebrew word built on a root meaning 'firm' or 'sure', and it passed untranslated into Greek, Latin, Arabic and English.

Which city did the first Muslims face in prayer before the qibla was changed?

Jerusalem was faced for more than a year after the move to Medina until, tradition says, a revelation came during prayer and the worshippers turned round where they stood.

The Kesh temple hymn, pressed into clay tablets some 4,600 years ago, was written in which language?

Sumerian scribes at Abu Salabikh wrote the oldest copies, and versions made about eight centuries later barely differ, so the hymn was already a fixed text.

In which religion do worshippers rinse their hands and mouth, then bow and clap before praying at a shrine?

Shinto puts purity first: visitors wash at a water trough near the entrance before approaching the hall where the kami, the shrine's spirits, are enshrined.

Abraham bargained with God in prayer, from fifty righteous people down to ten, to spare which city?

Sodom was destroyed anyway, as not even ten could be found; Abraham's nephew Lot, who had settled there, was led out first.

The phrase 'ashes to ashes, dust to dust' entered English from which part of the Book of Common Prayer?

The funeral service has the priest say it at the graveside while earth is cast on the body, and the full line actually begins 'earth to earth'.

Which Archbishop of Canterbury, later burned at the stake, compiled the first Book of Common Prayer?

Thomas Cranmer wrote much of it himself, in English rather than Latin; on the day he was burned in 1556 he publicly took back his recantations.

In 1637 Jenny Geddes is said to have thrown what at a minister reading the new prayer book in Edinburgh?

A stool, aimed at the dean's head in St Giles' Cathedral, is reputed to have sparked the riot that led to the Wars of the Three Kingdoms.

When God offered King Solomon anything he wanted in a dream at Gibeon, what did the new king ask for?

Wisdom was his request, and God was pleased that he had not asked for self-serving rewards such as long life or the death of his enemies.

Which American general ordered his army chaplain to compose a prayer for fair weather in December 1944?

George Patton got his clear skies soon after and awarded the chaplain who wrote the prayer a Bronze Star on the spot.

Which Old Testament figure defied a thirty-day royal ban on prayer and kept praying to the God of Israel?

Daniel was thrown to the lions for it; his jealous rivals had tricked King Darius into the ban, and the edict could not be altered.

Which Dallas Cowboys quarterback made 'Hail Mary' the name for a desperate long pass in 1975?

Roger Staubach, a devout Catholic, told reporters he had closed his eyes and said the prayer as he threw the winning touchdown to Drew Pearson.

Which German Renaissance artist drew the pen-and-ink study Praying Hands, now in Vienna's Albertina?

Albrecht Dürer drew it around 1508 in black ink and white highlights on blue paper that he had prepared himself.

Which woman wept and prayed for a child at Shiloh so fervently that the priest Eli thought she was drunk?

Hannah's prayer was answered with a son, the prophet Samuel, whom she brought to serve at the sanctuary once he was weaned.

In which garden on the Mount of Olives did Jesus pray in anguish while his disciples slept?

Gethsemane is where he prayed the same words three times, checking on his three companions after each prayer and finding them asleep.

Jonah prayed from inside a great fish after fleeing God's order to prophesy against which city?

Nineveh was where he was sent, but Jonah sailed for Tarshish instead; after three days and nights in the fish, God commanded it to vomit him out.

In Jesus's parable of two men praying in the temple, a proud Pharisee is contrasted with which humble figure?

A tax collector, who would not even look up to heaven and simply beat his breast in sorrow, is the one Jesus says went home justified.

In the Sermon on the Mount, where does Jesus tell his followers to go when they want to pray?

Into a private room with the door shut, he says, unlike the hypocrites who love to pray on street corners to be seen. The King James Version calls the room a closet.

Which first Christian martyr prayed that his killers be forgiven as he was stoned to death?

Stephen died while the men stoning him laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul, who later became the apostle Paul.

Which companion of Paul was praying and singing with him at midnight in a Philippi jail when an earthquake struck?

Silas and Paul stayed in their cell although the quake had opened the doors, and their astonished jailer was baptised with his whole household that night.

Which Israelite hero's final prayer was for the strength to bring a Philistine temple down on his captors?

Samson, blinded and brought out to the temple of Dagon, asked to lean on the supporting pillars to rest, then pushed them over and died with everyone inside.

Psalm 51, the great prayer of repentance, is headed as King David's plea after his sin with which woman?

Bathsheba is named in the psalm's heading. Known in Latin as the Miserere, the psalm has one of its best-known musical settings from the composer Gregorio Allegri.

Which king of Judah, told by Isaiah he would die, prayed and was granted fifteen more years of life?

Hezekiah turned his face to the wall to pray, then asked for a sign: the shadow on the sundial put up by his father Ahaz moved backwards.

On which mountain did Elijah's prayer bring down flames from the sky in a contest with 450 prophets of Baal?

Mount Carmel is where Elijah first had his altar and sacrifice drenched with water three times, so nobody could doubt what set them alight.

Jesus's teaching on prayer in the Sermon on the Mount pairs 'ask' and 'seek' with which third command?

Knock comes third, and each command carries its own promise: those who ask receive, those who seek find, and the door is opened.

Which chapter, an acrostic prayer built on the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet, is the longest in the Bible?

Psalm 119 runs to 176 verses, eight for each letter, and every verse in a stanza begins in Hebrew with that stanza's letter.

Which little-known figure's two-verse prayer in 1 Chronicles inspired a 2000 bestseller by Bruce Wilkinson?

Jabez asks God to bless him and enlarge his territory; the pocket-sized book about those two verses topped the New York Times bestseller list.

In Jesus's parable about persisting in prayer, a widow keeps pestering which kind of official until he gives in?

A judge who lacks compassion finally grants her justice, simply so that her persistence will not wear him out.

Which canticle, also known as the Song of Mary, is sung at Anglican Evensong and Catholic Vespers?

The Magnificat takes its name from the opening word of its Latin text, meaning 'magnifies'; in Luke's gospel Mary speaks it while visiting her relative Elizabeth.

What name is given to Jesus's long plea to God for his followers after the Last Supper in John 17?

The High Priestly Prayer closes the Farewell Discourse on the night before the crucifixion, and it is the longest prayer of Jesus in any of the gospels.

Before it became 'till death us do part', the traditional English wedding promise ended with which word?

Depart once meant to separate, so 'until death us depart' made perfect sense; the familiar wording comes from the marriage rite of the Book of Common Prayer.

The 1549 Prayer Book Rebellion against church services in English erupted in Devon and which neighbouring county?

Cornwall had large Cornish-speaking areas, where being made to worship in English rather than Latin was felt as a threat to local identity.

In the Book of Common Prayer, what name is given to the short set prayer appointed for each Sunday of the year?

Collect is the term; most of the prayer book's collects are translations of older Latin prayers, and each traditionally runs as one single sentence.

Which body twice voted down the Church of England's proposed revised prayer book, in 1927 and 1928?

The House of Commons rejected it although the Lords had approved it, and the unapproved book came into widespread use in churches anyway.

Which queen's first Parliament revived the Book of Common Prayer in 1559 after her Catholic half-sister's reign?

Elizabeth I brought back the 1552 book with small changes meant to make it acceptable to more traditionally minded worshippers and clergy.

The psalms sung from the Book of Common Prayer come from a 1530s Bible by which English translator?

Myles Coverdale produced the first complete printed Bible in English in 1535, and his version of the psalms outlived it in Anglican worship for centuries.

Which short prayer honouring the Trinity is recited after each set of ten Hail Marys in the rosary?

Glory Be is the everyday name of the Gloria Patri, also called the Lesser Doxology to tell it apart from the Greater one, the Gloria in Excelsis.

The Act of Contrition, a Catholic prayer of sorrow for sin, is said during which of the church's sacraments?

Penance, popularly called confession, has the penitent say it after the priest assigns a penance and before he gives absolution.

Which statement of faith does a Catholic recite while holding the crucifix at the start of the rosary?

The Apostles' Creed owes its name to an old belief that each of the Twelve contributed one of its twelve articles.

The Memorare, a Catholic prayer asking for the Virgin Mary's help, is named after its opening Latin word, meaning what?

Remember is how it begins. It is often wrongly credited to Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, through confusion with Claude Bernard, the priest who popularised it.

Which book holds the psalms, hymns and readings a priest or monk needs to pray the canonical hours?

Breviary editions once differed from region to region until the Roman one became the Catholic standard, later replaced by the Liturgy of the Hours.

Which pope added the Prayer to Saint Michael to the prayers said after Low Mass in 1886?

Leo XIII had ordered the after-Mass prayers two years earlier in defence of the Holy See's independence; a Vatican instruction issued in 1964 suppressed them.

The Old Irish prayer of protection known as the Breastplate, or the Deer's Cry, is attributed to which saint?

Saint Patrick is said to have sung it to slip past an ambush on the road to Tara, appearing to those lying in wait as a herd of wild deer.

What are the small black leather boxes of scripture that observant Jews strap on for weekday morning prayer?

Tefillin hold parchment scrolls inscribed with verses from the Torah, and their English name, phylacteries, comes from a word for a safeguard.

What is the Hebrew name for the quorum of ten adults that Jewish tradition requires for public prayer?

Minyan numbers are traced in part to Abraham's plea in Genesis that a whole city be spared for the sake of ten good people.

What is the name of the niche in a mosque wall that shows worshippers which way to face in prayer?

Mihrab niches began as a simple stripe of paint or a flat stone panel; the first concave one was built in Medina in the early 700s.

Which Sikh guru composed the Japji Sahib, the prayer that opens the Guru Granth Sahib and a Sikh's morning?

Nanak, the first of the ten gurus, has 974 hymns in the Sikh scripture; the Japji is the most celebrated, and it opens with the Mul Mantar, Sikhism's basic statement of belief.

Which of the Jewish prayer services, traditionally traced to Abraham, is the one recited each morning?

Shacharit takes its name from the Hebrew word for dawn, and it also stands in for the morning sacrifice once offered in the Temple.

Which Spanish mystic compared the praying soul to a diamond castle of many mansions in The Interior Castle?

Teresa of Ávila wrote it in 1577 as a guide for the nuns of her order, tracing the journey of faith stage by stage to union with God.

The Spiritual Exercises, a thirty-day retreat of prayer, were written by the founder of which Catholic order?

Jesuits, formally the Society of Jesus, were founded by the Spanish priest who wrote them in the 1520s and divided the retreat into four thematic 'weeks'.

Which 1962 Supreme Court case ruled that officially composed prayers in American public schools were unconstitutional?

Engel v. Vitale struck down the Regents' Prayer, a short non-denominational prayer written by New York's Board of Regents to open the school day.

Which colonial American schoolbook printed the best-known version of the classic children's bedtime prayer?

The New England Primer was the first reading primer designed for the American colonies; its 1784 edition has the four-line rhyme asking the Lord to keep a child's soul overnight.

Which piece of furniture is a small desk with a built-in kneeler, made for personal prayer?

Prie-dieu is French for 'pray God'; the desk pairs a kneeler with a sloping shelf for books or hands, and a bride and groom are sometimes given one to kneel at during a church wedding.

Which apostle went up on a rooftop in Joppa to pray and saw a vision of a sheet full of animals?

Peter took the vision to mean he should call no person unclean, and he left with the messengers sent by a Roman officer named Cornelius.