100 Fun Facts About Prayer

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

The two versions differ, and the Matthean form is the one most Christians actually recite.

How many petitions does the Lord's Prayer contain?

The first three address God; the remaining four concern human needs such as daily bread and forgiveness.

The closing doxology 'For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory' is absent from which text?

Protestants usually add it; the first-century Didache does include a doxology, so the habit is ancient even if the words are not original.

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

A church on the Mount of Olives displays the prayer on tiled panels in well over a hundred languages.

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

It modifies 'bread', and scholars still argue about what it originally meant.

How many obligatory daily prayers does Islam prescribe?

They run from before sunrise to night, each with its own name and its own window of time.

Which of the five daily Islamic prayers is performed directly after sunset?

Its call to prayer also signals the moment to break the fast during Ramadan.

Muslims face the direction of which structure when performing salah?

According to tradition the earliest Muslims prayed toward a different city before the qibla was changed.

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

Each unit of prayer, a rak'ah, then follows a set sequence of standing, bowing and prostration.

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

Only the shahada, the declaration of faith, comes before it.

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

A shorter follow-up call, the iqama, then summons those already inside the mosque to line up.

Who is traditionally regarded as the first muezzin in Islam?

He was a freed slave of Abyssinian heritage, chosen for his voice.

Which extra line appears only in the dawn adhan?

The line, as-salatu khayrun mina n-nawm, is a nudge to anyone tempted to stay in bed.

A Catholic rosary is arranged in groups of ten Hail Marys. What is each group called?

Each set is preceded by an Our Father and traditionally followed by a Glory Be, and five sets make up a session.

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

The addition raised the total number of mysteries from 15 to 20.

Tradition holds that the rosary was given by the Virgin Mary in 1208 to which saint?

The apparition is said to have taken place in the church of Prouille in France.

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

The angel's words at the Annunciation are joined to Elizabeth's at the Visitation.

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

Millet's famous painting shows two peasants pausing in a field to pray it at dusk.

During Eastertide, which Marian prayer replaces the thrice-daily Angelus?

The pope leads whichever is in season from his window over St Peter's Square every Sunday at noon.

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?

Members first called it simply 'the AA prayer'; Hallmark put it on graduation cards from 1962.

In what year was the 'Prayer of Saint Francis' first published?

It appeared anonymously in a small French Catholic magazine, La Clochette, and cannot be traced to Francis of Assisi at all.

Which British PM paraphrased the Prayer of Saint Francis on the Downing Street doorstep in 1979?

Mother Teresa also made it part of the morning prayers of the Missionaries of Charity.

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

It is traditional to recite it morning and evening, before sleep, and as one's last words.

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

The command to bind the words on arm and head is fulfilled by tefillin.

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

Confusingly, the weekday version now contains nineteen blessings.

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

Remarkably, the text never mentions death; it is a hymn praising God.

Most of the Kaddish is written in which language?

It was the everyday language of the Jewish people when the prayer was composed, and it requires a minyan of ten to recite.

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

Its name means 'all vows'; the cantor sings it three times, and Max Bruch turned the melody into a cello piece.

Roughly how many written prayer notes are placed in the cracks of the Western Wall each year?

Twice a year they are collected and buried in the Jewish cemetery on the Mount of Olives.

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

Some malas use 27 beads counted four times; the Sikh mala also has 108.

The 99 beads of an Islamic misbaha correspond to what?

Many strings use 33 beads counted three times instead.

The English word 'bead' comes from an Old English word meaning what?

Counting prayers on strings is so old that a statue of a Hindu holy man with beads dates to the third century BC.

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

Also called a chotki in Russian, it typically has 100 knots.

Which anonymous 19th-century Russian classic follows a wanderer learning the Jesus Prayer?

The prayer's most common form is 'Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.'

In which direction does a Tibetan Buddhist most often spin a prayer wheel?

That follows the direction in which the mantras inside are written, matching the sun's path across the sky.

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

The earliest wheels, driven by wind, have been used in Tibet and China since the fourth century.

On Tibetan prayer flags, which colour symbolises water?

Blue is sky, white is air, red is fire and yellow is earth; horizontal strings are called Lung ta, the 'wind horse'.

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

It is dedicated to the solar deity Savitr and traditionally taught to boys at the upanayana thread ceremony.

Which Sikh guru composed the fixed opening and closing sections of the Ardas, the set prayer of Sikhism?

Worshippers stand with folded hands while it is recited, and its final line may not be altered or omitted.

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

Thomas Cranmer shaped it; the 1662 edition is still the official prayer book of the Church of England.

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?

Vespers is sung at the lighting of the lamps; Lauds greets the dawn.

The Rule of St Benedict tied daily prayer to a psalm verse praising God how many times a day?

Benedictines came to call the prayers the Opus Dei, the 'Work of God'.

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

Truman signed the original bill in 1952; a 1988 amendment fixed the date.

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

Billy Graham had called for a united national prayer during the Korean War a few months earlier.

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

It occurs 30 times in the Hebrew Bible, and in Revelation Jesus is himself called 'the Amen'.

What was the traditional direction of Muslim prayer before it was changed to Mecca?

Tradition places the early qibla at Bayt al-Maqdis, the site of the Temple in Jerusalem.

The Kesh temple hymn, one of the oldest surviving prayers, dates from roughly when?

The Egyptian Pyramid Texts of about the same era likewise contain spells and incantations addressed to the gods.

Friedrich Heiler's Typology of Prayer systematically lists how many types of prayer?

His categories run from primitive and ritual through Greek cultural, philosophical and mystical to prophetic prayer.

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.