3 Easy Catholic Family Prayers

The family that prays together, stays together. That is why praying together as a family is at the very core of Catholic faith. We want our children to grow up as devout and prayerful as possible and that can happen if parents would lead them in prayer at an early age. The Rosary, Novenas, and Angelus are great prayers that a family should say together.

But as any parent would know, children have short attention spans and are easily distracted. So if a child would have difficulties following through deep devotional prayers such as the Rosary, then it might help to start them off with easier Catholic prayers that can be said together as a family and can be understood by children.

Here are three easy Catholic family prayers that we can pray with our kids:

Guardian Angel Prayer

This simple prayer of invoking our guardian angel to help is in our daily need is quite important. Not only for kids but also for adults.

When we teach our children this prayer, we adults are reminded that we are also God’s children and that we will never grow old enough to no longer need our guardian angels. So this prayer benefits both parents and kids.

Angel of God,
my guardian dear,
To whom God's love
commits me here,
Ever this day,
be at my side,
To light and guard,
Rule and guide. Amen.

Prayer before and after meals

Praying before and after meals helps kids understand that all graces comes from God and he has to be thanked for them. It instills an attitude of gratefulness to children when practiced regularly as they’re able to recognize God’s daily graces with the appearance of common food. And when kids see their parents being thankful to God when they pray this with them, it helps them trust the Lord even more.

Before meals:

Bless us, O Lord,
and these, thy gifts,
which we are about to receive through thy bounty,
through Christ, our Lord, Amen.

After meals:

We give Thee thanks, 
Almighty God, 
for all thy benefits, 
Who live and reign for ever and ever. Amen.

Hail Mary

The Hail Mary prayer should be learned at an early age. It is a “gateway prayer” to other Catholic prayers and devotions. Having an initial experience with this prayer prepares children for the Holy Rosary prayer. It is a beautiful thing for young people to get acquainted with the Blessed Mother at an early stage of their lives.

It’s not actually hard to understand this prayer, as a matter of fact, it was meant to be simple. With this prayer, children have a glimpse of an important Catholic devotion that should be engraved in the hearts of every person. And that is calling Mary to pray for us at our every need.

Hail, Mary, full of grace,
the Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou amongst women
and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary, Mother of God,
pray for us sinners,
now and at the hour of our death. 
Amen.