Prayers for Wisdom
Scripture says plainly that wisdom is given to anyone who asks for it. These prayers do exactly that.
They are useful for study, leadership, parenting, and any moment when you can see the options but not the right one.
19 prayers
- A Prayer for Students
A contemporary student's prayer in the tradition of St. Thomas Aquinas's Ante Studium and of the medieval universities, which opened each…
- A Prayer for Teachers and All Who Raise Children
A contemporary prayer for teachers, catechists, coaches, and parents, drawing on Mark 10:13–16 and Christ's warning in Matthew 18:6. St.…
- Blessing of Students and Teachers
A blessing for the beginning of a school term, for students, teachers, and schools.
- Come, Holy Spirit (Veni Sancte Spiritus)
The classic invocation of the Holy Spirit, used at Pentecost and before any work requiring discernment — councils, conclaves, examinations,…
- Let Me Know Myself, Let Me Know You (St. Augustine)
A prayer drawn from Augustine's Soliloquies, written shortly after his conversion while waiting for baptism. Its double request —…
- Litany of the Holy Spirit
A traditional Catholic litany of invocations to the Holy Spirit, compiled from Scripture and the writings of the Fathers. It has been…
- Moses: Show Me Thy Glory
Moses asks to see the glory of God and is hidden in the cleft of the rock while the Lord passes by. Gregory of Nyssa built his whole…
- Paul's Prayer for Wisdom and Endurance (Colossians 1)
From Colossians 1:9–12. Paul prays for a young church he had never visited, asking not for ease but for endurance "with joy." The prayer is…
- Prayer Before the Study of Scripture (John Calvin)
John Calvin closed each of his lectures on scripture with a short extempore prayer, and the prayers were taken down by his hearers and…
- Prayer for Ordering a Life Wisely (St. Thomas Aquinas)
One of the prayers preserved in the Dominican collection of St. Thomas Aquinas's private devotions. It is a prayer about the shape of a…
- Prayer for the Vision of God (St. Bede the Venerable)
The closing sentence of Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People, completed at Jarrow in 731 — the prayer with which the first…
- Prayer of Nicholas of Cusa
Nicholas of Cusa (1401–1464), cardinal and philosopher, sent the monks of Tegernsee a painted icon whose eyes seemed to follow every…
- Prayer of St. Benedict Before Work
A prayer of the Benedictine tradition, prayed before the day's work in monasteries that live by 'ora et labora'. Its seven petitions have…
- Prayer of Thomas à Kempis
From the Imitation of Christ, written by Thomas à Kempis in the Netherlands around 1420 and, after the Bible, the most widely read…
- Psalm 1 — Blessed Is the Man
The psalter opens with a wisdom psalm contrasting two ways of living: the life rooted like a tree by rivers of water, and the life blown…
- Psalm 19 — The Heavens Declare the Glory of God
Two psalms in one: creation's wordless testimony, then the perfection of God's law, closing with the line every preacher prays before…
- Psalm 90 — Lord, Thou Hast Been Our Dwelling Place
Attributed to Moses, the oldest psalm in the book, measuring human years against God's eternity and asking him to teach us to number our…
- Solomon's Prayer for Wisdom
Solomon's request at Gibeon (1 Kings 3:7–9), offered when God invited him to ask for anything. Because he asked for discernment rather than…
- The Chaplet of the Holy Spirit
The Chaplet of the Holy Spirit takes its shape from the two great outpourings recorded in Scripture and from the seven gifts named by the…