Best Catholic Prayers for Lent 2025
Leila Joy CastilloWhen we pray, we draw closer to God by raising our minds and hearts to him. Increasing our devotion to prayer during Lent redirects the focus of our souls to the most important reality in life––God, and his love for us, especially expressed in the Passion and Death of Christ. You may be wondering, “How should I pray during Lent?” but never fear, here is an extensive guide to the best Catholic prayers––devotions, novenas, litanies, and short invocations––for Lent 2025!
Classic Catholic Prayers for Lent 2025
Lenten Daily Prayers
We might think that a good Lent requires an intensive prayer plan, yet oftentimes it is more important to set a solid foundation in the basics, for the Lord values our faithfulness in small things. Consider beginning your prayer journey for Lent 2025 by committing to some of these classic Catholic Prayers.
The Sorrowful Mysteries of the Rosary
The Sorrowful Mysteries of the Rosary lead us into the very heart of Lent by inviting us to contemplate the events of Christ’s Passion: His Agony in the Garden, Scourging at the Pillar, Crowning with Thorns, Carrying of the Cross, and Crucifixion. The Sorrowful Mysteries are traditionally prayed on Tuesdays and Fridays throughout the year, but also on Sundays during Lent. Through this set of mysteries, we can accompany Our Lady through the events that were central to our redemption. As we pray them, we can ask her in turn to accompany our Lenten journey so that our spiritual lives might bear greater fruit.
You can pray the Sorrowful Mysteries alongside Fr. Mike right here:
The Stations of the Cross or The Way of the Cross
Many parishes hold a congregational Way of the Cross weekly during Lent, but praying the Stations of the Cross need not be limited to “Friday nights at 7 pm” with your parish community; it is also fruitful as a private Lenten devotion. You can receive a plenary indulgence even by praying for them on your own while moving from station to station in a church!
The Way of the Cross offers a unique spiritual approach to Calvary because it highlights many individuals who figure in the events of Christ’s Passion and Death. Through this powerful prayer, we can enter into the sorrow of Our Lady and St. John at the foot of the Cross. The fourteen Stations of the Cross offer rich opportunities as one of the most classic and contemplative prayers for Lent.
You can pray the Stations of the Cross alongside Fr. Mark-Mary right here:
Short Prayers for Lent
Prayer Before a Crucifix (with indulgence)
Short and sincere, the Prayer Before a Crucifix is said to have been written by St. Francis of Assisi. It is a perfect way to turn the interior gaze of your soul towards Christ Crucified. You can receive a plenary indulgence for praying it in front of a crucifix after receiving Holy Communion on Fridays during Lent––a splendid opportunity for some extra Lenten graces! If you're looking for a short, very Catholic prayer for Lent, this is a great one. A partial indulgence accompanies this prayer on all other days of the year!
Wondering what an indulgence is?
Anima Christi Prayer
If you're looking for a very old, traditional, Catholic prayer for Lent, this might just be exactly what you're looking for! The Anima Christi is a Catholic prayer dating back to medieval times. Poetic and profound, its deeply Eucharistic theme invokes the graces of Jesus’ sacrifice on the Cross for us. The title, “Anima Christi,” translates to “Soul of Christ,” the opening words of the prayer in Latin. Many people pray the Anima Christi after receiving Holy Communion, but you can pray it at any time to gain deeper peace and closeness to Christ.
The Jesus Prayer
The Jesus Prayer consists of the simple refrain “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” This short formulaic prayer rooted in Scripture is particularly well known in Eastern Catholic rites. Furthermore, in only twelve words, it nonetheless accomplishes many purposes: we call on the power of Jesus’s name, humbly acknowledge our sinfulness, and ask for his mercy. Its brevity makes it easy to pray many repeatedly in a row, or you might sprinkle one in here and there as a short “aspiration prayer” for the space of a breath. It's a beautiful way to pray throughout your day and keep Jesus at the center of your life this Lent.
Daily Examination of Conscience
Lent is a time to grow in awareness of our sins and how they divide us from God. Thus, an excellent Catholic Lenten prayer practice is to make a brief daily Examination of Conscience. Reviewing your thoughts, words, and actions from the day permits you to more easily identify and overcome patterns of sin in your life. By increasing your self-knowledge, a daily examen will greatly facilitate your preparation for the Sacrament of Confession. Check out this short video for Father Mark Mary’s quick and easy daily Examen strategy.
Beautiful Catholic Prayers for Lent
Holy Face of Jesus Prayer
Since the feast of the Holy Face of Jesus is the day before Ash Wednesday (Shrove Tuesday), this devotion is particularly fitting for the season of Lent. You can pray a Novena to the Holy Face leading up to the feast or implement the Chaplet of the Holy Face of Jesus into your spiritual routine for Lent.
Lent is an excellent time to honor and make reparation to Christ. Devotion to Christ’s holy face is often connected with the Shroud of Turin and also St. Thérèse of Lisieux, whose full religious name was “Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus and of the Holy Face.”
The Seven Sorrows of Mary Devotion
As the Mother of God, Our Lady cooperated with God’s plan for our redemption, offering her humble and wholehearted “fiat” even to the suffering involved. Lent is a perfect time to reflect on this in prayer. The Seven Sorrows of Mary mark the Blessed Mother’s closeness to the events of our redemption, highlighting seven moments when she intimately shared in Christ’s sufferings. Deepen your reverence for what Our Lady suffered alongside her Son out of love for us through the Seven Sorrows Rosary. Plus, the Seven Sorrows devotion is packed with spiritual benefits––Christ and Our Lady promise abundant graces to those who meditate on them!
Acts of Faith, Hope, Love
The Acts of Faith, Hope, and Love are classic Catholic Prayers for Lent that bring us back to essentials in the spiritual life. Faith, hope, and love are the three theological virtues, supernatural dispositions of grace that have God Himself as their object. Unlike with other virtues, we cannot attain the theological virtues ourselves: God must infuse them in our souls. Praying the Acts of Faith, Hope, and Love often will better dispose your soul to receive the graces of the theological virtues from God.
Catholic Lenten Prayers for Surrender
An important aspect of Lent is surrender to God. In the Gospel of Matthew, Christ invites us to entrust ourselves to his will, saying, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). Surrender is undoubtedly one of the most difficult parts of the spiritual life: it means embracing suffering, casting aside self-centeredness, and increasing our trust in God. These Catholic Lenten Prayers for Surrender will help you to grow in trust and acceptance so that you might walk in the peace of his will.
The Surrender Novena Prayer
When suffering is a crushing burden, and anxiety agitates our hearts, what if we could find peaceful refuge in the care of a God who holds it all? Well, we can, and the Surrender Novena by Servant of God Father Don Dolindo Ruotolo shows us how. In short reflections to be prayed over nine days, Our Lord speaks to the ways in which we keep ourselves from resting in his will. Too often, we attempt to control events and outcomes, rely far too much on our own human initiative, or become deeply unsettled by evil––and so lose our peace. What is the remedy? “A thousand prayers cannot equal one single act of surrender,” Christ tells us. Indeed, this novena’s refrain of “O Jesus, I surrender myself to you, take care of everything!” can restore profound serenity to our souls.
Surrender Prayers by Saints for Lent
St. Padre Pio’s Prayer of Trust and Confidence
It is easy to believe that the virtue and holiness of the saints place them far above us, even during their earthly lives. St. Padre Pio’s Prayer of Trust and Confidence is a helpful reminder that even some of the greatest saints did indeed struggle––and often just as keenly as we do––to rely on the Lord. Praying with St. Padre Pio’s words this Lent will help increase your faith and courage to accept God’s will.
An Act of Abandonment by St. Francis de Sales
Many of us cannot fathom reaching the point of spiritual strength where we can thank God for suffering, yet Lent is a time to recall that, as Christ approaches his Cross, we must also take up and carry ours. In his Act of Abandonment, St. Francis de Sales humbly renounces his own will and asks for the grace to wholeheartedly accept whatever crosses the Lord sends, in spite of fears, with gratitude and joy.
St. Charles de Foucauld’s Prayer of Abandonment
Another excellent Catholic prayer by a saint for Lent 2025 is St. Charles de Foucauld’s Prayer of Abandonment. This one is authored by a saint who poured out his life for Christ as a hermit, a missionary, and a martyr! Through phrases like “Let only your will be done in me…” and “Into your hands, I commend my soul,” Saint Charles de Foucauld echoes a Christ-like entrustment to the will of God.
The Suscipe of St. Ignatius of Loyola
St. Ignatius of Loyola gave us not only the Jesuit order and the spiritual exercises for discernment in the spiritual life but also a beautiful short prayer known as the Suscipe. As the word “suscipe” is Latin for “receive,” St. Ignatius of Loyola reminds us that everything we have is received from God, including our freedom and our human faculties. Thus, allowing God to do what he wills even with what he has given us is the most important offering we can make, and our greatest joy comes from the riches of his love and grace.
Prayer of St. Teresa of Avila
Also known by its opening line of “Let Nothing Disturb You,” the Prayer of St. Teresa of Avila is poetic in its simplicity but underscores the most fundamental realities. The words of this great contemplative Carmelite saint offer peace amid hard times. St. Teresa reminds us that, amid the chaos and change of our earthly lives, God is the most important reality: he will be sufficient and sustain us.
Catholic Prayers About Mercy and Forgiveness for Lent
Prayers for Repentance and Renewal
Christ’s Death on the Cross repaid the wrong done by our sins and restored the fullness of God’s mercy to us. Lent calls us to reflect on the great gift of his mercy, thank him for it, and ask for the grace to repent of the ways that we continually offend him with our sins. The following Catholic prayers focus on repentance, forgiveness, and God’s mercy.
Act of Contrition
The Act of Contrition is a wonderful Catholic prayer for Lent because, through it, we admit our sinfulness to God, request his pardon, and affirm our resolution to bring our sins to the Sacrament of Confession and change our ways. Contrition, according to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, is “sorrow of the soul and detestation for the sin committed, together with the resolution not to sin again.” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, #1451). It is an important hallmark of Catholic prayer because justice to God requires that we admit our sinfulness before we approach him. While the Act of Contrition is part of the rite of the Sacrament of Confession and, therefore, most often associated with it, you can pray it at any time to ask God's forgiveness for your venial sins.
Divine Mercy Chaplet
The Divine Mercy Chaplet is an excellent Catholic prayer for Lent because the Church celebrates Divine Mercy Sunday the week after Easter, honoring God’s mercy as revealed by Christ to St. Maria Faustina Kowalska. The Divine Mercy devotion has everything to do with Christ’s Paschal sacrifice because Jesus won God’s mercy for us when he gave his entire self on the cross––body, blood, soul, and divinity. As Our Lord told St. Faustina, the two rays that shine from his heart in the Divine Mercy “issued forth from the very depths of My tender mercy when My agonized Heart was opened by a lance on the Cross” (Diary, 299). Christ’s mercy is a refuge of consolation and love for mankind––as he told St. Faustina, “Tell aching mankind to snuggle close to My merciful Heart, and I will fill it with peace” (Diary, 1074).
You can say the Divine Mercy chaplet on rosary beads and at any time, although it is often prayed at 3 p.m., the hour that Christ died. It is also a particularly powerful Catholic prayer for the dying. Remember to mark your calendar for the nine-day Divine Mercy Novena, which begins on Good Friday and ends on Divine Mercy Sunday!
Catholic Litanies for Lent
Litanies are excellent prayers for Lent. Short and simple, they are nonetheless packed with powerful invocations. A litany has a regular and steadying pace, rather like breathing or a heartbeat, with a calming and constant back-and-forth of petitions and responses. Here is a list of Catholic Litany prayers that are especially fitting for Lent!
Litany of Humility
The Litany of Humility is one of the best Lenten prayers for Catholics because it asks the Lord to deliver us from our selfish desires and our deepest fears. It furthermore asks God to grant that we would desire to move our hearts towards deeper self-renunciation and greater holiness. We are called to develop an attitude of humility according to the example of Christ who is “gentle and lowly in heart”––and in so doing, he tells us, “you will find rest for your souls” (Matthew 11:29). Fr. Mike Schmitz also recommends the Litany of Humility as a helpful examination of conscience.
Litany of Trust
The Litany of Trust is another wonderful litany option for the Lenten season, given the prominent theme of trust in God’s mercy and in light of Divine Mercy Sunday following soon after Easter. The first half of it asks the Lord to deliver us from our deepest places of disbelief, discouragement, and doubt. In the second half, we repeat the refrain “Jesus, I trust in you” to strive for a stronger attitude of trust in him.
Pray the Litany of Trust with the Sisters of Life!
Litany of Peace
Amid our busy lives and the noise of the world, peace can prove extremely elusive. The Litany of Peace helps restore clarity and serenity to our souls. If your heart feels bogged down by the weight of people-pleasing, comparison, holding on, and a host of other worries, then this prayer is for you! The Litany of Peace also provides a great way to examine your conscience!
Litany of the Precious Blood of Jesus
By shedding his blood on the cross as the Paschal Lamb sacrificed for our salvation, Christ took away our sins and brought us to rebirth in redemption. The Litany of the Precious Blood of Jesus encompasses the Church’s devotion to the fullness of Christ’s sacrifice. The Blood of Christ “poured out on the Cross” is also our “solace in sorrow”; he who fully poured himself out in his humanity is also the God “most worthy of all glory and honor.”
Litany of the Holy Spirit
If you are seeking to increase particular virtues in your life this Lent, there is no better way to secure the necessary graces than by praying to the Holy Spirit. The Litany of the Holy Spirit requests the abundant spiritual gifts and fruits that the Third Person of the Holy Trinity can bestow. This litany is also an excellent way to ask the Holy Spirit to help you maintain faithfulness to your Lenten resolutions so that they might bear abundant fruit.
Litany to the Most Holy Name of Jesus
The Litany and Novena to the Most Holy Name of Jesus honors Christ through his saving and all-powerful name. These prayers petition Christ as savior and redeemer with immense trust that he will do for us as he told his disciples: “Whatever you ask in my name, I will do it, that the Father may be glorified in the Son…” (John 14:13). In these supplications to his most holy name, through a magnificent range of titles and moments in our Lord’s life, we can request that the power of his mercy would obtain abundant grace for us and clothe us in his virtues.
Litany to the Sacred Heart of Jesus
Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus is widespread in the Church today. The complete generosity, faithfulness, and vulnerability of his Sacred Heart mirrors the total gift of himself in his Passion, making the Litany to the Sacred Heart of Jesus a particularly fitting Catholic prayer for Lent. Its thirty-three invocations highlight, with beautiful imagery, the roles and graces that proceed from the love in Christ’s heart, and a partial indulgence accompanies this litany. You can also find a shorter prayer of consecration to the Sacred Heart here.
There you have it! An ultimate guide to Catholic prayers for Lent 2025. One of the best ways to experience spiritual transformation during Lent 2025 is to draw on the prayers in this guide. They will help you seek God’s forgiveness for your sins, increase your surrender to his will, enter more fully into the Passion of Christ, and deepen your hope in his mercy.
Which of these Catholic prayers for Lent do you plan to incorporate as a spiritual practice? Share with us in the comments!