Does anyone pray in Latin?

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coolduude

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I would love to learn to pray in Latin. I feel it would bring me closer to God and the Church. And I’m not just talking about prayers like the Our Father or Hail Mary. While I would love to say those in Latin, I would also like to make my own prayers in Latin too.

Does anyone here pray in Latin? If so, how long did it take to learn Latin enough to pray in it? And how did you learn it?

Thanks,
Coolduude
 
I usually don’t, unless it’s part of the Mass, but my guardian angel did. How are things in the Windy City?
 
I pray in Latin. The thing is I’ve been taking Latin for two years, and our school chaplain says part of the Mass in Latin. It usually takes probably a full of month of only Latin to be able to say the prayers. I will leave you with a Latin prayer or two.
Ave Maria
gratia plena, Dominus tecum. Benedicta in mulieribus
et benedictus fructus ventris tui, Iesu. Sancta Maria, Mater Dei, ora pro nobis nunc, et
in hora mortis nostri.

Pater Noster, qui es in caelis, sanctificetur nomen tuum adveniat regnum
tuum fiat voluntas tua sicut in caelo et in terra. Panem nostrum quotidianum
da nobis hodie et dimitte nobis debita nostra sicut
et nos dimittimus debitoribus nostris et ne nos inducas in tentationem; sed libera nos a malo.

Esse implens cum Spirito Sancto et mani fortiter in Christi (Be filled with the Holy Spirit and remain strong in Christ.)
WAC
 
I try to say all my prayers in Latin. Usually I have a friend who does the translating. It takes just a few days for me to learn. I am learning how Latin so I can write my own prayers eventually. It is my goal to completely pray in Latin and drop the English except when I got to English Mass.

There’s no langauge like the Latin language in my book. It is not called the langauge of the Church for nothing.

God bless.
 
That will be helpful then. I am taking Classical Latin right now, which would have been the Latin of Caesar. The difference between Ecclesiastical Latin and Classical Latin is insequential. My suggestion for making your own prayers in Latin, would be to start with the basics. Like the Glory Be to the Father.

Latin- Gloria Patri, et Filio, et Spiritui Sancto, sicut erat in principio, et nunc, et semper, et in saecula saeculorum

Or more edited would be. Iesus, expires mihi, iuvet me esse sicut perinde ad dies.
Jesus, you died for me, help me to be like you just for today.
 
Sometimes–see my sig 😃

It’s easy, if you compose your prayers from bits and pieces of Scripture, and take them from the Vulgate.
 
WAC said:
Or more edited would be. Iesus, expires mihi, iuvet me esse sicut perinde ad dies.
Jesus, you died for me, help me to be like you just for today.
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That needs to be something more like “Jesu, mortuus es pro me. Adjuva me te sequi hodie.”

(Jesus becomes Jesu in the vocative, and juvet is 3s subj, rather than 2s imp or subj. Also ad takes the accusative.)

To the OP, though, I agree that the best route is to start small and build from there. Mastering Latin takes a LONG time, but you can learn to pray the rosary in Latin fairly quickly. The breviarium romanum, that takes some dedication…
 
If I were ever to get around to studying Latin enough to be conversant, I might pray in it. Being bilingual was a tall enough order when the two languages were ones I used frequently.

I just feel that being able to pray in the vernacular (whichever that may be, English or French) helps me to understand what I’m saying and actually mean it.

Just my two cents, and certainly no disrespect intended to those who pray in Latin. It is a glorious language.
 
HerrZJA said:
If I were ever to get around to studying Latin enough to be conversant, I might pray in it. Being bilingual was a tall enough order when the two languages were ones I used frequently.

I just feel that being able to pray in the vernacular (whichever that may be, English or French) helps me to understand what I’m saying and actually mean it.

Just my two cents, and certainly no disrespect intended to those who pray in Latin. It is a glorious language.
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I think that you have a very valid point here. Unless you are quite familiar with the language that you use I think that praying in that language could hinder your spiritual development.

In my private prayers I really mix English, Italian, and Latin, (e.g. I say the Fatima prayer only in English and the Eternal Rest prayer only in Italian) and sometime to my confusion the switch happens naturally in the middle of the prayers.
 
I was using both words from Classical Latin and Ecclesiastical Latin. You were right about getting prayers from the Vulgate, which I have. And Iesu would be correct, because Latin doesn’t have a J. and speaking of the Rosary, the only thing that I need to learn in Latin for that are the mysteries.
TuAutem said:
That needs to be something more like “Jesu, mortuus es pro me. Adjuva me te sequi hodie.”

(Jesus becomes Jesu in the vocative, and juvet is 3s subj, rather than 2s imp or subj. Also ad takes the accusative.)

To the OP, though, I agree that the best route is to start small and build from there. Mastering Latin takes a LONG time, but you can learn to pray the rosary in Latin fairly quickly. The breviarium romanum, that takes some dedication…
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The public prayer of the Church is technically Latin, but I find it easier to pray in private via English. For example, if I attempt to say the Rosary in Latin, my mind is focused simultaneously on three things: 1. speaking to God in Latin, 2. translating it into English with my “second tongue” so I understand what I’m asking Him/Mary/a saint, and 3. meditating on the actual mysteries. Lately, I find that praying in Latin makes me feel more ‘elite’ or Pharisee-like, so I’ve dropped it.

Doesn’t anyone realise that the rosary and other private devotions have always been prayed in vernacular? I remember the story of a former-Jesuit who was born into a noble German family in the 1860’s; he complained that the family added “poor” to “pray for us (poor) sinners” during the Angelic Salutation, and that the Latin doesn’t have the word in it. This meant his family was praying it in vernacular.

I can understand the Liturgy being in Latin, but why must everything be such? Give yourselves a break! 😛
 
GloriousOrder said:
I can understand the Liturgy being in Latin, but why must everything be such? Give yourselves a break! 😛
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I guess because some of us perfer to pray in Latin in all of our prayers. I only use the vernacular if I have no translation available. I am still looking for the Litany of Humility in Latin and cannot find it, so this is one of a few prayers that I say in English.

I just find it less distracting and more conducive to contemplative prayer if I pray in Latin. My Short prayer is in Latin as well. I just get distracted with English. I don’t know why, but that is the way it’s always been.

God bless.
 
My grandparents used to when I was younger. I remember going to their house during the summer and they would sometimes say a Latin prayer before dinner (it was kind of a traditional thing). I can’t recall what they used to say, but I can still hear it in my mind. I always thought it was interesting and because my grandfather was an Italian teacher, he got me into studying language. I still study actually and it’s all because of grandpa.

Jack
 
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