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Summary
- The Lord’s Prayer ends with a prayer for protection, “deliver us from evil” (Matthew 6:13); the Catholic Catechism (paragraph 2851) reads “evil” there as Satan, the Evil One.
- Traditional prayers quoted in full come from public-domain sources: Psalm 91 (KJV), C. F. Alexander’s 1889 version of St Patrick’s Breastplate, collects from the 1928 Book of Common Prayer, the Compline prayer for the home and the Leonine prayer to St Michael.
- Short prayers cover sleep, fear, the home, children, deception, the armor of God, temptation, a “hedge of protection” (Job 1:10) and someone who wishes you harm.
- Scripture promises that nothing can separate believers from God’s love (Romans 8:38–39) but not a life without suffering, as the story of Job shows.
- Jesus told his followers to bless those who curse them (Luke 6:28), so Christian prayer does not send evil back to its sender.
- The Catholic Church allows a major exorcism only by a priest with the bishop’s permission and first requires illness, especially psychological illness, to be ruled out (Catechism 1673).
Bibliography (Click to show)
- Scripture quotations are from the King James Version (1611), text of Project Gutenberg eBook no. 10 (Numbers 6:24–26; 23:8; Job 1:10; 2:10; Psalm 4:8; 51:10; 91:1–11; Proverbs 26:2; Matthew 4:6–7; 6:13; Luke 6:27–28; John 16:33; 17:15; Romans 8:38–39; 12:14, 19, 21; 1 Corinthians 10:13; Ephesians 6:16; Colossians 2:15; 2 Timothy 1:7; James 4:7; 1 John 4:1; Revelation 12:7). https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10
- The Book of Common Prayer (Protestant Episcopal Church in the U.S.A.), Standard Book of 1928. Morning Prayer, “A Collect for Grace,” p. 17; Evening Prayer, “A Collect for Aid against Perils,” p. 31; The Litany, p. 54; Family Prayer, Evening (the Lord’s Prayer, “Lighten our darkness” and the closing blessing), p. 593. PDF facsimile: https://www.artisticdailyprayers.org/uploads/3/0/1/6/30164961/bcp1928std.pdf
- Alexander, Cecil Frances, trans. “I bind unto myself to-day” (St Patrick’s Breastplate, 1889). In Charles Henry Hamilton Wright, ed., The Writings of Saint Patrick, the Apostle of Ireland, Appendix II. London: Religious Tract Society. https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Writings_of_Saint_Patrick,_the_Apostle_of_Ireland/Version_of_Mrs._Alexander
- “St. Patrick’s Breastplate” (translations of Fáeth Fiada). Wikisource. https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/St._Patrick%27s_Breastplate
- A Manual of Prayers for the Use of the Catholic Laity, prepared and published by order of the Third Plenary Council of Baltimore. New York: Catholic Publication Society, 1888. Evening Prayers (Compline), p. 75. https://archive.org/details/AManualOfPrayers1888/page/75/mode/1up
- Lasance, Francis Xavier. With God: A Book of Prayers and Reflections. New York: Benziger Brothers, 1911. “Prayers Ordered by Pope Leo XIII to be Said after Every Low Mass.” https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/With_God/The_Holy_Sacrifice_of_the_Mass
- Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd ed. Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1997. Paragraphs 2851–2852 (“But deliver us from evil”), https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/catechism/index.cfm?recnum=7219 ; paragraph 1673 (exorcism), https://www.vatican.va/content/catechism/en/part_two/section_two/chapter_four/article_1.html
