Traditional prayer
The Acts of Faith, Hope and Love
An Act of Faith
O my God! I firmly believe that Thou art one God in three Divine Persons, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; I believe that Thy Divine Son became man, and died for our sins, and that he will come to judge the living and the dead. I believe these and all the truths which the Holy Catholic Church teaches, because Thou hast revealed them, who canst neither deceive nor be deceived.
An Act of Hope
O my God! relying on Thy infinite goodness and promises, I hope to obtain pardon of my sins, the help of Thy grace, and life everlasting, through the merits of Jesus Christ, my Lord and Redeemer.
An Act of Love
O my God! I love Thee above all things, with my whole heart and soul, because Thou art all-good and worthy of all love. I love my neighbor as myself for the love of Thee. I forgive all who have injured me, and ask pardon of all whom I have injured.
About this prayer
Faith, hope and charity are the theological virtues, which the Baltimore Catechism calls the Divine virtues: the “graces or gifts of God by which we believe in Him, and hope in Him, and love Him” (Q. 106). St. Paul names them together: “And now there remain faith, hope, and charity, these three: but the greatest of these is charity” (1 Corinthians 13:13, Douay-Rheims).
The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that these virtues are infused by God, that they relate directly to Him, and that they animate all the moral virtues (CCC 1812–1813); and that the acts of faith, hope and charity which the first commandment requires are carried out in prayer (CCC 2098). These three short prayers are those acts, put into words. The text is the one printed among the prayers at the front of the 1885 Baltimore Catechism, beside the Act of Contrition.
Each act gives its reason. Faith believes because God has revealed, and He can neither deceive nor be deceived. Hope rests on His goodness and promises and on the merits of Christ, not on our own strength. Love loves God because He is all-good, and then turns at once to the neighbor: to forgive all who have injured me, and to ask pardon of all whom I have injured. In a marriage, a family, a parish or a religious house, that last line is the hardest and the most daily. Forgiving is not pretending the injury never happened, and it never requires anyone to stay in danger. The Church says plainly that we cannot simply will away the feeling of an offense, or forget it, but that a heart given to the Holy Spirit can turn the hurt into intercession (CCC 2843). She also teaches that spouses may in some cases lawfully separate while the marriage bond remains (CCC 2383), and her law names grave danger to a spouse or to the children as a just cause for leaving (Code of Canon Law, can. 1153). If you are being hurt at home, get safe first: call 911, or the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233 (text START to 88788).
The catechism’s own definitions are worth learning with the prayers: faith is the virtue “by which we firmly believe the truths which God has revealed”; hope, the virtue “by which we firmly trust that God will give us eternal life and the means to obtain it”; charity, the virtue “by which we love God above all things for His own sake, and our neighbor as ourselves for the love of God” (QQ. 107–109).
When to pray it
- In the morning, after the Morning Offering, to begin the day believing, hoping and loving on purpose.
- In temptation against any of the three: pray the Act of Faith in doubt, the Act of Hope in discouragement, the Act of Love in resentment.
- After a quarrel, the Act of Love, said and then done. Where there is danger rather than a quarrel, safety comes first.
- With children, one act each week until all three are learned by heart.