Mass Responses and Common Prayers
Learn the recurring Catholic Mass responses and common prayers in one place, including the Confiteor, Creed, Sanctus, Memorial Acclamations, Lamb of God, and the response before Communion.
This page gathers the longer recurring texts that many people want in front of them while learning the Mass.
Jump to a part of the Mass
Greetings and reading responses
And with your spirit.
You will hear this often.
Thanks be to God.
Used after readings.
Glory to you, O Lord.
This begins the Gospel.
Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.
Used after the Gospel.
Penitential Act and Kyrie
The penitential act can vary, but the Confiteor is the form many people most want to keep handy.
After it, the Kyrie is usually sung or said unless it has already been built into another form of the penitential act.
I confess to almighty God and to you, my brothers and sisters, that I have greatly sinned...
This is the common full-text opening of the Confiteor.
Lord, have mercy. Christ, have mercy. Lord, have mercy.
This may be repeated in sung settings.
Gloria and Creed
The Gloria is used on Sundays outside Advent and Lent, and on solemnities and feasts. The Nicene Creed is the usual Sunday profession of faith.
Some Masses use the Apostles' Creed instead, especially in certain seasons or pastoral settings.
Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to people of good will...
This is often sung, but the whole congregation still takes part.
I believe in one God...
This is the ordinary Sunday creed.
Offertory and preface dialogue
Blessed be God for ever.
Said after the priest's blessing over the bread and wine when those prayers are audible.
May the Lord accept the sacrifice at your hands for the praise and glory of his name, for our good and the good of all his holy Church.
This comes before the prayer over the offerings.
We lift them up to the Lord.
Part of the fixed preface dialogue.
It is right and just.
This completes the preface dialogue.
The acclamations of the Eucharistic Prayer
Holy, Holy, Holy Lord God of hosts. Heaven and earth are full of your glory. Hosanna in the highest. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest.
The Sanctus comes just before the Eucharistic Prayer deepens.
We proclaim your Death, O Lord, and profess your Resurrection until you come again.
One approved form.
When we eat this Bread and drink this Cup, we proclaim your Death, O Lord, until you come again.
Another approved form.
Save us, Savior of the world, for by your Cross and Resurrection you have set us free.
Another approved form.
Amen.
Often sung with special emphasis at the end of the Eucharistic Prayer.
The Communion prayers
Our Father, who art in heaven...
Prayed together by all before the sign of peace.
For the kingdom, the power and the glory are yours now and for ever.
The congregation answers this after the priest's embolism.
And with your spirit.
This answers "The peace of the Lord be with you always."
Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world, have mercy on us...
The final line ends with "grant us peace."
Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the word and my soul shall be healed.
This is said before the Communion procession.
Amen.
The communicant says this before receiving Holy Communion.
Pastoral summary
These are the Mass texts most people want in one place: the main greeting responses, the fuller penitential and offertory responses, the Eucharistic acclamations, and the Communion prayers.