The Acts of Faith, Hope, and Love

The three short prayers of the three theological virtues — believed, hoped, and loved, "in which I intend to live and die."

Faith, hope, and love are the three theological virtues — the ones God Himself pours into the soul (1 Corinthians 13:13). These three short prayers are how a Catholic exercises them deliberately: not waiting to feel them, but making acts of them. They are prayed in a single breath each morning, and they are among the prayers a dying Catholic is helped to make at the end.

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The three Acts

An Act of Faith

O my God, I firmly believe that Thou art one God in three divine Persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. 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. Amen.

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. Amen.

An Act of Love (Charity)

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. Amen.

When to pray them

Pray them together as part of morning or evening prayers — a daily, deliberate exercise of the three virtues. The Church also enriches the acts of faith, hope, and charity with an indulgence, and they are classically prayed by (or for) a person near death, when a soul deliberately renews its faith, its hope of heaven, and its love of God at the end. They pair naturally with the Act of Contrition.

What they are

Faith, hope, and charity are called the theological virtues because their object is God Himself: by them we believe in Him, hope in Him, and love Him (cf. Catechism §§1812–1829). They are infused — God's own gift — but they are meant to be used, and these prayers are how. Each ends, in its fuller traditional form, with the same resolve: "in this faith / this hope / this love I intend to live and die." That is the whole point — not a feeling, but a choice made before God and meant to last to the grave.

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