September 3, 2026
By Maria Wiering
Amid the calendars, fliers and other back-to-school ephemera that fill students’ backpacks, Catholic school families in the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis can expect to find a true keepsake: a prayer book prepared just for them.
Titled “Treasury of Catholic Prayers,” the beautifully illustrated 70-page collection ranges from common prayers such as the “Our Father” and the “Hail Mary,” to the Rosary, litanies, canticles and prayers for the Mass.
The book is a gift from Archbishop Bernard A. Hebda and was commissioned by the Archdiocese’s Office for the Mission of Catholic Education.
In a letter introducing the volume, Archbishop Hebda addressed the students, writing, “Saint Paul, the patron of our Archdiocese, reminds us that we can do all things in God who is our strength. For that to happen, we need to be in relationship with God, who so much desires to be in relationship with you.”
He wrote that Jesus taught that “prayer is a conversation between you and God” and is “how we turn to God with our sorrows and thank Him for our joys.”
“I entrust this book to you in the hope that it may help you to pray often and pray well,” he said.
The book was illustrated by Daniel Mitsui, a sought-after Catholic artist inspired by medieval illuminated manuscripts, Celtic ornamentation and Japanese woodblock prints. For the book, he created three original full-page drawings, including cover art in color of Christ Crucified, with four candidates for sainthood linked to the Archdiocese: Blesseds Father Solanus Casey (1870-1957) and Brother James Miller (1944-1982), who lived part of their lives in the Archdiocese; the soon-to-be beatified Archbishop Fulton Sheen (1895-1979), who attended The Saint Paul Seminary; and Bishop Frederic Baraga (1797-1868), whose missionary expeditions included Minnesota’s North Shore.
Mitsui also drew with ink on paper images of Saint Paul and Our Lady, Seat of Wisdom, which, like the cover, are rich with symbols that express the truth of the faith. The latter is the patroness of the Archdiocesan Catholic school system. Meanwhile, each page is bordered with drawings of flora and fauna, and other images from Scripture or of the saints are featured throughout.
“My philosophy is that children really do appreciate very highly detailed artwork,” said Mitsui, who lives in northwest Indiana. “I hope that these are pictures that will be worthy of spending a lot of time with — that people will look at them at length and not just glance at and move on. I hope that these are pictures that will remain in people’s memories.”
Theresa Krueger, OMCE’s curriculum specialist who led the prayer book project, noted that even the youngest students who might not yet read could be inspired by the detailed pictures of angels, saints and creation.
“We just want it to be a thing of beauty — not just a textbook to learn prayers, but something that becomes personally a treasure for them and a resource that they can carry from home to church to school,” she said. “That’s why we invested a lot of time and attention in terms of the actual design of it.”
In time for this academic year, the prayer books were delivered to each of the Archdiocese’s 89 Catholic schools for students in grade 2-10 and all full-time teachers.
“The hope is to publish the first round this fall to most grade levels … and then continue that process for a couple years until every student has their own copy,” Krueger said.
The project has been a decade in the making, but work began in earnest two years ago, she said. Krueger and colleagues selected prayers useful for both school and home, as well as Mass, Eucharistic adoration and personal prayer.
The prayer book complements Archbishop Hebda’s recent pastoral letter on Catholic family life, “Only One Thing Is Necessary: How Catholic Families Can Strive to be United in This Life and the Next” in which he asked that OMCE “make available to every Catholic school and parish catechetical program a student prayer resource that will assist families in their efforts to pray at home.”
Archdiocesan leaders hope that this prayer book helps local Catholic schools not only teach the prayers, but also live them through the communities’ daily rhythms.
“We encourage them to be praying the Morning Offering together as a school, and to start each class with prayer, and have those times that are engaged in liturgy,” Krueger said. “We want to actually draw them up into the beauty of the Church.”
Jason Slattery, the Archdiocese’s former director of Catholic education and superintendent of schools, oversaw the commission before leaving the OMCE this summer to take a similar role with the Diocese of Charleston, South Carolina.
“This prayer book, marked by the beautiful efforts of renowned artist Daniel Mitsui, when printed and put into little hands will surely have astonishing effects,” he said.
A flip book version is available online.