St. Thomas Aquinas wrote this prayer in the 13th century for students beginning their intellectual work. If you are opening a textbook, preparing for an exam, or sitting down to write something difficult, this prayer asks God to clear the fog from your mind and order your thinking from start to finish.
Ineffable Creator, who, out of the treasures of thy wisdom, hast ordained three hierarchies of angels, hast set them in marvelous order above the heavens, and hast assigned the parts of the universe so wondrously to each, who art truly called the source of light and wisdom and the most exalted principle, vouchsafe to pour forth a ray of thy brightness upon the dark places of my understanding; take from me the twofold darkness in which I was born, namely, sin and ignorance. Grant me a sharp sense of understanding, a retentive memory, ease and exactness in learning, depth in interpreting, and abundant grace of expression. Order the beginning, direct the progress, and perfect the completion. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
St. Thomas Aquinas, 13th century
How this prayer works
The prayer begins with God’s ordering work in creation, from the angels down to the cosmos, then pivots to the disorder inside the petitioner: darkness, sin, ignorance. Aquinas asks for five intellectual gifts: sharp understanding, retentive memory, ease and exactness in learning, depth in interpretation, and grace of expression. These are not generic virtues but the specific capacities needed to study and teach theology in a medieval university.
The closing line, “Order the beginning, direct the progress, and perfect the completion,” maps onto the classical stages of any intellectual project: invention, arrangement, execution. Aquinas is asking God to supervise the entire arc of the work, not just bless the outcome.
Pray it before opening your laptop, before sitting down to read a hard text, before writing the first sentence of something you do not yet know how to say. Pray it slowly, then begin.
