JD Vance Says A Catholic Prayer Helped Him With Pre-Debate Nerves

Sen. JD Vance shared Wednesday that he was incredibly nervous before Tuesday night’s highly-anticipated debate with Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.

“A friend asked me how nervous I was on a scale of 1 to 10,” Vance said in a post on X. “The answer? 11.”

But while Walz appeared shaky and nervous on stage, Vance was praised for being poised and polite, and was widely perceived to be the winner of the event. Perhaps Vance’s performance had something to do with a pregame pep talk he got from a friend.

“A priest friend sent me this prayer before I went on stage,” added Vance, who is a convert to Catholicism. “I share it in the hopes someone will find it as meaningful as I did.”

He then shared a prayer attributed to Thomas Aquinas, an Italian priest and scholar recognized by the Catholic Church as a saint and its most significant Western philosopher and theologian.

“O Ineffable Creator,” the prayer begins, “Refine my speech and pour forth upon my lips the goodness of Your blessing. Grant to me keenness of mind, capacity to remember, skill in learning, subtlety to interpret, and eloquence in speech. May You guide the beginning of my work, direct its progress, and bring it to completion.”

Vance’s Catholicism seems to be rubbing off on his running mate. Over the weekend, former President Donald Trump shared the prayer to Saint Michael the Archangel on the saint’s feast day. Pope Leo XIII wrote the prayer in the 1800s as a recourse for Christians seeking strength in times of darkness.

Trump’s promotion of the prayer surprised many and angered some, including former Labor Secretary Robert Reich, who tweeted: “Trump increasingly suggests that he is God’s chosen instrument of wrath and that his opponents are ‘evil spirits’ to be ‘cast into hell.’ If you don’t find this terrifying, you’re not paying attention.”

Catholics and Christians celebrated Trump on social media, particularly in light of the two recent assassination attempts on the former president’s life.

On September 8, Trump also celebrated the birth of the Mother of Jesus, posting “Happy Birthday Mary!” alongside a photo of “Our Lady of Guadalupe” on social media.