Routine prayer is one of the distinguishing features of Catholic religious practice. However, it has been assumed that prayer is embedded in an institutional context with formal and set modes of performance. The everyday significance of prayer is not often examined closely. This paper argues that prayer assumes added significance in the context of Catholic motherhood practice. Based on ethnographic fieldwork in Kerala, India, examining Catholic prayer in its various individual, group, communal and familial iterations with its different forms and functions, the paper tries to establish that prayer works to shape the Catholic mother in foundational ways and that it is a crucial constituent of everyday mothering practice among Catholic women in Kerala. Further, the paper argues that the religious act of prayer is understood and performed as essential care labour by mothers on behalf of their children. For Catholic mothers, prayer is a constant and everyday activity that is active, effective and real and has implications for their children's health and well-being. Prayer, while being a routine and ritual sanctioned by religion, also has an embodied and emotional component to it as work done on behalf of and for one's children. From praying on one's knees during illnesses and exams to texting Bible verses daily, mothers perform physical and emotional labour through prayer for their children. Prayer is an expression of maternal love and care and is considered as significant as any work a mother undertakes for her children. Thus, understanding prayer as care resignifies what is imagined as everyday maternal care work while also enriching the understanding about the evolving nature of prayer as an everyday practice. Moreover, the significance of prayer as an affective component in motherhood practice has implications to better understanding how the Catholic church in Kerala functions to address challenges from perceived threats such as migration and intermarriages.