“Poor Holy Father, we must pray very much for him.” – St. Jacinta Marta
As Catholics, most of us have pondered the enormous weight the pope carries on his shoulders. Throughout the Church’s history there has never been an easy time to occupy the Chair of Peter. Knowing this moves our hearts to pray for the pope, to pray for those intentions which most burden his heart, and especially those for which he has asked us to pray.
Each month the pope shares a new intention, inviting us into the ministry of prayer with him and the whole Church. These intentions are released by the Vatican annually and can be found on several websites including the USCCB’s. Many of us pray for the pope’s intentions generically with our daily rosary, or elsewhere in our daily prayer. This is good. Praying for his specific monthly intention adds a dimension of unity with our Holy Father and draws us into the heart of the Church.
The Apostleship of Prayer: Be a Missionary Right Where God Has You Now
In 1844 a French priest, Fr. Gautrelet, SJ, gave his theology students a homily that encouraged them to view their time of study as just as effective in the work of evangelization as they hoped their missionary lives would one day be:
If each one infuses his labors with the spirit of prayer and makes of them an offering; if several jointly direct themselves in the same way, there would be a convergence of power capable of lifting up mountains! Be missionaries already through your prayer, by the offering of your daily life. Your mission is here and now, in your studies and the little things of every day. In fulfilling it through being open to the will of God, you are already apostles who are helping the entire Church. Pray for the people you will meet tomorrow.
According to the Pope’s Prayer Network, USA, Fr. Gautrelet’s vision of prayer as mission, “very quickly transformed the community . . . from that moment on, what was called the Apostleship of Prayer spread like wildfire, first in the surrounding country villages where the young Jesuits passed on this way of praying rooted in daily life, then throughout the world.”
The Apostleship of Prayer was officially recognized by Pope Pius IX in 1849. By 1890 Pope Leo XIII began entrusting his monthly prayer intentions to this apostolate, and every pope since has continued the tradition. Recently the name the Pope’s Worldwide Network of Prayer was adopted, but the focus remains the same: calling Catholics to deeper prayer for all the suffering peoples and vast needs of our world:
In the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network, we are invited to a mission of compassion for the world, praying and mobilizing for the challenges facing humanity and the mission of the Church. This requires that we allow ourselves to become vulnerable, to be deeply moved by what our brothers and sisters around the world are experiencing.
Prayer is the Mission of the Church
To be truly good, the works of the Church must start from prayer. It is in prayer that God can change our hearts and minds, aligning them more closely to his, and helping us to know what to do next. Sometimes prayer is the “only” thing God is asking of us. Sometimes it is just the beginning of a journey His grace will lead us on, one step at a time. Always, prayer will draw us deeper into union with our Holy Father, the Church, and into the Heart of Christ our Lord.
As Catholics, most of us have experienced the power of prayer. Perhaps you have experienced the grace that God gives when a group of people pray together for a specific intention. By that grace, minds and hearts change, opening the situation to new possibilities. The unity caused by this movement of the Holy Spirit through prayer can be more important than the “answer” to prayer itself.
Following the lead of the Pope’s Worldwide Network of Prayer, we can be missionaries capable of “lifting up mountains,” as Fr. Gautrelet would say, amid our everyday routines. Whether our Holy Father is asking us to pray for peace among nations, the careful use of technology, those with mental illness or any other intention, engaging in that prayer answers our call to be apostolic in mission, right where God has planted us in our ordinary lives.
Because Pope Francis was still alive at the beginning of 2025, this year’s intentions are his. When the new intentions for 2026 are released, they will come from the office of Pope Leo XIV. Praying this year’s intentions are an especially poignant way to honor our late Holy Father while we support Pope Leo in his new role as head of the Church. The intention for September is:
For Our Relationship with All of Creation
Let us pray that, inspired by St. Francis, we might experience our interdependence with all creatures who are loved by God and worthy of love and respect. Amen.
May this intention inform our prayer and work as Christians this month and always.
Lord Jesus, you have given us the Holy Father as your representative on earth. With this enormous grace comes enormous responsibility for him and for us. Help us to offer our support for him and all his intentions by praying along with him, thankful to fulfill this mission you have entrusted to us for your glory, the salvation of souls, and for the good of the Church.
Author’s Note: You can sign up to have the pope’s intentions emailed to you each month.
Image from Wikimedia Commons
