Changes in Pope’s Monthly Intentions

Since the late 1800’s the Pope has given a monthly prayer intention to the world through the Apostleship of Prayer, now known as the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network.  In 1929 he added a second intention for the missions.  Today these are called his “universal” and “evangelization” intentions.  

The process of soliciting suggestions from Vatican Congregations and from members around the world, then proposing them to the Holy Father, then receiving his final versions and translating them from Italian into various languages, then publicizing them via print—is a long process.  That is why the intentions for 2018 will be chosen and translated in early 2017. 

But a significant change has been made. Pope Francis is returning to the practice of one monthly intention; the twelve intentions for 2017, which alternate between evangelization and universal intentions, have already been published. However, given the speed of communication in the digital age, he is adding a second, urgent prayer intention that he will make known during his Angelus Address on the first Sunday of the month.  As soon as we hear what they are we will be publicizing them on our website and other social media. 

Fr. Frederic Fornos, S.J., the international director of the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network, sees this as a way that Pope Francis wants to confront “the culture of indifference” by focusing our prayerful attention on situations that are “more concrete, precise, current, related to actual circumstances.”

Eucharistic Devotions with Children

Today, as part of the 40 Hours Devotion and Parish Mission at St. Peter's Church in West Brandywine, PA, I met with each of the grades of the school. Each of the grades, except for one, had three classes each, so there were quite a few young people with whom I met. At 9:30 it was 3rd graders and at 10:00 it was 4th graders. The 1st graders came at 10:30, the 8th graders at 11:00, and the 7th graders at 11:30. I had to make quite an adjustment going from speaking to 1st graders to speaking to the 8th graders. At 1:00 it was the 5th grade, at 1:30 the 6th grade, and lastly, at 2:00, I had the 2nd graders who are preparing for First Holy Communion. Later this afternoon I'll have the PREP kids--Parish Religious Education Program.

Each class came quietly and reverently into the church where the Blessed Sacrament was exposed on the altar. I was impressed with their knowledge. The 2nd graders knew what the tabernacle was and they were able to name the monstrance. The 5th and 6th graders were able to say that the word "monstrance" comes from a Latin word, but they weren't able to say what it meant, though one came close, saying "display." It comes from the word for "to show" and I told the students that Jesus, who was normally hidden in the tabernacle, was showing himself to us on the altar. Therefore this was a special opportunity for us to pray.

I led the singing of "O Sacrament Most Holy" and an opening prayer and then asked them if they knew what the "Last Supper" was. Each class, from 1st to 8th grade, was able to answer that one. Then I read Luke's account of the Last Supper and asked them to listen for words that we hear many times even when we're not reading the Gospel. They were able to immediately recognize those words--"This is my Body"--and to place them in the Mass.

I told them that when the priest says those words at Mass he isn't talking about himself; rather, Jesus is speaking those words through the priest and changing the bread and wine into his Body and Blood. Then with each class I went through something that St. Thomas Aquinas says: that when we come to the Holy Eucharist, the Blessed Sacrament, we can trust only one of our five senses. Even the 1st graders knew the five senses. I asked: which of those five senses is the only one that St. Thomas says we can trust when we approach the Eucharist? It took most of the classes a little thought and a few wrong answers, but eventually I was able to help them see that the one sense that can be trusted is our hearing. When we see, taste, touch, or smell the Eucharist it will appear to be bread and wine. Many Catholics and most other Christians rely on those senses and conclude that the Eucharist is a symbol for the Body and Blood of Christ. But relying on the sense of hearing, we believe differently. We hear the words "This is my Body ... This is my Blood" and we believe what we hear because Jesus said it. I think this teaching of St. Thomas Aquinas spoke across the intervening seven centuries to the hearts of the young Catholics with whom I met today.

Making an act of faith in Jesus' presence in the monstrance, we knelt down and prayed silently, telling Jesus what was in our hearts--what we were grateful for or sorry for; how we or people we know need his help. After leading a prayer that included a "spiritual communion," I asked them to stand and we prayed together for various needs of the Church and the world. After they sat down I asked if any of them would be willing to share what they prayed for when we prayed silently to our Lord present in the Blessed Sacrament. Every child I called upon shared that he or she had prayed for someone else; they didn't mention themselves.

I encouraged them to pray for their pastor, Fr. Mike Fitzpatrick, and their bishop, Archbishop Charles Chaput, and then asked if they knew the name of the other bishop for whom we pray at every Mass. With a little coaching they were able to name Pope Benedict. I asked them: if the Pope, who is the leader of all Catholics around the world, asked them to pray for something, would they? As they nodded "yes" I told them that every month the Pope asks us to pray for two very specific and special intentions and I told them about the February intentions. I gave the teachers leaflets with the whole year's papal intentions and told the students about the Apostleship of Prayer's web site with a Kid's Page that explains the intentions and provides an activity to help children remember them.

It has been a full day and it isn't over yet. It's also been a very blessed day. I wish everyone could have the opportunity to share Eucharistic devotions with out little brothers and sisters.

Rome to Home and Home to Rome

Today I spoke to the MOPS group at St. Monica's parish in the Milwaukee area. MOPS stands for "Mothers of Pre-Schoolers" and about 17 young women who meet every month gathered for a presentation that was designed to help the group to understand the Church better and to see how Rome connects to their daily lives. The timing was perfect because today is the feast of the Chair of St. Peter.

The role of a mother is critical for society. Mothers are the first educators of their children. Some of the first words they teach their children include lessons about how to relate to others: "please" and "thank you" and "share with your brothers and sisters." All of these contain a standard of right and wrong. They are part of the first moral training of a child.

We live in what some have called an "age of relativism." "You have your truth and I have mine." The words of Pilate during his interrogation of Jesus are words that are commonly repeated today: "What is truth?" Once having agreed that there is an objective truth with objective values that tell us what is right and what is wrong, we naturally ask, "How do we know the truth? How do we know the truth about God and about ourselves, our human nature? How are we to know the truth about how we are to live?"

Many Christians will say that the Bible is "the pillar and foundation of the truth." That is where we are to go to find the answers. Yet this doesn't help us because there are so many different and conflicting ways of interpreting various Bible passages. And the Bible itself never states that it is "the pillar and foundation of the truth." What does the Bible say about this? St. Paul, in his First Letter to Timothy 3:15 is very clear. He tells Timothy that if he is delayed in visiting, he "should know how to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of truth." If we want to know the truth, we go to the Church.

Jesus said much the same thing when, at the Last Supper, He told the apostles that He was "the way and the truth and the life" (John 14: 6). Jesus is not dead and gone. He is alive and present in the Church which is His Body. He is the vine and we are the branches (see John 15: 5). He is the Head and we, the baptized, are members of His Body. So Jesus, Truth itself, is in the Church and has sent the Holy Spirit to reveal the truth through the Church. Jesus also said at the Last Supper: "I have much more to tell you, but you cannot bear it now. But when he comes, the Spirit of truth, he will guide you to all truth" (John 16: 12-13).

Today we celebrate the "Chair of St. Peter," not a piece of furniture but the authority to teach the truth. Jesus gave this authority to Peter, according to Matthew 16: 18-19, when Jesus told Peter: "I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven." Then, again at the Last Supper, after Jesus celebrated the New Passover and predicted His betrayal and his disciples started arguing about which of them was the greatest, Jesus taught them that the greatest among them was the servant of all. Then he told Simon Peter that "Satan has demanded to sift all of you like wheat, but I have prayed that your own faith may not fail; and once you have turned back, you must strengthen your brothers" (Luke 31-32). Clearly the power that will be at work in Peter won't be a human power, but divine. The power is one of loving service. St. Peter and his successors are to be the servants of the servants of God, teaching the truth with love and ensuring unity among the faithful.

Our family or Church history shows that this power is divine and not human. We've had schisms in which there were three popes at the same time. We've had a time when the Pope, the Bishop of Rome, lived in Avignon, France, and St. Catherine of Siena had to confront the one whom she called "Sweet Christ on earth" and tell him the Lord wanted him to return to Rome. This checkered history notwithstanding, "the netherworld," the forces of darkness and evil, have not prevailed against the Church built upon St. Peter and his successors. If we want to know the truth, we need to stay close to the Chair of St. Peter. We should go to the source for information about Church teaching. Don't trust what is written in the secular media but first go to the Vatican web site and read the Pope's words for yourself. Stay close to the Chair.

Besides providing true teaching, Rome also comes to the home by expanding our horizons. Our age tends to be very individualistic. We think in terms of ourselves, our parish, our diocese, and we are challenged to see that we are part of a worldwide family of God.

When St. Ignatius Loyola and his first followers decided to stay together as a new religious community, they went to the Pope to ask him where they should serve. They went to the one who had the big picture, who could see the needs of the universal Church.

When I give parish missions and visit the grade schools, I ask the children if they ever pray for others. After eliciting some of their prayer concerns, I ask if they ever pray for their pastor or their bishop. I tell them that at every Mass we mention the bishop by name in our prayers and we also mention the Pope. Then I ask them: "If the Pope asked you to pray for something, would you?" The answer is always a resounding "YES" at which point I tell them that every month the Pope has two particular prayer intentions for which he wants us to pray.

This is the work of the Apostleship of Prayer--to publicize these monthly intentions and to help people pray for them. From our beginnings in 1844, this prayer was not only of the mind, but also of our hearts and bodies. By means of the Morning Offering, we take each moment of the day--each thought and activity--and make of it a prayerful offering for the work of the Church and in particular for the Pope's monthly intentions. In that way, every moment of our days becomes part of the great work of evangelization and salvation. This is what St. Therese, whom many know as the Little Flower and who enrolled in the Apostleship when she was twelve, did. With the Morning Offering and prayer for the Pope's monthly intentions, we realize that we are not alone or isolated. We are part of a worldwide prayer community that's been estimated to number at least 50 million people. We pray for the Pope and for one another with each Morning Offering and we try to consciously live that offering during the day and then review it in the evening.

Rome to Home. The Pope teaches us the truth that we then share with our children. Home to Rome. We offer ourselves, our days, and our prayers for the Holy Father who shares with us his concerns through the monthly intentions.

Culture of Vocations Revisited

Last June I posted an entry entitled "A Culture of Vocations" in which I wrote about how the Daily or Morning Offering can help foster an environment in which young people can begin to see that life is about "giving" rather than "taking." Such a mindset will lead to generous vocations to the priesthood, consecrated life, marriage, and, yes, the life of the single lay person who faithfully lives out his or her baptismal promises. Tomorrow I will be giving a talk at a staff retreat for the Institute on Religious Life and I plan on expanding on this topic of creating a culture of vocations.

I believe that the Eucharistic spirituality of the Apostleship of Prayer can play an essential role in creating a culture that 1)helps Catholics see that everyone who is baptized has a vocation, and 2) helps young people to be open to a vocation to priesthood or consecrated life. How does this happen? In five movements.

First, we begin with a knowledge of God's love. It is a deep and personal love that is revealed most clearly through the pierced side of the Crucified Jesus who continues to show us his love in the Eucharist and his Sacred Heart. A deeper knowledge of this love is essential for a "vocation friendly culture." Besides promoting devotion to the Heart of Jesus, I also lead people through the "Spiritual Exercises" of St. Ignatius. In both of these I see the words of an early Church Father named Diadochus come to life: "The measure of our love for God depends upon how deeply aware we are of God's love for us."

Knowing the love of God in a deeper way leads to a response. Devotion to the Sacred Heart entails making a consecration, individually or as a family, and then periodically renewing that consecration or offering. The "Spiritual Exercises" culminate in a prayer of offering known as the "Suscipe:" Take, Lord, and receive all my liberty, my memory, my understanding, and my entire will, all that I have and possess. Thou hast given all to me. To Thee, O Lord, I return it. All is Thine, dispose of it wholly according to Thy will. Give me only Thy love and Thy grace, for this is sufficient for me. Out of a deeper awareness of God's love for us flows the response of a total gift of self which is at the heart of every vocation. The Daily or Morning Offering is one way to keep this gift of self fresh.

The third movement involves living this offering in daily life. Whether one is young or old, lay or ordained, married or consecrated or single, each of us is called to make every moment of our day an act of worship, an offering to God. The "Suscipe" or vows (marriage or religious) or Morning Offering--these need to be lived in the moments of daily life. Thus we strive throughout the day to be aware of how we are being called to make an offering of "our prayers, works, joys, and sufferings," as the traditional Morning Offering puts it.

The fourth movement is at the end of the day when we review it. The Examen, Evening Review, or Examination of Conscience asks the basic question which reinforces our response to God's love: "What have I offered to God today?" Some of what was part of the day we offered may make us happy. We are pleased that we offered something that surely pleases God. We share in the pleasure God has in our offering. But some of what became part of the day we offered may not be so pleasing to us or to God. We may be ashamed of some things that became part of the day we offered to God. These are the things that are not worthy of God--our faults and failings and sins. By reviewing our daily offering with both gratitude and contrition we end the day reminding ourselves of our basic identity as Christians who are called, as St. Paul wrote, to offer ourselves "as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God" (Romans 12: 1). This daily review also nurtures the habit of discernment by which we more easily see God's presence and direction in our daily lives. Discernment is another important element of the culture of vocations.

Lastly, our response or offering has a communal dimension to it. We make this offering in union with Jesus who offers himself in every Mass and in union with the whole Church, the Body of Christ. Part of a culture of vocations is having this ecclesial mindset and it is fostered in the Apostleship of Prayer when we make our Daily Offering for the Holy Father's monthly intentions. These prayer requests of the Vicar of Christ help us to think with the Church and to see ourselves at the service of the Church.

To sum up: the Apostleship of Prayer's Five Step Method for Creating a Culture of Vocations is:

1. To know God's love revealed in the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
2. To respond to that love with an offering of oneself.
3. To renew that offering through the events, prayers, and works of each day.
4. To review the day's offering in the evening.
5. To serve the Church by praying for the Pope's monthly intentions.

Missionary Sisters of St. Peter Claver

On the various trips I take to give parish missions, retreats, and talks I make new friends and meet new groups. This morning I concelebrated Mass at a convent of the Missionary Sisters of St. Peter Claver. Before meeting the Sisters I learned a bit more about them and what I learned made me look forward to our meeting.

First, they publish a very good bi-monthly magazine called "Echoes from Africa and Other Continents." In it they publicize the monthly prayer intentions of the Holy Father.

Secondly, they are named after the Jesuit saint who ministered to African slaves in Colombia.

Thirdly, their foundress, Blessed Mary Theresa Ledochowska, was the sister of Fr. Wlodomir Ledochowski who as the General Superior of the Jesuit Order from 1915 to 1942.

These Sisters promote mission awareness and I look forward to working with them to do the same through the monthly mission intentions of the Holy Father.

Baptismal Consecration

Yesterday morning and today, as part of the parish mission I'm giving in Affton, Missouri, I went around to the grade school classrooms to talk about baptism. Most of the students had no memory of their own baptism, but in a few cases there were students who had been baptized as children, and in some other cases they had been present at the baptisms of their siblings. They remembered that the ceremony included water, oil, a candle, and a white garment.

We then talked about the oil, the sacred chrism. I asked them: "Besides baptism, what other three times is sacred chrism used?" The easiest of the three other times was the sacrament of confirmation. With a little prompting they were able to figure out the third time--at the ordination of a new priest. But they had trouble with the fourth time. An eighth grader was the only one to answer: "At the blessing of a new church."

Sacred chrism is very special. It is used to anoint the walls of a new church, setting that space aside for a holy purpose. It's used to anoint the altar of the new church, setting it aside for a holy purpose. It's used to anoint the hands of a newly ordained priest, setting them aside for God's service, the holy purpose of offering the sacraments. And it's used to anoint the heads of the baptized and the confirmed, setting these Christians aside for a holy purpose, consecrating them for God's service. One of the ways that we serve God and fulfill the holy purpose that we've been given in baptism and confirmation is to pray.

At this point in our little baptismal lesson I asked the children if they ever prayed for other people and they went through a survey of the people for whom they pray. Then I showed them how at every Mass we pray for the local bishop and for the pope. This is a general kind of prayer and I asked them: "If the pope asked you to pray for something would you?" The answer I get is usually a pretty spontaneous and enthusiastic "yes!" And then I told them about the very specific monthly prayer requests of the pope. In some cases I was able to show the students the Apostleship of Prayer web site and how to get to the "Kids' Page" or the "Teenagers' Page." And I left every teacher with a leaflet that has the pope's intentions for the year and with the encouragement to remind their students about those intentions at the beginning of each month.

The Pope's Prayer Group

The March 17, 1991 issue of the periodical "Catholic Twin Circle" had an article written by Fr. Herbert Smith, S.J. It was entitled "The Pope's Own Prayer Group." It told the history of the Apostleship of Prayer and the annual process by which the Pope gives to the Church and the world two very specific monthly intentions. Given the fact that the Apostleship of Prayer has prayed for these monthly intentions of the Holy Father for over a century, the name, "The Pope's Prayer Group," is fitting.

Recently Fr. Claudio Barriga, S.J., our international leader, had a new idea. Since the monthly intentions are chosen well in advance of the actual month, how about encouraging people to join the Holy Father in praying for his urgent prayer intentions that periodically come up? It seemed like a good idea to us and so last fall we began to publish Pope Benedict's urgent prayer requests on the home page of our web site. Last week, when the earthquake struck Haiti, we immediately went into action.

The quake hit on Tuesday. On Wednesday, in his weekly General Audience, Pope Benedict asked the world to join him in special prayers for the people of Haiti. That same day I received an email message from a friend in California whose husband is a member of the board of directors of Catholic Relief Services. Her message included an internal brief from Catholic Relief Services that included information as well as a prayer. On Thursday we sent out an email to our members and we posted on our web site Pope Benedict's urgent prayer request for Haiti as well as news, quotes from the Holy Father, and an adapted version of the CRS prayer. Our posting was picked up almost immediately by Fr. Jim Martin, S.J., an associate editor at "America" magazine, who added the prayer to his blog. Another blog called "The Deacon's Bench" picked the prayer up from there and the Facebook site for the Society of Jesus also posted the prayer. Then the influential blog "Whispers in the Loggia" posted the prayer.

I've been deeply consoled to be a part of this new dimension of "The Pope's Prayer Group." As we continue to connect people with the Holy Father's concerns and the needs of the world, I am praying that people will not only pray for Haiti but that their prayer will lead them to do something to help. That's why we posted information about donating to Catholic Relief Services as well as their beautiful prayer.

Papal Intentions 2011

That's right! It's that time of year when we begin work on next year's monthly intentions from the Holy Father. On December 31 Pope Benedict met with Fr. Adolfo Nicolas, the General Superior of the Jesuits and General Director of the Apostleship of Prayer. The Holy Father gave him 24 intentions for next year, 2011. They were written in Italian and in the past they were translated into English and other languages by the Vatican Information Service. Unfortunately the translations, not having been done by native English speakers, sounded odd at times. We asked Fr. Nicolas' International Secretary for the Apostleship, Fr. Claudio Barriga, S.J., if we could translate the intentions in order to make sure that they sounded good to English speakers and to ensure that there was one English version that everyone could use. Happily, the Vatican agreed to our proposal and today we sent our English translation of the 2011 intentions to our international office in Rome which in turn forwarded it to the Vatican. Dr. Douglas Leonard, the director of operations of the Apostleship of Prayer in the U.S., and I used an initial translation from the original Italian which Fr. John Belmonte, S.J., did for us. Fr. Belmonte studied in Rome and continues to serve the Italian communities of Milwaukee and Chicago. He is currently the principal of Marquette University High School in Milwaukee and next week I'll be taking him out to dinner. Italian, of course!

Children's Prayers

I've always thought that the prayers of children are especially powerful. With that in mind, when I'm giving parish missions, I always make myself available to talk to the grade school children about the Apostleship of Prayer. I usually begin my presentation by asking them, "Who do you pray for?" The most common responses are for sick family members, deceased grandparents, a friend, our soldiers, and pets. I ask them if they would pray for something that the Pope asked them to pray for and, of course, they all raise their hands and give a resounding "yes!" And then I ask the question that brings silence: "Did you know that every month the Pope has two special intentions that he wants you to pray for?" Unfortunately I've yet to meet a child who knows this. The Apostleship of Prayer really has its work cut out for it!

The other day, as I met with the children at St. Paul's Grade School in Danville, IL, I was able to share with them something new. In 2004 we began having a Children's Page on our web site. We tried to explain the Holy Father's intentions to children. Starting this month, with the help of Stephanie our administrative assistant and her sister Stacey, who recently provided the illustrations for our new Sacred Heart children's booklet, we now have a much more engaging "kids' page." Each month there will be simple reflections to help children understand the Holy Father's General and Mission Intentions and questions for them to think and pray about. And then there comes the "fun" part. Each intention has a word search and a coloring page. All of these things are in pdf format and can be downloaded. You can find them here: http://www.apostleshipofprayer.org/reflectionsChildren.html

When I projected these images on the screen in the audio visual room, the reaction was immediate and positive: "Cooooool!" Then I showed them the YouTube daily video reflection for September 1, when I reflected on being at the Minnesota State Fair. They enjoyed that and afterwards I heard that one of the things the kids most enjoyed about the presentation was that there was a priest showing them "good stuff" on the Internet and YouTube.

That's what we're trying to do. Like St. Paul, we're trying to bring the message to people of all ages wherever they are.