Meeting with the delegation, the Pope challenged them to help individuals and communities live the Jubilee Year with a spirit of prayer and compassion.
By Kielce Gussie
Each month, the Pope’s prayer intentions are published. For example, for the month of January 2025, the intention is for the right to an education.
On the morning of January 23rd, a delegation from the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network – the organization responsible for publishing these monthly intentions – met with Pope Francis in the Apostolic Palace of the Vatican.
A two-fold journey of the heart
Greeting the new Director of the Network and all the members, the Pope expressed his gratitude that his most recent encyclical, Dilexit Nos, was received joyfully by the group. He explained the letter can provide “substantial nourishment for fostering the spirituality” of the organization’s apostolate.
A member of the Worldwide Prayer Network presents the Pope a number of prayer cards
Pope Francis reflected on how the Worldwide Prayer Network calls the encyclical letter, “The Way of the Heart,” with a twofold meaning. The first is that “it is the journey of Jesus, of his Sacred Heart, through the mystery of his incarnation, passion, death and resurrection.” Secondly, it is the journey of our own hearts, “wounded by sin, which allow themselves to be conquered and transformed by love.”
Mary as our guide
On both journeys, the Pope said Mary guides us because she has gone before us on this pilgrimage of faith and hope. As the Gospel of Luke notes that Mary kept all of Jesus’ words and actions, “reflecting on them in her heart,” Pope Francis highlighted how Mary teaches each and every one of us to do the same.
Jubilee and prayer
In light of the Jubilee Year and the specific Jubilee for Communication to be held January 24-26, the Pope stressed the Worldwide Prayer Network has an important role to play. Their job is to help everyone – individuals and communities alike – live the Jubilee “as a journey in which prayer and compassion, prayer and closeness to the least among us, prayer and works of mercy are inseparably combined.”
