POPE CHANGES HISTORIC MONTHLY PRAYER INTENTION FORMAT
Writing on his Apostleship of Prayer blog, “Offer it up,” Father James Kubicki, SJ national director of the Apostleship, explains a notable change in the format that has been used for quite some time for monthly papal prayer intensions.
“Since the late 1800’s,” he writes, “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,” Fr. Kubicki then notes.
He explains that “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. Kubicki cites a fellow Jesuit, Fr. Frederic Fornos, the international director of the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network, who, he says, “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.”
From the Apostleship of Prayer website:
THE POPE’S MONTHLY PRAYER INTENTIONS – January 2017
- · Pope’s Prayer Intention – Christian Unity: That all Christians may be faithful to the Lord’s teaching by striving with prayer and fraternal charity to restore ecclesial communion and by collaborating to meet the challenges facing humanity.
- · Urgent Intention – Homeless People Affected by the Cold: That in these days of such great cold that we think of all the people living on the streets, affected by the cold and by the indifference of others. We pray for them and ask the Lord to warm the hearts of others to help them.
Here is a video for Pope Francis’ January 2017 intention, published on January 9 – Christians Serving Humanity: http://thepopevideo.org/
English translation: In today’s world, Christians from various churches work together to serve humanity in need, to defend human life and its dignity, to defend creation, and to combat injustice. This desire to walk together, to collaborate in service and in solidarity with the weakest and with those who suffer, is a source of joy for us all. Join your voice to mine in praying for all who contribute through prayer and fraternal charity to restoring full ecclesial communion in service of the challenges facing humanity.
The Apostleship of Prayer was set up in 1844 by a group of Jesuit seminarians at Vals, France.
The Apostleship website notes that, “Since 1844 our mission has been to help Christians live out their desire to serve God with their whole lives and their whole selves. God asks us all to pray for ourselves and for others. To make ourselves a living sacrifice and to pray without ceasing for all the needs of the Church and for the whole world. Since the nineteenth century popes have asked the Apostleship of Prayer to pray for specific intentions. We receive two prayer intentions each month from the Holy Father, pledging ourselves to pray for them every day.
In 2006, the board of the Apostleship of Prayer approved this statement of our mission:
The mission of the Apostleship of Prayer is to encourage Christians to make a daily offering of themselves to the Lord for the coming of God’s Kingdom and for the Holy Father’s monthly intentions. This habit of prayer encourages a Eucharistic spirituality of solidarity with the Body of Christ and loving service to others. Nourishing this spiritual program is the love of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
For more information: http://www.apostleshipofprayer.org/
L.A. AUXILIARY BISHOP MAKES HISTORY
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis has named an auxiliary bishop of Los Angeles – Oscar Azarcon Solis – as the tenth Bishop of Salt Lake City, United States.
Bishop Solis will be the first Filipino-American Bishop to lead a Diocese in the United States.
He said: “It’s a beautiful thing to receive the appointment. It’s a recognition of the diversity of the Church in America and the universality of the Church. It is a tremendous blessing and a responsibility and a privilege to be of service to the local Church in the United States of America, coming from the Philippines.”
Bishop Solis was born October 13, 1953 in San Jose, Nueva Ecija, Philippines.He attended the Christ the King Seminary of the Society of the Divine Word, Tagaytag City, to study philosophy and the Pontifical Royal Seminary at the University of Saint Thomas in Manila for his theological studies.
Bishop Solis was ordained a priest on 28 April 1979 for the Diocese of Cabanatuan and served as chaplain to a number of organisations, as Prefect of Seminary Studies and as Diocesan Vocations Director.
In 1984, he emigrated to the United States and until 1988 he was a Parochial Vicar in the Archdiocese of Newark, New Jersey. Later, he was incardinated into the Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux, Louisiana, in 1992, where he served in four different parishes.
Bishop Solis was named as an auxiliary bishop for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and was ordained on February 10, 2004. He was the first Filipino-American bishop ordained in the United States.
In 2009 he was named Episcopal Vicar for the San Pedro Region and has served on the Subcommittee on Asian and Pacific Affairs at the US Conference of Catholic Bishops.
Bishop Solis will be officially installed at the Cathedral of the Madeleine, Salt Lake City, on Tuesday, March 7.
Joan's Rome 