2024 – Year of Prayer
Pope Francis has asked that 2024 be marked as a Year of Prayer.
The Holy Father revealed its inauguration on Sunday, January 21, 2024, during the fifth annual observance of the ‘Sunday of the Word of God‘, in these words: “The coming months will lead us to the opening of the Holy Door, with which we will begin the Jubilee. I ask you to intensify your prayer to prepare us to live this event of grace well and to experience the power of God’s hope there. This is why we are beginning today the Year of Prayer, that is, a year dedicated to rediscovering the great value and the absolute need for prayer in personal life, in the life of the Church and of the world. We will also be helped by the subsidies that the Dicastery for Evangelization will make available.”
Previously, in a correspondence dated February 11, 2022, addressed to Archbishop Rino Fisichella, the Pro-prefect, the Pope entrusted the organization of the Jubilee to the Dicastery for Evangelization. In his letter, the Pope expressed his contentment with the idea that the year preceding the Jubilee event, 2024, would be dedicated to a grand “symphony” of prayer.
The primary aim of this symphony is to reignite the longing for the presence of the Lord, to attentively listen to Him, and to worship Him. As a preparation for the Jubilee, each individual diocese is encouraged to promote the importance of both individual and communal prayer throughout the year.
The supporting material
The Dicastery has provided a variety of helpful resources to assist individuals in gaining a deeper understanding of prayer and rediscovering its value. In addition to the 38 catecheses on Prayer delivered by Pope Francis himself from May 6, 2020, to June 16, 2021, the Vatican publishing house, Libreria Editrice Vaticana, is publishing a series of booklets titled “Notes on Prayer”. These eight booklets have been created with the intention of bringing the necessity of a profound relationship with the Lord to the forefront of people’s lives. They explore the different forms of prayer found within the rich Catholic tradition of prayer. The volumes will be available soon in English (translated by the Indian Episcopal Conference), in Spanish (published by Biblioteca de Autores Cristianos and Sociedad de San Pablo and translated by the Mexican Episcopal Conference), in Portuguese (translated by the Brazilian Episcopal Conference).
Additionally, an online pastoral aid is available in digital form to assist parish communities, families, priests, cloistered nuns, and young people in developing a greater awareness of the need for daily prayer.
Images
- Photo by Olga Kononenko on Unsplash