About the Pope's Worldwide Prayer Network

Prayer Resources

To order copies of our Daily Prayer Pathway card and other useful resources, just send us a message on the Contact page (UK nations only).

The Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network (formerly the Apostleship of Prayer) is the largest prayer-group in the church, active in 97 countries. We pray and work to meet the challenges of the world identified by the Pope in his monthly intentions, while walking a spiritual path called the “Way of the Heart.” Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Christ has been at the heart of our mission since our beginnings, over 175 years ago!

Each morning, apostles of prayer offer the day ahead to the Heart of Christ, in union with the Pope’s Intention for the month. In the evening, following the insights of St.Ignatius of Loyola, we review the day prayerfully, to grow in awareness of Christ’s call and our response. For this, we can use the Daily Prayer Pathway.

It’s a Pontifical Service entrusted to the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) by the Holy See. After a process of renovation begun by Pope Benedict XVI and the then-General of the Jesuits, Fr.Adolfo Nicolas SJ, RiP, its new Statutes were confirmed by Pope Francis, at a major gathering in in Rome on the Feast of the Sacred Heart, June 2019. We are now a Pontifical Foundation, a canonical and Vatican legal entity.

At that international gathering, The Pope reminded us that “the heart of the Church’s mission is prayer” and the current Jesuit General, Fr.Arturo Sosa SJ, re-affirmed the Jesuits’ commitment to this work.

What’s our mission? What do we do? You’ll find a lot in the pages of this site. We make known and pray the intentions of the Holy Father for the challenges that face society and the mission of the church. As the largest prayer-group in the Church, we offer our Prayer Pathway, a way of the heart, as a tool for shaping our hearts to become more like the heart of Christ, open in compassion for everyone and all of creation.

On the First Friday of each month we release The Pope Video in which Pope Francis personally presents his Intention for the month. You can see those videos on this site and on its own YouTube channel. Each First Friday is a World Day of Prayer in the church for the Pope’s Intention of that month. Our Click-to-Pray website and downloadable Apps offers 3 moment of prayer each day and lots of other features.

Welcome to our site and to praying with Pope Francis, together with hundreds of thousands of Apostles of Prayer worldwide! Don’t hesitate to get in touch. And let’s pray for each other too!

Identity, Vision, Mission

Identity: The Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network addresses the challenges facing humanity and assists the mission of the Church. Vision: To pray and work to meet the challenges of the world identified by the Pope. His intentions are keys for our prayer and mission. Mission: You are apostles in daily life, walking a spiritual path called “Way of the Heart,” working to serve Christ’s mission.

The AP is the Pope's Worldwide Prayer Network

What are the sense and purpose of the Pope's prayer intentions?

An intention is the will and determination to act. The Pope’s intentions, the challenges to humanity and the mission of the Church, express will and determination to act. They seek to expand the worldwide network of prayer and mobilize people to build a world where human values prevail together with those Jesus embodied in the Gospel. The World Prayer Network opens each month with a WORLD DAY OF PRAYER for new intentions. During all the days of that month, prayer puts the world in motion. “We pray together and we put action to our prayers. We give sense and purpose to our days.”

Keys to put my prayer in action

The intentions of each month are keys to live our faith in daily life, joining action to our prayers. Each intention presents to us a challenge that gives PURPOSE to the month. We begin every morning by making a daily offering. This prayer makes us conscious of our call to apostolic courage so that we can take responsibility for our words and actions. Ask God to grace, we assume the task ahead of us. We find in the intentions, Pope Francis’ challenges to humanity, a spiritual path for our days.

World Day of Prayer

The prayer intentions of the Pope expressing the challenges of our world move people to action. The intentions are not just intellectual ideas or mere words. They are calls to concrete action in the here and now, actions taken together. Because true spiritual growth is never isolated or individual, we pray together on the first Friday of each month. We pray together as a network of people from all continents and cultures for the challenges of the world.

A way of making ourselves inwardly ready for Christ's mission

The source and model for this readiness is Jesus Christ given to us and for us, constantly making himself present to us in the Eucharist. Receiving his life leads us, in gratitude, to offer our own lives daily to the Father. Which the Church offers to all Christians to help them to be friends and apostles of the Risen Jesus in their daily lives, and awakens the missionary zeal. It leads them to a covenant of personal love, symbolized by his Heart. The AP invites us to live with an inner attitude of apostolic readiness that is the fruit of love. It must come from a personal and intimate relationship with the Crucified and Risen Lord where I find myself loved and I offer my availability as a loving response. The AP invites us to live a Eucharistic life. In the Eucharist we encounter Jesus giving out his life for us, supreme source and inspiration for our apostolic readiness. When we celebrate the Eucharistic memorial we unite ourselves in a privileged way to Jesus, for we celebrate the Father’s initiative to join our history to his own history in order to heal us. The encounter with Jesus reconciles us, frees us from the bonds that constrain us, and makes us capable of offering our lives to the service of his mission. The AP invites us to join a worldwide network in which millions pray with the Pope for the challenges he points out to us in his monthly prayer intentions. These prayer intentions open us to the urgent needs of the Church and humanity. They lead us to commit our lives in favor of the justice of the Kingdom, in resonance with the theme of the monthly intention. The AP invites us also to collaborate with all who work for greater brotherhood and justice, even those from other religious traditions. The AP as a Church service entrusted by the Holy Father to the Society of Jesus is commended to spread these intentions, even while it remains a school of prayer and intercession, for the challenges for humanity.

The AP is a spiritual way

To help us be ever more available to the mission of the Risen Lord, even in small, everyday matters, the AP invites us to follow some spiritual practices and a school of formation we have called A way of the heart(see below). These practices open us to the Holy Spirit who works towards uniting our life and our heart to the life and heart of Jesus. They invite us to offer to the Father, together with Jesus, simply but radically, all that we are and possess - The Way of the Heart.