Have you ever heard about the pope’s prayer group? It’s the largest prayer group in the world, involving tens of millions of people who pray every day for the pope and for his two monthly prayer intentions. It’s called the Apostleship of Prayer.

Years ago many people were familiar with the Apostleship, primarily through Sacred Heart badges, leaflets that publicized the pope’s monthly intentions, and the practice of starting one’s day by praying the Morning Offering which was pasted on many a bathroom mirror.

St. Therese of Lisieux

The Apostleship of Prayer began in a Jesuit seminary in France 1844. The Jesuit seminarians were excited because they had just read letters from Jesuit missionaries who were spreading the Gospel and baptizing thousands in India, just as another Jesuit, St. Francis Xavier, had done three centuries before. They were so inspired to follow in the footsteps of these missionaries that they began going to the library not to study for their philosophy and theology classes but to read all they could find about India. Some even complained about wasting their time studying philosophy.

Their spiritual director, Fr. Francois-Xavier Gautrelet, challenged them. He told them that the work of the missions depended on prayer and sacrifice. It was a spiritual fruit that needed to be watered by the spiritual means which they had at hand right then and there. Gautrelet encouraged them: “Don’t wait to be apostles! Be apostles of prayer!” He instructed them to make an offering of their entire day with all its prayers and works, its joys and sufferings, as a prayer for the spread of the Gospel. Even the work that at the moment seemed so pointless would acquire great power because it would be joined to the perfect offering of Jesus on Calvary and at every Mass.

The idea caught on and spread. On October 15, 1885 a twelve year old French girl enrolled in the Apostleship of Prayer and began offering up her day with its prayers and sacrifices. We know her today as St. Therese, the Little Flower, who inspired Blessed Teresa of Calcutta to teach that what mattered was not doing big things but making sure that everything was done as an act of love for God

At this time the Apostleship began giving a monthly prayer intention to its members, thus harnessing the prayer power of millions for very specific needs. Seeing this great spiritual resource, Pope Leo XIII began making these intentions his own and thus began the tradition of a monthly papal prayer intention.

In 1928 the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith asked Pope Pius XI to add a second intention, specifically for the missions. He did so in 1929 and since that time the pope has given the world each month a general and a mission intention. In 2014 their names will be changed. There will be a universal prayer intention focusing on a concern that the Holy Father has for a specific problem or need in our world. It will be something that all people of every religion can join in praying for. The second intention will be for evangelization, a term more appropriate now that the whole world is in need of evangelization, not just the so-called mission countries.

Now that Pope Benedict has retired, the question arises, what happens to the prayer intentions he’s given us for 2013? Just as the encyclicals and other teachings of the pope are not discarded when a new pope is elected, neither are his prayer intentions. The new pope will claim them as his own because they are truly intentions for the mission of the papacy.

People of all ages and vocations can be part of the pope’s prayer group. All it takes is the commitment to pray a daily offering and include the pope’s intentions in it. One can also officially enroll through the national office of the Apostleship of Prayer which publishes many materials both in print and online to help people understand and pray for the pope’s intentions as well as to grow as apostles of prayer through a closer relationship with the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

When families become part of the pope’s prayer group, they foster love for the Church and for the pope. They learn to think of the Church as more than their local parish and to share the concerns of the pope for the universal Church and the world. Through the daily offering, they learn to live a Eucharistic life.

The Mass is the greatest prayer. While not everyone can participate daily, all can unite their day to the celebration of the Mass. In that way every moment of the day becomes a prayer offered to God for the work of the Church. Doing this creates a culture of vocations. Children learn that the meaning of life is not found in taking but in giving. By means of this spirituality of offering, children are better prepared to hear God’s call to the self-sacrifice of priesthood, consecrated life, or marriage.

When Blessed Pope John Paul II met with national directors of the Apostleship of Prayer in 1985, he told them: “The Apostleship of Prayer—which I have known and appreciated for many years—wants to highlight the apostolic value of prayer in the Church. By instilling the spirituality of ‘offering’ in union with Christ’s oblation in the Mass, the Apostleship of Prayer is right in the line of Conciliar teaching which presents the Eucharistic Sacrifice as the foundation, center, and culmination of all Christian life.” He concluded his remarks by calling the Apostleship “a precious treasure from the Pope’s heart and the Heart of Christ.”

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if every family came to know this treasure and became part of the pope’s prayer group?