“Pray with the Pope”

An invitation from the Holy Father to pray for the challenges facing humanity

The Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network and the Dicastery for Communication announce the “Pray with the Pope” project, a new initiative at the service of the Holy Father’s mission. Beginning this month, and in continuity with the mission launched by Pope Francis, Pope Leo XIV will share his monthly prayer intention through both video and audio, inviting the universal Church and all people of good will to unite spiritually, using the same prayer that will now be led by the Pope himself.

This initiative aims to increase the visibility of the Pope’s prayer intentions, using a language suitable for prayer, in new formats, so as to better reach the faithful throughout the world, especially in today’s world of digital communication.

It is prayer that unites us

In the press conference held this past Monday in the Vatican Press Office, the prefect of the Dicastery for Communication, Paolo Ruffini, underlined how this initiative responds to the desire to rediscover in prayer the beauty of the network and thus find the strength that nourishes our works in the world: “Where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in their midst” (Mt. 18:20).

“The Church”, he said, “was a network before the World Wide Web. So when Pope Leo XIV invited everyone – missionary disciples in our digital era – to go and repair the networks, what he was really asking is this: not to nurture illusions of grandeur or of conquest, but to rediscover the foundation of everything, learning over again how to together call God ‘Abba’, – ‘daddy’ – like children, thus revealing the mystery of communion that unites us to each other and to Him.”

“Pray with the Pope”: a monthly invitation with a synodal perspective

The international director of the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network, Father Cristóbal Fones, SJ, explained that “Pray with the Pope” is an initiative of the Holy Father to help each person join concretely in the prayer intention he proposes each month, and thus to open their hearts to the challenges facing humanity and the Church’s mission.

“‘Pray with the Pope’ aims to be an open door so that any person, wherever they may be, can join in praying for the intention the Holy Father proposes each month, praying with him in a synodal perspective. It is a simple and universal invitation to which each of us can respond. We believe that these new formats will make it easier to be prepared to pray and to join in supporting the Pope’s intention with greater depth.”

In addition, Father Fones recalls that the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network has been supporting these intentions for more than 180 years. Today, it renews its mission through new content and resources, allowing for increased participation and access. In fact, the new avenue of digital access was initiated ten years ago by Pope Francis through “The Pope Video”, which, over the years, reached more than 260 million visualizations across five continents.

The intention for January: “For prayer with the Word of God”

The “Pray with the Pope” project is being launched with the first prayer intention for 2026: “For prayer with the Word of God”. This intention invites us to rediscover the spiritual power of the Sacred Scriptures as a privileged place to encounter Christ. In his first message, Pope Leo proposes prayer that is centred on the Word as light for discernment, nourishment in times of weariness, hope in the darkness, and the foundation of a Church constructed on the Gospel.

The prayer recited by the Holy Father asks for the grace of being open to daily listening to the Scriptures, allowing ourselves to be challenged by them, and that they guide both personal and communitarian decisions. Moreover, he underlines the missionary dimension of the Word, which makes each believer a disciple who serves, forgives, builds bridges, and proclaims life.