Vatican newspaper highlights Apostleship of Prayer

January 19, 2009

Friday’s edition of L’Osservatore Romano included in an interview with Father Claudio Barriga Domínguez, SJ, the director general delegate of the Apostleship of Prayer, an association of the faithful to which some 50 million Catholics belong. Countless Catholics every morning pray some version of the Apostleship’s daily offering: “O Jesus, through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I offer You my prayers, works, joys, and sufferings of this day in union with the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass throughout the world …” Catholic World News reports regularly on the Pope’s monthly general and missionary prayer intentions, which are proposed to the Pontiff by the association.

Father Barriga Domínguez recounted the history of the Apostleship of Prayer: in 1844, Jesuit students, unable yet to work in the missions but ardently desiring the salvation of souls, began to offer themselves daily to God to further the Church’s missionary work. In 1866, Blessed Pius IX approved the association’s statutes and entrusted the Apostleship to the Barnabites. In 1917, the Apostleship was entrusted to the Society of Jesus.

Father Barriga Domínguez also discussed how the Pope’s monthly prayer intentions are chosen. Some 100 suggested general intentions are sent yearly to the Apostleship of Prayer’s international office, from which a smaller proposed list is developed. The monthly missionary intentions are suggested by the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples. The Apostleship then proposes the intentions to the Pontiff, who may change their wording, as has occurred this year.

 

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Further information:

• A Colloquio con il gesuita Claudio Barriga Domínguez, direttore generale delegato: In comunione con il Papa (L’Osservatore Romano)
• Apostleship of Prayer (international office)
• Apostleship of Prayer (US office)