May 19, 2016 — A new app from the international Apostleship of Prayer ministry aims to connect people around the world to pray for the pope’s monthly intentions. Available in English, Spanish, Portuguese and French, Click to Pray reminds people to pray three times a day, and refers specifically to Pope Francis’ prayer intentions each month.
Jesuit Father Frédéric Fornos, international director of the Apostleship of Prayer, the Jesuit-run ministry that promotes the pope’s monthly prayer intentions, said the app responds to Pope Francis’ message for World Communications Day 2016. The pope stressed the power that modern means of communications have to build bridges.
“Click to Pray invites men and women around the world to accompany Pope Francis in a new digital way, with the hope that the continents unite in prayer for the great challenges of the world and the mission of the church as expressed in the pope’s intentions,” Fr. Fornos said.
Click to Pray, available for smartphones and tablets, presents new prayers each day, allowing users to join others around the world from different cultures and languages in praying for the universal challenges confronting humanity. The slogan of the app is “Together, we make a difference every day.”
The app was created as part of the re-launch of the Apostleship of Prayer. Founded in 1844, the Apostleship has a presence in over 100 countries and is made up of over 35 million people, including its youth branch, the Eucharistic Youth Movement. The vision of the network is to be apostles in daily life through a spiritual path called “The Way of the Heart,” which transforms our way of serving Christ’s mission.
Although the Apostleship of Prayer launched the app globally in March 2016, the first version of Click to Pray launched in 2014 in Portugal. That version, which created a community of 87,000 people in 138 countries, set the stage to globalize the project. Pope Francis told Jesuit Superior General Father Adolfo Nicolás that he is “very happy with the re-foundation, re-creation of the worldwide network of the Apostleship of Prayer and with the fact that in this Year of Mercy it can help people pray in communion with him.”
The app is the second new media venture this year from the Apostleship of Prayer. In January, the Apostleship of Prayer and the Vatican Television Center launched a video series featuring Pope Francis discussing his universal prayer intention. The monthly videos are uploaded on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube on the first Friday of each month. While the pope speaks in Spanish, the videos have subtitles for 10 languages.
“Being part of a communication vehicle like Click to Pray allows us to achieve greater solidarity with Christians everywhere, with whom we join in prayer for the world, the church and one another,” said Father James Kubicki, SJ, national director of the U.S. Apostleship of Prayer. “We don’t know how, but we believe Jesus when he said that by uniting in prayer we can bring about much good in the world. ‘For with God all things are possible,’ Jesus said.”
The Click to Pray app is available for download on iPhone, Android and Windows, and the prayers can also be found at clicktopray.org. [Source: Jesuits (Canada and USA Conference), Catholic News Service, Vatican Radio]
