Vatican Year of Prayer resource available free online

Vatican Year of Prayer resource available free online
By Cindy Wooden , Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Francis has asked Catholics to dedicate 2024 to intensifying their prayer lives in preparation for the celebration of the Holy Year 2025, and the Vatican has published a resource guide to help them.

"Teach us to Pray," a 76-page volume prepared by the Dicastery for Evangelization, was published online in Italian in late February and made available in other languages in early March.

Pope Francis launched the year in late January, saying it would be "dedicated to rediscovering the great value and absolute need for prayer in personal life, in the life of the church and in the world."

The Dicastery for Evangelization said the booklet is "an invitation to intensify prayer, understood as a personal dialogue with God," and can help people reflect on their faith and their Christian commitment in the various contexts of their lives.

It includes selections from Pope Francis' general audience talks about prayer and looks specifically at ways to strengthen people's prayer experiences at home -- for example, by praying before and after meals and at the start and end of the day -- in their parishes, at a local shrine, on retreat and by visiting a monastery. The booklet also has suggestions for encouraging teens and young adults to pray and for improving parish-based catechesis on prayer for both children and adults.

"In this Year of Prayer, all communities are invited to promote times of Eucharistic Adoration, an indispensable element for encountering the Lord," the booklet said. While "each community should find the most appropriate ways and times to develop this practice that brings so many fruits of holiness to the Church," the resource guide provides suggestions.

The Catholic Church began celebrating Holy Years in the 1300s as "a special time to meditate on the great gift of divine mercy that always awaits us, as well as the importance of inner conversion," the booklet's introduction says. The Year of Prayer is meant to help Catholics individually and as a community to prepare to receive God's grace.

"May prayer be the compass that guides, the light that illuminates the path and the strength that sustains us on the pilgrimage that will lead to entering the Holy Door," the traditional sign of having made a jubilee pilgrimage, the booklet said. "Through prayer, may we arrive at the Holy Door with our hearts ready to welcome the gifts of grace and forgiveness that the Jubilee offers as a vivid expression of our relationship with God."