Pope Francis has chosen to highlight human fraternity for the first intention of the new year, with a focus on communion with those of other religions.

Director of the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network Father David Stewart tells us more…

A greater sense of human solidarity has grown among us as we ended a dreadful year, yet it wasn’t universal. The longed-for advent of viable vaccines was accompanied by rich nations buying up huge stocks, leaving majority world nations struggling.

Some people appeared to relegate the common good to second place if their own comfort was affected by Covid-19 mitigations.

But the urgency we all face demands that we not only pray this intention but expand it to all of humanity. The Pope asks us to pray, with him: “May the Lord give us the grace to live in full fellowship with our brothers and sisters of other religions, praying for one another, open to all.”

THE GRACE OF RESPECT FOR ALL

The theme of Pope Francis’s recent book Let Us Dream is that a better future is possible, but only through greater human solidarity. That solidarity has to include our natural world. Our whole way of living needs to be rebuilt so that every single person is able to live in a way that their fundamental dignity demands for them.

If we pray for the grace to pray for one another and to live with each other “in full fellowship”, we’ll be able to extend our desire for human solidarity beyond respecting others of different faiths, towards a respect for all others, in our common humanity.

And we recall that it’s always a grace we’re asking for, which means recognising that we’re not always capable of achieving this on our own, even though we often try to convince ourselves that we can.

Each year, since Pope St Paul VI instituted the World Day of Peace in 1968, popes have begun each new year with a particular message. For 2021, Pope Francis entitles this latest message “A Culture of Care as a Path to Peace”.Think of what its opposite might be – an uncaring culture would mean the absence of peace! And in many places there is no culture of care, therefore, no peace. In this 2021 message, Francis proposes that we need a culture of care as“a way to combat the culture of indifference, waste and confrontation so prevalent in our time.”

INDIFFERENCE, WASTE AND CONFRONTATION

That unholy cultural trinity is particularly striking. He points out, again, our indifference, meaning how people remain unmoved by another’s suffering. He warns of society’s wastefulness, which extends to viewing not only our planet but also some humans as expendable, then turns to the populism-fuelled violence of our contemporary world, where hostility is often preferred to fellowship.

The Pope proposes a culture of care as a response, or “a ‘compass’ capable of pointing out a common direction and ensuring a more humane future in the process of globalisation”. As he wrote in Laudato Si’ and frequently since, the Pope again begs us to see that all creation is inter-connected.

Quoting himself, he writes that “a sense of deep communion with the rest of nature cannot be authentic if our hearts lack tenderness, compassion and concern for our fellow human beings.”

Our prayer with the Pope, this month, for fellowship with those of other religions, should open our hearts to this fact about ourselves and our world. There is a pathway to peace that each of us can take – the choice is ours. At the beginning of this new year, let’s pray with the Pope for the grace and the courage to take that path.

FELLOWSHIP IN ADVERSITY

Looking back on the horrendous year just ended, Patrick Carberry SJ (in our Pope’s Prayer Network 2021 Living Prayer booklet – details below) reflects on how the restrictions and lockdowns “brought home to us just how dependent we were on each other, how interwoven were our lives.”

We needed our wonderful doctors and nurses just as much as we needed our supermarket check-out staff and our delivery drivers. Perhaps most of all, we realised that we needed our neighbours. Some of us did not know our neighbours until this year.

These neighbours might be from other countries, practicing a different religion, or perhaps have no explicit organised faith. There are many anecdotal testimonies to how the shared adversity of this virus that didn’t discriminate brought increased human fellowship and solidarity, open to all. An important prayer for 2021 will be that this continue and that we might not revert to the pandemic of heartless individualism we have known in recent times.

PRAYER MOMENT

A suggested morning offering prayer for January:

Gracious and good God,
at the beginning of this day, this month and this new year,
when so much of the world is in pain and tears,
grant to all of us the grace to look for a better pathway, a culture of care that is open to all.
This morning, I want to offer the day ahead for the good of all humanity, starting with those around me and those I will meet today; I offer all these people to you, too.
Help me to know them, each one, as blessed and special,
regardless of their religion, race or politics.
Help me to look for the good in each one of them
and for the good that is in my own heart, too.

Our Father …

NEW YEAR, NEW DEVELOPMENTS

The Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network continues its ministry, in 97 countries, of presenting the monthly intentions of the Holy Father for the challenges that face society and the mission of the church. As the largest prayer-group in the Church, we continue to offer our Prayer Pathway, a way of the heart, as a tool for shaping our hearts to become more like the heart of Christ, open in compassion for everyone and all of creation. Each day, we can offer day ahead, in union with the Pope and the whole Church, to the Heart of Christ.

Our “Click-to-Pray” website and downloadable app help us to do this. So too does our Daily Prayer Pathway (see below about getting a prayer-card) and, on the first Friday of each month, the Pope Video in which Francis personally presents his Intention. There is nothing to join, no fees to pay and no forms to fill in; you become an Apostle of Prayer by praying with and for the Pope each day, with millions all around the world. Our National Office for England, Wales and Scotland has now moved and our renovated website is ready to launch in 2021 (details below). Please join us, in the Pope’s own personal prayer-group!

LIVING PRAYER 2021 BOOKLETS

Our booklet contains helpful reflections on each month’s Intentions, beautiful photographs and a calendar of principal liturgical feasts; each perforated page can be detached and placed in your missal or prayer-book for easy use. Limited supplies are now in stock at £1.75 + £1 P&P; order by text or email (online payment only, please), or from Messenger Publications in Dublin (messenger.ie). Discounts are available for larger orders for parishes, etc..

NEW ADDRESS, EMAIL & WEBSITE

Our redesigned website is at www.praywiththe pope.net. Find us also on Twitter, Facebook and Skype.