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2024 - Year of Prayer
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After the year dedicated to reflection on the documents and the study of the fruits of the Second Vatican Council in 2023, Pope Francis has asked that 2024 be marked as a Year of Prayer. The Holy Father announced its launch on Sunday 21 January 2024, on the fifth annual celebration of the ‘Sunday of the Word of God’. Previously, in a letter written on 11 February 2022, addressed to the Pro-prefect, Archbishop Rino Fisichella, to entrust the organization of the Jubilee to the Dicastery for Evangelization, the Pope wrote: “From now on I am happy to think that the year preceding the Jubilee event, 2024, will be dedicated to a great ‘symphony’ of prayer. First of all, to recover the desire to be in the presence of the Lord, to listen to him and adore him.” In preparation for the Jubilee, therefore, individual dioceses are invited to promote the centrality of individual and community prayer during this year.
The Dicastery has made some useful resources available to help people to better understand and rediscover the value of prayer. In addition to the 38 catecheses on Prayer that Pope Francis himself presented from 6 May 2020 to 16 June 2021, a series of booklets entitled, "Notes on Prayer" is being published by the Vatican publishing house, Libreria Editrice Vaticana. The eight titles are designed to put the need for a profound relationship with the Lord back at the center of people’s lives, through the many forms of prayer to be found in the rich Catholic tradition of prayer. In addition, a pastoral aid is available online, in a digital version, to help parish communities, families, priests, cloistered nuns and young people to become more aware of the need for daily prayer.
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Discover the "Notes on Prayer"
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1. Praying Today
A challenge (Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 112 pages, 8.50 euros), by Cardinal Angelo Comastri, Archpriest Emeritus of the Papal Basilica of St. Peter in the Vatican and Vicar General Emeritus of His Holiness for Vatican City.
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2. Praying with the Psalms
(Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 118 pages, 8.50 euros), by Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, one of the best-known writers internationally on biblical themes. Former President of the Pontifical Council for Culture, he heads up the Courtyard of the Gentiles project.
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3. Prayer of Jesus
(Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 154 pages, 8.50 euros), edited by Juan López Vergara, biblical scholar and former President of the Association of Biblical Scholars of Mexico, Professor at the Instituto Bìblico Católico of Guadalajara and member of the national biblical animation team.
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4. Praying with Saints and Sinners
(Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 110 pages, 8.50 euros), edited by Father Paul Brendan Murray, Irish Dominican, theologian, and professor of mystical literature at the Angelicum Pontifical University in Rome.
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5. The Parables of Prayer
(Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 114 pages, 8.50 euros), edited by Monsignor Antonio Pitta, biblical scholar, Professor at the Pontifical Lateran University, where he holds the position of Vice-Rector. An expert New Testament scholar, he is also President of the Italian Biblical Association.
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6. The church in Prayer
(Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 150 pages, 8.50 euros), produced by monks of the Carthusian Order resident in various monasteries in Brazil, Argentina, South Korea and the United States. Founded by San Bruno in 1084, this order is dedicated to prayer, in silence and in community.
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7. Mary's Prayer together with the saints who met her
by Sister Catherine Aubin (to be published in April 2024), a Dominican sister, with degrees in psychology and theology, she teaches sacramental and spiritual theology at the Angelicum Pontifical University , at the Claretianum Institute of Theology of Consecrated Life, and at the Dominican University of Montreal.
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8. The prayer that jesus taught us: "Our Father"
by Father Ugo Vanni (also due to be published in April 2024), a theologian and exegete, among the greatest experts on the Apocalypse. He taught exegesis of the New Testament at the Pontifical Gregorian University and the Pontifical Biblical Institute. In 2018 he returned to the Father's house.
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