Recently the spiritual practice of reciting the Daily Offering prayer of the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network (Apostleship of Prayer) was featured on the National Catholic Register.

Our Regional Director, Fr. William Blazek, SJ, offered his thoughts on the practice.

“It’s a great way to start our day before we get too busy, too distracted — to offer every waking moment to the Lord,” said Jesuit Father William Blazek, the regional head of the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network-Apostleship of Prayer (PopesPrayerUSA.net), based in the United States in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. “People say the character of their day is very much changed if the first thing they do is make the Morning Offering. It’s a wonderful way to unite ourselves to Jesus, the Sacred Heart and to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.”

“When we offer the suffering of the day, we can enter more deeply in the Eucharist as people and individuals,” Father Blazek explained. Because suffering is part and parcel of the human experience, “we have this opportunity to offer our suffering — not just experience it, but to put it at the service of the Lord.”

“Maybe the Lord will reveal what a beautiful way [this prayer is] to send your kids off to school, and for a married couple taking leave of each other and heading to the workplace,” Father Blazek said.

Additionally, three different families gave their unique perspectives on the prayer and how it has helped shape the prayer life of their families.

On any given day of the week, in Jacksonville, Florida, the Shields family — Dad, Mom and eight children — start their day by dedicating their minutes and hours to God with a prayer known as the Morning Offering. In St. Louis, Missouri, and Brookfield, Wisconsin, Phillip and Anne Shinn and Grace Urbanski, respectively, do the same.

You can read the remainder of the article on the National Catholic Register’s website.