The Morning Offering, to the Heart of Christ, has been at the heart of the spirituality of the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network for all its existence–nearly 175 years. Generations of Catholic Christians, and many other followers of Jesus, have made this daily offering, faithfully. From the earliest moment of the Apostleship of Prayer, in 1844, this prayer was missionary, oriented to the mission of all Christians. When we now make that Morning Offering, we are expressing a desire to unite that offering with the Pope’s Intention for the month. We want to train our hearts to be more like Christ’s.

The deeper, larger meaning is that we want to pray with the whole Church, all of us invited to consider and pray for an intention by the Holy Father. The mission of this Network, the world’s largest, is to spread the message of the Pope’s Intention for the challenges that face humanity and the mission of the Church. By uniting our prayerful self-offering to the concerns that are in the Pope’s heart, we are in fact drawing together in prayer with the whole church, the whole People of God.

Our renewal documents expand on this practice, “This network is formed by those who make themselves available to collaborate in Christ’s mission through the daily offering of their lives, in any place or situation they may be. The call to the mission is the fire that makes us apostles sent from the heart of the Father to the heart of the world.”

– Fr. David Stewart, SJ
Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network (United Kingdom)