This past weekend Pope Francis marked the historic occasion of the 100th anniversary of the apparitions of Our Lady of Fatima. He did so by visiting the shrine in Portugal and canonizing two of the visionaries, Saint Francisco and Saint Jacinta.

Advent is a great time to focus on prayer as we wait patiently for the coming of our Lord on Christmas. However, sometimes we try and try and try to pray and nothing seems to work. Or, we plan on making a holy hour each day and a week goes by and we barely set aside 10 minutes. 

This past Sunday Pope Francis challenged Catholics (again) to keep a pocket-Bible and return again and again to it throughout the day. He reflected, “What would happen if we turned back when we forget it, if we opened it more times a day, if we read the message of God contained in the Bible the way we read messages on our cellphones?”

One of the central aspects of the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network is a spirituality centered on the Heart of Jesus. It is from this Heart that we receive a mission and are “sent out to the margins of human life in different ways…We are sent to the places where men and women are suffering injustice, to help heal and support the brokenhearted.”