‘Click to Pray’ offers prayerful hope for Church

2 mins read
The Click to Pray mobile app aims to connect people around the world to pray for the pope's monthly intentions. (CNS photo/Nancy Wiechec)

For many years, in the final issue of the each month, Our Sunday Visitor has published the Holy Father’s prayer intentions on this very page of the newspaper. And I know we have loyal followers of this small but mighty feature, because if we slip up and forget to put the new intention in, we hear about it. And rightly so!

The Pope’s Apostleship of Prayer, now known as the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network, invites us to enter into prayer with the Holy Father on topics that are near and dear to his heart. As we included in last week’s issue, the pope’s prayer intention for February centers on human trafficking: “For a generous welcome of the victims of human trafficking, of enforced prostitution and of violence.”

At Pope Francis’ Sunday Angelus in St. Peter’s Square Jan. 20, the pope also unveiled another way for us to join him in prayer. Standing in his window above the square, Pope Francis launched his own profile on Click to Pray, the official app of the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network.

Click to Pray is available as a website and in app form, but the app is the most slick (and convenient) format.

Within the app, there is a way to “pray with the pope” (and his monthly prayer intention), “pray every day” and “pray with the network.” The “pray every day” feature offers just that — a daily prayer to be recited on your own, but as part of a larger community. For example, the prayer for Jan. 22, at the start of World Youth Day, was:

“Gracious Father, on this first day of World Youth Day in Panama, I offer you all my thoughts, words and deeds, in communion with Pope Francis and the whole Church, that young people may learn and recognize the beauty of your love, and communicate to others the joy of the Gospel. Our Father …”

After the prayer is finished, there is a “Click to Pray” button that adds to the total number of people who have prayed that intention — as of this writing, an impressive 16,480 have prayed the prayer. Being 2019, there is also a way to share the daily prayer on social media, primarily Facebook and Twitter.

The “Pray with the Network” feature is a list of prayer requests from participants in the Click to Pray prayer network. Again, there is the option of “clicking” to show you are praying with and for that individual. And those can also be shared via social media. As January was coming to an end, the website had added more than 1,239,600 prayers.

Click to Pray, while not perfect, is an intriguing way to pray with and for the Church and the Holy Father. I find it especially appealing in light of the ongoing abuse crisis, in which there is so much negative attention surrounding the Church. With Click to Pray, the body of Christ has the opportunity to lift one another up in a way that is hopeful for the Church. And anything that gives hope to the Church right now gets major kudos from me.

Gretchen R. Crowe is editor-in-chief of Our Sunday Visitor. Follow her on Twitter @GretchenOSV.

Gretchen R. Crowe

Gretchen R. Crowe is the editor-in-chief of OSV News.