©2016 Apostleship of Prayer. Used by permission. ©2016 Apostleship of Prayer. Used by permission.

Starting with Leo XIII in 1890, every Pope has entrusted his own personal prayer intentions to the Apostleship of Prayer. Our job is to make sure everyone who wants to pray with the Pope knows exactly what is on his heart.

Pope Francis has made our job easier by going on camera with the Apostleship of Prayer, the Pope's Worldwide Prayer Network.

Here at the USA National Office of the AoP, we're enormously excited the Pope takes time each month to record a prayer intention. Each "Pope Video" is exquisitely rendered by a Spanish filmmaker who loves our mission of prayer. The Vatican explained the Pope's unprecedented move to the YouTube world in this article. Here's the meat and potatoes of their press release:

The production of a video with Pope Francis sharing his monthly prayer intentions has been managed in collaboration with the Vatican Television Centre. The video, in 10 languages, will be available on YouTube as well as on social media sites including Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, encouraging people all over the world to pray with the Pope each month.

Beloved followers of Catholic Mom (that's YOU!) should be particularly excited about Pope Francis' videos, because this month--May 2016--the prayer on our pontiff's heart is Respect for Women. Prepare yourself for one minute and seventeen seconds of papal prayer goodness:

[embed]https://youtu.be/g7jQQqroGqA[/embed]

Amen!

We have our very own playlist of Pope Francis' other editions of The Pope Video on our Apostleship of Prayer page here. Millions of people have viewed these videos. How amazing that so many folks around the world are drawn into prayer by our Pope! Here's what's been on his heart lately:

Thank you for praying with the Pope.

©2016 Grace Mazza Urbanski,
National Director of Children's Ministry for the United States Apostleship of Prayer