Some of you might know – and others might not – that the Pope has special prayer intentions every month. These intentions are propogated primarily through the Apostleship of Prayer, a group associated with the Morning, or Daily Offering. The traditional Morning Offering:

O Jesus, through the Immaculate Heart of Mary,
I offer You all my prayers, works, joys, and sufferings of this day
for all the intentions of Your Sacred Heart,
in union with the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass throughout the world,
in reparation for my sins,
for the intentions of all our associates,
and in particular for the intentions of the Holy Father.

I wrote about the Apostleship and the Morning Offering in The Words We Pray, and in that chapter I focused on the power of this prayer to focus us on what God can do in the present moment. The story about the origins of the Apostleship revolves around a group of enthusiastic seminary students who couldn’t or wouldn’t concentrate on their studies and present responsibilities because they were so excited about their future lives as missionaries. Supposedly, they were reminded, to put in contemporary terms, to live in the now and to consecrate each day now, not just in the future, to the intentions and needs of God’s people.

A constant, nagging theme in my life, by the way. Live in the now. Don’t wish your life away, as someone once said to me.

I’m intrigued by the  July intentions, particularly the first, General Intention (the other is for Missions):

That Christians be sensitive to the needs of everyone, without ever hiding the radical requirements of the Gospel message.

Food for thought…and prayer.