Watch: Pope Francis’ Shares His Prayer Intention for a Church Open to Everyone

Pope Francis shared his monthly prayer intention video for October, urging the Faithful to pray for a Church open to everyone.

Pope Francis’ Worldwide Prayer Network of the Apostleship of Prayer developed “The Pope Video” initiative in 2016 as a way to spread the Holy Father’s monthly prayer intentions on the challenges humanity faces in a video based format.

For the month of October, Pope Francis shared his prayer intention that “we pray for the Church; ever faithful to, and courageous in preaching the Gospel, may the Church be a community of solidarity, fraternity and welcome, always living in an atmosphere of synodality.”

Pope Francis has accompanied his video with an official prayer so you can pray for his monthly intention:

“Let all be one! May we all be one!
Good Father, we want to do our part and
live the words that your son Jesus spoke to you.
We wish to live out fully the mission we
received at Baptism.
We dream of being a Church in a communion of love that is
collaborative and missionary,
committed to the challenges of the world
in which everyone can feel at home and can participate.
We dream of being a Church that listens to the renewing
of your Holy Spirit,
a Church of closeness, compassion
and tenderness, that does not separate from life
but takes charge of the fragilities and poverty of our time.
Help us to be a different Church open to your newness
in which we all walk together.
Amen.”

Also accompanied with the Holy Father’s intentions are his attitudes for your daily life during the month of October:

Synodality
“If we speak of a synodal Church, we cannot be satisfied with the form only, but we need the substance, the instruments and the structures that favor dialogue and interaction in the People of God, especially between priests and laity.” (Pope Francis).

How have you participated in the synodal journey of your community?

Encounter
“Let us not forget the style of God that will help us: closeness, compassion, and tenderness” (Pope Francis).

Welcome your brothers and sisters in need.

Listening
“The Synod also offers us an opportunity to be a Church of listening, to take a break from our hustle and bustle, to curb our pastoral anxieties and stop to listen. Listen to the Spirit in worship and prayer” (Pope Francis).

Are you available to listen to the pursuits of your brothers and sisters in the Church and those who feel outside of it?

Discernment
“The Synod is an itinerary of effective spiritual discernment which we do not undertake to give a pretty image of ourselves but to collaborate better with the work of God in history” (Pope Francis).

Search for opportunities to form yourself in Christian discernment.

Availability for Mission
“In the ecclesial body, the only starting point, and there can be no other, is Baptism, our source of life, from which we derive an identical dignity as children of God, even in the difference of ministries and charisms. Therefore, we are all called to participate in the life and mission of the Church” (Pope Francis).

Do you participate in some way in the mission of the Church whether it be in your parish, school, group, or community?

Read below the full prayer intention of Pope Francis, and watch “The Pope Video” for October:

What does it mean “to synod”? It means walking together: syn-od. This is what it means in Greek: “to walk together” and to walk on the same road.

And this is what God expects of the Church of the third millennium –that it regain its awareness of being a people on the road and of having to travel together.

A Church with this synodal style is a Church that listens, that knows that listening is more than just hearing.

It means listening to each other in our diversity and opening doors to those outside the Church. It’s not about gathering opinions, nor holding a parliament. The synod isn’t a survey; it’s about listening to the protagonist, the Holy Spirit. It’s about praying. Without prayer, there will be no Synod.

Let us take advantage of this opportunity to be a Church of closeness, which is God’s style – closeness. And let us give thanks to all the people of God who, with their attentive listening, are walking the synodal way.

Let us pray that the Church, ever faithful to the Gospel and courageous in preaching it, may live in an increasing atmosphere of synodality and be a community of solidarity, fraternity, and welcome.