CLUES to understand the Communities of the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network (PWPN)
Clues to understand the Communities of the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network (PWPN) 1. FRAME OF REFERENCE The General Regulations establish different forms of participation in the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network and determine that the communities of the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network are one of the forms of participation on a community level. These communities are the answer of the recreation process to the necessity of generating areas of participation for: • Young people over 25 years of age that are members of the Eucharistic Youth Movement (E.Y.M.). This would be a space that allows them to go on participating in the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network by building communities that live The Way of the Heart and grow in apostolic readiness for the mission of compassion, pray and commit themselves to the prayer intentions that the Pope proposes each month. • People who are not members of the groups in the Apostleship of Prayer, but live The Way of the Heart, building communities that wish to grow in apostolic readiness for Christ’s mission, and pray and commit themselves to the prayer intentions that the Pope proposes each month. • Groups in the Apostleship of Prayer who wish to realign themselves with the new Statutes as they live the Way of the Heart, joining the recreation dynamism, according to the guidelines for the National and International Teams.
The General Regulations establish that: On a group or community level, the form of membership and commitment can be realized through one of the following four options: • Communities of the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network Communities of the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network founded in parishes, schools, and other places for this purpose. Not only do these communities pray and adopt an internal attitude of readiness to collaborate with the mission of the Church, but they act, searching for ways to put themselves at the service of humanity’s challenges and the needs of the Church. Those who are part of these communities commit themselves, individually or as a group, to live their lives according to the spirituality of the Heart of Jesus, as it is articulated in The Way of the Heart. Furthermore, they will support our youth branch, the Eucharistic Youth Movement, wherever it exists, or they will engage in the pastoral care of young people (parishes, schools, etc). • Groups in the Apostleship of Prayer, who have been raised in our spiritual tradition and are present in parishes, are another form of membership and commitment at a community level in the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network. They
have a diocesan structure and follow their own internal educational and procedural rules. They can use these guidelines if they find them helpful to organize themselves, and they are invited to become part of the process of “Recreation.” 11 Cf. “A Pathway with Jesus...” •
Parishes, Christian communities, and other groups may show their commitment to the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network when they get together specifically to pray for the Pope’s intentions and, particularly when they dedicate the first Friday of the month for this purpose. They will inform the National Office of their commitment to integrate them truly and consciously with the network.
• Eucharist Youth Movement teams or centers that belong to the youth Branch of the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network 2. SOME CLARIFICATIONS ON COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION. Communities of the Worldwide Prayer Network (See also 3) They are those communities that are born from and inspired by the recreation process and the renewed understanding of the mission. The characteristics are: a) Apostolic readiness for Christ’s mission in the PWPN, offering their life for the challenges facing humanity and the mission of the Church.
b) The commitment to live The Way of the Heart, a training program for the mission and a particular way of the PWPN to live the spirituality of Heart of Jesus. c) Support for the EYM or for the pastoral care of young people. The AP groups. They are invited to enter the dynamic of the recreation process and the new dynamism of the work re-founded as a Pontifical Work. The National Team of each country will offer means for this aim. They are to participate in the encounters, to start the readings and the shared praying of the training program The Way of the Heart, to take part in the activities of the first Fridays, to deepen participation in the challenges suggested by Pope Francis in his prayer intentions, and to find a way of living them in everyday reality. The following is an illustrative, not an exhaustive list: Some important aspects for the life of these Apostleship of Prayer Groups: a) They are invited to integrate with the Network. So, they may take the given guidance, but they do not have to. b) The spirit of this guidance is to help the groups remaining in the network, taking part in the activities that the region or the country organizes, and
nourished by the spiritual heart of the work, which is the spiritual treasure of the Apostleship of Prayer since its beginnings, and which now belongs to The Way of the Heart. c) The hope is that they may enter the new dynamism and the understanding of the recreation, even if the integration is limited to dimensions that might change, respecting their possibilities, sensibility, and history. d) The National Team should accompany the integration process of these AP groups, adjusting the proposals to their history, their sensibility and structure, without identifying them or confusing them with the communities of the Network of Prayer, since it is another way of participation, and without expecting them to adopt the network Prayer dynamism. Parishes, other Christian communities, and other groups. They can be part of the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network, but they should take on the following commitments: a) The community prayer for the challenges facing humanity and the mission of the Church (the monthly intention of prayer). b) To join the Prayer Network in the dynamics of the first Fridays as a Monthly Day of Prayer for the intentions of the Pope.
c) To contact the National Team to express this interest and revitalize the consciousness of their participation in the network. . EYM Centers. Organization and dynamics according to the international manual and the national documents that can be adjusted to each place or region. The groups that are willing to participate in the PWPN, in any of these previous ways, should contact the National Team and let them know about this interest. The main motivation for the community participation is to create and live in a community and grow in availability to the mission of compassion of Christ for the world, to pray and to mobilize for the challenges facing humanity and the mission of the Church that are expressed in the Pope’s prayer intentions each month. The community commit themselves to live The Way of the Heart which helps to enter the mission of compassion for the world, to be close to the Heart of Jesus and to cooperate with EYM. From then on, the National Team commits itself to accompany and assist them, to the extent possible, to attain their goals. The recreation process tries to deepen the understanding of the intuitions, practices, and initial inspirations of this Pontifical work, by bringing them up to date and suggesting a new model more in
tune with the present time. This does not mean to take away or remove tradition or the inspiring charisma, but to go deeper and broaden the field of mission and service. “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. Amen, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or the smallest part of a letter will pass from the law, until all things have taken place.” (Mt 5, 17-18). In this sense, the National Team assumes the leading role of adjusting this recreation process to their own context. 3. POPE’S PRAYER NETWORK COMMUNITIES We suggest here some guidelines to accompany these communities in their vital itinerary, which are not restrictive. Each country will be able to adjust them to their context according to their circumstances. The experience of The Way of the Heart The communities of the Prayer Network commit themselves to live and deepen The Way of the Heart like a school for the heart, that helps them to enter a mission of compassion for the world, to align their hearts with Jesus’ style, with His feelings and gestures, being more available to Christ’s mission. The Way of the Heart is the training program of
the PWPN and the specific way of living the devotion to the Heart of Jesus. It is a school for the heart that gives shape and identity to the mission and recreates our way of thinking and feeling according to Christ’s Heart. The National Team will offer The Way of the Heart in monthly meetings on the first Fridays, one or more days of retreats, weekly meetings,, workshops in everyday life or in closed retreats, in person and/or on digital platforms, according to the people’s circumstances, and at the appropriate time and place. For these activities, they will be guided by the official documents for the recreation process prepared by the International Team: “A Way with Jesus in Apostolic Readiness”, the official commentary on The Way of the Heart, the books and the website www.caminodelcorazon.church and any other material that is available. These materials may be adjusted to their own local contexts, supervised by the International Team. The local communities will have their own trainers and/or monitors of The Way of the Heart in relation to the guidance and the training offered by the National Team, which in turn will be based on the guidance and training offered by the International Team. Prayer The experience of The Way of the Heart helps to have a new understanding of the mission and a renewed dynamism of the praying life as a personal encounter with the Risen Lord in everyday life. It helps to understand the mission as a call in each one’s real life, inspiring a dynamism of looking for a greater apostolic readiness; incarnating the mission through the prayer and the attitudes, through the service and works according to the availability of their own life.
There are two pillars on which the experience of The Way of the Heart is based: meditation and contemplation of Jesus’ life in the Gospel, and the practice of the spiritual review or the examen. These two practices help us to get our life ready for the encounter with Christ in all circumstances, and to listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit that leads us to be closer to His Heart. Therefore, The Way of the Heart is a school of the heart that transforms our personal and community life and helps us to live our prayer as a personal encounter and to discern the voice of God among other voices, so as to choose what opens us to life and leads us to cooperate with Him in His mission of compassion for the world. The community structure of Prayer Network A coordinator, animator, or monitor will lead the communities. They will have the following functions: •
To support the community bonds.
•
To help organize activities, meetings, etc.
•
To assist in the use of supporting materials, in paper or digital format.
•
To support the community integration at the parish level.
•
To be in contact with the National Team.
Coordinators do not direct or command. They arrange and coordinate things to support the community participation. The community members cannot be more than twelve (12) people, to favor the internal dynamic of participation. In a parish, school or chapel, there could be one or more communities that
will be able to gather according to different motives: age, life circumstances, affective closeness, mission, etc. Each community could find the best decision and openness to grace in prayer and discernment. Initiation of the community Communities will be able to design an initiation ceremony that will show and introduce their wish of starting their participation in the PWPN and the commitments they assume. Such a ceremony may be done in diverse ways: • In a celebration of the Eucharist as a sign of availability, in communion with people’s offering. • In a ritual as a sign of expressing their wishes and commitments to a person on behalf of the PWPN. • In a ritual of questions and answers between the community and a person on behalf of the PWPN. • Other ways. Even though the community designs the specific way, it is advisable to have some clear expressions: • The apostolic readiness to the mission of compassion of Christ for the world. • Prayer and action for the challenges facing humanity and the mission of the Church (Pope’s prayer intentions) leaning on the projects suggested as a help to this end: Click To Pray and
The Pope Video. • Help and connection with the EYM or the youth branch. • Commitment to live The Way of the Heart as a school of prayer and training for the mission. The National team will be able to accompany and suggest diverse ways of celebrations, signs, and help in this topic. The initiation of a community is a decision taken together with the parish priest (initiation in a Parish) or with the delegate designated for this objective in cooperation with the school authority (initiation in schools) and in interaction between the National team and the Community coordinator. In the case of lay contexts, with few or no ecclesiastical or school structures, the decision is taken only between the National team and the community coordinator. Individual incorporation to a formed community. Initiation Rite. People who wish to belong to the communities of the Prayer Network, will be able to enter the ones that are already formed. In this case, it would be advisable that: •
The person who enters,
expresses their wish to the community and the community accepts the incorporation into the community life. •
The person makes a
spiritual experience of training and/ or of praying that allows them to get closer and attune themselves to the dynamics
of the community to which they enter. In each case, the experience will be adjusted to the situation and possibilities of the person who wishes to enter the community and who will find support through various projects: The Way of the Heart, Click To Pray, The Pope Video (short or long retreats, workshop, a day of prayer, conferences, etc.). • The community celebrates an initiation rite, where the person expresses their wish, and the community accepts. The modality of this rite will be done according to the local sensibility, considering what have been previously said about the celebration of the initiation rite in a community. Community meetings. These are venues for an individual and/or group conversion process through prayer and discernment, making us more available to Christ’s mission of compassion. Communities will be able to choose the most suitable community dynamics according to the circumstances. The compass of these meetings will always be the Pope’s prayer intentions, which will enlighten contents, proposals, and initiatives. As a kind of suggestion, the communities will organize the meetings according to the following guidelines: • The central feature of the PWPN community meetings is the very life of Jesus Christ. The task of the Community is to allow Christ’s life to provide a healthy challenge to every member’s own life to
forge in every member and in the whole community a lifestyle more like Christ’s. •
For this, we suggest taking the Gospel texts to meditate on and contemplate the life of the Lord and let Him transform us.
•
Take the texts of The Way of the Heart as a formation program that prepares each community member for mission, to enter into a spiritual experience of encountering Christ in order to grow in availability for His mission of compassion. This spiritual itinerary of The Way of the Heart is lived in the light of the Pope’s monthly prayer intention.
•
In one’s personal life and in our life as a community, we deepen our understanding of the challenges to humanity and the mission of the Church and of the ways of incarnating our responses to these challenges, that the Pope proposes monthly through his prayer intentions. The monthly prayer intention provides the background of prayer and of everyday life, so in every meeting there will be some time to do an examen, a spiritual review of the ways we can live and incarnate the monthly prayer intention in our everyday life. • According to circumstances of people, times, and places, collaborate with specific activities of service and/ or mission in the Parish, or follow the orientations of the National Team.
•
Every community should have a coordinator who is in charge of organizing the meeting’s dynamics.
An example or model of a meeting = Prepare – Do – Discern Prepare • Send or indicate the source material that people must read and/or meditate upon, before the meeting. Inform them also if they should bring something (e.g., their bibles) to the meeting. • Start the meeting by preparing the place, adapting it according to the topic. Set the atmosphere by using music, a rug, candles, pictures, organizing chairs in a comfortable way, etc. •
Do exercises to provide an appropriate ambience, to promote selfawareness, and foster presence to oneself.
•
Lead the community in a prayer of availability for a significant amount of time: recite the daily offering prayer; read aloud the monthly prayer intention. For this, consider the suggestions of Click To Pray.org, which unites brothers and sisters in their diversity throughout the world.
Do • Propose the theme of the meeting: the reading, the video, group dynamics for participation, etc. We suggest watching The Pope Video in which Pope Francis gives the direction of the month, to examine and review how we incarnate this prayer intention on a personal and community level. • Make sure that there will be time to deal with the topic on a personal basis and then, time to share in community. There could be group dynamics, readings, videos, group work, etc. • Do sharing, speaking in first person about what the topic says to each
one’s life, what relation the topic has to one’s personal life or the life of the community, to the country, to the world, to the Church. Discern • Recognize in what way the light received challenges each one, how one is drawn to commit to act in a concrete way. For example: a new understanding, a new way of seeing the world, something that has touched the heart, a new way of understanding something in one’s own life that moves one to do something concrete. •
Develop an individual and/or community proposal to bring to real life the monthly prayer intention until the following meeting. For example: a change of attitude, an act of service, a new way of behaving, a commitment to say sorry to somebody, to reconcile with somebody, to share something, etc.
In the following meeting, the community will start by reviewing the proposal elaborated in the previous meeting. Community members can take turns to animate and guide the dynamics of the meeting.
Clues to understand the Communities of the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network (PWPN)