2024 Year of Prayer
Pope Francis has called on all Catholics to spend this year, beginning with the First Sunday of Advent on 3 December 2023, deepening their prayer lives. This page will be updated regularly with resources and suggestions to support you as you seek to encounter Jesus in your prayer life.
Diocesan Day 6 July 'Pilgrims of Home'
As a precursor to The Jubileee Year 2025 the the recent Diocesan Day featured 3 speakers:
Canon Christopher Thomas on 'Hope does not disappoint'.
Dr Phil McCarthy on 'Pilgrimage A Hopeful Sign'. and
Bishop Bosco with a practical list of ten ways we can all prepare for the 2025 Jubilee Pilgrims of Hope.
All three videos can be viewed below.
In preparation for the 2025 Jubilee Year 'Pilgrims of Hope', 2024 has been designated a Year of Prayer by Pope Francis. It started in Advent 2023.
There is a particular focus on the Our Father, and this presents us with a great opportunity to go back to the basics of prayer.
There are many exercises for improving our physical health and wellbeing. Ignatius of Loyola wrote what he called the ‘Spiritual Exercises’, a variety of ways of praying to develop our spiritual health and wellbeing, our relationship with God and the world. Just like physical exercise, if we talk about it but don’t actually engage in any exercise, this will not be very fruitful! So, this booklet, put together by the Jesuit Institute, introduces exercises that you may find useful to practise. This booklet introduces a number of these prayer exercises and guides you through them, download below.
Lord, Teach us to Pray
This series at St John the Evangelist, South Parade, Bath, draws us into the school of prayer so that we might draw near to the Lord who calls us to draw near to him.
The series details are:
Tuesday 30 April: The prayer of the Desert Fathers and Mothers (Fr John Udris);
Tuesday 28 May: The prayer of St Benedict (Fr Mark Hargreaves OSB);
Tuesday 25 June: The prayer of St Dominic (Sr Hyacinthe and the Dominican Sisters of St Joseph);
Tuesday 23 July: Windows on the Divine – praying with icons (Tamara Penwell);
Tuesday 24 September: The prayer of St Francis and St Clare (Friar Maximilian Martin, OFM Conv);
Tuesday 29 October: The prayer of Carmel (Fr Michael McAndrew);
Tuesday 26 November: The prayer of St Ignatius (Fr James Hanvey SJ).
Each session will take place in the Church and begin at 7.00pm and you can watch live St John’s website: St. John the Evangelist Church