With an invitation to care for the inner life without turning away from reality, the Biblical Theological Pastoral Center for Latin America and the Caribbean (Cebitepal) inaugurated a new training cycle with the participation of the Jesuit priest Cristóbal Fones, current international director of the Pope's Worldwide Prayer Network, a mission he has held since January 2025.
Trained in sacramental and liturgical theology and recognized for his spiritual accompaniment to young people on the continent and for his service to evangelization processes through music, Father Fones presented during the inaugural conference “The Way of the Heart”, a spiritual and formative itinerary of the Pope's Worldwide Prayer Network.
The meeting was aimed at pastoral agents, religious communities, prayer groups, and people interested in deepening their inner life from a perspective that does not separate the experience of God from reality. The proposal, explained the priest, precisely starts from to be challenged by the world in order to meet God in the encounter with others.
Network to look at the world with compassion
Father Fones explained that the Pope's Worldwide Prayer Network is an ecclesial service entrusted by the Holy Father to the Society of Jesus, open to communities, groups, and individual persons who wish to offer their daily lives to collaborate with Jesus' mission of compassion. “It is not a communication project”, he specified, but “an ecclesial initiative led by the Holy Father”, which invites its members to focus each month on a particular intention, open their hearts to that reality and intercede for it by offering their own lives.
The priest reminded that this initiative was born in France in 1844 under the name of Apostolate of Prayer, later known as the League of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. In 1890, Pope Leo XIII began to formally entrust monthly prayer intentions. Later, in 2018, Pope Francis established it as a pontifical work and, in 2020, a Vatican foundation was created.
Currently, noted Father Fones, the network brings together approximately 22 million people and has national offices in different countries. However, for the Jesuit, beyond the numbers and the international structure, the essential remains elsewhere: “It is a mission of compassion, of learning to look at the world with the eyes of Jesus, compassionately”.
This perspective implies that the Pope's monthly intentions are not merely topics for which to pray, but realities before which a person is called to allow themselves to be transformed. “The most important thing is to look at those who suffer as Jesus looks at them, moving us, allowing ourselves to be transformed by that reality”, he explained. The response, he added, is articulated through “prayer, service and inner formation”.
“The way of the heart”: a spirituality that transforms
During the conference, Father Fones presented “The way of the heart” as a catechetical-mystagogical proposal that has been developed and perfected over more than a decade. The purpose is to prevent the prayer for the intentions of the Pope from being reduced to an isolated practice. The itinerary aims for participants to experience an inner transformation in the face of the realities that affect humanity.
“Let it not just be words or in the morning to say the intention of the month and pray one rosary and that's it, but really let us be transformed from within”, he pointed out. The itinerary proposes nine steps, symbolically linked to the nine first Fridays of the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The first three focus on the person's relationship with the Father; the next three, on Jesus Christ; and the last three, on the community, the sending and the mission, in relation to the action of the Holy Spirit.
The first stage starts from a fundamental conviction: the love of God is at the origin of everything. From there, the person is invited to recognize their own reality, their concerns, questions, wounds, and needs, and then to broaden their perspective toward the world and discern what needs to be transformed. “It is to go starting from our own reality”, explained Father Fones when presenting this first stage, which culminates with a look towards the brothers, the environments and the situations where both life options and realities that demand an intervention from God are recognized.
“To truly cultivate a personal relationship with the Lord”
The second stage focuses on Jesus Christ. The starting point is the incarnation: a God who comes out of Himself and approaches humanity. Fones emphasized that the manner of the incarnation also reveals the heart of God: “An extroverted God who goes out to meet, who does not keep Himself, jealously”.
The itinerary also proposes, to cultivate a personal relationship with Jesus. It is not just about belonging to a community or being part of a believing crowd, but about discovering that Christ calls each person by their name.
For the Jesuit priest, this dimension remains an important pastoral challenge in Latin America: “To truly cultivate a personal relationship with the Lord.” Popular devotion and veneration of the crucified Christ are deep in the continent, but the proposal invites to bring that relationship with Jesus into the concrete decisions and situations of each day: family relationships, the work, the use of money, the care of creation and one’s own life.
From devotion to spirituality
The step “from devotion to spirituality”, as explained by Father Fones, it is not about giving up religious practices, but about allowing them to reach all dimensions of existence. “From devotion to spirituality,” he summarized, means moving from an affective practice that sustains religious life to a deepening that even reaches decisions, readings, conversations, and the way of living daily.
On this path, two practices have a fundamental place: daily prayer with the Word of God and spiritual rereading or examination of the day. The proposal, inspired by the experience of the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius, invites one to pray with the Gospel and to recognize the living and risen Jesus in one's own daily story.
Thus, the itinerary aims to form a perspective capable of recognizing God not only in explicitly religious moments but also in what happens during a workday, in relationships, in emotions, and in decisions.
“Making the everyday a mission of love”
The third stage addresses the consequences of following Jesus. Father Fones proposed asking what it means to live a life of commitment beyond words: raising a child, sustaining a relationship, persevering in a community, or taking on daily tasks responsibly.
The reference is the self-giving life of Jesus and the experience of the Eucharist as a school of an existence offered for others. However, the priest clarified that the goal is not personal heroism: “The focus is not our heroism, but the mission.” Christian giving, he explained, gains meaning when it is oriented towards others and towards a mission of compassion.
Therefore, the itinerary invites each person to ask themselves about their own vocation in the specific moment of their life: “What do I feel called to today?”. The answer can be expressed in multiple ways: from taking on a service in a Christian community or in social pastoral work to performing one’s own job better or contributing positively in the everyday environment. “To make the everyday a mission of love”, summarized Father Fones.
Personal experience that is never individual
Although the path begins from personal experience, the Jesuit priest insisted that it is not an individualistic journey. The ninth step addresses precisely the communal dimension: faith is lived in front of others and in relation to others.
The proposal includes the Church as a broad and universal community, called to recognize itself as united in Jesus Christ and capable of seeing as brothers also those who are beyond the Catholic Church and even beyond Christianity.
The experience, therefore, does not conclude upon completing nine stages. Father Fones explained that it is a circular path, where one returns again and again to the same themes to deepen them from new life experiences. “We move forward, but we return to the same themes again and again as a permanent spiritual experience,” he noted.
Proposal open to all
During the dialogue, the international director of the Pope's Worldwide Prayer Network explained that “The way of the heart” is open to all charisms, communities, and people. It is not necessary to leave the groups or spaces ecclesial of belonging to join.
The materials available on the internet allow for knowledge of the monthly prayer intentions and the prayer of offer. For those who wish to delve deeper into the itinerary, Father Fones recommended contacting the national leaders of the Pope's Worldwide Prayer Network.
As he explained, Latin American countries have a national director who knows the itinerary and can guide on the available in-person and virtual experiences, with the exception of Honduras, which at the time of the conference did not have this figure. He also emphasized that, although there is a common proposal for the continent, each country can develop the mission taking into account its own cultural characteristics. The materials are freely and freely accessible, while the linking with the national offices allows for closer support to those who wish to deepen.
“Pray with the Pope,” a monthly invitation
Among the available resources is the campaign “Pray with the Pope”, which offers a video each month in which the Holy Father presents and prays for the corresponding intention. Father Fones particularly highlighted that Pope Leo XIV wanted to record these videos also in Spanish.
The priest explained that this possibility constitutes a particular opportunity for Latin America and for Spanish-speaking communities: “Let us take advantage of the fact that we can listen to him and pray with him in Spanish”, invited.
To learn about the itinerary and participation possibilities, he encouraged checking the page of the World Network of Prayer of the Pope and locating the corresponding national office there.
Training to transform life
The conference concluded with an invitation to take advantage of the various training offerings provided by the Latin American and Caribbean Episcopal Council (Celam).
At the closing, Father Fones emphasized that training is a fundamental necessity for the Latin American Church. It is not just about acquiring knowledge or accumulating degrees, but about allowing training to reach life.
“As you saw, it is a spiritual formative itinerary that does not aim only to have more ideas, but above all to live an experience,” he said. The ultimate purpose, he added, is “to transform ourselves into better missionary disciples for the service of Jesus' mission”.
From this perspective, “The way of the heart” proposes a spirituality that begins with the recognition of God's love, goes through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, and culminates in a life dedicated to others and lived in community.
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