After the year dedicated to reflection on the documents and the study of the fruits of the Second Vatican Council in 2023, Pope Francis has asked that 2024 be marked as a Year of Prayer. The Holy Father announced its launch on Sunday 21 January 2024, on the fifth annual celebration of the ‘Sunday of the Word of God’. Previously, in a letter written on 11 February 2022, addressed to the Pro-prefect, Archbishop Rino Fisichella, to entrust the organization of the Jubilee to the Dicastery for Evangelization, the Pope wrote: “From now on I am happy to think that the year preceding the Jubilee event, 2024, will be dedicated to a great ‘symphony’ of prayer. First of all, to recover the desire to be in the presence of the Lord, to listen to him and adore him.” In preparation for the Jubilee, therefore, individual dioceses are invited to promote the centrality of individual and community prayer during this year.

The Dicastery has made some useful resources available to help people to better understand and rediscover the value of prayer. In addition to the 38 catecheses on Prayer that Pope Francis himself presented from 6 May 2020 to 16 June 2021, a series of booklets entitled, "Notes on Prayer" is being published by the Vatican publishing house, Libreria Editrice Vaticana. The eight titles are designed to put the need for a profound relationship with the Lord back at the center of people’s lives, through the many forms of prayer to be found in the rich Catholic tradition of prayer. In addition, a pastoral aid is available online, in a digital version, to help parish communities, families, priests, cloistered nuns and young people to become more aware of the need for daily prayer.