Pope Leo XIV’s prayer intention for July focuses on discernment: how to choose paths in life that lead to Christ.
The latest Pope Worldwide Prayer Network video shows a young woman in a forest, searching for the right path. After freeing herself from unnecessary burdens, she opens the Gospel for guidance. Eventually, she arrives at a grotto where there is a statue of Mary—she prays in silence and listens, that she might be shown the right path.
These images are accompanied by Pope Leo XIV reading an original prayer with which the faithful can ask the Holy Spirit, ‘light of our understanding’ and ‘gentle breath in our decisions,’ for the grace to know how to pause to listen attentively to him and become aware of their own feelings, thoughts and ways of acting.
Grant me deeper understanding of what moves me.
‘I long for my choices,’ the Pope prays, ‘to lead me to the joy of the Gospel. Even if I must go through moments of doubt and fatigue, even if I must struggle, reflect, search and begin again.’
And he concludes, ‘Grant me deeper understanding of what moves me, so that I may reject what draws me away from Christ, and love him and serve him more fully.’
In the Pope’s prayer, we hear the echo of St Augustine’s famous prayer in his Confessions: ‘Oh God, let me know myself that I might know you!’ According to Augustine, knowledge of self leads to knowledge of God. In order to discern, it is necessary to place oneself in truth before God, to enter into oneself, to admit one’s own weaknesses and to ask God for healing. These are the steps to rebirth through an authentic relationship with God.
Formation in discernment is fundamental to navigate a complex world.
Discernment has been practised from the beginning of the Church’s history. St Paul writes about this topic several times in his letters. For example, in Roman 12:1–2, he writes ‘that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.’
Today, however, the ancient art of discernment is perhaps more necessary than ever.
Faced with a rapidly changing world, vast amount of information (which is not always true), the apparent reality created by AI, and the complexity of global challenges, discernment has become essential to making good decisions—decisions that allow us to live well and draw closer to God.
The International Director of the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network, Fr Cristóbal Fones SJ, explains that ‘formation in discernment is fundamental to navigate a complex world.
‘This includes prayer, personal reflection, the study of Scripture and spiritual direction. Cultivating a deep relationship with Jesus is most important. In this way, we can recognise his voice in the midst of so many other voices in the world, and have the clarity necessary to make decisions based on more human proposals and horizons.’
We have been created to ... give of ourselves.
Discernment is also essential for our happiness. ‘Today’s culture,’ Fr Fones continues, ‘presents happiness as an end it itself, and tends to identify it with wellbeing. It is, however, a consequence for St Ignatius of Loyola, in whose spirituality discernment occupies a very important place.
‘We have been created to go out of ourselves, to learn to love and give of ourselves, to serve others and to be united with God. This is the way, Jesus’s way, the way of the heart, which is certainly the opposite of the dominant self-centred and utilitarian culture, that happiness is achieved.
‘Spiritual discernment helps us better exercise our freedom.’
Banner image: Pope Leo XIV before leading a meditation for seminarians in St Peter’s Basilica on 24 June 2025, as part of the Jubilee of Seminarians. (Photo: CNS/Lola Gomez.)
