Pray Together: Our Community Prayer for July
Honouring in July: Saints Joachim and Anne
Home: The First School of Prayer
By: Deacon Mike Walsh ©
The Daily TV Mass community is unlike any other.
Every day, more than 125,000 people from across Canada and around the world join together in the sacred devotion of the Daily TV Mass. Some have prayed with us faithfully for decades. Others are rediscovering the Catholic faith they once knew. A growing number are searching for the deeper meaning, hope, and peace that only Christ can provide.
Yet despite our different stories, we are united by one thing. . .
Prayer.
When people ask me to describe the Daily TV Mass, I often say that we are much more than a television audience—we are a Community of Prayer.
That community becomes especially visible during one of the oldest and most beautiful parts of the Mass: the Prayer of the Faithful, also known as the Universal Prayer.
After listening to God’s Word proclaimed in Scripture and reflecting on it in the homily, the Church responds by praying for the needs of the world. Saint Paul urged the first Christians to offer “supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings for everyone” (1 Timothy 2:1), and the Church has faithfully continued that practice ever since.
At every Mass, we pray not only for ourselves but for the Church, our civic leaders, those who are sick or suffering, the faithful departed, and the needs of our communities. These prayers remind us that no Christian walks alone. Together, we carry one another’s joys and burdens before the Lord.
This is especially true at the Daily TV Mass.
Every day we receive prayer intentions from across Canada and around the world. While it would be impossible to read every intention aloud, each request is lovingly placed in our Daily TV Mass Prayer Intentions Book and remembered during the Prayer of the Faithful.
No one who asks for our prayers is forgotten.
Daily TV Mass Community Prayer
Several years ago, we introduced another tradition that has become a cherished part of our ministry—our Community Prayer.
Each month, everyone who joins us in the sacred devotion of the Daily TV Mass is invited to pray for a shared intention. It is a simple but powerful reminder that, although we may be separated by geography, we remain united in Christ.
This year our Community Prayers have focused on members of the Holy Family. Throughout the year, we have sought their intercession for the needs of our Daily TV Mass family. In March, for example, we turned to Saint Joseph, asking his prayers as the faithful guardian of Jesus and Mary.
Saints Joachim and Anne
Faith Passed from Generation to Generation
During July, we honour two often-overlooked members of the Holy Family: Saints Joachim and Anne, the parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the grandparents of Jesus.
Although little is known about them from Sacred Scripture, Christian tradition honours their quiet but profound influence. Through their love, faith, and example, they helped prepare Mary to embrace God’s call and become the Mother of our Lord.
Their witness is especially fitting as the Church celebrates the World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly on the fourth Sunday of July. Their lives remind us that faith is most often handed on from one generation to the next—not through extraordinary events, but through ordinary acts of love, prayer, sacrifice, and faithful example.
How many of us first learned to pray from a grandmother? How many were encouraged in the faith by a grandfather whose quiet witness spoke louder than words?
The Church has always recognized that grandparents and elders are among her greatest treasures. Their lives remind us that faith is not simply taught—it is lived, shared, and lovingly passed from generation to generation.
Saints Joachim and Anne, pray for us.
During the month of July, at each Daily Mass we will offer the following:
As a community of prayer, let us give thanks for grandparents and elders who, like Saints Joachim and Anne, nurture faith and family across generations with quiet strength.
We pray to the Lord.
As you pray this month’s Community Prayer, remember that you are joining thousands of others across Canada and around the world who are praying these same words. Together we give thanks for grandparents and elders, ask God’s blessing upon them, and entrust them to the loving care of Saints Joachim and Anne.
If you have a prayer intention you would like the Daily TV Mass community to remember, we invite you to submit it through our website.
It would be our privilege to place your intention in the Daily TV Mass Prayer Intentions Book and to remember you in prayer.
Go in Peace—and let us continue to pray for one another.
Deacon Mike Walsh serves the Archdiocese of Toronto, leads the Daily TV Mass ministry, and writes about faith, service, hope, and discipleship.
Thank you. 🙏🏻
Thank you for your dedication and teachings of our Catholic faith.