The short prayer that gives Pope Leo peace at night
Pope Leo XIV reportedly finds comfort each night through a brief, specific prayer. The article outlines the prayer’s wording and its role in the Pope’s nightly routine. It highlights how this practice reflects the Pope’s spiritual discipline and devotion. The piece situates the prayer within the broader context of Catholic liturgical traditions.
about 5 hours ago
Pope Leo XIV revealed a brief night‑time prayer that gives him peace, sharing it during a private audience with Spanish missionary Father César Luis Caro. The prayer, taken from St John XXIII, entrusts the Church to God before sleep.
The meeting took place on 26 January 2026 during the ad limina visit of Peru’s bishops. Father Caro attended in place of Bishop Javier Travieso, who could not travel to Rome. 1
Caro, who has served 11 years as a missionary in the Peruvian Amazon, presented a carved river‑dolphin from the region and discussed challenges such as illegal economies, deforestation, poverty, and a shortage of missionaries. 1
When asked how he was, the Pope replied calmly that he was at peace and that he “often turns to the prayer of John XXIII: ‘Lord, I’m going to sleep. The Church is yours; you take care of it.’ And I sleep.” 1
He described the prayer as a way to entrust the Church to God before rest, reflecting a pastoral style grounded in trust rather than anxiety. 1
A few days later, on 4 February 2026, the Apostolic Nunciature in Peru announced that Pope Leo XIV appointed Father Cesar Caro as apostolic administrator of the Vicariate of San José del Amazonas, following Bishop Travieso’s resignation. 1
The prayer offers insight into how Pope Leo XIV manages the weight of his office, emphasizing quiet confidence, listening, and reliance on divine care. 1
Examine the role of personal prayers in papal spiritual discipline
Personal prayer is not a “side activity” for a Pope; in Catholic teaching it functions as the interior engine of papal spiritual discipline—guiding fidelity, sustaining pastoral effectiveness, and harmonizing the Pope’s public responsibilities with communion with God. Key to this role is the Church’s insistence that personal prayer remains truly personal (real dialogue with God) while never collapsing into mere private spirituality disconnected from the Church’s liturgical and ecclesial prayer.
Catholic magisterial teaching repeatedly links spiritual discipline to personal prayer by describing prayer as what protects the integrity of a vocation under heavy duties. Pope John Paul II warns that pastoral pressures can cause priests’ spiritual life to be neglected or pushed into the background; the remedy is a “daily relationship with Christ” rooted in personal prayer and expressed through the Church’s worship—Eucharist, Liturgy of the Hours, lectio divina, and prayer. He adds that this personal spiritual experience is what enables fidelity and the continual “rekindling” of a gift received in ordination.
Although John Paul II speaks directly about priests and bishops, the logic he offers is directly relevant to papal discipline: the Pope’s office is not only administrative or juridical; it is fundamentally a spiritual service requiring interior fidelity. In the same line, John Paul II emphasizes the “intimate bond between the priest’s spiritual life and the exercise of his ministry” (citing Pastores Dabo Vobis). The more demanding the burden, the more necessary closeness to the Lord becomes for pastoral service and availability.
In other words, in Catholic spirituality, personal prayer is not primarily a psychological coping mechanism for stress; it is a theological necessity for maintaining communion with Christ so that ministerial actions flow from grace rather than from mere effort. John Paul II expresses this as a sharp contrast: pastoral activity “avulsa” from this base becomes sterile “activism.”
A second aspect of the Pope’s spiritual discipline is the character of personal prayer: it is relational—conversation with God that includes listening. Pope John Paul II tells young people that prayer is often called “a colloquy, a conversation, an interview with God.” In conversing, not only do we speak; we also listen. Therefore, prayer includes “being attentive to the interior voice of grace,” to God’s call; he summarizes it simply: “as every Christian: he speaks and he listens.”
This matters for discipline because “listening” is what guards the Pope from reducing prayer to recitation while ignoring the interior movements of grace. In spiritual terms, listening is an act of receptivity: the person allows God’s initiative to shape the day’s decisions, not only to inspire them later as a reflection. John Paul II explicitly connects this to integrating prayer with obligations and work: the Pope seeks to unite prayer with activities, and to unite work with prayer—so that day by day he fulfills his “service” and “ministry” from Christ and the living tradition of the Church.
So personal prayer functions as discipline through discernment: it trains the Pope to receive direction from God and to interpret duties through prayer rather than interpreting prayer through duties.
One of the most important Catholic correctives to romantic or individualistic understandings of prayer is found in Pope Benedict XVI’s teaching on prayer in the context of apostolic and ecclesial life. Benedict argues that prayer must be very personal—uniting oneself with God in one’s innermost depths. Yet he immediately adds that it is never “private” in the sense of being only the individual’s “ego” without concern for others: prayer is essentially prayer in the “we” of God’s children.
He explains the theological point: only in this “we” are we children who can pray “Our Father,” and only in this “we” do we truly access the Father. Thus, personal prayer both touches the nucleus of the self and is nourished by the communion of those praying—shaping the person according to God’s love.
This is crucial for understanding “papal spiritual discipline.” A Pope’s personal prayer cannot be imagined as a sealed, self-referential spirituality that floats above the Church’s public worship. Benedict’s framework implies that the Pope’s personal prayer is an ecclesial act even when it occurs inwardly: it belongs to the People of God’s dialogue with the Father.
The same ecclesial emphasis reappears in Benedict’s “Last General Audience” reflection: by accepting Petrine ministry, there is no longer “any privacy”; the Petrine office eliminates the “private dimension” of life. Even after resignation from active governance, Benedict says he remains in a “service of prayer” within the “enclosure of Saint Peter.” The implication for discipline is profound: the Pope’s personal spiritual life is not an isolated personal project; it is consecrated to the Church and lived “always” and “forever” for God’s people.
Catholic theology does not oppose personal prayer to liturgical prayer; it insists on their mutual interpenetration. Benedict XVI describes prayer as “not one activity among others,” but as a response to the Eucharistic proclamation “Sursum corda—lift up your hearts.” Prayer is therefore a raising of life “towards God’s height,” and one can attain “loftiness of life” essential for witnessing only if, in prayer, one allows oneself to be continually drawn upwards by Christ.
He also insists that prayer must be “constantly guided and enlightened” by the “great prayers of the Church and of the saints,” and by liturgical prayer, which teaches “how to pray properly.”
This provides a disciplined rhythm for the papal day. The Pope is not “trained” only by spontaneous interior moments; he is trained by the Church’s scriptural and liturgical forms of prayer. Benedict’s reference to the Psalms as a place where “the word becomes prayer” also illustrates this: in a letter concerning Lenten Spiritual Exercises, Benedict highlights the Psalms as the biblical locus where conversation with God occurs and must occur with depth and permanence—precisely so the Successor of Peter and co-workers can give clear witness.
Thus, papal spiritual discipline treats personal prayer as both:
Benedict XVI explicitly frames prayer as a “school of hope.” He says prayer must be personal (an encounter between the intimate self and God), but it must also be guided by the Church’s prayers and liturgy. This intermingling yields purifications that make the person “open to God” and prepared for service of fellow human beings—so that one becomes capable of hope and becomes “ministers of hope for others.”
This is an important link to “spiritual discipline.” Discipline is not merely about restraining impulses; it is about becoming the kind of person whose interior life makes outward service possible. In that sense, papal personal prayer is disciplined hope: it produces spiritual steadiness and moral clarity, allowing the Pope to keep the world open to God rather than resigned to the “perverse end.”
Prayer is also described in Catholic teaching as intercession. John Paul II stresses that prayer “on behalf of the people entrusted” is among a priest’s first duties; he presents it as privilege and responsibility: priests represent their people before the Lord and intercede “before the throne of grace.”
While again addressed to priests, the underlying ecclesiology scales naturally to the papal role. A Pope’s personal prayer—especially when it is faithful to the Church’s liturgical and canonical rhythms—is not simply self-edification; it is intercessory service. That is consistent with the “no privacy” aspect Benedict describes: the Pope belongs to the Church, so the Pope’s spiritual life is inherently for others.
From the sources, papal spiritual discipline can be described through several interlocking principles:
In Catholic teaching drawn from the provided magisterial sources, personal prayers occupy a decisive role in papal spiritual discipline: they sustain fidelity by sustaining communion with Christ, train listening to the voice of grace, and keep the Pope’s interior life explicitly ecclesial rather than private. At the same time, personal prayer is disciplined by being intermingled with the public prayer of the Church—especially liturgy and the Psalms—so that the Pope’s decisions and pastoral service are formed by prayer’s purification and by hope that becomes service to others.