The people you carry, kept in prayer.

What the journal keeps

Intentions. For each one, whom you are praying for, what for, the day you began to carry it, and a private note if you want one. If your husband and children are in your Regina profile, they appear as quick choices; you can always type a name instead.

Today’s three. Each day the journal brings three intentions to the top, in turn, so that no one is forgotten. On a day your profile keeps for someone (a child’s baptism day, birthday or patron’s feast, your husband’s patron’s feast, your wedding anniversary, the anniversary of a death you have recorded), the intentions for that person come first; on All Souls’ Day and through November, which by popular custom is kept for the holy souls, the intentions for the dead come first. The journal tells you why.

Answered prayers. When a prayer is answered, mark the day and, if you like, how: as you asked, or in another way. The answered list becomes a record of thanksgiving you can print.

The days you prayed. A day counts when you prayed with another Regina tool that keeps a dated record (the Rosary or a decade of it, the Examen or an examination of conscience, a day of a novena, a prayer anchor of your Rule, the Thirty Days, the Consecration, family prayer and the blessing of your children in the Church in the Home), when you went to confession, when you prayed for one of your intentions here, or when you mark it yourself, up to sixty days back. The count is strict: one missed day ends a run, today stays open until midnight, and filling in a day you really prayed restores the run. There are no grace days.

How to use it

1. Add the people and needs you are carrying. One line each is enough.
2. Each day, open the journal, pray for the three it brings forward, and tap the circle beside each.
3. Prayed the Rosary or the Examen in another Regina tool? That day is already counted. Prayed at Mass or in the car? Tap “I prayed today”.
4. When a prayer is answered, mark it, and give thanks.
5. Print the list to keep in your missal, or print the answered prayers and the year.

Why keep one

To pray for someone else is to intercede, and the Church teaches that a Christian’s intercession shares in Christ’s own and reaches everyone, even those who do us harm (Catechism 2634–2636). St Paul asks for exactly that:

I desire therefore, first of all, that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all men:

1 Timothy 2:1, Douay-Rheims

Praying for someone who has hurt you never means you must stay where you are in danger.

Our Lady shows the shape of it at Cana. She sees a need that is not her own and names it to her Son, “They have no wine” (John 2:3), and the Catechism points to Cana as the place where the Gospel shows Mary asking, in faith, for the needs of others (Catechism 2618).

Some prayers are answered quickly, some only after years, and some in a way we did not ask for. The Catechism says that when our trust is tested, the chief difficulty is the petition that seems unheard. It reminds us that the Father already knows our needs, as Our Lord said, “your Father knoweth what is needful for you, before you ask him” (Matthew 6:8), and that he still waits for us to ask, because he honours the freedom of his children. And, quoting Evagrius Ponticus, it tells us not to be dismayed when an answer is slow, for God means to give something greater to the one who holds fast to him in prayer (Catechism 2734–2737). Our Lord told the parable of the persistent widow for that reason:

And he spoke also a parable to them, that we ought always to pray, and not to faint,

Luke 18:1, Douay-Rheims

And a journal is a small way of doing what Our Lady did: “But Mary kept all these words, pondering them in her heart” (Luke 2:19).

Questions

Who can see my intentions?

Anyone who opens this browser on this device can read them. The journal has no lock of its own, so keep your phone locked if anything here should not be seen. Nothing is sent to us. Your intentions are included if you export your data, and if you ever turn on Regina Key sync, the copy is encrypted on your device before it leaves, so we cannot read it. See your data and the privacy page.

What happens if I miss a day?

The run of days ends and the next day you pray begins a new one; the journal shows “Started over” with your longest run beside it. If you did pray and simply did not record it, mark that day (anything in the last sixty days) and the run is restored. A missed day in a journal is not a sin; it is only a gap in a record.

What are the marks?

Seven, thirty, a hundred and three hundred and sixty-five days in a row, then every further year. Each carries a verse of Scripture in the Douay-Rheims. You can turn a mark into a card to share; the card carries the verse and the number, and never your intentions.

Can I use it on my phone?

Yes. It works in any modern browser on a phone, tablet or computer. Each browser keeps its own journal, so what you write on your phone stays on your phone unless you turn on Regina Key sync.

Sources

• Scripture: the Douay-Rheims Bible, Challoner revision, from drbo.org (1 Timothy 2:1; James 5:16; John 2:3, 5; Luke 2:19, 51; Luke 11:9; Luke 18:1; Luke 22:42; Matthew 6:6, 8; Psalm 39:2; Romans 12:12; Acts 1:14; Philippians 4:6; 1 Thessalonians 5:17–18).
• Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraphs 2617–2619, 2629–2638 and 2734–2737, read on vatican.va and summarised here in our own words.
• The spiritual works of mercy: A Catechism of Christian Doctrine, No. 2 (the Baltimore Catechism), question 222, read on Project Gutenberg.
• The month of November as the month of the holy souls is a popular custom, not liturgical law.