Apostleship of Prayer

History of the Apostleship of Prayer

John L. Vessels, SJ

Part Two

EUCHARISTIC LIVING

This was eucharistic. What they found out was that just as they were coming into the chapel, the mass had already begun in their hearts. Further, as they were leaving the chapel the mass continued into their everyday activities. The scholastics did not come to the chapel to eat the body of Christ or just to celebrate the prayer of Christ, they primarily wanted to LIVE the Eucharist; they came to the chapel to celebrate what Christ was doing in them together in order to go out and DO it together. Eucharistic living became, not primarily, receiving the Eucharist or celebrating the Eucharist but became primarily LIVING the Eucharist.

The morning offering was the first moment each day. The morning offering was not a prayer of the head or a prayer of the heart. The morning was and is primarily a prayer of the will. What do I want? What do I determine What character do I give to this day with first act of the day, this first act of faith of the day? It is that everything today be motivated by faith and be an expression of faith.

There would be days that they would be so busy that they would not even think of God all day long and yet he was always there. He was always just beneath the surface because everything they were doing, they were doing with and for him. They were doing out of love and it was his life that was vitalizing , that was giving life to others through their activities.

This became the apostolic dimension of prayer. Prayer may not have been very long at the beginning of the day, but it made the whole day into prayer, it made the whole day an exercise of faith, knowingly, because the will act that they had made at the beginning of the day was a knowing, was a will-full act, it was a knowledgeable act. They knew what they were doing and they wanted it, and that made everything they did a prayer as long as it was in harmony with this initial act of the day.

To be continued

Return to Home Page

For more information contact The Director