Apostleship of Prayer History of the Apostleship of Prayer

John L. Vessels, SJ

Part Four
RECONCILIATION

The scholastics flowed with this and also found that, as it became much more easy over a period of time, they could harmonize with it. Furthermore, they discovered a sense of joy and worth from God's activity, by belonging to God and acknowledging and wanting to express their belonging to God. Well, obviously this evening examen was elevated to a sacrament level by the sacrament of reconciliation. They went to the sacrament of reconciliation not for the sins of yesterday; they went for the challenges of tomorrow, they went for the sins of tomorrow.

They want to receive the sacramental grace, the divine aid , from the sacrament for those specific moments in their week or month or however long it would be before their next occasion for reconciliation. They knew that God was giving them the specific graces they would need to overcome their own selfishness, their own sensuality, their own fears, all which they were discovering.

When I said that each evening when they made their evening awareness examen it was not so much to see what they did wrong as to see what God did right: this did not mean that they did not see what they did wrong. But it was now evident.
They did not have to look for it and they did not have to feel bad about it. they just say it and this is what God wanted me to do today and I did not do it. "Well, I am sorry , Lord and I will pick up the slack tomorrow and be more faithful tomorrow. And knowing, or, perhaps, their faith telling them, that God was fully aware of the real serious defects in their characters, the weaknesses in their personalities, he would give them those specific graces that they would need for specific encounters and specific moments of crises. this was the attitude with which they received the sacrament of reconciliation.

So, then, it was around these four practices - two of them prayer practices, the morning offering and the evening examen and two of them sacramental practices, the Eucharist and reconciliation. It was around these four practices as a structure that they discovered an increased growth in the Spirit. It was a missionary growth, in the sense that they realized their mission was here, where they were, today. It was the desire to be the apostles of jesus and to spread his message, not just in their own lives,  in their classrooms, seminary halls and playgrounds,   but also in the wider world around them.

To be continued

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