Apostleship of Prayer

History of the Apostleship of Prayer

John L. Vessels, SJ

Part Seven

APOSTLESHIP OF PRAYER SPREADS AROUND THE WORLD

The Apostleship of Prayer waxed and waned in its early years for want of organization. When Father Gautrelet, SJ, the founding father realized that he was not going to be the one to organize it any further than just as it was in the seminary during those first years, he invited Father Ramiere to do something about the organization.
Gautrelet had perceived the inseparable union between head and heart of Christ, between Word and Bread, (which is the  flesh of Christ in the Eucharist); that is, as the head of the body gives directives to the members of the body, however insignificant and unimportant they may appear to be to themselves and to others around them, the head using the word to direct the body in the activities and the services of the day, so the heart communicates the love with which everything is to be done. It is not what we do that is important, it is how we do it, with love communicating love, not our own love only but the love of Christ from the Heart of Christ. So these four elements of head and heart, word and bread had been perceived as important in the Apostleship of Prayer by Gautrelet.
Ramiere assumed not only the missionary character of this prayer movement that was slowly moving across France and Europe, but also the deep devotion, the deep heartfelt, passionate affectionate relationship to Jesus as members of his body. He developed this very thoroughly both in his book but also in the magazine that he began to publish, the Messenger of the Sacred Heart, in Toulouse. This publication grew into a network, a whole family of Messengers all around the world. It was published in many different language.
This devotion, as an expression of faith, included the Morning Offering, the reception of the Eucharist, the evening Examen, and the Sacrament of Reconciliation. These all were formulated in acts of consecration to the Heart of Jesus or to the Father through the heart of Jesus and the heart of Mary. This personal consecration led to family consecration, to city consecration, to nation consecration. The people were being called to being instruments of God in the building up of the Kingdom.
So, one hundred and twenty years before Vatican II, people who embarked on the Apostleship of Prayer,became missionaries of prayer, missionaries of the Eucharist, missionaries of the apostolic dimension of prayer in the work of building up the Kingdom of God.
These missionaries did not even know what baptismal priesthood meant. They did not think of themselves as priests; they were living it. This living their priesthood spread all around the world, and the Messengers of the Sacred Heart wree the instruments of giving the on-going encouragemnet, formation and orientation which it needed.
Very quickly it spread all round the world because The Society of Jesus had during the centuries had seeded the life style of Ignatian spirituality, the simple prayer practices of Ignatius. The simple prayer practices that produced a spirit of oblation had been planted in the hearts of people all round the world. The Society of Jesus from its very beginning had been a missionary organization and still is.

To be continued

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