Apostleship of Prayer History of the Apostleship of Prayer

John L. Vessels, SJ

Part Eight
The Spiritual Exercises         The Spiritual Exercises in one form or another had reached into the homes and hearts of, I cannot say most Catholics around the world, but certainly into the hearts and homes of many Catholics around the world because the Jesuit organization had spread itself around the world in missionary work, in parishes and schools especially but also with different kinds of research centres, spirituality centres and magazines. Long before the plethora of magazines we have now, the Catholic press was largely in the hands of the Jesuits and they were largely an instrument of the Exercises to one extent or another.
        Ignatius had designed the Exercise to be given to the elite so as to form leaders, to convert and confirm leadership, Catholic leadership, lay leadership, political leadership in all areas, especially in the school of Jesus with his attitude of returning love to Love, communicating the life of the Father, his whole life being an oblation to the Father to the Father's will. The Exercises had, and still have,  as their objective to bring people to this attitude of living one's life at the service of the Lord and the building of the kingdom, to do the Father's will day to day. A SCHOOL OF PRAYER

        St. Ignatius, himself, not only recognized but also believed the fact that large numbers of simple people, who were only looking for a little bit of religious instruction and a great deal of inner peace, would find both in some simple form from the Exercises: He called it the Eighteenth Annotation of the Exercises. And his insight was that it would not necessarily be Jesuits who would direct this form of the Exercises but rather that, as Jesuits or others allied with them, took large numbers of people through some of the simple Exercises that the people themselves would become so enthusiastic that they in turn would turn around and five them or lead others through this same little simple school of prayer.
        One of the earliest successful mass apostolates of the Jesuits was in Parma where Laynez and Faber successfully, if we can believe history, converted the whole town to a renewed Christian way of life. And they did it, not by their own preaching, they did it by the simple form of group Exercises in the simple exercises of prayer. What Ignatius wanted was to bring these people back to confession, to get them to clean up their lives, to recognize the evil that they were doing and to recognize the attitudes in their daily life style that explained the evil, to repent of  it and to get back to the Eucharist. He desired that they be  oriented in such a way that they would be left, somehow or other with a regular practice of communion and a somewhat regular practice of the sacrament of confession.
        The prayer of the Exercise is a prayer of the WILL: What do I want, what is the grace that I ask for? I know that it is God alone who can give it to me. I know that it is by the power of God alone that I can reform my life and live y life according to his will, to do his will and to be an instrument of his will.

To be continued

Return to Home Page

For more information contact The Director