Apostleship
of Prayer
History of the Apostleship
of Prayer
John L. Vessels, SJ
Part Twelve
EUCHARISTIC fORMATION OF CHILDREN
Pius X became very interested in the Apostleship
of Prayer as had been a pastor and also he would have had learnt the morning
offering when he was a child, taught it by his mother, his teachers in
the schools. He realized the strength of living the eucharist, not just
receiving the eucharist but living the eucharist. He was the one who decided
and decreed that children also should be invited to live their lives oriented
around the eucharist, around participation in the eucharist. He wanted
children to receive the eucharist and receive it as frequently as they
could or would.
The Apostleship of Prayer, knowing of his desire,
put itself completely at the service of the preparation and formation and
orientation of children in receiving the eucharist and living the eucharist.
Thus was born the Eucharistic Crusade. In its early stages it was not an
initiative of the Apostleship of Prayer. It began in France independently
of the Apostleship of Prayer but soon united its forces with those of the
Apostleship of Prayer in France and so spread around the world as a school
of prayer which prepared children for heir eucharist and oriented them
for the rest of their lives in their eucharistic prayer practices.
As with other religious programmes, the strength
of this programme began to derive itself from the simple fact that the
older members were always preparing their children to live this same life
style. As it was learnt in the family it was accepted in childhood, in
the hearts and minds of the truly sincere children taught by their parents,
and family. So the eucharistic formation of children became the source
of strength and on-going vigour and a guarantee for the on-going
vitality, to the Apostleship of Prayer as a spiritual program in the parishes
and in the schools and in the other diocesan activities of the church.
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