Apostleship of Prayer | Nigeria

History of Apostleship of Prayer

Towards the mid-nineteenth century, in France, many people used to dream about embarking on missionary work in countries like Japan, India and other Asian regions which had at that time just started to open up to the Catholic Faith. It was at this time too that the Jesuits in the Toulouse Province had commenced their mission in the Tamil Nadu region, situated at the southernmost tip of India. The enthusiasm of the Jesuit students in formation was immense! In fact, at the House of Formation in Vals they used to go out to the library to find out more about India and acquaint themselves with its culture, religion, language, geography and history. Needless to say this used to take up much of their valuable time from their studies of philosophy and theology necessary for their proper priestly formation and subsequent mission.

It was for this reason that on the 3rd of December 1844 (the feast day of St. Francis Xavier), Fr. Francois-Xavier Gautrelet, the current Spiritual Director, called these students to him and exhorted them: "Your mission, at the moment, is not in India but in the classroom. Your mission is philosophy and theology so that you will be able to prepare yourselves for your future assignment. The worst sort of formation you can undergo is to seek what you desire and not to understand what God wishes you to do". To this he added a much more practical suggestion so as to help them apply their missionary flair in their everyday life: "When you wake up in the morning, offer your present day to the Lord. Your first prayer should be, 'Lord, You are giving me this day and I want to offer it back to You. I receive everything through Your Love and I want to give it back to You with all the love in my heart. I want to use all that You have given me as it pleases You. Accept this day: my studies, my lessons and recreation. I only wish to carry out Your Will in each of these activities and with every person I meet today.'"

From then on, these seminarians made this Daily Offering, and in due time they came to realize the spiritual change within them through this prayer. The first transformation was in the way they related to the celebration of the Eucharist. Through this morning Offering, these students felt they had already become an integral part of Jesus' self-sacrifice to the Father during Mass. This Morning Prayer helped them cherish this emotion throughout their day.
For them the Eucharist was not so much a celebration or a participation but their WAY OF LIFE.
These students concluded each day by making a Consciousness Examen, reflecting on the day gone by - it's positive and negative aspects. Their life now took a different meaning as a result of their Daily Offering, for instead of concentrating on their egos, they took the Lord as the focal point of their day. They reflected more on "How did the Lord work through my Daily Offering?" rather than "Where did I fail today?" In other words from examining their failures, they moved on to realize the good that the Lord performed through them.

Even the Sacrament of Reconciliation (Confession) assumed a different meaning. These students became so much aware that their lives were God's own tapestry, that they used to resort to this Sacrament not just for the sake of confessing their past sins but even more so, to receive the grace of fortitude against future failures. They were sure that the Lord would be with them to help them overcome selfishness and self-centeredness and other deviations. Therefore, the Spirit of the Lord, blossomed within them through these four exercises; the Daily Offering in the morning and the Consciousness Examen in the evening; and the other two the Sacraments of the Eucharist and Reconciliation.

The intimate experience of these young French Jesuit students did not just remain with them in the classroom. Since they used to go out and teach catechism as part of their formation, they had the opportunity to talk about their experience of prayer to the children, youths, and other people they met. They transmitted this message: "The Lord appreciates all that you go through. Nobody is too poor or too sick that he cannot offer his life to God." In so doing, these students were growing to be apostles of prayer amongst the simple and poor people in the southern regions of France.

Little by little, these simple village people began to understand that it was also their mission to perform with love all that which the Lord asked of them in their daily life. Their mission was, for instance, to wash dirty clothes, to take care of children, to be hardworking and persevering. Every moment of their life was valuable in the eyes of the Lord for the establishment of His Kingdom on this earth. On their own initiative, these villagers started to spread this practice to their families and their friends. They too became missionaries of prayer. In no time, this kind of apostleship of prayer formed deep roots amongst the French.

It was time that this spiritual movement developed a certain consistency. Fr. Gautrelet was assigned other duties by his Superiors, and in 1860 this association of prayer was entrusted to Fr. Henri Ramiere who was a distinguished organizer. Immediately, Fr. Ramiere started working on an intuition he had, that is, that of combining the Apostleship of Prayer with the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. In 1861, in Toulouse, he published the first magazine entitled 'The Messenger of the Sacred Heart of Jesus'. Within a short while, this magazine was published in a variety of languages. Through it, the teachings of the 4 pillars of the Apostleship of Prayer, were proclaimed: The Daily Offering, The Holy Eucharist, The Consciousness Examen, and the Sacrament of Reconciliation. These were then formulated in acts of Consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. At the same time, Fr. Ramiere persisted in adapting the teachings of the Apostleship of Prayer to parish life and Christian communities. Till then, the Consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus was made on an individual basis; but he started to promote the Consecration of families, of work places, towns and villages, finally of the region as a whole. In 1879 this association received its first statutes which were approved by Pope Pius IX.

In the mean time, Fr. Ramiere introduced yet another idea. He suggested to the millions of people who were making the daily offering to pray in communion for a single missionary intention. In this way, the people felt they shared God's plan on this earth. When we, as members of the Church, are faced with critical difficulties Jesus encourages us, first and foremost, to pray: "The harvest is rich but the labourers are few, so ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers to his harvest" (Mt 9, 38).

Eventually, Pope Leo XIII himself (in 1890 or 1891), felt that he ought to be the one to formulate these intentions. His reasoning was: "Nobody was in a better position other than the Pope to realize which needs in the Church required most prayers. If we are to pray for particular intentions, then it is only appropriate that the Pope should lead our prayers". From then on, every successive Pope gave the monthly intentions to the millions of Catholics scattered all over the world, through the Apostleship of Prayer, who then prayed in unison with him.