The Apostleship of prayer helps us to find God in all things
Michael Beattie SJ is the Province Coordinator for the Apostleship of Prayer. here he tells of ...
'PRAYING WITHOUT CEASING' WHEN WE ARE TOO BUSY TO PRAY
There is a famous prayer of St Ignatius Loyola, the founder of the Society of Jesus, which he uses in his book of the Spiritual Exercises. In it he prays that all our actions, operations and intentions may begin in the Lord and find their completion through the same Lord. This prayer utters such an important sentiment and basic understanding of what it means to live the Christian life, that the Church uses these words of Ignatius in the opening prayer at Mass on the day after Ash Wednesday.
St Ignatius was concerned that we should 'be able to find God in all things'. In this way the whole of our lives would take on a fullness of meaning, such as could never be envisaged without the revelation of Jesus Christ our Lord.
The implications of such an attitude to life are enormous! All we say and do, if it is done in, with, and through Jesus Christ, helps genuinely to build up the Kingdom of God, both in this world and in the world to come.
St Ignatius lived four hundred years ago. He may have lived in a turbulent world, but basically it was a world in which Christian belief was taken for granted. It was a world quite unlike ours. It knew nothing of the pressures of modern technology, the so-called Godless and post-Christian society, instant communication and the enormous pressures of bureaucracy and materialistic philosophy. It knew nothing of the daily rat race that so many of us have to endure.
Being by nature a practical man, undoubtedly after his dramatic conversion, Ignatius became a man of deep prayer. His ideal was to be a contemplative in action. If he lived in todayÕs world, his ideals would be exactly the same. In the book of his Spiritual Exercises, in what he calls the 18th annotation, he suggests that a perfectly valid way of praying, and of leading a life pleasing to God, especially if life is full of the cares of this world, is to reflect daily on the commandments of God and apologise to God - and indeed oneÕs neighbour - for any failures.
The Apostleship of Prayer, as we know it today, was started in France in the 19th century at the Jesuit House of Studies in Vals near Le Puy. It happened that a group of students were both impatient and anxious to escape the lecture rooms and be out and about preaching the Gospel. In fact, many of them had many more years of academic work to complete before they were ordained and then be released to do what they so ardently desired.
With the help of Fr Francis Xavier Guatrelet SJ, who was the spiritual director of the college, these students decided that they would offer to the Lord all their studies, day by day, and in that way give to God every aspect of their dayÕs work. This 'daily offering' - in conjunction with their assisting at Mass - helped them to see that their work would not only bear fruit in the future, but it was there and then of real apostolic value. They hit upon the dictum attributed to St Augustine and to St Benedict that 'working is praying' and that Ôwork can become worshipÕ. Thus the Apostleship of Prayer was born.
Fr Hans-Peter Kolvenbach, the Superior General of the Society of Jesus, has asked all Jesuits to work to revive and renew the Apostleship of Prayer. Pope John Paul II spoke as follows, ' The Apostleship of Prayer, which I have known and appreciated for many years, wants to highlight the apostolic value of prayer in the Church'. Pope Benedict XVI, speaking in St Peter's Basilica, Rome in October 2005 said, 'The Apostleship of Prayer is an apostolate that never has to end'.
All Christians are called to be intimately united to Christ. By saying from the heart, 'Jesus, I offer my day to you' or 'Lord, today is your day', and by uniting in prayer with the Divine Sacrifice of the Mass, that is continually being said hour by hour somewhere in the world, we can get on with the day knowing that all is offered to God, that we are indeed praying without ceasing, and that God is given glory by our daily living.
Each month the Holy Father proposes special intentions for prayer for the many problems and crises that afflict our world. He asks us to include these in our daily offering.
As the students of Vals in 1844 began to offer their studies to God for the salvation of souls, so perhaps we could do the same with our day-to-day living. Pope John Paul named St Terese of Lisieux a patroness of the Apostleship of Prayer. She noted in her autobiography that she followed the example of the students of Vals, speaking specifically of the Apostleship of Prayer - and that she made her own daily offering for the intentions of the Holy Father.
So, daily, 'Jesus, I offer my day to you'. Daily, in the evening, a quick review of your day saying 'thank you' to the Lord for the good things that have happened, plus another quick review to say sorry for any deviations from the ideal of his great commandments. I am sure St Ignatius would say that we are on the right lines if we come to the realisation that God can be found in all the circumstances of our highly pressurised daily living. With the grace of God, all our actions, operations and intentions will begin in the Lord and find their completion in and through the same Lord.
For further details about the Apostleship of Prayer you can contact
Fr Beattie at:
Mount St Mary's College,
College Road,
Spinkhill,
SHEFFIELD
S21 3YL