The apostleship of prayer corner

Title

Creator

Verceles, Pedro

Language

English

Year

1950

Rights

In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted

Fulltext

THE APOSTLESHIP OF PRAYER CORNER In League with the Saered Heart By Rev. PEDRO VERCELES, S.J. National Director 5. Conferences. Whenever possible, the Notionol Director goes out to the provinces to hold conferences with parish priests in order to explain to them the orgonizotionol aspects of the Apostleship of Prayer and to suggest means to propagate it. Of late, several conferences hove been held with student leaders, specially in lay schools ond universities, with very encouraging results, thanks to the apostolic work of some enthusiastic students. 6. A very novel way to spread the Devotion is through decoicemanias, or decals, for short, which are suited for cor windshields and table gloss tops. These decals ore getting popular, ond the presence of the Image of the Sacred Heart In public ond prlvote conveyances should surely remind the passenaers ond drivers of the duties ond obliaations that their rellalon Imposes on them. Pins and scapulars, although they ore port of the devotional equipment of a devotee of the Sacred Heart, hove in mony instarfees served the good oumose of spreading this admirable Devotion. To cite an example, o young newspaperman went to his office one doy wearing the Sacred Heart pin. Other office employees began to ask questions about the Apostleship of Prayer, ond soon everybody wos o member of this wonderful organization. Other Activities The great virtue of this devotion tc the Sacred Heart has been expressed in the promises mode by Jesus Himself to St. Marguerite of Alacoque: "Tepid souls shall become fervent" ond "Fervent souls sholl auickly mount to high perfection." Hence, (Continued on page 34) This report on the Apostleship of Praver in the Philippines was submitted to the Bishops in their annual conference held in Manila last January 2i to January 29. Considering the informative value of this report to the members of the Apostleship of Praver and to other Catholics who, according to the Holy Father, "should all enlist tn this Saered Militia", we have decided to publish it in full. 31 34 THE APOSTLESHIP... (Continued from page 31) It may be safely stated that the Apostleship of Prayer has In mony Instances been the training ground, where Catholics are prepared to Join other religious associations which entail greater work and sacrifice, such os the Adorocion Noctumo, the Legion of Mary, ond other similar organizations. Holy Year In consonance, too, with the wishes of the Holy Father, the Apostleship of Prayer is taking an active participation In the Worldwide Catholic Crusade of Prayer and Penance for the year 1950. For this purpose, the 90,000 monthly intentions leaflets ore being used to propagate the Crusade. ' Promoters ond members, furthermore, are urged to recruit more members to the Apostleship of Prayer during the Holy Year, as one of the conditions for their active participation, besides those already mentioned by the Holy Father. Need to Spread the Devotion. At first impression, the fact that there are at present 860 Centres with on estimated total of 233,777 members in the Philippines would make us think thot nothing remains to be done, for "great is the harvest of the Lord." But what are 233,377 souls compared with 14,000,000 Catholics in the Philippines? Shall we suppose that the Divine Heart Who infinitely yearns for the love of All men would be so easily satisfied with a scanty harvest of only 233,377 souls out of a possible total of 17 million? And quoting ogoin the Holy Father, "We. like Our Predecessor of happy memory, Pius XI, have made known and once more most willingly declare thct it will make US very happy if all the Faithful without exception enlist In the Sacred Militia to swell the army of Associates, now numbering 35,000,000 In the world. Practical Application. Considering how easy it is to be a member of the Apostleship of Prayer, the only essentiol requirement being the recitatlo-r of the Morning Offering ond actual enrollment In the Association, there is really no volld reason why onybody should not be a member of this wonderful army of the Sacred Hecrt. The Apostleship of Prayer as Catholic Action Quoting ogoin the Holy Father, as he addressed a hundred priest delegates and directors of the Dalian branch of the Apostleship of Prayer in September of 1936, "There Is something thot We strangely recommend to you and it is this: the members of the Apostleship of Prayer must not be held to be external helpers of Catholic Action, because they formally belong to It. Nothing hinders, rather everything tends to their being ot least the reserve of Catholic Action. If anything at all, then surely the Apostleship of Prayer does belong to Catholic Action."

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