by Ottavio De Bertolis

On 3 December 1844, in the Jesuit scholasticate of Vals, in Haute-Loire, on the initiative of Fr. Francis Xavier Gautrelet, the Apostleship of Prayer was born, now the Pope's World Prayer Network. If we write a little of its history, it is not so much out of a desire for erudition, or out of pure curiosity, but rather to be able to retrace its original intuitions , its first impulse, to be able to live its spirituality and original apostolic fruitfulness more fruitfully today.

It is worth first of all observing that Fr. Gautrelet came somewhat second, as founder; the first, and in a certain sense true founders, were the anonymous scholastics, i.e. religious still in training, of the Society of Jesus, who, very eager to already live an apostolate even in that period which is necessarily one of study, and therefore apparently not effective , they addressed this desire to him. And the Father heard them, showing them that the true and first apostolate, the soul of all the apostolates that take place in the world, is exactly prayer: this is precisely how the apostolate of prayer is born. These seminarians began to compose lists of intentions that were posted publicly, so that everyone could offer their prayers, their sufferings, their study and their hidden life, in support of what was thus entrusted to them. These lists were in some ways the ancestors of the modern notes containing the intentions of the Pope and the Bishops, which you certainly know. And in fact from the French scholasticate the initiative spread, first to other seminaries and religious orders, then among the lay people, who must be recognized, especially through the zealots, with an absolutely central role in its development and propagation.

The P. Ramière, who later continued the idea of ​​p. Gautrelet defines the Apostolate of Prayer as a "holy league of Christian hearts, united with the Heart of Jesus, to obtain the triumph of the Church and the salvation of souls". The language is the combative one of the nineteenth century, but the inspiring principle remains very valid, just as what the Father himself asserted remains true, that the triple source of the effectiveness of the Apostolate is prayer itself, the association of those praying, and their union with the Heart of Jesus.

Meanwhile, Pope Pius IX approved the first statutes in 1866, observing that "the Apostleship of Prayer is neither a Congregation nor a Confraternity properly so called, but a holy league of zeal and prayer." All the Popes subsequently approved and encouraged the association, and other editions of the Statutes were also drawn up: here I limit myself to recalling the one from 1968, approved by Paul VI, who wrote the traditional spirituality of the AdP in a truly new language, based on five qualifying elements: the centrality of the Mass and the offering of the day in it; the spirituality of the Heart of Christ; Marian devotion, with the commitment of the daily Rosary decade; union with the Church; and finally assiduous attention to prayer as the soul of our apostolic life.

In all these years, in France and elsewhere, spirituality and ascetic magazines were founded that supported the religious culture of the members: here we limit ourselves to recalling, in Italy, today's The Message of the Heart of Jesus. We can certainly say that in all these years hundreds of millions of people have lived their faith also by relying on this way of prayer.

I remember that basically what the AdP proposes even today is the same Ignatian spirituality, made accessible even beyond the Society of Jesus: this was, moreover, the reason why the Popes granted participation in the spiritual goods of the Order to the members. Union with Christ, self-offering, feeling with the Church are in fact the typical traits of Ignatius and his children. Today as yesterday, the AdP is a spiritual journey that the Church proposes to all Christians to help them become friends and apostles of the risen Jesus in daily life, reawakening their missionary capacity in them; is a global prayer network at the service of the challenges of humanity and the mission of the Church, expressed in the Pope's monthly prayer intentions, today also on the internet, in the click to pray application. In short, it is a journey of everyone's heart towards the Heart of Christ.