The Apostleship of Prayer — Lessons on the Sacred Heart

When to read this: When you want a practical daily practice — not a devotional theory, but something you can do at 7 AM that actually changes your day.

The Apostleship of Prayer

Living the devotion daily — the Daily Offering, the triple sacrifice

The Apostleship of Prayer is one of the oldest and most widespread Catholic organizations in the world. Founded by a Jesuit priest in France in 1844, it was adopted and promoted by the Society of Jesus as one of the primary means of fostering devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

The essence of the Apostleship is simple: each morning, a Catholic offers up the day, his prayers, works, joys, and sufferings, for the intentions of the Holy Father and for the conversion of sinners. This offering, made in union with the Mass, becomes a spiritual sacrifice that contributes to the salvation of souls.

Fr. Hardon taught that the Apostleship of Prayer is not merely an organization but a spirituality: a way of living the devotion to the Sacred Heart in the ordinary circumstances of daily life. It is where the devotion moves from the heart to the hands, from meditation to action, from love to sacrifice.

June 22 — The Daily Offering

Consecrating the Day to God

The essence of the Apostleship of Prayer is the Daily Offering. Each morning, a Catholic offers up the day, his prayers, works, joys, and sufferings, for the intentions of the Holy Father and for the conversion of sinners.

This offering is not a prayer to be recited and forgotten. It is a spiritual act that consecrates the entire day to God. Every prayer you say, every task you complete, every joy you experience, every suffering you endure … all of it is offered to God in union with the sacrifice of the Mass.

This is what it means to live the devotion to the Sacred Heart in the ordinary circumstances of daily life. It is not enough to love God in meditation. We must love Him in action: in the work of our hands, in the words of our lips, in the sacrifices of our day.

What Changes

“I have seen over forty years of priesthood what a difference a consistent Daily Offering makes. People who offer their day to God each morning … they change. They become more patient. More humble. More loving. More willing to suffer for the sake of others.”

June 23 — The Triple Sacrifice

Praise, Reparation, Impetration

The Daily Offering contains a triple intention, a triple sacrifice. Each morning, we offer our day for three purposes:

Praise: We give thanks and glory to God for all He has done: for creation, for redemption, for the gift of His Son, for the presence of Christ in the Eucharist.

Reparation: We make amends for the sins we have committed and the sins of the world. We join our small sacrifices to the infinite sacrifice of Christ on the cross, offering them as reparation for the offenses against God’s love.

Impetration: We ask God, through the merits of Christ’s Sacred Heart, for the graces we need, for ourselves, for our families, for the conversion of sinners, for the intentions of the Holy Father.

The Triple Sacrifice

Each morning, the Daily Offering contains three intentions:

  • Praise — glory to God for all He has done.
  • Reparation — making amends for sin, joining our sacrifices to Christ’s.
  • Impetration — asking for graces, for families, for the conversion of sinners.

Praise. Reparation. Impetration. That’s the entire Catholic spiritual life in three words.

This triple sacrifice, praise, reparation, impetration, is the essence of the Apostleship of Prayer. It is where the devotion to the Sacred Heart becomes active, practical, and effective in the world.

June 24 — Conversion of Souls

The Apostolic Dimension

The Apostleship of Prayer was founded for a purpose: the conversion of souls. Every offering made in union with the Apostleship contributes to this great work. We may not preach, teach, or evangelize in the traditional sense. But by offering our day to God, we participate in the apostolate of Christ Himself.

Fr. Hardon taught that every Catholic … priest, religious, layperson … is called to be an apostle. Not by going to foreign lands or founding institutions, but by offering the ordinary sacrifices of daily life for the conversion of sinners. The mother who endures the trials of child-rearing with patience and love. The worker who performs his duties with integrity and humility. The sick person who bears his suffering in union with Christ on the cross.

Every Catholic Is an Apostle

Not by going to foreign lands or founding institutions. By offering the ordinary sacrifices of daily life for the conversion of sinners. The mother who endures child-rearing with patience. The worker who performs his duties with integrity. The sick person who bears suffering in union with Christ. All of these are acts of apostolate.

All of these are acts of apostolate. All of these contribute to the conversion of souls. All of these are offerings to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

June 25 — The Priest and the Apostleship

A Jesuit’s Perspective

As a member of the Society of Jesus, I have a vested interest in the Apostleship of Prayer. Promoting devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus is part of my rule of life as a Jesuit. And the Apostleship is one of the primary means by which that devotion is lived out.

I have seen over forty years of priesthood what a difference a consistent Daily Offering makes in the spiritual life of a person. People who offer their day to God each morning — they change. They become more patient. More humble. More loving. More willing to suffer for the sake of others.

This is the power of the Apostleship of Prayer. It is not an organization. It is a spirituality. It is a way of living the devotion to the Sacred Heart in the ordinary circumstances of daily life.

June 26 — The Sacred Heart and the Apostleship

From Devotion to Action

The devotion to the Sacred Heart is not merely a private piety. It is an apostolic devotion. It calls us to action … to love God not only in our hearts but in our works. It calls us to offer our days, our prayers, our joys, and our sufferings for the conversion of sinners and the intentions of the Holy Father.

This is the heart of the Apostleship of Prayer. And this is the heart of devotion to the Sacred Heart: love that acts. Love that sacrifices. Love that seeks the conversion of souls.

— Fr. John A. Hardon, S.J. — The Apostleship of Prayer | Ignatian Retreats

Interstitial: The Human Cost of Heaven

You now know what the devotion is. You know the promises, the Eucharist, the daily offering: the theory of it all. It’s beautiful. It’s coherent. It almost makes sense.

Almost.

Because somewhere between the theology and your life there’s a missing piece: the human being who received the revelation that started it all. Not a saint in a stained-glass window. A woman who was told by God that His Heart burns with love for her, who told her spiritual director, who told everyone she knew, and who died with a reputation for being out of her mind.

This is where devotion stops being abstract and starts being dangerous. Not dangerous in the Netflix sense. Dangerous in the sense that if it’s real, if God actually showed His Heart to a human being and asked her to tell the world, then you can’t just admire it anymore. You have to decide.

If God actually showed His Heart to a human being and asked her to tell the world, then you can’t just admire it anymore.