VIGIL
The significance of the Vigil was indicated by Jesus, “Watch and pray”. “Watch for you know nor the day nor the hour”.
Vigil in the New Testament.
Jesus prepared for the great moments of his life by keeping vigil. He prayed in the desert for forty days and nights before beginning his Ministry.
Before extending it to Capharnaum he went to a lonely place to pray. He kept vigil with Peter, James and John on the Mount of Transfiguration to prepare them for his Passion.
One the eve of his Passion he agonized in vigil in Gethsemene.
The Disciples and Mary kept vigil before Pentecost.
The new born Christian Community kept vigil and prayed for release of Peter when he was in prison.
It is expectation. A vigil is expectation in Faith, Hope and Love directed to future and external life. Its heart is joy; not of fulfillment, but of expectation; a hungering and thirst for the Justice of God’s Reign.
It is a struggle. It is a struggle to keep awake, to arouse ourselves from oppression, of drowsiness. The struggle against weariness, discouragement, apathy. During such times we seek to escape the tension by sleep. Vigil is also a struggle against spiritual sleep.
It is watching in the night. This ‘night’ is the world. “He was in the world and the world knew him not”. The world is humanity in its hard-heartedness, self-centeredness, pride and aggression “Men loved darkness rather than the light, because their deeds were wicked”. Vigil is watching in this night with faith and hope.
It is in contrast to the rush of activities and the background boom of noise in which we live. The flood of sights and sounds; the bombardment of expensive advertising; the constant appeal to luxury and pleasure – all this hides from us the inner desert of human despair, or at least the spiritual void that exists. Vigil helps us to search in silence for the Truth and Authenticity. In silence a person encounters the hidden levels of his personality and those influences that profoundly affect his life – but which are covered over by his daytime activity.
From its earliest days, the Association has held Vigils of Prayer. All Night Vigils were the grounds on which the Apostolate was built. From the beginning Vigils were the extension of Rosary Circles. Our co-operation with Jesus for the salvation of souls must be deeply rooted in prayer and self-sacrifice, for it was mainly by prayer that Jesus, himself, redeemed the world. He saved us not only by his exterior activity of preaching, teaching and suffering but also by the obedience and silence of his hidden life, by his prayer, so often mentioned in the Gospel. Jesus’ plea: "Could you not watch one hour with me”, was taken into the heart of the Apostolate.