Sulpician
Putting on the mysteries of Christ.
The plan of Jean-Jacques Olier and the French school of spirituality — the school that formed Vincent de Paul, John Eudes, and centuries of priests. Its heart is a Christ-centric mysticism: the spiritual life is lived not as the abstract pursuit of virtues but as putting on the very mysteries of Christ — his Incarnation, his hidden life, his Passion, his Eucharistic life.
Its signature is mental prayer in three movements. Adoration: Jesus before our eyes, contemplated in a mystery. Communion: Jesus in our hearts, received and identified with in that mystery. Cooperation: Jesus in our hands, a concrete resolution to live that mystery today. Around this turn the Mass, spiritual reading, recollection that keeps one thinking with Christ through the day, and the night examen.
For those with a mystical and Christological pull, anyone formed in the priestly tradition, the soul who wants not virtues in the abstract but Christ himself, mystery by mystery.
Jean-Jacques Olier, Catechism of the Interior Life; the French School of Spirituality
What it proposes
- Morning Offering — Sulpician 06:15 · Daily · Essential
The Olier prayer — O Jesus, living in Mary, come and live in Thy servants — as the daily synthesis of the French School, opening the way to the three-movement mental prayer that follows.
- Mental Prayer 06:30 · Daily · Essential
Mental prayer in the Sulpician three movements — Adoration, Communion, Cooperation — Jesus before our eyes, in our hearts, and in our hands.
- Holy Mass 07:00 · Daily · Essential
The daily Eucharist, his Eucharistic life among the mysteries of Christ that the soul is called to put on.
- Spiritual Reading 21:00 · Daily · Ideal
Spiritual reading in the French school — Olier, Bérulle, and the masters who teach the interior life as adherence to Christ.
- Examination of Conscience 21:30 · Daily · Essential
The night examen, measuring the day against the resolution born in the morning's Cooperation.
- Confession 10:00 · Sat · Essential
Weekly confession, clearing the soul to live more purely in adherence to the mysteries of Christ.
In the Ember app, adopt this tradition as your own plan of life, practice by practice, with times and reminders.