8 The Art of Accompaniment
affirming that each person’s salvation is intimately bound to relationship
with others: “In salvation history, the Lord saved one people. We are never
completely ourselves unless we belong to a people. That is why no one is
saved alone, as an isolated individual. Rather, God draws us to himself, tak-
ing into account the complex fabric of interpersonal relationships present
in a human community. God wanted to enter into the life and history of a
people” (Gaudete et Exsultate, 1.6).
Spiritual accompaniment is the apostolate of intentional relationship
that is oriented toward a definitive direction of growth in holiness and
transformation in the Person of Christ. It is intentional in that it is es-
tablished by a choice, maintained through deliberate communication and
interaction, and upheld through the mutual investment of both persons in-
volved. Accompaniment is an apostolate because all the faithful have the
duty and ability to practice it by virtue of their baptismal call:
The Church was founded for the purpose of spreading the king-
dom of Christ throughout the earth for the glory of God the
Father, to enable all men to share in His saving redemption, and
that through them the whole world might enter into a relation-
ship with Christ. All activity of the Mystical Body directed to the
attainment of this goal is called the apostolate, which the Church
carries on in various ways through all her members. For the Chris-
tian vocation by its very nature is also a vocation to the apostolate.
No part of the structure of a living body is merely passive but has
a share in the functions as well as life of the body: so, too, in the
body of Christ, which is the Church, “the whole body . . . in keep-
ing with the proper activity of each part, derives its increase from
its own internal development.” (Apostolicam Actuositatem, 2)
Accompaniment is not for a few ordained or specially commissioned lay
ministers; it is a call put forth to all the baptized by the Spirit of God. As
an apostolate of all the baptized, accompaniment can be carried out by all
members of the faithful for the building up of the Church. It can be un-
dertaken both formally and informally, as brief moments of encounter or
life-long friendships of spiritual guidance. Though particular institutions
and programs may carry it out as a function, accompaniment remains first
and foremost a relationship between two people who share mutuality and
reciprocity on the journey of the spiritual life. This relationship does not