Who is involved in the apostolate of accompaniment? 53
with God, the restlessness of love.’ (Final Document of the Synod of
Bishops on Young People, Faith and Vocational Discernment, 50)
Therefore, the apostolate of the mentor always serves to promote an
encounter with Christ for the one they are accompanying. Through spiritual
guidance in the ordinary and extraordinary components of life, the mentor
is tasked with assisting the one they accompany in identifying situations
where Christ invites them into deeper relationship with him. Mentors help
those accompanied attune their spiritual vision to see Christ in the cir-
cumstances of their career, interactions with their family, partnership with
their significant other, needs of the community, and their own development
towards Christian maturity.
Mentors practically make a space for encountering Christ within the
relationship of accompaniment through praying with the one accompanied,
introducing them to formative spiritual practices, reflecting on human ex-
perience with them through the light of the Gospel, and assisting them in
discerning decisions.
Interpreter of Experience
Like data for a scientist or marble for a sculptor, the material for spir-
itual accompaniment is human experience - the living account of what it
means and feels like to be a human person in a particular context in a spe-
cific period of historical time. In the accompanying relationship, one main
role of the mentor is assisting the one accompanied in interpreting this hu-
man experience in light of the Gospel in order to discover the movements
of the Spirit at work in their life. As “the locus for the manifestation and
realization of salvation,” (General Directory for Catechesis, #152) the human
experience of the one accompanied sheds light on the call of the Spirit at
work in their life. For the person of faith, human experience is where the
Gospel is actualized and embodied, making present the Paschal Mystery
in the life of a human being. In seeing the Paschal Mystery present in their
own personal human experience, the faith-filled person comes to know the
action of God and God’s plan for them in the ordinary and extraordinary
events of their life. Therefore, human experience is a method by which
someone can mature in their faith, discern their vocation, grow in aware-
ness of God’s action, and love in their life and throughout human history,
and ask questions regarding their vocation in God’s plan for salvation. This