Once the missionaries had completed the presentation of their vision statement to the diocesan authorities and elected a superior, they began a ten-day period of prayer and recollection in preparation for their first parish mission, which was to begin in Grans on 11 February. In this way a pattern of setting time aside for intense prayer before each mission was established:
On the evening preceding the day before their departure, the missionaries having the joy of being designated will go on retreat after evening prayers. It is the norm that each mission that is done be preceded by at least one day of retreat.
1818 RULE Chapter Two §2
The days of prayer were indispensible if the missionaries were to remain true to their ideal of the parish mission as being an invitation to others to participate in the same relationship with God that the missionaries themselves enjoyed.
In this same spirit, once the program for the various missionary journeys had been finalized at the beginning of each year and the team responsible for each one named:
All the missionaries will from then on pray each day for the people that they are to evangelize.
1818 RULE Chapter Two §2