The Soul of the Apostolate

The Catholic Man Show

‘The Soul of the Apostolate’ by Dom Jean-Baptiste Chautard, O.C.S.O is a must read for all men who are fighting the good fight. Running an apostolate is tough work and time consuming. It is easy to get caught up in the apostolate and neglect your interior prayer life. I received this book from my wife for Christmas and as soon as I started reading it, I knew it was going to be a great book. Catholic Answers puts out a publication that is a perfect addition to your home library. In his classic work The Soul of the Apostolate, Dom Chautard demonstrates that the very foundation of all apostolic work must be in the interior life. The apostle of Christ will grow to become an instrument and true channel of God’s graces to the world only through prayer, meditation and the cultivation of the Interior Life. When one is involved in works of spiritual or corporal charity, his work can only be truly efficacious when he anchors his Interior Life in Christ. Without Christ we can do nothing.

O Divine Fire, stir up in all those who have part in your apostolate the flames that transformed those fortunate re-treatants in the Upper Room. Then they will be no longer mere preachers of dogma or moral theology, but men living to transfuse the blood of God into the souls of men.

Spirit of Light, imprint upon their minds, in characters that can never be erased, this truth: that their apostolate will be successful only in the measure that they themselves live that supernatural inner life of which you are the sovereign principle and Jesus Christ the source.

O infinite Charity, make their wills burnwith thirst for the interior life. Penetrate and flood their hearts with your sweetness and strength, and show them that, even here on this earth, there is no real happiness except in this life of imitation and sharing in your life and in that of the heart of Jesus in the bosom of the Father of all mercy and all kindness.

Amen.