The Soul Of The Apostolate: Dom Chautard

Dom Chautard, a French Cistercian abbot, shows in The Soul of The Apostolate that the essence of every apostolic work undertaken for Our Lord is the interior life of grace within the individual apostle's soul - a life that is fed by prayer an d conformity to the will of God. The reason the apostle's interior life is "the soul of the apostolate," he explains, stems from the very nature of God , which is Goodness Itself, and which overflows in His Will to communicate Himself to others. This communication to men is accomplished through the God-Man Jesus Christ, and from Him to His Church, and from His Church to her apostolic members in every age. What is being given by God to the World, the author explains, is actually a sharing in the life of God Himself - Sanctifying Grace - so that, "through men, men are to find out the way to salvation." (Page 4). Apostolic work is thus, "a share in His work and in His glory!" Therefore, the apostle of Jesus Christ has to cultivate, through prayer, the life of God in his soul, that through him God may work more effectively. For the work of any true apostolate is really God’s work, not that of the individual apostle. “He must increase, but I must decrease,” said St. John the Baptist of his own apostolate. (John 3:30). “And I live, now not I, but Christ lives in me,” exclaimed St. Paul. ( Galatians 2:20). Both these passages give Scripture’s view of the apostle and his work. Ultimately, the Apostle of Jesus Christ is helping to communicate the divine life of God to others; and this activity, of its very nature, is totally beyond his capability. By prayer, meditation and
cultivation of the interior life, however, the apostle of Christ will more and more develop himself to be a better channel of God’s grace to others, and he will come to understand his own insignificance and his true role in his apostolic work - as that of an instrument of God. This is a necessary insight for all true apostles of Our Lord to achieve and one which Dom Chautard explores from every angle in this book. For anyone, therefore, who would work for Our Lord and His Church, there is no book more important to read and to follow than Dom Chautard 's The Soul of the Apostolate.