Book finished - the Soul of the Apostolate

A classic Catholic work, put together by the supremely busy Cistercian abbot, Dom Chautard. That's the same Order which lives at Mount Saint Bernard Abbey, down in Leicestershire. I got the book from the abbey shop, of course. Dom Chautard insists upon the interior life of prayer, which he says is essential for the Christian mission, whatever form that may take. The interior life cannot be separated from or in conflict with the active life for the salvation of souls. Now, it is easy to think that his target readership is composed of priests and Religious. But, oh no, he's talking about every one of us who is engaged in some work of other for the Church. At a time when the Bishop is ceaselessly talking about discipleship and then missionary discipleship, we have much to learn about the life of prayer which forms the backbone of that discipleship, and there are no better teachers of prayer than the Cistercian Fathers. And this book is a rather terse, rather short, argument for the establishment and maintenance of the life of prayer. In part three of the book, for example, the author speaks of the dangers that the active life of the Mission (life in the world) has for a Christian who has not built a solid interior life of prayer: he is doomed to either superficial success that ends when he himself leaves the mission, or to failure and desolation. The final part of the book is the most interesting, for the author presents methods of sustaining the interior life. There is first the daily mental prayer that should last at least fifteen minutes (going up to an hour), then the appropriation of the liturgical life of the Church and living the Mass and the divine Office, then a detailed description of the custody of the heart (actively monitoring and controlling human desire, with the end of uniting the will to the holy Will of God) and, finally, the absolutely essential devotion to the Blessed Virgin, the conduit of graces from her Son and the loving Mother of all Christian souls.

This is a great book to have in constant use, and very useful indeed for those of us (clergy and laity) who actively work within the Church for the glory of God and the salvation of souls. Here's the book, available for purchase on Amazon.