List of points

'There's no denying the influence of environment', you've told me. And I have to answer: Quite. That is why you have to be formed in such a way that you can carry your own environment about with you in a natural manner, and so give your own 'tone' to the society in which you live.

And then, if you have acquired this spirit, I am sure you will tell me with the amazement of the disciples as they contemplated the first fruits of the miracles being worked by their hands in Christ's name: 'There's no denying our influence on environment!'

'Salute all the saints. All the saints send you greetings. To all the saints who are at Ephesus. To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi.' — What a moving name — saints! — the early Christians used to address to each other!…

Learn to be a brother to your brothers.

What amazes you seems natural to me— that God has sought you out in the practice of your profession!

That is how he sought the first, Peter and Andrew, James and John, beside their nets, and Matthew, sitting in the custom-house.

And — wonder of wonders! — Paul, in his eagerness to destroy the seed of the Christians.

There is a brilliant man whom you long to attract to your apostolate; there is another, a man of great influence; and a third, full of prudence and virtues…

Pray, offer up sacrifices, and work on them with your word and example. — They don't want to come! — Don't lose your peace; it's because they are not needed.

Do you think there were no brilliant and influential and prudent and virtuous contemporaries of Peter outside the apostolate of the first twelve?

'Non manifeste, sed quasi in occulto, quite privately, without drawing attention to himself': So Jesus goes up to the feast of Tabernacles. So will he go, on the way to Emmaus, with Cleophas and his companion. So is he seen, after his Resurrection, by Mary Magdalen.

And so will he appear — 'the disciples did not realise that it was Jesus' — at the miraculous catch of fishes, as Saint John tells us.

And more hidden still, through Love for men, is he in the Host.

Just as observant religious are eager to know how the first of their order or congregation lived, so as to have their model to follow you too, christian gentleman, should also seek to know and imitate the lives of the disciples of Jesus, who knew Peter and Paul and John, and all but witnessed the Death and Resurrection of the Master.

I think so highly of your devotion to the early Christians that I will do all I can to encourage it, so that you — like them — will put more enthusiasm each day into that effective apostolate of discretion and friendship.

'Have we not the right to take a christian woman round with us, like all the other apostles do and the brothers of the Lord and Cephas?'

Words of Saint Paul in his first Epistle to the Corinthians. We cannot underestimate the co-operation of women in the apostolate.

'Now after this' — we read in the eighth chapter of Saint Luke — 'he made his way through towns and villages preaching, and proclaiming the Good News of the kingdom of God. With him went the Twelve, as well as certain women who had been cured of evil spirits and ailments: Mary surnamed the Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out, Joanna the wife of Herod's steward Chusa, Susanna, and several others who provided for them out of their own resources'.

I copy. And I pray God that if some woman reads this, she may be filled with a holy and fruitful envy.

Woman is stronger than man, and more faithful, in the hour of suffering: Mary of Magdala and Mary Cleophas and Salome!

With a group of valiant women like these, closely united to our Lady of Sorrows, what work for souls could be done in the world!