Calling

Why don't you give yourself to God once and for all… really…, now?

If you see your way clearly, follow it. Why don't you shake off the cowardice that holds you back?

'Proclaim the Good News... I shall be with you…' It is Jesus who has said this… and he has said it to you.

Patriotic fervour — which is praiseworthy — leads many men to turn their lives into a 'service', a 'crusade'. Do not forget that Christ too has his 'crusaders' and people chosen for his service.

Et regni ejus non erit finis. His kingdom will have no end.

Doesn't it fill you with joy to work for such a kingdom?

'Did you not know that I must be busy with my Father's affairs?'

The reply of Jesus the youth. And a reply made to a mother like his Mother, who had been seeking him for three days, believing him to be lost. A reply which has as complement those words of Christ that Saint Matthew records: 'Any who prefers father or mother to me is not worthy of me'.

It is childish of you to judge the value of apostolic undertakings by what you can see of them. With that standard you would have to prefer a ton of coal to a handful of diamonds.

Now that you have given yourself to him, ask him for a new life, a 'seal', to guarantee that your mission as a man of God is authentic.

That — your ideal, your vocation — is madness. And the others — your friends, your brothers — are crazy. Have you never heard that cry deep down inside?

Answer, firmly, that you thank God for the honour of being one of those 'lunatics'.

You write: 'Our longing to see it all going ahead and spreading seems about to turn into impatience. When will things get under way, when will the break-through come,… when will we see the world ours?'

And you add: 'It won't be a useless longing if we seek an outlet for it in "coercing", in "pestering" God: then we will have made excellent use of our time.'

I can understand how you are suffering when, in the midst of that enforced inactivity, you consider the work still to be done. Your heart would break the bounds of the universe, and it has to adapt itself to… an insignificant routine job.

But, tell me, for when do we keep our fiat, 'Thy will be done'?…

Don't doubt it: your vocation is the greatest grace God could have given you. Thank him for it.

How pitiful are those crowds — high and low and middle class — who live without ideals! They give the impression that they do not know they have souls: they are a drove, a flock, a herd.

Jesus, with the help of your merciful Love, we will turn the drove into a levy, the flock into an army, and from the herd we will draw, purified, those who no longer wish to be unclean.

God's works are not a lever, nor a stepping-stone.

Lord, make us crazy, with that infectious craziness that will draw many to your apostolate.

'Did our hearts not burn within us as he talked to us on the road?'

If you are an apostle, these words of the disciples of Emmaus should rise spontaneously to the lips of your professional companions when they meet you along the ways of their lives.

Go to apostolate to give everything, and not to seek any earthly reward.

By calling you to be an apostle, our Lord has reminded you, so that you will never forget it, that you are a 'son of God.'

Each one of you must try to be an apostle of apostles.

You are salt, apostolic soul. 'Salt is a useful thing', we read in the holy Gospel; but if the salt loses its taste, it is good for nothing, neither for the land nor for the manure heap; it is thrown out as useless.

You are salt, apostolic soul. But if you lose your taste…

My son, if you love your apostolate, be certain that you love God.

The day you really 'get the feel' of your apostolate, that apostolate will serve you as a shield with which to resist all the attacks of your enemies of this earth and of hell.

Pray always for perseverance for yourself and your companions in the apostolate. Our adversary, the devil, knows only too well that you are his great enemies,… and when he sees a fall in your ranks how pleased he is!

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.

You ask me, and I answer: your perfection consists in living perfectly in the place, occupation and position that God, through those in authority, has assigned to you.

Pray for each other. One is wavering?… And another?…

Keep on praying, without losing your peace. Some are going? Some are being lost?… God has you all numbered from eternity!

You are right. 'The peak' — you told me — 'dominates the country for miles around, and yet there is not a single plain to be seen: just one mountain after another. At times the landscape seems to level out, but then the mist rises and reveals another range that had been hidden.'

So it is, so it must be with the horizon of your apostolate: the world has to be crossed. But there are no ways made for you. You yourselves will make them through the mountains with the impact of your feet.

References to Holy Scripture
References to Holy Scripture
References to Holy Scripture
References to Holy Scripture
References to Holy Scripture
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