Dom Jean-Baptiste Chautard
Faith. Hope. Charity. These three theological virtues a Catholic will radiate if he expects his apostolate to have any fruit.
From these virtues he will be seen to also radiate: Kindness, Humility, Firmness and Gentleness.
Faith is manifested in actions and not words. Words, should be the result of action. For example, it was not the brilliance of St. Bernard's speech, but his disposition, his obvious Faith that attracted. Faith is a supernatural gift and can only be breached by God alone, and not the intellect. It is the holiness (or lack of) coming from the priest or the layman that assists in attracting (or repulsing) the us.
Hope is manifested by a man of prayer. The secret and joy of the Cross must be lived, or all our efforts will fall on stoney ground. This means to embrace suffering joyfully. Difficult, at times seemingly impossible, yet with Christ all is possible.
Charity is the road to sanctity. The detaching of a soul from sin is best achieved by living and demonstrating the love of Christ. The sinner (me and you) needs to catch a glimpse, a feeling, that they are engaged with a person who really loves Jesus Christ.
Kindness will come to the soul who is dominated by Christ. Words and actions will be full of kindness. Without kindness zeal is not charitable, and therefore not genuine. Fr. Faber tells us that "kindness shows itself the best pioneer of the Precious Blood..."
Humility is the living the words of Christ: "without me you can do nothing". St. Vincent de Paul warned his priests to consider themselves more fit for ruining than making success. The modern man, surrounded by individualism and a so-called false "liberty" has great difficulty with being humble. Without humility correct doctrine and good judgment will not preserve us from falling. Without Humility we are at the mercy of our passions.
Firmness and Gentleness implies that we be - like St. Bernard - pitiless towards errors - but showing great affection for the sinner. St. Francis de Sales astonished Protestants with his firmness and gentleness. Such meekness does not mean weakness. Our Lord excoriated the scribes and pharisees, yet out of love, and charity to prevent the spread of evil.
If we do anything less, we are, as St. Paul wrote: "enemies of the Cross". Catholicism is not social conformity, or a habit of external practices handed down by tradition. Religious practice to have real meaning must be united to the combat of passions, the living of the Gospel in daily life. It is impossible to win disciples for Christ if we have no interior life ourselves.
The above I drew liberally from the "The Soul of the Apostolate" by Dom Chautard.
To conclude. How do we now apply the above? I might ask myself: how am I carrying myself on this Blog? On Twitter? Where have I made progress, where have I backslid?
A priest might ask himself: what is the health of the souls in his parish? Do they see an apostle on fire for Christ? Or, do they see a social club? A Pope or bishop might ask himself: is he ruling the Church or his diocese like St. Francis de Sales? Is he proclaiming doctrine out of love for sinners and with absolute firmness in fighting the spread of evil?
The other week, we saw how not having an interior life amongst the bishops and priests of Ireland played a major role in the distain and rebellion of Catholics against Christ and His Church. Sodomy, murder in the form of abortion. These sins that cry to Heaven for Vengeance can only be embraced by a population truly paganised and debased. The Apostasy of the Irish Nation is primarily the fault of the churchmen. But that will be another post.
"we saw how not having an interior life amongst the bishops and priests of Ireland played a major role in the distain and rebellion of Catholics against Christ and His Church"
ReplyDeleteExcuse me, but they do have an interior life (we all have an interior life). To quote Jesus Christ: "Thou blind Pharisee, first make clean the inside of the cup and of the dish, that the outside may become clean. Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites; because you are like to whited sepulchres, which outwardly appear to men beautiful, but within are full of dead men's bones, and of all filthiness. So you also outwardly indeed appear to men just; but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and iniquity. Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites; that build the sepulchres of the prophets, and adorn the monuments of the just, And say: If we had been in the days of our Fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets. Wherefore you are witnesses against yourselves, that you are the sons of them that killed the prophets. [32] Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers. You serpents, generation of vipers, how will you flee from the judgment of hell? Therefore behold I send to you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: and some of them you will put to death and crucify, and some you will scourge in your synagogues, and persecute from city to city: That upon you may come all the just blood that hath been shed upon the earth, from the blood of Abel the just, even unto the blood of Zacharias the son of Barachias, whom you killed between the temple and the altar."
"Do you not understand, that whatsoever entereth into the mouth, goeth into the belly, and is cast out into the privy? But the things which proceed out of the mouth, come forth from the heart, and those things defile a man. For from the heart come forth evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false testimonies, blasphemies.
First-rate post.
ReplyDeleteIreland is as much influenced by the New Atheists as everywhere else.
The spokespersons for the New Atheism are representatives of the most sophisticated centres of learning the world has ever seen - the science faculties, labs, libraries and research centres of our universities.
The achievements of science were the great success story of the 20th Century.
Yet the same century saw millions of people murdered by ideologies which were aggressively anti-Christian.
Those who practised genocide did not believe they would have to give an account of their life after they died.
The Hitlers, Stalins, Berias and Pol Pots murdered millions of people AS atheists if not in the name of atheism.
Those who run the international crime cartels of today share the same world-view... that this is the only life there is, and that Christianity is a mere fable.
By the end of the 21st Century scientists may well be the new celebrities.
This will be a marked improvement on the nonentities who currently enjoy celebrity status on the world's media.
Empirical science and Christian apologetics are in conflict, and this is likely to continue for some time.
See 'God of Cancer' (YouTube) and read the comments below the vlog.
Prayer, obedience to the Gospel, sharing the lives of the poor, weeping with those who weep, supporting social groups which fight for justice and peace, evangelizing to the unsaved, working to support fractured families, being with people as they are dying, running Bible and catechism classes for children and adults, and a willingness to take up the Cross and follow Christ... all this will be crucial in the coming years of crisis.
We must beg the Holy Spirit to draw even closer to us.
I must decrease so that Christ may increase.
Thank you Anonymous for these two great readings.
ReplyDeleteI am reminded of a sermon I once heard from a minister in the Free Church of Scotland.
The minister said:
'Never imagine that the Jesus you will stand before at your judgement after death will be in any way different from the Jesus of the Gospels.
'You will stand before the very same Jesus and He will speak in the very same way as He spoke in Jerusalem ... because He cannot be untrue to Himself.'
Liberal Christianity rarely speaks of God's judgement which is why the theologian Gresham Machen described it as 'another religion'.
Please watch YouTube:
ReplyDeleteThe Vortex - Stop Them, Now. (Church Militant: June 11 2018).
As Michael Voris says, with a cry from the heart - 'The shepherds are NOT shepherding!'