PRAYERS TO OUR LADY

"I Believe in Love" Day 21, Part One----The Apostolate

Excerpts from the book “I believe in love”.

By Father Jean C.J. d’Elbee

DAY 21

PART ONE

THE APOSTOLATE

IN SPEAKING OF THE APOSTOLATE, I SHALL BEGIN WITH A STRONG STATEMENT: IN ORDER TO BE A FRUITFUL APOSTLE, BEGIN BY BEING A SAINT----A SOUL OF LOVE. THE ONLY FRUITFULNESS IS HOLINESS.

LOOK AT ST. JOHN VIANNEY, THE CURE DE ARS. THE SOUL OF EVERY APOSTOLATE IS THE APOSTLE’S INTIMATE LOVE AND HIS IMMOLATION. “UNLESS THE GRAIN OF WHEAT FALLING INTO THE GROUND DIES, IT REMAINS ALONE.”

“AS THE BRANCH CANNOT BEAR FRUIT OF ITSELF, UNLESS IT ABIDES IN THE VINE, SO NEITHER CAN YOU, UNLESS YOU ABIDE IN ME. I AM THE VINE, YOU THE BRANCHES. HE THAT ABIDES IN ME, AND I IN HIM, THE SAME BEARS MUCH FRUIT: FOR WITHOUT ME YOU CAN DO NOTHING.”

YOU MUST HEAR THE CONTINUOUS ECHO IN YOUR HEART OF THE CRY OF SORROWFUL LOVE, OF GREAT REDEMPTIVE DESIRE, THE CRY OF ANGUISH AND AT THE SAME TIME OF TENDERNESS, THE CRY OF JESUS ON THE CROSS---SITIO: “I THIRST.” “I THIRST FOR YOUR LOVE; YOU UPON WHOM I HAVE SHOWERED MY LOVE, GIVE ME TO DRINK. FIND FOR ME HEARTS WHOSE LOVE WILL BE LIKE DEW UPON MY BURNING LIPS ON CALVARY.”

TO BE AN APOSTLE IS TO GIVE JESUS TO SOULS AND SOULS TO JESUS BY MAKING HIM KNOWN IN ORDER TO MAKE HIM LOVED, BY FILLING YOURSELF WITH HIM IN ORDER TO GIVE HIM.

SOULS ARE ON THEIR WAY TO PERDITION----WHAT ANGUISH!

THINK OF THESE SOULS FOR WHOM THE SAVIOUR HAS SUFFERED SO MUCH, HAS POURED OUT ALL HIS BLOOD. SUCH SOULS, MADE FOR HAPPINESS, RISK BEING LOST FOREVER IN HELL, BEING FIXED, LIKE SATAN, IN THE HATRED OF HIM WHO IS NOTHING BUT LOVE, BANISHED FOREVER TO THE PLACE ON WHOSE GATE DANTE WROTE “ALL HOPE ABANDON, YOU WHO ENTER HERE.” REMEMBER A PLACE EXISTS WHERE A SOUL CAN NO LONGER SAY, “JESUS I HAVE CONFIDENCE IN YOU; SAVE ME.”

IN GETHSEMANE, JESUS SAW IN A VISION THE PRICE OF SOULS. AND HE TREMBLED---HE, THE DIVINE STRENGTH: “FATHER, IF THOU WILT, REMOVE THIS CHALICE FROM ME; YET NOT MY WILL BY THY WILL BE DONE.” AND A SWEAT OF BLOOD FLOWED FROM HIM ONTO THE EARTH, UNDER THE PRESSURE OF THE AGONY WHICH BORE DOWN UPON HIM AS HE FACED THE CONSEQUENCES OF SIN.

IT DEPENDS UPON US WHETHER MORE OR FEWER ARE SAVED. THE FIELD OF THE APOSTOLATE IS IMMENSE: THERE ARE SO MANY WHO HAVE BEEN LED ASTRAY BY IMPURITY, BY THE PRIDE WHICH LEADS TO HATRED. THINK OF THE IGNORANCE, THE INDIFFERENCE OF THE MASSES WHO ARE WITHOUT CHRIST, EITHER IN LIFE OR IN DEATH----THESE MULTITUDES WITHOUT GOD.

I THIRST! LOVE IS NOT LOVED. “LOVE AND CAUSE TO BE LOVED THE LOVE WHICH IS NOT LOVED.” THERE, SURELY, IS THE MOST BEAUTIFUL CRY WHICH SHOULD COME FROM THE LIPS OF AN APOSTLE. IT CAME FROM THE HEART OF ST. FRANCIS OF ASSISI: “LOVE AND CAUSE TO BE LOVED THE LOVE WHICH IS NOT LOVED.”

BUT YOU KNOW, BEFORE THE APOSTOLATE OF WORD AND ACTION, THERE IS THE APOSTOLATE OF PRAYER AND SUFFERING, WITHOUT WHICH THE EXTERNAL APOSTOLATE WOULD BE NOTHING----NOTHING AT ALL.

WORDS AND ACTIONS COME ONLY IN THE LAST PLACE, AFTER WHAT I CALL THE APOSTOLATE OF SILENCE IN LOVE, WHICH WAS THE GREAT APOSTOLATE OF JESUS AND MARY AT NAZARETH FOR THIRTY YEARS.

CARRY A GREAT APOSTOLIC SPIRIT IN YOUR PRAYERS. PRAY TO OBTAIN MERCY FOR SOULS. JESUS COULD HAVE SAVED MEN WITHOUT US. HE DID NOT WILL TO DO IT THAT WAY. “THE CREATOR OF THE UNIVERSE,” WRITES LITTLE THERESE “LISTENS TO THE PRAYER OF A VERY LITTLE SOUL TO SAVE OTHERS WHO ARE RANSOMED, AS SHE IS, BY THE PRICE OF ALL HIS BLOOD.”