In the book The Soul of the Apostolate, Dom Jean-Baptiste Chautard warned against throwing oneself into activities while neglecting the interior life.
Dom Chautard pointed out that the life of prayer is, intimately and of itself, a source of activity beyond compare. He wrote, “A short but fervent prayer will usually do more to bring about a conversion than long discussions of fine speeches. He who prays is in touch with the first cause. He acts directly upon it. And by that very fact he has his hand upon all the secondary causes, since they only receive their efficacy from this superior principle. And so the desired effect is obtained both more surely and more promptly.”
A busy politician once asked a busy bishop the secret of his constant serenity and of the great results of his works. The bishop answered: “To all your occupations, my dear friend, add half an hour of meditation every morning. Not only will you get through all your business, but you will find time for still more.”
The interior life is essential to the spiritual fruitfulness of priest. Dom Chautard wrote, “If the priest is a saint (the saying goes), the people will be fervent; if the priest is fervent, the people will be pious; if the priest is pious, the people will at least be decent. But if the priest is only decent, the people will be godless.”
St. Alphonsus said, “The good morals and the salvation of the people depend on good pastors. If there is a good priest in charge of the parish, you will soon see devotion flourishing, people frequenting the sacraments, and honouring the practice of mental prayer. Hence the proverb: like pastor, like parish.”
It is a serious mistake and a great danger for those who are called by God to the active apostolate to abandon exterior works under the pretext of taking care of one’s interior life. However, it is an even greater mistake to devote oneself to the conversion of souls while forgetting one’s own salvation.
Dom Chautard explained: “God wants us to love our neighbour as ourselves, but never more than ourselves, that is, never to such an extent that we harm our own souls.” St. Alphonsus said, “I love Jesus Christ, and that is why I am on fire with the desire to give him souls, first of all my own, and then an incalculable number of others.”
St. Bernard wrote to Pope Bl. Eugenius III: “I do not tell you to withdraw completely from secular operations. I only exhort you not to throw yourself entirely into them. If you are a man belonging to everybody, belong also to yourself. Otherwise what good would it do you to save everybody else, if you were to be lost yourself? Keep something, then, for yourself, and if everyone comes to drink at your fountain, do not deprive yourself of drinking there too. What! Must you alone go thirsty? Always begin with the consideration of yourself. It would be vain for you to lavish care upon others, and neglect yourself. May all your reflections, then, begin with yourself, and end also with yourself. Be, for yourself, the first and last, and remember that in the business of winning salvation, no one is closer to you than your mother’s only son.”
Dom Chautard observed that Our Heavenly Father “prefers sometimes to let an enterprise go by the board, if he sees it becoming an obstacle to the charity of the soul engaged in it. But as for Satan, he, on the contrary, does not hesitate to encourage a purely superficial success, if he can by this success prevent the apostle from making progress in the interior life: so clearly does his rage guess what it is Our Lord values most highly. To get rid of a diamond, he is quite willing to allow us a few sapphires.”
内修生活的果實
在『使徒靈魂』一書中，若翰肖塔爾院牧告誡我們不要將—己投放在一些活動中而忽略了内修生活。
肖塔爾院牧指出祈禱生命是不能比較的活動資源。他寫道：『一篇短的但熱心的祈禱在教人皈依成果方面一般都比精巧講詞，亢長的辯論為高。祈禱的人接觸第一主因。他直接在此主因工作。因此事實，他也影響著其他次要的因由，因為它們只能從優越的主因中得獲功效。所以，理想的成效是更為可靠和更為快捷地獲得。』
一位繁忙的政客請教於一位繁忙的主教，在他種種工作的偉大成就中為何都能經常保持平安。主教答說：『親愛的，在你所有的事業中，每天早上花半小時作默禱。不單你可完成你的業務，你更可以找到時間去作更多的事務。』
内修生活對一位神父靈修上的成果是至關重要的。肖塔爾院牧寫道：『如果這位神父是位聖人（這說法可行），人們便會是有心火的；如果這位神父是有心火的，人們便會是虔誠的；如果這位神父是虔誠的，人們便最低限度是正派的。但是如果這位神父只能是正派的，人們便像是無神論的了。』
聖亞爾豐索說：『好的道德和世人的救贖依靠著好的牧者。如果有一位好的神父管理一個堂區，你會很快看見敬禮茁壯成長，人們經常領受各聖事，並尊重心禱的實踐。所以諺語說：一樣的本堂神父，一樣的堂區。』
這是個嚴重的錯誤和極大的危險，如果一個天主召叫的活躍宗徒放棄他外在的工作托詞去照顧一己内修生活。可是，一個更大的錯誤卻是獻身於救靈工作但忘記自身的救贖。
肖塔爾院牧解釋道：『天主要我們愛我們的鄰人如同我們愛自己一樣。但永不能多於愛自己，就是說，永不能愛到會傷害到自己的靈魂。』聖亞爾豐索說：『我愛耶穌基督，所以我要說我願意給祂靈魂，首先是我的，然後是那難以計算的其他的靈魂。』
聖伯納德給教宗尤金三世寫道：『不會告訴你去去除一切世俗的業務。我只督促你不要把自己全部投入。如果你是位屬於每個世人的人，你也屬於你自己。不然，縱使你救了所有的人卻失落了自己，對你有什麼好處呢？為你自己保留一點點，如果每人都到你的泉源喝水，不要褫奪自己飲用的機會。什麼！你應該是單獨地口渴嗎？開始時要時常先作自己的考慮。為他人大方卻忽略自己是徒然的。希望你一切的反思由自己開始，並終結於自己。由開始至終結都忠於自己，並記得在贏取救恩的業務中沒有人比你母親的兒子更為親近。』
肖塔爾院牧觀察到在天大父『如果祂見到一事業變成靈魂愛德的障礙時候，祂有時喜歡讓這事業廢棄。但在魔鬼方面，相反地，不會稍作躊躇去鼓勵一個純粹表面上的成功，如果牠能以這成功阻止宗徒們在内修生活中的進步：很明顯，在這盛怒的估算中什麼會是我主最為珍惜的。去撂奪一顆鑽石，牠是十分願意讓給我們一些寶石。』
