The Soul of the Apostolate is a spiritual book written by Dom Jean-Baptiste Chautard, a French Cistercian abbot. The major theme of the book is that the interior life is the essence of all apostolic works and is the key to saving souls.
Pope St. Pius X said, “I warmly recommend this book to you, as I value it very highly and have myself made it my bedside book.” In the next few months, we are going to explore the valuable teachings contained in this modern spiritual classic.
Dom Chautard pointed out that the incarnation and redemption establish Jesus as the only source of divine life, and the essential activity of the Church consists in spreading this life through the sacraments, prayer, preaching, and all other works connected with these.
Those who are called to the honour of working with the Savior in transmitting the divine life to souls ought to consider themselves mere channels whose function is to draw from this one and only source.
Dom Chautard said that those who are involved in apostolic works must firmly establish the following conviction: “Jesus has got to be, and wishes to be, the life of these works. My efforts, by themselves, are nothing, absolutely nothing,” since Jesus said “Without me you can do nothing.”
Our own efforts, said Dom Chautard, “will only be useful, and blessed by God, if by means of a genuine interior life I unite them constantly to the life-giving action of Jesus. But then they will become all-powerful.”
Scripture tells us “I can do all things in him who strengthens me.” Dom Chautard writes, “But should they spring from pride and self-satisfaction, from confidence in my own talents, from the desire to shine, they will be rejected by God: for would it not be a sacrilegious madness for me to steal, from God, a little of His glory in order to decorate and beautify myself?”
In the natural life, the body is renewed by the soul. In the supernatural life, the soul is renewed by sanctifying grace. Dom Chautard pointed that that the divine supernatural life is “begun in baptism by the state of grace, perfected at confirmation, recovered by penance, and enriched by the Holy Eucharist.”
According to Dom Chautard, the “interior life” is the investing of the spiritual capital of sanctifying grace and putting it to work in the activity of our soul, and in our fidelity to actual graces. Hence, Dom Chautard defines the “interior life” as “the state of activity of a soul which strives against its natural inclinations in order to regulate them, and endeavours to acquire the habit of judging and directing its movements in all things according to the light of the Gospel and the example of Our Lord.”
In practice, there is a twofold movement in the interior life: “First, the soul withdraws from all that is opposed to the supernatural life in created things and seeks at all times to be recollected,” and “second, the soul looks upwards to God, and unites itself with him.”
To nourish and foster the interior life, we must: 1. Make use of the means to increase our thirst to live in Jesus with the desire to please God in all things and with fear of displeasing him: morning mental prayer, Holy Mass, morning and evening prayers, examination of conscience, and spiritual reading. 2. Maintain that minimum of recollection which will allow us to exercise custody of the heart during the day.
According to Dom Chautard, our interior life will be no better than our custody of our hearts. He wrote, “This custody of the heart is simply a habitual or at least frequent anxiety to preserve all my acts, as they arise, from everything that might spoil their motive or their execution … It is a quick glance, from the heart, over present actions and a peaceful attention to all the various phases of an action, as we perform it.”
内修生活是救靈的要素
『使徒靈魂』是本靈修的書，由若翰肖塔爾，一法國西多會修院院牧，所編寫的。這書的主題是内修生活是使徒工作的要素，它是救靈的鑰匙。教宗聖庇護十世説：『我熱情地向你推荐這本書，因為我高度珍惜它而我自已把它作為床邊的一本書。』將來的幾個月，我們會探索這本現代靈修經典的珍貴教誨。
肖塔爾院牧指出: 因著降生和救贖的奧蹟，主耶穌成了神聖生命的唯一根源。教會主要的活動是以聖事，祈禱，宣道和所有有關的工作去傳播這生命。
那些有榮幸被召叫與救主一起去為靈魂傳送這神聖生命工作的人應該認知，他們僅是渠道，他們的功能是由這一位，僅有的根源處提取。
肖塔爾院牧說那些參與使徒事業的應該肯定地建立以下的信念：『耶穌本是，希望是這工作的生命。我的努力，本來就不是什麽，絕對不是什麽。「没有我，你什麽也做不到。」如果以一個真正的内修生活，我把它們恆常地與耶穌賜與生命化工結合，它們便可以是有用的和天主祝福的。這樣它們便變得滿全力量的：「在祂內，祂堅強我，我可以做所有的事。」可是假若它們生於驕傲和自我的滿足，生於自我才能的自滿，生於榮耀的期望，它會為天主所棄：因為這會不就是我愚昧的褻聖，從天主處偷取一些祂的光榮好去裝飾美化自己？』
自然的生命，身體由靈魂活化。在超聖的生命，靈魂是由聖化聖寵所活化，肖塔爾院牧指出，這聖的超聖生命『在聖洗時以聖寵開始，為堅振聖事所完美，由修和聖事恢復，聖體聖事使他豐盛』。
據肖塔爾院牧稱，『内修生活』是靈性的本金(寵愛)的投資，在我們靈魂的活動中讓它發揮作用，並在於我們對寵佑的忠誠。所以肖塔爾院牧把『内修生活』定義為『靈魂活動的狀態，他奮力於抗拒自然的傾向，好能調整這些傾向，嘗試達到按福音的光和我主的榜樣 來在一切事上作判斷和帶領其活動的習慣。』
實際上，内修生活有雙重的活動：『首先，靈魂撤離一切相反超聖生命的受造物，並全時間尋找心神的收斂』和『其次，靈魂傾向上主，並與天主結合』。
要能滋養和撫育内修生活，我們應該：1. 利用方法去增強我們活於耶穌內的渴望，意願以所有的事物去悅樂天主，害怕讓祂不高興：早上默禱，彌撒聖祭，早晚禱，良心省察，靈修閱讀。2. 保持最少的心神收斂，好能讓我們在日間去實踐監護我們的心。
據肖塔爾院牧說，我們的内修生活將不會較我們內心的監護來得更好。他寫道：『內心的監護是簡單的一個習慣或最低限度是一個經常的憂心去維護我的一切行為，免於一切可能破壞它們的動機或它們的執行…內心的監護是心中在現在行動中快速的一瞥和在我們履行時平安的關注行動中的所有不同階段。』
