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The Soul of The Apostolate
El lector encontrará en el libro una gran la vida de un cristiano no tiene sentido si no cumple el mandato de Cristo de acercar a Dios a sus iguales.
298 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1937
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January 18, 2009
Are you ever surprised when you return to a book that it isn’t quite as you remembered it?
I deliberately spent a long time with The Soul of the Apostolate, even though it was my second read and it would have been easy to whip right through it. Easy, but not wise. Very soon into the book, I realized my memory of it was limited by what I was able to get out of it at the time.* Coming back to it at this later date with (hopefully) more maturity, I will be able to more fully appreciate the author’s purpose and apply it to my life.
Dom Jean-Baptiste Chautard wrote this book from a firm conviction we can do nothing for God unless we first cultivate a rich inner life with God Himself. And even this we must allow God to do for us—in, with and through Him. The Father does nothing except through His Son. “All things were made by Him and without Him was nothing made that was made.” Chautard tells us, ‘For a man, in his practical conduct, to go about his active works as if Jesus was not his one and only life-principle, has been called the “HERESY OF GOOD WORKS.”’ Most of Chautard’s book is given over to showing the importance of this inner life, and the benefits and dangers we may expect from heeding or neglecting this aspect of our life in Christ . He writes, ‘To apply oneself to a life of prayer, or to lead others to give themselves to it, is, therefore, more pleasing to God than to devote oneself to activity and good works, and lead others to practice these.’ As the source of all Good, God knows He alone can profit a soul more than anything or anyone or even everything and everyone else combined.
Later we read, ‘Our Heavenly Father, “who devotes Himself more to the direction of a soul in which He reigns, than to the natural government of the whole universe and to the civil government of all empires,” looks for this harmony in our zeal.’ Of course prayer (faith) without works would be dead as St. James tells us and Dom Chautard answers, ‘Active works must begin and end in the interior life, and in it find their means.’ In other words, our prayer should lead us to lives of service and commitment to help others convince us of our utter dependence on God.
Would that many would read this great classic today. We need this wisdom even more now than when it was first published just after World War I. After the Prologue there are several pages of testimonials from holy men whose lives were transformed by this book. While making no claim to holiness, I can say that twice now my eyes and heart have been opened by what this saintly priest has written here.
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First read this back in 2009. It had a profound impact on my prayer life. Looking forward to rereading....
Jun 17, 2009: How do I even begin to write a review of this book? Well, for starters, I didn't even try to read it quickly; I've been reading and listening to it for almost two months now. Ignatius Press has an excellent audio version of the book which I highly recommend. As this is one of those books I put on my 'worth reading over and over and over...' shelf, the money invested in the CDs was money well-spent. I have listened to this book while cleaning, ironing, driving and just sitting. I have read it and listened to it at the same time. I have read and reread huge parts of it. It IS my book of the summer, along with The Spirit of the Liturgy—not my plan, His!
On the 10th of August, I began blogging about my own experiences trying to put into practice the precepts of Dom Chautard’s teachings on mental prayer. At the time, I had no idea what I was doing or where I was going with this. Eventually it turned into a series of seven posts which I finished on the 4th of September—and yet it doesn’t feel “finished”. It feels as if I’ve just started on the greatest adventure of my life!
GREAT book!
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15 Aug '09 Update: This book has so changed my life, I've resumed a regular practice of mental prayer and been blogging about it.
4 Aug '09 Update: This section focuses on the question: Why are so many enterprises of our time fruitless? 'Because they are not firmly enough based on the interior life, the Eucharistic life, the liturgical life, fully and properly understood.' (page 187) Although written in 1946, these words are just as true today.
This book is AWESOME! Thematically-speaking it is very much like Fire Within St. Teresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross, and the Gospel-On Prayer except that it draws on the spirituality of the entire history of the Church and not just the Carmelites. Emphasizes, drives home and convinces beyond a shadow of a doubt that nothing happens without God and outside of a deep, deep prayer life.
*In the summer of 2009, when I first read The Soul of the Apostolate, it transformed my prayer life. It left me with an intense desire for mental prayer (or conversation with Christ), a general notion of how to do it and the importance of this type of prayer to everything else in my life. Looking back I realize that was all I was capable of understanding at that time. This time I saw so much more.
I deliberately spent a long time with The Soul of the Apostolate, even though it was my second read and it would have been easy to whip right through it. Easy, but not wise. Very soon into the book, I realized my memory of it was limited by what I was able to get out of it at the time.* Coming back to it at this later date with (hopefully) more maturity, I will be able to more fully appreciate the author’s purpose and apply it to my life.
Dom Jean-Baptiste Chautard wrote this book from a firm conviction we can do nothing for God unless we first cultivate a rich inner life with God Himself. And even this we must allow God to do for us—in, with and through Him. The Father does nothing except through His Son. “All things were made by Him and without Him was nothing made that was made.” Chautard tells us, ‘For a man, in his practical conduct, to go about his active works as if Jesus was not his one and only life-principle, has been called the “HERESY OF GOOD WORKS.”’ Most of Chautard’s book is given over to showing the importance of this inner life, and the benefits and dangers we may expect from heeding or neglecting this aspect of our life in Christ . He writes, ‘To apply oneself to a life of prayer, or to lead others to give themselves to it, is, therefore, more pleasing to God than to devote oneself to activity and good works, and lead others to practice these.’ As the source of all Good, God knows He alone can profit a soul more than anything or anyone or even everything and everyone else combined.
Later we read, ‘Our Heavenly Father, “who devotes Himself more to the direction of a soul in which He reigns, than to the natural government of the whole universe and to the civil government of all empires,” looks for this harmony in our zeal.’ Of course prayer (faith) without works would be dead as St. James tells us and Dom Chautard answers, ‘Active works must begin and end in the interior life, and in it find their means.’ In other words, our prayer should lead us to lives of service and commitment to help others convince us of our utter dependence on God.
Would that many would read this great classic today. We need this wisdom even more now than when it was first published just after World War I. After the Prologue there are several pages of testimonials from holy men whose lives were transformed by this book. While making no claim to holiness, I can say that twice now my eyes and heart have been opened by what this saintly priest has written here.
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
First read this back in 2009. It had a profound impact on my prayer life. Looking forward to rereading....
Jun 17, 2009: How do I even begin to write a review of this book? Well, for starters, I didn't even try to read it quickly; I've been reading and listening to it for almost two months now. Ignatius Press has an excellent audio version of the book which I highly recommend. As this is one of those books I put on my 'worth reading over and over and over...' shelf, the money invested in the CDs was money well-spent. I have listened to this book while cleaning, ironing, driving and just sitting. I have read it and listened to it at the same time. I have read and reread huge parts of it. It IS my book of the summer, along with The Spirit of the Liturgy—not my plan, His!
On the 10th of August, I began blogging about my own experiences trying to put into practice the precepts of Dom Chautard’s teachings on mental prayer. At the time, I had no idea what I was doing or where I was going with this. Eventually it turned into a series of seven posts which I finished on the 4th of September—and yet it doesn’t feel “finished”. It feels as if I’ve just started on the greatest adventure of my life!
GREAT book!
><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><
15 Aug '09 Update: This book has so changed my life, I've resumed a regular practice of mental prayer and been blogging about it.
4 Aug '09 Update: This section focuses on the question: Why are so many enterprises of our time fruitless? 'Because they are not firmly enough based on the interior life, the Eucharistic life, the liturgical life, fully and properly understood.' (page 187) Although written in 1946, these words are just as true today.
This book is AWESOME! Thematically-speaking it is very much like Fire Within St. Teresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross, and the Gospel-On Prayer except that it draws on the spirituality of the entire history of the Church and not just the Carmelites. Emphasizes, drives home and convinces beyond a shadow of a doubt that nothing happens without God and outside of a deep, deep prayer life.
*In the summer of 2009, when I first read The Soul of the Apostolate, it transformed my prayer life. It left me with an intense desire for mental prayer (or conversation with Christ), a general notion of how to do it and the importance of this type of prayer to everything else in my life. Looking back I realize that was all I was capable of understanding at that time. This time I saw so much more.
August 21, 2012
One of my absolute favorite reads. Absolute wisdom. I highly suggest this to all seeking to live a life pleasing to the Lord.
Read
December 7, 2023Definitely going to be rereading this one in the future
January 28, 2024
7 months to read a book, it should be enough they said. It was not. This work was wonderfully, challengingly dense in the richest of fashions. As everyone else already said, I’ll be returning to and referencing this book for quite some time.
December 24, 2021
One of those spiritual classics that you keep coming back to — this was a bedside favorite of St. Pius X. So many lessons in these pages, but the chief of them is that you cannot hope to give to others what you don't have: cultivate a deep and authentic interior life. Only then will you have something meaningful to contribute to others.
"The interior life is the life of the elect." (p. 21)
(quoting St. Thomas) "The end of human creatures is union with God; and in this their happiness consists." (p. 21)
"We must devote all our energies to keeping that heart fixed upon the invisible beauty of the virtues to be acquired, that we may imitate those of Christ." (p. 32)
"'To all your occupations...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.'" (p. 33)
"If the priest is a saint...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." (p. 39)
"Preaching, teaching, works of every sort will come to an end at the threshold of eternity." (p. 50)
(the fruits of the interior life) "In this life man lives more purely, falls more rarely, recovers more promptly, advances more surely, receives more graces, dies more calmly, is more quickly cleansed, and gains a greater recompense." (p. 50)
"Our interior life ought to be the stem, filled with vigorous sap, of which our works are the flowers." (p. 51)
(quoting St. Bernard) "We have many channels in the Church today, but very few reservoirs." (p. 53)
"For you can be sure that the extent to which you yourself are able to live on the love of Our Lord will be the exact measure of your ability to stir it up in other people." (p. 57)
(quoting Cardinal Lavigerie) "[F]or an apostle there is no halfway between total sanctity, at least faithfully and courageously desired and sought after, and absolute perversion." (p. 76)
"But where there is not an intense interior life, deliberate venial sin will abound, and there will be many venial sins that are not even recognized as such, although they will be imputed to the lax and careless soul which has ceased to 'watch and pray.'" (p. 76)
(quoting St. Alphonsus) "Short of a miracle, a man who does not practice mental prayer will end up in mortal sin." (p. 82)
(quoting the Cure of Ars) "The heart of an interior soul stands in the middle of humiliations and sufferings like a rock in the midst of the sea." (p. 104)
(quoting St. Pius X) "To restore all things in Christ by the apostolate of good works, we need divine grace, and the apostle will only receive it if he is united to Christ. Not until we have formed Christ within ourselves will we find it easy to give Him to families and to societies. And therefore all those who take part in the apostolate must develop a solid piety." (p. 113)
"It is a terrible misfortune when there is not to be found one really interior soul among all those at the head of important Catholic projects." (p. 121)
"It is the same with a man of prayer. Once he is detached from creatures, a continuous flow is established between him and Christ, an uninterrupted current." (p. 122)
"The more a soul is united to Christ, the more it shares in the dominant quality of the Divine and Human Heart of the Redeemer — His kindness." (p. 127)
(quoting Fr. Faber) "Kindness is the overflow of self on others." (p. 128)
(quoting St. Bernard) "Persuasion, good example, loyalty to God are the only arms worthy of the children of the Gospel." (p. 136)
"Our Lord does not give His blessings to any enterprise in which men place trust in human means alone." (p. 192)
"I will give preference to a subject for meditation which has a connection with the liturgical period, or feast, or cycle." (p. 217)
"It was by the voice of Mary that the Precursor recognized the presence of Jesus, and leaped in the womb of his mother." (p. 287)
"The interior life is the life of the elect." (p. 21)
(quoting St. Thomas) "The end of human creatures is union with God; and in this their happiness consists." (p. 21)
"We must devote all our energies to keeping that heart fixed upon the invisible beauty of the virtues to be acquired, that we may imitate those of Christ." (p. 32)
"'To all your occupations...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.'" (p. 33)
"If the priest is a saint...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." (p. 39)
"Preaching, teaching, works of every sort will come to an end at the threshold of eternity." (p. 50)
(the fruits of the interior life) "In this life man lives more purely, falls more rarely, recovers more promptly, advances more surely, receives more graces, dies more calmly, is more quickly cleansed, and gains a greater recompense." (p. 50)
"Our interior life ought to be the stem, filled with vigorous sap, of which our works are the flowers." (p. 51)
(quoting St. Bernard) "We have many channels in the Church today, but very few reservoirs." (p. 53)
"For you can be sure that the extent to which you yourself are able to live on the love of Our Lord will be the exact measure of your ability to stir it up in other people." (p. 57)
(quoting Cardinal Lavigerie) "[F]or an apostle there is no halfway between total sanctity, at least faithfully and courageously desired and sought after, and absolute perversion." (p. 76)
"But where there is not an intense interior life, deliberate venial sin will abound, and there will be many venial sins that are not even recognized as such, although they will be imputed to the lax and careless soul which has ceased to 'watch and pray.'" (p. 76)
(quoting St. Alphonsus) "Short of a miracle, a man who does not practice mental prayer will end up in mortal sin." (p. 82)
(quoting the Cure of Ars) "The heart of an interior soul stands in the middle of humiliations and sufferings like a rock in the midst of the sea." (p. 104)
(quoting St. Pius X) "To restore all things in Christ by the apostolate of good works, we need divine grace, and the apostle will only receive it if he is united to Christ. Not until we have formed Christ within ourselves will we find it easy to give Him to families and to societies. And therefore all those who take part in the apostolate must develop a solid piety." (p. 113)
"It is a terrible misfortune when there is not to be found one really interior soul among all those at the head of important Catholic projects." (p. 121)
"It is the same with a man of prayer. Once he is detached from creatures, a continuous flow is established between him and Christ, an uninterrupted current." (p. 122)
"The more a soul is united to Christ, the more it shares in the dominant quality of the Divine and Human Heart of the Redeemer — His kindness." (p. 127)
(quoting Fr. Faber) "Kindness is the overflow of self on others." (p. 128)
(quoting St. Bernard) "Persuasion, good example, loyalty to God are the only arms worthy of the children of the Gospel." (p. 136)
"Our Lord does not give His blessings to any enterprise in which men place trust in human means alone." (p. 192)
"I will give preference to a subject for meditation which has a connection with the liturgical period, or feast, or cycle." (p. 217)
"It was by the voice of Mary that the Precursor recognized the presence of Jesus, and leaped in the womb of his mother." (p. 287)
January 9, 2013
This book is amazing. If you feel like your a "good" person who's not bad enough to go to Hell, this book will set the flames under your seat and really make you realize how much more you can do to be loved and to love God back.
August 23, 2023
There were many great takeaways that could be derived from this book but my enjoyment of it was hindered by how much was aimed at priests. Setting that aside, there were many parts that I appreciated. For starters, it rebutted some common arguments against cultivating your interior life that I had unknowingly embraced: the “laziness” or “selfishness” of doing so—it helped me finally get over my fear and aversion towards holy hours.
tSotA also highlights the importance of having custody over your heart and therefore doing frequent examination of consciences. It explained the danger of accumulating venial sins: “perhaps without my being aware of it, self-delusion will throw up the smoke screen of a seeming piety that is more speculative than practical, or of my ambition for good works, to hide this state from me, or even to conceal a condition more appalling still!” and suggested that we can tell if our mental prayer and liturgical participation are good based on how it leads us to awaken our souls and change our habits.
In reference to active works in and around the church, Chautard’s argument could perhaps best be summarized as follows: “Why do my resolutions bear no fruit? It can only be because my belief that “I can do all things” is not followed by; “in Him Who strengthenth me.” He tells us that we should frequently return to God in mental prayer, making sure that the works we’re pursuing are of Him, and finding rest for our soul in Him. He also pointed out that we shouldn’t simply aim to do good things, rather should seek to do the good things willed by God as there is a distinction. Like St. Francis de Sales, Chautard also emphasizes that the busier you are, the more you must prioritize your interior life.
tSotA also highlights the importance of having custody over your heart and therefore doing frequent examination of consciences. It explained the danger of accumulating venial sins: “perhaps without my being aware of it, self-delusion will throw up the smoke screen of a seeming piety that is more speculative than practical, or of my ambition for good works, to hide this state from me, or even to conceal a condition more appalling still!” and suggested that we can tell if our mental prayer and liturgical participation are good based on how it leads us to awaken our souls and change our habits.
In reference to active works in and around the church, Chautard’s argument could perhaps best be summarized as follows: “Why do my resolutions bear no fruit? It can only be because my belief that “I can do all things” is not followed by; “in Him Who strengthenth me.” He tells us that we should frequently return to God in mental prayer, making sure that the works we’re pursuing are of Him, and finding rest for our soul in Him. He also pointed out that we shouldn’t simply aim to do good things, rather should seek to do the good things willed by God as there is a distinction. Like St. Francis de Sales, Chautard also emphasizes that the busier you are, the more you must prioritize your interior life.
March 14, 2012
This book changed my life. You will read it again from the start after having it :))
September 10, 2024
The perfect read to start my second year on mission! Very convicting and a much needed reminder that the interior life > everything else.
March 27, 2024
This book took me forever to read. However I realized it’s because this book is life altering. It’s one of those books that by looking at it you question if it’s worth the glance. Let me be the one to tell you IT IS. Someone I looked up to and respected as a missionary told me this was the book that changed his prayer and the way he viewed things. Now I understand what he meant. If you have any interest in the state of your soul and are striving to get to Heaven, this is the book for you!!
June 30, 2026
Started a re-read during a personal retreat in November. I'll need to make a habit of coming back to this more frequently. Deeply convicting with practical recommendations on deepening one's interior life, and allowing it to unify and overflow into one's active life.
May 3, 2024
Best book on prayer I’ve ever read. Will do full outline and synopsis soon.
September 6, 2009
Great book about why and how we need to pray.
October 21, 2013
This book is so rich it must be read slowy and carefully, a paragraph at a time almost. I keep it next to my bed and am continually going back to reread a certain page or even sentence.
May 11, 2023
brb entering the seventh interior mansion and converting 1000 souls in the process
February 16, 2019
Jean-Baptiste Chautard (1858-1935) was a French Trappist monk and abbot, and an ordained priest in the Roman Catholic Church. His book, The Soul of the Apostolate, is considered a classic of Catholic devotional literature. The "apostolate" in Catholic terminology doesn't refer to the original apostles but to the ministry of those, usually laity, who are "sent" into the world to evangelize and do good works. The "soul" of the apostolate, according to Chautard, is the interior life. The interior life is set in contrast with "exterior" works. The interior/exterior division would correspond roughly to what evangelicals or Protestants typically call "personal devotions" or "quiet times" (interior) and "ministry" or perhaps even "vocation" (exterior). Chautard's thesis is that the interior life is what gives life-transforming power to one's ministry. If you engage in all the outward activities of ministry without a strong interior life of contemplation, prayer, and communion with God, all the outward ministry will lose spiritual power and become ineffectual, a mere going through the motions of outward ritual or activity.
As a Protestant, I found some aspects of the book a bit uncongenial. There were a lot of references to 19th century Catholic figures. Aquinas, Bernard, and Bonaventure are quoted frequently. Chautard seemed to be particularly impressed with the piety of Pope Pius X (1903-1914), whom he quotes a lot. Said pope returned the favor and his warm recommendation is printed in the front pages of my edition of Chautard's book. In addition to heavily quoting Catholic writers, the book is clearly addressed to Catholics and describes the interior life in terms of Catholic practices and Catholic piety. All Scripture quotes are from the Vulgate. The emphasis on Marian devotion was particularly off-putting.
But all that is the external trappings of a Catholic body within which resides a truly Christian soul. In spite of those Trappist trappings, I found the book helpful to me as a Protestant who desires to develop a better interior or devotional life of prayer and communion with God. Here are some of the things I took away from the book that were helpful to me.
First, I liked Chautard's teaching on the life of Christ in us and the need to actively pursue a living relationship with Christ. He bases his whole book on the teaching of Jesus in the Fourth Gospel. "I came that they may have life and have it abundantly" (John 10:10). He refers frequently to the parable of the vine and the branches (John 15). He writes:
"I would deprive myself of one of the most powerful means of acquiring this interior life if I did not strive to have in my heart a precise, lively faith in this active presence of Jesus in my soul: especially to obtain that this presence be to me a living reality, penetrating more and more into the life of my faculties. Jesus becoming in this way my light, my ideal, my counsel, my support, my resource, my strength, my healer, my consolation, my joy, my love, in a word, my life, I shall acquire all virtues" (p. 16).
The Trappist monks were a reform of the Cistercians, and the Cistercians were a monastic reform movement led by Bernard of Clairvaux. It is not surprising then to hear echoes of Bernard in this Trappist monk.
Second, Chautard's emphasis on the importance of the Eucharist in shaping and informing one's personal devotional life was good. Of course, I don't hold to the Roman Catholic view of transubstantiation or the idea that the mass is a sacrifice or the idea that the priest is "another Christ" who says, "This is *my* body" (not "This is the body of Christ") - ideas which of course do come up in the book. Yet you don't have to agree with those specific Catholic doctrines to appreciate the basic idea that frequent communion ought to be the norm for the Christian, and that the more we come to receive Christ in the sacrament the more we will grow in our personal devotion to Christ and develop a living relationship with him. Chautard says, "The Eucharistic life is the life of our Lord in us" (p. 178). "The Liturgy is the School of the Presence of God, and of the Presence of God as He has shown it in the Incarnation! Or rather, the School of the Presence of Jesus and of Charity" (p. 241).
Third, Chautard describes the interior life as more than just the spiritual disciplines (use of the sacraments, prayer, Scripture reading, having a spiritual director, etc.). The spiritual disciplines are very important to maintaining the interior life, but the interior life itself is something deeper. The interior life is prayerfulness, but it is more than being prayerful. It is communion with the Triune God, focusing specifically on the soul's life with, in, and under Christ crucified and risen. It is a relationship with the living Christ. And it is communion with Christ with the aim of seeking greater conformity to Christ, or what we would call sanctification. Thus Chautard speaks at length about the importance of self-examination, searching out one's sins, repenting of them, and seeking to grow in holiness and virtue, not by doing anything in the first place but by talking to the Lord about it and seeking a changed heart that longs to do his will and be more holy just as he is holy.
Fourth, I like Chautard's teaching on the mystery of the cross. The interior life has to do with the affections and the will. Our affections must go out to Christ, in view of his love when he gave himself to us on the cross. Our wills must submit to Christ in order to endure suffering, to be conformed to him in his sufferings, and to learn the sweetness of submitting to God's will, just as Jesus who yielded to the Father, "Yet not my will, but thy will be done." Chautard writes: "The sole end of all interior life [is] to put to death the old man, so that Thou, O Jesus, mayest live and reign in his place" (p. 218).
As a Protestant, I found some aspects of the book a bit uncongenial. There were a lot of references to 19th century Catholic figures. Aquinas, Bernard, and Bonaventure are quoted frequently. Chautard seemed to be particularly impressed with the piety of Pope Pius X (1903-1914), whom he quotes a lot. Said pope returned the favor and his warm recommendation is printed in the front pages of my edition of Chautard's book. In addition to heavily quoting Catholic writers, the book is clearly addressed to Catholics and describes the interior life in terms of Catholic practices and Catholic piety. All Scripture quotes are from the Vulgate. The emphasis on Marian devotion was particularly off-putting.
But all that is the external trappings of a Catholic body within which resides a truly Christian soul. In spite of those Trappist trappings, I found the book helpful to me as a Protestant who desires to develop a better interior or devotional life of prayer and communion with God. Here are some of the things I took away from the book that were helpful to me.
First, I liked Chautard's teaching on the life of Christ in us and the need to actively pursue a living relationship with Christ. He bases his whole book on the teaching of Jesus in the Fourth Gospel. "I came that they may have life and have it abundantly" (John 10:10). He refers frequently to the parable of the vine and the branches (John 15). He writes:
"I would deprive myself of one of the most powerful means of acquiring this interior life if I did not strive to have in my heart a precise, lively faith in this active presence of Jesus in my soul: especially to obtain that this presence be to me a living reality, penetrating more and more into the life of my faculties. Jesus becoming in this way my light, my ideal, my counsel, my support, my resource, my strength, my healer, my consolation, my joy, my love, in a word, my life, I shall acquire all virtues" (p. 16).
The Trappist monks were a reform of the Cistercians, and the Cistercians were a monastic reform movement led by Bernard of Clairvaux. It is not surprising then to hear echoes of Bernard in this Trappist monk.
Second, Chautard's emphasis on the importance of the Eucharist in shaping and informing one's personal devotional life was good. Of course, I don't hold to the Roman Catholic view of transubstantiation or the idea that the mass is a sacrifice or the idea that the priest is "another Christ" who says, "This is *my* body" (not "This is the body of Christ") - ideas which of course do come up in the book. Yet you don't have to agree with those specific Catholic doctrines to appreciate the basic idea that frequent communion ought to be the norm for the Christian, and that the more we come to receive Christ in the sacrament the more we will grow in our personal devotion to Christ and develop a living relationship with him. Chautard says, "The Eucharistic life is the life of our Lord in us" (p. 178). "The Liturgy is the School of the Presence of God, and of the Presence of God as He has shown it in the Incarnation! Or rather, the School of the Presence of Jesus and of Charity" (p. 241).
Third, Chautard describes the interior life as more than just the spiritual disciplines (use of the sacraments, prayer, Scripture reading, having a spiritual director, etc.). The spiritual disciplines are very important to maintaining the interior life, but the interior life itself is something deeper. The interior life is prayerfulness, but it is more than being prayerful. It is communion with the Triune God, focusing specifically on the soul's life with, in, and under Christ crucified and risen. It is a relationship with the living Christ. And it is communion with Christ with the aim of seeking greater conformity to Christ, or what we would call sanctification. Thus Chautard speaks at length about the importance of self-examination, searching out one's sins, repenting of them, and seeking to grow in holiness and virtue, not by doing anything in the first place but by talking to the Lord about it and seeking a changed heart that longs to do his will and be more holy just as he is holy.
Fourth, I like Chautard's teaching on the mystery of the cross. The interior life has to do with the affections and the will. Our affections must go out to Christ, in view of his love when he gave himself to us on the cross. Our wills must submit to Christ in order to endure suffering, to be conformed to him in his sufferings, and to learn the sweetness of submitting to God's will, just as Jesus who yielded to the Father, "Yet not my will, but thy will be done." Chautard writes: "The sole end of all interior life [is] to put to death the old man, so that Thou, O Jesus, mayest live and reign in his place" (p. 218).
April 4, 2026
Keď sa mi táto kniha dostala na odporúčanie prvýkrát do rúk, dlho som ju mal na poličke. Kniha napísaná pred sto rokmi trapistickým opátom vo mne nevyvolávala žiadnu zvedavosť. Keď som sa do nej ale ponoril, bol to pre mňa skrytý drahokam!
October 23, 2026
Life changing? Life changing.
August 8, 2024
Read this book!!!!!
Written in such a way that it inspires and motivates as well as gives concrete and practical ways to develop an interior life. This book is for anyone living an active life/apostolate and wanting to love God more! I love the emphasis on the Cross and Our Lady 💙
Custody of heart…everything for God, because He is God and deserves it all!
Written in such a way that it inspires and motivates as well as gives concrete and practical ways to develop an interior life. This book is for anyone living an active life/apostolate and wanting to love God more! I love the emphasis on the Cross and Our Lady 💙
Custody of heart…everything for God, because He is God and deserves it all!
May 27, 2026
Was supposed to finish this in 4 months… simply impossible for me. This book is prob one you could restart over and over
July 28, 2023
As we are all called to be missionary disciples, this book is an excellent in depth proposition that all ministry must flow from the interior life. There is no secret formula for a successful ministry other than one’s own interior.
December 5, 2023
A great book to read for anyone entering into ministry. Lots of great nuggets of wisdom on the interior life. It is an older book so it does wind on a bit longer than it needs to in my.opinion but lots of worthwhile things in there.
September 23, 2020
Love that book, especially the stories, example this one!!!
"Not many years ago a woman of faith, of virtue, and of great character, superior
general of one of the most important teaching congregations in the Aveyron district of
central France, was invited by her superiors to consent to the secularization of her nuns.
What should they do: sacrifice the religious life in order to continue teaching, or
abandon their active work in order to keep their status as religious? Perplexed, and not
knowing how to find out what was God’s will in the matter, she left secretly for Rome,
was granted an audience with Leo XIII, and placed before him her doubts, explaining
what great pressure was being put upon her, in favor of active works.
The venerable pontiff, after a few moments of recollection, gave her this categorical
reply: “Before everything else, before any kind of work, keep the religious life for those
of your daughters who really possess the spirit of their holy state, and who really love the
life of prayer. And if you cannot keep both your life of prayer and your active work, God
will find a way to raise up other workers, in France, if they are necessary. As for you, by
your interior life, above all by your prayers and sacrifices, you will be more useful to
France by remaining true religious, al-though exiled from her, than you would by staying
in your native land, though deprived of the treasure of your consecration to God.”
"Not many years ago a woman of faith, of virtue, and of great character, superior
general of one of the most important teaching congregations in the Aveyron district of
central France, was invited by her superiors to consent to the secularization of her nuns.
What should they do: sacrifice the religious life in order to continue teaching, or
abandon their active work in order to keep their status as religious? Perplexed, and not
knowing how to find out what was God’s will in the matter, she left secretly for Rome,
was granted an audience with Leo XIII, and placed before him her doubts, explaining
what great pressure was being put upon her, in favor of active works.
The venerable pontiff, after a few moments of recollection, gave her this categorical
reply: “Before everything else, before any kind of work, keep the religious life for those
of your daughters who really possess the spirit of their holy state, and who really love the
life of prayer. And if you cannot keep both your life of prayer and your active work, God
will find a way to raise up other workers, in France, if they are necessary. As for you, by
your interior life, above all by your prayers and sacrifices, you will be more useful to
France by remaining true religious, al-though exiled from her, than you would by staying
in your native land, though deprived of the treasure of your consecration to God.”
September 8, 2012
I have read this book twice, once in seminary and once eight years ordained. Not an introductory work on the spiritual life, but an essential work for anyone engaged in any kind of active apostolate, especially "full time"—whether clerical or lay.
November 2, 2012
Took me a while to read and soak this one in, but it's definitely worth it! Dom Chautard's own interior life shines through the words in his work, making it evident that to bear any fruit we must cling to the Vine Himself
February 22, 2017
This book has a lot of MEAT. More people should savour the juicy thickness of this meat. It takes you by the hand from technical comparisons between active work without interior life and active work imbued with interior life, to the contemplation of the core of the interior life itself.
May 22, 2022
A must read for any catholic especially those involved in the apostolate/evangelization.
The interior life always comes first.
The interior life always comes first.
April 5, 2026
*this is a certified spiritual classic*
I can see why this was Pope St Pius X’s “bedside book” as it is one of the best spiritual books I’ve read. Essentially, the point Chautard drives home is that without the interior life of prayer, not only will your external works be useless, but they will even be dangerous to your soul. He writes, “…the active life can and must only be, in any soul, the overflow of the interior life.” He even goes as far as calling “active life” without serious interior prayer as the “heresy of good works”: it is where, as Chautard says, I often subconsciously think “God finds me pretty useful.”
I used to read the Mary and Martha story and see the “active life” and the “interior life” as in opposition, yet this book helped me articulate why they are actually united as one in the Christian. This is because the true “apostle” is not a channel but a reservoir: a reservoir is one who pours out grace to others only because he is being continually filled with God’s presence from the inside.
I can see why this was Pope St Pius X’s “bedside book” as it is one of the best spiritual books I’ve read. Essentially, the point Chautard drives home is that without the interior life of prayer, not only will your external works be useless, but they will even be dangerous to your soul. He writes, “…the active life can and must only be, in any soul, the overflow of the interior life.” He even goes as far as calling “active life” without serious interior prayer as the “heresy of good works”: it is where, as Chautard says, I often subconsciously think “God finds me pretty useful.”
I used to read the Mary and Martha story and see the “active life” and the “interior life” as in opposition, yet this book helped me articulate why they are actually united as one in the Christian. This is because the true “apostle” is not a channel but a reservoir: a reservoir is one who pours out grace to others only because he is being continually filled with God’s presence from the inside.
April 14, 2025
Such a good book on prayer!! Emphasizes the importance of the interior life and how it relates to the active life, and gives practical tips for mental prayer. This book (esp second half) made me want to pray more than any other book ever has!
December 26, 2025
I wish I’d read this is a little bit short of a time period because the content was really really good and useful. I love when these type of books are practice, but they’re also real with you and stress the necessity of the interior life.
10/10
“Everything convinces me of the necessity to run to You for help at all times.”
10/10
“Everything convinces me of the necessity to run to You for help at all times.”
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