Extracted for The Way by St. Jose Escriva
Don't you long to shout to those youths who are bustling around you: FOOLS! Leave those wordly things that shackle the heart and very often degrade it.... Leave all that and come with us in search of Love!
You lack drive...That's why you sway so few. You don't seem very convinced of what you gain by giving up the things of the earth for Christ. REMEMBER: "A hundredfold and life everlasting!" Would you call that a poor bargain?
"Put out into the deep!" Cast aside pessimism that makes a coward of you, "and lower your nets for a catch."
Don't you see that, as Peter said, "At Thy word I will lower the net," you can say, "Jesus, in your name I seek souls!"
Winning new apostles. It's the unmistakeable sign of true zeal.
To sow. The sower went out...Scatter the seed, apostolic soul. The wind of grace will bear it away if the furrow where it falls is not worthy...Sow, and be certain that the seed will take root and bear fruit.
By good example good seed is sown; and charity compels us all to sow.
Yours is only a small love if you are not zealous for the salvation of all souls. Yours is only a poor love if you are not eager to inflame other apostles with your madness.
"The harvest indeed is great, but the laborers are few." Rogate ergo! "Pray therefore the Lord of the harvest to send forth laborers into the vineyard."
Prayer is the most effective means of winning other apostles.
Through the world still echoes that divine cry: "I have come to cast fire upon the earth, and what will I but that it be kindled?" And you see: it has nearly all died out....
Don't you want to spread the blaze?
I've been told that you have the knack of drawing souls to your way.
It is a gift to thank God for: to be an instrument for seeking instruments!
There is a brilliant man whom you long to draw to your apostolate; there is another, a man of great influence; and a third, full of prudence and virtue.
Pray, offer sacrifices, and work on them with your word and example. They don't come! Don't lose your peace: it's because they are not needed.
Do you think there were no brilliant and influential and prudent and virtuous contemporaries of Peter outside the apostolate of the first twelve?
Help me to cry: Jesus, souls! Apostolic souls! They are for You, for Your glory. You'll see how in the end He will hear us.
Listen, where you are...mightn't there be one or two, who could understand us well?
Tell him-yes, that one-that I need fifty men who love Jesus Christ above all things.
You tell me of a certain friend of yours that he frequents the sacraments, that he is clean-living and a good student...but that he won't respond. When you speak to him of sacrifice and apostolate, he grows sad and tries to avoid you.
Don't let it worry you. It's not a failure of your zeal. It is, to the letter, the scene related by the Evangelist: "If thou wilt be perfect, go sell what thou hast and give to the poor" (sacrifice), "and come follow me" (apostolate). The young man also abiit tristis --"went away sad." He was not willing to correspond to grace.
"Some good news: a new 'madman' for the 'asylum'. ....And all is excitement in the "fisherman's" letter. May God make your nets really effective!
Winning others. Who does not hunger to perpetuate his apostolate?
That burning desire to win fellow-apostles is a sure sign of your dedication.
Do everything for Love. In that way there will be no little things: everything will be big. Perserverance in the little things for Love is heroism.
Don't you long to shout to those youths who are bustling around you: FOOLS! Leave those wordly things that shackle the heart and very often degrade it.... Leave all that and come with us in search of Love!
You lack drive...That's why you sway so few. You don't seem very convinced of what you gain by giving up the things of the earth for Christ. REMEMBER: "A hundredfold and life everlasting!" Would you call that a poor bargain?
"Put out into the deep!" Cast aside pessimism that makes a coward of you, "and lower your nets for a catch."
Don't you see that, as Peter said, "At Thy word I will lower the net," you can say, "Jesus, in your name I seek souls!"
Winning new apostles. It's the unmistakeable sign of true zeal.
To sow. The sower went out...Scatter the seed, apostolic soul. The wind of grace will bear it away if the furrow where it falls is not worthy...Sow, and be certain that the seed will take root and bear fruit.
By good example good seed is sown; and charity compels us all to sow.
Yours is only a small love if you are not zealous for the salvation of all souls. Yours is only a poor love if you are not eager to inflame other apostles with your madness.
"The harvest indeed is great, but the laborers are few." Rogate ergo! "Pray therefore the Lord of the harvest to send forth laborers into the vineyard."
Prayer is the most effective means of winning other apostles.
Through the world still echoes that divine cry: "I have come to cast fire upon the earth, and what will I but that it be kindled?" And you see: it has nearly all died out....
Don't you want to spread the blaze?
I've been told that you have the knack of drawing souls to your way.
It is a gift to thank God for: to be an instrument for seeking instruments!
There is a brilliant man whom you long to draw to your apostolate; there is another, a man of great influence; and a third, full of prudence and virtue.
Pray, offer sacrifices, and work on them with your word and example. They don't come! Don't lose your peace: it's because they are not needed.
Do you think there were no brilliant and influential and prudent and virtuous contemporaries of Peter outside the apostolate of the first twelve?
Help me to cry: Jesus, souls! Apostolic souls! They are for You, for Your glory. You'll see how in the end He will hear us.
Listen, where you are...mightn't there be one or two, who could understand us well?
Tell him-yes, that one-that I need fifty men who love Jesus Christ above all things.
You tell me of a certain friend of yours that he frequents the sacraments, that he is clean-living and a good student...but that he won't respond. When you speak to him of sacrifice and apostolate, he grows sad and tries to avoid you.
Don't let it worry you. It's not a failure of your zeal. It is, to the letter, the scene related by the Evangelist: "If thou wilt be perfect, go sell what thou hast and give to the poor" (sacrifice), "and come follow me" (apostolate). The young man also abiit tristis --"went away sad." He was not willing to correspond to grace.
"Some good news: a new 'madman' for the 'asylum'. ....And all is excitement in the "fisherman's" letter. May God make your nets really effective!
Winning others. Who does not hunger to perpetuate his apostolate?
That burning desire to win fellow-apostles is a sure sign of your dedication.
Do everything for Love. In that way there will be no little things: everything will be big. Perserverance in the little things for Love is heroism.
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