Apostolate, Zeal
See also: Apostles, Evangelization, to evangelize, Mission.
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Apostolate is a Mission whose purpose is to proclaim the truth of the Gospel to the nations. Zeal is the disposition (state of mind, intentions) of the apostle or disciple to fulfill their Mission with determination, without tiring or becoming discouraged in the face of Trials.
In "The Gospel as Revealed to Me"
Proclaim Jesus
- Proclaim Jesus.[1]
- As a disciple, I achieve nothing. - Do not be discouraged, Judas. These are the Struggles of the apostolate. More defeats than victories. But defeats here. Above, they are always victories. The Father sees your good will and even if it does not succeed, He nonetheless blesses you.[2]
- Is there still someone who thinks that the life of the apostle is easy and that to be an apostle, that is to Believe that one is, someone often judges they deserve an easy life, without sufferings, without shocks, without failure![3]
- Launching, at Jesus' initiative, of the apostolic preaching begun by Judas in Kerioth.[4]
- James says: "Defeat after defeat!... It seems to me that we are cursed..." Jesus places His hand on his shoulder: "Do you not know that this is the lot of the best?"[5]
Spiritual Dispositions
- The apostolate: gratitudes and gratifications: The satisfaction of the apostle, considered as the only encouragement to work, denotes an absence of apostolic formation, lowers the apostolate which is a spiritual thing to the level of an ordinary human work. One must never fall into the idolatry of ministry.[6]
- Bartholomew: With all my love I have not been able to renew myself, to understand you, and to follow you. I have followed you only materially. But You wanted us to follow you spiritually and to understand you in your perfection so as to become capable of perpetuating you - Do not let yourself be discouraged, Bartholomew (Nathaniel) the Apostle. Your Jesus knew that you were men and He demands no more than what you can give.[7]
Apostolic Zeal
- Everything is trouble for the Soul that is at work: curiosity, rash zeal, intransigences as well as excessive pity.[8]
- Apostolic zeal: The apostle must not claim to obtain everything.[9]
In Other Works by Maria Valtorta
Notebooks from 1945 to 1950
Catecheses of May 4 and 5, 1945:The fatigues of the apostolate!... They are more exhausting than any other work! They take the light from the brightest day and the gentleness from the sweetest food. Everything becomes ashes and mud, nausea and gall. But, my Soul, it is precisely the Hours in which we take on the fatigue, the Doubt, the misery of the people of the world who die for not possessing what we have. Those are the Hours in which we do the most. I already told you last year.