List of points

With that self-satisfied air you are becoming an objectionable and repellent type, you are making a fool of yourself, and, what is worse, you are harming your apostolic work.

Don't forget that even mediocrities can sin by being pompous.

I've been told that you have the 'knack' of drawing souls to your way.

It's a gift to thank God for; to be an instrument for seeking instruments!

Laugh at him! Tell him he is behind the times: it's incredible that some people still want to regard the stage— coach as a good means of transport. This is how I feel about those who persist in unearthing musty and periwigged 'Voltairianisms' or discredited liberalisms of the nineteenth century.

Be careful that contact with you doesn't make people feel like that person who once exclaimed (and not without reason): 'I'm sick of these righteous types!…'

In apostolic work there can be no excuse for disobedience, nor for insincerity. Remember that simplicity is not imprudence, nor indiscretion.

Get rid of that 'self-satisfied air' which isolates your soul from the souls that approach you. Listen to them. And speak with simplicity; only thus will your work as an apostle grow in extent and fruitfulness.

Those well-timed words, whispered into the ear of your wavering friend; the helpful conversation that you managed to start at the right moment; the ready professional advice that improves his university work; the discreet indiscretion by which you open up unexpected horizons for his zeal. This all forms part of the 'apostolate of friendship.'

'The dinner-table apostolate': it is the old hospitality of the Patriarchs, together with the fraternal warmth of Bethany. When we practise it, we seem to glimpse Jesus there, presiding, as in the house of Lazarus.

It is urgent that we strive to rechristianise popular celebrations and customs. It is urgent that public amusements should no longer be left to face the dilemma of being either over-pious or pagan.

Ask God to provide labourers for this much-needed work which could be called the 'entertainment apostolate'.

You praised the 'letter-apostolate' very highly when you wrote: 'I just can't manage to fill the pages with stuff likely to help the friend I'm writing to. When I begin, I tell my guardian Angel that all I want is that my letter may do some good. And even if I only write nonsense, no one can deprive me — or my friend — of these moments spent praying for what I know he needs most.'

It's human nature to have little respect for what costs but little. That is why I recommend to you the 'apostolate of not giving.'

Never fail to claim what is fairly and justly due to you from the practice of your profession, since your profession is the instrument of your apostolate.