List of points

Thank the Lord for the paternal and maternal tenderness he continues to show for you.

You always had those dreams of great adventures, and you have committed yourself to a wonderful enterprise…which leads you to holiness.

I repeat: thank God for this by leading an apostolic life.

People from different countries, different races, and very different backgrounds and professions… When you speak to them about God, you become aware of the human and supernatural value of your vocation as an apostle. It is as if you are re-living, in its total reality, the miracle of the first preaching of Our Lord’s disciples. Phrases spoken in a strange tongue, which open up new ways, have been heard by each one, in the depth of his heart in his own language. And in your mind you can see that scene taking on a new life, in which “Parthians, Medes and Elamites” have come joyfully to God.

The way Jesus called the first twelve could not have been simpler: “Come and follow me.”

Since you are always looking for excuses not to keep on with your task, there is one consideration that fits you like a glove: the human knowledge of those first apostles was very poor, and yet what an impact they made on those who listened to them!

—Never forget this: it is He who continues to do the work through each one of us.

Are they scandalized because you have talked about their giving themselves to God to people who had never thought about that problem?

—Well, what does it matter, if you have the vocation of being an apostle of apostles?

Dig further every day into the apostolic depths of your Christian vocation. He unfurled a banner to be followed twenty centuries ago, for you and me to proclaim aloud to men. It is indeed meant for all those who have a sincere heart and are capable of loving… What clearer invitations do you need than these: Ignem veni mittere in terram — I have come to bring fire to the earth, and the thought of those two thousand five hundred million souls who still do not know Christ!

As an apostle you have a great and beautiful task. You find yourself at the place where grace and the freedom of each soul meet. You are also present at that most solemn occasion in the life of some men: their encounter with Christ.

Be sure of this: you need to be fully formed to face the rush of people that is going to press upon us with a specific and urgent question: “Well then, what’s to be done?”

Your vocation — God’s calling — is to direct, to draw others, to serve, to lead. If through a false or ill-conceived humility you isolate yourself, all huddled up in a corner, you are failing in your duty to be a divine instrument.

The Lord has shown us this refinement of Love: he has let us conquer the world for him.

He is always so humble that he has wished to limit himself to making it possible… To us He has granted the easiest and most agreeable part: taking action and gaining the victory.

You live in the middle of the world and you are just another citizen living in contact with men who say they are good or bad. You must always want to give other people the happiness you enjoy as a Christian.

The salt of the earth. Our Lord said that his disciples — you and I also — are the salt of the earth: to render immune to infection, to prevent corruption, to season the world.

But he also added: Quod si sal evanuerit… — if the salt itself becomes tasteless, it will be cast out and trampled underfoot by men.

—On seeing the many things happening which we lament, are you now beginning to find an explanation for what you could not explain before?

An apostle must not remain at the level of the mediocre. God calls him to be fully human in his actions, and at the same time to reflect the freshness of eternal things. —That is why the apostle has to be a soul who has undergone a long, patient and heroic process of formation.