To help those on retreat to strengthen those dispositions which are absolutely necessary for the interior life that will make Catholic Action get results:
PRINCIPLES
FIRST PRINCIPLE: Do not plunge headlong into Catholic Action from mere natural zest for activity, but consult God and make sure you are doing what you do under the inspiration of grace, and with the morally certain guarantee that it is His will.
SECOND PRINCIPLE: It is rash and dangerous to remain too long engaged in work so heavy that it might make the soul incapable of performing the essential to the interior life. In such a case all, but especially priests and religious, should apply, even to the holiest of works, the text: "Pluck it out and cast it from thee." (Matt 5:29)
THIRD PRINCIPLE: Draw up a schedule allotting to each activity a fixed time and get it approved by a wise and experienced priest, of interior life. And then do violence to yourself, if necessary, to keep it, and control the flood of your activities.
FOURTH PRINCIPLE: For your own profit and for the profit of others, it is essential that you develop your interior life, before all else. The busier you are, the more you need the interior life. And therefore, the more you ought to desire it, and the more you ought to take steps to prevent this desire from becoming one of those futile longings which the devil so often uses to drug souls and hold them fast in their illusions.
FIFTH PRINCIPLE: If it happens by accident, and really as the result of God's will, that the soul is under great stress of work, and finds it morally impossible to give more time to prayer, what then? There is a thermometer that never lies, and always tells us whether we are truly fervent, in spite of it all. Simply ask yourself if you really thirst for the interior life, and if, with all good will, you seize every possible opportunity to perform at least its essential practices? If so, you may remain at peace, and you can count on very special graces. God holds them in reserve for you; and they will give you the strength you need to continue your advance in the spiritual life.
SIXTH PRINCIPLE: As long as the active worker has not reached the point where he is habitually recollected and habitually dependent on grace -- a dependence and recollection which accompany him everywhere he goes -- he is still not in a satisfactory state of the interior life. But in working for this necessary recollection, strain must absolutely be avoided. A simple, habitual glance of the heart rather than of the mind, is all that is necessary. This glance will be sure, accurate, penetrating and will tell us clearly whether we are still under the influence of Jesus in the midst of our work.
http://www.amazon.com/Soul-Apostolate-Jean-Baptiste-Chautard/dp/0895550318
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