Everyday Situation: The Locus of Apostolate

In the name of Jesus Christ and urged by his love, avoiding ambition … [and] excuses, interest or adulation … everyone can be engaged in procuring his own and his neighbor’s eternal salvation. One can do it … wherever one finds oneself. (OOCC, IV, p. 313)

According to St. Vincent Pallotti, everyday life situations provide the setting for the apostolate. In order to be apostolic, one does not have to leave his everyday life situation and go to a far off mission territory. When a person gives himself to the opportunities to do good which everyday life provides - without any personal interest or ambition but solely moved by the love of Christ - he can be a true apostle, and whatever he does becomes the apostolate. St. Vincent is very emphatic in saying that one can be apostolic wherever he finds himself. One can be apostolic at home with his relatives in his own town. Everyday situations such as the city, the square, the shop, the bank, the hotel, and the marketplace can provide us with ample opportunities to be apostolic. One can be apostolic in his workplace, while another can be apostolic in the college where he studies. A layperson’s everyday life in the world can make him apostolic. A monk who lives in the monastery, a priest who works in a parish, a brother who teaches youngsters, and a seminarian who studies in the seminary preparing himself to be a priest - all can be apostles in their respective life situations. In this manner, everyday life situations provide us with occasions for the apostolate. If a person is open to see these situations as God-given opportunities to do his will, he can truly be an apostle.

Do I understand the meaning of a true apostolate? Do I see everyday life situations as God-given opportunities to be apostolic? Do I believe that I am called to be an apostle wherever I find myself? What should I do to use my everyday life situations as occasions for the apostolate?

For you remember our labor and toil, brethren; we worked night and day … while we preached the gospel to you. (I Thes. 2: 9)