Integrity

The Apostleship of Praise

From The Everyday Apostle by Fr. Edward F. Gareshé

Another apostleship that Fr. Gareshé discusses is the Apostleship of Praise.   Fr. Gareshé begins by distinguishing this apostleship with the Apostleship of Encouragement (which we discussed in a previous post).  Encouragement does not necessarily require praise; but it is difficult to praise in the manner Fr. Gareshé desires without providing encouragement.

Praise is something that we deal with in our practical daily lives.  This is important to recognize.  One of the great things about Fr. Gareshé's reflections is that they do not live in the abstract.  We daily are involved in the giving and receiving of praise (and its opposite, blame).  In fact, if you are like me, I think honesty requires that we say we find it hard to resist making such judgments.  And these judgments have influence. 

The Apostleship Of The Common Man

From The Everyday Apostle by Fr. Edward F. Gareshé

The first apostleship that Fr. Gareshé discusses is the Apostleship of the Common Man.   I appreciate his starting here, because he aptly diagnoses a human tendency:  a desire to be "uncommon, unusual or exceptional".  Now, I suppose for some I must explain why this can be a problem.  After all, don't we encourage our kids to  dream big?  Why is wanting to do great things for the glory of God a weakness?  What concerns  Fr. Gareshé is how we react if we learn that our vision of what would be extraordinary differs from God's.  How then do we view the "common, ordinary and usual" work that God places before us?  Do we denigrate it?  Do we fall into despair?

So Fr. Gareshé sets to task to convince us of the virtues of the common man:

Everyday Apostle

Digging into the depths of Integrity's Vault of Records, I stumbled across this post from 2002 talking about a great book, The Everyday Apostle, by Fr. Edward F. Gareshé.

What is so wonderful about this little book is that it uses the language of apostleship to speak about many ordinary things.  Fr. Gareshé doesn't make the mistake of "dumbing down" Christianity, as can often be the case when people relate the Gospel to commonplace activities.  Instead, he provides a glimpse of what ordinary things, like encouragement, hospitality, character, and counsel, can become when fused with one's life in Christ.

To take one example, consider what Fr. Gareshé refers to as the apostleship of encouragement.