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Charism

of the Apostles of the Interior Life

What is a charism?

The word “charism” comes from Greek and means “Gift”. It is a Special Gift of Grace  which enables the person to see Jesus in his Life and Ministry from a particular angle  or aspect. 

“Charisms do not have their origin in human initiative but they are gifts of the Holy Spirit as is  the Church itself. The entire Church, as Pope John Paul II loved to say, is one great movement  animated by the Holy Spirit, a river that travels through history to irrigate it with God’s grace  and make it full of life, goodness, beauty, justice and peace.” 

Pope Benedict XVI, 4 June 2006, Regina Coeli

First Element: Mystical aspect

The Mystical Aspect of a charism = the initiative of God; the gift received first by the founder

    1. The central mystery contemplated
    2. The spirituality and prayer life that flows from that contemplation

The Mystical Aspect of the AVI Charism

    1. The contemplation of Christ the Priest as He who introduces us into the intimate life of God and who brings us into a full participation in that divine life through the redemptive mystery
    2. The AVI Spirituality is therefore priestly and the prayer that flows from it is as follows:

Daily Eucharist (Mass, Thanksgiving, Hour of Adoration), Liturgy of the Hours, Daily meditative prayer (half hour),Daily Rosary, Daily Spiritual Reading (20 minutes)

It is through all of this that the Apostles of the Interior Life first and foremost loves the person of Christ, embraces his desires as her own, and is personally transformed. 

 

Second Element: Ascetical Aspect

The Ascetical Aspect of a charism= a commitment to God or, in better words, a response to God’s love.

1. Includes the concrete ways in which we say our ‘fiat’, our ‘yes’ to God. 

2.The only possible response that does justice to Jesus’ declaration: “I came so that they could have life and have it to the full.” (John 10:10), is to really embrace life and the call to holiness.

The Ascetical Aspect of the AVI Charism 

Balance – “May the God of peace Himself sanctify you, whole and entire, in spirit, soul and body.” (1 Ts 5:23). The world and the enemy try to divide us but God created us to be whole and entire at all moments! A gift of self is the principal characteristic of consecrated life and of our spirituality. Balance of life and the care of oneself have to have the goal of being able to give more of oneself, not less of oneself. 

Joy – when we talk about joy as part of our response to God.  An important question to ask is how can I better allow the action of the Holy Spirit in me to flow?  This is important because Joy is a gift of the Spirit and does not come from oneself. It comes from the communion with God. One can feel more joy dying to themselves than they can doing something that they love doing. It is a mysterious experience. This is why we cannot associate joy with everything going well in life. There is a lot in our life that does not go well: there can be apostolic setbacks, communitarian tensions, dryness in prayer, ecc. So in all this again we can ask ourselves how can I let the Holy Spirit take more possession of my heart and allow him to act. 

Unity – It is a gift from God that Jesus asked for before He died. “…so that they may all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you..” (Jn 17: 21)

Our response to the call to unity is in an intense community life. There are many hours that we spend together with having parts of our prayer time together, two meals we eat together, we do some of our apostolate together, have weekly sharing times, and live daily recreation and all holidays together. 

Third Element: Apostolic Aspect

The Apostolic Aspect of a Charism: After being invited to life, responding by living fully, the natural consequence is that we are called to give life.  In every fruitful relationship there is a life-giving aspect.  It is no different for the relationship with God and each Charism. 

The Apostolic Aspect of the AVI Charism, as shared in our Rule of Life: 

In imitation of Jesus, who pursues his priestly mission through an intense apostolic activity, the Apostles of the Interior Life are intent on realizing their specific mission, which is rooted in priestly spirituality through direct encounters with brothers and sisters, announcing Jesus Christ, the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and helping them to discover in Him that “spring of water that wells up for eternal life” (John 4:14). For this reason, the Apostle of the Interior Life privileges the personal encounter as a direct and effective means of Christian formation.

Fr. Salvatore

Founder of the Apostles of the Interior Life

We have a spiritual apostolate expressed through evangelization and offering spiritual guidance, which is directed to all, but in a special way to young people.

We also are attentive to:

teaching people how to pray 

giving parish and campus missions on various topics like prayer, sacraments, and living the virtues

guiding young people in vocational discernment 

forming others how to do outreach and evangelization

giving talks at retreats, RCIA, and conferences

the forming the spiritual mentors

doing a daily podcast on the Gospel in Italy

inviting people into our home and giving them an experience of fraternal living and meals together

giving personal testimonies like sharing our vocation story and how God is working in our lives