Discover the Lay Vocation
What does it actually mean to be a lay person in the world? How are we to serve God, His Church, and His world? How are we to reach holiness?
A lot of the answers we hear can be boiled down to one of two misguided views:
Mistake 1: “The laity can just sit back and do the bare minimum. Most of the work is for the bishops, priests, and religious.”
OR
Mistake 2: “The laity needs more authority and power and we really don’t need these bishops and priests telling us what to do.”
The issue? Neither of these takes are what the Church actually teaches. For years, there has been extreme confusion about what it means to be a lay person, which is why Pope St. John Paul II wrote Christifideles Laici.
52 Weekly Reflections
This is his Apostolic Exhortation on the Mission and Vocation of the Lay Faithful and it has gone largely unread! In it, he shows how the lay life is central to God’s plan for the world and how it is meant to lead us to the height of holiness.
The lay life, like priestly and religious life, is designed to make us saints who transform the world and renew the Church.
Here at reCatholic, discovering Christifideles Laici has lit a fire in our hearts and transformed how we live out our lay vocation to help serve Jesus. And we want to make this treasure accessible for you too.
Sign up to discover the lay life in a year as we break open John Paul II’s vision for the laity in 52 short, weekly reflections.
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Read Past Reflections
Week 41 – This Is The Moment for Re-Evangelization!
Pope Benedict XVI tells a story about a clown who runs into a village, crying out that the circus is on fire. He jumps, shouts, and pleads for help—but the more he yells, the more they laugh. They can’t see beyond his costume, so they ignore him. Then comes the punch...
Week 40 – Every Disciple Is Called By Name
This week I want to do something a little different. We’ve talked A LOT about being called. We’ve said that the laity is called to: the universal call to holiness evangelize and sanctify the secular participate in our parish and help build up the Church But if we...
Week 39 – The Mission of the Church
I think we've all been there—sitting through a homily when the "mission appeal" part comes up. Our minds drift, we hear the familiar phrases—“mission,” “help the poor,” “time, talent, treasure,” “spread the faith…” —and yet sometimes, it feels like the message gets...
Week 38 – How to Respond to a Divided World
Division is something that seems to grow more each day. Nations, families, and relationships seem to be falling apart. In my own life, I have struggled to find something to hold on to. In weathering the storm, I often find myself grasping for anything to keep me...
Week 37- A Response to Busyness
In a meeting with my pastor about our parish, he said: “If we don’t fix things, the bishop will close this parish. We have to get more young families engaged.” Caught off guard and growing in concern, I asked him what activities the parish was currently doing....
Week 36 – An Unexpected Discovery from 1979
When I was a kid, my dad was obsessed with one particular VHS tape—it was like some secret treasure from the past. He held it out with a grin and said, “Now I’ll show you what basketball is supposed to look like.” It was the 1979 NCAA championship game—Larry Bird vs....