Lay Life in a Year

52 Reflections on JPII's vision for the Laity

Week 1: The World Is A Vineyard

The world is not how it should be; the Church is not how it should be; I am not how I should be. 

Things are broken and seem to demand a solution. But every time one of us takes it upon ourselves to fix it, things only get worse. But that’s because the world is not a problem to be solved, it’s a place filled with souls waiting to be transformed. As Christ puts it, it’s a vineyard—His vineyard. 

The world doesn’t need a solution, especially not from one of us. It needs to be transformed in Christ, just as a vineyard needs to be transformed into wine. 

Only He can save the world, the Church, me. Only He can transform people into saints. And He doesn’t ask us to throw solutions at the world from afar. He points to all of humanity and to His Church and shows us that far from being an enemy to conquer or a problem to solve, it is a vineyard to be entered, nurtured, and transformed with love. 

Lay Life in a Year Overview

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Week 32: We are the last line…of space heaters?

Last winter, I set up space heaters in the basement. I go down there every so often and it is just so cold. I was determined to heat up the space. Successfully, with 5 space heaters plugged in, I looked around, content with my work...until the breaker tripped and I...

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Week 31: Polly Pocket Cruise Ship

When my wife was a kid, there was one year when the only thing she wanted for her birthday was a Polly Pocket cruise ship toy. I recently learned this was the single greatest present any 8 year old girl could get circa 2008. Well, a few weeks later a family friend...

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Week 30 : Maybe the Church is just like everything else?

Early in my conversion I was afraid to go to Mass. I was scared I would feel isolated.  But when I learned about the Church as the Body of Christ I realized that Catholic community was completely different from the world’s idea of community.  So I got up the courage,...

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