Lay Life in a Year

52 Reflections on JPII's vision for the Laity

Week 2: You Too Are Called to Holiness

The Church teaches that everyone is called to holiness. But many of us make the mistake of thinking, “Really the ones who are supposed to be holy are priests and religious. Deep prayer and evangelization—that falls under their job description, not mine.” 

“Maybe” we think, “I can do one of these. Maybe I can be a prayer person or an evangelization person, but certainly not both.

When we turn from our call to holiness or push it away by trying to be just a “prayer person” or an “action person”, then we end up frustrated, idle, and fruitless. 

But Jesus knows all that we are made for and invites us not to settle. So He cries out to us: 

“And going out about the third hour he saw others standing idle in the marketplace; and he said to them, ‘You go into the vineyard.’ ” He says this to “every person who comes into the world” and that includes you. (CFL, No. 2)

He desperately wants you to know Him in personal prayer. He wants you to enter His vineyard and help transform the world by your life. He wants you to live a life filled with both deep contemplative prayer and rich apostolic work. 

You are called to be a contemplative and an apostle. You too are called to holiness.

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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