Lay Life in a Year

52 Reflections on JPII's vision for the Laity

Week 5: The Urgent Issue of Secularism

Everyday life is filled with extreme challenges and temptations. Our culture is surrounded by sexual exploitation, unhealthy lies about how to live, and everywhere there is rage, anxiety, and despair.

This is the reality of secularism.

But the laity is called to more than just complaining and hiding away. To be a lay person is to take on the task of bringing Christ to a world that has forgotten all about Him.

Do you realize that you are called to evangelization? That, in a world that has forgotten all about God and His love, it is our responsibility to remind them? Even if it’s uncomfortable or hard. Even if it means being ignored, ostracized, or persecuted.

Jesus wants to send us out on mission everyday to fight the darkness in our culture by bringing Him to our schools, jobs, families, friends, and neighborhoods.

He doesn’t ask us to do this through some perfect program or long-term plan.

He just wants us to remind every person we know that He loves them.

Lay Life in a Year Overview

Read the original: Introduction, No. 4
Last week: Why Do You Stand Here Idle?
This week: The Urgent Issue Of Secularism In The World
Next week: Secularism In The Church

Week 25 : An Urgent Diagnosis

Jul 22, 2024

Imagine you go to a routine check up, and your doctor sits you down: “Look, you need to urgently change some things. In fact, I know you’re already taking some medicine and don’t want to hear this, but as I look at your bloodwork all the fundamental indicators are not...

Week 24 : Salt of the Earth

Jul 13, 2024

I didn’t grow up a Catholic, or even a Christian. So when I would hear my Christian friends say things like “that guy is salt of the earth” I never really understood what it meant or where it came from. But over time, I began to notice something. These “salt of the...

Week 23 : Identity and Mission of Lay Christians

Jul 6, 2024

Who are you supposed to be and what are you supposed to do? The answer is really the center of the entire document because it has the potential to change everything about our lives. John Paul II does not mince words: You cannot be a Christian and live just like...