1

If I were asked to run an Institution for

lay persons the most important activity
that I would organise there would be:

- Preaching Retreats
- Counselling
- Financial help to the needy
- Any other ____________

2
This is the age of the Laity. This means
that they should be trained to be
- Catechists
- Extra-ordinary Ministers of Holy -
Communion
- Parish Council members
- Any other __________

3
Lay people have a vocation to
be
- Teachers
- Doctors
- Any other _______

4
Why does the
Church exist?
What is its
main task?

5
 ‘Evangelising is in fact the
grace and vocation proper to
the Church, her deepest
identity. She exists in order
to evangelise…’ Evangelii
Nuntiandi (14)
6
The apostolate of the laity derives from
their Christian vocation and the Church
can never be without it. (Apostolicam
Actuasitatem 1).

7
‘For the Christian vocation by its very nature
is also a vocation to the apostolate. . . But
the laity likewise share in the priestly,
prophetic, and royal office of Christ and
therefore have their own share in the
mission of the whole people of God in the
Church and in the world’
(AA 2).

8
‘On all Christians therefore is laid the
preeminent responsibility of working to
make the divine message of salvation
known and accepted by all men
throughout the world’ (AA 3).

9
 Lay people, whose particular
vocation places them in the midst
of the world and in charge of the
most varied temporal tasks, must
for this very reason exercise a very
special form of evangelisation....
EN 70

10
 Their primary and immediate
task is to put to use every
Christian and evangelical
possibility latent but already
present and active in the affairs
of the world.
EN 70

11
Above all the Gospel must be proclaimed by
witness... All Christians are called to this
witness, and in this way they can be real
evangelisers. We are thinking especially of
the responsibility incumbent on immigrants
in the country that receives them (EN 21).

12
 The Lay Vocation – a unique
vocation
“In another comparison, using the
image of a building, the apostle Peter
defines the baptized as "living stones"
founded on Christ, the "corner stone",
and destined to "be raised up into a
spiritual building" (1 Pt 2:5 ff) -
Christifidelis Laici 15

13
 “The lay faithful have an essential and
irreplaceable role in this announcement
and in this testimony: through them the
Church of Christ is made present in the
various sectors of the world, as a sign
and source of hope and of love”
(Christifidelils Laici 7).

14
So what does this mean in
daily terms?

15
Creating a new theology

FOR THE LAY PERSON

16
Priests are trained for a priestly
vocation.

So far there is no training geared

for the lay person whose work is
IN THE WORLD

17
Being a witness at my work
place or home

18
It is not always easy

19
Four of us wrote
a book on
Christian living
which includes
the lay vocation

20
The idea for the title came from a little
ditty quoted by Archbishop Filipe Neri
Ferrao speaking on Laity Sunday (28
September 2014) :
Mr. Catholic went to church
He never missed a Sunday
But when he died he went to hell
For what he did on Monday.

21
Holiness is not
limited to only going
to church and saying
our prayers but also
manifests itself in
how we act
everyday – in our
acts of kindness and
our attitude of
charity.
22
23
24
The book explores the Christian
perspective on everyday work,
showing that it is the normal way in
which the Christian Lay Faithful can
build up the kingdom of God. Basically
it tells us that this is the Lay Vocation
mentioned in so many Church
documents right from Vat II.
25
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